I'm so invested in this circus show so let me provide my recap & thoughts:
I'll split into 1) Match Summary; 2) Mid-Event Changes (& my thoughts); 3) Event Takeaways (i.e. What can we prove?); 4) Clash of Claims 2 Ideas, so feel free to skip to the parts you're interested in.
1) Match Summary (Total: J14.5-V11.5, OTB: J6.5-V7.5, Online: J8-V4)
I'll keep non-chess-games related parts to a minimum in this section. Overall I'll break the match into a few parts:
a) Day 1, Games 1~6 (OTB): J3-K3 (K stands for Kramnik, J stands for Jose)
I didn't really watch these games so I have no comment on them. I think it ended pretty controversy-freely, and the only thing I knew was the Ba7! brilliancy in one of Jose's wins.
b) Day 1, Games Null1~Null2 (Online): J1.5-K0.5
The Day 1 online portion was halted due to Kramnik discovering a bug in chess.com saying that his time displayed on-screen was different from the actual time (later confirmed by arbiters). It was then confirmed by chess.com that it was due to some Windows installing issues that basically caused timezone issues and so on (I'm not an expert so I'll stop here). Kramnik mhadde a lot of discussions (or complaints) with arbiters for over an hour, and finally, everyone agreed to first finish the remaining 4 games of Day 1 in OTB.
About the games though, in Game Null1 the clock isn't really a factor though, as Kramnik made a dubious sacrifice early on. in Game Null2, it was back and forth, so a draw is a fair result, though I'd say it is more on Kramnik's fault for not winning (he was completely winning acc. to the engine for like moves 69-84) - Jose had chances but it's usually on 1-2 move windows only (and required calculations), he had <5 seconds then so it's more forgivable to miss them.
c) Day 1, Games 9-12: (OTB): J1-K3
Games itself were controversy-free, and Kramnik was dominating for most parts due to superior opening prep. Jose was lucky to scrap two draws (in the fourth game he could've won probably) but we already see glimpses of how Kramnik struggles in time scrambles more than Jose.
d) Day 2, Games 13-16 (OTB): J2.5-K1.5
I think the games were controversy-free, Kramnik is still better most of the time but Jose clearly improved in the opening phase. In my opinion, this is crucial as it means games last longer, meaning the time scrambles matter more. Indeed, Jose won the last two games as Kramnik made a one-move (very important context) tactical blunder out of nowhere.
e) Day 3, Games 17~26 (+27) (Online): J8-K4 (+J1-V0)
They've played 14 OTB games so far, so today was the 14-games-online-portion of the event. Overall, it's clear to see that Jose is clearly more dominant in the online portion. A lot of his wins are long fights where eventually Kramnik blunders short tactics (again, important context) - even the 4 draws are more on Jose for being unable to convert (pawn-up endgames, winning attacks).
I'm happy that the online games are generally controversy-free, except for 2 instances. First, after Game 18 Kramnik pulled out pen and paper to work out chess.com's lag so there was a "20-minute break" instead of the scheduled 5. But I think it did not affect any grand scheme of things, as there was no technical fault - just Kramnik's self-inflicted paranoia. Second, Game 27 was played, but another chess.com bug happened on poor Kramnik (basically Jose made a move but it didn't appear on his screen, so his time dropped was "waiting" for Jose to move) and he lost on time on a completely winning position. Ultimately the game isn't counted. But, Jose already won the match after Game 26, so result-wise it didn't matter.
What a thrilling 3 days!
2) Mid-Event Changes (& other complaints)
Honestly I think this is what makes this event peak comedy. Although I wanted to be as neutral as possible (as all parties technically agreed to all of them), I strongly believe that most (if not all) changes are proposed, argued, and forced through by Kramnik - Jose just sort of went along with it.
I found a total of 9 (!!) changes:
a) 3+2 time control instead of 3+1 in TT.
As far as I know, the main reasoning was Kramnik thinks he is old and slow with the mouse, thus 3+2 is similar to 3+1 to him. I'm actually fine with this change myself, but I think it favours him much more for different reasons:
i) TT time control is 3+1. Here it's 3+2, but I believe the purpose is to test Jose's true strength - so it's better for Kramnik to play at a more comfortable time control so he can demonstrate his true strength (and thus testing Jose better). I'm happy that they keep both as 3+2 and not something like OTB 3+2 and online 3+2 - so there's more comparability. Ultimately there are so many things different from TT setting so it wasn't comparable anyway.
ii) Most argued the main 3+1 and 3+2 difference is that Kramnik (mainly) can increment his way out of it. I disagree and we saw that it wasn't really the case - he still couldn't get out of it and blunders anyway (credits to Jose for keeping up the pressure despite in time trouble himself, so Kramnik doesn't have "easy moves" - it really isn't easy). But I agree with most that Jose would be more dominating if it was 3+1 - the draw games would've all been Jose wins as Kramnik would probably get flagged outright.
iii) I think 3+2 is very different from 3+1 mainly for this reason: Suppose you play in 3+2, and achieve an equal middlegame at move 30 with 1m30s left. In 3+1 it would've been 60s. It makes a huge difference in decision-making, e.g. people can go for more complex lines because they have the time to work things out, and if it works they'll just win on the spot. From 30s and below you know that most moves are just reflex-based (you never really want to get down to 5s). Why does it matter in this match? Kramnik has basically gotten out of the opening with prep (i.e. no time spent), and better for most middlegames. The extra seconds when there's ample of time allows him to play better for at least 10~15 more moves, meaning that there really wasn't any real trouble for him before move 30-ish. When the time scramble really comes, they are endgames that it's just much easier to play (even then he blundered a lot - he's just that bad haha). Also, Jose can't really make dubious-looking moves to pressure him if he is 1m30s (compared to 30s) - I believe if they have a middlegame with only 1m on both clocks, Jose will win 90% of the time as he'll just keep the pressure on. And for this reason (not so much of the time scramble part, though I agree too) that I think 3+2 is different from 3+1.
Overall, I think there is no doubt (even to Kramnik) then 3+2 favours him much more than 3+1.
b) New computers to be unboxed on every day (eventually on Day 1 and 3 only as Day 2 were OTB-only)
Honestly this is the top 3 funniest thing of the event. And it actually brought about the issue with Kramnik on Game Null2 (I want to say it's Karma but ultimately Kramnik benefitted from it more with the games being void and afterwards he won 3-1 OTB).
If Kramnik is really about doing comparable experiments, they should use their own laptops - but I can see his point if he thinks Jose's laptop may be installed with some cheating software. Still, it's absurd that he even believes Jose can get away with cheating when there's literally arbiters staring at them 24/7. Also, the fact that they want brand-new laptops prohibits many possible anti-cheating solutions (e.g. using lockdown browser, recording of various technical stuff (not just screen) etc.) hard/impossible to test & implement beforehand. And is really a new one *every day* necessary? Okay - I think everyone agrees it's just stupid.
c) After Game 8 - change of format of 28 games (instead of 36), and a 12-4-14 construction.
This is more like a combination of changes at different time points. It's unclear who this favours - I can see arguments both ways. The only sad thing is that we wanted more games - so we are the only losers. But in hindsight it's probably better as we might've not seen Jose win officially if there were more games left.
d) Only 4 Games on Day 2
Afaik Kramnik said something like "it was a long day of negotiating so I am very tired and want to play lesser games today". So fair to say it favours Kramnik more.
e) 50-minute halftime break on Day 3
Afaik Kramnik requested it again, saying he needs to "lie down" or something. Again I think it's unreasonable: i) TT doesn't have breaks; ii) sports is meant to be intense, and it's part of assessing a sportsmen - a break isn't compulsory just because you finished a long, intense rally. But okay - I don't think there's much disagreement there. I don't necessarily think it favours Kramnik (probably yes but still) - Kramnik probably spent his time busy calculating lags while Jose is just resting.
f) Refusing to (re)play Games 27~28 (and g) Games 9-12 Online)
I really disliked his decision here - yes bugs are unfortunate but you can't just storm off like that. I'm trying very hard to hold back stating my technical-related thoughts here fyi, as it belong to the next section. I'm sure Jose will 100% agree to (re)play on - or assume Kramnik wins Game 27 for that matter (though with him so low on time I have my doubts - it's a middlegame after all!). As for playing on other platforms - he knows that it is not possible due to sponsorships and so on.
h) Cause of delay after Game 16
It's not really a change proposed but it did affect the schedule - so I believe it still counts. It probably benefits Jose more as he was just resting, but then Kramnik inflicted that upon himself and he is a veteran in these shenanigans so he's probably not affected much either. I would like to say it once again - that scene of working out server lag on pen and paper alone is so funny it makes the whole event worth watching for me.
i) Honourable mention: Constantly asking about lag on Day 3
Almost after every game, he asked the organisers about the lag. Once he was asking about it when he "heard Jose clicks but only appears on his screen much later" - I can't even give it any reasoning; it's just funny. To be fair, he did ask about the lags even if he didn't lose - but it's just that he barely won any games so it looked like he's always whining.
I believe there are more changes Kramnik proposed but rejected (e.g. play on Lichess), and some changes that I am not aware of (e.g. Perhaps not attending prize-giving ceremonies, interviews and so on).
3) Event Takeaways (i.e. What can we prove?)
It's unfortunate that the technical issues undermined the credibility of the event (at least in Kramnik's eyes), but still I think it is truly fruitful.
a) This event is truly fun!
To follow the livestream I have to stay up till 5/6am, but it was really worth it! Imo Game 27 to some extent was a really fitting end to the event - of course, it had to end with the procedure hahaha! Not sure if it is common, but Gothamchess rising to Twitch homepage for this is epic and funny too - which made me seriously think the event has some business value (perhaps not so much ethically - we shouldn't endorse baseless accusations), and as much as Kramnik's reputability dropped horrendously (not that it's great before this), his inclusion in Clash of Claims 2 surely spices up things so much. It's wonderful for content.
b) Online is different from OTB
I think this is if anything, the most (I'd go as far as to say the only) important conclusion we can draw. There are things like mouse skills, 2D vs 3D perception etc that many people have pointed out, but what stands out to me that makes OTB different from Online is a few things.
Firstly, Jose's "comfort" with online-related issues like lags. Like Jose said, he also noticed Kramnik's clock dropped to 0.00 but then "move came in" and same story for Kramnik - but the difference is Jose is used to it (even expecting it) and never dropped focus until the "You won!" pop-up appeared, whereas Kramnik was questioning it at least a couple of times. Even if Kramnik is convinced that it is a possible occurence, I'm sure there are slight lapses of concentration whenever he saw that happen, therefore in the long run it affected his performances slightly (leading to point 3). In fact, I want to guess that Jose also experienced the glitch for Kramnik in Day 1 at some point - but probably he thought "oh all of a sudden I'm low on time! Have to speed up." and just went on with it - and when the game ended he might not have recalled there was such an issue (as he's so used to it) and thus it went unnoticed. There are also muscle-memory things with online where you tend to prefer Qc1-c8 (for shock value) whereas in OTB probably Qc1-c2 (your hand makes a lesser travel) is preferred - but I believe it is impossible to investigate this.
Secondly, I think chess-related there are some implications. I think generally we can agree flagging is easier online due to premoving and it takes lesser time to actually "move" too. Imagine you're stuck in a slightly unpleasant position in time trouble. If you are the type who aren't good in time troubles, all other things equal, playing online will worsen your situation since the moves come to you quicker (the point is that, the fact that you can move quicker doesn't help you). A general trend in this match (both OTB & online) we can see is that Kramnik got the upper hand in the opening and early middlegame, but gradually his clock becomes lower and he self-destructs most of the time. Therefore, I think it may be interesting to extrapolate and see if Jose's play of keeping pieces & tensions on-the-board favours online (or blitz) play more in general, compared to ... let's say Wesley So's style. It'll also be interesting to see if certain openings are more popular in online blitz than over-the-board classical (or blitz for fairer comparison) - I'm sure we have an incredibly huge sample size for a successful analysis. Note that I wanted to say "better openings" but probably it can't be proven as a sensible opening should be equal and therefore it's not "better" for either side. (Or, one may even argue that Opening isn't as important as OTB Blitz as their online opponent in general wouldn't be so good theoretically to refute them in such a short time control.)
A second chess-related implication is perhaps the emphasis on quick tactics. In fact, I think this is more of a "blitz" issue, but let me explain. Therefore, people who play primarily blitz are by default more used to time scrambles, play more blitz-suited openings, and good at quick 1/2-move tactics & cheapos. But the key point is: OTB players played far less blitz than Online players. I do think playing online and playing blitz are super highly correlated, and therefore it is fair to say that Online players (Jose) spot the things I mentioned much faster, compared to an equally strongly player but played primarily OTB (Kramnik). We saw in both OTB (Games 13, 14), and Blitz (Game 21) (at least) how Kramnik loses due to 1-move tactics. I don't think Kramnik is worse than Jose in tactic or calculation (mind you Kramnik was a World Blitz Champion too), but it's just that Jose is just more used to spotting (and creating) traps like this, whereas Kramnik practiced much lesser in this aspect since it's practically useless in classical games (even less so now that he's retired). This would be much harder to prove in my opinion, but I think it is an interesting topic (i.e. the % of games won/lost by 1-move tactics). In summary: Players who play OTB Blitz are usually more used to longer time controls, and thus their play involve more strategic plans (& attacking), whereas Online Blitz players have a slightly higher emphasis on quick tricks - and the real reason isn't Online vs OTB, but Online players play much more blitz than OTB players.
The two points, I believe, are my main thoughts on why Online is so different. There are more like attention span with the computer screen vs wooden board but I can't go on forever.
c) There are plenty to work on for similar events
It speaks a lot when the Champions Chess Tour finals never had nearly the same amount of technical issues. It is proof that when there is proper budget and preparation, these issues can be avoided. I'm not really an expert in this aspect, and I think a lot of this mess can be avoided with contingency plans (which there aren't any) thought beforehand, so I won't elaborate much.
I am curious though, why have they never thought of swapping computers (I'm sure Jose would've had no issues with it)? It seemed such an easy fix to any "technical issues" to Vladimir. If he refuses as he believes Jose's computer is also rigged, then it means he acknowledges there is a "fair" playing condition? If he goes as far as to think Chess.com purposely imposed these bugs onto him, then still, why would he agree to play on Chess.com in the first place? Okay, no point talking logic with him at the end of the day if a simple "declare the game is null and replay" can't satisfy him.
d) To me at least, it does not prove or disprove Jose's cheating at TT. (I personally 100% believe Jose didn't cheat)
For now, all we have is some sample evidence of 27 Games of Jose playing without cheating. I do (rarely) agree with Kramnik on this aspect - we should take these games home, analyse them, and compare them with his scores on TT. Here even a simple average "accuracy score" (tbh I think Average Centipawn Loss is much better as a metric - no one really knows what "accuracy score" means) across all games and comparison would be pretty good - that's the power of statistics, and the Law of Large Numbers (now of course 27 isn't like a huge sample size, but it is still somewhat (barely) decent for Law of Large Number to take effect). Of course, statisticians can refine it with probability distributions, hypothesis testing and so on (I majored in statistics but honestly I'm not interested in working it out).
Now then again people may say "But he might only use it in 2 critical moves per game" - well, there is an extent to how much cheating you can detect from the moves played alone. Just like cheating in exams - if two students scored 100% in an exam, and provided textbook-like solutions for all of them, you have no evidence that they are copying each other! Only if they got a question wrong, and wrong in the same (peculiar) way, then that is some evidence. Either way, I believe even a 1-2 move cheating will still reflect in the ACL - you might need to limit the games to move 1-40 for example to exclude the time scrambles (and so that any difference in best moves will be "exaggerated"). At the end of the day, I think it is impossible to prove if someone cheats for like 2 moves in 2 critical games out of an 11-game tournament to begin with, and like Anish said, just take the L and move on. If you're really strong, you'll eventually win someday; and if you're not, cheater or not someone will beat you out of the podium.
There are also arguments that officially Jose won 8-4 in the online proportion, and they are roughly even OTB, whereas in Chess.com their score is like 8-1-1 or something. I would just say: they are not comparable at all, OTB to Online (see above), and Clash of Claims to TT (see below). Though I personally do believe that if they played 3+1 10 games online without any technical issues, I believe Jose can score at least 7 points.
Finally, it is also important to note the many different conditions that make this experiment incomparable to TT performances (I'll list them in terms of my perceived importance, from high to low): - Single vs Multiple opponent match - Stakes of this one single event vs Weekly TT event - Absence of pressure from tournament standings - Months of prep time (It's clear Kramnik prepped much more than Jose opening-wise) - Outside venue vs The comfort of home - 3+2 vs 3+1 - Nerves
At the end of the day, as Kramnik himself said - Jose is a very strong player and is expected to beat him in both online and physical portions. This means he also believes Jose's true blitz strength is 2650+ (based on Kramnik's blitz rating) - I think we can all agree on this. A 2650+ true strength GM getting Top 3 in TT for like a handful of times in hundreds of tries? Sounds reasonable to me. Thus by the rule of innocence till proven guilty, Jose did not cheat is my verdict.
e) My thoughts on the final scoreline
In general, I think Games 9-12 (and taking away Games Null1~Null2) is extremely unfair to Jose (Jose himself also regretted afterwards). If anything, they should make it void and play the extra OTB games on Day 2 and 3.
If I were the judge, I would keep Game Null1 (as the clock wasn't really the deciding factor), nullify Games 9-12 (because both players are in such a bad mental state) I would also give Game 27 to Kramnik too (he already won the game at that point).
Thus to me, the final score would be J14.5-V9.5 (and 9-5 in the online portion) - a pretty convincing victory in my opinion, especially when on paper they are in similar strength!
As a final thought, I'd say this event proved that online and OTB blitz are really different - not just for technical reasons but also because they reflect different underlying playing styles as well. It provides some statistics, but not evidence to prove or disprove cheating, which we can assess further to draw some inferences. Finally, this event is really entertaining for both beginners and skilled players. The drama is fun for everyone, and generally, the games are very high-level to watch or analyse. Man, they can even dive into opening theories during the breaks if they want to. Truly something I believe no other chess events achieved so far!
4) Clash of Claims 2 Ideas
I think the true goal of Clash of Claims after all, is to "replicate" TT playing conditions, and see if i) we can detect cheating (at least with only our bare eyes), and ii) how much it can affect TT (at least for the prizewinners) (let's be honest, there is surely undetected cheating in TT).
With that in mind, I would propose something along these lines:
a) Do a 5~10 players round-robin 3+1 event. It can be a single or double round-robin. Participants will be invited based on spectacular TT performances (for example, achieved Top3 at least once or Top10 at least 3 times and so on) - and *not* because Kramnik mentioned them in his "statistical evidence". The participant level should have a good mix of 2600~2300 - with Jose and Kramnik being special cases if they are interested in joining. With that said, this rating range is chosen arbitrarily, and I can understand if players of a closer strength range are chosen.
b) There can be both online and/or OTB portions. As the purpose of Clash of Claims 2 is not to show OTB vs Online differences (it is quite clearly shown already), I think we can make do with just more games in the online portion.
c) Computers will be provided by chess.com, tested and verified to be free of any cheating softwares (& bugs) (no more unboxing nonsense). In particular, all players will wear headphones while playing at all times (I'll explain why shortly).
d) Prize fund realistically depends on how much sponsorship is received, but I think it should be offered to, say, the top 3 only - same as TT where not everyone gets a prize.
e) Now here's the catch - it will be announced that among the players, 1~2 are them are cheaters. One may be the "dumber" cheater, who gets moves talked into their headphones (the simplest cheating method) very frequently, and one may be the "smarter" one - only getting them once or twice per game. Bear in mind their true strength is still not so far off, so they might just win based on their own strength and therefore do not need cheating - at any rate, the organizing staff will feed them the moves only when they think it is necessary (or it can also be based on the cheater's request - this would be more interesting). This is also why all players must wear headphones at all times, and for the non-cheaters, it'll still be some nice noise cancellation.
Obviously the players will have to guess who is the cheater, but they also know there are only 1 or 2 cheaters so they won't suspect everyone, meaning their overall play should be less affected. To make things more unpredictable, the cheater's goal is not necessarily to win/secure first place. They might have a separate target position, and they get the prize if they end with their target position(s).
f) At the end of the event, after all the guessing and so on, the organisers reveal who is the cheater. There can also be interviews every now and then just to see how the players feel, whether they are affected, who they think is cheating, and of course about the games themselves.
g) Now for Kramnik's role: Obviously I would love for him to be a player because of all the exciting content, but for the sponsors and viewership it is not good if he demands a one-hour check and refuses to play games, or spends 30 minutes just to watch Windows update. He can be the commentato"police", trying to catch the cheater, or working out his "statistics" on-stream and see if he can spot anything. Maybe the chess.com fair play team can join in too if they do it in a way that they don't reveal their algorithm!
A more exciting idea could be that: the "cheaters" that Kramnik shortlisted will have a mini-match with them (without headphones this time), and see if Kramnik and crush them (more importantly, notice a huge difference in play quality)!
Realistically, we can reduce the prize fund by a lot (since the players are not as high profile, they might not mind as much - some young TT winners might even just play for the fun of it), save costs on computers and so on (they are chess.com computers after all), and maintain a high profile of games (and a wider variety too - no French/Catalan every game), ad I believe Clash of Claim 1's success (in terms of viewership) means that there might be more sponsors for the second edition. Inviting players shouldn't be hard too, as most of them are not high-profile super GMs, and wouldn't be bothered as much by the presence of cheaters (or even being one just for the event).
Heck if no one is willing to be a cheater, I volunteer myself to be the dumb one! I'm just FIDE 1950 and nowhere near an important chess player myself so might as well contribute to the experiment - it would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me too.
I'm perfectly fine if you'd like to share my ideas elsewhere - even copying & pasting is fine! Personally I'm interested to know what people think (well sadly I don't think my post will reach Kramnik), especially the part where online blitz specialists have a different playing style from OTB blitz players (or strong OTB players in general) - it would be great if Giri shared his thoughts about it.
btw: It's my first reddit post! :D

Reconstruction
First Prev
The two that Amara had introduced, Merana and Teleya, were a researcher and a team leader respectively. They were to take Carbon from the impromptu surgical suite over to where the Xenotechnology teams worked on analysis and replication, and then assist her with anything that she needed.
“It was very unexpected, but I am glad that the Empress requested the Integration project be moved onto the Sword of the Morning Light. The accommodations are much nicer, and the equipment is newer. Some of the things we requisitioned years ago were actually brought in!” Merana was in his forties, gray fur starting to turn silver, and he was extremely talkative. He had started perhaps two steps from where they were introduced and did not let up, speaking at a breakneck pace, hands gesturing with every word, eyes never staying put even when in a corridor that had nothing of note to look at. “Deep layer scanners that were made in the decade. Actual new printers! I do not know if it is too much to ask, but if you were to mention to the Empress that we appreciate these new laboratories...”
“Merana.” There was just a hint of reproach in Teleya’s voice. She was the exact opposite, so far. The definition of reserved, which fit with the crown of silver fur encroaching between her antennae. After a very brief introduction, she had remained silent until Merana had started asking favors of Carbon.
“Do not mistake my intent.” He shushed Teleya with a wave of his hand, but he seemed to pick up what she was driving at with that single word and deflected to a slightly different tack. “I have always enjoyed this assignment, it is fascinating to see what the other species in the universe are up to. But the previous labs were... Those fields were poorly tilled. The integration of the Human ship into the station’s systems was unorthodox but understandable, given how much material we acquire from them. A Proximax cargo hauler. Room for thousands of their standardized containers. Yes, it was quite old, but there were some phenomenal systems on board. The engines were astonishing. Not as efficient as the systems we put on our haulers, of course, but the configuration allowed for an utterly unreasonable energy throughput for sublight acceleration.”
‘Utterly unreasonable’ described about 75% of Human ship design, by her estimation. “I am sorry, did you say thousands of containers?” Carbon inquired as they passed back into the common area, the seating all cleared out now. She had seen plenty of the ships the Confederation had now, including one of the truly massive Pathfinders which also held thousands of their standardized containers.
“Five thousand, if my memory serves. It was an ugly ship, a great brick of protective panels. While the storage area was not pressurized, it did have several inspection gantries that allowed us to access individual containers. We put it to use as a very orderly warehouse. I do miss that.” He added far more than he had to, and he was very pleased to do so. “Doubled the habitable space on the station, as well.”
That was strange. While she was previously aware of the existence of the Xenotechnology Research unit, the fact they had a space station, with a massive Human made cargo ship integrated into it was news to her. It hadn’t really ever been a high visibility sort of thing, of course. The idea the Tsla’o Empire was scrabbling around looking to see what they could abscond with from the other races was not in line with how they viewed themselves. “That is impressive, you must have had much to store if a warehouse that large was called for. Where was it all coming from?”
Teleya took the lead, directing them back into a warren of hallways.
“Oh, we only had about a thousand containers in it, and they were not particularly full. We have a crew using a Human ship, the Serenity, to visit the edges of Human space to trade for scrap or salvage. Humans will part with a surprising array of things when they are operating out at the very edges of their frontiers. That is how I first came to work here, counterfeiting Human manufactured colloids for their construction printers as a trade item. It was an interesting little job - if you presented a product that was too good, it was suspicious to them. They thought it was either recently stolen and ‘hot’ or it was a police operation to catch thieves, and they’d dump it and leave without finishing the transaction. So we roughed the bags up a little bit, tossed them around the floor and kicked them down stairs. Drained a few as though they’d been used briefly - that was my idea - and damaged the cryptoseal enough to render it useless on about two-thirds of the units.” He laughed as they turned down another hallway. “Made them all actually look stolen. They were fully functional, of course. We had a reputation to make.”
“Fascinating.” A little worrisome, too. That was a lot of interacting with Humans, and not the ones that were supported by the Confederation, apparently. That idea in and of itself did not bother her, but... where had they gotten those ships? Had the Empire been doing business with Human pirates? Or just pioneers out past their own borders who didn’t have much interest in exactly who they were doing business with? “These dealings have been equitable?”
“I assume as much. The terms had to be agreed upon by both parties, and the Serenity was a light freighter, no offensive capability to speak of. That’s why it was shadowed by a cloaked frigate.” He stopped speaking for a moment, pointing at the door Teleya was unlocking. “Ah, here we are.”
Teleya opened the door and stepped back to allow them inside. Carbon found the work area to be a bit sparse. Lots of workstations, some obviously claimed by the amount of personalization present. Jackets hung over the backs of chairs, small plants, holos and printed pictures alike. Two conference rooms with big holographic tables in the back wall, and a couple of matter printers - looked like Ke-330 variants, based on the printhead. Not exactly the newest gear, but well maintained.
“I will show you to an available workstation. If you would get the Princess the documentation regarding the PINs, Merana?” She delegated, pointing Carbon to an obviously unused desk.
“Of course.” Merana bowed out of the conversation, literally, and bustled off to retrieve the data.
“Everything is held off network?” Carbon inquired while inspecting the clean white desktop. She had started to reach for the sensor pad to log in when she realized she was still holding Alex’s shirt. Hadn’t even thought to put it down, just absently rolled it up in her hands while Merana had talked. Carbon crammed it into one of the big tool pockets in her work pants, secure in the knowledge that would be the exact thing Alex would do. Several embedded holographic displays hummed to life as she pressed her now free hand to the sensor, logging herself in at that particular site.
“Most of our data is available upon the lab’s internal network, which is classified at Stone level access. Anything at Silver security clearance or above is available from the Index workstation, and is borrowed on station-locked, time-limited codex.” She paused, glancing over at Carbon. “Forgive me - I saw that you had Obsidian clearance and have just assumed you’re familiar with these protocols.”
“As luck would have it, I am familiar.” Carbon hadn’t used them often, though it had come up a few times when performing maintenance on some of the more cutting edge systems on the Kshanev. The codex was a physical storage device, usually fairly large to make them difficult to steal. Station-locked just meant the codex could only be decrypted at a pre-specified workstation, and time-limited was simply a countdown to when the codex would automatically delete its contents.
She didn’t even notice she had slipped a Human idiom into the conversation.
“Ah, of course.” Teleya gave her a stilted little bow, very subtly standing up a bit straighter as Merana returned bearing the codex.
He held it out to Carbon in both hands. Each codex was a specialized computer, and one of the long-standing traditions around their use was that those computers would be contained in something that made it hard to physically access or to steal. Initially they had just made rectangular cases that were too large to conceal, but as matter printing had become more prevalent, so had customized cases. The Military Academy had units shaped like the spear and star from their sigil. The Kshanev used a model of its Macron gun, which had been particularly ironic when trying to troubleshoot that very same system.
This one appeared to be a dark stone obelisk, about the length of her forearm, and heavy like it was actual stone. The edges and letters carved into it were crisp, as though it had just been hewn. She recognized it right off the bat, of course, it was a miniature version of the obelisk that had stood at the river port in old Ama’o - the first city. She ran her thumb down one of the inscriptions, the letters on this side filled with gold. May the winds favor your sails, traveler.
All of that was gone, now.
Carbon set it down on the desk and took a seat. The clean white desktop bowed and shifted, the obelisk sinking partway into it. She fiddled with the left screen, relegating the index of the files within to a narrow strip out of the way. Not that there was very much in there, literally seven files. “All right. Get me up to speed, what should I be looking at first?”
“All but the last of these are items we had not been able to identify until the scans from the Prince came in. They obviously went together, but we were unsure of the use case. They were all found on a single salvage ship. The first four files pertain to the PIN fragments we found on board. Scans kept throwing traces of metamaterials until one of the sweepers located those fragments stuck in the gap between a wall panel and the floor in the head.” Teleya had taken over as the verbose one, pointing out several files on the screen as she spoke.
Carbon opened the first file, the very first picture was piece of metal no longer than a fingertip, caked in dried blood and hair. Notation on the edge of the image informed her that it had been taken on the Serenity, about three years ago. “This is not the same Serenity Merana was talking about, is it? And is that... Human?”
“No. Serenity is their most common ship name. Something like ten percent of privately owned Human craft are named that. Understandable, in a way. There is so much space where there is nothing.” She was lost in thought before she cleared her throat and continued. “That is Human, yes. All the samples found onboard were from the same person. If I recall, there were only genetic traces from one Human on board, and only one appeared on the internal logs. We were concerned that it was evidence of a crime until it became clear from those logs that the previous owner seemed to have some neurological problems and was doing quite a bit of surgical work on himself.”
“That sounds horrible.” The PIN had been thoroughly documented as it was cleaned and run through multiple scanners, the entire thing mapped down to the atom, which was good because the rotating keyways seemed to depend on microns-thick wafers of high lubricity insulator to facilitate movement while isolating electrical impulses. Likely printed in place, given how delicate the entire thing was despite the use of exotic materials. A simple design, made with the most advanced tools and material.
She did not dare dwell on the fact that some lone Human sailor at the edge of their space had equipment to access the same sort of implant Alex had, and certainly not the more immediate worry that the implant could have had a role in pushing him to such extremes as performing surgery upon himself.
“Yes, it gets... We need not discuss the finer details of it.” She shivered and exhaled softly. “The next three are more pieces of other, similar PINs. The first and fourth appear to have been broken, while the second and third are clearly cut. The fifth file is a piece of the adapter between the PIN and driver unit, and the sixth is what we believe to be a portion of the driver unit. The final file is the scan of the Prince’s hardware.”
Carbon skipped directly to the driver unit. The needle seemed straightforward at the moment. They had large portions of it. The driver, on the other hand, was still a few loose design ideas for her. The first pictures of it really made her want to discuss the finer details of what they had found on that ship - it had been cylindrical at one point, but only a partially melted wedge remained, bearing distinct plasma cutter marks. It appeared it was the end that held the PIN, as well, which was good - that could be directly copied with no conjecture.
The chunk reminded her of an old milling machine spindle surrounded by multiple layers made of paired stators and rotors. The scans proved her supposition out, and it was a bit of a relief - most of it should be very easy to reverse engineer as well. The wiring might need a little guess work, but computer rendering should allow her to get that sussed out without having to run a print. “All right, I think we should be able to get this done quickly. Which one of you would be best working on recreating the PIN and adapter unit? I will take the driver.”
Merana piped up. “I have specialized in reconstruction for nearly a decade. Unless Teleya would prefer that task?”
“No, your work is excellent.” She deferred, gesturing towards the Index workstation to indicate he should get to it.
They watched him go, Carbon swiveling her chair around to face Teleya. “I do not think the hardware side of this will be particularly difficult. That said, do we have any of the software that was used with this?”
“Ah. Yes, but no.” Her ears lowered, an annoyed hiss escaping her teeth. “There was data related to the operation of the machine, and possibly the programs used to run it still installed on the Serenity. As it was a very new ship at the time the entire thing and all files on board were seized by Imperial Intelligence.”
“I know a few people who work in the Intelligence community.” Carbon did not specify how she knew them, because historically people did not want to know details about anything to do with Intel.
“As do I. Sadly, the most I have been able to get from them is that all the data onboard was shipped out to Electronic Warfare. I do not know anyone within that division, and having a mere Gold clearance does not sway much over there.” It sounded like she was inclined to continue not knowing anyone within Electronic Warfare, a hint of venom in her tone as she talked about them. “I put in the appeal two days ago, it has still not even been reviewed.”
“I suspect they will be more accommodating to my requests. If that fails, they will kneel at the throne when the Empress calls.” Carbon didn’t really have the ability to toss the Empress’ authority around like that, but Alex had been convincing with his fears about potentially compromising the security of the ship. The Empress would take that seriously, and having one part of the military building fortifications around their domains would just delay confirmation one way or the other.
“I suspect that will expedite things.” She bowed again, deeper this time. While Teleya did not specifically ask for this data as a favor, she clearly considered Carbon using her influence to get it as fulfillment of one.
“If you will excuse me... I will make some calls. Are the conference rooms available?” She was sure they would be. It was just the three of them in the workshop at the moment, but Carbon would prefer a little bit of privacy given what was lingering at the forefront of her mind right now.
“They are yours as long as you desire.”
Carbon stood and offered Teleya the seat. “If you could get started on extrapolating the build on this, I would appreciate the help.”
“Of course, Princess.” She bowed, again.
Carbon took her leave, walking back to the closer conference room. She stole a glance at Merana’s workspace, already deep into pulling the fragments together into a whole. Excellent work ethic on him.
She closed the door behind her and turned the windows into the work area opaque before walking down to the end of the conference table with the holo emitter. Carbon slumped into a chair and sighed, leaning in to rest her elbows on the table and cradle her head in her hands. She allowed herself to feel miserable for a moment.
Was any of this worth it? What even was it, at this point? She enjoyed Alex’s company, certainly, and would absolutely call the feelings she had for him ‘love’ without hesitation. But the idea of being entwined hadn’t truly crossed her mind since she’d put aside that unreasonable fantasy back on the Kshlav’o. Now that was just an offering to get her to let The Empress back in. She hadn’t settled on if that had tainted the entire concept or not.
Even if it had, Alex’s earnest intent might be enough to purify that for her.
Worse was that Alex, her beloved, was forced into this untenable position. What if he was being used as a conduit for some sort of spy program by his own government? She wasn’t familiar with the fine print, but it would violate their treaties. It was a violation of the Confederation’s own citizen, as well. All while being the Empress’ leverage to make their people more accepting of the help. To prove they were trustworthy. Not the sort that would do things like... this.
Her mind raced, working over a thousand threads of what she would do to be free of these constraints. To have a life that was just hers, and perhaps just his. Every one of them felt like an unreasonable fantasy now.
Carbon sighed again and shut it all off. Crammed it back in the hole. The turn of phrase from Alex brought a brief, sad smile to her face. It had initially felt improper, not serious enough for the workings of the mind. It had grown on her, more and more it felt entirely accurate.
She smoothed her fur out a bit and pulled the sleeves of her jacket down to appear a little more professional. Carbon stood and patted Alex’s shirt for moral support before slotting her communicator into the holo display, and set it up for an encrypted call before dialing Admiral Olan. His direct number.
It took a few minutes for each end of the call to negotiate and set up encryption that reached the minimum for Obsidian clearance. While it was the second highest level of security, the real reason she turned it all the way up was that those calls had a tendency to get answered in short order. She waited. The connection was live, but his end was locked down until he was in an appropriately secure area.
“Princess Sorenson.” Olan’s head appeared on the holo, looking both wizened and perpetually aggrieved. He was actually pleasant, his face was just like that while relaxed.
“Admiral. I am here with the Xenotechnology team, and I have a request for data from the Electronic Warfare division of Imperial Intelligence that needs to be expedited.” He had the authority over several divisions, Electronic Warfare included. “Team Leader Teleya put in a request two days ago. It concerns files from a Human ship they acquired about three years ago, the Serenity, which was taken by Intel. We need that immediately, as it now pertains to an investigation into potential security breaches on The Sword of the Morning Light.”
There was absolutely no reaction to this information save for a single, brief nod. “Consider it done, an Index will be brought over as soon as it is filled. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. This is a personal request, and why I have chosen Obsidian.” She inhaled, lifting her chin a little like the Empress did when she wanted to appear a bit more impressive. Difficult to do through a hologram, but she wanted it imparted that this in particular was to be kept at Obsidian levels. “I require a copy of the interior security logs for the same ship. This is related to the investigation, but more sensitive. Gene-locked, with a time limit of ten hours of review should be enough.”
That got his attention, antennae shifting up slightly. While that was subtle, it was there, and that was notable for Olan. “Of course. Do you need them delivered at the same time?”
Did she? “No, but I would appreciate it being done within the day. Have it delivered to my quarters, my Zeshen can take possession of it there. That is all, Admiral.” Carbon would take one potentially horrifying discovery at time right now.
“Your will be done, Princess.” He closed his eyes and bowed, and ended the call.
The fears she had crammed into the hole scrabbled against the door that she imagined held them in place. If the machines - those abominations that Alex had allowed his government to saddle him with - were going to destroy him, she had to know. She had to be ahead of it, whatever psychosis had been inflicted upon that lone sailor would not befall him.
She would see to it.
 
First Prev
Royal Road
*****
Carbon learns some stuff this time! Oh boy. Oh dear.
Unreasonably happy that I was able to find a name that continues the practice of naming classes of cargo ships something-max as well as Panama did.
Art pile: Carbon reference sheet. Art by Tyo_Dem

I don’t live in utah anymore and I don’t wanna deal with a notary or wait like 6 months for a confirmation. I’m not afraid of contact or confrontation, I just want out
Would I still receive a letter in the mail this way?

I resigned after a month because na-burnt out agad ako. Walang proper training and endorsement then 1st day ko sumabak agad ako sa mga deadlines and workloads. Wala din boundaries sa time, out of work tumatawag and naghihingi pa din ng reports boss ko even sa rest day/weekend (1 day off 🥲). Moving forward to this day, sumobra daming demands ng boss ko na need tapusin agad agad. Robot ata ang gusto nya, hindi tao na employee. Naapektuhan na din mental health ko, wala na din ako time sa sarili, family and friends ko dahil kahit weekend nag wowork ako. Then yesterday, Sunday, nag submit na ko sa email ng resignation letter and hindi na ako pumasok today and wala na din ako balak pumunta sa office. My question is, need ko pa ba mag render? Tama ba naging desisyon ko?

Hi, so i'm bored and i was just going through my old folders and turns out i have a lot of resources for every subject, some of these are lesser known and shared by my school teachers.
I personally went from getting around 60/80 to 74/80 in the boards which i was very happy with.

Advice

1) For the essay section I would highly suggest you stick to either descriptive, narrative or argumentative to fetch good marks.
2) Learn both the letter formats so you can chose one you think you have a better grip at.
3) Grammar is mostly very rule based so get rules on your tips and learn their applications.
4) Any sort of practice your teacher gives, do it in class itself this way language is something you won't have to stress much about at home
5) Precis writing is highly scoring, you just need to be familiar with details of it
6) Practice Papers are very good for this subject.

Resources

PAST YEAR PUPIL ANALYSIS
This is such an underrated resource given by ICSE itself. When you are revising and you are doing past papers have this open on the side. It will tell you what was required and given marks for and what errors students made that you might be making too. This is great for precis especially.
2018
2019
2020
2023
AMAZING WORKSHEETS
These worksheets are genuinely so helpful and they really helped me score good marks too
TRANSFORMATION OF SENTENCES
SAMPLE PERSUASIVE ESSAY
ESSAY RULES I FOUND
Other than this old sample papers, board papers are good resources.
You can also do a search on reddit to find major icse school's pre board papers :)
If anyone wants any more resources for any other subject i'll post cause i got a lot

Ok y'all...wondering if you can assist. I am the head of an Austin-based real estate company that is purchasing a BJ/Hawker 400. In lieu of using a management company, we have decided to form our own internal flight deck and consequently need help.
I've done a lot of research and have figures from EJM/Netjets about PIC/SIC compensation as well as a lot of other sources.
So here is our deal and you can be the judge of what's fair - this will be a Part 91 operation at either EDC/SAN/SAT and will mandate approximately 200-250 hours/year, with only a few days in excess of 6 hours flying. There will be a lot of travel in between Austin & Telluride. Most missions are about 90 min O/W and there will rarely be more than a few nights away per trip. Typical missions: EDC-TEX, EDC-TEB, EDC-NEW, TEX-VNY, TEX-LAS, EDC-BCT, EDC-ELH, EDC-PVR, EDC-BED, EDC-MVY. Pilots must have extensive high altitude operations experience (KTEX is MSL 9,700') as well as short field STOL ops (for Caribbean/Bahamas). Pilots must have international experience and immediately be able to fly to Mexico/Cayman/Bahamas/Bermuda/islands.
Questions:

1. Fair base salary (not including a performance bonus, 401(k) match, other benefits) for both PIC & SIC? Our pilots will be paid just like executives with a proper Wall St-type bonus at Christmas not 5 grand and a free ham. Obviously things like 401k match, med/dental/vis all covered.
   
2. Should I expect to directly hire a maintenance tech? There are solid FBO's at all 3 airports and Textron 1CALL OAG is based in San Marcos right next door.
   
3. On-call times. How do most companies handle this? Although I work 24-7, I can't expect the same of others, particularly those whose performance is based on the assumption that there is a comfy bed waiting. So I guess my question is how must advance notice is typically given for on-the-fly unscheduled domestic travel (not wheels up, just how long to get to the airport with a go-bag & Foreflight).
   
4. Simulator time. We are keen on currency and willing to invest in our pilots. How much simulator time is usually necessary for this aircraft? It's hardly a G800...
   
5. On the road budget. Am very curious to know about how companies handle pilots' per diem expenses. I assume that the company just handles all hotel stays directly, we are on a fuel program so that's out of the picture, but that still leaves car rentals for locations without a car at the FBO or Uber, a card (?) for incidentals and meals...hotel room aside, what is the average per diem for meals, incidentals, etc?
   
6. Tough(er) question - hourly requirements. I know that a lot of ppl on Reddit are low-time pilots with commercial aspirations and am sympathetic - luck favors the brave! Is there any consensus on the minimum # hours required for a PIC of a Hawker 400? What about SIC? 1000/500?
   

Thanks for any feedback that you may have, appreciated. If anyone meets the above criteria, lives in Austin metro or thereabouts and want to throw their name in the hat for a role, you can email [info@ivymgtconsulting.com](mailto:info@ivymgtconsulting.com) with a cover letter and resume.
** I'd pay an extra $10k base if you also have a CFI endorsement **

[Part 1]
My king. The sad memories faded into blurred flashbacks.
Olyvar cherished the sweet time as his grace’s squire. Though two years older, it made no matter. A warrior king was training Olyvar the way of knighthood, almost any boy’s dream. He remembered on slow days, Robb Stark would spend time with him, teaching the art of the long sword and shield. He can still remember the cloudy day at the Crag’s courtyard and his Northern accent as he swung his blade at the squire. “Keep your shield up Olyvar. Keep it up.”
“It’s too heavy.” Olyvar replied as Robb swung on.
“If it wasn’t heavy, it wouldn’t stop a sword. So get it up.”
They sparred and sparred in the courtyard. Robb Stark was dancing with him, hilts in hands. After he knocked Olyvar to the dirt for the twentieth time, he lifted him back up.
“Come, drive at me.” Robb then grabbed Olyvar gently by the back of his neck. “Look Olly, keep your shield up or I’ll ring your head like a bell.”
Olyvar never forgot that moment, his Grace’s right-hand touch, the way Robb looked into his eyes and called him ‘Olly’. No one has ever called him that and he liked it very much. They continued to dance. Rain began to fall, turning dirt into mud. Olyvar darted at him. Robb stepped aside, deflecting the stab off his shield and twirled around forward in a natural motion, his cloak spinning in the air. Before Olyvar knew it, Robb had his rear, his sword ready to thrust or slash any part of him. He glanced back and knew he was lost. The dance paused there and Olyvar turned around to meet Robb’s beautiful blue eyes. He could melt in them.
“You had me your Grace.”
“Come Olly, it’s your turn.” A winter wind came blowing in from across the sea. A breeze lingered there, brushed Robb’s auburn hair. “Now, dance with me!”
It almost felt like a sin to be as excited as Olly was at that moment.
“I’ll drive to you now. Try to do what I just did. In mud like this, don’t forget to plant your foot before each movement. And remember, you have to keep your shield up.”
As Olyvar and Robb got into their positions, his older half-nephew Ser Ryman Frey suddenly appeared and intervened. He grabbed Olyvar like a little green boy and pulled him towards the exit. NO! Olyvar’s word caught in his mouth.
Robb spoke up for him. “What are you doing? Olyvar is my squire and a grown man. He can do what he wants and speaks for himself.”
“My grandfather has declared a suspension of your alliance with House Frey,” Ryman said. “You have broken a sacred vow. If you would not have his daughter or granddaughter as your queen, you certainly cannot have his son as your squire.”
Robb was expecting Olyvar to say something, but the squire froze. More Frey guardsmen came in and dragged him away from the courtyard, his heels lifeless on the ground, leaving twin mud tracks on his departure. Robb stared at him sweet, sad, and silent. A bolt of lightning flashed across the rainy skies, its reflection off the King’s sword blinding Olyvar. That was the last time he saw Robb alive.
When news of his King returning to the Twins for the wedding between Lord Edmure Tully and his sister Roslin, Olyvar could not contain his excitement, to hear the voice of his call.
Since that rainy courtyard day, Olyvar had been on his own for long enough. He hoped maybe Robb could show him again that dance that he loved. Maybe. Olyvar had been going through withdrawals. Not seeing his Grace was just too much. He could turn me on with the slightest touch. But since the Red Wedding, Olyvar’s courtyard has been cold and empty. Fuck anyone who judges me. He couldn’t see clearly now that Robb was forever gone. Olyvar was still blinded by Robb’s last light. He couldn’t sleep, still yearning for his touch. In his heart, rain constantly fell, drowning him in the nights. I was his squire, Olyvar cried as his soul twisted. And I failed him. I was the only one that night he could trust.
After the slaughter, Merrett Frey, a kin of his, greeted him as he released Olyvar from the dungeons. “I’m sorry Olyvar that we had to lock you up, Perwyn and Alesander too. But you must do your duty for your family. You are a Frey, a man of an honorable house. This stain left by Robb Stark and his bitch mother Catelyn Tully should not go unpunished. Lady Catelyn also killed Jinglebells. She even japed ‘a son for a son‘ to our Lord father as she slit his throat.”
A son for a son. Olyvar Frey looked at Merrett sullenly, his voice choking up, “I must go for a walk.” Olyvar walked and walked … passing the burnt tents, passing the dead soldiers with Northern and Riverland sigils sewn on their garments, and passing Grey Wind’s headless body. He was far enough from home, but he could still hear the cheap cheers of the Frey and Bolton soldiers.
He fell to his knees and began to cry. My king. My sweet king. Olyvar swore vengeance. Though he will never consider kinslaying as it was a curse among the gods, it would not stop him from facilitating others who seek revenge against his own family, the ones who were directly involved.
Suddenly at the side of the river, a dying man was crawling towards him. Soaked in water, mud and blood, he cried out in a ghastly voice “Olyvar!”
“Who, who are you?” Olyvar sprinted to aid and for recognition. “Raynald?” Without hesitation Olyvar replied, “My brother!” He placed himself under Raynald’s shoulder and lifted him up. “We need to find a maester.”
On the way back to camp, Olyvar and Raynald encountered two sentries of his Frey household guards, far from any other eyes can see.
“So what do you have here my Lord Olyvar?” one asked.
“A dying lone wolf? Let us put him out of his misery,” the other replied as they stared at Ser Raynald Westerling’s dampened seashell surcoat.
Olyvar lowered himself and laid Ser Raynald on the ground, and arose in a tone cold as stone. “No. Not a lone wolf.”
Olyvar unsheathed his sword and killed both Frey guards before they could reach their weapons. He then swapped Raynald’s wet Westerling clothing for one of the dead men, and found a maester.
Ser Raynald Westerling stayed with Olyvar at the Twins under disguise. He even trimmed off his brushy moustache. Weeks later after Ray had fully healed, he asked Olyvar to go with him to look for Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover at their secret hideout, as per the original plan before the wedding.
One night, Olyvar Frey simply walked out of the Twins again, this time with Ray. No one would care where Olyvar was going. Truth be told, his Frey family would be more content if more spawnlings of their lord father would leave the castle to find their own destiny, especially if they were unlikely heirs deep behind the line of succession.
Aboard one of the Northern galleys floating outside of Seagard, the Seashell Knight had to explain how this son of Walder Frey earned his trust, as Lady Mormont held Olyvar by the throat with a dagger. The skin around her eyes had been raked and blackened with tears and nails, her teeth bit with furious anger. She had been like this for weeks. Olyvar stared at her face and he felt like he could die here and now, if that was what it meant for Lady Mormont to forgive him, as he knows no gold would ever substitute for her grief. “I am sorry about your daughter Dacey. I lost my brother too. Benfred was a good man, I swear to you by all the gods old and new, that he did not have a part in the slaughter. Benfred would have done everything he could to grab an innocent woman like Dacey, and bring her safe from harm.” Olyvar meant it.
Mormont sheathed her dagger, her hands still shaking. “I’ll kill them all! Anyone who was a part of this!”
“No.” Olyvar replied. “We have to get the girls back. And then you can kill them all.”
At the siege of Riverrun, Olyvar Frey freely roamed Ryman’s uncoordinated camp. No one cared. One night alone, he swam across the moat and climbed up the castle with spikes. Only thirty feet up, the Tully guards had heard him clanking and aimed their crossbows from above. “Identify yourself!”
He whispered, “I am Olyvar Frey, son of Walder Frey, former squire to his King, Robb Stark. I come unarmed and offer myself as a hostage. I know the Blackfish, please let him know I am here.”
“Stay where you are.”
Olyvar clung to the castle’s wall half way down to death and half way up to forgiveness. Finally Ser Brynden Tully appeared and told Olyvar to come up quietly. As Olyvar threw himself over the parapet and onto the floor, the Blackfish kicked away his spikes and immediately kneed his body to the ground, holding a dagger at his throat. Shit, not again! Damn this mayhaps, why was I unblessed to be born a Frey?
“What are you doing here, Olyvar Frey?” Ser Tully demanded.
Olyvar told them the truth and handed him Lady Maege’s letter from a waterproof compartment in his garment. The letter was coded with secret words that he and she only knew. The Blackfish cracked the seal, unrolled the parchment and read. Afterwards he released the grip from the bottom and the message curled up on its own, eager to protect the secrets.
“The paper curls, at least you didn’t try to deceive me with the age of the parchment.” He then asked Olyvar, “So, you killed some of your own men did you?”
“To save Ser Westerling, yes.” The Blackfish looked at his eyes and nodded in approval. “May I see her now?” Olyvar inquired.
The Tully guards led Olyvar to her room. Some left the area, but others stayed and watched, still suspicious of the unarmed Frey. She was in her solar, knitting her needle works. He fell down to one knee towards his niece-in-law (by Olyvar’s brother-in-law, Lord Edmure Tully), “My Queen.”
“Olyvar!” Without a hint of hesitation or mistrust, she dropped her needle, ran towards him, and wrapped her loose skinny arms strongly under his’. She poured her heart, soul and grief-filled life into a Rose By the name of Olyvar Frey. He reciprocated, placing his arms around her shoulders as Jeyne Westerling-Stark continued to hold tight. Her orange sized breasts pushed against his chest, as the Queen’s chestnut mop of brown hair sat below Olyvar’s clean-shaven chin.
“Robb.” It was all she needed to say as they shared a sob. Nothing hurt more than that moment when he shared the same pain with Jeyne. Olyvar dipped his head to hers, their salty tears finally uniting and slowly dancing together as their faces pressed cheek to cheek.
“He is in the heavens now, I believe, singing from above.” Olyvar prayed. “He will be waiting for us. No doubt we will see him again some day, but we must make him wait.”
“I miss him so much,” Jeyne cried. She was always cheerful with Olyvar since they first met. Though he was curious whether she truly loved Robb or just wanted to be a queen, she has repeatedly been kind to him, so sweet. She never intervened when Robb trained Olyvar at swordplay and he was grateful for that. When they wed, Olyvar knew Robb could never be his brother, but Jeyne did not seem to mind letting him continue to squire beside her much younger brother, Rollam Westerling. Robb had allowed Olyvar to protect the queen sometimes, along with the other household guards, though he was still training at arms. Olyvar and Jeyne would talk constantly, mostly about their King. Even when Jeyne rambles about him, she would always shy away from talking about Robb’s bed manners. But Olyvar insisted he did not mind hearing it. Jeyne felt like a sister to him, just as much or more as Roslin.
“I miss him too,” Olyvar replied. “Did you really love him?”
She cried a little bit louder and squeezed Olyvar even harder. “With all my heart.”
Olyvar wanted to confess too, but he could not do it here, not with everyone watching. He only hoped Jeyne would ask him the same, and she did. “Did you really love him, Olyvar?”
He tightened his grip on Jeyne’s shoulders. “More than you ever know.”
She gently reached for his hands and lowered them. “Olyvar, you were his squire. He is gone now. But you still have a duty to us. You must protect us. We must never separate again. Promise me Olyvar. Promise me.”
“No. I cannot. Not yet. I must leave you, just this one last time, for your safety and your family’s.”
“You are part of my family,” the Queen proclaimed. Tears rolled down again, their hands still held together at their hips.
“I need to leave Riverrun tonight. And I promise you, we will reunite again and I will keep you safe.”
They talked for hours about the good times, the horror, and what the future lies. They talked about Robb, crying to the sadness of him, exulting at his bravery and his glories, laughing at the silly juvenile things the teenager king did to entertain them, and about falling in love with him all over again. And then they cried some more.
Later on that night, Ser Brynden visited Jeyne and Olyvar, with Lady Eleyna and Lady Sybell watching. “Olyvar, you were the King’s squire and though he is no longer with us, you are still owed a knighthood. Let the gods curse me if I ever knighted a Frey, but you are no Frey I have ever known. What you are about to do would be considered treason to your family.”
“But my lord father was treasonous to my King. I do not get to choose my father or which family I was born into. But here right now, is the family I want to be with.”
“Will you honor your new family? Will you honor your duty to your late King, his Queen and his House, the Starks of Winterfell?”
“I do,” Olyvar replied with pride.
The Blackfish unsheathed his sword, the blade alive with moonlight gleaming from the window balcony. “Shit I think I’m doing this wrong. I was supposed to say that later. Anyways, kneel Olyvar Frey.”
Olyvar got to one knee as Queen Stark and all the others watched. Ser Brynden Tully, the legendary warrior Blackfish, placed the flat of his sword on Olyvar’s shoulder.
“I charge you to be brave and … aww shit the knighting words escape me. I’m embarrassing myself. Anyways um. Family! Honor! Duty!” He placed the blade on the other shoulder. “Shit, I forgot the rest of the speech. Forgive me. But Olyvar of House Frey, I name you a knight! Now rise!”
And arose the new knight stood, and proud he was. King Robb Stark could have never fulfilled his promise of a knighthood, but it was his father that took it away from him. But being knighted by the Blackfish was more than anything Olyvar wanted right now, besides keeping Queen Jeyne and his family safe. To him, it was forgiveness.
The Queen approached him with a longsword in scabbard, flat on both hands. “Our late King had a gift for you Ser Olyvar Frey, at least he would have wanted you to have it.”
Before Ser Olyvar received it, he already knew what it was. Robb’s sword. “No, I cannot. I am unworthy of this gift, his Grace’s sword.”
“This is King Robb Stark’s sword, and I am his Queen wife. I charge you to protect your family with his own sword.”
Queen Jeyne Stark made an offer that Ser Olyvar cannot refuse. He took the sword from her forgiving hands.
“What will you call it?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“A name. Robb never named his sword. But a good sword should have a good name.”
“I was told by my half-brothers that only cun–, I mean only women name their swords. I will let you name it, my Grace. How should we honor our late King Robb Stark?”
“It is honor,” Jeyne replied.
Confused, Olyvar asked, “What is honor?”
“A sword. This sword.”
Before the sun had dawned, Ser Olyvar Frey with Honor slung on his back, climbed down the castle walls with rope, swam under the moat again, and departed the birthplace of his King, Robb Stark, as a knight.
He returned to the Twins, keeping his knighthood a secret. When Riverrun had fallen to Ser Jaime Lannister, Edmure Tully had agreed to be a prisoner at Casterly Rock. Roslin Tully volunteered to join her husband, giving them a chance to raise a family together, even as hostages. Olyvar, their brother Perwyn and half-nephew Alesander all agreed to escort Lady Tully to the Westerlands. Although they told their half-family they would take the land-route for their journey; Olyvar, Perwyn, Alesander and Roslin had a different Frey destiny in mind. After the Kingslayer’s threat to Roslin’s unborn child, there was no day they would ever stay at Casterly Rock nor return to the Twins. They departed for the coast and reunited with Ser Brynden Tully, Lady Maege Mormont and Lord Galbart Glover aboard the Motherfunker.
Before Ser Brynden escaped Riverrun alone, he and Lord Tully reviewed all their options during Edmure’s short visit. An escape on land had many risks to be recaptured or killed, but at sea it was far fewer … and having a faster ship helped. They would allow Edmure and Jeyne to be peacefully escorted by their captors to Casterly Rock as hostages, only to be rescued from the shoreline. Lady Sybell Spicer swore her brother Ser Rolph would lead the way inside the caves. “Honor, not honors,” were House Westerling’s words. And Robb Stark showed more honor to Lady Sybell’s family than any of the other Westermen could. King Robb made her daughter a Queen, while King Tommen gifted Ser Rolph with the cursed ruins of Castamere from the notorious Lannister song. This honor was more of an insult than a reward.
One night aboard the Motherfunker, Olyvar took out a fresh new flat parchment to write a letter that was meant for his father. He held his feathered quill upright, but did not know how to start. He was fidgeting as he stared up around his cabin. He began to tap the pointy end of the quill and pricked his other hand by chance. Frey blood began to trickle from the wound along with a stinging pain. Cashing in on the moment, he then knew what to say. He dipped the blood smeared quill into the black inkpot, and began to pour his soul & anger onto the kin he no longer wanted.
Father, I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that is real. The needle tears a hole. This old familiar family sting. I try to forget it all the way. But I remember everything. I find myself asking … “What have I become? My sweetest King? Will everyone I love go away in the end?” And Father, you can have it all. My empire of dirt. I will let you down. I will make it hurt. If I could start again, many miles back at home that night. To save my King, I would sacrifice myself. I would find a way. Your son Olyvar.
He rolled the parchment and laid a tablespoon of wax from his tallow candle at the edge. Olyvar pressed the button with his bleeding thumb, filling the stamp in a marble of white, red and pink; sealing it with his own blood. He placed the rolled parchment in his breast pocket, hoping to leave it somewhere in Casterly Rock and eventually reaching his father’s hands.
On the deck of the Motherfunker a few nights before … crewmen, Riverlands and Northern loyalists sang, drank, and cheered to the music of the masterplan. Though most wanted to spill blood to avenge the Red Wedding, humiliating their enemies would be the sweeter revenge: the story that sings in songs. But not all were there for vengeance. Some were just there for the adventure.
The Captain of the Motherfunker was there for the honor of joining their song. He wanted to look into the eyes of the lion, be a part of the thrill of the fight, rising up against our rivals. He also owed Ser Rolph Spicer a favor from their long smuggling history together at sea. If he helped rescue his niece Jeyne from the rocky castle, he would consider the debt paid, and the Black Sparrow was happy to oblige.
“So we are here to rescue this princess? No?” Samullu spoke in the broken Common Tongue
“No, not a princess, she is a queen,” Olyvar chatted.
“In the Summer Isles, a princess and a widowed queen is the same person. My father was king, but he died when I was a babe. My princess mother was the one who raised me after my uncle took the throne. I loved my mother. I named my swanship for her after she died a few years ago.”
“Motherfunker?” Olyvar asked. “What is a funker?”
“Where I am from, fighting and dancing is called the same thing. We call it funk. We funk to fight, we funk to dance, and we also funk to love. And the skill of our funk we always inherit from our mother’s side. I got it from my mama.” The black single-eyed captain pleaded. “Yo got yo from yo mama too. ‘Motherfunker’ is just a homage to one’s mother for giving us this art of our body’s motions.”
Olyvar never knew his mother, but he was very intrigued to hear more about Samullu’s and their culture. They chatted for quite a while.
Olyvar thanked him for helping them. But Samullu insisted it was the right thing to do after hearing about the horrors of the Red Wedding. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers! And yo will know I am the Captain when I lay my vengeance upon thee!”
Olyvar never knew the Black Sparrow was so pious to the gods of avengers.
Sharing rum together, Olyvar sung to him about his own story in depth. Captain Black Sparrow was impressed about his journey so far and he gave Olyvar a small jar of dirt. “This is soil from my empire back in the Summer Isle. I have a whole barrel of it to remind me of home. Here, take this other small gift as well.” He then took out a bird’s feather, long as a flute, bright and colorful. “We Summer Isle people have feathered cloaks, yo see it on all of us. But feathers like this one were meant for some of the bravest and baddest motherfunkers out there. I want yo to take it Ser Olyvar. Let it be yo warrior’s funk.”
Olyvar took it with his hand and gave it a warm stare. The feather was colored like a fading rainbow top to bottom, but the stem was yellow like a lemon. “Thank you.” The gifts were quite odd. By value it was not much, but it seemed like it meant a lot to the exiled prince, the type of gifts worth remembering.
“So what do yo need besides a miracle?” Samullu asked.
“Weapons. Bows and arrows. Lots of arrows.” Olyvar was serious.
“Aye, and I have a lot. Yo know, no one has ever done anything like what yo and the Blackfish’s men are about to do.”
“And that is why it will work.”
The plan was to allow Lord Edmure Tully and Queen Jeyne Stark to safely travel to Casterly Rock unmolested, under the command of Ser Forley Prester and his four hundred men. Lord Gawen Westerling and his son Rollam were to return to the Crag, but Lady Sybell was to stay with Jeyne, maintaining what deceptions she can conjure. Her bluff with Ser Jaime Lannister worked, earning the slightest trust from them before their escape at Casterly Rock. An attempt to rescue them on their path down the River Road would invite the Lannisters to execute the hostages on the spot, failing the objective’s purpose. To stealthily hunt down each soldier one by one would have proven even then, a mission of the impossible. Stirring fear in the hearts of the Lannister soldiers was the only solution, the effective psychological weapon. Ser Prester’s men have been haunted by the ghosts of the Brotherhood without Banners throughout the Riverlands, and the Blackfish would use that to his advantage. With the help of their fastest horse, Bubbles, mounted by Justin Smallister, a distant cousin to House Mallister of Seagard, he would tie empty nooses on trees ahead of Ser Forley’s route. The hope of the hoax would keep the Lannisters on edge, making it difficult to rest. Only when they reached the castle of Casterly Rock, they would drop their guards down, thinking the hard part was over. But on the exact evenfall on the day of their arrival, Lord Gawen Westerling and our small land forces, hidden in the eastern woods outside, would sound the trumpets and drums, drawing the weary soldiers to arms again. But the Blackfish was to infiltrate Casterly Rock from the western sea. Ser Rolph Spicer, our secret agent inside, will bond with Jeyne’s guards, drinking with them throughout their journey. Only on the hour of the escape, Ser Spicer would drug the guards’ ale, allowing them to fall asleep during the diversionary music. The Blackfish and his squad would provide armed escort, if needed. Ser Spicer would also help them navigate inside the caves, rescuing his niece Jeyne and their family back to the Motherfunker. By then, it would be too dark for the Lannisters to give chase into the ocean, if they even realized Queen Stark had flown off.
“I need twenty good men,” the Blackfish had demanded. A few hundreds of the remaining Stark loyalists and outlaws gathered at the docks, where the Motherfunker was anchored.
“And one more woman too!” the She-Bear crone proclaimed.
The men laughed in agreement as Ser Brynden continued. “I need volunteers only. Soldiers who want this fate to fuck them from behind in their arses! For the twenty one of us, we will be in harm’s way, make no mistake about it. I do not expect us to be discovered, but if we were, our escape will not be easy like our brothers working the diversion in the woods. I need men quick on their feet, proficient with the bow, and skilled at close-quarter hand-to-hand combat. Who are my brave men that will be knocking on the Lannister’s doors?”
Ser Olyvar Frey thundered in first and raised his hand. Jeyne’s words echoed in his thoughts, Promise me Olyvar, promise me.
Alesander Frey surprised him. “No you fool! You are not a skilled fighter. Put your hand down!” Olyvar told his nephew.
“I am a grown man, and I will not miss this adventure for nothing,” Alesander protested to his uncle.
“You are just a singer.”
“Then I want to be a witness to this great deed and be the first singer of our new song.”
Olyvar could not stop his brother & nephew from doing something so stupid.
Ser Raynald Westerling the Seashell Knight raised his hand too, eager to save his sisters Jeyne and Eleyna, and his mother Sybell.
Others began to join. Some had their reasons, some had their vengeance, some just wanted to try something new.
Fess stepped up. He was a long lost uncle to Ser Addam Marbrand after a lengthy voyage at sea. But Ser Addam refused to believe him, denying him a small chunk of land near Ashemark that Fess was entitled to own. He called his uncle an imposter and casted him out of the region. Fess swore he was a Marbrand, and swore he would unleash a storm on their household if they did not give his piece of land back. To the future of reclaiming his name by shaming theirs, Fess Marbrand was recruited into our efforts against the Lannisters and their bannermen.
The Summer Islander, Ben, and his Westerosi-born son, Benjen, were farmers from the Neck. Years ago, Lord Rickard Stark had welcomed the immigrant and his wife, granting them farm lands to flourish in. They grew rice in the marsh and exported it from White Harbor. They were so grateful to House Stark that they quite frankly named their son “Benjen” for Lord Stark’s youngest child of similar age. Since then, their hard earned work with their rough black hands in the cold had paid off in prosperity. After being widowed, Ben and his son ran the farm, just the two of them … until a few Ironborn men took Moat Cailin and all their harvest this past year. Their will and pride refused to let them take it again. So instead of growing new rice, they let it wither away and left the land … trapping the jaws of the Ironborn to hunger. Now Ben and Benjen were reborn into Ser Brynden’s band, for the honor of House Stark. “With great honor comes a great ass whooping!” Ben had declared.
Jess and Jory were two brothers that served House Westerling as guards at the Crag, personally protecting the Westerling sisters, Jeyne and Eleyna. They had watched them grow up since birth. Participating in their rescue was their duty, a duty they took without hesitation for the girls who were like nieces to them.
Phyl was a crewmate of royal blood on the Motherfunker. Back on another Summer Isle kingdom, his older king brother passed away as his young prince nephew took fresh rule. After Phyl forbade his nephew-king to order an attack on a rival neighboring island, he screamed at him, “You are not my father!” and flew out of the throne room, slamming its double doors. Soon after, the boy-king ordered for his uncle’s exile. Free like a bird, Phyl flew away himself to a ship with his friend, the Black Sparrow, looking for a new adventure.
Sam, June, and Rico were all hard loyal Tully soldiers that were ready to follow the Blackfish to the end of the world. Sam used to be a tall fat leviathan of a man, until one day June told Sam, “You never had the making of a first-class athlete like Rico here.” From then on, Sam, offended, lost several stones over the years as the three served patriotically together to House Tully. Now tall, lean and muscular, Sam was a force not to be reckoned with. They nicknamed him Sam the Shredder, but for shredding his fat as his body was now packed with muscular meat.
The hedge knight Ser Barnabus the Goose volunteered along with his new squire Leo, a boy of fourteen, whom he met that same day. Goose was a tall man, big shoulders, wide hips with greying blond hair. Though he grew up as an orphan, Ser Barnabus often boasted about being the grandson of some legendary tall hedge knight that he never chanced to meet. The other orphans used to laugh at him, calling him the Useless Goose. But ever since he suited up in his knightly armor decades ago, Ser Barnabus assured he was a useful Goose helping the small folks around the Riverlands. Olyvar wondered if Barnabus was his real name, or if he was even a knight.
Leo’s older brothers wanted to join the action as well … so Mikkal, Raff, and Donal stepped forward. Their uncle Scrooge, a man in his fifties, will chip in his services too. The four brothers and uncle were known as the Pissa family. They once owned a tavern serving their mother’s recipe of baked thin crispy bread, spun circular into a flat pie, served with tomato sauce and cheese above. Their uncle Scrooge improved his sister’s recipe by adding sliced duck sausages on top of the cheese, and charging customers extra for the option. Olyvar and the men on the Motherfunker had sampled and enjoyed the cuisine they baked aboard. Captain Samullu claimed that pissa was indeed a tasty dish, and suggested adding slices of pineapples on top of it too. The Pissa brothers gave Samullu Jaqenssen a cold stare as if the gesture was treason to the recipe. Back when they owned the tavern with their mother, the family often boasted about their food to the point where their competitors despised them. Their opponents would try to mimic cooking the same dish, but others would complain it tasted no different than bread. Afraid of losing their revenue, they insulted their mother’s crispy dish by calling it “pissa,” slandering it by saying it tasted like piss. But the brothers took the name their enemies gave them and wore it like armor, never allowing it to hurt them. Raff returned their insult by calling their adversary’s food being something that comes out of a cow’s bung hole. That humiliation stuck. For a while, men and women from all over the Riverlands continued to rallied in long lines to the Pissa tavern for a delicious slice of pissa. Sadly one day, the Mountain and his men came to destroy their tavern during the war, and took their mother. They never saw her again. Despite the sad drama, the Pissa family were a cheerful bunch, save for their pessimistic uncle. Olyvar could only hope they would find their mother safe and sound some day.
On the first day aboard the Motherfunker, Leo had never been on a ship his entire life. He bolted to the stern of the galley, stood on the middle rail with his arms spread out and screamed, “I’m the king of the world!”
Olyvar had to grab the blond teen down before he fell overboard. “Nice try Leo,” Olyvar said. “But you are too lowborn to be royalty. You are better off marrying a queen to be a king, or at least start with a princess.”
Ser Barnabus the Goose appeared and offered his help. He was in need of a squire for some reason, and Leo was quite eager. “Leo, I’m going to teach you how to live.” Goose swung his arm around the teenager’s neck and rested it there. “You want to be a king and win the ladies? Learn how to squire for a knight first. Unchain and fetch me my stallion from the docks, I’ll show you a trick. I’ll show you how to ride it on this rocking ship!” Leo did as he was ordered.
“And when will I ever need that skill?” Leo questioned as he brought the horse up to the deck from the ramp.
“What was it you were looking for again on this journey? Your destiny? Your death?” Goose mounted.
“Naked princesses,” Leo said.
“Well this move would make any maiden, royal or lowborn, shed their clothes off for you.” The knight pulled down the reins as the stallion stood tall on its two hind legs, looking like a work of art meant for eternal statues of the gods.
Samullu appeared and asked Leo, “Is that Goose on a horse? On my boat? Why is Goose on a horse on my boat?!” The stallion came down, hooves thundering the top of the deck.
“Aye Captain, Ser Goose was teaching me how to pick up women.”
“Shiitt Leo, that’s all you had to say.” Samullu wrapped his right arm around the neck of the youth and offered his counsel, his left hand danced in the air as he spoke to solidify his argument. “If yo want naked women, fuck land. Don’t be a knight. Be a captain of a galley. The best pick up line to catch any woman yo can, is ‘I own a ship’.” Samullu raised his bearded chin. “After this mission is over, come with me and we’ll sail the seas. Meet women from all over the world. And they love a captain. Do yo concur? Leo, each lady is just a flower, another rose by another name that smell just as sweet, waiting to be plucked.”
Goose winced at the word and protested. “The only maids you meet sailing seas are mermaids. Don’t be fooled by the Black Sparrow. Some of them may be pretty on the top half, but you won’t like what they got below. It probably stinks down there too. But the captain doesn’t mind, he seems to enjoy bedding mermaids!”
Whether sea, air or land … the Black Sparrow or Goose … Leo will probably have to fly with one of them after the mission, Olyvar thought.
The night before the rescue, the raiders and the crewmen drunkenly sang and cheered to music, rum, ale and pissa. Drowning in the glory of their task on the morrow, they reminisce about the harsh archery and lethal weapons training Lord Glover had given them over the past weeks back on land … while questioning how large Lady Mormont’s sacs truly were. Lady Roslin Tully, approached everyone and asked if they would write their names on the book she held. “It’s for the memories,” she said. They all did. A signature on each page for each man and Maege. Some drew their own personal coat of arms. When it was Olyvar’s turn, he hesitated about sketching the two towers. He wanted to separate himself from the murderous lore of House Frey. He decided to draw his towers, with a Stark wolf running on top of the bridge, and a Tully trout jumping below it. He signed his name, Ser Olyvar of House Frey, squire to the late King Robb Stark, knighted by Ser Brynden Tully.
He wondered if he will be written into history as a great knight some day. A knight that could not save his king, Olyvar thought sadly. He would not be the only one though. Word had travelled for Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, and his gallant assault at Dragonstone. He was gravely wounded, but no word on this brave knight’s final fate. Like Olyvar, Ser Loras had failed to protect his first King, Renly Baratheon, a man that the Knight of Flower was rumored to have truly loved. Though his King was gone, he continued to be bathe in the glory of battle. Despite being on the opposing side of the war, Ser Olyvar would be gay if he had the chance to meet Ser Loras, if he still lives, chatting with him about the kings they loved and lost.
Later on that night, Captain Samullu Jaqenssen shared a drunken game of cvyasse with Ser Barnabus for a golden dragon. When Goose doubled down after his first loss, he fell again, owing the Black Sparrow a pair of golden dragons by the end of it. When Samullu demanded Goose to pay up his reward immediately, Goose pretended not to understand his loose Summer Isle accent, giving him a wild chase.
“Wat?”
“Yo loose Goose, yo owe me the gold,” the Captain demanded in his queer Common Tongue.
“Wat?”
“The gold yo fool. The gold! Yo pay me.”
“Wat?”
“Wat country yo from?”
“Wat?”
“Do they not speak the Common Tongue in Wat?”
“Wat?”
“Common Tongue mother Goose!”
“Wat?”
“Say wat again! I dare yo, I double dare yo! I’ll throw yo overboard off the Motherfunker!”
Goose paused for a moment, until his pride could not resist. “Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat?” Goose said ‘what‘ so many times, it sounded like he was quacking, each one louder than before. “Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat?”
In a nick of fury, Samullu Jaqenssen flipped over the cyvasse table, stood up and drew his short blade. His remaining good eye raged like a storm, as steam seeped through the black leather patch of the other. “Yo cold ass honking Goose! Yo son o’ a whore! Yo bandit! I will gut yo from balls to brains to see what gooses is made of. I better find yo sacs golden before I take yo skull to gild gold! Either way, I will have my gold from yo!”
Goose suddenly comprehended everything, stood up with all his height and threatened. “Goodness gracious, do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Go ahead and try, but you will only find below me great balls of fire!” He grabbed his own crotch and pumped it once into the air. “And after your failed attempt, I will claw out your last remaining eye, leaving you blind for the rest of your sorry life!”
The others flocked towards the scene, holding the two back as they inched towards each other.
Jess tried to stop them. “Gods, have mercy!”
Sam the Shredder intervened as well. “That is enough! I want you two to stop!”
Jory said, “Cut it out!”
“Will yo shut up!” screamed Phyl, who had hustled a wager on the game.
Mikkal grabbed the drunken Goose, threw him to the floor, and told him to just beat it.
At the end, they all just laugh it off like all drunk men do. Smiling, spilling ale out of their cups, retching out into the sea the rum they drank, before drinking some more again. They were having one last good time before the mission. But today they had a job to do.
The twenty men, Lady Maege, and Ser Rolph continued up the paths in the lightless caves of Casterly Rock, huffing and puffing, but still silent as much as they could hold. One loud word at the wrong place at the wrong time may be their doom. In single file, the group followed Ser Spicer’s point with one lit torch. The stench was terrible and the dampness made it worse. Guarding the rear, Olyvar’s eyes were clouded in darkness at times where the torchlight was too far ahead to shine back. He relied on Ser Goose in front of him to lead the way, as Goose relied on Leo for the same.
[Part 3]

Aspiring Major: Mechanical Engineering
Demographics: White, Out-Of-State, Mid-Low Income ● Hooks: First-Gen, ROTC, Underrepresented State, Rural Resident, <50% Race at School
Stats: - 11 APs: Psych, Seminar, Lang, Push, World, Physics, Lit, Calc BC, CSP, Research (Capstone), American Gov (Possible Self-Study PreCalc, Stats, CSA to make 14, or 15 w/ Physics CMech) by graduation - 3 CCs: Elementary Spanish I, PreCalc, Stats (Possibly taking INFO#### (PreReQ), Java I w/ AP CSA, CPP I & II to make 7 CCs by graduation) - 12 Honors by graduation - GPA: 3.75UW / 4.5W - PreACT (Freshman): 29Math/30Sci/30Eng/24Read - MAP Math/Read (Freshman): 282/255 - ALEKS Math Placement (Sophomore): 85%
Extracurriculars: - ● Instruments & Composition: - Passionate Multi-Instrumentalist (Drum Set, Piano, Guitar, Cello) and Composer - Wrote, led, and performed a Marimba Duet that won 1st place and an "Outstanding Ensemble" award at local Solo-Ensemble Festival, and a Superior Rating (I) at a District Music Contest, being recognized and commended by judges. - 1x Music Letter (only offered at prior school), Percussion Section Leader, teaching incoming Freshman instruments and nurturing their abilities - Jazz Drummer and Pianist, awarded "Outstanding Solo" on each at State Jazz Festival. Also played guitar and bass guitar in Jazz Band. - Attended, auditioned, and performed at a Jazz Camp at [college], a reputable college with an international jazz program endorsed by many legendary jazz figures/groups such as The Count Basie Jazz Orchestra, Gordan Goodwin's Big Phat Band, and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. - Freelance Musician and Composer for various online projects, primarily in the video game industry. - Music used in two indie films, with one being presented at [state] State Thespian Festival, and winning an award with recognition. - ● TheateMusical: - Inducted Honor Thespian to the National Thespian Society - Played notable supporting roles in Plays and Broadway Musicals, as well as filled tech positions primarily in the design aspect of the production (graphics/publicity, scenery) - Improv Team that competed at State - ● VEX Robotics: - State Finalist Freshman Year - Nationals Runner-Up
Activities: - ● Community: - Speech Campaign: spoke at 6 Schools across the state, 500+ listeners. Posters put up at each, advocating for a break in social norms. Surveyed school and gathered all data for a presentation and medalled at state for an FCCLA STAR Event. - Gave a motivational speech on MLK Day about chasing your dreams that was televised and recognized by the Mayor. - The Pink Lemonade Project: Indie Film+Book project where I created the music as well as designed the videography + video editing, lighting, locations, Characters, and assistance in Story and script writing. This project aimed to expose a local summer camp and the effects of a toxic authoritarian system via abuses and etc. - ● General: - Volunteered at a company that designs, creates, and tests Brewing Machinery internationally - CPR and AED Certified - I intend to commit to the military w/ ROTC Scholarship on a 4-6 year contract following graduation/obtaining desired degree - Non-Competitive Powerlifting, 300 Wilks Score - ● Programming & Roblox: - Self-Taught Luau/Lua5.5+, Python, C/C++, Type/Javascript, Haxeflixel, CSS, very minor html - At the age of 10, I had my own business that operated on Twitter, creating 3D Graphics (via Blender, Photoshop, and After Effects) for individuals and games, such as wallpapers, profile icons, and thumbnails. I then transitioned to a broad spectrum of skills acquired through the passion of game creation on Roblox - Formerly a Lead Developer for an indie game studio known as '[studio]', which was a project known for creating fun games for children, that gathered 1 million group members, and over 75 million game plays through a platform known as Roblox. These games generated a collective $70KUSD over the course of their popularity combined (20% of revenue was cycled back as advertisement funding). Through this community that was developed, we were able to raise over $6.5KUSD to help fund small indie projects from other smaller development groups. - Among many other games I created music for, one in particular is worth noting: 'Doors', amassing 4.9 Billion plays since 2021, has reached the screen of nearly every kid that is playing video games today. - Collaborated with popular online celebrities (YouTube, TikTok) on making games and experiences for their communities, some of which have billions of views and millions of followers. - I am a contributed developer to other popular games and projects with 2.6 Billion collective plays. I fulfilled various roles in these projects, such as game design, Front and Back-End programming (Luau/Lua 5.5+ & Typescript), 3D Artwork/Video Animation (using programs Blender, Photoshop, Premiere Pro/Sony Vegas, and After Effects), Music Design, Character & Object Animation, Architecture, and Voice Acting. Many of these games are a major source of income for the developers involved, such as "My Restaurant!" (of which I did 3D & 2D graphic design for), a game with ~800M plays, created by a studio known as BIG Games, which is the highest grossing development group on the platform. I connected to these groups and Studios through the Roblox Dev Forum, a company known as "Hidden Developers", Twitter, and my personal website. Through these projects, I nurtured my passion to create, and developed several solo passion projects for my own personal enjoyment. - Bug Tested various other games over several years, solving issues for experiences that went on to have hundreds of thousands of concurrent players. I am also a former member of the Official Roblox QA Team (before it was disbanded), which tested upcoming features to the platform. I have since been very active on their Developer Forum, helping all creators (young and old) solve issues and create awesome games. - Although my game development has slowed, I am currently working on a large game that will show the hardship of Schizophrenia and Social Outcasting through intricate storytelling. I intend to release this game on multiple platforms, such as Steam. - Created a Roblox Plug-in that detects Backdoors and vulnerabilities within games, preserving user data and game integrity. This plug-in has been used by nearly 300 developers thus far. - Created my own file syncing program using C++ via Visual Studio Code, that analyzes computer folders for identical information and can delete it or sync data from one folder to another (if not identical). This program has been used by my friends, but I did not publish it online. - Created a Discord Bot with custom commands for the Interbyte Studios Community server (18k members). This application allowed the community to interact and have a recreational token and minigame system for engagement and bonding. This bot was initially created in Python, but was then completely revamped in Javascript via Node.js (with some minor html for some special features.) - Created a customized theme for Canvas and Roblox using the "Stylish" extension, coded in CSS. - Utilizing BetterDiscord, I created my own lock screen for the Discord application to protect my computer from siblings and/or any environment I am working in. This came with a customized theme among other features, such as a built-in Spotify controller (play/pause, skip, and tuning into what others are listening to), and it synced up with my Discord Bot in my own server, allowing me to see the statistics (account age, user ID, etc.), and possible rule infractions of a given user within the community. This was coded in Javascript (Node.js), CSS, and HTML (for embedding purposes). This served to speed up the moderation and disciplinary side of my community, but also improve the efficiency of the Discord application.
Awards & Honor Groups: - x2 Academic Letter, Top PreACT at School - Outstanding Solo-Ensemble Award w/ 1st Place for self-composed, led, and performed Marimba Duet - Superior (1) Rating at District Music Contest for Marimba Duet - x1 Music Letter (only offered at former school) - Outstanding Jazz Soloist Drum Set at State - Outstanding Jazz Soloist Piano at State - Nominated Ambassador of Music (International Program) - All-City Percussion - All-State Jazz & Concert Band Acceptance (Committed to Jazz) - [College w/ International Jazz Program] Jazz Band Performer - State Finalist VEX Robotics (Freshman) - Nationals Runner-Up VEX Robotics (Sophomore) - Honor Thespian
In essays I hope to write about my aspirations to create The Iron Giant and how Robotics is an art. I am also planning to write about how my downfall in Freshman and sophomore years re-shaped the way a school district functions forever, and my recovery and discovery of ambition.
I'd like to know what colleges would best suit my interests and aspirations, and give me the best shot at success. I would also appreciate any and all advice for my resume and what I should do for LORs, or any aspect at all.

Hi, I’m an IMG with clinical pathology residency, planning for practice eligibility route (PER) . I am applying for eligibility letter. Royal college has asked for CanMEDS letter that will indicate that my training abroad is equal to Canada in terms of roles mentioned in CanMEDS framework. Does anyone who applied for PER have a sample of CanMEDS letter for Royal College? Thank you

Hi, I'm an IMG with clinical pathology residency, planning for practice eligibility route (PER) . I am applying for eligibility letter. Royal college has asked for CanMEDS letter that will indicate that my training abroad is equal to Canada in terms of roles mentioned in CanMEDS framework. Does anyone who applied for PER have a sample of CanMEDS letter for Royal College?
Thank you.

Might as well post publically too:
This is a letter to Lucien, the EM team, and anyone and everyone from the greater worldwide TST community. And isn’t that a trip to be able to say that it is worldwide? Which makes this all the much harder to write and all the more necessary.
Obviously, the recent events and the turmoil that it has created have been incredibly stressful, destabilizing, scary, and even maddening for so many of us. There are some fairly different perceptions of what has happened and what IS happening, and I suppose I am more looking at the path ahead…of what could happen, primarily because of the way things are being set up. And then forecasting what the future TST will look like due to the way they are being set up and the way this is all unfolding. Unfortunately, I have experienced this kind of thing before, and it’s all too familiar and predictable.
This points to one key issue I want to address that I do not think is being discussed enough, or maybe even at all: intent vs impact. A particular minister taking screenshots (fucking hell do I detest that term now!) of private minister conversations, which they thought were detrimental to the greater community, then sharing it with EM could possibly be seen as a cautionary and protective measure. Some would also view it as quite unsavory since nobody likes a narc. But that action COULD be seen as something done with a debatably “good” intention. I am being generous here. But then sharing those same screenshots of private conversations, from supposedly secure platforms, in our formerly private and secure Minister Slack, without obscuring any names or identifying pictures, during an EXCEPTIONALLY volatile time where our minister community was already incredibly scared, distrustful, with many entirely in the dark…the IMPACT of that action, regardless of intent, was incredibly harmful. The term adding fuel to a fire just could not be more appropriate here. It completely wrecked whatever trust was left. The level of fear increased drastically. I did not think things could get that much worse, but boy was I wrong!
It boggles my mind that Tracy Levin can’t admit and own the impact that had on our already fragile community. That lack of awareness and humility has also created some negative impacts, and that should be acknowledged as well.
Then let’s add in both Tracy's, and especially Tommy’s behavior and “communication skills” on said Slack. For sure I can say that Tommy has bullied, accused, name called, and just outright and unmistakably acted in ways that were utterly inappropriate as a minister and undoubtedly breaking our minister code of conduct. All the while other ministers are getting booted for similar and even not as harmful behaviour. Let’s set aside the intentions behind EM for allowing that to happen, but the impact that had just continued to retraumatize us all, continuing to destabilize and also solidifying the perception that Lucien’s movie night inner circle is getting more than special treatment. The fear of saying something “wrong” on our Slack, for fear of getting booted from Ministry, really started to set in.
Then, in maybe an incredible stroke of luck, a 10-day silent meditation retreat that I had scheduled six months ago took me away from this drama. I foolishly thought, or maybe hoped, that there was no way this could all get worse. Ha!
I just came out of retreat to find out Lucien created a Ministry Liaison team of his inner circle movie night friends. The impact of this has now PROVED without a doubt that LG is rewarding poor behavior to his buddies. Since I was previously asked to be the EM Liaison and a member of OrdCo, this all seemed very inappropriate, especially since some of these people aren’t even ministers! And then to give this team Admin access to Slack, especially the NONministers is another significant violation of trust and incredibly inappropriate and unacceptable. This is a Minister Slack, period. No one else admitted, full stop. There is no doubt LG sending his hit squad in to “clean up Slack” was just a thinly veiled mission to gather more screenshots, with the intention of booting more ministers, the ones that spoke negatively of EM, but even ones that simply, and in pretty benign ways, questioned what was going on. Which we just saw with the latest batch of “defrockings”.
The Ministry Slack is so quiet now, and in the little bit of catching up that I have done, ministers have straight out stated that they are afraid to say anything for fear of being fired, booted, or whatever we want to call it. What an impact this all has had on the people who oversee the whole community. There is so much continual trauma and painful suffering. That’s not an environment that I want to be in. I have done enough inner work that one of my most significant intentions in life is to make sure I don’t knowingly put myself in situations that are uncomfortable. And TST Ministry, hell, probably TST as a whole right now, feels very UNcomfortable for me.
I knew I would be wrestling with my relationship to this whole thing while on retreat, and it was really the first or second day that I had a big Captain Obvious inner question ringing through my head: Do I want more stress in my life, or less? It was not a hard choice to make, at all.
But beyond that, and thinking about how this continued harmful impact will potentially affect TST, that is an even bigger thing that I refuse to let myself endure.This LG inner circle Ministry Liaison team, Erin described to me as the one that will be helping rebuild TST Ministry. Well, the fact that some of the members, I’d say 5 conservatively, of this new team, are some of the most inflammatory and disruptive people in all of TST, and in my eyes, also some of the most unhealthy and unskillful as well. TST most certainly needs to get rebuilt, strengthened, and I think most importantly, HEALED. AND that will not be possible with this unqualified team, especially since Tommy and Tracy are the two who have caused some of the most significant harm.
This is another reason I just cannot have anything to do with TST now: if I stayed and tried to help, the perception of the community of ministers would be that I endorsed this team, and that’s something I could not live with. Stated clearly, I DO NOT approve of this Ministry Liaison Team and refuse to lower myself to work with them.
With all this in mind, I quit. I quit it all. Please remove me from all TST spaces and take down and delete all the services I have led and been a part of on TST TV and in the Ministry Archives. I cannot be associated with TST and its current path, especially with the ones steering and guiding the ship.
A warning to EM, you will NOT be able to rebuild something healthy and sustainable with the team you have assembled and the way you’ve been making decisions. Please reconsider, reevaluate, and take your time getting the right people—quality people with emotional intelligence and people skills, ones who have the best interest of TST in mind, not LG or whatever BS agenda they themselves may be holding. I truly hope you can pull out of this, and I wish you the best of luck.
I’m out.

It's already starting to happen with ketones. The people shilling AG1 and keystones are almost always the same people, and they are saying that the science isn't really there yet, but it definitely helped them (finacially help shouldn't count), but it might not help you, but here is my promo code oh it's $100 and you need to keep using it.
But here is a little study on a study on ketones:
Perspective: Ketone Supplementation in Sports—Does It Work?
Anyways, back to AG1

• This community has more power over companies and that goes for the products people in the space promote than they think.
• These kinds of products don't align with the community, especially AG1 and it's founder.
• The social media dynamic is still relatively new, especially in ultrarunning. We have moved away from only big companies being able to sell ads on TV and in magazines to anyone being able to buy an ad spot from anyone with a podcast or Instagram. It's cool to be seen having sponsors, even if those sponsors are for products you ingest not regulated by any higher governing body and doesn't have sound science yet.
• Coaches need to be held to a higher standard when shilling products put in the body and should be open to any dialogue about those products. There are several ethics of coaching and sponsorship resources and coaches promoting AG1 go against a lot of the ethical concerns mentioned when coaches promote a product to their athletes such as but not limited to: transparency, authenticity, evidence-based recommendations, prioritizing client interests over one's own financial interest gained by promoting said product, avoiding over-reliance on products, ethical marketing practices.

Some ultrarunning podcasts and/or coaches that have promoted AG1 in the last 6 months or so
FREE TRAIL
TRAIL SOCIETY
TRAIL RUNNING NATION
THE STRENGTH RUNNING PODCAST
SWAP
Some ultrarunning podcast and/or coaches that have not promoted AG1 in the last 6 months or so as far I could find, bare with me if I missed any, there are hundreds of episodes and some of them have several ads
HUMAN PERFORMANCE OUTLIERS (almost positive no AG1 ads but does follow AG1 on Instagram)
THE JUNIPER LAB
KOOPCAST
UPHILL ATHLETE
EVOKECAST
SCIENCE OF ULTRA (Not active anymore but a great resource)
SINGLETRACK with Finn (almost positive no AG1 ads)
THE EXTREMIST SHOW with Floris (almost positive no AG1 ads)
If I missed or messed up any let me know.
I listen to almost all of these podcasts regularly except for a couple, I enjoy most of them and like the people behind them, I am just not a fan of all the AG1 ads and firmly believe it doesn't belong in ultrarunning and they can do better. The longer we wait as a community to do something about it the harder it will be to tackle when these kinds of products come into the space.
AG1 was founded by someone who scammed millions of dollars who couldn't afford homes in New Zealand under a rent-to-own scheme, convicted in NZ, them fled to the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1g-Cbcjwo
A medical doctor's concerns with AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Lzdw8_CEg&list=PLrroxk4QxyE6kNxJvhU2_f_UxWhHVuJp7
PhD Rhonda Patrick's take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlBQducF4T4
AG1 exceeds California's daily serving of lead limit (this is prop 65, many foods have naturally occurring lead but it seems like AG1 was not aware/had tested their product for lead until consumer reports tested it)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fyIpuQD57As
Trainers Road Take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJGqzepcBc
A dietitian's take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB5qU9a4vZo
A nutritionist take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkMWgP-b46Y
Boost your Biology's take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_uTrb_UEk
A very small but decent Youtuber's take on AG1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3chRxUvR8k&t=184s
AG1 is a scam. We should have gotten it out of the ultrarunning community yesterday. There are plenty of other legitimate brands to promote and be sponsored by. If you want to support someone, buy a training plan, research letter, or whatever that has all the money going to them and not a product that takes 50 dollars of what 100 dollars they sell it for to give to the top promoters, and then pass off a few thousand dollars to the ultra running coaches and podcasters shilling it.
Is AG1 going to kill you? Probably not. It's a multivitamin powder you mix in water. The problem is all the people shilling the product knowing it will do nothing for you and is expensive because they are getting a big cut of it (most of it is not even going to the people you are buying from but to the mega endorsers like Rogan, Huberman, etc.) It doesn't belong in the ultrarunning community if the community decides they don't want it (we shouldn't), coaches should be a lot more careful promoting products that go into the body and consider the ethics of those products