"GOL'BURGER - Brighten up your day!"

Franchise restaurants are hard to maintain, especially when they become one of the most popular fast-food services in the country! Thomas Alden grew up enjoying Gol'Burger's delicious hamburgers and fries growing up. Now, he's an adult in his thirties that has inherited a seat at the Board of Directors and a significant amount of shares in the company. With this comes great responsibility as his decisions will affect the company's future.

As Al Ray, the Chief Executive Officer of Gol'Burger, gets older, the world begins to change drastically. The FDA is beginning to implement and enforce new standards of practices regarding quality of fast-food chains around the country, putting the company's future at risk. The Members of the Board need to think of new ways to adapt.

What will you do in this privileged position of power? Will you flounder, find a way to rise above the noise, or become a victim to the strange forces in the background of the company?

Submitted for EndMaster's Crisis Contest 

Original Publishing Date: August 1, 2024

Corruption, complacency and conflict has eroded the once great Roman Empire. Split into two, and then diminished to the Italian Peninsula, Roman citizens, Christian and pagan, believe that the world as they know it is about end. His Holiness, Pope Leo, previously drove back Attila the Hun, called the Scourge of God by most west of the Danube River. The world believed that was the end of the Hun Invasion. They were wrong.

Eight years later, Attila still continues his conquest of the world, now having subdued all of Africa and the Eastern World. With the sacking of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire has collapsed into anarchy as the Huns and their subordinate tribes pillage and plunder the countryside. With no other obstacles in his path, Attila is once again free to attack the Western Roman Empire.

The alarming speed of the Huns' conquests and reports of new total war tactics terrify the west. Strange tales of hordes of vicious animals, warriors with the strength of ten men and demonic sorcery plague the imaginations of the Roman forces charged to protect what remains of the Empire. Before, reports of the Huns' savagery were already running rampant. Now, all forms of apocryphal tales are accepted as fact.

In a final desperate stand against the forces of darkness, the leader of the Christians, Pope Leo, has organized what remains of the bravest and most cunning soldiers of the Roman army to launch a covert mission to save the people of the West. There is no other way; Attila must be destroyed! Possessing otherworldly insight, Leo has been given he knowledge necessary to guide his chosen men, and you among them, to fight to the threat that seeks to end not only Rome, but the entire world. Will you defeat Attila's ambition to destroy the world, or will you be just another victim?

Update Notes:

Addressed the variable glitches that led to some of the content being blocked off. Fixed the issue and made some other edits.

France - Summer 1415 AD

The country of France faces a point of crisis. King Henry of England, fifth of his name and hope of the House of Lancaster, declares his intention to conquer France, stating it is the will of God. Charles, sixth of his name and known as the Mad King, is poorly suited to deal with the rising threat and relies on the strength of better men. To the shock of the French court, Henry and his army arrive safely in Normandy despite coastal defenses, leaving Henry to freely begin his siege of the port of Harfleur. Charles, furious and frothing at the mouth, threatens his lords into compliance to answer English aggression.

Command the destiny of Jean the Younger, heir to the Valois-Alençon dynasty. His father Jean the Elder, named the "Wise" and Duke of Alençon, is ordered by his liege to lead a portion of the French army to counter the English invasion. Little Jean wants to his father in action, drawn by the romantic, medieval desire to see the glory of battle. But, there is one problem: Jean is only a six-year-old boy! Nevertheless, he dreams of glory, being the son of one of the most powerful men in France.

Will you bind Jean's actions to history, guide him to a greater future or doom him to obscurity? His fate lies in your hands.

Congratulations to everyone, and especially Fluxion!

Hey, everyone!

I'm back as the editor for this month's issue and what a publication we have here for you all!

As always, I'd like to thank all the members of the CYS Monthly Gazette for without them this wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is now!

A special thank you as well to those who were interviewed for this month. It's been fun experience!

Once again, the pictures are clickable. If you want the slideshow of this article, here's a link.

A particular thank you to Fresh for teaching me how to do all this in code.

I guess I really didn't use 37 to the fullest. I was more drawn to use it more for background/flashback elements and to bring characters to unfamiliar locations. Seemed more interesting than just to do a straightforward representation of the legends, though there is definitely a place for that.

Three Late Knights

Definitely going to work on this more after the contest.

Contenders for that position

Mario Bros: Mostly for many completions of Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3

Legend of Zelda: Played most of the titles, and finished most of those

Fallout: New Vegas, ring-a-ding-ding baby

Team Fortress: "That spy is not OUR spy!"

Age of Empires: 2 is the best one, no contest

Halo: 2 is the best story, 3 is the best couch multiplayer, anything from 4 on is weird/bad/incomplete

Dark Souls: Dark Souls 1 is the Dark Souls of the franchise next to Demon Souls, which is the King's Field of Dark Souls

I have a life. I swear.

Yeah, that's a fair point. Forgot about that detail in Book 4.

1. Odysseus has never been a man drawn to the front lines. He fits into the sneakier, more cunning character archetype than anyone else in the narrative does. Considering my knowledge of the Odyssey I wouldn't consider him a coward, but he would be the type to flee from death. He would consider it pretty stupid to die in battle if it could be avoided. At least he's not Agamemnon. Speaking of which...

2. Agamemnon calls his soldiers cowards despite him just watching from the sidelines. He's content to sacrifice as many troops for his own glory as needed to bring down Troy. Once again, he's the worst. Teucer can't hide his disdain for Agamemnon either; he doesn't even care for any reward that Agamemnon can offer.

3.Of course Zeus can't keep an orderly house. This is the one who's cheated on his wife so many times that no one can keep track of how many kids he has, and the one who thunders at anyone who defies his will for any reason. The pantheon is afraid of Zeus, but they don't really respect him. They'd anything to get around Zeus' watchful eyes if at all possible. The only reason they're allowed to get away with anything is either because he's already involved in it or he's completely indifferent.

It is kind of funny that Zeus goes on and says to the rest, "No, you can't help them anymore. I wanna do my thing now, and if anyone stops me I'm going to hurt you so bad that it would take a decade for you to get better." Then he just pummels the Greeks for a while with lightning out of nowhere. If you're a Greek warrior, you have to wonder why Zeus is so angry at your side in particular. Did someone disrespect him? Was he always on the side of the Trojans? It was a clear sky just a second ago, where did all this lightning come from?

4. The looming doom of fate is a common theme among Greek mythology and legend. Patroclus is doomed to die, which will set off Achilles and then spur him on to kill Hector. Hector's fate was already determined earlier in the narrative and the audience is eagerly anticipating Achilles' return to the battlefield. Homer could be using fate as determined by the pantheon as a way to excite his audience of what they have to look forward to despite the current circumstance of the Greeks.

"Oh no! The Trojans are winning and it looks like the Greeks are doomed! Don't worry, folks. Zeus has spoken and has promised that Greek superstar Achilles is coming back to fight. Isn't that exciting, everyone?"

*the audience draws closer to the storyteller, eager to hear what happens next to bring their champion back*

Something like that perhaps.

Happy Easter and Resurrection Day!

Spent time serving at church, visited family and just got back home. Going to extend the festivities tomorrow with my girlfriend's family and make some baked mac n' cheese to go with some glorious barbecue.

1. Hector is supposed to be a noble character and respects the rules of fair play. One could wonder what the point would be to rest and continue the fight another day if you're just going to kill your opponent, but Apollo and Athena conspired to bring about a way to pause the fighting and it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that the two gods brought circumstances together so that Hector would face an opponent he would respect and couldn't himself beat that day. Honestly, who really knows how much the characters of the Iliad are actually just puppets for the pantheon? If it pleases the gods that the fighting should stop, then the fighting is going to stop. If they want it to continue, it will continue. However, I think both Hector and Ajax gained some mutual respect for each other and wanted an excuse not to kill each other that day. Ajax was more than willing to go along with Hector's idea once it was brought up.

2. Since the Pantheon seems to have little respect for the lives of the Trojans in the grand scheme of things, Zeus more than likely is planning some sort of tragic devices for them. It has already been established that Hector will die, and Paris has once again done a selfish thing by refusing to give up Helen. Whatever is next for Troy can't be anything good.

3. The dead in this case don't have the time to be buried, but they do deserve some amount of time for mourning. Both Greeks and Trojans recognize the need to honor those who died with some time of mourning and feasting. It would be rather disrespectful to the spirits of dead not to have some time given to them. Who knows what sort of spiritual shenanigans could occur with a large host of ghosts of warriors running around and messing with both sides out of anger for not being recognized for their deeds and sacrifice?

4. I can't open the article, but the idea of a gift-exchange between the two warriors shows a great degree of respect for one another. These aren't cheap, disposable gifts either and that shows that two actually value each other's lives in a way that transcends the idea of the conflict itself. They will meet each other on the battlefield later, but they will be very reluctant to fight each other there as they respect each other's skill.

The "best" of the Greeks might at this moment actually be the Ajax the Great who fought Hector. Hector is undoubtedly the best of the Trojans and Ajax matched him and even drew blood. The two recognized each other's skill and character as well. Diomedes is pretty still pretty good though.