I apologize in advance for how disjointed this post seems. I've been tinkering with it off and on for a while, and I've come to the conclusion that there isn't strictly a linear narrative. The context loops around a bit because it's easier to explain a few things after the fact than it is to arrange them chronologically. I promise, it'll make sense (probably).

Modulo people possibly taking me slightly too seriously I've never been particularly shy about talking about my love of table-top RPGs. Though I started with Dungeons and Dragons as a kid, as I got older I …

As I've mentioned a few times in the past, diverse parts of my exocortex monitor many different aspects of the world.  One of them, called Ironmonger, constantly data mines the global stock markets looking for anomalies.  Ordinarily, Ironmonger only triggers when stock trading events greater than three standard deviations hit the market.  On Monday, 6 Feb at 14:50:38 hours UTC-0800 (PST), Ironmonger did an acrobatic pirouette off the fucking handle.  Massive trades of three different tech companies (Intel, Apple, and Facebook) his the US stock market within the same thirty second period.  By "massive," I mean that 3 …