This post is part of a series looking at the massive amount of 'rhyming' (and occasionally rhyming) recursivity I believe exists between (a) the homecoming of Petyr Baelish to the Fingers and (b) the homecoming of Theon Greyjoy to Pyke.
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits attention.
NOTE: In what follows, all uncited quotes are from ASOS Sansa VI, which describes Petyr's homecoming to his "Drearfort" tower of the 'Smallest Finger', or ACOK Theon I, which describes Theon's homecoming to "drear" Pyke.
As in past posts, I sometimes use "→" as shorthand for "'prefigures' and/or 'informs' and/or 'is reworked by' and/or 'finds a recursive rhyme in'.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
This post picks up straight-away from where Part 8 left off. You can read Part 8 [HERE].
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].

The Myraham's Prophetic Cargo

After Theon makes port, the captain of the Myraham announces his cargo to the people on the docks of Lordport and we read about the offloading of the Myraham:

"We're out of Oldtown," the captain called down, "bearing apples and oranges, wines from the Arbor, feathers from the Summer Isles. I have pepper, woven leathers, a bolt of Myrish lace, mirrors for milady, a pair of Oldtown woodharps sweet as any you ever heard." The gangplank descended with a creak and a thud. "And I've brought your heir back to you."

Most of what we read there seems to be reworked in and around Littlefinger's homecoming in ASOS Sansa VI, when the Merling King brings the Dreadfort its heir, Littlefinger, as well as the seeming heir to Winterfell, Sansa. This begins with the Arbor wine and fruit we see off-loaded from the Merling King:

Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions. Among the loads he brought ashore were several casks of wine. Petyr poured Sansa a cup, as promised. …
… The wine was very fine; an Arbor vintage, she thought. It tasted of oak and fruit and hot summer nights, the flavors blossoming in her mouth like flowers opening to the sun. She only prayed that she could keep it down. Lord Petyr was being so kind, she did not want to spoil it all by retching on him.
… "Grisel," he called to the old woman, "bring some food up. … Oswell's brought some oranges and pomegranates from the King." …
Grisel reappeared…, balancing a large platter. … There were apples and pears and pomegranates, some sad-looking grapes, a huge blood orange.

Besides the straight repetition of Arbor wine, oranges, apples, and heirs, the repeated Oldtown motif is baldly reworked by Sansa's description of the wine, which is patently Oldtown-summer-esque, per the only substantive pre-AFFC description of Oldtown, which associates it with hot, fruity summer nights:

"King Maekar's summer was hotter than this one, and near as long. … [T]he heat was fierce while it lasted. Oldtown… came alive only by night. … I remember the smells of those nights, my lord—perfume and sweat, melons ripe to bursting, peaches and pomegranates, nightshade and moonbloom." (AGOT Eddard V)

The Myraham's "mirrors for milady" prefigure Sansa being figuratively groomed by Petyr and literally grooming herself in Petyr's Eyrie after he takes over:

When Gretchel fetched her Lysa's silvered looking glass, the color seemed just perfect with Alayne's mass of dark brown hair. (AFFC Alayne I)

The Myraham's "woodharps sweet as any you ever heard" presage Sansa being attacked by Marillion, whose "voice was strong and sweet", (AFFC Sansa I) after he sings a song (about blowjobs?) called "Milady's Supper" (supper a la the Myraham-ish fruit Sansa eats for supper when she lands) during Petyr's wedding bedding:

Lady Lysa's singer launched into a bawdy version of "Milady's Supper"….

The Myraham's "woven leathers" and "Myrish lace" are reworked into the "laces unlaced" i.e. unwoven during said wedding:

By the time they had gotten him into the tower and out of his clothes, the other women were flushed, with laces unlaced, kirtles crooked, and skirts in disarray.

That it's a "bolt of Myrish lace" is interesting: After Sansa boards the Merling King, she sees a singular "bolt" from a crossbow strike Dontos, and then two more:

Lothor Brune dipped his torch. Three men stepped to the gunwale, raised crossbows, fired. One bolt took Dontos in the chest as he looked up…. The others ripped into throat and belly. (ASOS Sansa V)

Three crossbow bolts? What does that remind us if not… a Myrish crossbow:

"The king is playing with his new crossbow," Tyrion said. Ridding himself of Joffrey had required only an ungainly Myrish crossbow that threw three quarrels at a time…. (ACOK Tyrion VI)

What about the Myraham's "pepper"? I suspect this gets box-checked first by Sansa trying not to "retch" as she is off-loaded along with the wine with which Littlefinger tries to settle her tummy, as just two chapters later peppers are tightly linked to "retching" of the sort Sansa feels like doing:

[Tyrion] found himself on his knees retching… that double helping of fried eggs cooked up with onions and fiery Dornish peppers. (ASOS Tyrion X)

GRRM seems to play off the "pepper" motif in other ways, as well. Consider that the gathering to meet the Myraham and the shouted questions that prompt her captain to announce her cargo—

A handful of Lordsport merchants had gathered to meet the ship. They shouted questions as the Myraham was tying up.

—get reworked by Petyr's household all gathering "to meet" the Merling King and by their peppering one another with questions:

Servants emerged from the tower to meet them; a thin old woman and a fat middle-aged one, two ancient white-haired men, and a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye. When they recognized Lord Petyr they knelt on the rocks. "My household," he said. "I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."

She's a "popper", then, in case we didn't catch that retching → peppers. (This also reworks Theon "popping one off" with the captain's daughter, who is in many ways reworked by Kella, as will be discussed below.)

… [Petyr]… gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one. "Who fathered this one, Kella?"
The fat woman laughed. "I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."
"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. … "How long will you be in residence?"
"As short a time as possible, Bryen, have no fear. Is the place habitable just now, would you say?"
"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung." Petyr turned to Sansa. "Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now. Umfred's my steward, and Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord.…"
… Petyr gestured toward the fat woman. "Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"

A gathering, and questions, questions, questions, as when Theon docks.
Recall that Bryen and Umfred come from shore to offload Sansa (who's just been promised a cup of wine to help with her upset "tummy") from the Merling King's rowboat:

The two old men waded out up to their thighs to lift Sansa from the boat so she would not get her skirts wet.

This reworks the "shorehands… off-loading… casks of wine" from a Tyroshi trader docked with the Myraham—

[Theon] spied a Tyroshi trading galley off-loading…
Shorehands rolled casks of wine off the Tyroshi trader, fisherfolk cried the day's catch, children ran and played. A priest in the seawater robes of the Drowned God was leading a pair of horses along the pebbled shore, while above him a slattern leaned out a window in the inn, calling out to some passing Ibbenese sailors.

—which itself prefigures the above-quoted off-loading of the Merling King (when "Oswell made two more trips out to the Merling King to offload provisions" including "several casks of wine", from which Petyr immediately "poured Sansa a cup, as promised").

Kella & The Slattern

What about that "slattern lean[ing] out a window" to greet "some passing… sailors" while "children ran and played"? I submit that she is one of several motifs from Theon's homecoming prefiguring Petyr's servant Kella. I'll explain.
Consider that Petyr's servant Kella has many bastards i.e. children, popping one out every few years:

"I don't know the child. Another of Kella's bastards, I suppose. She pops one out every few years."

We only see one; presumably the others are off somewhere, running and playing, perhaps.
Kella happily greets Petyr as he comes ashore, much as Lordsport's slattern "call[s] out to some passing Ibbenese sailors". Note that the sailors on the Merling King are likewise 'passing' — passing through:

"From here the King turns east for Braavos. Without us."

Consider most of all that Kella's something of a slattern herself: She's "not one for telling them no".

"I can't rightly say, m'lord. I'm not one for telling them no."
"And all the local lads are grateful, I am quite sure."

Indeed, something Lysa says pretty clearly codes Kella as a verbatim "slattern", underlining the recursion:

"How would you like to spend your life on that bleak shore, surrounded by slatterns and sheep pellets?" (ASOS Sansa VII)

So I think the vignette with the slattern and the children in Lordsport pretty plainly prefigures Kella. But I think she's prefigured by two more pieces of Theon's homecoming.

Kella & The Captain's Daughter

Keeping in mind that Kella has a bunch of bastards ("she pops one out every few years) and that she's "not one for telling them no", consider also that she is (a) literally 'with child' — or rather, with a child—

a girl of two or three with a sty on one eye

—that she's (b) "fat"—

"Who fathered this one, Kella?"
The fat woman laughed.

—and that she's (c) coded as a bit stupid:

"Kella minds my vast herds. How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"
She had to think a moment. "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."

All like Theon's "captain's daughter".
The captain's daughter is "plump", as Kella is "fat":

The girl was a shade plump for his taste…

She is likely pregnant with Theon's bastard, a la Kella the bastard-popper.
She tells Theon…

"You can put it in me again, if it please you…"

…and accedes to his request for a blowjob, so she's "not one for telling them no."
She thereby helps Theon 'pop one off', a la Kella "pop[ping] one out".
Like Kella, she seems a bit stupid:

She looked rather stupid when she smiled, but he had never required a woman to be clever.
The stupid girl did not seem to be listening.
She… learned quickly for such a stupid girl….
She looked at him stupidly, so he left her there.

And finally, she offers to work in Theon's castle—

I'd work in your castle, milord.

—just as Kella works for Petyr.

Kella: The Spreading Patch of the Smallest Finger?

Besides the "slattern" and the captain's daughter, I suspect Kella may also riff on — of all things — the "spreading patches" of "lichen" on "wet" Pyke as Theon sails by:

[Pyke was] wet by the same salt waves, festooned with the same spreading patches of dark green lichen, speckled by the droppings of the same seabirds.

Get it? A spreading 'patch'? In combination with "lichen" a la "licking" and Pyke being "wet"? And not just wet, but "wet by… salt waves", when as we know from the captain's daughter, semen tastes "salty", "like the sea". It's like Pyke is being described as a turned-on "slattern" with her legs spread.
A Hoare, we might say.
This connects to Kella, specifically because of her name: Kella is a near anagram for "kale", a dark green plant, like the "dark green lichen".
Actually, the name Kella may have anothere precursor in Theon's story: "Qalen", the maester Theon asks Helya about upon his arrival at Pyke:

"And what of Maester Qalen, where is he?"

Qalen would be pronounced Kalen. Qalen → Kalen → Kale → Kela → Kella. Anyway…

Grisel & The Captain's Daughter

Something similar is going on with Petyr's servant Grisel, the "thin old woman" who was his wet nurse but who "keeps [his] castle now":

"Grisel was my wet nurse, but she keeps my castle now.

Grisel is similarly prefigured by two people from Theon's homecoming, including first the captain's daughter who wants to work in Theon's castle as Grisel works in Petyr's "castle".
Consider first that Grisel, like the captain's daughter, seems slightly stupid (but eager to please), as she fails to grasp Petyr's sarcasm and takes his derisive joke about gulls' eggs and seaweed soup as an order:

"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home. When I break my fast on gulls' eggs and seaweed soup, I'll be certain of it."
"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.
Lord Petyr made a face.

Then there is the captain daughter's resume:

"I'd work in your castle, milord. I can clean fish and bake bread and churn butter. Father says my peppercrab stew is the best he's ever tasted. You could find me a place in your kitchens and I could make you peppercrab stew."

This surely prefigures what we're told about Grisel making a sea-based soup of her own (i.e. the just mentioned "seaweed soup"), baking bread, and churning butter for Petyr:

Grisel reappeared before he could say more, balancing a large platter. She set it down between them. … The old woman had brought a round of bread as well, and a crock of butter.
Grisel climbed up to the bedchamber to serve the lord and lady a tray of morning bread, with butter, honey, fruit, and cream.

Where Grisel used to be Petyr's wet nurse, Theon suckles the captain daughter's nipple as if she's a wet nurse:

Theon's finger circled one heavy teat, spiraling in toward the fat brown nipple. … He took her nipple in his mouth….
"You can put it in me again, if it please you," she whispered in his ear as he sucked.

And finally, where Theon kisses the captain's daughter on the ear—

[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close and kissed her on her ear.

—Littlefinger kisses Grisel on the cheek:

Oswell and Lothor splashed their way ashore, as did Littlefinger himself. He gave the old woman a kiss on the cheek and grinned at the younger one.

Helya & Grisel (& Gretchel)

Grisel also rhymes with and reworks Helya, who keeps Balon's castle:

A bentback old crone in a shapeless grey dress approached him warily. "M'lord, I am sent to show you to chambers."
"And who are you?"
"Helya, who keeps this castle for your lord father."

Get it? "Helya and Grisel", a la "Hansel and Gretel".
(Gretel is a variant of "Greta". "Grisel" sounds like gristle, whereas in Hansel and Gretel the witch is trying to fatten Hansel up — she don't want no stringy meat! Note the thematic symmetry as well: By treating Hansel kindly and feeding him delicious treats, the witch is essentially "grooming" him for her own benefit/consumption, as Theon and Petyr groom the captain's daughter and Sansa, respectively, for their own benefit. Finally, note that "pebbles" are a key motif in Hansel and Gretel, prefiguring the proliferation of "pebbles" on Pyke, the 'rhyming' "pellets" on Petyr's Finger, and the isle of "Pebble" that leads to Petyr's Finger.)
The two "old" castle keepers neatly invert one another. Consider Grisel's comments about the old rushes and fire in Petyr's tower:

"If we knew you was coming we would have laid down fresh rushes, m'lord," said the crone. "There's a dung fire burning."
"Nothing says home like the smell of burning dung."

That's a recursive reversal of Helya's (lack of) preparation for Theon's visit: Where Grisel has a fire going even though she didn't know Petyr was coming, and where she proactively apologizes for not changing the rushes, telling him "we would have laid down fresh rushes… if we knew you were coming", Helya neither lit a fire nor changed the heavily foregrounded "old and brittle" rushes in the rooms Theon is given—

"I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. "See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."

—despite having ample forewarning of his coming:

It was not as though they had no word of his arrival. Robb had sent ravens from Riverrun, and… Jason Mallister had sent his own birds to Pyke….

The joke is underlined by the introduction of "Gretchel" — Gretel with a borrowed H from Helya/Hansel — who fetches washbasins of water (which, see below), "la[ys] a fire in the hearth" and "tend[s] to the fire", brings food and discusses food storage in Petyr's Eyrie in AFFC Sansa I & Alayne I. (In other words, she 'keeps his castle.')

'Rhyming' Interiors

That's just the beginning of the reversals in the many recursions between Theon's lodgings at Pyke and Sansa's in the Drearfort.
Where Helya leads Theon to his rooms on his orders—

"Show me to my chambers, woman," he commanded. Bowing stiffly, [Helya] led him across the headland to the bridge. …
Whenever he'd imagined his homecoming, he had always pictured himself returning to the snug bedchamber in the Sea Tower, where he'd slept as a child. Instead the old woman led him to the Bloody Keep.

—it's Petyr who leads the way into his tower, casually inviting Grisel (and everyone else) to follow him:

"If you like, m'lord," said the old woman Grisel.
Lord Petyr made a face. "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." He led them up the strand…

Petyr jokes about his hall being "dreary", and perhaps it is, but while it's "small" and "even smaller" within, his tower is also home to his servants, and hence very well lived-in.

Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs. Above that was a modest hall, and higher still the bedchamber.

(Note that the "mastiff", which we see as Petyr leads Grisel in, recalls Helya bowing "stiffly" before leading Theon to his rooms.)
This sharply reverses the situation Theon finds at Pyke, when he's deposited not in a single room shared by a bunch of people who've lived in it forever and warmed by a hearth with a burning fire, a la Sansa, nor in the "snug bedchamber" in the Sea Tower he'd anticipated (which sounds like Littlefinger's little "tower" by the sea), but in the Bloody Keep, in a whole-ass "suite" of large but "chilly", even "cold" rooms with incredibly high ceilings — rooms which haven't even been opened, much less lived-in, for "years", and which are the very definition of "dreary":

The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp. Theon was given a suite of chilly rooms with ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom. [Omitted but see below.]
[Omitted but see below.] It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste. The wall hangings were green with mildew, the mattress musty-smelling and sagging, the rushes old and brittle. Years had come and gone since these chambers had last been opened. The damp went bone deep. "I'll have a basin of hot water and a fire in this hearth," he told the crone. See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill. And gods be good, get someone in here at once to change these rushes."

A ton of the motifs here (including the omitted stuff, which I'll return to) get recycled and reworked in Petyr's tower.
Most obviously, Theon's request for hot water prefigures Sansa's request for a hot bath:

"Might I have a hot bath as well?" asked Sansa.
"I'll have Kella draw some water, m'lady."

Note that Kella fulfills the request, not Grisel. This 'fits', as it's not Helya who brings Theon's water, but "two thralls".
Note also that Sansa requests her bath after thinking…

She desperately needed a bath and a change of clothes.

…whereas Theon changes his clothes immediately after the quoted passages.
Slightly less obviously, the "wall hangings [that] were green with mildew" are reworked by Petyr's own green 'wall hanging': his grandfather's shield, which is painted with a "light green field" and which "hung… above the hearth". The "mildew" is reworked by the fact that the paint is "cracked and flaking" i.e. flawed. And maybe also by the "light green field", since a field grows crops which get milled and which get dewy.

Brittle Bryen's Brigantine, Brindled Mastiff, & Old Blind Dog

As mentioned, the motif of unchanged rushes from Theon's homecoming recurs when Petyr comes home. But Petyr's homecoming also lexically riffs on Theon's rushes being quote-unquote "old and brittle" by giving us Bryen in "brigantine" who is very "old" but not, seemingly, brittle, as he still walks watches, not with his "old blind dog", but with a "brindled mastiff":

"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man. He looked to be at least eighty, but he wore a studded brigantine and a longsword at his side. …
"Bryen—didn't I name you captain of the guard the last time I was here?"
"You did, my lord. You said you'd be getting some more men too, but you never did. Me and the dogs stand all the watches."
Sansa found Bryen's old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps…
The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.

Is the brindled dog a "mastiff" 'only' a wink at Theon going mast-stiff for Asha? (See Part 4.) Maybe. But it's worth mentioning that when Theon is first being stirred by Pyke's banner and it's being battered about like the shield we see in the Drearfort three sentences after the mastiff, it's also (a) flying from a very stiff "mast" and (b) juxtaposed with a very large 'dog' of sorts:

The banner streamed from an iron mast, shivering and twisting as the wind gusted like a bird struggling to take flight. And here at least the direwolf of Stark did not fly above, casting its shadow down upon the Greyjoy kraken.

Musty Old Mattresses

The old, "musty-smelling and sagging" mattress (in the chamber that has just been re-opened after long periods of being closed and uninhabited) from Theon's homecoming is answered in Petyr's homecomiong by Lysa, who arrives a few pages later in the chapter, eager to finally have sex again with Petyr. "Mattress" is slang for a sexually available woman (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mattress) and Lysa sags—

Lady Lysa was two years younger than Mother, but this woman looked ten years older. Thick auburn tresses fell down past her waist, but beneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged.

—and smells stale. (Note that Lysa is on a mattress here.)

Her aunt was drenched in sweet scent, though under that was a sour milky smell. Her cheek tasted of paint and powder.

Lysa's "cheek tast[ing] of paint and powder" riffs on the line about Theon's "distaste" and "fear of ghosts":

It was not fear of ghosts that made him glance about with distaste.

The distaste wordplay is obvious: Lysa tastes bad. As for the "fear of ghosts", Lysa (whom Sansa fears) being covered in "powder" reminds us of Sansa being afraid of a "spirit" covered in powdery flour:

When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs…. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. (AGOT Arya IV)

This line—

The halls here were larger and better furnished, if no less cold nor damp.

—is reworked by Lysa as well, who is big and well-dressed ("better furnished", so to speak)—

[B]eneath the costly velvet gown and jeweled bodice her body sagged and bulged. Her face was pink and painted, her breasts heavy, her limbs thick. She was taller than Littlefinger, and heavier; nor did she show any grace in the clumsy way she climbed down off her horse.

—but cold to Sansa and horny/wet/"damp" for Petyr.
Given that Theon's rooms are in several ways like Lysa (newly 'open for business' after a long period of being closed and untouched by men, etc.), and pronouncing aunt like antler, we also might say that where the Lysa-like rooms are "cold" and "damp", Lysa herself is Sansa's "cold" aunt. Rhyming 'rhyming'.
That "years had come and gone since" the room with the Lysa-like mattress "had last been opened" is reworked not just by Lysa getting laid, but textually when Sansa is told Lysa is coming to the Drearfort (where she is 're-opened', so to speak):

It had been years since Sansa last saw her mother's sister…"

I wonder whether Lysa crying and speaking to Sansa of being "bound by blood" to her—

Tears welled suddenly in Lady Lysa's eyes. "We are women alone now, you and I. Are you afraid, child? Be brave. I would never turn away Cat's daughter. We are bound by blood."

—might not be in part a play on the fact that "the damp went bone deep" in the Bloody Keep. By saying that, Sansa's damp (i.e. crying) aunt "went bone deep", so to speak. (If you're "bound by blood" to someone, you have a "bone deep" bond with them. Also, bone → bound wordplay?)

Braziers → Bracing?

Did Theon's attempt to drive away "the chill" and damp of the salty sea air of Pyke using "braziers"—

See that they light braziers in the other rooms to drive out some of the chill.

—inform (via wordplay: braziers → bracing) Petyr's line when the Merling King pulls up to the Drearfort?

Lord Petyr came up beside her, cheerful as ever. "Good morrow. The salt air is bracing, don't you think? It always sharpens my appetite."

And/or is that "sharpening" motif a recursion of Theon sharpening his dirk immediately after said braziers are lit?

After some time, they brought the hot water he had asked for. … While two thralls lit his braziers, Theon stripped off his travel-stained clothing and dressed to meet his father. … He hung a dirk at one hip and a longsword at the other…. Drawing the dirk, he … pulled a whetstone from his belt pouch, and gave it a few licks. He prided himself on keeping his weapons sharp.

Gods Be Good!

The motifs of Theon yelling "gods be good" at his servant and of "ceilings so high that they were lost in gloom" are recursively reworked when Lysa summons Sansa (like a servant) to speak with her the morning after she weds Petyr. Sansa responds to the summons by thinking, verbatim, "gods be good", and is then told they'll be heading to the Eyrie, which we know is "so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds", i.e. it has parapets 'so high that they were lost in the clouds':

Lady Lysa was still abed [like a good mattress!], but Lord Petyr was up and dressed. "Your aunt wishes to speak with you," he told Sansa, as he pulled on a boot. "I've told her who you are."
Gods be good. "I . . . I thank you, my lord."
Petyr yanked on the other boot. "I've had about as much home as I can stomach. We'll leave for the Eyrie this afternoon."
Seven towers, Ned had told her, like white daggers thrust into the belly of the sky, so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds. (AGOT Catelyn VI)

The notion of a "ceiling" so high it is lost in gloom is perhaps also reworked by the story Lysa tells Sansa about Petyr's "rise" to power: She says she "always knew how high [Petyr would] rise", and it's my belief that said rise has likely seen him 'lost', spiritually, in 'darkness'. (Note that ceilings are a frequently invoked metaphor when talking about climbing the corporate ladder.)

"Half his teeth were gone, and his breath smelled like bad cheese. I cannot abide a man with foul breath. Petyr's breath is always fresh . . . he was the first man I ever kissed, you know. My father said he was too lowborn, but I knew how high he'd rise. Jon gave him the customs for Gulltown to please me, but when he increased the incomes tenfold my lord husband saw how clever he was and gave him other appointments, even brought him to King's Landing to be master of coin. That was hard, to see him every day and still be wed to that old cold man.

(Recall that the motif of bad/fresh breath there reworks the "winey stench of the old man's [Sylas Sourmouth's] breath", which Theon thinks about roughly ¼ page prior to being shown his suite in the Bloody Keep.)

Butchered Sons & Brothers

Lysa continues to rant:

"Jon did his duty in the bedchamber, but he could no more give me pleasure than he could give me children. His seed was old and weak. All my babies died but Robert, three girls and two boys. All my sweet little babies dead, and that old man just went on and on with his stinking breath. So you see, I have suffered too." Lady Lysa sniffed. "You do know that your poor mother is dead?"
"Tyrion told me," said Sansa. "He said the Freys murdered her at The Twins, with Robb."

Those references to (a) a bunch of dead "babies", including two brothers, one of which was "murdered" when Lysa's father, Hoster Tully, who ruled the Riverlands, betrayed Lysa's trust; and to (b) foul smelling breath, a la Sylas, and finally to (c) the Red Wedding — a bloody betrayal of Sansa's brother, who was King of the Riverlands — particularly (per Sansa saying "Tyrion told me") as it's described by Tyrion—

Sansa did not need to hear how her brother's body had been hacked and mutilated, he decided; nor how her mother's corpse had been dumped naked into the Green Fork in a savage mockery of House Tully's funeral customs. (ASOS Tyrion VII)

—are one of the ways ASOS Sansa VI rejiggers the part of Theon's description of his Bloody Keep suite I "[omitted]" earlier, which entails betrayals, murdered brothers, a River King, slaughter, and bodies "hacked to bits".

[Theon] might have been more impressed if he had not known that these were the very chambers that had given the Bloody Keep its name. A thousand years before, the sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.
But Greyjoys were not murdered in Pyke except once in a great while by their brothers, and his brothers were both dead.

Lysa's speech with its reference to her abortion and to the Red Wedding (and to stink-breath like Sylas's) isn't the only (or even the main) way Petyr's homecoming chapter refracts those images from Theon's homecoming, though.
Littlefinger is himself a kind of River King (as Lord Paramount of the Trident), right? And note that we read all about his "slaughtered" "sons" just before he enters the tower, wherein we then see the foul betrayers who murdered their 'brothers'. I'm talking, of course, about his sheep and his sheepdogs:

"How many sheep do I have at present, Kella?"
… "Three and twenty, m'lord. There was nine and twenty, but Bryen's dogs killed one and we butchered some others and salted down the meat."
"Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home.…" … "Come, let's see if my hall is as dreary as I recall." … A handful of sheep were wandering about the base of the flint tower…. …
Within, the tower seemed even smaller. An open stone stair wound round the inside wall, from undercroft to roof. Each floor was but a single room. The servants lived and slept in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with a huge brindled mastiff and a half-dozen sheep-dogs.

Note the kitchen, recalling that the Bloody Keep is paired with the Kitchen Keep as Theon first gazes on Pyke:

Farther out were the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island.

Note, too, that the sheep are coded as Petyr's "sons", in a way (a la the "slaughtered… sons of the River King" Theon remembers in his Bloody Tower rooms), and not just because he owns them. He says that Kella has lots of bastards and that she minds his sheep, right? And what else does he say of Kella, in jest? That she 'is' the "mother" of his "daughter," "Alayne Stone":

"Alayne . . . Stone, would it be?" When he nodded, she said, "But who is my mother?"
"Kella?"
"Please no," she said, mortified.
"I was teasing.

The joke foregrounds the notion of Petyr as the father of Kella's children. And while she supposedly has a bunch of bastards, we don't see them. We just see the one girl with the livestock-evoking eye with a sty. It's almost like the sheep she looks after are her children. And thus like Petyr is their father.
(Note the word "mortified". This points straight back to Theon in his Bloody Tower for two reasons: First, greyscale, which mortifies the flesh, killed Balon's brother Harlon, who died "in a windowless tower room" at Pyke. Second: Theon will, in his next chapter, be truly mortified by the realization that "Esgred" is his sister Asha, where that masquerade in turn prefigures Sansa masquerading as Alayne.)
So the "cold" Bloody Keep with its partner the Kitchen Keep and its story of a "slaughter", betrayal, brother killing brother, a River King's sons' bodies "hacked to bits in their beds" — all these motifs are reworked by Kella's account of one of Lord Paramount Petyr's sheep-'sons' being killed by its lexicial 'brothers', the very "sheep-dogs" who were supposed to guard it, and of other sheep-'sons' being verbatim "butchered", i.e. slaughtered on a killing bed and in the process surely hacked into pieces that were then preserved against spoilage for future consumption, such that the resulting "cold salt mutton" could be used as travel rations. Which jibes with Theon's language, creatively interpreted:

[T]he sons of the River King had been slaughtered here, hacked to bits in their beds so that pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland.

(They were slaughtered and hacked to bits only so as to properly preserve them against spoilage during their upcoming journey "back to their father on the mainland", you see!)

Theon's Honor Guard

The conditions in Theon's rooms are consistent with the cold welcome he receives, both from Aeron—

The priest's manner was chilly, most unlike the man Theon remembered.

—and Balon—

Theon pulled off his gloves. "… Why is my father not here to greet me?"
"He awaits you in the Sea Tower, m'lord. When you are rested from your trip."
And I thought Ned Stark cold.

—and they're thus part of a broad yin/yang 'rhyme' with Petyr's initial homecoming, which is warm and welcoming and full of familiar faces, whereas Theon knows no one, such that he thinks:

It is as if I were a stranger here….

The reversal is wryly underlined when Petyr is greeted at the shore by his "captain of the guards", Bryen:

"It is good to have you home, my lord," said one old man.

Thus Petyr ironically gets the "honor guard" welcome Theon hoped he'd get on his arrival 'home':

[Theon] saw… no honor guard waiting to escort him from Lordsport to Pyke, only smallfolk going about their small business.

Notice that where no one stops what they're doing for Theon, everyone stops when Petyr arrives. And of course, everyone in his household recognizes him, whereas no one recognizes Theon. Which is telling, because in a deep sense, that's all Theon really wants, deep down: a little recognition.
Littlefinger has it… but it's not enough.

(SUB)SERIES CONCLUDES IN PART 10: Oswell & Aeron; Lothar & Dagmer; The Closing Twist

So my parents live 1500 miles away, making visits kind of arduous. I agreed to rent a car and pay for 2 hotel nights (she lives a bit far from airport), along with a couple restaurant outings and excursions for all of us if she paid for the airline tickets. We’ve done this before and it’s worked just fine, but we’ve also done it where I’ve reimbursed her (she wants the mileage rewards). Everything goes fine-ish until we arrive at her house where we discover that my daughter will be sleeping on a yoga mat and my son and I will share a foam roller. I jokingly said I’d just buy a couple of blow up mattresses because my kids are teenagers now and I’m far too old to be sleeping on the floor. She was upset, so I dropped the idea. Surely we can survive for 5 days on the floor. Day 3 she has my son mow her horse paddocks and muck all morning, then tells us we’re going to the community pool. We had already been swimming 3x, so we weren’t really in the mood. Especially when it was a holiday weekend and the pool was packed. My son and I definitively said we’d not be swimming at all, but my daughter said she’d put her feet in. She just didn’t want to swim as I had blow dried and curled her hair (and my mom’s) that morning. My mom starts in on her as soon as we arrive with how she’s definitely swimming, but my daughter holds firm and says she’s not. She will sit on the edge and put her feet in. She reminds my stepdad, who tells her that’s fine. It’s not fine. Once my parents are in the pool, they start telling her she’s going in one way or another and my mom gets out of the pool to push her from behind while my stepdad grabs her ankles and drags her. Daughter freaks out and holds on as tight as she can to the railing, but she’s no match for two adults. She can swim just fine, but she’s dunked as soon as she’s fully in the pool (she doesn’t know who pushes her head under) and then my stepdad says “well now your hair is wet so you can just have fun”. She was scared, but couldn’t see me or her brother because the pool was so crowded, so she stayed with my parents for about 10 minutes with a fake smile plastered on her face. She got out and came to tell me, but couldn’t really tell me everything as my mom was about 3 steps behind her. I just packed my kids up and went back to their house because I felt like she had a weird look in her eyes and my mom had a strange look. Once my daughter told us what happened, I was furious but said I’d talk to my parents about it. The talk went poorly. They “apologized” to her by telling her that she was fine and she was having a good time and she can swim blah blah blah. She was NOT fine; the backs of her thighs and lower booty were scraped up by being dragged and she was terrified. I told the kids to pack up because we don’t want them to ever think abuse is okay, even if it’s family. Both of my parents forced my kids to hug them goodbye and told them I was a bad mother for teaching them it’s okay to just runaway. I was loading the car during that exchange. We drove to the airport, arriving extremely late and I moved our return flights up. Did the online checkin, got a hotel so we could catch a couple hours of sleep on real beds. Downloaded our boarding passes to apple wallet morning of our flight and went through TSA. Once we got up to our gate, I had a weird feeling and checked our flight again. All 3 were cancelled. I freaked out and went to customer service, who were extremely helpful. I was able to repurchase 2 tickets but 1 had already been resold. I burst into tears because I really couldn’t leave myself behind or one of the kids and I had already turned in our rental car. The agent ended up putting one ticket in business class and didn’t charge me. We didn’t end up being stranded…….. but my husband (who didn’t attend this trip) is so furious that she put her own grandchildren in this situation that he’s not ever going to allow her access to them again. I think I agree with him, but I have also had to admit that the emotional manipulation and control is something that she’s done since I was a teenager myself. I’ve just been grey rocking her for so long that I missed a lot of warning signs. The only reason I even reacted this time was because she had targeted my daughter with demeaning comments this entire trip. It suddenly clicked and it’s probably the first time my mom has successfully gotten an emotional response from me in 20 years.
My kids immediately blocked her everywhere. I haven’t, but I am not sure if I should send her a text or email letting her know that the airline agent could see exactly when she canceled the tickets and her rewards account was suspended for malicious behavior? Then block her on everything? I just don’t know. The amount of money I spent to just get us home safely was insane, but we just needed to go home where we’re loved unconditionally by my husband’s parents.

I ran across a Cato video and remembered how helpful his videos were to me while struggling with the withdrawal from caffeine. I remember telling myself I would keep coming back on here and inform how I felt moving forward. So here is 2.5 years clean!
​
I start by saying that anxiety is nothing like it was before. I would almost say anxiety is an after thought but to be honest anxiety actually works for me now. What I mean is I don't feel anxiety at all except for when I am hungry and possibly when I am really tired. Anxiety is my bodies way of alerting me at this point but even then it is nothing and I mean nothing like it was during withdrawals. It is so low that I was hesitant on saying I felt it at all. As for the other issues such as headaches, body aches, the shakes, lack of sleep, too much sleep, etc. etc. none of that exist. I use to have a racing heart. For years I thought that was just part of me. Turns out that was due to caffeine as well as the feeling of being nervous socially. It would require a real stimulus such as performing in front of a crowed to get me nervous and even then it would leave within seconds.
So why am I telling you this? When I was going through it I remember questioning if I would ever be the same. I remember thinking damn I wouldn't have stopped consuming caffeine if I knew I would have felt this way for this long. The truth is I feel better now then I felt on caffeine all those years. I can't believe how much of an affect it had on me even before quitting. Its crazy to think all that was for energy and I have more energy now and it is a lot more easier for me to listen to my body.
Trust me I can go on and on with all the benefits and how I feel but I don't want to bore you or feel like I am bosting. I simply want you all to know that there is a really bright light at the end of the tunnel. You want be the same you will be better. I still feel like I am getting better and better.
With that said I will list a few things that helped me.
As I said at the beginning I use to watch Cato's videos on youtube. You can find him as "catovideo1" I am thankful that he takes time out his day to explain anxiety and how to deal with it. Now that I am this far along I can understand how it feels to not feel it anymore but willing to take time out to help others.
I also invested in a VR headset and watched soothing 360 video's either on the beach or other relaxing settings. If you cant purchase a VR you can buy a headset that holds you cell phone to you head basically turning it into VR. They sell them on amazon cheap.
I worked out a lot mainly cardio. It help calm me down amongst other benefits.
I had ashwaganda though I never used it. I kept it with me as it made me feel like I had something to go to if things got too much out of hand.
Other then that just no that what your going through is normal we all went through it no matter how much your brain tells you yours is different.
Thanks for reading, I hope you got something out of that lol... You kind of forget how bad it was when you get to this point......

Hi all im a little new to this. However il keep it short
​
Trying to find the best bang for my buck for flights in November From Toronto to Leon, Nicaragu.. via amex points / transfer partners
Award hacker shows me lots of good options but when I try and find the flights many of the options dont seem to exist. Any advice greatly apreciated

**TERRAN AID SHIPS DESTROYED**
After much speculation, Terran officials have announced that the lost shipping vessels, the Magnolia, Marigold, and Mallow belonging to Kernon Shipping, were destroyed while in transit. The large cargo vessels were lost with all hands, their large cargo of foodstuffs along with it.
This comes as a heavy blow to the Trenixous province of the former Jaaktarian Empire, as the ongoing famine is expected to worsen. Several riots broke out on Terran-occupied worlds upon hearing the news, with many accusing Terran Executive Command of attempting to reduce the Tersean population to “acceptable levels” for future colonization.
EXECOM has repeatedly denied these allegations, stating that the loss of these vessels constitute an act of terrorism. The routes of the convoy and their cargo was announced well beforehand, they say, as an act of goodwill and to discourage any pirates or Jaaktarian Navy remnants from attacking them.
Although the Galactic Conglomerate officially condemns their destruction, many of its member species continue to oppose the Terran occupation of the neighboring Trenixous, Grentali, and Hrengull provinces, refusing to remove the numerous economic sanctions placed upon the growing species.
Analysts say that by occupying these regions the Terrans are overextending their reach and are placing undue strain upon their economy. Despite the Terran claims that such occupations are merely a peacekeeping and sapient rights intervention, there are many who believe that the Terrans are attempting to exploit the ongoing Jaaktarian civil war, a conflict that is expected to worsen as peace talks continue to fall through.
However, there are many who believe that the attacks on the three ships was secretly orchestrated by the Kersean Empire. Relations between the Terrans and the Kerseans have been at an all time low following the incident at Tasagrate-IV, with increasingly aggressive rhetoric being stated by both sides. The recently announced Kersean annexation of the Tretorian, Erenthinji, Grinhalli, and Veruntaner former Jaaktarian provinces have only worsened this. Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of the Kersean position, decrying the Terran intervention while they themselves are directly claiming territory.
Furthermore, the Terran military has…
>Excerpt from a news article published in the Sylintian Press, author unknown.
One of the more famous skirmishes leading up to the start of the Third Orion War was the Terran defense of Tasagrate-IV. The system was largely uninhabited and lay in relatively uncharted space overlapped by Terran and Kersean claims. Tasagrate-IV had been settled by the Terrans five standard cycles prior to the conflict, and a small but robust export-based economy had developed utilizing the planet’s abundance of natural resources.
It is unknown what made the Kersean Empire decide to attack the small colony. Kersean-aligned speakers may claim that they were simply defending rightfully claimed territory from an encroaching aggressor. Pro-Terra sources would likewise claim that Kersea chose to seize the colony and its resources by force in a bid to curb Terra’s growing power. The official position by the Terran government was that it was a probing attack, meant to test Terran defenses and response as a precursor to a much larger invasion.
What can be certain is that the truth will likely never be known. The opening phase of the Third Orion War left the vast majority of the Kersean Empire’s critical infrastructure in ruin. Centers of Command and Communication were among the highest priority of targets during Operation Apocalypto, second only to Kersea’s Relativistic Weapons. Any information held by the personnel and ships that participated in the invasion would have likewise been lost when the second wave of Terran RKV’s, aimed at conventional military targets, obliterated the Kersean fleets. The ensuing chaos and breakdown of civil function means that learning more would be prohibitively difficult. As such, Terran sources and hearsay are all that can be used to document the battle.
Hrjin Argoni’s popular memoirs do shed light on the matter, however his position as a diplomatic envoy by nature means that he was not privy to such military matters. Many have construed Argoni’s orders to “gain the most advantageous settlement” in the territorial negotiations as evidence that the Kersean Empire was always planning on seizing the systems by force, however the Terran diplomats had the same instructions, essentially to the letter.
At the time of the conflict, the Terran population only numbered at about one hundred thousand, the overwhelming majority of which were clustered around the planet’s Capitol or the many mines that dotted the surface. The Terran military contingent was likewise small, consisting of a single Army division and one Wing of MSM-115C Surface-to-Orbit anti-ship missiles, better known as the Paladin.
The Army division was thinly spread across the planet, primarily equipped for anti-piracy, anti-smuggling, and peacekeeping operations. The Paladin Wing meanwhile consisted of four relatively independent Paladin Squadrons, with two located on each hemisphere. That way, the entirety of the planet’s orbital space could be covered and defended, allowing for two squadrons to be on deployment while the other two underwent maintenance or training.
At the Squadron level, the Paladins were commanded by one Mobile Operations Center (MOC), a large tracked vehicle converted from transportation use and equipped with numerous powerful orbital sensors and communication arrays. The MOC would be tasked with coordinating the movement and dispersal of the squadron’s various batteries while also monitoring the orbital space they were assigned to defend. Each squadron held four batteries of three Transport-Erector-Launchers (TELs) that carried and fired the Paladin missiles. The TELs themselves were even larger than the MOC, using Anti-gravity technology to transport the massive Paladin missile horizontally on their backs over the planet’s rough terrain, then having to erect the missile into launch position before being fired. Because of the size of the Paladin’s warheads and the distance they needed to travel to reach their targets, the Paladin was considerably larger than the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles of Terran antiquity.
When the order to launch is given, the MOC sends the command to one or more of the squadron’s elements. The element would then stop its movement and each TEL would lower themselves to the ground, at which point several hydraulic legs would extend to anchor the TEL to the ground in a level position. After that, the missile in its tube would be raised to the vertical position while a firing solution is reached.
The Paladin used a cold-launch system, meaning that the missile must first be ejected from the tube before the missile’s solid-fueled chemical booster would ignite. To do this, a generator used chemical reactions to create an immense amount of steam that would eject the missile above the TEL. Following ejection, the missile’s booster would ignite and the missile would begin its flight to the target. Throughout its flight, various stages are discarded and ignited to save weight and increase the missile’s velocity. Once the missile was out of the atmosphere, the missile’s nose cone would be jettisoned and the three warheads released.
Each Paladin Missile carried three W97 Enhanced Radiation Warheads, the most prolific variant of the famed Terran “Neutron Bomb.” Each warhead is equipped with a thruster pack to guide it to its target while evading enemy interceptors. Upon reaching the target, the warhead would detonate either upon impact or proximity, killing the biological crew of the enemy vessel with the immense burst of neutron radiation and damaging electronic systems.
This is what the Kersean Royal Navy faced when the invasion fleet descended upon Tasagrate-IV.
The Empire did not expect significant resistance, and as such sent a light invasion force of 300,000 Royal Marines on 50 transport ships escorted by a fleet led by one Heavy Cruiser, three Light Cruisers, five Destroyers, and eight Corvettes. Upon arrival. The fleet would disperse into three elements. The first would hang back and protect the transports, consisting of the Heavy Cruiser, one Light Cruiser, one Destroyer, and two Corvettes. This would serve as a reserve force should any ships be lost, and would command the overall operation. The two other elements would consist of one Light Cruiser, Two Destroyers, and Three Corvettes. These would comb the surface of the planet, one for each hemisphere, with the objective of seeking and destroying any target of opportunity.
When the invasion commenced, the Paladin had been untested in combat and was relatively unknown even within Terran space. Had the full capability of the system been known by the Kersean Empire, it is likely a much more sizable fleet would have been sent to Tasagrate-IV. The Paladin Wing on the planet only had two squadrons that were combat-capable. One was undergoing routine maintenance, and the other was conducting training missions with inert warheads. The latter would not have time to mount their live warheads before the battle would commence, and as such immediately chose to disperse rather than engaging the enemy.
Once the two Kersean Strike elements were in range of the Paladin batteries, each squadron fired a salvo of eight missiles. These were detected by the Kersean forces, however they were unable to intercept due to their distance from the planet. As such, the eight missiles were able to reach altitude and release their three warheads, totaling 24 warheads per element, four warheads per ship, and 48 warheads in total.
The Kersean point-defense systems experienced significant difficulty adapting to the highly-maneuverable warheads that swarmed their fleets. In total, 75% of the incoming warheads were intercepted. However, that still left six warheads inbound for each element. Both were ravaged by the attack. Between the two of them, only two corvettes survived undamaged, with one frigate surviving with heavy damage and a light cruiser rendered combat ineffective.
This came as a severe shock to the Kersean invasion commander, as the highly dispersed Paladin squadrons were not located by their long-range sensors. As such, she wisely decided to abort the invasion and retreated back into Kersean space. Had she chosen to press the attack, it is likely the invasion would have succeeded, despite significant losses. The two combat-capable Paladin squadrons were down to 1/3 of their firepower, while the other two could be hunted down and destroyed by the invading ground forces.
Upon seeing the success of the Paladin, Terran production and deployment of the system was significantly increased. Kersean intelligence services meanwhile, scrambled to figure out the new weapon.
This incident substantially increased tensions between the two powers, and is regarded as one of the main factors leading to the Third Orion War. Both powers used it for substantial propaganda value. On the Terran side, the technological prowess of the system and the imperialist aggression of the Kersean was strongly emphasized. The Kerseans meanwhile decried the settlement of the system as an invasion and encroachment by the Terrans onto their territory and a flagrant disregard for the legitimate claims, portraying the Terran defense as an unprovoked attack against an armed envoy that was intending to negotiate a settlement.
In either situation, the end result was an increase in military readiness and mobilization as the two powers geared themselves up for war…
>Excerpt from “Third Orion War: Buildup and Causes” by Junkillian Khimonsa, Chief Historian, Livani University.
“Look, those damn Kerseans are up to no good, clear as day. Those xenos think they can strut around the Conglomerate and bully everyone into submission. ‘No More!’ I say.
“Just look at the bill they passed a week ago! Sanctions on damn near everything we make. They don’t like it that we can do things cheaper and better than them, and they hate us. They go around calling us little atom monkeys because their tech ain’t as good as ours. That’s the thing you see, humanity has always been special. The damn xenos ain’t never gonna get that.
“I had a brother on the Marigold when the Kerseans destroyed her. That food was going to do good in the galaxy, helping out the innocents in Jaaktaria. ‘Cept the problem is that doing so makes us Terrans look good and the Kerseans look bad. I’m telling you, those hinge-head bastards in the Diamond Palace are a bunch of Tyrants.
“And then they go around preaching about ‘stability’ and ‘order’ and ‘uplifting’. All they do is go around like loan sharks trapping helpless little aliens in their schemes. And when someone doesn’t want to bow down they break them.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, War is coming. It’s time someone put them in their place. They think they have the numbers and the precious little ‘RKV’s’. No, like they think us losing a few dozen planets will stop us with the hundreds we have. We will burn their mongrel hides even if we have to choke on our own blood to do so.
“If they think we don’t have the nukes to burn them off of every floating rock they own, I *know* we’ll have the chemicals and bioweapons to bring them a beatdown of biblical proportions. They’ll be a textbook footnote before they even know what hit them.“
>Excerpt from Political Commentator Joe Alexander’s podcast “Humanity First.” The podcast is highly controversial and is known for containing biased or incorrect data. It is currently banned by 78% of Galactic Conglomerate member species.
**BEYOND TOP SECRET**
OSIRIS has observed extremely abnormal Kersean activity that warrants immediate EXECOM attention.
SIGINT has detected a 450% increase in encrypted FTL communications between the Kersean Grand Council and all Kersean military forces. HUMINT and DARKSTAR missions observe that 85% of the Kersean Navy is out of port, with significant fleet gatherings at points ASTRA, BAKER, GEODE, and ZENITH. Significant Kersean ground forces are being mobilized for planetary assault. Ministry of the Voice propaganda has seen a 165% trend increase towards belligerent messaging. 78% of Kersean reserves are being mobilized. Significant activity around Kersean Relativistic Weaponry.
CARDINAL assets in Galactic Conglomerate report numerous conferences between Kersean and Kersean-aligned delegates. 61% of BENEDICT assets are unresponsive. All BENEDICT assets are presumed compromised. Primary, secondary, and underground channels are experiencing severe difficulty negotiating with Kersean contacts.
OSIRIS believes this to be a prelude to a full-scale invasion of Terran space. Kersean activity is consistent with that before the Kersean invasion of former Jaaktarian space. SAMSON sites have been notified of ongoing developments and have increased readiness, however cannot be activated without EXECOM authority.
OSIRIS strongly recommends EXECOM declare STRATCON BLACK and activate CONPLAN 88 in accordance with the Lemay Protocol. Casualty estimates are significant but acceptable. OSIRIS confirms this with the highest degree of confidence. War is unavoidable.
>Highly encrypted FTL communique from the Terran Office of Strategic Intelligence, Reconnaissance, Information, and Surveillance (OSIRIS) to Terran Executive Command, released one decacycle after the end of the Third Orion War. Less than one Terran hour after this message was received, the first Terran RKV’s would be fired as a part of Operation Apocalypto, marking the beginning of the Third Orion War.
He passed me a small sphere in his hand. It was an incredibly tiny object, small enough I had to make sure it didn’t slip between my appendages. I look back up and see him rolling perhaps a dozen of them in the palm of his hand.
“This is it? It must weigh only a gram!”
I tried not to grimace as he smiled.
“It does, but kinetic energy increases *exponentially* with velocity. At the speed of light, that little thing hits with over 10 kilotons of force.”
I blanched as the sphere suddenly felt far, far heavier in my grasp. 10 kilotons was by no means small, but compared to nuclear and antimatter weaponry, it was a drop in the bucket. I turned back to the weapon’s diagram and eyed the warhead section.
“How many did you say it could carry?”
He paused for a moment. Worry briefly flashed across my mind as I feared I had asked an unacceptable question. But my anxieties were placated somewhat as he responded.
“Several thousand, depending on size and method of dispersal. This one is just the anti-ship version.”
Images of the Emperor’s Fleet being torn apart in an instant flashed before my eyes. Garden worlds being left smoldering wastelands while small moons were simply *broken*.
The man took the sphere from me and placed them down on the table. Collecting them one by one into a small bag, he reminded me of a predator picking through the carcass of its prey.
“You know…” he began. “We already have plenty of them in service.”
I could have sworn my hearts stopped beating at that instant.
“I can’t tell you how many we have or how fast we make them, but do know we have enough.”
This was bad. The Intelligence Service told me that the Terrans were only in the prototype stage. I scanned his features for signs of a bluff, a slight tick here or a bead of sweat there, but couldn’t find any.
But then I realized, *The Terrans weren’t beholden to the arms treaties.* They were an upstart race who entered the galactic scene well after the Great Hydrogen Wars, well after hundreds of relativistic weapons had been used in the most horrific manner. Left unchecked, Terra’s resource-rich systems and industrious people meant that the race had the potential to rival and possibly surpass Kersea.
This changed everything. Now it was clear that Terra wasn’t a future threat, but a present one.
If the Terrans were developing RKVs built specifically for anti-ship purposes, then they must already have significant amounts of them. The other races of the galaxy reserved their few RKVs as planet-busting weapons of last resort. There was no need to differentiate them as being anti-ship, because there was only one use for them.
I flashed through my briefings of the Terran military. Budget black holes woven between endless bureaucracy, ship classes designated far different than why their tonnage suggested, uninhabited worlds or systems blocked off, significant agricultural reserves, mobile command posts. The Terrans weren’t just preparing to fight a relativistic war, they were preparing to *win* one.
He continued.
“Despite what you and your government may think, us Terrans aren’t new to this game. We’ve been playing against ourselves for centuries.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed.” He turned around and emptied the bag back into his right hand. “We know the rules.”
Rolling one into place between his thumb and index finger, he tossed it at a nearby model of a terrestrial planet. The plastic model tipped over and clattered onto the table.
“We do have one question though,” Another toss and another model planet knocked over.
*“What kind of player do you want to be?”*
>Excerpt from “I Saw the End From The Past and Could Only Watch.” By Hrjin Argoni, Former Kersean Imperial Ambassador to Terra

Mtl law book
Controlled drugs and substances act, cdsa. Substances on this list are controlled substances. Schedules are categories substances fall into
If lose case can be deported
If you possess over the legal limit of pot can be imprisoned post 2018 still. 2018 is when pot was legalized.
There are provincial and federal laws
The police arrest but the crown charges. Crown can charge for a different crime then police arrested for.
If you are being prosecuted then there are charges against you in a criminal file
The crown and police have a lot discretionary power with your treatment and your file. Crown is like prosecutor, not police.
Director of penal and criminal prosecutions, DPCP, prosecutor provincial boss, instruct and provide guidance for prosecutors. Other provinces have their own name.
Jury or judge acquit which means your innocent. Prosecutor can also withdraw charges "withdrawn" status.
Sentence are possible consequences of being guilty
Priors are prior criminal record
Law enforcement officer: immigration officers, police, youth protection agents, municipal inspectors, correctional officers etc.
Black, indigenous, racialized and migrant communities, people who are known to the police, are targeted more by police, meaning police also violate their human rights more often. Sentenced more harshly than whites. Drug laws are historically created to target these groups.
Systematic bias: those with authority, even incl teachers, have explicit or implicit bias against certain communities
Racial profiling: officers target certain groups of ppl and postal codes more.
Anti gang squad, anti gun squad, anti radicalization are dog whistles for targetting minorities. Also includes applying additional surv eillance to target group.
During say a anti gun police raids, they can prosecute the raided for any illegal drugs the cops find. This results in potential criminals fearing to call the police bc if there is an investigation the police could nail the caller. If a sex worker has HIV and does not disclose their HIV status it counts as sexual assault, meaning if a John beats her up, risky to call the cops on him.
If have PR status and found guilty could be deported/removal. Some drug addicts only are PRs.
Anytime you speak to police you are making a statement. Crown can use these statements to convince someone else to plead guilty or convict. Your silence cannot incriminate but your statement might.
Police allowed to lie. Will do anything really to get a statement. Don't react to any of their behaviours, comments, or questions since that can be a statement. Try to remain silent. But many ppl do not have the privilege of remaining quiet, ex that can worsen police behavior.
Rehearse how to speak to police without providing any incriminating statements if you think you want to make a statement.
Police cannot arrest you if they don't identity at least 1 offence. On arrest they give undertaking paper or hold you until court date.
After released by police, prosecutor might decide not to prosecute. If police are holding you after arrest your 1st court date happens after 1-3 days. Sentencing may be postponed until therapy/school/work etc is complete.
1st court case is usually 1-3 days after arrest, then bail applies for the 2nd court date in like months/yrs. When released after arrest can be released without conditions.
If plead guilty with lawyer, lawyer can negotiate to have certain charges withdrawn
Cannabis act covers cannabis.
You can be acquitted of 1 charge while charged with the others
Willing blindness: you are supposed to inquire about the nature of a delivery you are driving if the package seems suspicious.
4(1) Possession, "Simple possession": to prosecute evidence needed: knowledge/willful blindness that substance in your possession and knowledge/willful blindness that it is a controlled substance named in the cdsa and measure of control/consent to their possession Law requires measurable quantity of drug, ex residue in a bag If there are drugs in your car and you are the driver or passenger, it cannot be the only reason for a conviction. Possession - drugs don't have to be on you. Willful blindness - you ought to have know you have the drugs in your possession Knowledge of your possession is proven by it's location (hidden or in sight), whether police have statements by you or others. Schedule 4 substances and lower cannot be found guilty of simple possession, but can be found guilty of other offences like trafficking
Double doctoring/ 4(2) obtaining a practitioner: asked dr for prescription or drugs without disclosing that info about the drug that u received in the last 30 days. Both for personal usage and for dealing. Uncommon charge.
5(1) Drug trafficking, trafficking in substance: proof must prove that you did 1 of the following or that you offered to do one of the following: - Selling drug or prescription: incl if the sale is not completed. - helping or encouraging someone to buy/sell. Bringing the buyer to the seller and if without this help the sale would never have taken place. Introducing a potential buyer to a seller is sometimes prosecutable depending on the judge. It sounds like it might only be an offense if accused works for the dealer and arranges the meeting between buyer and seller, but not clear. - giving drugs for free or for "free" is still trafficking - cannot administer illegal drugs even if asked too - if transporting home for personal consumption only, simple possession. But if or the purposes of sharing with friend, roommate then trafficking. Exceptions: inside safe injection site for drug checking purposes. Buying doesn't seem to be trafficking. Selling a prescription (the paper) is trafficking - Max sentence is life
5(2) Possession for the purposes of trafficking: simple possession + purpose/intent of trafficking. Large quantity helpful to prosecutor but not required. Presence of measuring, packaging equipment, multiple bagged quantities, large amounts of cash, notebooks can be evidence. - Max sentence is life
Drug trafficking: sale, gift, administrating drug, transport of drug.
Case study: Nat brought cdsa drug to share with client at motel. Client overdoses and Nat has to call 911. Police show up too. She admits to cops that she bought the drugs and that he asked for them so the cops know it was his idea. She is convicted of trafficking.
6(1) Import (or export) and 6(2) possession for the purpose of import (or export): all must be proven: Bought drugs/organized their entry into Canada Knowledge/willful blindness/recklessness that controlled substance Intention to import the substance Bring drugs or organize their entry into the country: happens as soon as drug enters/leaves any country and continues until drug arrives at final destination in Canada in a person's possession. If in transit through mtl and Toronto offence has take place in both locations. You don't have to have been personally transporting the drugs or even present at the place of entry to be charged. If police intercept the drugs in transit, irrelevant to defense. Crown doesnt have to prove you know the precise nature of the drug. Recklessness: ex accused caught with 2 bottles of wine that contain dissolved cocaine, since the cocaine amount was large, the producer prob wouldn't give this bottle to a blind courier. Behaviour following importation may provide convincing evidence of participation in offence: meeting with ppl, receiving calls of short duration at late hours, coded language by accused+accomplices, using public telephones to talk to "accomplices" despite owning a cell. After drug arrives to final destination, other ppl cannot be prosecuted for "possession for purposes of import" Police are specifically looking for fake suitcases on flights being carried by women 30s-40s
7(1) Production of substance, 7.1(1) possession, sale, etc for use in production or trafficking: production - manufacturing, harvesting, growing, etc. Offence includes offering to produce drug Evidence must prove you have some control over location/operation of production: cannot be convicted for simply being in a place of production. Police usually do detailed surveillance against accused first. Warrants for interception of private communication, track/trace (surveillance device on car), garbage searches, search warrants Police usually find out when purchase of large or suspicious purchases that are commonly used in drug production.
If police are at your house for a DV investigation and they see a baggie of what looks like heroin, can result in arrest.
Possession means: you have it on your personal possession, you know a friend is holding it for you, you know that you have hidden it somewhere. If your friend is holding a cdsa drug for you and they know it's cdsa drug, then you both are in possession. If the cops raid your grandma's house and you stores cdsa drugs there, she will not be convicted.
Knowledge of the drug: you just have to know it's a controlled substance, not what it is specifically to be convicted.
Judges sentence more harshly depending on drug type. Ex if there are current anti meth events or media, worse sentence.
Possession of methadone/opioid agonist treatments (OAT): - Health care providers don't need permission to prescribe, administer, sell/provide methadone to patients. Patients need a ordeprescription. To own methadone must be a patient or health care provider basically.
Initial meeting with a judge after arrest is a bail hearing.
To get bail: - better odds if minor crime - have $ via bail or signing a "recognizance" that says you'll pay bail. Get both back later on. A "surety" (friend) can pay for you. - fixed address that isn't a homeless shelter - ties to the community - family, legal job, studies, community engagement - proof of how will support self legally - having a friend reserve you a spot in rehab - indigenous
Conditions can prevent you from owning a cell phone.
Causing death by criminal negligence and manslaughter for giving drugs to someone who overdosed. rare. Can be convicted if you and a friend are shooting up together and you shoot them up at their request and then they die. Accidentally bringing a drug that contains fentanyl and your friend dies. Harsher punishment if accused is much older than decreased or if deceased is not much of a drug user.
Crown can withdraw some charges but keep others.
A guilty plea only may help improve sentencing. If pleading guilty better to do it before the trial.
Didn't type up schedule 1-7 drugs pg 38, 39 Schedule 1: opioids, meth, Adderall, ghb, methadone, MDMA Schedule 2: synthetic cannabinoids, most cannabis is regulated by the cannabis act now. 3: shrooms, lsd 4: zolpidem, steroids, benzodiazepines 5: not in the book if it exists 6: ingredients to manufacture drugs 9: manufacturing equipment ex machines to fill pills
Selling other medications like idk ibuprofen could be a civil matter where the gov might issue a large fine against you and failure to pay the fine results in conviction.
Sentencing - court determines punishment, ex prison, fines
If your lawyer and prosecutor agree on a specific sentence during a guilty plea, judge will most likely accept that, but judge doesn't have to.
Types of sentences: un/conditional discharge, fine, suspended sentence with probation and conditions (ex community service, rehab) imprisonment in institution or in community.
Being guilty can have other effects like travel ban to USA.
Sentencing considers: type and context of offence, circumstances of arrest, criminal record/priors, first charge for this kind of offence, current situation, level of detail and assurances in rehab plan, are there victims, prosecuted as summary or indictable offense. Unofficially judge considers bias like being anti-sex worker.
Prosecuted for either indictable offense or summary offense. sometimes the law decides which, sometimes prosecutor does. Determines max sentence and severity judge will serve.
Indictable offense - more serious. Some crimes are always indictable. Summary - less serious
Aggravating factors - reasons court gives harsher sentence: - Not having a drug addiction at the time of offence - priors - commited offence for financial gain - breach of trust - etc
Mitigating factors - reasons court gives better sentence: - guilty plea - been in drug rehab if had drug addiction at the time of the crime (get letters from case workers) - age - remorse - community involvement - etc
Mandatory minimum sentences, Mms.
Since 2012 Mms higher and a bunch of drugs moved up in schedule
Gladue report: - optional for accused. - affects all parts of court - prepared by some org - for anyone who identifies as indigenous
Impact of race and culture assessment IRCA: - A few provinces have this - gladue for black ppl - judge can legally ignore it - exists bc black ppl have faced a lot of adversity
Stimga = negative stereotypes
Ppl who use drug usually get worse treatment from justice system.
If you participate in a treatment program pre sentencing, it can reduce your sentence oand delay legal proceedings. Court needs to recognize its value and legitimacy. Court can also force you to attend a program of their choosing which can be like prison-lite. You can propose your plan to the court.
Special tribunals in mtrl regulate the provincial court treatment programs.
Many sex workers gain access to new resources and opportunities which can allow them change their condition and protect themselves. Anti sex worker laws deny them of this and their agency.
Drug addicts and sex workers are constantly stimgatized especially if they do sex work and use drugs.
Sex workers: Try to represent as a victim for a reduced sentence: - apologize and show remorse about your sex work - talk about how you're a victim of sex work - allow the court to paint your sex work as all the problems in your life - make no claim about the useful of sex work in your life - be poor, get exploited by clients/pimps - when the court tells you to stop talking to other sex workers, drug users, clients, do it.
If you are between 12-17 YO: - youth criminal justice act or director of youth protection applies to you, 1 or the other, you can sorta pick - "very serious" crimes you're prosecuted as an adult, so public criminal record - if an adult works with you on a crime it worsen the adults sentence
Police can charge you for possession of a weapon of they find a scissors or pocket knife
If police find you with a gun, they can easily give you 3 yrs. Weapons bans are 10 yrs.
Immigrants: - try to get either type of discharge (conditional or unconditional), that's the same as not guilty in immigration law. - refugees without Canadian citizenship can be deported - if you don't have PR, a hybrid offense or 2 summary offenses can get you deported - PR: receive a 6 month sentence or guilty of a crime that has max sentence of 10 yrs. - with an expired visa, cops database doesn't have that kind of info, but they could call Canadian Border Safety Agency (CBSA)
worse charges for drug trafficking if offence happens near school or other place frequented by minors, or on correctional facility grounds, or in a gang, setting traps, using someone else's building, creating hazards in a residential neighborhood
Indictable offence usually don't have fines associated with them.
Cannabis act (CA) - distribution and trafficking are the same thing - having on possession for sale is illegal - public place: public has assess too and any vehicle located in public view - generally refers to dried cannabis, usually 30g or equivalent
Illicit cannabis is illegally obtained cannabis. It doesn't have the gov stamp of approval
Some ppl give a fake name to cops bc risk of being identified is worse than the risk of obstruction. If you give police a fake address, they might mail court papers to that address and you won't be able to receive them. If you give the cops a fake name and need to retract it, try to say it's a "nickname but my legal name is x"
Recording cops: - legal for you to record cops unless property owner has rules against it, recording actually does interfer with the investigation - police may tell you that it's illegal. Might charge with obstruction, or say you're breaking like privacy, take your recording device, demand you erase recording, say they're seizing your phone bc it contains evidence - if police seize your phone, they could find incriminating evidence to charge you or someone else with another crime
Frisking: - cops can legally if u are arrested. Only supposed to if they thinking you have a dangerous item on you and are a threat to someone's safety. If you get upset this increases the odds they'll search you. If they are searching you for weapons not supposed to search you for other things like drugs, phones, tattoos etc. They can use this to search for needles to identify you as a drug user - searching you for evidence of the crime they say you committed - if you're temporarily detained/being questioned same thing - if you give them permission to search you or your property, they will. To prevent this say loudly "I do not consent to the search" and "je ne consens pas a une fouille" (jeh neh koh sehn pah ah oon foo yeh) - if an illegal search results in say drug charges, the drug charges could be withdrawn - if unlawful arrest (ex police brutality) then the subsequent search might be illegal
Seizures: - can seize items in a warrant. Ask to see and read the warrant. - if the warrant is to search a location, must have that address, specific area they can search, and list items theyre searching for - ask cops for a copy of the report identifying the seized items and where the items are being held Can seize items without warrant if they think it's related to a crime, ex: - weapons that may have been used in the offense, Items that provide evidence like phones, scales, note books, items obtained through criminal offenses like money from drug selling, They can seize items before any arrests While you're detained they will frequently go through your phone Note down: everything they seize, when, whom, where you were at the time. Careful about "obstructing" police while you do this, record officer name, patrol car number, badge number and other identitying info, knowing seizing location helpful for trying to get your things back, if an item is evidence you won't get it back til the end of the case, if it's considered proceeds of a crime you'll likely never get it back, illegal things you will never get back
While detained, you can try asking a guard or lawyer if you can use your phone to get phone numbers, usually they'll say no. Guards will be able to read your phone while this happens. Memorize the numbers of potential sureties.
Don't have incriminating evidence about yourself or your associates
Drug use equipment: - can legally distribute unused drug equipment - if you have drugs on you, having sterile drug equipment can be used as additional evidence against you - may still be seized by security - If you're hanging out with a drug users and you're searched and they find sterile needles, they may then search your companion
Being detained: - physical detention is like being cuffed - psychological - they tell you you're not free to leave/act like you can't leave - can detain for: you're connected to a crime, being a witness, victim, breaking a bylaws, warrant however discretionary power means they might not for a warrant, being present at a raid - technically don't have to identify yourself, but police will likely arrest you for obstruction - police have to tell you why
Being stopped and questioned: - just bc you are in the area a crime took place, doesn't mean they can stop and question you legally unless you match suspect description. They will anyway if they want
Warrants apply country wide
Arrested: - cops must tell you what you're being arrested for - they'll let you go with an "appearance notice" that may include conditions - you'll receive a "summons" in the mail is really an appearance notice - keep you in detention for a few days until a judge sees you - If you have kids, get a criminal lawyer and family law lawyer - if you're an immigrant criminal lawyer and immigration lawyeexpert - arrest warrant: must have name of person to arrested
You can negotiate conditions, like if banned from an area but have dr appointments there. Lawyer can do this.
If cops question you or tell you to go with them: - ask "am I free to leave? Am I being detained or arrested" if unclear ask again, if still unclear make motions to leave and leave if they don't stop you - if detained: "what am I being detained for?" - if arrested: "what am I being arrested for?" -- you have the right to ask and to speak to a lawyer - technically illegal for them to detain you due to trying to bring you to a shelter or rehab etc
Police legally have to wear badge number and name tag and have to identify themselves if you ask them to
After abusive police interaction, note down: - when, where event happened - held anywhere? Conditions of where you were held? Location? - officer names, numbers, car numbers - what was searched? When, where, how did it happen? - who was searched? How and where were they searched? Name and badge number of cop. - Dmges? take pics - who was detained? We're they offered an interpreter of needed? Do they speak the same language as the officer? - give all the info to lawyer
If cop grabs you and you pull away they might try to charge you with assault of an officer
Prep for dealing with police: - anyone in my party break a law? Any warrants? Youth protection involved with anyone? - if we're stopped by police, are we all staying silent, all giving the same info? Other plan? - are cops targetting me, the neighborhood? - if cops targetting someone else, can I walk away? - is my hangout area heavily surveilled? Is my party heavily surveilled? - if I have id, does it reflect the name I'm gonna tell the cops? What happens if an officer shows up who knows me? - how to respond to cops if my kids are with me? - condition breach? - am I carrying anything arrestable? Plan if they search me? - are all my incriminating items hidden from plain view? - what police consequences is most harmful to me? What am I most concerned about? What am I willing to do to avoid these? - can I role play with someone?
Good Samaritan overdose act (Good Sam law): - If someone is overdosing and you call 911, police legally aren't supposed to arrest you or anyone else there, incl overdosee for simple possession or simple possession condition breaches - everything else they can arrest you for. And they are known to use the opportunity to extract arrests Consider: throwing away/hiding your illegal drugs, tell others there you called 911 so they can leave, tell dispatch that area is safe so maybe police won't come, should I leave and get someone else to stay or leave a note on the overdosees,
Security guards, transit officers, etc: - no legal requirement to speak with them - they can citizens arrest you physically legally if they see you doing it - cannot legally search you - can legally use reasonable force to remove you from a building - Montreal public transit security can become special constables easily and can detain and arrest ppl suspected of criminal activity on mtl transit. Can access police database. - All public transit security can fine and issues tickets related to their public transit. You're required to provide them name, address, dob
Driving a vehicle: - if you are driving, police have more authority, like asking for ID, breathalyze - police can stop vehicles bc: see a driving violation, believe the vehicle is related or a crime, routine police blockade for like drunk drivers passing - often use license plates to determine if the car was stolen or a getaway vehicle or whatnot - police pulling over ppl in high crime areas for no other reason is illegal - important to not have knife, drug residue on plain view - if you're too shaky, pink eyes, they know lol in the car as drug dealers, they're more likely to find you suspicious - after arresting driver, they can legally search your vehicle if it's related to why they arrested you, ex they arrest you for drugs and then they can then search the vehicle for more drugs - more likely to search your vehicle if you're wearing a bulletproof vest - can search the vehicle legally for "safety", they see you have weapons charges and then they search the vehicle or if they have reason to fear for imminent evidence loss, fear imminent threat to someone's safety - legally easier for police to search your car then pat you down. - police can only legally ask driver for ID unless they turn the stop into an investigation in which case they can then ask everyone in the vehicle for ID - sleeping in your vehicle: take keys out of ignition, sleep in the back. Police may still harrass you and say it's in relation to criminal charges
Investigations: - begin for any reason, even via anonymous tip line calls - often police with surveill and if they see suspicious activity, they get a warrant
Residential location: - greatest privacy from police here legally, however: if owner unknown, abandon, frequented by marginalized ppl, police more likely to invade - when can they enter your house: generally police cannot enter without a warrant unless the person who answers the door consents, if they think someone inside is about to commit a crime or that a crime is in progress, in hot pursuit and the runner enters the house, if they think someone inside's life is in danger - if you don't consent to them entering say: I do NOT consent to you entering, je ne consens pas a ce que vous rentrez (jeh neh Kon sen pah ah seh voo rehn-tray) - can get warrants to enter for unpaid tickets, money owed to revenue Quebec - police search your home when: someone being arrested there and police think something is a danger to other potential occupants, police fear imminent lose of evidence, medical emergencies (Medicare card, suicide notes) - if they see something suspicious (drugs, scales, large sums of cash) in plain view (from your door, or anything they see if you allow them to enter. Even if you let them in, they're not supposed to search your house or roam to other rooms) they can seize it. - an arrest warrant isn't enough to search a place
Hotel/motel: for your room, generally same rules as residential, but a bit less privacy - for public areas, no privacy benefits - if cops get keys from hotel staff or permission from hotel staff they'll use that to enter your room - often will say the housekeeping staff saw something suspicious
House keepers: - if they see drugs, lots of condoms, paraphernalia, sex work publications or drug publications they may contact police. There is an increasing trend for this happening under the guise of human trafficking prevention esp if you're a marginalized/racialized women who uses drugs. - they are allowed to enter your room
Hospital: - usually won't provide the cops with much info unless they have a warrant for a patient. Sometimes even will not let cops into your hospital room - will contact law enforcement. Usually have low threshold to attempt to kick out ppl as it relates to arguments, raised voices, disruptions - if you are with a patient, hospital more likely to provide info on you to cops, so careful what info you give cops - as a patient u may have to change clothes and that could lead to dropping suspicious items out of your pocket - if you go to the hospital with a friend, tell them to stfu about providing info about you - bringing a friend can help by taking notes, advocating for you. Ideally your friend isn't know to the cops, can stay calm.
Supervised injection site, SIS: - inside cannot be charged with simple possession. Cannot give to others or administer to others. - staff cannot be charged with trafficking for providing the venue or material facilitating the drug usage. Same with staff checking drugs, which would normally be trafficking - police can do whatever outside of the building. If arrested for simple possession, could tell lawyer you were on your way to the sis/on your way back home - if you are investigated in relation to a sis, make sure your lawyer speaks with the sis bc your lawyer prob doesn't know the basics of the sis. - to use a sis, usually don't need to provide real name or info. If you give your real info, easier for medical staff at hospital to look you up if needed
Speaking to police: - if arrested cops suppose to stop asking you questions once you request to speak to a lawyer, but they will often still ask you questions anyway. After you speak to a lawyer they have the right to question you again - they will attempt to provoke you into speaking - interrogator will ask random questions to build rapport (ex personal life, interests). Will often promise or claim to help you if you talk to them - legally can lie about most things. Ex evidence, other ppl's statements, "if you leave now we can't help you later", "if you cooperate now you will get a more lenient sentence". - don't react to their questions
Initial appearance in from of a judge before bail hearing: - you appear before a judge within a day. If it's a weekend or holiday then after that. Have a lawyer come with you. This is when you plea guilty or not guilty - can try to exchange 1 release condition for another, discuss this with your lawyer beforehand - if you receive a fine, some organizations can you get a payment plan. Community service can also be used to pay off a fine.
Bail hearing - you can schedule the meeting with a judge at a later date to give you more time to prepare for how to make bail - usually happens within 3 days - prepare in advance how to get released on bail - Prosecutor will often argue you shouldn't be released bc: you won't attend your next court date, you pose a risk to the public, public will lose faith or you're released. - your lawyer will likely argue: you have a fixed address (can be friends, family), will obey your bail conditions - sometimes to make bail you need: bail money/recognizance document saying you'll pay latesurety. Surety should have legal job and no criminal record. Show that you have routine, like school, clubs, job, family. Can have someone who ideally does not have a record come testify to your character. Proof of income. Someone to book you a spot in rehab. - if the court takes your passport, photocopy the important pages
Cdsa and cannabis act are frderal criminal laws, but are often prosecuted by provincial/municipal forces
Law reform/Stella: The term decriminalization is getting more widely used and the meaning is recinding. Stella says decriminalization of drugs and sex work is a necessary first step to guarantee human rights. Drug use is not always an illness or problem. Abstinence is not the only way and thinking it's the only way is harmful. Drug sellers should be be categorized as bad ppl. If 1 law is repealed cops will often just target a sigmatized group with a new law. Alternative punishment instead of prison is still not decriminalization, aka Portugal model. For things like cannabis, even tho self possession of an amount is legal, you still can face police surveillance, unwanted police contact, trouble with landlord, etc. Individual prosecution directors, police departments can set guidelines, but those are not related to laws. Guidelines can say more or less punishment.

During my alcoholic “career” I once bought a bottle of vodka while down the shore with my wife and daughter and drank the whole thing on the beach. I was completely blacked out. My wife took me back to the beach house, slapped me in the face and told me to take a shower. I would drink half a bottle of wine from the fridge then fill it back up with water to make it look like I never drank it. I would poke holes at the top of beer cans, drink it, then fill it back up with water to make it look like I never opened it. Alcoholism is real and scary. IWNDWYT.

Travelstart is a leading online travel agency that offers a wide range of flights, hotels, and car rentals at competitive prices. They have a team of experts who are always on hand to help you find the best deals on flights, and they offer a variety of features to make booking your travel as easy as possible.

Some of the ways that Travelstart can help you find cheap flights:

• They compare prices from a wide range of airlines and travel agents to find the best deals.
• They offer a variety of filters to help you narrow down your search, such as price, departure and arrival times, and airline.
• They allow you to book flights in advance, which can help you get the best prices.
• They offer a variety of payment options, including credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal.
• They offer a 24/7 customer service team that can help you with any questions or problems you may have.

Book Cheap Flights
If you are looking for cheap flights, Travelstart is a great option. They offer a wide range of flights at competitive prices, and they have a team of experts who are always on hand to help you find the best deals.

Tips for finding cheap flights on Travelstart:

• Be flexible with your travel dates. If you can, try to fly on weekdays or during the off-season.
• Consider flying into a smaller airport. Sometimes, you can find cheaper flights if you are willing to fly into a smaller airport that is located further away from your destination.
• Book your flight in advance. The earlier you book your flight, the more likely you are to get a good deal.
• Sign up for Travelstart's email alerts. This will allow you to be notified of any special deals or promotions that are available.
• Use Travelstart's price comparison tool. This tool will allow you to compare prices from a variety of airlines and travel agents to find the best deal.

Book Cheap Flights

Hello! I am deciding on a 4-5 day bachelor trip between either Arenal or Manuel Antonio. Trip will be next January or February. I thought about Jaco, but it seems like Jaco is going to be very disappointing.
Which destination do people recommend? I like this idea of being able to surf in MA, in addition to being able to do "jungle activities" I would do in Arenal. I do understand that Arenal likely has more to offer jungle wise though.
I primarily care about jungle activities, the possibility of beach activities (which is why MA seems attractive), and at least some minor nightlife for my Bachelor.
Most likely people would fly in on a Thursday and people would fly out on a Monday. There could possibly be one more day, but there will also probably be different flight days/times among my friends going.
I appreciate all advice (even if its for other cities)! I also considered Monteverde (but it seems like this is not the best first time destination) and the Tamarindo area (however Liberia is a very difficult airport to fly to). One other possibility I considered is using Tamarindo as our hotel base and doing a day excursion to Arenal to get the best of both worlds (beach and jungle).

(I could not crosspost here from Vive, but wanted to share here too)
Just wanted to give back to the community as a thank you for all the people modifying games like FO4VSkyrimVR that I love so much.
I recently upgraded my system and ran into some typical Vive Wireless and other common VR issues.
Like many I got frustrated with blue screen issues. I think it is quite resolvable unless a person truly has faulty hardware.
My wireless experience is now amazing and hoping some of my tips my help others with wireless issue.
Troubleshooting Tips:
Check for the obvious off first:

1. Update MB, VR hardware etc. firmware/bios.
2. Update GPU, VR, MB hardware drivers.

fpsVR is good at helping determine in real time GPU or CPU frame timings. (or other free options)
A) CPU frame times:
CPU Frametime example issue
CPU frame time issues are a much larger issue compared to GPU frame issues. If your game is getting constant CPU frame time spikes either your CPU is underpowered, has RAM speed (maybe XMP not enabled), or weird P/E core issues. If your CPU often spikes frame time then no amount of GPU will help you get a smooth VR experience (and some games are worse offenders than others: FO4VR (single core), SkyrimVR and DCS etc.)
B) GPU frame time issues:
GPU Frametime example issue
Good news here is that you have options. Drop GPU in game settings. Drop rendering resolutions etc. Anytime you can make your GPU render fast enough to prevent GPU frame time within your headset refresh rate zone (or to a point that you can live with it). First dial settings down, then add back after all other issues are resolved.
C) Marching of the dreaded purple line on GPU frame time chart or what feels like a micro stutter:
Example Purple Line on GPU Frametime Chart
Often caused by background monitoring processes like Corsair (suxs), MSI etc. You can write a .bat script that can be run before each VR session. Kill all unnecessary processes. Locate by looking at TaskManager > Details > Sort by CPU or Memory usage. Read up dont kill stop critical MS OS processes. Some processes be so embedded that it's best to uninstall them altogether.
taskkill /IM "exact_exe_name.exe" /F
Ex: taskkill /IM "WhatsApp.exe" /F
Stop all unnecessary services. Locate by looking at TaskManager > Services > Sort by Status and look for Running. Read up dont kill stop critical MS OS services.
net stop "exact service name"
Ex: net stop "ROG Live Service"
Purple lines are normal during major CPU/HDD tasks like game start or major texture loading. However, once your game is up or new areas loaded you should NEVER see them, if not you have a symptom of a larger underlying problem.
Here is an example of a "good" purple line during loading of an area
D) Intel WiGig Wireless issue: Streaming image in headset “blurry” or “pixelated” either main game or even SteamVR home
Not enough CPU allocated either SteamVR processes or Intel WiGig process:

1. vrcompositor.exe
2. vrserver.exe
3. HtcConnectionUtility.exe

There is a chance if you are running P and E cores that some of your SteamVR process are running on an E core. My 13900KS did just that! You could either try hinting your VR processes to force use P cores or brute force disabling all E cores and see if issue persist. As P/E core technology matures hopefully this will become less of an issue. But I can 100% attest that my random “blurry/picilabed” vr image stream issue was resolved by ensuring that all my steam VR process and game run on P cores only.
If you are running an old CPU and depending on game -- you may not be able to resolve this at all.
You could also set the priority of you all you’re the important SteamVR, game and Intel WiGig process, I don’t recommend using “Realtime” ever. “High” is as high as I would go.
Example:
wmic process where name="vrcompositor.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"
timeout 1 > NUL
wmic process where name="vrserver.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"
timeout 1 > NUL
wmic process where name="vrmonitor.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"
timeout 1 > NUL wmic process where name="Fallout4VR.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"
timeout 1 > NUL
But don’t mess with CPU affinity setting IMO just let the OS do its thing, else you may end up with CPU core overallocated.E) Vive-pro headset blue or grey screen:
Get the obvious out the way, make sure decent line of site from camera to wireless headpiece. Much less of an issue IMO also you can clearly see your signal strength. You could also try different channels, but that too is not major impact.
Actual Intel WiGig card Temperture is the number 1 cause in my opinion. I placed my card right over a fresh air intake fan and ran fans at max and have not had a single headset blue screen since. I am tempted to add a fixed fan connected to the MB header as a permanent measure. This card is passively cooled, so if your case gets hot inside you can run into blue/grey screen issues.
Example card placement in my pc case Apologies had all my RGB crp turned off.
A well known heat issue is the Vive wireless headset unit: Easily fixed by googling and buy headset fan mod. Vive wireless logs will show if you have this issue, normally you will get blue/grey screen crashes after 80c … if you are running around 45-50c you are probably fine.
Vive Wireless Headset Fan Link
3D Print Mold Link
If you have fpsVR there is a checkbox to allow showing real time wireless adapter temp too.
Ensure your WiGig process never loses power
You can locate the physical card and ensure Windows never cut its power.
Device Manager > View > Devices by Connection Type > System Devices
Example Link for example in my case, all under 7A3C you change the power setting to
Uncheck - Allow the comp. to turn off device power
Uncheck above box for all subs
Ensure SteamVR never turn off power to VR related USB devices
SteamVR Developer Disable Power Management
Loose USB connection between battery pack and wireless head piece. Probably less of a cause but can easily get a USB 3.0 replacement cable with better shielding.
USB Cable option -- not needed IMO
Length of coaxial cable from WiGig card to wireless sensor camera. Mixed feelings about this. I extended mine by about 3’ … I have zero issues, but increasing the distance could add to image qualify issues. If your troubleshooting remove it from your loop.
Example of extension cable Link
Replacement battery pack. If the power is clean, you should be fine. I don't suggest using 3rd party battery packs. Use original when troubleshooting.
I firmly believe the Intel WiGig card and Vive Wireless adapter heat are the biggest culprits to blue/grey screens.
F) Weird perceived in game lag, latencies or what feels like missed frames but without purple line on.
Do not change or add artificial FPS caps either using vsync, or MSI or Steam command line hints etc. One may mistakenly think that for example if your headset is 90Hz that artificially capping your FPS at 90 may be beneficial to remove additional wireless load -- But you actually adding problems with timings that maybe wont even show in fpsVR. Remove caps and aim for max fps.
G) My thoughts on overlocking:
Some posts argue that overclocking, or RAM XMP can be RC for blue screens. My view is that if you overclock and RAM tests are stable, you should not worry about it as you need all the CPU/RAM speed you can get for good VR.
H) Re-projection
I get a bit more reprojection with wireless compared to tethered with cable, but since it adds no latency to my gameplay (that I can tell), it does not bother me. OVR will show your stats. Keep an eye on reprojection and dropped frames. Reprojection is close to non-issue imo.
I) Other tools
latencymon -- somewhat useful to see if you have driver latencies
J) My Hardware
Recently upgraded and built new PC, from 9900KS/3090 to 13900KS/4090 (water-cooled). VR: VivePro (set to 150% rendering with lens mod and vive wireless. Still using old OG Vive lighthouses, Index knuckle controllers and sometimes old Vive wands. I have tried other VR headsets, but OLED, lens mod (clear) and total freedom of wireless to me are subjectively better. I don’t like the SDE I get, but can give up wireless and lens mod and OLED.
VR games I enjoy: Mostly FO4VR and SkyrimVR Current 13900ks/4090 VR play space and setup
Pancake Games: 1400p x3 screens DCS, E:D etc. My old 9900ks/3080 setup flight sim
What "good times" in FO4VR can look like:
Looks for frame times and temperatures, Vive Wireless temp. at very bottom.
Diamond City loading in image
Diamond City After Load In
Rain and other effects ongoing
Signal
Hope this helps someone, took me some time to put this all down!

For context, DH often, if not always makes unilateral decisions regarding money and our home, family life in general. This causes resentment from both sides because he feels like he does too much being that he makes all the home decisions and he’s the sole breadwinner. I on the other hand feel like he undercuts and or undermine my input when he chooses to do something based on what he feels is right for us or when he decides to ask his parents for input whenever he needs someone to weigh in on a matter! He sometimes jokes that if I want to make a decision I make my own money and decide how wish to spend it when I tell him to stop buying alcohol for his friends EVERY WEEKEND(I’m a SAHM)!!
So my issue comes in here… DH and I are currently in different countries. He went ahead of the kiddos and I and now we are supposed to join him. His company booked him a nonstop 2 hour flight and I thought he would be doing the same for the kiddos and I since he’s all about self love. He loves convenience, he loves comfort and the soft life in general so even if the company didn’t book a nonstop flight for him he’d have booked it for himself. So I expected he’d do the same for us only to realize. He booked a connecting flight with a 7 hour guarantee layover or longer. I say or longer because I’ve used it before and the layover was 9 hours because of maintenance issue. I was with 1 kiddo at that point and someone was helping me and it was still hectic. He was 2 and I was pregnant. This time around I’ll be traveling alone with 2 kids. A 3 year old and an 8 month old. The 3 year old will of course not sit still for 7 hours as he waits for his second flight. And the 8 month old requires nap time and precooked meals and milk during this period that we’ll be at the airport. This will be a whole day affair.
So I got mad and asked DH why he didn’t consult me we discuss the best way forward and he retorted, “it would have been immaterial! We can’t spend a months salary on just transport!” I got mad because had it been for him or his parents he would have booked convenience instead of pricing, I got mad because he didn’t consult me, I got mad because he NEVER spends time with the kids by himself so he doesn’t know they are a handful! I got mad because I DO KNOW A CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE THAT IS STILL NONSTOP. I got mad because I feel voiceless in this union.
So I told him to cancel his booking and book my option and he got mad because there’s a cancellation fee. I feel guilty about the cancellation fee and I’m tempted to attempt traveling with the two kiddos with the 7 hour layover. But also a part of me doesn’t care about the cancellation fee because his option is HECTIC!!! So to you guys I ask. AITA for making him rebook despite the cancellation fee?
Sorry if there are any typos.

I recently flew international business round-trip for the first time from Newark-Warsaw. Unfortunately it just goes to show that there are plenty of gross rich folk at the front of the plane too. On the way there I went in to the bathroom right after this woman who was the first to go in after the flight attendant, so I know it was her, and there was urine all over the seat. I just want to shame people like this. So disgusting! On the way back another woman was BAREFOOT. Taking your shoes off is perfectly fine if you have SOCKS on. It is most definitely not acceptable to have your bare feet out.
And not so much gross, but I was excited that I thought I'd have no seatmate, but then they put someone next to me on the flight back. How do they even decide who to move up? I think this was a huge waste of a space. Give it to someone who will really enjoy all the amenities of being up in business. They put a hasid next to me. All he did for virtually the entire flight was sleep and occasionally read the Torah, and eat the same boxed kosher meals they would serve back in economy... never used the TV..... I'm Jewish too, but I realize being a good Jew doesn't mean I wear heavy black wool clothes every single day of my life, but anyway, if you were going to rain on my parade of not having someone next to me, give it to a person who will really appreciate it. Idk why they picked that guy. There was one other seat open that they didn't put anyone in though.
I am positive that wasn't his seat because the plane had finished boarding at least 10 or 15 minutes before, then suddenly he shows up.

After a couple years of using what essentially amounts to a basic excel spreadsheet to backup my flight times, I've finally switched to a proper electronic logbook through Foreflight. I was excited that it has an automatic night time calculator. Before, I would either log night in my little red trip logbook, or if I had to do some catching up (because I am very often lazy), I'd just use the Out and In times to compare the civil twilight times from a website.
I am going through and inputting my last couple months worth of flights into Foreflight and it seems to be WAY off on night time. In one example, I have a 1h25m flight that both begins and ends during what can legally be logged as night, so the whole flight is legally able to be logged as night, however Foreflight says there was only 7 minutes of night time?
I have a hunch that they do not calculate night flight based on the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight. I think they probably calculate it based on the 1hr after sunset - 1hr before sunrise due to night landing currency reasons.
Any ideas?

Kita opens her eyes to see her right hand laying in front of her. As her vision adjusts she remembers the interrogation and in a moment of panic, she sits up to assess the damage on her right hand. She brings it to her focusing vision to find all of her fingers perfectly intact. She brings up her left hand thinking she's misremembered, but she finds the same.
Nothing wrong.
She feels for the back of her head, where the wound was and the same healing has taken effect. She sat up much quicker than she should have, and she didn't get woken up by any pain.
"Your hand healed while you were sleeping," Says a young voice from behind her, "How'd you do that?"
Kita turns to see a little boy who hasn't gotten much sun. He must have been here for a while now. He's dressed in rags that wouldn't do much to keep him warm. Her eyes widen as she finally locks with his. How is he still alive? They're black. Like Kita's- He had his soul stolen.
"I don't know," Kita answers, but quickly realizes she's lied. The strength she felt. The feeling of… Fullness that she'd gotten from the souls. It's completely diminished. Ten percent of what it used to be. She can only cast one small spell with this. "How long have I been asleep?"
"I dunno. There are no windows in here so it's hard to tell. Half a day maybe,"
There are no windows, just dense, concrete walls on all four sides. The place stinks. Wreaks of body odour and mould. Ugh, she can't be here for long. She's not the raider type.
"Why did they put you here?" The boy asks, with his curious, soulless eyes.
"I was just trying to get to the marketplace,"
"Marketplace?" The boy giggles, "It's called the strip, silly,"
"The strip?"
"It is a marketplace, but no one calls it that here,"
Shit, they all must've known she isn't from around here whenever she called it that. Is that why they were so certain she was part of Chevo's crew? This is their territory, so raiding is either done by them or by competitors they'll want to snuff out.
"I also lost my soul," He says too loudly, prompting some of the other downtrodden prisoners to glare at her.
She covers his mouth with her hand and passes him a menacing glare for his intrusive psycho-analysing. This kid will get himself killed if he talks like that. People could be religious and make a scene if they hear such.
"You should speak less," Kita says, trying to shut him up.
Speaking to him in the first place is probably where she went wrong. Kids can be so damn irritating, and this one definitely meets the requirements.
She lowers her hand from his mouth after her mumbles in confirmation. "How did you end up here?" She asks him.
"Well, they said they could sell me for a lot of money… Ya know, because of-" With his finger, he draws a circle around his face. Trying to refer to the whole 'souls' thing.
Kita chuckles at his attempt at being inconspicuous.
"I'm Jan, by the way," The kid says, extending an arm out for a handshake.
"Kita," She responds, shaking the kid's hand. "Where are you parents, kid?"
"I just told you my name, and you call me kid?"
"Seriously?" Kita rolls her eyes.
"My parents said remembering names is important. Did you forget it already?"
"No, stupid. Your name's Jean,"
"It's Jan!"
"Jan, right. That's what I just said,"
Jan overtly rolls his eyes, mimicking Kita's fed-up attitude. "My parents are at home," He answers, wrapping his arms around his legs and drawing his knees close to his chest. "I haven't seen them in a while,"
"They live here?"
"No, I'm from a different city. I don't know where it is now, so… I don't think I'll see them again,"
"Sheesh, kid. That's depressing,"
"You asked!"
"I just asked where they were. All you had to say was 'Not here'. But you go and hose me down with your sad ass back story,"
"Oh yeah? Well, it's more depressing that a grown-up like you can get caught just as easily as a little kid did!"
"Uhm, did they hit you in the back of the head with a bat or some shit to bring you here? Or crush three of your fingers in interrogation?"
"No…"
"I didn't think so. It's much more difficult to get me in here than you,"
"Yeah yeah, you're here anyway," The kid points at Kita, grinning. "We're equals,"
"The only thing you're equal to is my left boot. As a matter of fact, my left boot is more useful,"
"Because it covers up your stinky feet!"
Kita chuckles at Jan's argumentative attitude. Screwing with him is pretty fun. As far as kids go, he's not that bad- He isn't some kind of spoilt brat.
"You know what," Kita says, "I was going to take you with me when I escaped this place, but after the stinky feet thing… I'm having second thoughts," She shrugs.
"There's no way to get out of here," The kid sighs, "There are so many guards upstairs. Anyone that gets out the cell doesn't come back,"
"So… They escaped?"
"No, they died!"
"Oooh, of course. Well, I won't,"
"How do you know?"
"Want to hear a secret?" Kita asks him.
"O...k," He answers suspiciously.
She leans over to whisper in his ear, "I can't die,"
"Liar! That's impossible,"
"You saw my hand heal, didn't you? I'm a hero with magical powers,"
The kid laughs, "There's no way you could be a hero,"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You bully little kids! You'd be a supervillain, definitely not a hero,"
"Whatever," Kita giggles, rolling her eyes. "Villains are cool too,"
"The dark one is not cool," The kid says, curling his knees closer.
"Agreed,"
It's settled then. Kita's going to try getting both of them out of here. Her other options aren't so great- Working for these raiders. Why the hell would she waste her time with any of that? And waking up buried sends some other type of chill down her spine. If anything, that option genuinely has her worried, so they need to leave and get out alive.
She'll need a couple of souls though… The two guards by the front door of the hall are an option, but getting them over here is a mission of its own. She looks around her to count four other prisoners, excluding Jan, sharing a cell with them. Three in the cell to her left and six in the cell to her right. Getting all of them won't be so easy. She can pull two at a time, and it takes about five seconds to consume a soul.
If she's quick with it. This can all be done in under a minute. Two, tops.
What then? How do they get out of here? She was brought down a few flights of stairs but she can recall how many, or which one would have the exit. Walking out the front door isn't the best idea anyway, maybe there's a back exit. Somewhere they send out cargo or something.
"Hey kid, do you know a way out of here?"
"Not really… Sorry,"
The two raiders guarding the main entrance suddenly unlock the cell Kita resides in- It must be decision time. They both step into the cell and walk straight past Kita to grab Jan by the arms.
"Hey!" He yells as he starts violently shaking his body to escape their grasp. "Let go of me,"
"Where are you taking him?" Kita asks as they drag him out of the cell.
"Shut up," A guard orders Kita, slamming the cage shut behind him.
"Let me go!" Jan continues to resist.
"Hey, Jan. It was nice knowing ya',"
He doesn't respond, he's too panicked. They are really planning on selling the kid. To who? Why would anybody purchase someone without a soul?
Crap. She's going to have to find him. Both of the guards have dragged him beyond the door, creating a window for her to get out of here before they return.
This isn't a big deal, she'll just have to improvise.
^{AUTHOR'S NOTES
Read ahead on RoyalRoad https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/68702/soul-stealer-anti-hero-reincarnation-fantasy
Kita's thoughts - Post Chapter 7
"Kid... I mean, Jan,"}

Congrats to all of you recent grads. Studying for the Bar sucks, but approach it like a full-time job so that you don't have to retake it.
I wrote an article on Bar study prep on my Substack, but I see that there's a bright-lined no self-promotion rule. So I won't. Instead, i'll just drop it here. I would love to know what you guys think.
---
Hey there, aspiring lawyers! So, you’ve decided to take on the ultimate test of mental fortitude and endurance: the dreaded bar exam. Congratulations on voluntarily subjecting yourself to this masochistic journey! But fear not, my dear readers, for I’m here to help you navigate the treacherous waters of legal jargon and sleepless nights with some well-deserved advice. Grab a strong cup of coffee, and let’s dive right into the abyss of bar exam study madness!
I took the bar in early antiquity, or 2010. While we had the same bullshit distractions, including the dopamine-driven social media platforms, they were nowhere near as effective and pervasive as today. I didn’t have as much in-your-face FOMO over non-legal friends’ European getaways, summer pub crawls, or beach barbeques.
If you struggle with phone social media time, do something about it ASAP. Deleting the app is great for those who have the willpower. But if you think you will just re-install then try limiting usage instead. In all of the app’s settings, you can set screen time limits for the day. Start with 10 or 15 minutes and adjust as you see fit. If you’re able to stick to it, you will be amazed by how your relationship with yourself and your friends changes for the better. Personally, I have a daily 30-minute social medial cap that I try to abide by and a no social media Sunday rule. It’s honestly been a godsend for my mental health.
Your mentality should be “One and Done.” Treat studying as a full-time job. You will give everything you have to this draconian profession gatekeeper, you will pass on your first attempt, and you will never do it again.
This is extremely important because your likelihood of passage drops significantly with each attempt (above).
You know how to study for an exam, or you wouldn’t have made it through law school. So I won’t insult your intelligence with common, run-of-the-mill, tips. But the following served as keys to my successful passing on my first attempt:

Keys to “One and Done”

1. Embrace Your Inner Hermit: To succeed in the bar exam, you must become a recluse. Say goodbye to your social life, bid adieu to those Netflix binges, and break up with your social scene – temporarily. Lock yourself in a room, surrounded by mountains of study materials, and become one with your law books. Trust me, embracing solitude is the only way to survive this ordeal.
2. Get Your Snacks and Drinks in Order: Bar exam studying is like running a marathon, except you’re not allowed to move from your desk. Fuel up, my comrades, with an arsenal of snacks and beverages. Stock up on energy bars, healthy snacks, and gallons of coffee (or better yet, intravenous caffeine drips). Remember, your success depends on your ability to snack your way to legal enlightenment!
3. Remove the Booze: I love having brew-cha-chos with the boys as much as the next guy. But for the 2.5 months I studied I cut it out *almost* entirely. I wasn’t worried about getting drunk or hungover, I just wanted my mind to be as clean as possible to process and retain information so I’d never take the Bar again. I sat for the Bar in July, so I allowed myself the 4th of July to get after it. You can’t live on the Newport Peninsula and not give the 4th of July your full attention.
4. Practice Makes… Well, It Makes You Hate Practice: No one likes practice exams, but they’re a necessary evil. So, buckle up and subject yourself to an endless cycle of simulated hell. Time yourself, endure the mind-numbing monotony, and always remember that practice exams are like exes—they’re only good for reminding you of what you don’t want in life.
5. Flashcards – Your Brain’s Sidekick: Flashcards are the superheroes of the study world. They come to your rescue when your memory fails you, providing snippets of legal wisdom in bite-sized portions. Make flashcards your loyal sidekick, and take them everywhere. Whip them out during lunch, on the bus, or even in the bathroom (hey, desperate times call for desperate measures). Become a flashcard ninja and let them save you from the clutches of legal oblivion.
6. Body Karate Glow Up: You will be cut out from society for about 2.5 months, won’t be drinking, and should be nourishing your mind with healthy food. Calendar daily exercise times to get out of the house, see the sun, and work on a revenge-less, revenge bod. The exercise will help your mind and well-being, and serve as something to look forward to each day. It will also keep you looking lean and mean so that when you do emerge from your cacoon, you can jump right into that beach life and turn some heads.

As you embark on this grueling journey to pass a test a bunch of dead men decided was necessary, remember that a dash of humor and a sprinkle of madness can make the unbearable bearable. So, my fellow legal warriors, stay caffeinated, embrace solitude, and conquer the bar exam on your first go.

Hi,
I'm trying to figure out if I can make this connection to Chiang Mai upon landing in Bangkok for my trip in a couple months.
​
My international flight to Bangkok from Doha arrives at aprox 19:00 (Qatar Airways), with the flight to Chiang Mai leaving at 21:30 (Thai VietJet air). I will most likely have a checked bag as well and am travelling on a US passport.
​
Is that a long enough time? It's going to have to be different tickets, so I think i'll have to clear immigration, collect my bag and check-in again. (In that order?)
​
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated !

tl;dR How do you go from NC to LC to…whatever is next?
Post history shows details but MIL and SIL overstepped in big ways when DH and I were planning our wedding, effectively making our joyful occasion all about them. There were several follow-on conflicts and I’ve ended up NC other than going to SIL’s wedding last year. I know and accept that MIL is the type to try to control everything and throw tantrums when she can’t and that DH’s family has an odd relationship with the truth. For example, ILs will share some detail about what’s going on in their lives currently w DH and if I ask questions (just being curious and interested) it won’t stand up, the timelines will be off, etc. it’s very bizarre. That said, I think part of the NC on my part is based on anger about what happened and know there will never be remorse, accountability, etc. It feels like saying what they did is ok if I visit, etc. and they are constantly inviting DH and I to visit them at their nearer beach house, etc. I’ve put rules around visits like staying in hotels, not sure how else to proceed since we’d maybe see them 1-2X/year. Also considering what things might look like if we have kids and we let my family stay with us and not them and that shit storm (thank god SIL got pregnant first).
Would I start by saying here are boundaries for relationship w me over email? Would I just go for a visit and establish boundaries as we go? DH is getting better about this but still v uncomfortable.