Is Gambling A Sin Got Questions - chismecalientito.com

Discovering and embracing Satanism is an easier task for some than for others. I just wanted to share a little of my experience for anyone coming from a strict Christian upbringing or even a Christian cult. It's rare that someone is able to escape the clutches of a cult unscathed and then go on to thrive. It's not something that happens overnight and it can involve undoing a lot of ingrained beliefs, going through an identity crisis, losing family or friends, and changing your entire perception of yourself and life. Going through it, I wasn't sure I was going to ever get out. But now, I can really stand back and be amazed at how resilient we can be.
In the 80s, my midwestern parents found themselves in a self-destructive lifestyle, and after attending a church-hosted and horrific dramatization of people being dragged off to hell, they turned to Christianity as the magic cure for their unhappiness in life. When I was born, they were still brand-new born-agains struggling with substance abuse and addiction, but they went all in. And I mean ALL in. They ghosted all their friends, cut ties with every member of my extended family, and made a new family of believers. We were Pentecostal - the 700 club-watching, faith-healing, tongues-speaking, Proctor and Gamble-boycotting variety. If you've ever seen Jesus Camp that was basically my life. I don't remember a lot from those early years, but I've heard stories and have seen family photos to know that I don't want to remember.
As my sister and I got older, they attempted to shelter us from the horrors of the sin-ridden secular world. We were homeschooled with an all-Christian, church-approved curriculum taught by my mother (who had an 8th grade education) while my dad was at work. My textbooks contained and presented as fact the typical hoaxes and flawed analogies that form the basis for Christian science-denial, and I didn’t know any different. We lived in the Bible belt on a small farm, and everyone I knew was at least some form of Christian. There weren't enough non-believers to convert, so we spent most of our time trying to convert the Catholics and Baptists to "real" Christianity. My mom always said Pentecostals came first, Catholics and Baptists came along after and bastardized Christianity. Most of my "classes" were based in homemaking or farm work, and went along nicely with our weekly Wednesday night girl's program, The Missionettes. It was basically girl scouts but focused on Bible memorization and turning us into good Christian wives. We had badges like sewing, knitting, cooking, grooming, ettiquette, abstinence, and first aid. Of course we also had religious badges for communion, prayer, healing, fruits of the spirit, and the armor of god etc. A very well-rounded education.
While my parents went to church and we put on the face like we were living the blessed life, things at home weren't great. The hardest thing growing up was hearing all the adults at church go on and on about how great my parents were and how lucky I was to have such good Christian parents. One day, I remember my dad pulling me aside to tell me there was something wrong with my mom, that I should never make her angry because he wouldn't be able to choose between us. When I was 5, my mom threw a pair of scissors at my dad. They got embedded in his leg and he had to go to the emergency room. When I was around 6, my mom began to threaten my dad in front of us, saying by the time he got home from work, we would be gone. That my sister and I needed to pick who we wanted to live with because by the end of the day, we needed to be packed and ready to leave. My mom was a big fan of belts and the wooden spoon, and she never spared the rod. I have had many objects broken on me. When she would make us bend over, I would try to look back and apologize, to ask what I had done wrong, or what i could do to fix it, but anything other than complete eyes-foward submission was viewed as rebellion and only added to the count. She told me once in a joking manner that when I was in trouble, all I would say was "I want to hold you" to try to get out of punishment. She laughed. When I was 7, my mom told us that Satan told her to kill us with a potato peeler, and that she was going to kill us, my dad, and then herself. But “luckily” god "saved" us! After that, I remember my sister and I used to hide in our closet and pray to god to turn us into farm animals. Horses, dogs, chickens, anything, so we could run away and be free. We didn't even want to be human anymore. By the time I was 12, suicidal ideation set in and never really let go. Satan didn't scare me anymore. My mom did. Hell was real and I was living in it.
When I was 13, my mom found a pencil in a parking lot from a local high school and determined that it was a sign from god that we should be enrolled in public school. I was terrified. These people weren't anything like me, they were all lost sinners and it was my job to be the shining light in the midst of darkness, to teach them the way. However, it turned out, I was the one who did most of the learning. I was exposed to more math and science in high school than I had been in my entire life. I learned about other cultures and history. I actually made some friends and got to see how other people live for the first time in my life. Nothing, absolutely nothing, at that high school even touched the evil I experienced at home. There were days I didn’t want to go home. I never missed a day of school if I could help it.
The things I had believed started to not make sense in my mind anymore. It took several years for me to put all the pieces together, but the final straw was actually reading the Bible entirely from cover to cover for the first time, rather than just the “reading plan” i was given. I learned when the gospels were actually written, who possibly wrote them and why. I started reading about as many different religions as I could and started realizing the similarties of them all. I had a good friend at the time who wasn't afraid to challenge every religious and political position I had, and realized that I didn't even know why I believed what I did, only that I was told to believe it and always had. I began to reexamine everything I believed, no matter how trivial or obvious. It became clear to me that more than anything, I just wanted more out of life than I was given.
Originally, I wasn't going to go to college. We didn't have enough money, no one in my family had ever gone to college, and my parents had just assumed that I'd end up being a pastor's wife who played the piano for church services. But on the advice of an advisor, I applied to and auditioned for a music program, and I got in. I was finally getting out. But not before my mom could have the final word. When my parents found out I had been talking to a boy at school and that I liked him, she called me "the whore" for a month. One day, I had the flu and missed school for a few days. My boyfriend asked if he could bring over a can of soup and the homework I had missed. My parents agreed, and when he came in, he sat on the end of my bed (the door was wide open and I was under a ton of blankets) to ask how I was doing. My mom walked by and screeched at the top of her lungs that he needed to get the fuck out of my room and out of her house. That we weren't allowed to be in the same room without supervision. I had basically learned that sticking up for myself was useless, but I would stick up for him. He hadn't done anything wrong. I got out of bed and got up into her face and called her a psychotic bitch. She demanded that my dad throw me out. I looked at him and he looked at me and I will never forget what he said. "I told you not to make her angry because I can't choose between you. This is her house. You have to leave."
So I left. I slept in my car that night and eventually stayed with my boyfriend's family until my aunt (who my parent's ghosted) heard what happened. She took me in for several months until I could make enough money working a few part-time jobs to afford a small apartment. I completely left the church after that. I did visit a few others and even worked as a choir director at a non-denomination church for a while as a side gig, but it just wasn't the same. The veil had been lifted.
Out of the dozens of families who knew me, who watched me grow up and spent time with my family (some who even knew what was going on at home), none of them attempted to contact me. Out of all of my church friends, I am still in contact with only one, who left around the same time I did. When people say leaving a cult is like commiting social suicide, they aren't exaggerating. I was completely cut off.
If you asked my parents today, they would tell you that around 18, I gave into doubt and fell from grace. That the friends I made outside of church brainwashed me. That going to college was the nail in the coffin of my salvation. They'd tell you that by the time I turned 18, I was lost. But I was never lost. Not really. They’d never tell you that I always got in trouble for constantly questioning things. When I was eight, I wrote on the back of an offering envelope “If god created us, who created god?” and left it on a church pew for one of the elders to find (and subsequently got a beating for it). They’d never tell you that at ten, I got into an argument with the children’s pastor for saying men were superior to women because they were created first. They’d never tell you that as a Missionette, I got caught skipping sewing class to crash the Royal Rangers’ (all boys group) flag football games and outdoor events. And they’d certainly never tell you that I was eventually replaced as the president of a bible study group at school for focusing on the less-read and more appalling stories in the Bible, telling people that the gospels weren’t actually written by eye-witnesses, and encouraging people to actually read and think for themselves.
Discovering Satanism was actually one of the biggest steps in trauma recovery for me. To realize that all of my actions and behaviors were based in natural human needs and emotions that aren't at all sinful. That my learned helplessness was a direct result of my upbringing and I didn't need it anymore. That I had control of my life now. That I'm resilient and capable of going through a fire and coming out on the other end, and that I don't have to forgive anyone for anything. That the only person I can rely on is myself.
Here I am on the other side of it all, through many twists and turns. I'm the first of my family to graduate high school, go to college, or go to graduate school. I'm now a professional scientist working on Alzheimer disease research and a keyboardist in a working band. I'm active in my community both in local politics and through volunteer work. Things are far from perfect. I still struggle with old emotions, behaviors and thought patterns. It’s taken many rituals and even daily effort sometimes, but I've achieved a level of happiness and fulfillment in life I never thought possible.
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There is no heaven of glory bright, and no hell where sinners roast. Here and now is our day of torment! Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth! Say unto thine own heart, "I am my own redeemer." Stop the way of them that would persecute you. Let those who devise thine undoing be hurled back to confusion and infamy. Let them be as chaff before the cyclone and after they have fallen rejoice in thine own salvation. Then all thy bones shall say pridefully, "Who is like unto me? Have I not been too strong for mine adversaries? Have I not delivered MYSELF by mine own brain and body?"
The Book of Satan - Anton Szandor LaVey

the MC, the rival, and The ideological clash

First of all, the “War For Paradis” arc (thanks for the "amazing" arc name, aot wiki users) had a lot of technical writing problems (Zevi thunderspear adventure, Falbi conveniently running into Sasha’s family, Magath suddenly changing his military policy so that they don’t noscope Eren to death 30 seconds into the battle), but it was wildly entertaining and had an amazing climax. Rumbling arc mostly gives us a boring plane subplot on top of shallow and simplified character interactions and ideologies. Great entertainment Yams.
The WFP arc gave Eren an ideological opponent in Zeke. Zeke is an antinatalist in a story that seems very pronatalist, so you know he is in the “wrong” narratively, but he is a good rival due to his writing and the fact he is a direct opposite of Eren, who nevertheless came to a similar conclusion. Zeke gets unoreversed by Eren in the climax of WFP, and the story moves to next indeological conflict, that between Eren and Armin. Whereas Eren and Zeke are both doomerpilled and both intend to solve the Eldian situation via genocide, Armin represents a more hopeful and diplomatic approach to the future of the conflict.
Sadly, Armin’s character runs into multiple writing problems that make him an underwhelming rival to Eren, not just from the fact that he doesn’t fucking do anything significant for most of post-timeskip, but from the way his ideology is portrayed. For starters, Armin & co. represent not one, but two different opposing approaches to Paradis’ dilemma, one is the 50-year plan and the other is “solving it peacefully”. I say both, because the story doesn’t seem to state what Armin (or Hange, who is more or less grouped with him by the story) actually want, they agree to 50yp, but they also state that it’s flawed or immoral (since it forces Titan inheritance on Historia’s bloodline) and try to find alternatives. Those alternatives do not happen, so Armin switches to 50yp as that’s what he hopes Eren is doing and why he decides to help him in Shiganshina. However, after the Rumbling starts, the plan is forgotten again (even though it is still brought up sometimes?) and the story switches back to representing Armin’s side as “breaking the cycle of violence via talking it out with the enemy and forgiving them”.
Do I need to say that the 50yp and breaking the violence cycle are completely thematically opposite? 50yp is a plan that includes a violent strike against an enemy and keeps the titan inheritance. Thematically, it continues the cycle of both titans and war as a necessary evil for the greater good. Why is it given to the same characters that are thematically tied to pacifism and peace? Because Isayama didn’t bother to set up even more factions with opposing ideals, and just grouped everything into one?

diplomacy? politics?! I only know anti-war speeches

But even if we just look at the “talking it out” part of Armin’s/Hange’s narrative theme, it’s not well written. At all. The story in its current state equates diplomacy or any non-violent approaches to conflict to “we need to talk to the enemy”. That’s it. The extent of their diplomatic approaches as an alternative to 50yp is one (!) scene where they go to the conference and the Eldian rights speaker (who never once met a Paradisian in his life, and who Hange & co. did not talk to) is like “Eldians good, Paradis bad” and the Survey Corps is like *surprise Pikachu face*, and that’s all. That’s the end of their “diplomatic attempts”. Somehow this one press conference persuaded both the SC with their indomitable spirit and the majority of the fandom that diplomacy is impossible forever because a guy threw responsibility on a titan doomsday island nobody in the world had any contacts with for a century. Personally, I find the scene laughable. Everyone is just too racist to ever make any deals with, aside from when they stop being racist after interacting with Eldians for some time, or when the Eldians are Tyburs, or when it’s very very monetarily profitable to make deals with Eldians, but those are obviously rare exceptions and Paradis is just so alone and they can never make allies with anyone. Ever 😟
But wait! Somehow the dreaded diplomacy had place in the story for pretty much the whole pre-timeskip, despite the fact that the SC situation was somewhat Eldia-lite (everyone fucking hated them! Everyone tried to steal Eren from them)! The Uprising arc was, I guess, supposed to be a test run for the human faction-vs-human faction parts of the story. Yes, a lot of the arc was about the dilemma of killing fellow humans, but the other part of the arc dealt with diplomatic, and not solely violent, solutions to the harsh dilemmas the SC were facing. The main emotional climax of the arc is Historia freeing Eren instead of both Eren and Hisu transforming into titans and duking it out. Erwin, meanwhile, does not spill a drop of blood in this arc (aside from his own), he solves his conflict via political scheming. It’s not a very complicated political scheming, but it is a diplomatic solution to the arc’s conflict, and it’s not portrayed as idealistic fairy tale ending with sunshine and roses, it’s portrayed like smart decisions by a smart man who can make concessions and gain allies. Besides Erwin making smart plays, this arc sets up Hange’s indecisiveness and the initial desire to run away from conflict, which is soon resolved (this arc has a similar dilemma for them, sadly it’s only really resolved after the Rumbling already started), as well as the Gesumin in all his creepy glory, while also setting up Armin’s conflict over killing humans (it seems like the Gesumin part of him has completely disappeared by now, only the murder angst and indecisiveness remained, which tbh makes him a lamer character, esp. since Ereh gets to keep both his early-series murder boner and his later developement).
If Uprising was humans-vs-humans: the beginning, then Paradis dealing with outside world was supposed to be Uprising, but bigger (just like the Rumbling is Grim Reminder, but bigger). But now the training wheels are off, the enemy factions are more hostile and complicated, the diplomatic god that is Erwin is gone, and now it’s up to Armin and Hange to apply the experience they gained in Uprising and show their smarts to deal with this shit. And they didn’t need to succeed. They could have failed completely or didn’t get enough definitive results, and then Eren would go rogue, and Liberio and the Yeagerists would have escalated everything and they would have been left wondering if they could actually do any better to prevent it all. Maybe they would realize that continuing solely via non-violence is fruitless and eventually agree to sacrifice Historia and commit similar horrible deeds, and the question becomes where is the line they shouldn’t cross and what that makes them better than Eren’s final solution.
Except they didn’t do shit. They didn’t even try. They sat on their asses for four years preaching about peace, then gave up at the first attempt (if that was even an attempt). I would say that the point of this was that Erwin was too valuable and Hange/Armin were too lost without him to deal with stuff, but I am honestly not sure that this is intended by the story, instead of “the situation was impossible to ever be improved by anyone’s actions and the only way out was global genocide”, so the story didn’t bother giving Armin and Hange anything to do because it's actually not important and their themes and ideology are actually completely useless... despite now presenting them as important. The only time they do anything is the Yeagerist uprising mini-arc (which is about internal Paradisian conflict, not the external Eldian conflict), and the Alliance, which the story pretends is about the Eldian conflict but it’s actually not, because it’s about breaking the personal revenge cycle within a group of people, most of which already know each other, not about any global resolutions.
So, as a result, in the current arc we are stuck with two opposing “solutions”: in one corner we have Mr. “only way to save my country is to mercilessly stomp every man woman and child in every corner of the world outside my little island”, and in the other corner we have Mr. “I can be a manipulative little bitch that has showed vast understanding of tactics and politics my whole life, but the only thing I want to do now is talk to people and that would resolve everything somehow”. It’s an extremely contrived false dilemma that pretends there is literally nothing between genocide and utterly passive pacifism and it’s a binary. Now choose if you find methodically flattening babies to be an acceptable course of action (in which case you’d probably choose Eren, because at least he has a concrete goal and is doing something), or not in which case you are stuck with Armin who is written like a caricature soyboy lib who can’t do anything other than try to talk to everyone. Amazing writing.
This utter mess of thematic narrative is probably why Isayama decided to just have multiple characters suddenly start standing around literally giving speeches that spell out how war bad peace good break the cycle for children because they are the future. Otherwise the story leans too hard on the “genocide is pretty good eh” side. Except the speeches won’t do shit because Eren is also in part motivated by breaking the cycle (so Eren good even though violence bad?? Make up your mind Isayama), and Armin is just completely reactionary and ineffective, and even if uniting with his personal enemies is breaking a cycle, an obvious logical question is “the fuck will you do after that?” which the story answers with “idk lol”, so we come back down to “wow they both suck, but one sucks in a more boring way”.
A better conflict that would make more sense would be about “ending the cycle” via a big atrocity (genocide of one of the sides) vs “continuing the cycle” via small atrocities for the greater good (variations of 50yp/actual displomacy/political scheming), but rn the story tries to do the both sides approach where Eren wants to break the cycle by killing everyone who can potentially kill him, and Armin tries to break the cycle by… being a good person? Except he says that he is a bad person? And his side still commits small atrocities to achieve its goals like killing yeagerists at the port? I guess that he breaks the cycle on a personal level, but how does that help overall since if he stops Eren and makes a peace treaty with the remains of the world, this was only possible due to Eren being a genocidal maniac and stomping on everything to the point his enemies are forced to repent? None of this was caused by Armin’s own talents or ideology, only Eren’s. So what was the point of pro-pacifism speeches again. Why are we having so much of them.

Honestly, you guys need even more talking

Moving on, even in terms of Armin and the team breaking their own personal cycle, the story falls flat. Overall the Alliance chapters are extremely, extremely rushed and generally superficially written. The handwaved resolution of many small subplots and the formation of the Alliance in 126 are laughable. And note how it's largely Hange's actions that create the alliance anyway, not Armin's who gets stuck on a sidequest and then bumps into Annie who later joins them offscreen. We don't even dwell on Armin's motives for opposing Eren, despite the fact that it's more or less an endgame rivalry. 127 has some logical problems imo but it’s a great, emotional chapter that raises a good point of “We are all war criminals and we have lots of bad blood between us, but we need to move past that because we need to stop this massacre”, it’s followed in 128 by Magath talking about ignorance and acknowledging your crimes for the sake of future generations, it’s all good, but.
The reason it falls flat is because they do not acknowledge a lot of bad blood between them. They are ignorant of some of their crimes. All they know is Yelena parroting a list of their warcrimes (how does she know all of those details, anyway?) and then the Marco talk. Nothing else is personally acknowledged. 104th feeding a helpless Bert to a titan while he screams for his friends is never talked about. Pieck being a part of Ragako massacre is never revealed to Connie. Annie and Levi never talk (not that he gives a shit about anything but monke, but still). Colt and Porco are barely mentioned at all. Warriors’ brainwashing and shit childhoods being a factor in their actions is not acknowledged (does anyone even know exactly how shit their lives actually were aside from Eren and Armin? Annie tells her story to Hitch, so the audience knows, but not the characters). Liberio seems barely relevant despite happening just a month ago, not just that, but Magath knowing about the attack beforehand is never revealed to the Warriors. Guys? Hello? Don’t you think you should know about the fact that your commanding officer conspired to get your hometown massacred, but also did it with an intention to improve your country’s leadership and, hopefully, your social standing, even though it was all for nothing in the end? Well, the story doesn’t think so, he dies without a soul knowing.
Even the stuff that gets acknowledged is needlessly rushed because the chapters are trying to juggle 12+ characters in a fairly small amount of time. The example that personally pissed me off was Annie and Reiner’s resolution. As a reminder, he was the one who pushed BA into attacking the walls and Trost, generally was an ass who made their lives miserable, this dynamic spanned across two whole flashback chapters in Marley back in the good old times when pacing was good. All they get is Reiner taking the blame for Marco at the campfire, then they fight together, then it’s all resolved with half a page of dialogue which is basically “sorry I was an asshole 😕” “NP bro” *hug*. I mean, at least it’s a resolution, but it’s just so halfassed for such a complicated character dynamic that I am just left mourning the story that could have been.
Also that talk on a plane. So, Connie thinks he is “the same” as Reiner, because… let’s see… he killed Yeagerists, armed members of a radicalized splinter faction who just two days ago violently overthrew their government, titanized dozens of military members and tried to kill Hange and Levi. He does it to get a plane so their group can get to Eren and try to halt the Apocalypse. According to Connie (and to the story, I guess?) it makes him the same as Reiner, a child soldier brainwashed to commit genocide of 250 000 people. I don’t care that Connie feels sad, it’s just stupid. Like, the fix is right there, just talk about civilian slaughter in Liberio, mention killing Bert like RBA killed Marco, the yeagerist battle is your “I betrayed my friends ☹️” aspect, boom, you can now make a case that they are kind of the same, but Connie seems to feel much more guilt about his yeagerist former comrades than dead civilians, why do the yeagerists in the fandom hate Connie again? He is no.1 yeagerist stan! You should be proud of him!
(Actually the way the chapters are written it feels like the only characters in the Alliance that give a shit about people getting stomped around the world are Hange, who feels the Rumbling is partly their fault and actually takes steps to form the Alliance, and Jean, who looks like he is in a state of constant mental breakdown and once spares a panicked thought about Ramzi, everyone else is either for Ereh/muh daddy, or just feels kinda there. Like, they took a long plane trip above miles upon miles of a stomped, scorched graveyard, you’d think one of them would look out the window and comment on it, but they just talk about the harbor battle and how it makes them feel bad. People are dying around the world in graphic detail, but the alliance plot feels entirely disconnected from that. Also they let Annie, a titan shifter, go because she doesn’t wanna fight anymore. Guys, there are people dying. Maybe she could be useful. Do you even give a shit).
Anyway, since they think their sins are equivalent to Reiner's, they make the next logical leap and conclude they are also equivalent to Eren's. Bc they all kill people to achieve their goals. Then what is the actual thematic point of the conflict? What makes you different from Eren, aside from a different current objective? Why is he committing genocide, and you are not? Will the story continue the hints that Eren and Reiner are different from other characters, or is everything just superficially morally grey?

isayama's new best boy

Oh but the two Eren chapters we got were great: interesting panel layouts and non-linear storytelling, PATHS shards mysteries, great visual metaphor with the birds, actually subtle thematic and character writing instead of characters standing and making anti-war speeches, really shows where Isayama’s priorities lie, lol. How sad, his acknowledged faves are Reiner and Jean, but he can’t give a rat’s ass about the writing of their faction and it brings their characters down HARD. I guess his love for his own self-insert has prevailed and took over his entire remaining attention span for this series.
The problem with Eren comes in 133, because his epic “I came to talk to tell you we don’t need to talk” speech contradicts his previous behaviour. His point in this chapter is that he supposedly allows Alliance to keep their powers and come fight him because freedom. Okay let’s see, 1) in 112 he was fine with lying to MA despite stating in the same chapter that ignorance in the opposite of freedom, thus making MA “not free”; 2) he literally put his friends in jail lol. But now he values their freedom above their safety or above a quick and unopposed completion of his plans despite “not wanting to gamble Paradis’ future”. Either it’s shitty writing yet again, or Eren is a massive hypocrite (lol) who restricts his friends’ freedoms when they could have still prevented the Rumbling, but allows them to fight now when he is basically God. That said, the whole scene and the contrast of sleepy adult Headren/cheerful child Eren/creepy eyeless child Eren is kinda sus so it may be intentional contradictory fuckery at hand.
On top of that, Eren and his Colossal army are so ridiculously overpowered that it destroys any possible tension. The world armies are no threat to them because they can’t take out a single Colossal. Port Salta gets hyped up and then they job immediately because its only reason for existence is to get Alliance and Eren in the same place. Then it turns out Eren is too overpowered for the Alliance and their remaining titan shifters and two Ackermans because the Founder can summon a zombie shifter army. Since he can’t be fought with conventional weaponry and any strategy is useless, we just have to wait for some deux ex machina, probably revolving around Armin/Ymir that will actually move the plot forward, because none of the characters or factions can actually do anything. There is little to no tention because no one else really has any effect on the plot, either Eren kills Armin and they lose, or some paths stuff happens and Armin kills/stops Eren, as far as we know nothing else that any character can do matters right now. Everyone just waits till the plot finally moves forward.

TL/DR:

Armin's opposition to Eren centers around both the 50 year plan and a "breaking the cycle of violence" diplomatic approach which do not mix and just wildly alternate as Armin's "goals" as the story goes on. Diplomacy itself got nerfed in the story and turned into “talking and pacifism” to make the final conflict more tragic/philosophical/morally grey/whatever, instead it makes Armin a boring and inefficient rival to Eren, while the story fails to convincingly show Eren’s opponents breaking the cycle both externally and internally despite presenting them as breaking the cycle. Eren also suffers from potentially inconsistent writing. Finally, his overpowered abilities make the final conflict even worse because Armin cannot solve it strategically, thus relying solely on story to move the conflict for him. Arc bad

A bit of background - I was raised in a Christian family. I was sent to a small Baptist school in 6th-10th grade that traumatized me. I've been a Christian my whole life, and out of everything I've been through, I've kept my faith and I trust the Holy Spirit to gradually grow me, meet me where I'm at and basically just be my conscious. As far as personality? I'm a 24 year old bisexual female (yet, happily married to a man), decidedly childfree, and I'm a fan-artist and fanfiction writer (yup, I'm into anime/games and yaoi). I'm pursuing my BA in Software Engineering and I work from home as well as draw/write for fan zines. I also struggle hard with contamination OCD and anorexia.I stopped cutting myself about 7 years ago, but it's a constant battle with myself.
So, I'm close friends with a lot of non-Christians. It's a tough walk for me, being pro-gun, pro-choice, bisexual and Christian. I'm too "liberal" and "worldly" for church folk and my staunchly Christian in-laws, but too "conservative" for a lot of my very liberal friends in the LGTBQ+ side of things. The fun part is that I'm not budging. No one will lead me astray from God, not even the religious nazis that basically raised me. The holy spirit is with me and that's not changing.
Ecclesiastes 1:8 says, "For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." And that can't more correct.
I had a Christian friend point out that I shouldn't be drawing some of the things I do (I am convicted to not draw "porn" or explicit sexual acts but I have absolutely no qualms in drawing two boys cuddling), or be close friends with some of the people that I am (just recently, I sent a giant plush to a friend who isn't Christian but she's in my fandom and she was hospitalized from anorexia - I love her to death) and "convict me" with James 4:4 a few days later: "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.", telling me that verse was "speaking to her" from the Holy Spirit and to "pray about it"... cue the panic attack.
I sometimes read Corinthians and Romans and yeah, "grace saves us" IF WE REPENT but are you truly "repenting" if you're in a homosexual relationship? Are you truly "repenting" if you're divorced on unscriptural bases and are in a relationship afterwards? Are you truly "repenting" if you're transgender and wake up every day as the opposite sex? Are you truly "repenting" if you're still friends with people who aren't believers, and you decide to remain their friend?
You have to realize I've gone through years of having been tortured and abused by my "religion". You have to realize that I've been told I look like a harlot for wearing makeup. I've been told that my body is basically too big in certain areas and I have to wear either men's clothes or plus sizes to avoid sin. I've been told that if I ever brought music to school I'd have a "hammer dance on it". I've been told that I couldn't even discuss certain entertainment due to all of it being "evil". I've had my only options be classical music, CCM, Focus On The Family or others. I've been told I couldn't have a picture of a boyfriend at my desk. I've been ignored when I cut myself. I've been ignored when I was bullied severely. I've been made to write "Heaven and hell are in opposite directions and no man can go both ways at once" 60 times when I was 13 messing around with a girl. I've been isolated socially and it was okay, because I was guilty for having been sexually assaulted. I've been told that it was thought I "ditched my walk with Christ" when I was 13 forced to go down on a 20 year old man and word got around. I've had parents tell teachers to keep their precious children from me. I signed a verbatim pledge by force "I am expected by God's grace to refrain from talking about or participating in griping, cheating, profane language, tobacco, gambling, offensive music, alcoholic beverages, narcotics, fornication, the commission of a crime, language unbecoming to a Christian, offensive TV and movies, and other questionable practices. I understand that if I talk about or participate in such activities I may be subject to probation or suspension. " and watched this get enacted. I've been told to throw away a drawing unless I changed it. I've been corralled into a small room where a teacher made all girls get in compromising positions to deem if we were "modest" enough for men to be able to look at us in public. I listened to a friend tell me over the phone he was going to die, then went to his house to find him knocked out next to a bottle of Drano and then called the aid car and saved his life, then watched him be ostracized and pulled out of our school. I learned of another bullied boy's suicide and watched the pastor scoff that it was "a bummer" without looking me in the eye. I've been told that I've been told that any issue I ever had with any of this is "a heart issue" and clearly I need God to correct me. And if I other others did anything wrong, our discipline slips would read "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." and told to humble myself as per James 4:8. Oh, and your parents had to sign a pledge to "give the school the benefit of the doubt if any conflict arises between them and your child". So they'd get in between families, too. I'd watch teachers sit at their pulpits watching girls stress out about if their "makeup was ok", if their "hair was ok", if their jewelry/nail polish was "ok". I'd watch the principles sit and watch choir teachers and drama teachers dance around the arbitrary standards and struggle to meet them. All while they stood there and say "And I do this in the name of God." If you did anything wrong, they made it clear that God was right there behind them as they punished you. I'm not exaggerating any of this. I've been treated like a delinquent my formative years. And 15 years later I'm a traumatized wreck. You know firsthand how the brain develops its thought patterns and remains there whether you're conscious of it or not.
I wish it were that simple for me. As Christians we're not to be "lukewarm" towards God, not to be complacent towards 'sin'... there's even a verse that says "It's no longer I who live but He who lives in me". This is terrifying. Why? Because this is such a huge part of me. Any Christian would smile like "sin is sin, and it separates us from God UNLESS we repent and not do it again". I'm concerned and terrified and angry at the fact I'm a Christian. Tell me, does this mean that someone who divorces and then dates again is "living in sin" and must repent and break up with their new boyfriend/girlfriend? That's another sin we're soft on. I'm not a lesbian. That's not the way I chose to live. I chose not to marry a woman. I choose to be with a man. I write/draw FICTION. I don't tie politics in with it. I don't draw porn. God convicts me when I make something I feel weird about because I NATURALLY FEEL WEIRD ABOUT IT. And some of my non-Christian friends are the best people I know. I regularly love to show them I love them by praying for them, giving gifts, etc., and NOT TRYING TO PROSELYTIZE THEM. I loathe the mentality that you should "only associate with sinners if you're ministering to them".
If I'm honest, no part of me wants to willingly condemn anyone. No part of me wants to "have a problem" with remarriage, with homosexuality, etc, (all the sins that everyone's favorite 1 Corinthians verse likes to use as a gatekeeper to heaven) I personally do not agree that a God so merciful would lack mercy and grace that evens humans can cultivate, but I don't understand it and I like many others fall under the "better safe than sorry" umbrella when it comes down to this stuff. Maybe that makes me a "bad Christian", because it makes me a "friend of the world" and puts me at "enmity with God". Am I then so lost I can't determine "right" from "wrong" and just sever everyone in my community that I love?
I'm basically just living in a constant state of being torn between compassion and creed adherence. It's absolutely EXHAUSTING. We learn to not trust the grace and self-acceptance of the Holy Spirit because people voice this kind of "god hates XYZ" vitriol. We start to believe we're heathens for being accepting. When I read Scripture, I'm TERRIFIED and I hate myself. When I pray, I feel peace. When I go to church, I feel like I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack. When I worship alone, I feel peace. Surely, you must know how hard it is to "flee from sin" while also "loving your neighbor as yourself". I raise my eyebrow at any person who finds "freedom" in adhering to strict dogma.
Religion has messed me up. I love God. But I love the God that was there with me in the bathroom holding 13-year old me as she cried in the bathroom after a teacher came to oh-so-casually tell her she "thought I just ditched my walk with Christ and needed help" for having been molested. I love the God that was there listening to 13-year old me cry as she prayed over the confusion that came with realizing she liked girls too. I love the God that spoke to me through my dogs as they sat and gave me nonverbal compassion as I cut myself. I love the God that told me to keep my faith and to trust Him to grow me with the Holy Spirit. I love the God that told me that now I am possessed by him and am not subject to persecution anymore. But I HATE the God of religion.

Hi all! I'm looking for ~3 betas for my thriller THE PHOENIX GIRLS, complete at 85k. Probably up your alley if you like Lucy Foley, Liane Moriarty, Tarryn Fisher, etc! Feel free to comment or DM if you're interested - happy to pass along a longer sample. I'm putting the pitch and the first 5 pages below:
I'm looking for overall feedback on plot, character development, and pacing (no line edits etc).
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PITCH:
Insomniac ER doctor Blake Montgomery hasn’t slept in ten years. Every night, she wages battle against her nightmares by slugging Red Bull and risking thousands in online poker. Then four old friends reappear with a lucrative offer to join their influencer brand “The Phoenix Girls.” Gambling debts force her to accept what she’s sure is a doomed effort. Because the whole brand is built on a decade-old rescue of a classmate from a fire. An insidious, decade-old lie.
But their newfound fame brings problems of its own. An online stalker begins to claw their lives apart, wielding sexual harassment lawsuits, ransom spyware attacks, and revenge porn with near surgical precision. A group born from flames is about to become scorched earth. With her own payout in jeopardy and her debtors closing in, Blake’s charged with finding the stalker. Except tracking down the attacker means facing the cause of her nightmares. Like the girl she tried to kill in that fire.
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It was the worst possible time for a flower delivery.
Especially one from an anonymous stalker.
Blake’s left hand was pressed into the man’s thigh, her right hand was jabbed into the side of his neck, and her shoulder was tilted up to pin the slipping stethoscope against her ear. Her eyes were glued to her watch. Ten seconds. She waited an extra twenty, then thirty more. No pulse. She hadn’t expected one.
“Time since arrival?” she barked, straightening up but keeping her hand pressed on where the femoral pulse should have been. Remnants of their failure were splattered across the room like entrails on the battlefield: plastic wrappers littered the floor, loops of discarded IV tubing hung off the wall, and remnants of the patient’s clothes were crumpled in bloodied heaps.
“Dr. Montgomery?” A young nursing assistant hovered in the doorway.
“Yes?” Blake snapped. Goddamnit. If that guy with pneumonia had chosen now to start trying to die– She gestured at the charge nurse to continue chest compressions; the resuscitation launched back into its complicated rhythm.
“There’s a delivery for you,” the assistant squeaked. “Should I–?”
“Do I look like I want a delivery right now?” Blake glared around the room. “What’s the time since arrival?”
“Twenty-three minutes since arrival,” a nurse trainee squeaked from the corner.
“And EMS?”
The silence of incompetence laced with fear hung heavy in the air. For the seventeenth time that shift, Blake reminded herself that she’d chosen to work at a teaching hospital, that she’d been a trainee just a few years ago. Patience did not come easily to her.
“Seventeen minutes in the field,” Finn called from the hallway.
Blake didn’t bother to wonder why he was answering questions, too focused on the numbers. Seventeen minutes of CPR in the ambulance along with twenty-three minutes in the hospital meant they’d been working on this poor man for fifty minutes. He’d been dead for almost an hour already.
“Anyone have a problem calling it?” she asked, eyes sweeping the room. One by one, the team met her eyes and shook their heads: two resident doctors, three nurses, two paramedics, and one quivering medical student. So many people to fail to save a life. A small portion of her mind registered the med student’s wide eyes and trembling bottom lip, but most of her thoughts were darting between the three sick-as-shit patients she’d abandoned to come run this code.
“All right, I’m calling it. Time of death–” Blake checked her watch “–nine forty-three AM. Thanks for all your hard work, everyone. We’ll debrief at conference this week.” Shit. Nine forty-three meant that she had less than an hour to get camera-ready and make it all the way to Back Bay.
The team slouched out, spirits low. Two identical blonde nurses exchanged annoyed looks as they departed, no doubt resenting the corrections she’d made to their low-effort chest compressions. Blake was halfway out the door when she heard a muffled sniffle behind her. Shit. She had to deal with this first.
Conscious of Finn lurking in the hallway, she yanked the privacy curtain across the doorway and turned to the medical student, who was wiping his nose with his sleeve and taking deep, shuddering breaths. She felt a flash of annoyance, followed by guilt and then resentment that she had to feel guilty at all. Years ago, she, too, would’ve been driven to tears by an unsuccessful code. His vulnerability was an unsettling reminder of the armor she’d built over the years. And she didn’t like thinking of her hardness as something she’d constructed. Armor had chinks; it could be slashed away.
“Was that your first death?” she asked, lowering her voice.
The boy reddened beneath his freckles. Blake decided not to mention that he was wearing a shoe cover on his head instead of a surgeon’s cap; med students often mixed those up. God, he looked so young.
“Yeah. First one in front of me, I mean,” he stammered. “I’ve had other patients that I was taking care of– but never when I was in the room.”
It was an important distinction. Blake remembered her first, clear as day. Another trauma bay, a motorcycle accident, her sneakers soaked through with blood. She’d run right to the bathroom and puked, returning to an irritated attending who told her she wasn’t cut out for emergency medicine.
“If you need to take some time to process, go ahead,” she told him. She wiped a drop of sweat from her left eye, smearing mascara across her wrist. “But that’s it.”
The boy nodded gratefully. “I’ll be back in ten.”
Blake waved her other hand, mentally triaging the three patients who’d been circling the drain when she’d been paged for this code. Forty-one minutes. “I don’t care when you’re back. I’m just telling you: this is the only time.”
“The only time?”
“First death. That’s it. Your second, third, fourth death, you don’t get the luxury of running off to cry. You’ll be running off to take care of your next patient. Got it?”
The student fidgeted. “Got it. Thanks, Dr. Montgomery.”
Frowning, Blake watched him stumble out of the room. His undisguised relief grated on her. He’d probably run off and tell all his med student friends about his nice, kind attending. She didn’t deserve his praise. Most people try and hide this from themselves, but she’d given up a long time ago: she wasn’t a good person. Which was fine. The sooner you grew up and accepted that about yourself, the sooner you could get on with your life.
And besides, she wasn’t doing him any favors by babying him. You needed an iron skin to survive in the emergency room. An armor you only grew after your normal skin had been chewed up and spit out three times over.
Finn yanked aside the curtain, holding his other arm behind his back. “Sorry your code didn’t work,” he said, sounding not at all sorry. “You ran it well.”
The last thing Blake needed right now was another delay, especially one in the form of smart-ass, golden-boy-of-the-Emergency-Department Finn Bryant. “He was already dead.” Blake started hurrying down the hallway, hoping he’d get the hint.
That was something else you needed in the ER: an appreciation for gallows’ humor. Technically anyone needing CPR was already dead. A successful code wasn’t a life saved. It was a resurrection from the dead.
“True.” He fell into step beside her.
“What do you want, Finn?” she said in exasperation, turning to glare with the full strength of her bloodshot, sleep-deprived gaze.
With a flourish, he brought his right arm around to present her with a single cherry-red rose, helpfully encased in crisp white tissue paper. A small white note was nestled among the thorns. “To give you this.”
“A rose?” She gaped at him.
“Go on,” he said, his face solemn. “It’s for you.”
She took it gingerly. She couldn’t believe she was dealing with this today, too. Best to rip off the Band-Aid. “Finn, we broke up a long time ago–”
“Oh, no, no, no.” A devilish grin spread across his face. “A delivery came for you five minutes ago; I’m just passing it along.”
“What? Then who–?”
He shrugged. “Anonymous delivery. But it’s nice to know you still think of me like that.”
Blake flushed. Asshole. Kicking herself for falling into his trap, she glared down at the accompanying card and ripped it open. A single sentence, unsigned: Be sure your sin will find you out.
She stared at the message, mind sprinting at top speed. Janus? No. It couldn’t be. Nothing so public. And she wasn’t yet at the limit–
“Bit morose, isn’t it?” said Finn, who was peering over her shoulder. “Is your boyfriend into Shakespeare? That could get kinky.”
Something about the words tugged at Blake’s memory – she’d read them somewhere, she was sure of it – but she was interrupted by panicked screams. They both looked up: paramedics were wheeling a distraught man down the hallway. Velcro restraints secured his wrists and ankle to the gurney railings, but he was throwing his weight around with the strength of someone imbued with pure, unadulterated terror.
“That crazy better not be coming to my room,” sniggered a blonde nurse to another, both of whom had just participated in Blake’s failed code. “I swear, we get more of the psychos every week.”
Blake stopped dead, causing Finn to walk several paces ahead of her before he noticed. “Can I see your badge?” she snapped to the nurse.

The results are in for Match 10. The winner is…
Ananas “Agnes” Bayley, with a score of 72 to Guy Manuel-Mota’s 69!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	BADD GUYS	18-12
Quality	Suburban Regalia	22-23	Reasoning
JoJolity	Suburban Regalia	22-24	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10

Amidst the sea of concrete snow that the stage had become, egged on by Agnes’ unusual encore request that Metra had agreed to, the killing intent of the self-styled villain and master mixologist had won out against the comparable brutality of the affable mercenary who had tried to take his life with just as much brutality.
The crowd, though annoyed by being utterly doused in carbonated everything, literally tossed around, literally watching their fellow partygoers exsanguinated and turned into meat puppets, did not allow it to ruin their fun, cheering on for Metra and her eclectic song choices. Agnes hopped off the makeshift surfboard he’d constructed, his opponent cut to pieces and speared and speared to hell, and it a testament to the sheer resilience of Guy-Manuel Mota that, even in such a gored, pulverized state, his opponent wondered if he was actually dead.
Regardless, he wasn’t getting back up, or reassembling, or pulling any more surprises or attempts to play possum. Realizing that it was over, Agnes was shaking. Breathing heavily. Hints of tears started to form in his eyes… but before he had a chance to cry, he arched back, laughing into a sea of concrete snow.
He’d won again.
“There you go, Metra, your show is saved or whatever,” he said with a mocking flippancy as she left the crowd to meet him backstage, “and I didn’t even kill any of these guys who paid to see you… They’ll just have to deal with sticky-wet clothes and some broken limbs.”
“Can’t believe this happened again… And I just had no choice but to keep singing and dancing.” Metra rubbed her hands on her arms, shaking her head. “I’m sick of this shit… I thought it was all almost over, but it’s just going to be forever in this city, huh?”
“Probably,” Agnes said, still half-laughing through a strained face, “just a constant, encroaching wave of ‘despair’ every waking moment… Way I see it, either you ride that shit as far as you can, or you let yourself drown. Doesn’t make a difference to me which you do.”
He glanced up at the ceiling then, cupping his hands. “Hey, fuckers! I won now! I beat the guy you sent! Get on the biggering or I’ll burn your casino down again!”
The game had, in fact, been won, and Agnes and Metra were the first to start to be free of its grasp, along with the spiked and bloodied separated bits of Guy, still pulsating ambiguously.
“He’s out for blood.” Tigran declared, warning the others Entertainment District highrollers observing, as he produced a deck of cards. “My Stand can’t hold him at that size much longer… But this whole place is about to be flooded with people, too. Duck into somewhere, and get away in the confusion.”
He spoke authoritatively, and even his sole superior, Fox, complied with his wishes after an urgent glance. “I… I’ll come for you! I promise I will!”
Tigran didn’t hear much more of that, then, beyond the sounds of Pork Soda’s Stand cry amplified by sonic boosts courtesy of Metra Doria. He fought impressively with little more than a deck of cards, but even then, could only buy his friends the seconds they needed to get away, live to gamble another day.
Tigran “Golden” Sins, User of ‘The Grid
Retired!
Face broken in nearly a dozen places by Agnes and TD/MD, the 48 year-old owner of Heartache Casino would be very quickly interned at Red Clay penitentiary, Metra insisting that her ally not kill him.
As thousands of confused concertgoers suddenly grew to full size and began to flood the halls of the Alexander Dickinson Amphitheater, the rest of his accomplices were able to escape the authorities yet again. Despite his extremely infamous protectiveness towards his face, he almost seemed to wear the damage with pride, knowing that this time, it represented having allowed the only man he considered greater than himself to run free yet again.
Red Clay Penitentiary - Industrial District
“Well, well, well, isn’t this a small world now? Tigran Sins, now in my care… Certainly less of a looker than I’d heard.” A dark-wavy-haired twenty-something sat snickering in the warden’s big swivel-chair, clad in a sleeveless velvet minidress, what of her flesh was exposed covered in flickering tattoos resembling closed eyes, flanked by uncanny-looking guards. “You don’t know me, but I’ve certainly heard of you… Of how you treated someone I hold dear very cruelly. Don’t you understand we’re all Stand Users trying to live our best life, Mr. Golden? I’m not the one who hurt you and threw you in here, and you’re not the one who said that I needed to be kept half-starved at all times so I couldn’t create anything.”
“Wh… Wait. Who the hell’re you?”
“Did my sweetheart never mention me, or do you just not pay attention to anyone but you and yours?” She leaned forward, bridging her fingers together. “I’m Palmer. I was a drama teacher at a small-town high school, but they kept overfunding football, one thing led to another, and now… I’ve got some serious vision.”
Tigran would be the last inmate admitted to Red Clay before a coup months in the making finally came to fruition.
Hey, yeah, Palmer! Remember that fun NPC? She was dating Mr. Jones and killed four people for him! Anyway, yeah, adjacent to him, an all-out meanspirited brawl in a sewer is taking place, feat. two chaotic clowns and two very frustrated young women.
What rotten luck this had been.
That leak, now of all days, when Being So Normal, Cairo Satori’s pet project that they had been slaving away at ever since setting foot in this series, had the deals with the devil that it had been built upon from the very beginning exposed for the world to see, and the city, which had loved every second of it before, had now been divided sharply between the loyal fans remaining and those protesting the entire thing, demanding the resignation of their producer, the cancellation of a show which had been picked up by so many streaming platforms, had already begun to make so much for the people who had made a livelihood of it all.
With the connection to Andrew Tiffany’s demise, even the oh-so-loyal Purple Flying Man resigned with only a short argument, and even the damage control removal of Caroline Jeffords, responsible for the worst of it, did little to contain the fact that Cairo knew about this, and Cairo allowed this to proceed nonetheless.
What, were they going to just throw it all away at the last minute? Ruin lives, tank companies, get how many people laid off? All over the failures of those close to them? Of course not.
“Cairo, dear,” the voice of that ever-troublesome producer, Million Dollars, muttered into a cell phone for them, “I’m going to need to go under the radar for awhile… People are beginning to look into my own affairs as well. But know that, as always, no matter what, you have my support. This show isn’t just a cash cow, Cairo… It’s an example. An example for the world to look to, and something for Stand Users to aspire to be better. I know you’re probably mad at us as well, but… You know that, don’t you?”
“Dollars… You’ve got a lot of nerve, trying to plead with me right now,” Cairo answered, tense in what had been their green room, sitting in the mall their producer had owned, “we definitely need to talk about our future… But we need to have one, too. Of course the show must go on… Nothing’s gonna jeopardize that!”
Free Viper Strip Mall, Suburban District
In recent times, the atmosphere at Free Viper was… somewhat dire. In fact, it had been on a rapid decline since that fateful day a couple months ago when Bert hijacked a ritual meant to challenge fate and did so, while murdering tens of thousands of people and injuring far more than that at the same time. Actually, Black Knight Penitentiary Album’s death and the realization that Remix was a serial killer came before that and weren’t very uplifting either, but what Bert did was somewhat hard to top.
Either way, the realization that he found one of the most morally bankrupt groups of people to team up with in Los Fortuna was one that Arthur Lifeson had reached not too long ago, and though it was somewhat of a painful thing to come to terms with, he had no choice but to do so and simply carry on. Bert had died, and the least Arthur could do from here on out would be to do his best to assist the city of Los Fortuna and bring justice to those who deserved it. The city certainly needed it, given all that was occurring right now.
For all the time Arthur spent in the city, he hadn’t gotten enough of note done yet… but that was soon to change. He had a plan in mind, one that would help keep the city and the world of stand users as a whole from devolving into further chaos. Before he could put it in place, however, he’d have to get some help.
Los Fortuna Shopping District, Sweet FA Mall - The Next Day
Nix Ripa had been in this city for months now, and in that time, all he had done was tear down walls, break buildings, break people who had dared to step all over the safety of others, of those too weak to bend fate to their whims.
It was despicable to him, and the icy Stand User was seething with hot rage. Those without the power to change the world themselves were pitiable, in their ways, yet at once, he knew they were not above help… That they needed to be driven higher, reach for the stars rather than wave to the heroes they saw in them!
When Arthur Lifeson discovered and contacted him, he did not hesitate to make his way to the megamall in which this was all set to culminate. Rather than in the comfortable solitude of the Black Hill Estate, where he could train without disruption, he’d even spent the night in an alley nearby, wanting to be able to spring out first thing in the morning!
When he did, then, as if on schedule, the older bearded man who had requested his help stood at the foot of Sweet FA, looking himself quite regal with that increasingly modified Medieval Times getup.
“Sir Ripa… It is an honor to meet in person, with yet another warrior of great acclaim.”
“Heh… I’ve seen you around,” Nix answered, stretching off the sleeping-on-a-dumpster aches and forcing out his hand, which Arthur, in turn, grabbed firmly, the pair locking fingers tightly and staring one another down intensely. “Did a damn fine number on those guys at this very mall awhile back… And it takes some guts to drive out into the Middle Finger for any reason! The mountains are where I do my most intense training of all!”
“Aye, I regrettably was fooled into following the glorious allure of Being So Normal… I lack even your good reason, of how you and your fallen brother-in-arms, Sir Rains, apprehended a true villain in the process of this fight, and even a black knight who would have put a past companion of mine to shame with her depravity.” He looked towards the space and shuddered. “The show, it refused to show the truth, but the wounds from that grueling battle, the burns… They were excruciating. That witch Jeffords, nothing she’s touched can be trusted as a truth to show the world.”
“So we’re in agreement then!” Nix said, finally letting the handshake go as Arthur’s hand began to grow numb, rolling his arms around and turning to face Sweet FA. “I looked into this place, their mission statement, their show, their producer… Set a good example my ass! They just want the whole damn world to think there’s nothing better than being a Stand User! That the ground we walk on should be kissed just for what we’ve got! Well… I’m no goddamn celebrity!”
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Arthur agreed, “and this mockery… It will not do good for the world to learn of us this way. A knight’s honor is not something we seek for glory, for congratulation, but because there is no greater purpose than to slay evil, to protect those who cannot for themselves!”
“Heh… I like you. After this, we’re sparring ‘til one of us can’t move!”
Nix led the way in there, then, Arthur feeling pause for a moment at the sheer intensity of his companion. This was not of fear, however, or of a sudden feeling of inadequacy at someone so much younger, yet so much more driven than him.
Nay, he had been filled with more righteous determination than ever, and with a battle cry that led to a family with two kids in a stroller staring his way, he ran in after him!
…
…
As soon as they reached the main foyer of the mall, both of them realized, in tandem, and Nix spoke first, “…this place is huge as hell! Where do we even go to smash shit up?”
“I… That. That is a good point! Perhaps we should conduct a map kiosk, one which says ‘you are here!’ Ugh, those are always a pain to read…”
“I’ll help you.”
Both turned, then, to see a very fashionable teenager, clad in a purple aviator cap and goggles, slim and bearing a dour expression on his face. All who had hung around Cairo would recognize the Purple Flying Man from someplace or another, as well as all the extremely online and influencer-following of Los Fortuna.
“This show… They’ve done so much to capitalize on my uncle’s death. They’ve actively stopped the truth of whatever might have happened to him from being investigated with their frameup… And this conflict, I have lost two of my brothers to it all over again.”
He paused, then, and the two men seemed to trust him.
“You won’t be able to erase the show completely… It’s already had a limited run in this city. But masters, extra footage, content they were going to actually send out… There’s a storage space nearby… Most of the show’s data is backed up, of course, but that’s where everything is being saved. If your wish is to sabotage Being So Normal, to ruin its international release before it can cause any more harm to the outside world, that is where you go.”
“So you’ve had a change of heart yourself… I am thankful to hear that, Purple One…” Arthur snapped his fingers, then, as if remembering his name. “Right, now I remember! ‘Afton,’ wasn’t it?”
Purple’s face faulted. “Erm… N-no, eheh. It, uh… It wasn’t that. I haven’t been anything but ‘Purple’ for a very long time.”
“No matter what you’re called, an enemy of this show’s from within is just what we need to make this a little less of a pain in the ass!” Nix declared. “Lead the way!”
A Series of Backstage Halls Deep Within Sweet FA
Acrobatic and stealthy as he was, after leading the way in for those who had sought out this quest to begin with, Purple hurried along deeper inward, well aware that it was likely this place would not be unguarded, and meaning to scout ahead, maybe even fight a bit if he absolutely needed to.
He really, really did not want to, and so far, it wasn’t reassuring to him that nobody had interrupted them. No show staff, no Stand Users, not even some rent-a-cop had yet gotten into the way of this.
As he made his way to a security room, quietly bemoaning the fact that he would never live down infiltrating a security room with that damned nickname Bad Apples had given him, his worst fears were confirmed.
His friend, his confidante, Cairo Satori was sitting in a swivel chair, watching screens displaying the entire mall and idly leaning their head into a metal baseball bat.
“Purp…” They spoke up without even turning to face him. “Wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon! I mean, with everywhere you’ve blocked me, privated your accounts… I was under the impression you needed some time away from the show.”
Purple hopped down, then, walking closer towards the chair, clearing his throat and pondering his words clearly.
“The show needs time away from the show, Cairo… You know damn well why I brought myself back. Come on. You know this isn’t right… It doesn’t have to be this, and even just delaying could save-”
“Delay, huh?” They stood, twirling that bat they’d always carried around. It didn’t worry Purple. He’d never seen them actually using it. “C’mon… You know it’s not that simple, buddy. I’m just trying to make sure everyone has a good time… Already, I’m cutting toxic people out of the show! Even when they’ll make it harder to make anything going forward, Caroline is gone! I’ll keep that producer on a really short leash! I am doing everything in my power to make sure that this goes well… C’mon, can’t you look on the bright side?”
“You… You already know my answer to that. You’ve betrayed my trust, Cairo. The trust of my uncle, of everyone you’ve worked with… Of this whole city!” He shifted in place, then, becoming a much more avian humanoid figure with its pose. “I am its lavender courage, and I am your friend! And as both, I cannot abide by-”
Cairo swang their bat, and as they did, the arms of a Stand emerged from their own hand and struck it as well, multiple times in quick succession.
By the time the bat impacted Purple, it was with enough force for the deeply resilient eternally-young ghost to be sent hurtling towards a wall, literally impacting it hard enough to leave an impression in its form, embedded and unconscious in a single swing. He was alive, and would walk this off, but he wouldn’t be getting back up today.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” they said, standing with the bat over their shoulder, ‘Peach Pit’ manifesting more fully by their side (drawn by the artist Boy George, as usual), “but I can tell we don’t have time to chat… I’ll send you a gift basket from the launch party, yeah?”
Then, their attention turned towards the others on the security room screens, addressing their Stand in the meantime, “uh, hey, Peach…”
“I’m on it,” the Stand answered, “Arthur Lifeson and Nix Ripa… I’m excited for this, honestly.”
“And you don’t need to know that I am to, honestly…” Cairo moved to press the intercom button.
“I heard violence!” Nix called out, balling his fists. “Purple found someone!” He began to rush forward, then, Arthur preparing to make a blade, only to be stopped by the crackling of an intercom button.
“Hello again! Wow, it really isn’t all that often that Being So Normal has repeat appearances, but that’s, what, twice in this promotional cycle alone?” Cairo’s voice rang through, then, and they continued, “I figured we’d see some trouble here, so I gave most of staff the day off… I knew it’d be types like you two who showed up, and honestly, I gotta say, despite the circumstances, I’m a bit psyched!”
“Cairo Satori!” Arthur spoke up then, waving his hands. “Put this madness to a close, before I have to put you to my blade! You need not fall victim to this any longer… To fight us is a waste of time!”
“Well, I’ve got time to kill, and nobody to talk to, now that my friend’s taking a bit of a nap. And besides, you think I’m gonna just let you destroy everything we’ve been working to build up because you don’t like a couple of the crew members? C’mon, have a reality check here! No way I’m gonna allow that… Especially not right now! Look, why not come talk to me after I’ve completely closed this Netflix deal?”
There was silence, then, and then they spoke up again.
“Oh, who am I kidding? We both know that this is only gonna end one way! If you wanna stop me from sending this show out for the whole world to know and love, and not just be another little piece of Los Fortuna’s super storied, super amazing history, then STOP me! I’m already sending Peach your way, and there’s no way the two of us will just get walked all over!”
Arthur shut his eyes in frustration, but Nix shook his shoulder. “We knew from the start it’d come to this. C’mon… Any more talking this through will be a waste of all our breaths.”
“Yeah! This pre-battle stuff goes on way too long, I swear! So much to cut down in post without missing the meat of it… But enough talking shop, yeah? Let’s get to what we’re here for… You wanna say it with me? …no? Okay, suit yourself!”
“OPEN THE GAME!”
Location:
A hallway to several storage rooms in Sweet FA Mall. The area here is 40 by 80 meters with each tile being 2.5 by 2.5 meters. The white tiles are completely out of bounds for this match. The light magenta tiles are the main hallway, the purple tiles are side hallways, and the red tiles are the rooms. Each room has a number associated with it for convenience, as shown by the purple numbers. The ceiling is 8 meters tall. The doorways are denoted by the dotted lines between the rooms and hallways.
The players start at the left end of the hallway and Cairo starts in the security room (room 5) to the right of the bottom center. Cairo’s Stand starts in the middle of the main hallway.
The grey X marked circles are security cameras on the ceiling that connect to the monitors that are represented by the yellow notched rectangles in room 5. The light blue rectangles in the main hallway are 4 meter tall metal shelves that house stage set up equipment such as stepladders, light fixtures, microphones, extension cables, construction tools, and anything else needed to set up or tear down a stage. All shelves are bolted to the ground.
The yellow stars are disks, tapes, harddrives and other recordings of the footage shot by Cairo’s show.
The walls are drywall while the floor is ceramic tiled.
Now onto the different rooms:

• Room 1: Contains racks and cardboard bins of merchandise. The brown rectangles are cardboard bins of plushies and hats. The red circles are racks of clothing merchandise.
  
• Room 2: Contains a mountain of chairs and other furniture within a 5 meter tall metal storage fence as represented by the light blue rectangle and the junk inside it. Each side of the fence has a chain locked door.
  
• Room 3: Contains various cooking appliances and peripherals. The white rectangles are 4 meter tall metal storage shelves and the magenta rectangles are 5 meter tall metal storage containers. Basically any appliance that doesn’t fit on a shelf is put into one of the three containers.
  
• Room 4: Contains two long tables as represented by the grey L-shaped rectangles. On these tables are neatly laid out items that were used in Round 2 Match 4, this means Riot Shields, Fireworks Cannons, Magnetic Ray Guns, Grappling Hook Guns, smoke bombs, Tar filled paintball guns, mannequins, body armor, skateboards, net launchers, fire extinguishers, step ladders, marbles, bowling balls, trampolines, shovels, steel chairs, and blankets. Only the crystal ball is missing. The blue circle is a barrel of fencing foils and the yellow rectangle is a banged up motorcycle that while not completely totaled is in pretty bad shape.
  
• Room 5: The security room. It is rather bare, only housing the monitors set-ups to the security cameras and three swivel chairs to go with them.
  

Goal: RETIRE your opponents!
Additional Information:
As a reminder, White Tile areas are out-of-bounds for this match. If you willingly traverse through them you will be retired by a pair of mall cops.
Here is a shortened version of Cairo’s character sheet with all relevant information, the full sheet is linked below
Name: Cairo Satori
Age: 21
Gender: None, whose business is that anyways?
Species: Human
Occupation: Beloved Media Icon
Equipment: The newest smartphone, two sets of wireless earbuds for communicating directly with [Peach Pit] quietly, a bag of weed mints, and a baseball bat.
User Stats:
Strength: 3 (Too much effort to get properly strong- Cairo can throw as much effort into a hit as they need to in order to finish someone off after being brought to near-retirement by [Peach Pit], and that’s about the maximum they need.)
Agility: 2 (Never had to run after or from anything.)
Endurance: 2 (Not one to hold up under sustained pressure for very long, hoping to duck back from any conflicts except where absolutely necessary.)
Conduction: 2 (Able to personally carry their Stand’s damaging energy through them, and has a general knowledge of how to apply it.)
Vibing: 3 (It's for vibe checks- the necessity of finishing an opponent off personally, in a fast and hard strike. The full force of their strength, loaded into one moment rather than a series of fests. Also, they do have good vibes.)
Stand Name: [Peach Pit]
Stand Appearance: On the bulkier side of stand builds, Peach Pit has some resemblance to a knight in plate armor- big, dark metallic pauldrons, a chestplate, an assortment of straps and buckles, etc. The surface of the stand looks very much like a sunset with its colors flipped around. Its face is smooth except for a simple minimalist icon of the sun, and the rest of the head is mostly covered by a knight's helmet as well. A gradient of sorts goes from the head of the stand down to its armored feet, starting with an orange-red and ending in black with white specks like stars in the night sky.
About/Oddities: The stand is dangerous, outright. The manifestation of an incredible will for a very specific life gave it incredibly high offensive might, and although Cairo has depleted its very low ‘potential,’ nothing else has decreased in the slightest.
Additionally, [Peach Pit] is sentient, and thinks of itself as a close friend and bodyguard to Cairo. Despite being able to dish out high damage, it is very much a friendly, calm and collected individual, having respect even for those it has to fight. As such, [Peach Pit] leaves RETIRING opponents up to its user completely. An enemy can be beaten down, but will still be able to pull together and carry on albeit impeded until Cairo personally finishes them off. This isn't simply a choice- if instructed to keep pressure on an opponent who's down but not out, its strikes can indefinitely inflict serious pain and yet never be quite enough to injure a foe to the point where they're considered RETIRED.
Due to the bold weakness in this, for how combat inefficient and easily hurt its user is, Peach doesn't have full damage transference. Instead, it can be destroyed repeatedly- Cairo takes one instance of C power damage upon its destruction, and it can be resummoned from Cairo's position after ten seconds.
Peach's presenting identity has been influenced by Cairo's insistence against defining things that way, to the point of being comfortably seen subjectively as anything. Peach will respond to any pronouns without questioning it.
Stand Stats:
Power: A(The stand can exert a great amount of power in its attacks)
Speed: A (Its movements are very fast and its attacks can travel just as quickly)
Range: B (50 meters)
Durability: E (Subpar durability, however when destroyed the user takes C power damage and the stand can be summoned back to Cairo’s side after 10 seconds.)
Precision: C (Generally decent in its movements, but its projectile attacks only move in a straight line once fired and can only be stored within conductive materials. In non-conductive materials it would keep traveling)
Ability: Peach Pit lacks a complex ability, as far as one would expect. Rather than intricate effects, its hits themselves can simply be conducted through material similarly the way that electricity does, with distinct variation based on the conductivity of the material. Within conductive material, damage is stored up much like a battery - the moment someone touches the "battery", the damage transfers directly to it on the point of contact. This means that if Peach were to punch a metal rod and someone were to touch it, they would feel the full brunt of Peach's attack the moment they do so. A battery remains charged for up to fifteen seconds, and at any point if it hasn’t been touched and discharged already, Cairo can pick any direction from where the battery is in contact with non-conductive materials to activate the next type of attack.
Within non-conductive material, either deployed through battery or direct strike, damage "travels", moving forwards in a straight line at A speed in the same direction it came from. This wave of damage can be seen as it travels, with slight shimmers of light and a crackling sound emanating from where it's currently positioned.
Damage cannot travel further than B range from Cairo.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Black Hill Regalia	Arthur Lifeson and Nix Ripa	“The thing in Hayato's hand was definitely a handy cam. It doesn't seem to be in this room right now...” This show is a sweet-sounding idea, but it’s so corrupt to its core that you can’t allow it to spread any further than it has. Destroy as many physical backings of the recordings Cairo has made for their show as you can over the course of your strat!
Being So Normal	Cairo Satori	“I even took a video of the cat-like plant you've got in the attic!” This show… You know it’s been an unsavory road, one you wish you could have managed differently, but the good it can do, the way the world might finally begin to understand the ugly and wonderful truths of Stand Users and appreciate them more as a part of their lives… You will celebrate that. Take creative inspiration from actions that took place in matches related officially to ‘Being So Normal!’ That is to say, these 5 matches, R1M5,R1M23,R1M29,R2M4, and R3M8!

Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
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Guide is written and updated for Season #1 Awakening

Some of you might know my other guide on Hybrid Bladesin from another D2 mod. Guess I had to do one for PD2 too at this point since the other guide was very popular and well-received. Blade skills and traps were reworked in PD2 and actually perform really well, making such a build possible. I followed to ladder race to 99 in season 1 and was quite surprised not seeing many Assassins at the top compared to other classes – maybe I can change this with shedding some light on some new mechanics and changes with this guide. My goal was to create a build that is versatile and clear regular endgame content and all types of maps fast solo, which would also perform well in a group scenario; at the end it worked out better than expected but let's get right into it.
Editors commentary: currently tooltip and AR calculations for Blade Skills are bugged and not working correctly - this will likely get fixed in future patches by the devs. But since this is the case currently this guide focuses on circumventing those issues and compensating for them for the time the bug exists in the game. Also -x% to enemy elemental resist and %mastery doesn't currently work on traps due to a bug (will be fixed in the future) - the build performs well despite those buggs existing, don't worry - it will get even stronger once they are fixed.

An in-depth guide?

My goal with my guides is to really provide a lot of information to players, not just a list of items and no explanation how to get there or why you want them. Also, I am not a fan of videos; imo you can’t tell if you like playing a build just by watching someone playing it in a perfect handmade setting for a couple of minutes… you can’t grasp the actual feeling of the build this way But don’t worry I got something even better for you! In various sections of this guide you will find 6 different singleplayer savegames with characters in different progression stages with real gear all functioning properly! So you can try and test the build in this guide to full extend yourself, on your pace, the way you like it and as long as you want to see if it fits your taste and if you actually want to play it on ladder.
Just to mention it: I am mostly a HC player, so I design all my builds geared towards a HC setting – feel free to adjust everything you don’t like to your liking if you play SC. Don’t treat my recommendations as the only options you have, think for yourself and try out different stuff which looks interesting to you.

General Playstyle:

This build utilizes Blade Furry in combination with Wake of Fire or Chain Lightning traps to tear through monsters. You want to position yourself about 10 yards away from monsters all the time and kite while you are laying down traps for zone and AoE clearing smaller foes. Very resistant or bigger monsters, which are able to withstand your traps long enough will get eliminated by a targeted Blade Furry shuriken. If you get in trouble cast Cloak of Shadows to get away, reposition yourself or mess with your enemies to render their attacks useless for a few seconds – otherwise run around with unmatched speed thanks to the use of Burst of Speed – pesky dangerous Conviction pack ahead? Just make a switch to Fade stance for a quick resistance boost or to get rid of a curse or poison stack in a shorter amount of time. This guide will mostly cover the WoF/fire trap version, since it is generally considered superior for mapping, while the CLt/lightning trap version can achieve higher clear speed in story areas with many fire immune monsters such as Chaos Sanctuary.

PROS

• Very versatile and fast play style
• Dual element (physical/fire or lightning) so no trouble with immunes
• Very high single target DPS
• Can be build quite tanky
• Very good bossing character
• Can do Ubers and MiniUbers solo
• Can do maps with dangerous mods/high density in HC solo with decent clear speed
• Works well in a group as DPS, since it benefits from physical and elemental buffs
• Potential ladder starter
• Very good endgame scaling / scales really well with gear / high investment build

CONS

• Requires very expensive gear and wealth to min max / high investment build
• Achieving high clear speed levels requires some gear investment / you will mostly sit in cows or TC85/87 zones to farm high runes at the start of a new ladder most likely
• You actually have to know what you are doing when it comes to gear choices and upgrades; you have to calculate everything yourself since ingame tooltip does not reflect actual damage or attack rating/chance to hit (but that's what a guide is for)
• While leveling and getting through acts in early hell knowledge about monster stats and encounters helps out greatly with lower gear levels, if you are a newer player you will likely have to learn about some stuff (aka read about some stats/mechanics on wikis)
• If you want to play this build well, you need to switch between skills, kite, pay attention to your environment and constantly reposition. The skill cap of this build is quite high – profound D2 knowledge will be very helpful to play/gear this build to max efficiency.
• Upgrading/gear progression is difficult for a newer player and for players who don’t want to learn about mechanics or do math.

Basic skill point distribution in the endgame:

Trap Tree:

• 20 Fire Blast
• 20 Wake of Fire
• 20 Wake of Inferno
• 20 Blade Sentinel
• 20 Blade Fury

Shadow Discipline Tree:

• 1 Claw Mastery
• 1 Burst of Speed
• 1 Fade
• 1 Psychic Hammer
• 1 Cloak of Shadows

This is representative of an endgame skill tree – while getting there it depends on the content you are doing. If you are farming cows for the most time 60 points into fire traps will be your priority, maxing Blade Sentinel last. If you are doing mostly Chaos Sanctuary runs or other zones with fire immunes, consider doing 40 Points into blade skills first and max out Fire Blast last. If your gear is lacking %ED while leveling, consider putting in 60 points into blade skills first (temporarily maxing Blade Shield) and only 40 in fire traps, respecing later when your gear gets better. I recommend always getting the 1 pointers mentioned. Another option would be getting Dragon Flight – here it comes down to preference. I personally don’t get it, but if you want to invest the 4 points only put 36 points into blade skills to get some extra mobility and a skill to reposition your merc.

Stats:

• Strength: enough to wear your gear (and to be able to perform a weapon swap in combat) – you can invest more, up to 200 points for additional %ED scaling (depending on your weapon base type)
• Dexterity: depends if you are going for max block; otherwise aim for around 200 points here for %ED and accuracy scaling (depending on your weapons base type)
• Vitality: Everything you can spare goes here
• Energy: Nothing

Breakpoints:

• %FCR: This build doesn’t depend on faster cast rate at all, so it can be ignored
• %FHR: If you go maxblock I would aim for the 48% breakpoint (5 frames) – if you prefer a more close up play style or tanking ubers aim for 86% (4 frames)
• %FBR: you will have some block chance regardless if going max block or not so considering at least the 13% breakpoint (achievable through corruption or specific item choices) always helps. Assassin has godly block frames, second best to paladin, if you go max block you can aim for 32% (3 frames) and feel almost like a paladin with Holy Shield active
• %IAS: This is a special case here since Blade Furry now is affected by attack speed; Breakpoints are calculated from the normal 1h attack animation from testing and only depends on weapon base speed and the total sum of on- and off-weapon IAS combined. In the FAQ section of this guide you will find more information on how to calculate it for your build.

Leveling – How to level this build from scratch:

Normal:

Pretty easy overall for assassin once you get to lvl 12 where you can start using Wake of Fire, before that it will be a little slow unfortunately. Keep using Fire Blast and normal attacks with your claw and level in Tristram/do Tristruns with a group until you hit level 12. Get 1 point into Burst of Speed on the way. After hitting level 12 you start cruising through normal without much issue. After that just straight forward max out Wake of Fire and start putting points into Wake of Inferno afterwards.

Level	Skill	Level	Skill	Level	Skill
Level 2	Claw Mastery	Level 13	Wake of Fire	Level 24	Wake of Fire
Akara	Fire Blast	Level 14	Wake of Fire	Level 25	Wake of Fire
Level 3	Fire Blast	Level 15	Wake of Fire	Level 26	Wake of Fire
Level 4	Fire Blast	Level 16	Wake of Fire	Level 27	Wake of Fire
Level 5	Fire Blast	Level 17	Wake of Fire	Level 28	Wake of Fire
Level 6	Burst of Speed	Level 18	Wake of Fire	Level 29	Wake of Fire
Level 7	Fire Blast	Radament	Wake of Fire	Level 30	Wake of Fire
Level 8	Fire Blast	Level 19	Wake of Fire	Level 31	Wake of Fire
Level 9	Fire Blast	Level 20	Wake of Fire	Level 32	Wake of Fire
Level 10	Fire Blast	Level 21	Wake of Fire	Level 33	Wake of Inferno
Level 11	Fire Blast	Level 22	Wake of Fire	Level 34	Wake of Inferno
Level 12	Wake of Fire	Level 23	Wake of Fire	Level 35	Wake of Inferno

Gear to look out for at the end of Normal: Spirit sword, Stealth chest, Ancients Pledge shield, a Lore circlet and some random rares with resist an %MF if you can get. Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegamefolder and start it in Single Player: DOWNLOAD - Early Nightmare Test Character

Nightmare:

Got your basic gear ready and some decent resists to start out? Good – if not farm Nightmare Countess and Black Marsh/Stony Field for runeword bases and runes before you go on. You can also attempt to build a Lore now if you have a good base. Just carry on through the acts – Nightmare is easy with basic gear, you will face no problems at all (watch out for dolls in Act 3! Their explosions got reworked and now have a delay). Fire Trapsin is really fast in clear speed overall (just max out all synergies for Wake of Fire while going through Nightmare and be don’t bother with getting other stuff yet). They only time where you might have some trouble will be Nightmare Chaos Sanctuary where you will meet fire immunes – just take it slow and let the merc deal with them and support him where you can (investing some gear in your merc is crucial at this point, get him an Insight in an exceptional base weapon and some life leech and you will be fine) – after that Act 5 is a breeze again, just skip fire immunes and you will be good (if you roll many fire immunes in World Stone Keep, just make a now game and go again until easier mobs spawn) Once you kill Baal it is farming time! You have do do some farming for basic gear in PD2 before you go to Hell difficulty, otherwise you will struggle hard. So take your time to farm up some gear in Nightmare Cows. Nightmare Cows is THE best farming spot at this point in PD2 thanks to player 5 loot; Cow Kings drop table is really nice and you can kill him here; the portal can still be opened afterwards – you can drop a ton of good stuff there. Let's assume you get really unlucky and get no good drops at all; don’t worry, this build can start out with really unpopular and crappy gear (crap considered by most of the player base so it will be cheap to buy). Wake of Fire is really fast when it comes to farming Nightmare Cows without having gear – so just stack as much MF wherever you can – you can even reach close to 400% if you really want to go hard for it.
Here is how your MF cowfarmer could look like at the end of Nightmare to farm up some wealth and gear for your early hell transition and respec. DOWNLOAD - End of Nightmare Test Character
Gear to look out for at the end of Nightmare: Just pick up every amulet and charm, reroll grand charms from Cow Level for Skillers, sell them and buy 4-5 clean trap skillers for your assassin. Gamble amulets for a good chance at +3 class tree skill levels with the Gold you get from cows and selling items to vendors – sell +3 amulets for other classes and buy MF gear if you can get it for a reasonable price. Build yourself a Lionheart in a Mageplate base, and start looking out for some cheap unique items on the market (most of them you will likely find by yourself while doing cow runes) Over cap your resists with charms to have good resistances when you enter Hell difficulty paired with Fade. With all the gold you are getting from cows go shopping at Anya’s in act 5 for some +x levels to fade claws, which will help you to deal with resists in Hell using them in your second weapon slot for precasting the buff at a higher level. Try to acquire the following items: Magnus Skin (gloves Orphan set), Wilhelm's Pride (belt Orphan set), Guillaume’s Face (helm Orphan set), a Lance Guard shield with a good %DS roll and a Heart Carver dagger. If you can snatch a cheap pair of gore riders which are usually cheap at the beginning of a new ladder since there are not many attack based builds around which want to use them this early in a new season. Next goals should be a Ravenfrost or any ring with a CNBF corruption, and an Angelic amulet and ring to sort out AR issues against bosses (Heart Carver has ITD, so no AR needed for normal monsters) but you can also start without them when you go to hell, just don’t attempt any bosses without AR issues sorted.
You also want to look out for a Gavel of Pain for your future act 5 merc and other merc equipment upgrades before you transition to Hell mode.

Hell:

Now it is finally time to respec! Leveling as a trapper is fast that's why, but now we actually want to go hybrid at this point because of the many fire immunes in Hell. If you followed my gear recommendations to buy from the Nightmare section (or getting most of them by yourself while farming cows with great %MF). Socket your shield and helmet or weapon (your choice) with your Larzuk Quests, get a perfect diamond for your shield and a random 15% IAS jewels for your helmet or dagger to reach the next breakpoint without putting in much effort – this allows you to use Fade over BoS and still maintain your %IAS breakpoint for Blade Fury. Equip all your gear (make sure you can wear it after the respec!) and do your respec. You want:

• 100 base strength (before stats from gear)
• 110 base dexterity (before stats from gear)
• Everything else in vitality
• None in Energy
• 20 Blade Fury
• 10 Blade Sentinel
• 20 Wake of Fire
• 1 Claw Mastery
• 1 Burst of Speed
• 1 Fade
• Rest goes into Fire Blast

Don’t worry, you still will have more than enough health even for HC mode with all your gear on and being an assassin which has very good vitality scaling in general. The high base dex and strength is used for wearing future gear and for providing flat AR and %ED to your build, which you will need for dealing damage with Blade Fury. Your gear should provide you with a considerable amount of off-weapon %ED and %DS. If you followed my recommendations your character should be looking something like this after the respec with your new gear. You should also swap your Act 2 mercenary now for an Act 5 barbarian and equip him with the gear you prepared, since you now actually benefit from his Might aura greatly. Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game at the bare minimum before you should enter Hell – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegame folder and start it in Single Player mode: DOWNLOAD - Early Hell Test Character
Hell is difficult for almost any character build without gear in PD2 similar to vanilla. If you followed my advice you will have no problems at all – Blade Fury one or two-shots most monsters in Act 1 hell and even farming pits is no problem with this setup if you want to farm for gear there. But you can also directly progress if your gear is good enough – you will face no issues at all, your damage will be nice and since you are dealing physical and fire damage you won’t face much difficulty at all – just progress slow and steady, let your Act 5 merc tank and distract while you are throwing shurikens and traps from the back. Try to upgrade your Heart Carver to an elite version if you get your hands on a Pul rune, it makes a significant difference. You can progress easily until Act 3 with that amount of gear and even further if you know what you are doing – but still, you want to upgrade to a cheap midgame setup at some point to be faster and more efficient when it comes to clearing with fire traps. Your goal is to get to Hell cows and farm this area for High runes, since most of your endgame upgrades will be very expensive, at a decent and comfortable pace. To get there I recommend trying to acquire a well rolled Demon‘s Arch Balrog Spear (no, I am not kidding!) – this it is mostly considered trash by many players but in PD2 it is a fantastic and cheap option to start out this hybrid build. Once you got that, focus on getting a Rising Sun amulet and a pair of well rolled Hellmouth gauntlets for additional fire penetration. These gloves are not only good for fire traps, not the on hit effects are also very good for knock back and stun locking monsters with Blade Fury – a combination of those 3 items provides your character with massive flat fire damage and fire pierce, ideal for Hell cow farming with traps and shurikens. After getting that just stack %MF and switch to an act 2 mercenary again (most of your damage will be fire based anyway just for farmign Hell cows and you need the additional AR again since you would lose Angelic combo and ITD from your weapon); get him a Reapers Toll, a Treachery chest and some items with leech – you also can do Chaos sanctuary with this setup, not very fast but you can if you want and thanks to the fire absorb from your gear you will be able to do it very safely in an HC setting which is also beneficial. But your main focus should be Hell Cows at this point. If you have not already pushed to Baal and start farming cows. When it comes to skill point distribution from now on, get Cloak of Shadows, max out fire trap synergies next and max out Blade Sentinel last, put some additional points into Fade if you need it to sort out your resists (you can always respec later once you acquire better gear, you got 2 free respecs left at this point, so don’t worry)
Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game. You can cruise through Hell now and farm any regular Hell content with this setup and even do easy maps – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegame folder and start it in Single Player mode: DOWNLOAD - Midgame Test Character
From here on out it is your choice where you want to take the build – get more clean skillers first and decide from there what you want to upgrade next. I would recommend aiming for a Phoenix shield as soon as you can before upgrading any other gear piece. After that focus on getting close to 100% Deadly Strike.

Endgame Gearing:

This section only covers endgame gear options (check leveling section for gear progression). PD2 provides a very in-depth gearing system thanks to various balancing changes to uniques, runewords and adding a corruption and socketing system on top of that. Everything depends on gear composition – imo there is no (or very seldom) clear BIS option for a gear slot for any build type. Just take a look, compare and try to reach breakpoints where you can. I will also mention useful corruptions to look out for on each gear slot. I won’t list every option since there is just too much to cover – instead I will focus on pointing out interesting concepts and ideas for you to build around. If you have questions regarding gear choices just ask in this thread – people can have a discussion and help each other out with ideas. Since this is a Hybrid Bladesin guide, which does rely on 1h weapons, I won’t cover 2h weapons here specifically (check out this excellent pure Blade Fury guide by SassCastle for reference and suggestions if you want to go that route)

What should be your focus?

This is a hybrid spec, so you want a good mix of +skills (for your fire traps) and %ED (for your Blade Furry). Aim for around avg 3.5k Wake of Fire damage with at least 20% fire penetration, if you want more I recommend the 33% breakpoint (many monster types in Hell have 33% fire resist if not immune, so it is considered a sweet spot) – after that point more damage doesn’t make a significant difference in clear speed while playing solo (since damage is dealt in multiple waves), in groups you receive additional scaling from party members anyway. Otherwise, reaching close to 100% deadly strike will be your main goal over everything else - %DS is the biggest damage multiplayer you can get for Blade Fury. After that it is just getting as much %ED and flat added damage wherever you can get it without compromising defenses. Once you reach around 12k per blade it is a good time to stop, more won’t improve your clear speed by much after that (speaking for solo play) and since this isn't a pure bladesin don’t try to reach the next breakpoint, you won’t get there realistically without cutting into your fire trap damage or sacrificing defenses. Once again I want to advise the community not just trying to be mindless about tooltip DPS/sheet DPS – your build isn’t clearing any faster at some point, you can only one-shot mobs that hard with your shurikens. If it takes 2 seconds longer to kill a boss but you would have to sacrifice a lot of defenses for it it isn’t worth it, not even for softcore players (most of your time is spent getting to the boss clearing content – the more defenses you can get, the more reckless and fast you can play, the quicker you will get to the boss; you can save those 2 extra seconds easily while clearing)
Want to see how a fully decked out tanky HC Hybrid Bladesin (fire) performs in PD2? Download this savegame and copy it into your Diablo 2 savegame folder, start the game in Single Player mode and enjoy! DOWNLOAD - Endgame Test Character

Weapons:

• Fleshripper: I consider this one the „all-rounder“ option if you don’t want to think about it or calculate much, just pick this one and be happy – it will perform in every situation thanks to solid base damage, %DS, -X% target defense and %slow, and it even has some CB for bossing. Due to those stat combinations it ist he perfect choice for doing ubers, for maps and other content, other options will outperform it handily.
  
• Bartuc‘s Cut-Throat: solid choice, especially for hybrid sin thanks to +2 skills, some stats (which translate into 20% off-weapon ED), life leech, %AR and valuable %FHR. Can be upgraded, which is recommended, for more base damage. Thanks to -30% base speed this weapon proofs very flexibile when it comes to various %IAS breakpoints.
  
• Natalya’s Mark: With at least 3 set pieces it gains –x% target defense on PD2 (no longer has ITD) which makes it quite good even in midgame, in endgame it shines with high base damage, good speed and wopping 200% off-weapon ED against demons and undead which is nothing to sneeze at.
  
• Ghostflame: Yes, this thing is pretty decent actually – good base damage, always ethereal and it adds a lot of magic damage on top as well as mana leech. It also comes with ITD which solves any AR issues you might have against non-bosses.
  
• Heart Carver: Okay, this might be unexpected by most of you but actually this tiny little knife has the potential to be on ef the highst raw damage weapon for 1h Blade Fury in PD2 – no joke! It comes with ITD, %DS and flat damage paired with solid %ED which leads to great base damage. A well rolled upgraded ethereal Heartcarver with a good corruption is likely considered BIS realisticly achievable option for raw BF damage in solo play when we don’t factor in the one of a kind godly ethereal rare claw or a very specific setup with an perfect ethereal 2os Stonecrusher. The greatest benefit of choosing this weapon: it is cheap and readily available thanks to it being a common drop.
  
• Stone Crusher: This is going to be the only non-claw/dagger I am going to mention. It provides tons of raw damage on top of massive %CB, strength, off-weapon %ED against undead, -defense on hit, -x% target defense and the unique stat -%x to enemy phyiscal resist which makes it the highest possible damage option available for group play regarding Balde Fury. A well rolled one will be rather rare to find and will be quite expensive to get.
  
• Fury [Jah-Gul-Eth]: in a Suwayyah/Scissors Suwayyah. This runeword seems to be made for Blade Sin. ITD, -x% target defense, solid %ED and massive amounts of %DS and %OW, as well as %AR and leech. The real benefit of this runeword ist hat you can utilize automods on the claw base to your advantage. Getting an elite base with +3 Wake of Inferno, +3 Blade Fury and +1 to Dragon Flight would be optimal. Damage wise it can get outperformed by other options due to it being a runeword (lack of corruptions or custumizable sockets)
  

Corruptions to look out for: %ED, %DS, Sockets, ITD, +1 skills, %fire damage, %IAS, life leech
Speaking in general for all weapon choices: You want to look out for an ethereal version when it comes to a weapon whenever you can due to massive base damage increase. Exceptional base typs should always be upgraded to the elite version to increase base damage.

Shields:

• Spike Thorn: Want %DR paired with great added flat damage? Yes, this thing exists in PD2. It even provides solid amounts of %FHR on top. Don’t really get why people would use Stormshield over that thing for this build. Safe yourself some runes and be happy.
  
• Lance Guard: provides %FHR, %DS and tons of life. 50% FBR makes it a blocking powerhouse. Especially if you lack %DS on the rest of your gear this thing makes up for it.
  
• Phoenix [Vex-Vex-Lo-Jah]: in a Monarch. The top end all of all shields (especially for Hybrid Bladesin) – this build utilizes every single stat of this beauty. The %ED is a build enabler by its own, the –x% to enemy fire resist is very valuable for your fire traps, redemption gets rid of corpses, fire absorb and max resistances are just great and even the Fire Ball proc is somewhat useful since it procs very often when using Blade Fury. It is very expensive to build but very well worth every high rune.
  

Corruptions to look out for: Sockets, +1 skill, resists, CNBF, block chance/block rate, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life

Weapon Swap:

• Call to Arms [Amn-Ral-Mal-Ist-Ohm]: While BO got a massive deserved nerf in PD2 CtA ist still great and better than ever for this build in particular. Mostly overlooked CtA also gives the player access to Battle Cry which got reworked and reduces physical resistances of monsters now. You can break physical immunes with this and it stacks with curses and Cloak of Shadows! It is a massive buff to your build so use it in your weapon slot to prebuff (it basically gives +2 skills, one from the runeword and one from Battle command) and as a utility tool – use your weapon swap actively in combat against bosses for physical resistance reduction on them. Also often overlooked. Battle Command provides some off-weapon %ED with its buff which benefits this build greatly.
  
• Lidless Wall: Great caster shield overall with skills, %FCR and mana after kill. In this build it is used as prebuff gear – you can even corrupt it for another skill which leads to a +3 all skills off hand, which is he highest you can get in this gear slot. Consider putting an Eld rune into it to maintain good block chance even on weapon swap.
  

Body Armors:

• Lionheart [Hel-Lum-Fal]: Really great runeword for the rune cost. Got buffed in this mod and offers up to 110% ED. It also provides a lot of stats (which translate to even more effective off-weapon %ED), flat life and resists. This will likely be your chest before you get your hands on some wealth. Consider rerolling it until you get a good roll, it is cheap and worth it.
  
• Fortitude [El-Sol-Dol-Lo]: Would likely be the best option back in vanilla but since it got heavily nerfed in PD2, I personally don’t consider it BIS anymore – 200% ED is nice but not exceptional, so are the life and @res you get from it. For the high cost of a Lo rune you may just invest your wealth into other gear slots. The removal of Chilling Armor really killed it for me on this build since armor scaling is useful on any build now.
  
• Chains of Honor [Dol-Um-Ber-Ist]: 200% ED against demons and 100% ED against undead is very good, not as good as Fortitude but solid. Paired with all its other stats and huge resist makes this runeword a top choice.
  
• Enigma [Jah-Ith-Ber]: If you want the blink skill, %FRW, skills on top of %MF go for it. The strength scaling translates into off-weapon %ED indirectly as well. Not the most damage option but still a solid choice depending on preference and play style.
  
• Templar’s Might: Thanks to the rework this thing is now pretty insane for this type of build (especially if you can get good corruptions and/or sockets on it). Having access to Might aura on top of +1 skill, massive stats and %FHR is great. Don’t hesitate with the strength requirement too much – strength invested directly translates to off-weapon %ED anyway.
  
• Tyrael’s Might: Think of it as an amalgamation of Enigma and Chains of Honor – you will get the best of both chests without the +skills but with CNBF. Getting a good corruption on it paired with socktes could lead to the best chest piece for this build you can imagine. Due to its rarity, don’t expect to get to this point but if you are lucky enough this thing will outshine every other option.
  

Corruptions to look out for: Socktes, +1 skill, resists, CNBF, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life, %life, %FRW.

Helmet:

• Guillaume’s Face: The popular orphan set piece provides very valuable stats to this build such as %DS, %FHR and strength. The %CB is useful against high health bosses but not needed if you have enough damage scaling for regular content.
  
• Steelshade: Got reworked and is now one of the best option for any max block build which depends on +skills – it grants massive block chance and block rate… on a helmet! This helm can save you tons of dexterity investment which leads to more effective HP overall. This also allows to go for maxblock even when using Phoenix!
  
• Veil of Steel: Newly introduced unique helmet in PD2 which some of you might remember from Diablo 1 – it provides massive amounts of %ED, stats and great @res and even +1 skill. With good corruptions this thing can be a top choice.
  
• Rare Circlet: can get +2 assassin skills, 30% FRW stats and resists. The flexible sockets make this option a top tier choice.
  

Corruptions to look out for: Sockets, +1 skill, resists, CNBF, block chance/block rate, cast speed, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life

Gloves:

• Laying of Hands: %IAS, Fire resist and up to 150% ED against demons are solid
  
• Ghoulhide: %IAS, %ED/AR against undead on level as well as mana leech and flat life
  
• Gravepalm: %ED and flat AR against undead as well as some strength and valuable %DS
  
• Lava Gout: %IAS, max fire res and lvl 10 Enchant on Striking can be very useful if you lack AR since, thanks to Blade Fury, it will have 100% uptime.
  
• Steel Rend: up to 80% off-weapon %ED, paired with strength and %CB for even more raw damage.
  

Corruptions to look out for: block chance, block rate, %IAS, Replenish Life, flat life, resists, stats, -x% to enemy defense

Boots:

• Waterwalk: are now 40% FRW in this mod, also max fire res and flat life are nice. The 20% FBR on it will get you the first block frame breakpoint too which makes them worth to consider.
  
• Gore Rider: %DS, %CB, %OW, what's not to like. If you are already capped on %DS you might consider something else.
  
• War Traveler: The flat damage is what makes this pair of boots great. Flat damage is more valuable than %ED at some point. The fact that they also provide %MF and some stats makes them a great choice.
  
• Goblin Toe: They provide %ED in PD2 on top of some %CB if you want some for ubers – cheap but solid option.
  

Corruptions to look out for: CNBF, Curse Duration Reduction, %FRW, %FHR, resists, Replenish Life, %PDR, %FRW

Belts:

• String of Ears: great belt since it provides leech on top of %PDR and flat mdr
  
• Verdungo’s Hearty Cord: %PDR and huge amounts of Vitality paired with little %FHR – solid defensive choice
  
• Rare/crafted belt: have huge potential and can be some of the best items in the game.
  
• Nosferatu’s Coil: Really great belt which provides %IAS and %DS in PD2 as well as some strength to scale damage. Also, great for %slow stacking with Fleshripper.
  

Corruptions to look out for: max res, block chance, %PDR, %FHR, resists, stats, Curse Duration Reduction, %FRW

Rings:

• Bul-Katho’s Wedding Band: +1 skill, life on level paired with life leech which are both useful for this kind of build.
  
• Wisp Projector: got reworked in PD2 and provides non class skills now and +1 all skills on top of it. Having access to HotW is a great source of %ED and %AR scaling. The spirit scales with +skills and can be precasted as well. %Lightning Absorb ans %MF are great stats on top of it.
  
• Ravenfrost: Can’t get CNBF on other gear slots? Going for max block? Then this is a great ring for you. Up to 20 dex and 250 AR help you reaching max block and hitting monsters. The cold absorb is also great to have – consider having one around for heavy cold damage encounters. The flat cold damage on the ring helps you chilling mobs for additional CC.
  
• Rare/crafted ring: can provide life, stats, dual leech and resists to fill out deficits
  

Corruptions to look out for: %FRW, leech, CNBF, Curse Duration, Resists, Stats

Amulet:

• Atma’s Scarab: Amplify damage proc can be nice when facing bosses where Cloak of Shadows doesn’t work anyway (CoS acts like a curse and will overwrite Amplify damage and vice versa, keep that in mind) or breaking some physical immunities – other than that the %AR is very nice to compensate AR issues somewhat.
  
• Seraph’s Hymn: +2 skills and a lot conditional off-weapon %ED against demons and undead as well as AR.
  
• The Rising Sun: You only want this if you want to boost your fire traps further, the +skills and the -x% enemy fire resist are a really strong damage enhancement – some maps can be cleared faster with fire traps so maybe keep it as a switch if you like it.
  
• Highlords Wrath: besides the +1 skill and 20% IAS you want this amulet for its %DS/lvl
  
• Rare/crafted amulet: can get up to +2 assassin skills, 10%FRW and other useful stats
  

Corruptions to look out for: max res, %FRW, +1 skill, %FHR, block chance, resists, Replenish Life, stats, %ED

Inventory:

• 9x Trap Skiller
• Torch/Anni
• Resist/FHR charmes to reach breakpoints
• Max damage small charms for more BF damage
• Life charms

Open Sockets:

Sockets should be used to reach breakpoints where you can (%FH%FBresists/%IAS) after that you can socket either Fire Facets (which now work with traps in PD2) or %ED jewels to boost your Blade Fury damage even further. If you want to make your other gear slots more flexible, consider using Lo runes for 20% DS each for your weapon as a high-end option.

Due to exceeding the character limit of this reddit post, please check the reddit commentary below where you can find the Merc Section and the additional FAQ Section of this guide - thank you!

Hello everyone
I watched Minari last night. It's by Lee Issac Chung and stars Steven Yuen and follows a South Korean - American family in Arkansas.
Let me first say I am a first-generation Korean- American immigrant who came here at the age of 9 with their parents to a small town with very few minorities. So this movie hit real close to home for me.
Some spoilers alert but nothing that will ruin the movie
I thought this movie was really good. It was very A24 - being very meditative, personal and intimate. You got to experience the life of a Korean-American immigrant and the struggles that come from it. I could not help myself from laughing at many scenes as it was so reflective of my own life growing up. The casual racism from other kids, and your own benevolence to it, parents trying hard to find Korean churches, to even the mom being lonely as there are no friends around and wanting to move to a bigger city.
The director, Chung himself grew up in such a Korean household (Minari is very much autobiographical) and it clearly shows on film. So many small intricacies that many white viewers will not really fully understand were all around. There were also many aspects that I do not believe that Koreans will get as they do not understand America. For example, in possibly my favourite scene in the movie, David sleeps over at his friend's house and ends up playing Hwatu and chewing dip. They went over it a little but Hwatu is very much a gambling card game for adults like texas hold-em or blackjack. Kids bringing sins of their own culture to the table and having fun was hilarious.
I thought the story flowed well, if not a little slow at times. Will Patton's character - Paul was a fantastic character that also cleverly provided exposition in English without it being awkward. This movie invited you into the family's lives and experience all the good and the bad. It reminded me of the Florida Project a little also utilizing the child-like curiosity to explore the setting. Overall, the movie was a solid 8.3/10 for me. (I am highly critical in my ratings). It was a good meditative exploration, but it wasn't invoking much for me, even as someone who can relate to the family more than most.
Now I also saw some chatter about how this was disqualified as Gloden globe's best picture. I will not get into the racial aspects of this but my first thoughts were that this movie would never win best picture. Now I would be happy to be proven wrong but this movie is a completely different beast than Parasite. Korean movies tend to mix many different aspects of genres into one. Minari is an American movie. The story might revolve around Koreans but the filmmaking aspect was fully American. And it was not your typical "Best Picture" movie. Minari is not too dramatic, it doesn't have crazy plot twists, it doesn't have any tragedies. It is a meditative piece that I personally will always enjoy but isn't a best-picture type (or worthy) movie in my opinion.
Anyways thanks for reading, leave a comment if you have any questions

​
The girl retracted her spear, grabbed Rozzak’s shirt collar, and threw him up on his feet. Charlie gets in front of her and holds out her hand. “Welcome to the Happy Hotel! Sorry about that. Vaggie has some trust issues, but she’s only trying to defend herself.” Rozzak shakes her hand, relieved for not dying. “Are you here to stay in a room?” She asks.The girl retracted her spear, grabbed Rozzak’s shirt collar, and threw him up on his feet. Charlie gets in front of her and holds out her hand. “Welcome to the Happy Hotel! Sorry about that. Vaggie has some trust issues, but she’s only trying to defend herself.” Rozzak shakes her hand, relieved for not dying. “Are you here to stay in a room?” She asks.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not getting a room. I just got an apartment a few blocks away, and I just came over to see what this place was like.” He responds. “So this is what the Happy Hotel is? Seems quite run-down for a princess to be working in.” He did notice the renewed fireplace off to the side, and the mismatched bar, which felt like it came from some mediocre casino.
“My mother was more willing to help me in my goal. My dad is seriously against me on these kinds of things.” Rozzak did feel pity for her, but didn’t exactly understand her situation. After everyone else introduced themselves, the spider was named Angel Dust, the grinch cat was Husk, the cyclops was Niffty, and the radio demon was himself (Alastor), Rozzak was given a short tour around the hotel. He got to see the different rooms, Alastor’s room was locked off and stained with blood and flesh for some reason, the different floors, the kitchen, and outside, including where the explosion had taken place. When they returned inside, Rozzak was filled with various questions on various things.
Husk was drinking at the bar with Angel Dust, looking for an excuse to avoid conversation with him. He spots Rozzak returning in with Charlie and yells out to him. “Hey! I think I’ve seen you in a bar before, axe-nose.” Says Husk to Rozzak. “Yeah, I think I bested you in a poker game!” He gets a deck of cards out of his pocket. “Up for another game?” Rozzak almost accepted it, remembering that game he played. Husk had cheated and won when Rozzak was about to. But before he could walk over, Vaggie suddenly interrupts him, and dashes to Husk. Enraged by Husk’s drunken habits.
“What did we say about the gambling, Husk?! You know you’re not supposed to gamble in here!” She tells him. She goes on with the yelling, involving a few bits of angry spanish and death threats (also in spanish), exaggerating how the hotel was designed to rehabilitate sinners, discourage sin, etc. He had heard it all before.
Rozzak decided to take this opportunity to chat with Charlie, and ask a particular question he was thinking about.
“Hey, Charlie! Um, I have a question. Why is it your mom, Lilith, supports you, even though she would probably have to side with your dad?” Asks Rozzak. After hearing this, Charlie paused for a moment, smiling at first, but it faded as Charlie got troubled by the thought. What if her mother was deceiving her this whole time, even though she helped Charlie financially to own the hotel?
“I- I’m- not sure. She’s always been, she-” It was hard for her to think. Being unable to trust her mother would be a devastating thing to hear, if it turned out to be true. “I don’t know. I’ll need to think for a bit.” She was starting to tear up. After a minute, she dries off and returns to the smiling face she was known to have. “Well, if you don’t want a room, that’s alright! But I think you were playing guitar too, right?”
“Uh, yeah, how did you know?”
“A couple of hours after the extermination, I went out to see what it was like on the streets. I looked into a bar, and noticed you playing one. Do you make music for a living?”
“Well, not exactly, but I’m thinking about it. And you know what? I might as well do that!” He reaches for the counter at the lobby customer service desk. They were covered in cobwebs, and the ink was nearly out, but Rozzak grabbed a pen and pad of paper to write something down. “What did you have in mind for me?”
Charlie was feeling overjoyed for this. “How about you host a concert here in 2 months time? We should have a couple more residents here by then!” Rozzak wrote this down and gave Charlie a surprising hug.
“You have no idea how much this means to me Charlie! I’ll gladly perform here for you guys!” He lets go, and puts away the pen and paper. “I gotta go now, but thank you guys for everything!” He said his goodbyes to everyone, even though Angel made it feel a bit awkward, with some small flirting from him to the dragon. Then he waved goodbye to all of them as he walked out the door, feeling ready to face the world ahead of him.
(End of Part I)

"Dio, no matter what happens, live nobly and with pride. If you do that, you'll surely be able to go to heaven." I wonder if my mother, who always used to tell me that, did indeed to go heaven in the end? Although she lived at the bottom rung of society, she lived with a pride that she never lost over the whole course of her life. But while that may be true, being so, especially being so, no, rather because she was so, I do not think she obtained a ticket to heaven. I don't think so. She was noble, proud, as well as pure, righteous and beautiful, and actually even goddess-like, but at the same time she was a hopelessly foolish woman. I hated that hopeless foolishness. Take this, for example: While we were so impoverished we would be worried about eating meals that day—While both she and I, her son, were in an environment where we suffered from having empty stomachs, she shared the paltry sum of money she had worked to earn with hungry children in the neighborhood. And not just with children; with elderly people or sometimes animals. She gave charity and blessings to such "weaklings" like it was her duty. What's the word... "Kindness.” She would scatter that sort of thing freely to those around her. What was that if not foolish? One can't help but hate it. Her way of life where she would put herself—as well as her family— second was certainly noble and proud, but in that bottom-rung town, there was no one to assess that nobility and pride. Depending on the place, like where the joestar family lived, that sort of idyllic country town, such character would be reasonably recognized... but in that town that was worse than a ditch, to be honest, she was a laughingstock. 10 The children who took her charity as well as the elderly people all laughed at mother. They roared with laughter like they were seeing a thoroughly entertaining hilarious joke being played. And when I heard that laughter, I didn't really have much animosity to it. They were absolutely right, I thought. Enough so that I wanted to laugh right along with them— My anger towards my mother took precedence, so I of course didn't do so. But that's to the degree that I felt so. My mother was foolish. Helplessly foolish. Be that as it may, as you might expect, being the son of the mother who was being made fun of, I was sometimes looked down on. And I couldn't just let those people that were laughing at my mother get away with it, but when I did that, my mother scolded me. Rather than the ones that were laughing at her, she would scold me that got angry. "You mustn't do that, Dio. You must not live relying on violence like that. If you do such things you will not go to heaven." Thinking back, it was like it was her favorite phrase. Words themselves have concrete meanings. Maybe they were something like an incantation. Her simply saying those things left an impression on me. She need only to say the word "heaven," and it felt like she might be saved-I had to think that, because otherwise that woman's feelings were completely incomprehensible to me. No, even if I did think that, understandably, she was undoubtedly impossible to understand, but.thinking back on it now, I feel that it probably brought a reasonable amount of light into her life in which she was constantly laughed at. But anyhow, she, my mother, took every opportunity to say that to me as a young child. If you do this, you can go to heaven. 11 If you do that, you can't go to heaven. Heaven, heaven, heaven. And every time, it irritated me-my childhood mind learned severe irritation. I thought of them as irrational words. I couldn't forgive my mother. That's why whenever I would see my drunken father commit violence against my mother, it actually made me feel relieved. "Serves you right,” I thought. Thinking about it now, it seems rather foolish but.as a young child, I liked my father more than my mother. I felt my low-life, insignificant, hopeless father was far better than my noble, proud mother. If my mother was a "giver" or perhaps a "donor,” then I think I could say my father was a "taker.” Thinking back on my connection with the joestar Family, a fated connection spanning over 100 years, his habit of stealing may have been the impetus.What he "took" from George joestar was the cause. I never once saw him work. I never saw him work or earn anything for himself. Through random gambling, swindle-like acts and extortion, he "took" cash and food from people in town—he never "earned," he only "took.” He was always doing that. The way he lived his life up until his death was the exact opposite of my mother's. And in that town, the one that was right was my father. My father's way of living was honest and correct. At the very least, I thought that the way my father lived so uninhibited and cunningly was cool. I wouldn't say I looked up to him, but I would say I respected him. It really does seem foolish looking back on it now, but.I was not in my proper senses, but I thought of the way he lived as very skillful. He was always taking from the weak. And in response to necessity, or even not in response to 12 necessity, he would beat other people. For me, a still-innocent child, one could not be "stronger.” I watched him. He was strong, stylish, and cool. In that broken-down slum of a town, knowing that my father was such a person was my life's greatest, and my life's only pride. But my mother repudiated that. She downright criticized it. "Dear, please stop. Let's go give back all the money you stole. You mustn't do these things. If you do things like this you won't be able to go to heaven." Whenever she said that, she got hit. A foolish woman got foolishly beaten. When she collapsed, he would violently kick her and throw liquor bottles at her. I only found out about it later, but my little brother or little sister that could have been was lost to that violence, apparently. It's a cruel story. It's a cruel story, isn't it? It surely is. But among that daily violence, she was forthright to the end. In that life at the bottom rung of society, in that terrible environment, she talked about justice, ethics, and morals. She held dearly those things that served no purpose at like they were treasures. I wish she'd have just shut up. At the least, I wish she'd have overlooked my father's actions.— If she'd just done that, she would at least have escaped his violence. No. When I think of my father in his drunken frenzies, you probably couldn't escape completely no matter what you did.But when I was a child, in an attempt to do that, I would stay quiet and get away from him when he drank. And that would minimize the amount of damage I received. 13 A child could figure that out, but she never did it. Quite the opposite. When my father was drank heavily and got drunk off his ass, she remonstrated him. "You mustn't drink so much liquor." And the like. She would say obvious things like that. She would get hit and say obvious things— What exactly was going to come from saying things like that? If you thought about it, it should've been easy to figure out. Seeing her try to talk to my father despite the fact that she did nothing to defend herself from being beaten couldn't be expressed as anything but humorous. It's strange. I cannot help but question it. Even if she couldn't escape the scorn, she should at least have been able to escape the violence.So why didn't she? Is it as I thought, she was simply foolish? Because she wasn't smart? Was my mother really a hopeless idiot? That is wrong. Now that one hundred years have passed, I know that is wrong. Now that I know the so-called outside world and the next world. It's true that my mother at least had intelligence and education— Even while in poverty where I could not go to school often, the one that taught me various things in place of a teacher was none other than her. It is because I had that basic education that I was able to live with such determination later. I never once thanked my mother for that while she was alive, though-I didn't think that such an "education" could serve any purpose, but if it weren't for that I seriously doubt I could have lived at that refined Joestar home. I never cared about my mother's bloodline, but when I did investigate, I found that that woman may have actually come from the upper echelons of society. 14 If I am allowed to say something a bit prejudiced, her refinement and dignity and that piety of hers were at the very least not born out of poverty. They must have been things born out of a life of luxury. But why would such a woman marry that father or why she fell into this miserable town, I cannot call anything but mysteries. Speaking of which, my father once told me something while drunk. Something about him eloping with my mother. And, "How's that for love and romance?" and some worthless drivel like that.I dismissed it as drunken nonsense, but I don't know whether or not it was actually really true. I ignored it as it seemed like an incredibly hard story to swallow, but although I can't confirm it as true, it may not have been nonsense either. Perhaps that father of mine said something truthful.Though there's no way to find out now. "Dio, don't blame your father. Your father is really a kind person. He just shouldn't drink. If he'd only quit drinking, I'm sure your father would work diligently." Now this was nonsense, I thought. My mother said such things to me with a serious look on her face.It took all I had not to cry out against that. I wanted to ask how she could possibly be so foolish. He's really a kind person? If only he stopped drinking? How or where could you look or in what way could you try to explain it in order to think in such a way.? All I could think was that my mother had lost her mind from being beaten too much. If one assumed that, one could even say that they were actually a very well-matched couple. But really, no matter how you thought about it, they were an incredibly mismatched couple. Despite living as the wife of that low-life father, for my mother who made it a principal to do good-- who aimed to go to heaven, must have been tantamount to torture. Or perhaps for her, that was the most "charitable" thing she could do. 15 Perhaps she thought that getting close to that father of mine, to remain married to him for life, was a mission given to her by God. Something along those lines. It's an audacious hypothesis I have no basis for, but unless I think it was something like that, I really can't understand it. Her life was far too incomprehensible. She was the laughingstock of the town, but she still tried to help him. She was beaten bloody by him, but she still tried to serve that father of mine. Every day, she worked to the brink of collapse. And seeing as one day she really did collapse and passed away, I really can't understand her. In the end, I wonder if she did get to heaven? I don't think she did. Surely, she couldn't go anywhere. She had nowhere to arrive at and nowhere to go back to. 16 2 There may be a way to get to heaven. Since some point, I started thinking like that. At the very least, I didn't think about it as a young child.And the heaven I am talking about here may not be the same heaven my mother was talking about. But anyhow, at some point I started thinking in such a way. When I say "at some point,” when I'm vague about the time it occurred, it is not particularly because I'm unsure of when it happened. Nothing of the sort.Rather, I know quite clearly and with great confidence when that moment was. It was when that witch, Enya the Hag, presented me the items the "Bow and Arrow" and I gained my Stand, "The World.”.... To be precise, it was when my Stand ability "The World" awoke. "The ability to control time." Like gears meshing, when that ability that was incredible even for me awoke, I simultaneously was convinced.No, I suppose saying "convinced" is going too far. I only say that because it's easier to understand that way. Though it's not actually how things were. At that point, it was purely a "maybe" level of thinking. But, I thought it. I thought it. That there may be a way to get to heaven-I thought in that manner. So when I say "at some point,” I'm saying that I started at that time and place, but looking back on it now, ever since then I've been searching for a way to get to heaven. For that purpose. I even thought that I was alive solely for that purpose. I thought that that was my goal in life. 17 At the very least, the four years I've spent on the surface after living for nearly a hundred years at the bottom of the sea have been all for the sake of going to heaven. I need to see heaven. I must go to heaven. I thought in such a manner, did I not?— So it's most likely that I started thinking it ever since I gained my Stand. That there may be a way to get to heaven. And I searched for it. .Perhaps in that mother's place, in my foolish mother's place, I'm trying to go to heaven? Perhaps I'm trying to seethe scenery of heaven and report it to my mother? No, that's wrong. Absolutely wrong. Even now, I think of that mother of mine as foolish—Irrecoverably, hopelessly foolish. She lived in that manner. It's no surprise she died. If I'm speaking about her, I could say that it was death from pushing herself too far and overwork; I could say she was beaten to death by my father's routine violence, even if those weren't it; whatever it was, with the way that woman lived, it was likely impossible for her to live a long life. She died while being laughed at. She died while being beaten. But even so, until the end, she never blamed anyone or begrudged anyone. "Dio, no matter what happens, live nobly and with pride. If you do that, you'll surely be able to go to heaven." An implausible idea, to the end. Until the very end, that woman kept saying that to me. Even at the point of death— she said that. I think that was perhaps a very sinful thing and such. I do think that. 18 I don't think it specifically because it was done to me, but.in that town that even hell was preferable to, to force one's own child to live righteously was mostly just abuse. Compared to that, I do believe my father was more honest. For that town, he was right. "Take the things you want. "Go swipe it from over there. "Earn your own cost of food.” That's exactly right. Truly "right.” I have nothing to object to. Compared to that, the dreamlike things my mother said.What I wanted to learn from my mother was not things about heaven and God, but more practical things that could be made to use right away and allow me to survive the day. And of course, I said that. That there's no such thing as heaven. That this was hell, and that was all there was. And when I did, Mother made a sad face. "You don't understand because you're still a child. When you grow up, I'm sure you'll understand." She said. "Heaven does exist. And there is a way to get there. So we have to live for the purpose of doing that." Why? Even if there is a heaven, why did I have to live for the sake of it?- And being told I was just a child was of course not going to convince me. Towards a child, because it's a child, the only way to end a conversation is with violence. Rather, to such a child, a child that doesn't understand anything, forcing them to do such a thing is unreasonable, I thought. And I still do. 19 My mother's coercion really was abnormal. She never showed any sign of it, but I wonder if perhaps my mother was emotionally distressed. Living such a painful life, living such a rock-bottom life, maybe living in such a manner was the only way she could maintain her sense of self.It seems probable. Heaven, that's the key word. For her, that was salvation. If that was the case, as I thought, she was just foolish.-I can only think that she became mentally ill from her empty stomach and all the violence. If she had lived until I was a bit older, then rather than use violence like my father, I perhaps could have used logic to convince her and perhaps release her from that curse. No, I'm sure I would have been able to. I'd have said that that lifestyle of hers was mistaken. I would have been able to convince her. But in reality, I was still just a small child. And she died quite abruptly. We buried her in a crude funeral, and I doubt she was able to get to heaven. Even on the day of the funeral, my father got drunk. "You can't help what's dead. What, do you think because if you have a funeral, they'll come back to life? You idiot..." My father's opinion, that point of view, I thought must be right, as I expected. I didn't feel very sad. Rather, I felt refreshed. For mother, this should be good, I thought. Yes, good. She was finally able to die. She could finally rest easy. That's what I thought. Even so, I really don't think she was able to get to heaven, but— even just being released from hell should generally be enough. 20 3 And unfortunately, I do not think I can get to heaven. At the rate I am going, I don't think I'll be able to get there. I am searching for how to get there. And as I am now, I've half found it, but.I have already obtained the Stand "The World,” the one-way ticket to heaven, but as things stand, the way I am now, it does not seem I will be able to get there. That is the conclusion I must come to. Though I am not giving up, I currently am forced to admit that it will be difficult.It will be difficult for me to get there on my own power alone. What I require is a friend I can trust. He must be a human that can control his desire. He must be a human without desire for power, hunger or for fame, or lust. He must hold God’s laws in higher esteem than he does man's laws-Will I, Dio, ever be able to meet such a person? What one could call antithesis of me. That kind of person. No, I must meet him. I must meet such a friend. That is why, in preparation for meeting him, I am recording information in this notebook. "How to go to heaven.” And no matter what kind of events may come to pass, I am writing in detail in order to have the persuasive power to denote whether or not I reached the "way to get to heaven.” Leaving behind such a record is dangerous.If this notebook were to be seen by, for example, someone like my old enemy jonathan Joestar, it would be an unsavory situation. I do not want such people to know of my "goal.” 21 If "he" or "they" knew of it, they would be sure to try to prevent me from reaching it.Of course, if they do interfere, all I need do is find and defeat them, but I am not currently prepared for that. I am still not completely accustomed to this body I stole from Jonathan one hundred years ago. In a word, I am "unsound.” With my stand, "The World,” I am still confident I could defeat them, but be that as it may, when I consider my pride in such things, I realize all too keenly my humiliating defeat one hundred years ago. So recording "how to go to heaven" like this is exceedingly risky— but it is a risk I must venture to take. This is not something that will do to only be in my head; to be something only I understand. It is necessary for me to organize it and put it into writing so friends I have yet to meet are able to understand that method. So even if I am gone— that method can still be realized. Taking up a pen like this at all is something I have not done in quite a long time.Perhaps it will do some good beyond organizing my thoughts. How to put it... Yes, it reminds me of my days as a student. My time as a student when I pretended to be jonathan's friend. There are a great many things that I must do. I will likely have to travel the world in order to find my yet-unfound friend.And I will have to do it with my own two legs. It may have been one hundred years ago, but in this world one hundred years in the future, finding a person of such pure spirit is likely to be no easy task. And to win over such a pure person will be even more difficult.I cannot turn them into a zombie or embed a "flesh bud" in them. It must be a "person I can have complete faith in.” It seems ridiculously unlike me to do such a thing.A sickening degree of difficulties lie ahead for me. That is why a record is needed. An objective record. A point of view not based on my opinions.