diff --git a/Source/IO/FS/FS.cpp b/Source/IO/FS/FS.cpp
index 1465bcd7..33d88939 100644
--- a/Source/IO/FS/FS.cpp
+++ b/Source/IO/FS/FS.cpp
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ namespace Aurora::IO::FS
         return (c == '.') || (c == '!') || (c == '~') || (c == '?');
     }
 
-    static void ResolveAbsolutePath(const AuString &path, AuString &result)
+    static void ResolveAbsolutePath(bool requireMountExpand, bool requireSanitization, const AuString &path, AuString &result)
     {
         AuString buffer;
         bool isResource {};
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ namespace Aurora::IO::FS
         /**
             Resolve special character prefixes
         */
-        if (path.size() > 2)
+        if ((path.size() > 2) && (requireMountExpand))
         {
             if (path[1] == kPathSplitter)
             {
@@ -68,59 +68,66 @@ namespace Aurora::IO::FS
         {
             buffer += path;
         }
-  
-        /**
-            Quickly handle the edge case in some modern UNIX derived systems, and in 
-             Windows UNC paths, where paths may start with '//' or '\\' respectively
-        */
-        if (StartsWith(buffer, kDoublePathSplitter))
-        {
-            result += kDoublePathSplitter;
-        }
 
-        /**
-            Technically, UTF-8 strings may contain the "NUL" byte. 
+        if (requireSanitization)
+        {
+            /**
+                Quickly handle the edge case in some modern UNIX derived systems, and in 
+                 Windows UNC paths, where paths may start with '//' or '\\' respectively
+            */
+            if (StartsWith(buffer, kDoublePathSplitter))
+            {
+                result += kDoublePathSplitter;
+            }
+
+            /**
+                Technically, UTF-8 strings may contain the "NUL" byte. 
             
-               o  Character numbers from U+0000 to U+007F (US-ASCII repertoire)
-                  correspond to octets 00 to 7F (7 bit US-ASCII paths).  A direct
-                  consequence is that a plain ASCII string is also a valid UTF-8
-                  string.
+                   o  Character numbers from U+0000 to U+007F (US-ASCII repertoire)
+                      correspond to octets 00 to 7F (7 bit US-ASCII paths).  A direct
+                      consequence is that a plain ASCII string is also a valid UTF-8
+                      string.
                   
-            You know what would suck? If we were targeting an esoteric platform, 
-            say a kernel, and we we're trying to avoid string exploits by potential 
-            attackers. I'm sure that would never happen to poor anticheat devs.
-        */
-        const auto parts = SplitString(buffer, AuString(1, kPathSplitter)); /// zzzz im going to FUCKING SLEEP
-        for (const auto &ch : parts) // can you tell why FIO shouldn't be in hot paths yet?
-        {
-            if (ch == "..")
+                You know what would suck? If we were targeting an esoteric platform, 
+                say a kernel, and we we're trying to avoid string exploits by potential 
+                attackers. I'm sure that would never happen to poor anticheat devs.
+            */
+            const auto parts = SplitString(buffer, AuString(1, kPathSplitter), true /*ignore empty tokens*/); /// zzzz im going to SLEEP
+            for (const auto &ch : parts) // can you tell why FIO shouldn't be in hot paths yet?
             {
-                auto i = result.size() - 1;
-                while (i >= 0 && result[i] != kPathSplitter)
+                if (ch == "..")
                 {
-                    --i;
-                }
+                    auto i = result.size() - 1;
+                    while (i >= 0 && result[i] != kPathSplitter)
+                    {
+                        --i;
+                    }
                 
-                if (i >= 0) {
-                    result.resize(i);
-                }
+                    if (i >= 0) {
+                        result.resize(i);
+                    }
                 
-                continue;
-            }
+                    continue;
+                }
             
-            if ((ch.size() == 1) && (IsMagicCharacter(ch[0])))
-            {
-                continue;
+                if ((ch.size() == 1) && (IsMagicCharacter(ch[0])))
+                {
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                result += ch;
+                result += kPathSplitter;
             }
 
-            result += ch;
-            result += kPathSplitter;
+            auto i = result.size() - 1;
+            if (result[i] == kPathSplitter)
+            {
+                result.resize(i);
+            }
         }
-
-        auto i = result.size() - 1;
-        if (result[i] == kPathSplitter)
+        else // !requireSanitization
         {
-            result.resize(i);
+            result = buffer;
         }
 
         if (isResource)
@@ -140,6 +147,7 @@ namespace Aurora::IO::FS
     void /* internal, local export */ _NormalizePath(AuString &str)
     {
         bool requiresExpanding = false;
+        bool requiresMountUpdate = false;
         
         requiresExpanding = str.size() && IsMagicCharacter(str[0]);
         
@@ -179,16 +187,16 @@ namespace Aurora::IO::FS
                 auto c = str[0];
                 if ((c == '.') || (c == '~') || (c == '!') || (c == '?'))
                 {
-                    requiresExpanding = true;
+                    requiresMountUpdate = true;
                 }
             }
         }
         
         // worst case -> yea have fun
-        if (requiresExpanding)
+        if (requiresExpanding || requiresMountUpdate)
         {
             AuString temp;
-            ResolveAbsolutePath(str, temp);
+            ResolveAbsolutePath(requiresMountUpdate, requiresExpanding, str, temp);
             str = temp;
         }
     }
diff --git a/Source/RNG/RNG.cpp b/Source/RNG/RNG.cpp
index f0e39d20..202697bd 100644
--- a/Source/RNG/RNG.cpp
+++ b/Source/RNG/RNG.cpp
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ namespace Aurora::RNG
     AUKN_SYM void ReadFastRNG(void *in, AuUInt length)
     {
         // TODO: implement me
-        return ReadSecureRNG(in, length);
+        ReadSecureRNG(in, length);
     }
 
     void Init()