Does me saying “Happy 115 Day” in this post count as a post in and of itself, and, thusly, does it bag me the medal? If so: Happy 115 Day! If not: RIP me.

Yeet. 1. I don’t enjoy OP Wonder Weapons like I used to. That said - Apothicon Servant’s pretty much the better option, either way. 2. For ease: Ray Gun Mark III, baby. 3. No! You won’t make me choose! You won’t ma- Ray Gun Mark II. I’m sorry, no choice needed. The Wunderwaffe had its time. 4. Paralyzer is a fun time. I think “versatile” doesn’t really give it justice. 5. I’m inclined to say the Wolf Bow. It holds a special place in my heart, as it’s story and acquisition are more captivating. The Wave Gun’s great, elicits similar emotion, but... just not the same. 6. KT-4, personally - seeing that I never get that version of the Wunderwaffe, that is probably an incredibly biased decision. 7. Gauntlets are just... so fun. The acquisition, the use. 8. Alistair’s Folly might be one of the better things out of Chaos.

I know this is a weird post, but it is an important one for me. This has been on my mind since the Tag ending - which, don't worry, cooking up something for that. It bugs me, being a person who both wants to understand and prides their understanding of the story, the Aether, all of it... I want to justifiably post the second post for Understanding the Aether, but I confess that this has felt like a slight roadblock. I hope y'all can unravel this for me.

Hello. The Meh here. I know - you're reading the title right now and thinking to yourself... 'what? Of course it does. The Dark Aether's a thing and has been since Black Ops III!' Y'know, you'd be right in that assessment - as a narrative piece, the Dark Aether is a fundamental, universal constant and literal piece of everything. It does exist, and I guess that's an antithesis of this post... right? Not one bit. Truthfully, I don't believe that "The Dark Aether" is a convenient way to personify things - AT ALL - in the way we've seen it represented. But, to quantify just why The Dark Aether makes no sense, we need to discuss - in layman's terms - what we can accentuate the core Aether being. Let's start with an analogy - think of the dichotomy between both Heaven and Hell, just as an example. Not as their personal counterparts, not by their representatives, not by any of that... but by their notions. Their existence and force alone. Two high powers, of both light and dark. In truth, the "Light Aether" is very much like that - it's the high place within metaphysical creation, a high energy that mortals simply cannot comprehend - or, to take a step further on, the whole abundance of the Aether is incomprehensible to all lifeforms, even those who can wield its power - that, if anything, is the core reason why it might be able to corrupt and contort its holds onto creatures. We interpret, and justifiably, have seen, these forces coalesce into a core ideal - the side of the Aether and the side Agartha/Monty's Perfect World rest upon is intended to be the light side, and the darkness we've understood as "Dark Aether", and the darkness we assume to see the Apothicons - The Shadow Man, Doctor Monty, and the like - we could think of that more the same, on a metaphysical level - a deep, oozing energy of darkness - antimatter. Which is why, with Tag der Toten's ending, their narrative use of the Dark Aether simply as a void of pure nothingness bugs me. Immensely so. Nikolai seems to grasp and explain that all these evils, all these events transpired, the whole Aether, they are cast away forever into the darkness, abandoned to nothing. That's what a void is, truly - a deep nothingness. But, again, we must consider that: a.) To have cast the Apothicons away so long ago into a darkened nothingness outside of creation and call that "Dark Aether" does not imply their turn and use of power from that realm, if such a realm is implied as pure nonexistence - unless that nonexistence is their power, and all this is a catch-22 that makes no sense; and b.) To have destroyed all of the Aether, you would have to destroy the Dark Aether, so as anything to be created ever again isn't left to desolate darkness and despair of causality to its powers - and yet to use the Dark Aether as a void of nothingness, is its own catch-22, out of the fact that you cannot simply destroy a void of nothingness. Narrative-wise, it fucking kills me. Notwithstanding, that writing this way for the Dark Aether completely misrepresents the Apothicons as a force of darkness - they're just aliens who got locked in a closet. Hopefully, you guys might see why, and help me understand the troubles I've wrought in my understanding of it. I know, this whole thing was off-the-cusp, but I can't really stay silent about it without driving myself fuckin' mental. Per aspera ad astra? -The Meh

It's not really much of a reference, but I can see the connection to be had in this.

Alright, I missed the first one. So I'll participate in this one as apology. 1. Wave Gun. The last "phenomenal" BO1-era weapon. The others after that have been... marginal? 2. Fire Staff. Personal favorite. 3. Lightning Bow. Also a personal favorite. 4. The Gauntlets have such an interesting design to them. It's... honestly underrated. 5. To be contrarian, I'm voting for the Jet Gun. Mostly because I enjoy using it for the memes, more than I do seriously using the Ice Staff. Which is great, because that's just the type of comment that people will be triggered over! Perhaps that was the goal? 6. Alistair's Folly. Design and everything. Perfect. Winter's Howl's nice, but... it's just not the same feeling, y'know? Plus, that shit gets awful after Round 50, y'know? 7. Thundergun.

Quite recent, eh? I think I recall participating in that one. We were also talking about Sanity Not Included. Great post by the way. Passions... it’s probably way too obvious these days, but I love writing and music. Writing about music, though... I don’t know if you guys are aware, but I’ve been doing that too! Over on a website called “The Metal Archives”. Honest to god, it makes me feel confident as a writer and makes me love music more than I would have expected, writing these things. Feel free to take a look! https://www.metal-archives.com/users/TheMeh (Don’t worry about the way I worded some things in reviews or profile description. The people over there are kinda into humor like that.)

Alright, may as well weigh in. Gotta say, was a good year! Plenty of great people all around, new and old, and that’s all I could ever hope for. First nominee for me goes to (rather unsurprisingly) @anonymous - mostly for being a de facto good noodle, but also because of your efforts to keep deeper conversation and theorizing alive in the Discord and through the OoFM posts. I would be lying if I wasn’t somewhat inspired. Hell, your posts kinda influence my Aether theories (speaking of, I really need to release Pt. 2 before the end of the year). So... yeah. All around great forum influence and friend. Second nominee for me goes straight to @KronoriumExcerptB. Still very much glad you were able to join us around here, and your quality posts show for it quite a lot. Genuinely a positive community influence all around. Third nominee (and this was a tough one), is @RadZakpak. Your work on the Storybook (which I ought to deep read at some point) and content on this forum are beyond commendable and welcome. Keeping us alive ‘round here, and what can we ask more of? Wish I could nominate more. Y’all make this site a great place. Thank you for the good times, good memes, and good conversations over the years. (shoutout to @caljitsu for being an absolute mad lad by the way)

*~*/ZombiesHangman\*~*  Test your might! _ Incorrect Guesses (0/6): Hints: Scoreboard: The Golden Reigning Champo Lampo: Lenne - 259 (guess the next one you have in one go - that would be N I C E) 2nd: Slade - 238 (the silveriest of surfers) 3rd: way2good - 201 (brown town baby woo) The Meh (“lil’ cheese”) - 154 Electric Jesus - 150 Nightmare Voyager (”big cheese”) - 134  ETEl2NAL407 - 100 Tasha the noob - 93 Delta - 68 Naitrax - 58 Rissole25 - 48 MysteryMachineX - 46 Undead - 44 Chopper - 34 Cheesegrater28 - 32 Tac - 30 anonymous - 30 PortlyLlama80 - 22 Reddonkeyham - 20 RequixEclipse - 20 Jake Duck - 16 wesleykg00 - 16 Silv3r Energy - 16 83457 - 12 zombieman9 - 10 XAvengedLullabyX - 10 OverWater17 - 10 RaidDzn - 10 PINNAZ - 8 nayrc - 6 jiipee95 - 6 unlawfully inacurate - 4 Ooka - 2 RiftRunner001 - 2 ZombieDreamerDan - 2 CrubZee - 2 BriggzyJ97 - 2 TheNathanNS - 2 Mr Swifty - 2 RZArazorSHARP20 - 2 Señor Festo Lithium - 2 KronoriumExcerptB - 2 JJMFP - 1   Rules:  Guess the word orphrase correctly, WITHOUT any letters = 10 points Guess the word or phrase correctly = 2 points Stump the field (6 incorrect guesses) = 6 points One incorrect letter = 1 incorrect guess One incorrect word(s) = 2 incorrect guesses You may only guess up to 2 consonants or 1 vowel at a time. Host adds hint after 4 incorrect guesses. Numbers MUST be spelled out.  After 6 wrong guesses, the personwho made the last guess gets the board.  If, after two weeks, the person who is meant to be posting a board doesn't, another person is allowed to take their board and continue the game.

Damn, swept it away from ‘em. That’s indeed correct. (also the hint is from the Monty radio in ZC Nacht) Will supply the board soon.

Great guess. The comment broke a little, but - board updated.

Oof. That is a +6 for me. Keeping the board running, though.

Indeed.

Incorrect. Onto 5/6, so... hint added. Board updated, too!