Vocab answers for level f sandlier-oxford

Ok so I checked my answers on crack A Level for all the papers expect for Math P12 and Physics P12. (And practicals OFC)
This is what I am expecting.
Mathematics 9709 (AS Level Only) P12: TERRIBLE. IT WAS FUCKING SHIT. OMG IT WAS SO BADDD BRO. I Barley got like 55/75
P42: 37/50. THE PAPER WAS HARD ASF BRO. But the thresholds are going to be low like maybe 32-34 for an A.
Chemistry 9701 (AS Level Only) P12: 28-30/40
P22: 43/60
P34: 29/40. CALCULATIONS WERE SO HARD FOR ME.
Physics 9702 (AS Level Only) Paper 12: 28-30/40
Paper 22: 48-49/60
Paper 34: 36-38/40
Yall I don't have PUM in my country but I would appreciate if you included that. Please be honest and fair. Cause I think I may have to resist for Math in November if nothing happens with the whole P1 situation cause thresholds are going to be sky high. My Math teacher has taught a lot of people over the course of 20 years. Some of his students have even gotten OCLA (Outstanding Cambridge Learners Award). He thinks I am going to do really well and he kept on motivating me. He is expecting a lot from me. I don't know what happened in the exams tho. Like I made so much silly mistakes. I could have gotten a minimum of 73/75. I averaged around 70+ in past papers and 45-50 in Mechanics. Well it is what it is I guess.

hi!! 35/f here - had my second-ever lap nine days ago, but it had been over ten years since my first one, so it felt like i was going in somewhat blind. i also got my first-ever IUD under sedation, and i'd never been on BC before, aside from a two-week relationship with nuvaring ~15 years ago. so i wanted to post this for anyone googling "should i get a lap?" or "what happens after my lap" or "is an IUD going to mess me up??!" etc.
pre-surgery: i found my doctor from this sub's doctor map! i don't think i'd be writing the same post if i hadn't used that map, so THANK YOU from the bottom of my cramping, bloated heart if you've ever contributed to it. that said, it did take a couple appointments and some (mild) insistence on my end to get my lap scheduled, even with my history and previous lap surgery*. she wanted to start me out on an IUD instead. and if i were a bit younger, or if i hadn't had surgery before, i probably would have done that! but i told her that the pain i felt every month personally outweighed any risks from surgery, and as i've been thinking about having kids in the next handful of years, i wanted to know what was going on in there. and i was really worried about the IUD—i've never been on BC as my hormones are all over the place every month, and i was afraid messing with my natural levels might make things worse. but what finally sold me was that it decreases the risk for ovarian cancer.
surgery prep: tons of threads in this sub about what to bring and what to have in your home for aftercare, but i saw very few people who either recommended or took any gas-x before the procedure (and it also wasn't included in my prep packet from the hospital). DO THIS!!! take gas-x before you leave for the hospital!! i heard nightmares about the trapped gas, and it was definitely bad, but felt MUCH more manageable than it might have been had i not popped a gas-x.
post surgery update: i got my period yesterday, and holy shit??? i barely knew it was coming. i cried when i saw the blood. i couldn't believe it. i had a little cramping, i was a little bloated, and i was tired ... but about the only slightly negative change i've noticed is that my boobs are huge and hurt, which has actually never been a symptom for me, somehow (though i had about every other PMS symptom, ha). virtually everything else is better. and my mood - what the fuck???? for YEARS i was worried about birth control making me a hormone monster, but i felt ZERO change in my mental state aside from the fatigue. no extreme swings of irritability or sadness or horniness. it's blowing my mind!!
anyway, i know this is just my experience - everyone is different and everyone will react differently to surgery and BC. but if you're on the fence about the IUD, i can't recommend it enough. years of suffering through the worst periods of all time are just ... gone. i'm tearing up again writing this!
happy to answer any questions, but not expecting any response to this. just wanted to share <3 good luck out there you gorgeous gorgeous girls!!
*i understand why - she warned me about what we've all heard before, that ablation/excision is risky and not something you want to do often, if you can help it. the more you ablate/excise, the more scar tissue that forms in its place, which leads to more complications down the line. she likened it to "weeding a garden" - you want to get the weeds out, but there's a strong chance they'll multiply if you aren't careful about where/how they're removed, and even if you are careful, the only way to truly eradicate weeds is to get rid of your garden ... i.e. full hysterectomy, baby!! womp womp. (but i'll probably do that in another ten years, lol)

So I just farmed a spark on a barb alt, I was hitting in the millions with a bash build at level 60. Currently using a new sorc alt that is level 67 and I'm hitting for 30-50k with frozen orb? Like what am I doing wrong, I have the skills right, I have a bunch of level 925 gear that is almost perfect for the build, shako and ranks to frozen orb on gloves. I feel squishy and weak. I cleared at t50 at level 62 on my barb. Is there a better build I should be running? Ice shards? I don't know the answer anymore.

Hi! I know counting calories works for a lot of folks, but for me it makes me obsess about food and leads to unhealthy behaviors and has never worked for me. But about a year ago I found out I had put on 12 pounds in a year. I was F, 46 5’7” 167. It was more than I had ever weighed - I was alarmed. But instead of jumping into restricted eating, I just got curious and thought, if I gained 12 pounds in 12 months without noticing, could I do the reverse? So I made a couple small diet changes, increased my exercise a lot, focusing on weight training, and the weight came off. I’m now 150. I should mention, when I found out about the weight gain, I’d had about 6 months of almost no exercise due to a back injury so I’m sure getting back to and surpassing my normal activity level was partly why the weight came off quickly without diet restriction.
Anyway, I’m really pleased with my results, obviously it’s better than I had aimed for. But I am still at about 28-30% body fat and still weigh more than before I had my kids. Also, since I’ve been working out so much, and loving it, I want to increase my performance and think losing a little more weight would help with some activities, like rock climbing. But I’ve been at my current weight now for over 3 months.
My question is, has anyone broken through a plateau like this without any changes to behavior or diet? Is my body settling into a new set weight, and in a few months I could start losing excess weight again if I continue to eat carefully? Or do I need to try a more formal diet to lose an additional 10 pounds? I’ve no problem taking my time- if it takes a year or 18 months to lose 10 pounds I’d take that over calorie counting. But I feel like I need some hope here!

So this was over a year ago, and Ive had a few suspicions about this psychologist (and i just read the other day that privately run psychologists are less likely to give accurate diagnoses (?)), however I just found a place on here that seems open to being asked, where people are actually educated enough to respond accurately. Bear with me until the end, and please answer each question individually before you add information that i havent specifically asked for (including but not limited to unsolicited advice). Any extra information, if any, add to the end. And before anyone tells me "seek a second opinion from another psychologist", i cant right now, ive been trying but i cant find a psychologist that has the credentials im looking for thats near me, so yeah honestly just answer the questions before you say anything like that.
Background: About a year ago (age 19) I had an examination for autism and ADHD, the autism due to lifelong struggles with socializing and my dads concerns as well, and the ADHD because i struggled in college (before droping out of college for an unrelated reason). What the psychologist did was give both me and my mom a copy of the SRS-2, me the CASS, me the WAIS-IV, me the WRAML-2 story memory recall and story memory delayed recall tests, me the Moxo ADHD test, me the Social Cognition test, and me the TASIT-S minimal test. I ended up diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder level 1 as a primary diagnosis, and ADHD predominately inattentive type as a secondary diagnosis. I dont have the Moxo test results off the top of my head (other than they were very bad) but Ill give my other results here, ill make it as detailed as possible so that nothings hidden.
SRS-2 Maternal Responses: 72 criteria A (moderately elevated), 70 criteria B ( moderately elevated)
SRS-2 self responses: 80 criteria A (severely elevated), 67 criteria B (moderately elevated)
CASS (5/10 cutoff): 6/10 inattention symptoms, 2/10 hyperactivity symptoms
WAIS-IV
IQ: 107 (68th percentile)
Verbal Comprehension Index: 103 (58th percentile) Similarities: 11 (63rd percentile) Vocabulary: 10 (50th percentile) Information: 11 (63rd percentile)
Perceptual Reasoning Index: 105 (63rd percentile) Block Design: 7 (16th percentile) Matrix Reasoning: 16 (98th percentile) Visual Puzzles: 10 (50th percentile)
Working Memory Index: 122 (93rd percentile) Digit Span: 13 (84th percentile) Arithmetic: 15 (95th percentile)
Processing Speed Index: 94 (34th percentile) Symbol Search: 10 (50th percentile) Coding: 8 (25th percentile)
Social Cognition Test: 8 (25th percentile) Facial Affect recognition: 6 (9th percentile) Prosody: 10 (50th percentile) Pairs: 9 (39th percentile)
WRAML-2 Story memory recall: 4 (2nd percentile) WRAML-2 Story memory delayed recall: 5 (5th percentile)
TASIT-S minimal: 4 (2nd percentile)
Extra observations: Monotone voice, flat affect, repetitive movements (such as "shaking head" and, "scratching head"), lack of eye contact particularly when speaking, constantly restarting sentences when speaking.
Now, Ive already rejected the ADHD diagnosis. Long story short, nothing thats supposed to help people with ADHD helped me, in fact most of the things made it worse, and literally no one noticed inattention my entire life. If anything i am (and was) seen as way too attentive, often writing way too much during assignments when i was in school, and constantly catch a bunch of things that others miss while simultaneously almost never making careless mistakes now that i have a repetitive non-social job. I now realize through self reflection that it was a combination of me not noticing how inattentive others were compared to me, because i focused too much little parts of assignments not realizing how much time flew by before i could move on, and also partially because i often found the work at school hard and didnt receive any support, and instead got in trouble. Keep in mind that it was very much domain specific; it was almost always english work that was what i struggled to get done, math was extremely easy and i never understood why people struggled with it. All of those things along with terrible organization skills, for example, i cant clean a room without stuffing things in random places, which is partially because i feel sad when i even throw away old papers so i tend to keep them, I cant fold clothes neatly in drawers, until my teenage years couldnt even hang clothes on a hanger and until recently i couldnt even make a bed. However, the last straw was the 20mg Vyvanse causing me a panic attack on day 3 of me taking it as soon as i got exposed to noise (up until very recently i operated a noisy machine as a mail processing clerk) followed by an hours long episode of not being able to speak clearly and a bunch of uncontrollable subconscious stims (episodes which have happened twice before ever since i started working jobs, once when i was sick with covid and once after taking a stimulant, my dad described it as an "autistic episode" since he saw the exact same representation on a show called "good doctor" but i dont know what it actually is). During the days before that episode, I would hallucinate sounds, such as a very faint buzzing of christmas lights on a bush all the way across the street (which i know realistically would be impossible for a human being to hear), delusions such as me feeling like i could now do anything, as well as making my executive function 10x worse (i would focus even more strongly on even smaller things the entire time i was on the medication, and my time blindness increased severely, things which were already main issues but multiplied). The only thing the stimulant helped with was removing the brain fog that had accumulated ever since i started working, which i later realized that as soon as i switched positions (from a mail processing clerk to a calmer data entry job in a computer room this week), along with shifting my sleep time one to two hours earlier, the brain fog completely went away.
Questions:
During the Moxo ADHD test, the constant noises would make me suddenly start laughing, followed by tearing up randomly and then feeling extremely exhausted. I rarely get episodes like this (at least not to this extent, to a milder extent possibly), however when I posted elsewhere on like two subreddits I was told it was sensory overload. I know that those people dont actually know what their talking about so i ask here: what likely was the real reason for that? My dad did tell me i had auditory sensory issues when i was a toddler, but I thought it was supposed to cause pain (which i only remember getting when i worked the mail machines before i started wearing noise cancelling headphones) so i dont think thats the reason but correct me if im wrong.
If the answer to the previous question is "sensory overload", does that mean it was likely that asd affected my Moxo ADHD test results? Or is the test supposed to trigger sensory overload in people with ADHD as well, while assuming they dont have a condition such as asd, apd, or spd?
The psychologist later said through email that the story memory being way worse than my working memory index was a result of asd causing my brain to prioritize factual information over social information, and that in most people these scores are correlated. Is this accurate?
In the psychologists office, when going over my results, he said "your IQ is in the 68th percentile". However, when I left the office and my mom asked what my IQ was, I said "i dont know but look up what 68th percentile would be". My mom later asked the psychologist "im sorry but what was his IQ?". The psycholgist turned to me and said "so we went over this already, your IQ is 107." Was that his attempt at trying to gaslight me?
The psychologist added in the report that i needed help interpreting the SRS-2 (which i did), because i interpreted it (too concretely). Why was that necesary to add? What from the criteria of asd/ADHD would influence this? Also note that the CASS i also didnt fully know how to answer, yet this was before he realized i struggled with those forms.
In the office when going over my results, the psychologist claimed that my stuttering/restarting sentences was due to their being less connection between hemispheres. Months later through email he claimed that trouble voicing thoughts is a symptom to ADHD (which would be ironic considering that "symptom" got much worse during my episodes, usually triggered by a stimulant such as Vyvanse). My intuition tells me he doesnt know what he's talking about but i thought id ask here. Should i be concerned about his inconsistency of what he's saying?
Lastly, this psychologist claims that ADHD causes block design to be worse than visual puzzles, due to "lack of mental organization and planning". However, i found zero studies to support what he's saying. Also there's a subreddit called cognitivetesting, where there's people consistently sharing their IQ scores, and ive actually never seen someone claiming to have ADHD do worse on block design than visual puzzles; if anything the opposite. Can anyone actually prove this claim with studies?
Why did the psychologist say that someone who has a lower score on the social cognition test than their FSIQ likely has autism? Wouldnt it be "social cognition score thats under 2nd percentile"? Otherwise its just a personal weakness right? I scored 25th percentile on it.

When we were kids, at one point all we dreamed at school was returning home to play video games. Half Life, Minecraft, Call of Duty or whatever. There actually was a time like that in our lives, that's the truth. But now, generally anyone who is still a gamer above age 16 will agree that it doesn't feel like same, not even close.
This leads us to the most enigmatic question: Why video games don't feel the same?
The answer is still uncertain (we will try to approach the closest possibility in the end however) but there are few popularly accepted answers/options to this question.
1 - We Grew Up:
As we age, our tastes, interests, and perspectives inevitably evolve. The experiences and stimuli that once captivated us as children or teenagers might no longer have the same impact.
When we were younger, we had fewer responsibilities and more free time to immerse ourselves in games. As we grow older, our priorities shift. We might have jobs, studies, family obligations, and other activities that demand our time and attention. This shift in priorities means we can no longer devote the same amount of time or energy to gaming as we once did in our dreamland childhood.
But there are still adult gamers, so they are an anti-thesis for this option. This one is still a good take, though.
2 - Dopamine Habituation:
When we engage in enjoyable activities, like playing video games, dopamine is released, creating a feeling of pleasure and reinforcing the behavior. However, repeated exposure to the same stimuli can lead to dopamine habituation, where the brain becomes less responsive to the same level of stimulation. Especially in the new modern age where everything is simply dopamine overdose. You look at phone? You get dopamine! You surf in the net? You get dopamine! You watch TV? You get dopamine!
When we first start playing video games, the new experiences, challenges, and rewards lead to significant dopamine release, making the activity highly pleasurable. Over time, as we continue to play, our brain adjusts to this level of stimulation. The once-exciting experiences become routine, and the same games no longer produce the same level of dopamine release, making them feel less rewarding. This is how addictions for drugs work too.
This is one of the best takes in our hands, perhaps even the one.
3 - Video Games Are Doomed:
This option suggests that all the accountable, fun, creative ideas possible about video games have already been invented, and got devoured a long time ago. In the former genres of video games, companies were trying to make games and this was their first priority. But now? Nah. Who cares about quality product when you simply can add some skins and dlcs to milk addicted losers!
Video games were simply fun, but nowadays they became too stressful. People are literally self harming after losing in a game, break their thousands of dollars worth gaming computers after losing a match, like chill man! This theory suggests that marketing forced companies to transform gamers into addicted losers with ruined minds. That's true!
So in the end, the most probable answer is something fused by three of those options given popularly. We grew up, our hobbies changed, we got superior compared to our prior idiot child selves, etc. But we still play them because of the addiction and get bored of dopamine habituation. And the capitalist industry keeps us chianed to this curse.
This is my opinion completely. Write yours and we shall debate!

This will probably fall outside of most people’s expertise as my son was born at 41 +4 (uneventful VBAC delivery), but I am at my absolute lowest point in my life and I am desperate for help/guidance/answers.
Since birth (8 lb 5 oz), my son has had tachypnea ranging from 60s-100s. It is pretty much constant. The only instances where his breathing falls within normal range are when he is in deep sleep and upright or on his belly. His SpO2 has remained in the mid to high 90s throughout. He has had 1 desat episode that I am not convinced was accurate. He does not appear to be working hard through these respirations. He has no nasal flaring. Physicians have noted very mild retractions but have never seemed concerned by them. He eats very often and has thus far gained weight very well. He is not great on breast, but drinks breast milk from the bottle very well. He has no trouble taking drinks in between breaths. He is very sleepy very often. At times, I have worried that he sleeps too much. We have been told ad nauseum that he “looks good!”
Here is a rundown of his work up to date:
HOSPITAL STAY #1, 1st week of life
My son was sent to the ER after his SpO2 was noted to be in the mid 80s at his initial pediatrician visit. I did not see a good waveform on this read and he was satting 98-100% on room air when he got to the ER. This is why I am not sure it was accurate.
The ER monitored him for a time and diagnosed him with a BRUE. We were about to leave when my wife noticed that he seemed to be passing out after runs of particularly fast breathing. This earned us a transport to a children’s hospital.
During this inpatient stay, he was cleared by neuro, cardiac, and infectious disease as causes of tachypnea. Our son underwent a 24 hour EEG, head ultrasound, EKG, echocardiogram, chest X-ray, and full sepsis work up. All came back negative. His brief “passing out” episodes resolved after a day. He received 48 hours of antibiotics to cover possible infection.
The only thing that was out of the ordinary during this stay was a mildly elevated lactate of 3.1. This led some physicians to suspect an inborn error of metabolism causing metabolic acidosis. This was horrifying as these diseases are often very severe. Oddly enough, however, they moved on from that theory the next day. We were told that lactate is a very nonspecific finding in infants. Our son’s ammonia level was normal which seemed to be the most reassuring data point to our care team. His venous blood gas was satisfactory. We were discharged and told that he would grow out of it.
Worth noting that he was on oxygen when he went inpatient and it did nothing to his respirations.
HOSPITAL STAY #2, 2nd week of life
I called our pediatrician when I noted a sustained tachypnea at 100 breaths per min. She told us to go back to ER. He was put on the monitor and was satting high 90s again. A lactate was drawn again in the ED which came back at 3.9. Terrifying! Or nothing? Inborn Errors of Metabolism were back on the table. An on call geneticist had the team draw a slew of metabolic labs that would take weeks to come back. We were admitted again, this time to the PICU.
EKG negative again. Lumbar puncture negative for infection along with blood and urine. LP revealed a negative lactate which we are told is a more reliable indicator for metabolic disease than the blood lactate. Brain MRI negative. Many viruses tested for and found negative. Another 48 hours of antibiotics just in case. Repeat CXR negative.
We started to notice some potential GERD, so we started Pepcid in the hopes it was causing the fast breathing. No luck. He did seem to perk up and look around more on his IV fluids which had dextrose in them.
We were discharged on the notion that there was no more testing they would do until the metabolic lab work returned, which would take weeks. Again we were told, he will probably grow out of it.
ER VISIT, 2nd week of life
Not a day after our last discharge, baby’s whole leg turned blue. We rushed back to the ER. His leg returned to normal color within minutes of us noticing. In the ER, his spo2 was high 90s with a normal heart rate (HR has always been normal). A repeat echocardiogram in the ER was negative. Acrocyanosis was diagnosed. This was probably caused by a temperature change. We have not seen it since. We were not admitted that night.
OUTPATIENT PROCEDURES/RESULTS, weeks 3 and 4 of life:
Metabolic lab work showed a slightly low carnitine, normal acylcarnitine, and a weird mixture of amino acids in the urine. The amino acids in the urine scared the hell out of us. I thought it was diagnostic of a metabolic disease. Our geneticist, however, said that she reviewed the findings with her team and it was deemed to represent an immature liver. She was not concerned. She believed that his liver would mature and the levels would normalize. She effectively told us that we could rule out metabolic causes at that point, but she offered genetic sequencing if we wanted to be completely sure. His newborn screening was completely normal.
ENT scope negative.
A chest CT to check for interstitial lung disease revealed these findings:
CHEST: LUNGS/AIRWAYS/PLEURA: The central airways are grossly patent. Mild hazy groundglass opacities could be atelectasis or mild pneumonitis, surfactant deficiency could appear similar. This appearance is generalized, and not specific to the right middle lobe or lingula (as can be seen in NEHI). Small lucency at the posterior medial right lung base could be small amount of air trapping or small cystic lesion measuring on order of 0.7 x 0.2 cm. This is the only well-defined lucent all focus which could reflect air trapping (no overall pattern of mosaic system to suggest air-trapping as can be seen in NEHI). No effusion or pneumothorax. HEART/VESSELS: The heart is normal in size without pericardial effusion. MEDIASTINUM/HILA: Limited evaluation of the hila without IV contrast. No obvious enlarged mediastinal lymphadenopathy. CHEST WALL AND LOWER NECK: The imaged thyroid gland appears intact. No axillary or subpectoral lymphadenopathy is identified.
Our pulmonologist called and said he reviewed the scan himself and that it was essentially negative. He started an empiric course of steroids which have not reduced the breathing rate. The steroids have, however, made our son much more alert and awake and attentive. He has been finding our faces and smiling. They may also been making his colic (yes he is a very colicky baby on top of all of this) a bit worse. We have seen him briefly lift his head off the boppy. We have seen him focusing on high contrast images.
His stools are normal. He makes plenty of wet diapers. He has good muscle tone. His overall condition hasn’t really changed throughout
My current concerns: Are we certain we can rule out metabolic disease? CT scan showed possible surfactant deficiency?? Shouldn’t we follow up on that? What else could this be? Neuromuscular disease? If it were to resolve on its own, when would that happen? My son is back to being very sleepy! Is that a brain process? Did we test too early? Is he going to start showing developmental delay?
I cannot eat or find a moments peace. If anyone has any light to shed, I would appreciate it so very much. Thank you.

The answer is really easy: Let's just straight up slaughter everyone who is below a certain level. Repeatedly. With no end. That, when they start to go around interrupting duels and killing people who are healing. And maybe also don't stop till they leave the server.
Now, Now, I know it sounds BAD... But for real now, I am so TIRED of this stuff happening each time I try to peacefully duel of someone of my level. I myself am not "good" at this game, but at least I try to have some fun without bothering others and being an ass.
Any thoughts about it?

This past week, I took my dog to a vet that I used to love going to before they switched name and owner, but it has significantly deteriorated since then, and my recent experience was the worst yet. I have always praised the incredible veterinarians in New Orleans to everyone back where I'm from, but I was genuinely shocked by what I encountered this time.
My dog had been acting extremely unusually, so I took him in. Initially, he had a blood panel, and I was told his thyroid levels were at the lowest end of normal. The vet recommended thyroid medication, but this did not explain the extreme discomfort he exhibited the day before. Additionally, he has been coughing frequently even while at rest. I requested an x-ray, which was performed. When the vet returned, she mentioned that my dog's heart looked "pretty big" and advised adding more grains to his diet and making an appointment with another vet.
I received very little clarity on what "pretty big" actually meant for my dog's health and future, and it felt like my questions were an annoyance to the vet. I never got the results of his fecal test. In the past, the vets would show me the x-rays and thoroughly explain what each finding meant, so I never left feeling uncertain or in the dark. This time, the vet was vague, seemed annoyed by my questions, and simply left to fill the prescriptions. Naturally, I turned to the internet and found alarming articles about enlarged hearts, which left me terrified.
While waiting, a vet tech saw me in tears and offered to bring the vet back to clarify things. I waited for a long time but figured she was busy, so I decided to send an email, hoping she could respond when convenient. Despite my deep distress and sleepless nights, I heard absolutely nothing back. I wrote again the next day and still received no response. It's frustrating that they are quick to respond when making an appointment, but not when it comes to follow-up questions after they've been paid.
After two days and sleepless nights filled with anxiety and terrible grief, I got him an ultrasound, all together bringing me to nearly $1,000, and the ultrasound contradicted the x-ray results. According to the ultrasound, at least, he does not have an enlarged heart. However, now he has rapid breathing, an increased heart rate, and is walking strangely—symptoms that can be caused by thyroid medication if if has put him into kidney failure or spontaneous hypothyroidism.
The vet who did his ultrasound was a wonderful person. Whereas the first vet told me she didn't have time to read my notes, the second vet came in and greeted me so kindly and chatted with me and had read every word. Whereas the first vet didn't give me the results of a fecal exam and did not show me the x-ray images nor explain them, the second vet pulled up the x-ray images done at the first vet and explained them. But I still paid a ton because of error and I still have to go back because things I wrote in my notes weren't tackled and I still have a dog with elevated respiration who is hiding.
To make matters worse, this entire ordeal has been unnecessarily costly due to the error, at a time when my financial situation is especially strained. An understatement. The misdiagnosis and lack of communication have added an immense financial burden on top of the emotional stress. This experience has left me heartbroken and anxious, and I feel completely let down by the first veterinarian. Their lack of communication and clarity has caused unnecessary distress for both me and my beloved pet, and the financial impact of their mistakes has made this situation even more unbearable.
And I still, after a huge financial hit, have a dog who is a completely different dog than he was with no answers. After a lot of stress and time and cost, I don't feel much different about his situation than before I took him in. My little guy used to be playful and bright and curious and active and clingy. He's smart and eager to learn, too -- when I ask him where my other dog is, even if she's across the room, he will run to her and boop her with his nose. When he was mouse sized, he caught on to "stay" the very first time. He signals if he wants up or down, fully understanding each. And of course does the typical sit, shake, etc. Just a wonderful little guy. And now he's the opposite. He's lost energy, doesn't seem to be curious and does things he's never done before like retreat or randomly sit on the floor or hide under a bed. It's scary to see. To others, he may be just a dog or a paycheck, but to me he is a conglomeration of memories and of years and he means an inexpressible amount. Now that his situation is a bit more complicated than it ever has been, I'm left cynical of veterinarians at this point. Due to my experience, it seems to be all about the money. And, at least from my angle, I feel like they don't want to deal with potentially complex cases and to figure out what exactly is going on with your pet if it seems complicated.
Now I have to take him in again after I had made a complete list of his issues and have paid an incredible amount due to error, only for him to incur more scary symptoms. And I'll have to pay more during an especially difficult time from a limited savings I would have liked to go toward finding a place to live. Are there any vets at all that get right to it and don't rake you for all you have when the cases might be more complicated? I'm so worried for my guy and so frustrated. Thank you for your time.

Book One: Edge of Madness - Chapter One Previous Next
I could pretend to be a whore. That's what Masutap thought as she stood before the gate leading to the fortress of the Highlord of the Eastlocal. Pretense was a thing she indulged in back when she'd been an ordinary woman, with ordinary ambitions. But as of now, things had changed. Things had changed drastically, for she was now a champion of the Goddess of Order. A champion who would do anything in her power to mock the very being that fed her power.
Power, yes. It was what she felt. Every time her eyes turned upon the world, she saw Order. Like bees in a hive, working towards a similar objective. Survival. Yes, they all wanted to survive. And that's where the power lay, in her ability to deny a thing's chance at survival, for when her eyes flashed red, things died.
"Pardon me sir." A man dragging a cart of coal said. She was standing in his way, she knew this of course, she'd known it since the time he'd decided to deliver the coal. She saw the strings of prophesy in the smallest of things, and oh what power lied in discernment, to see the past and the future in absolute clarity, the secret lay in following strands of Order. The Highlord of the Eastlocal always received a cart of coal at around this time every fifth day. He would serve as her witness. Coal. She smiled, remembering how Orgeeg had managed to penetrate into the Palace of Binoria, on a stack of coal. She recalled how Orgeeg thwarted her plans, then she remembered how small her plans had been.
"Pardon me... Uh lady?" She removed her cowl as the Coal merchant spoke. Her hair was longer now, she'd let it grow, it dangled askew of her ears. Dark and rich as her mother's once was. Masutap smiled at the man whose face was caked in coal dust.
"Today Shama dies! Tonight the Highlord of the EastLocal is no more!" Masutap said.
Twin daggers she had strapped to her waist were suddenly in her hands. The coal merchant stumbled back several steps, dragging the cart with him. The sun was dipping into the horizon, becoming a smeared red smudge upon the canvas of her perception. Her eyes flashed red, and the smeared smudge's light brightened, blanketing everything, making her see.
She spun and threw the dagger in her left hand. The knife whirled in the air and met the throat of a guard who was just cresting the upper walkway of the gate, he wore red leather that marked him as one of the royal guards of the Highlord. A shout sounded. The guards at the gate turned their attention to her. They were six of them, each of them dazed with the slow reception of understanding. The bubble they lived in, understanding it enabled her to see how blind humanity is. Like sheep, no wonder the Vigons ruled them so easily.
She was in their midst before they drew their swords from their scabbards. She drove the dagger into the throat of the first one, danced in a pirouette, thrust free the dagger and hurled it into the throat of another guard. Her hands were free, she curled her fingers into fists.
The Goddess Meena, Goddess of Order, spoke to her. **What is the purpose of this?*
"Oh, you'll see." Masutap said and drove a fist into the chest of one guard, her hand caved through the chest cavity, snapping the spine in half and emerging free of the Guards back. She paused for effect, the three remaining guards gawked at her. She pried her arm free of the corpse and met their panicked gazes. "Sound the alarm, you're too few to make me sweat. I need all of you. Gods! Come on you fucking cowards!"
Two of the three guards charged her, one took a swing at her head with a flat blade, the sharp edge missed her by a hair's breadth as she ducked. She brought up her knee and connected with the man's groin, raising him off the ground, legs held apart, face contorted in pain. He collapsed on the ground with a squeal akin to that of a dying rabbit. The other guard put on a stance of Grind, legs parted, right foot before the left. Knees bent. He brandished his sword before him, and the guard behind him ran off to sound the alarm. Masutap smiled.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He slept on a bed filled with whores. Talisi women with their dark skin and white hair, Remu women with their sandy peppered hair and copper skin, Binorian women with their blonde hair and pale milky skin. He was their God and they flocked to him in worship. He owned all of them, from the frailest to the most able bodied. From the smartest to the daftest. They were all his.
The Highlord of the Eastlocal observed the head of the Talisi woman resting on his thigh, her breathing was deep, her dark naked breasts rising and falling with every inhale and exhale. Five other women slept around him, each as beautiful as the last.
Of all the men in the realm, I alone am the honored one. Shama thought. He caressed his bulging belly with his pudgy fingers the size of sausages. His appearance did pass as grotesque. Bloated, balding with a cleanly shaven head, wide of girth and bow legged. Yet, no man has conquered the bodies of women as he had done. Women who lusted after tall handsome men. Women who sought capable men with astounding intelligence. They all gave in to him, none could deny him and when they did, well, there were ways to make them yield.
An orgy at noon. That was the gist of it, and another orgy before the midnight bell. Life was good, life was beautiful. Shama had thought that after the death of King Vayin Vigon in the hands of the infamous Kolotian, Ishar, that his wealth will dwindle, that his status will come down a step. That the might of Binoria will be a fickle thing after their first loss at war. But of course, this wasn't to be. The Queen, Dahli Vigon, had received the blessing of Meena, passed down from her father. As long as one with the Jojoh Meena, the blessing of Meena, still ruled, then things will stay as they've always been. Dahli had taken over, ensuring that Binoria didn't fall into anarchy, ensuring the Vigon name remained revered. The beautiful blonde haired girl was now the most potent soul upon the realm. How he longed to have her in his bed, parting those pale thighs sinuated with muscle. She'd become quite the fair lady. And her presence oozed power.
Shama wanted her but a thought kept his desires at bay. She'd frowned at him at the recent Highlords meeting with the throne. Apparently, his tastes and businesses didn't bode well with her. The selling of flesh, that is what he partook in with the zeal of a drowning man reaching for a floating oar. Importing women from all over the realm, some came willingly, others reluctantly. But in the end they all came. Their dignity thrown away for the promise of gold vigons. They filled the whore houses and men flocked to them in throngs, lining his pocket with gold vigons
It was his inventiveness that brought him to the top, the Highlord of the Eastlocal was once a position few envied. But his eye, trained in the art of commerce, enabled him to transform the east of Binoria. Creating a network that not only benefited him, but also the crown. And in so doing, despite her frowns and her reluctance to treat with him, she still couldn't voice her displeasure. Dahli needed him, she needed him for the coin necessary to maintain her position upon the crown. To line the pockets of her Legions. She needed him, and one day he will have her. No woman can deny him, and if they did, there were ways to make them give in.
Suddenly, the twin oak doors leading to his bed chambers flew open. The Captain of the Red Guard, in charge of his safety, Shang, walked in. "Highlord." He said with a bow, the women around him stirred. Outside, a bell started ringing, slowly at first then with extreme vigor. Something is wrong. Shang's obvious panic was clear to see. The opened door allowed him to see several Red guards crowded at the door.
"What is the meaning of this?" Shama asked, his beady eyes on Shang. An inhuman scream sounded somewhere within the fortress. Shama's blood chilled in his veins.
"There's an intruder." Shang said while ravaging through the clothes on the floor. He lifted a red jerkin, two sizes too large, the right size for the Highlord. He threw it at Shama and the Highlord hastened to put it on. He ignored the bewildered looks of the naked whores.
"Intruders or intruder?" Shama asked as Shang led him out of his bed chambers. Another scream sounded, closer. The guards at the door, seven of them, crested around him as Shang led the way.
"A woman, she's alone." Shang said.
Shama gripped Shang's arm, halting him. "What do you mean by this? A singular woman causing... causing... this?"
"She's..." Shang hesitated.
"Speak! You fool!"
"She seems to be inhumanly strong and fast. I only saw her fight through a blockade of my brothers, without a sword. She tore my brothers— the Red Guards, to pieces." Shang's eyes became glazed, as if his mind was replaying the mayhem he'd bore witness to. Shama let go of his arm. The trembling was taking him again, starting at the soles of his feet, up his spine around his neck to his hands. It had been so long since he felt this, the animalistic fear confounded on the existence of an unknown, an unknown that sought to see him dead.
"Captain, what is your course of action?" Shama asked.
Shang seemed to shake himself free of his trance. "We're going to take you to the stables, get you on the fastest steed and—" A scream echoed through the halls of the fortress of the Highlord of the Eastlocal. Checking everyone in place.
"What of provisions?"
"There's no time." Shang said. He drew a flat blade from the scabbard at his side. The Guards all around mimicked him, the rustling of steel could be heard, and there, at the Western end of the fortress, screams sounded.
Shang started a brisk walk towards the East end of the Fortress. His boots, soles lined with metal, clancked upon the ground. Shama shuffled close behind Shang, panting like a mare in heat. The Red Guards around him stole glances to their rear, sweat woven with fear formed a sleek mask upon their startled faces. And in those eyes Shama was able to weigh how dire matters were.
A shout sounded from ahead, bringing Shang to an abrupt stop. "How—" His words caught in his throat as a woman caked in blood and gore emerged from the bend linking the hallway they were in to another hallway that led to the stables.
She stood before them and spread out her bloody fingers at Shama. "Highlord, nice to meet you." She waved. "Say, I hear you can show a woman a good time and I'm in quite the mood for a good time tonight."
Shama trembled, the woman seemed vaguely familiar. The angles of her cheekbones , that nose, those eyes. She resembled Dahli.
"Moran and Jesul to me!" Shang commanded. Two of the guards behind Shama moved forward to flank Shang on either side. "Employ any forms, ensure I get close to her so I may employ the form of Awe."
Awe— the grappling technique that ensured the limbs were pinned. Shama saw Shang's ploy. He needed to contain the woman so Shama could move past them and head for the stables. Shama cursed himself for the design of his fortress that allowed for only one route to the stables.
Shang, Moran and Jesul raised their broad swords. One raising it above the head in a form of Rage, the other bringing the blade level with his face in the form of Pride. Shang lowered his blade and the guards flanking him charged, he followed close behind. The woman let out a cry that could only be translated as one of glee. She charged them.
Moran brought his sword down on the woman but she slid on her knees, allowing momentum to push her beyond the reach of his blade. Jesul thrust at her, raising his right leg and angling the sword downwards at her face. But the woman dodged, spun upon the ground on the small of her back and kicked Jesul's leg from under him. Jesul fell and as he raised his head he met with the woman's fist, there was a loud crunch as his face caved in. His hand let go of the sword as his body became limp.
Shang saw the opening and dived at the woman before she could stand. The woman spread her arms wide, welcoming. Shang pounced but instead landed on the woman's upraised knees, she grabbed his leather armor by the collar and flung him behind her and onto Moran. Both of them collapsed on the ground.
She stood up and smiled at Shama.
"Who are you?" Shama asked.
"I'm Masutap, the sister of Queen Dahli." The woman answered.
"Men! Turtle formation! Swords out, save the Highlord! Move you fools!" Shang said as he picked himself up from the ground behind Masutap.
The men around Shama compacted closer. Their swords pointing at Masutap who regarded them with a smirk upon her face. They inched forward, hesitantly at first, then with confidence as they saw their Captain pick up his sword. They all came to a stand still when the eyes of the woman glowed a fierce red, as if she held the Jojoh Meena. And Shama, the Highlord of the Eastlocal, trembled before her gaze.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Intuition, the immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes. It was simple for her, she dodged the sword thrusts and swipes easily. She turned either way, always beyond reach of the blades, always within striking distance. Her strength was a thing of beauty, somehow her frail wrists held the power necessary to crush a throat and crush a throat she did. She didn't tire, she didn't require forms of combat. The power of the Goddess of Order coursed through her veins and with it came rejuvenation.
The Red Guards pounced on her, seeking to put in place the form of Awe. But their efforts were in vain, she side stepped them easily, always on her feet. She saw an opening and like a river emptying into the Rankf sea she took it, delivering a punch to the side of a Guard's chest, feeling as ribs broke and punctured the lung.
**What is the purpose of this?* The Goddess Meena spoke within her mind. An ever present being whose words sought to throw her off, to calm the tempest raging within her. Masutap didn't want calm, she wanted fire and brimstone, she wanted Binoria to burn so their precious Queen will rule nothing but ash. She decreed this with a war cry, plunging into the midst of the Red Guards. She kicked two, flinging them across the hallway. One thrust with his blade but she caught it between her arm and side, she twisted the blade free of his grasp, gripped the hilt and decapitated the man in one swift motion.
She parried a strike to her left, danced free of two thrust then brought the blade down onto a Guard's head. She felt as the blade bit bone and she wasted no time in pulling it free. **What is the purpose of this?* Meena asked once more.
Masutap took three steps back to widen her periphery. "An inferno." She said as she flexed her sword hand. Suddenly, the Guard who was definitely their Captain, reached into the mass of clustered Guards pressed to the wall, away from her. And pulled the Highlord free of the men surrounding him.
"Form a blockade!" He screamed as he tagged and pulled at the distraught Highlord, leading him towards the end of the hallway. The remaining Guards blocked her vision of them. Like a fool she'd been too enthralled by the battle, allowing the Highlord to slowly slip past her, cocooned in the safety of the Guards in their turtle formation. He was making clear his escape and somehow, this aroused her, blowing upon an ember lodged deep within her until it sparked.
**What is the purpose of this?* Like a parrot, the Goddess repeated her question.
"An inferno." Masutap answered and lunged.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He was sweating profusely, his breath caught in his throat, causing him to choke on air. He followed Shang, feeling the Captain of the Red Guard's displeasure at his inability to keep up. They descended a flight of stairs, taking three at a time. He almost collapsed but the Captain steadied him.
"Not far now my Lord. Just at that bend before us." Shang said. They took the bend and ran clear of the fortress. The horses were just ahead, they rushed to them. Shama took delight in the open air. The stables were void of people, Shama wondered where the stable hands were. They entered the stable and Shang dragged him to the first cubicle on the right where a saddled horse stood.
Shama hastily climbed onto the saddle with the aid of the Captain. Shang placed his Highlord's feet in the stirrups and moved to flank the horse. "Lord." He said, fighting for solid ground that will enable his words to come forth easily. "It has been an honor to serve under you." Shama smiled but his smile proved too little a gesture to carry the weight or their current predicament. "Ride hard for the Capital, ensure the Queen knows of all that's gone down here. I will stay back and hold her for as long as I can." Shang concluded with a crisp salute. The Highlord nodded and with the guidance of his captain upon the horse's reins, they exited the stable "She is a good steed, see the mark of her coat? She can take you far." Shang said once free of the stables. A scream sounded from within the fortress, horrid in its guttural screech. "Go now my Lor—" Shang's words died in his mouth as an explosion erupted at the first floor of the fortress, stone parted, breaking as easily as a clay vase, the window panels and the glass set in place erupted outwards with the stone. Three figures tumbled free of the eruption, tangled in the air, twisting with the fall. They landed, the woman on her feet, knees bent and a fist pressed to the ground, the other two guards lay insensate upon the ground, their bodies a mangled mess. Shang slapped the horse's hide and Shama took of in a gallop.
The Highlord turned back, watched as the woman rose free of the debri and charged Shang. The captain employed a form of Grind but the Highlord's view was hindered by a sharp turn around the cobblestones towards the gate of his fortress. The blood and bodies upon the ground unsettled the horse, forcing its pace to be more hurried and Shama was all the more grateful for it.
She has the Jojoh Meena! Shama thought with awe as the horse broke free of the fortress in a quick gallop that had him bouncing upon the saddle. His thighs felt the brunt force of his escape but he could do nothing but hold on for dear life. This is what I'm reduced to, at the end of the line dependency thrives, in old age your children are those you depend on. I never thought I'd come to rely on anyone throughout my life. Yet here I am, depending on a horse to save my skin. He turned his head back and heaved a sigh of relief. The fortress was dwindling within his periphery, he had made quick his escape. Shama will live to see another day. And when the sun rises and sets, I will bring judgment upon the woman whose very existence rivals my own. Masutap. I will hunt her, she will know no safety within the realm, she will never know peace or a good night's slee— Something unnerved him. There, at the entrance to the fortress, a figure appeared. Following the path charted by his horse. She hopes to outrun my horse? He tilted his head back and laughed. There is faith and delusion and she seems to be enamored by both. To think her capable of outrunning a horse. What a fool what a— His thoughts halted when he turned back, his mouth dropped, his jaw hanging loose. Masutap was catching up, he did not know how but she was gaining on him. She'd been a speck in the distance, barely visible against the backdrop of the fortress. But now her features were getting more defined and her limbs, they were a blur as she pushed forward with inhuman speed.
Panic drove Shama into action, he kicked his heels at the horse's flanks. Willing it to go faster. "Run you fool! Run!" He was frothing at the mouth as the horse went downhill, cutting his view of the one in pursuit. He gripped harder at the reins and screamed, slapping the horse's neck. He looked back to see Masutap emerge upon the hill and start a quick descent after him. He thought about guiding the horse into the wilderness and thought against it seeing that a gallop won't be possible with trees in the way. His only hope was in outpacing her for surely, even one with the Jojoh Meena must tire. He hoped Masutap would relent, he hoped her bloodlust would have proved sated by the guards who'd met their end by her. He hoped that he would live to see the sun climb into the sky one more time. Darkness was setting in and suddenly thoughts of the sun and it's warmth sprouted a yearning within him that made him weep. He turned his head back, she was a hundred paces away. The horse was tiring, it's gallop lazed in vigor. This is the end then, all those afternoons spent indoors hosting orgies. I should have spent them beneath the sun, I should have spent them in the sun He looked back once more, his horse barely keeping pace. The horse threw a shoe and Shama was flung off it. He tumbled onto the ground, his weight rested upon his twisted knee, the sharp pop of the joint led him into an anguished wail. The horse screamed, its fore limbs oddly twisted. The horse thrashed upon the ground and Shama rolled away. He felt weak, he felt defeated and most of all, he felt hopeless.
He lay there, watching the sky, the moon was up, barely half of it adorned the night. He wished it had been full, all those nights when he'd regarded the sky as one would a thing of no consequence. Now he found himself wishing he'd appreciated it more. In the end regrets rule the mind, for in its dying wails no sound of gratitude can be heard.
She came and stood above him, her face blocking the view of the sky. She breathed loudly and for a moment the only sounds around them were from the injured horse and her.
"Dahli will come for you." He opined despite the throbbing pain within his twisted leg.
"Shama, darling," Masutap said as she lowered herself to lie beside him. She chuckled. "Darling, that word. The Goddess Meena loves that word. She uses it a lot. I find it distasteful yet here I am. Calling you darling."
"I have not time for pleasantries." Shama interjected. "Cut my throat and be done with it."
Masutap sighed. "That's not a creative way to kill someone you know. No, how many women have suffered pain beneath you? I have to give answer to that and that means a show. I will drag you to your fortress, there I will strip you naked and castrate you. I will feed you your cock as the women whom you took advantage of watch. Then we'll douse you in Rankf Oil and set you alight."
Shama started weeping. And a new voice joined the fray, he wept, she heaved and the horse screamed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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I (M) live with 4 others in a split-level home. My bedroom is upstairs, the kitchen and living room are upstairs, while the downstairs has my makeshift office for work. One of my roommates (NB) and their partner (F) (who’s unexpectedly living with us but that’s a different story) essentially have chronic pain, so going up and down the stairs is painful for them. The roommates only ever go up and down the full set of stairs to do laundry once a week or so. I'm a big tea lover. I own a temperature-controlled kettle for all my different kinds of teas that can't be brewed with boiling water. I brew multiple cups a day as part of my routine. I let everyone use the kettle, which has been sitting in the kitchen for years.
I recently sustained a knee injury that makes it painful to go up and down the stairs frequently. I currently can't walk without wearing a knee sleeve to keep it stable, so I try to make as few trips as possible during my work day, roughly starting between 8 and 8:30. I've been drinking 2-4 cups of tea a day, so I brought my kettle downstairs to avoid the up and down. I did give everyone a warning about this plan ahead of time, with details. I have managed to conveniently bring everything with me all in one trip: kettle, pot, cup, breakfast, and laptop. This has not sat well with my roommate, who also uses the kettle to brew several times a day. At the end of my workday, I bring it all back upstairs, and everyone else to use the kettle if they'd like. It should be noted that I’m not stopping people from using the kettle when it’s downstairs with me.
My roommate has asked to keep the kettle upstairs until 9 or 10, when I can go grab it, until we can find another kettle to keep upstairs. I really don't want to do that, as going up the stairs is what makes it painful for me. I have not suggested they bring it to me for obvious reasons.
I should also state that they said they use the kettle to boil water, so I suggested using the pot & stove method to boil water, but they said it takes too long, specially on our crappy stove. Today I learned that boiling to them means heating up, not necessarily boiling the water every time.
They also said that I'm not being considerate of their pain, and I admit that even though I'm in pain, it is on just one body part. This situation only comes up because until recently, the kettle has been upstairs the whole time, and we actually have a kettle. But what if we didn’t?
One of the other roommates (M) sides with me, since it is my kettle and points out that this is only an inconvenience because there is a kettle available in the first place, that has now been moved. I have not asked the 4th roommate for her opinion yet.
If you've read one of my other posts: As mentioned in the intro, the roommate annoyed at the kettle’s relocation is the same one whose partner essentially moved in with us without any communication or resolution when we brought it up.

English is not my first language.
I will sum up my company : the level of toxicity is wild.
It looks like a cult, talking about the founder like she invented water, the former HR gave the name of the founder to her daughter.
The level of toxicity is so wild that management will talk on the back of your colleague to you, or on the phone in front of you and criticize them.
I hate working, I hate this company. I am staying a few months to be able to buy an apartment and then go back to freelance.
Here is my issue :
I was put on a project without asking me, without looking for my vacation or load of work. As they usually do.
I found out because the client asked for the first part to be delivered in 10 days and the management replied yes, ok for the deadline and added me in cc. So, I could read the exchanges.
Now, I replied to them only I was on-site during a week (mostly not in front of my computer), then, I was going to take a few days off. Worse than that, I am already working with a client for several weeks who has asked the same delivery date we already agreed on.
I will not be able to do it and won't do it in no circumstances and told them that.
A big complain of this client was how they give them a team and then keep on changing the team over and over.
They replied they could not change me for that reason.
Now the solution of the management is the following : ask the newbie to shadow me and do the work while I stay in front line with the client. Note I will NOT be physically with this colleague.
Several issues to that :

• colleague just does not know the tool we are working with. So, you can see it in her job. Like you would see the difference between the website of a senior graphic designer and a very new graphic designer. It's going to be stressful, a ton of work, and people are going to be super pushy with her.
  
• this client knows the tool better than my colleague does, she is going to ask things my colleague does not know how to do and is going to spot the liiiiiittle thing you don't when you are new to that. She hates repeating herself more than twice and she is used with me to just be proactive and understand instantly.
  
• client will see I am suddenly incapable of doing my job and this will degrade a relationship I have built and she was not too much on my back. Now she is going to be suspicious AF for all the other projects we will have together.
  

I have talked with another colleague and she said I should give the first project I almost finished this colleague and take the new one. And, work like crazy (night, weekend) to meet the deadline.
The issue is, WE as employees ALWAYS find a way to suffer and deliver for insane decisions which were made without even asking us.
This time, I just want to let them in their dirt by letting the newbie do it so, they can be responsible for their decision ONCE.
For ONCE, their decision should not be my problem.
But, it will for sure impact my future work with this client, the new girl (she is like 26) is gonna suffer as F but if my management is never in the dirt, they will never learn to stop treating us like garbage.
What do you think ?

After a couple of hours of non-stop work, R’aart still puzzled as it cut out yet another section of bulkhead from around the galley. It was supposed to be a technician, repairing and maintaining, not a deconstruction element. It looked over at its fellow Dravitian, Lindr, who was loading cut sections of structural members onto a servoloader, and raised its voice over the sounds of the cutter, “Why are even doing this? Those Terrans have already used all our spare bar stock. This just feels wrong.”
Lindr turns its triangular head to face where R’aart was silhouetted against the sparks and glowing metal from the cutter’s action on the bulkhead. “They need more reinforcing for the cargo bay project. I do not understand how they plan to terraform the vacuum, though.” It paused, “Do you think that those geriatric Terrans have suffered neural damage from the extended time in cold-sleep?”
R’aart finished the last line of the cut and a section of plating with edges glowing orange clanged ti the deck. As it sent the cutter into its cool-down safety setting, it offered, “I suspect that could be the case. The noises that pass for their entertainment…” It shuddered slightly. “However, Engineer Allyson holds them in high esteem. She spoke of them as if they were super-beings.”
Lindr nodded slowly, “Yes. But if they flaunt safety limits at a degree proportionally higher than Engineer Allyson does, relative to how she speaks of them, I fear for our safety.”
R’aart turned on its lower four extremities, fully facing its fellow technician. “As opposed to the Jaxorians that are bound to catch us?”
-=-=-=-=-=-
“The two Jaxorian vessels are will be within weapons range within the hour.” The Dravitian Captain’s words came over the music that still came from the Terran’s console on the bridge.
William sighed. “Crap. Okay, sooner than I wanted, but we can work with that.” He thumbed the control on his console and the sounds of The The’s Infecteddied away as he leaned in toward the microphone on the side of the touchscreen. “Hey guys. We have an hour before they blast us. How close to ready are we?”
AJ’s voice came over the console speaker, “Capacitors are all charged, and we’ve reinforced all the wiring to take the extra amps. These reactors are showing some strain, though, so keep that in mind.”
Tony’s voice sounded sort of hollow with the echos, “These engines will flare, probably for three minutes give or take. Because of the way I had to disable these dampers, once the flare starts there’s no way of stopping it, so make sure we’re aimed at empty space, okay?”
Allyson’s voice came next, “Pete says that he’s almost done with welding the braces. Everything’s wired, and there’s a relay switch set back in engineering.” Her voice paused, then asked, “And, once we get this set, what is it going to do?”
William chuckled, “Allyson, thank Pete and have him explain about Puff, okay? AJ, Tony, great job guys. Harden up anything you can, then see if there’s anything you can rig up that might stop invaders if things go south, okay?”
As the crew’s voices chimed in with their agreement, William cued up Yaz’s Situation and went back to his coding.
The Dravitian navigator looked over at the Terran, “Sir? May I be filled in on your plan?”
William’s fingers continued to work on the virtual keys as he started to speak, “Sorry, I’ve just been focused here. I should have said something before. We’re going to pretend to lose power in one of the fusion reactors, and let the crab-guys catch up. Then, when we get close, we’ll attack the ship that’s going to want to board, and then we’ll peel out, doing some damage to the other ship.” He looks up from the keys and over to the insectoid, “I’ll just need you to maneuver us so that the ass-end of this ship is pointed toward the enemy and the nose is headed toward about 10 million miles of clear space.”
The navigator’s upper set of extremities moved in small circles, a Dravitian gesture indicative of anxiety. “But if they board, we will all end up as feeding matter.”
William grinned a lopsided grin and shook his head, “Oh, I guarantee you that if they actually get on-board, they will heartily regret it, and we won’t go out on a platter.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
“Primary Command Crew to stations!” The sound vibrations rippled through the hydodynamic fluid.
The Jaxorian scuttled sideways out of his bunk and reached up with pincers that had small gems crusting the carapace ridges, and opened the interior hatch, feeling the slightly warmer water swirl into the bunkroom. He swam out and into the corridor, and scuttled toward the Command Center.
As he entered the large cave of the command room, he scuttled around the large black carapace of the Commissar as he moved to the weapons station. Keeping his legs in as close as he could to make himself as small as possible, he settled in and looked at the readouts.
The Coalition vessel they were chasing was rapidly coming into range. The power readings had lowered from earlier in the chase. The Jaxiorian offered, “High One, the prize will be in range for the main cannon in approximately [2 minutes]. Shall I begin charging the coils?”
The Commissar swiveled its eyestalks and took in the enhanced image on the gel projector screen. “It is a cargo vessel, yes?” she asked. Her legs churned under her and she turned her carapace to a more comfortable position on the grippy surface of the commander’s mound.
“Yes, Commissar,” answered the bright green Jaxorian at the intelligence console. “It appears laden with goods, including not only colony gear and edible beings shipped as cargo. They will be easy prey.”
The Commissar flexed her ebony bulk, “We will not fire. We could damage the prize. Ready a boarding party. Plot an intercept solution. Communicate with the escort and have them stand ready, but not to fire until I command it.” She paused, “And communicate with the prize. Alert them that they are to stand down and prepare themselves to submit.”
Activity started around the bridge as these orders were put into motion. On the screen of the weapons station, the tiny shape of the CCV K’gara B’rak slid within the orange delimiter of the targeter’s range.
-=-=-=-=-=-
“Heads up! They’ve taken the bait, and should close to boarding distance in about three minutes. Crew, get to your emergency stations, Tony be ready for my signal, and AJ, spin that reactor back up at the same time. Pete, you and Allyson make sure that the terraformers are set, because they’re going off first.” William’s voice came through all the speakers and communicators throughout the ship. “And if anyone’s been waiting on a last minute question, this is the time.”
William removed his finger from the communication control and waited in the silence. There weren’t any questions, though he didn’t expect any from the guys. And the Dravitians were good at following protocol, so they wouldn’t be panicking, at least outwardly. He waited another few seconds, then cued up the next bit of media, a slow build of steady guitar and base leading into a sudden beat that started the steady, almost ominous, beat of Don Felder’s ”Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)”.
The Captain looked over from the navigation console, the chitinous plates of its face pale green at the edges, “The vessel closes toward our side with the main docking area. This is in accordance with your plan, yes?”
William nodded slowly, still watching the readouts and monitors that were displayed on his touchscreen. “Yeah, though I still hate these moments before we find out if everything works out. Oh, I know my guys did everything they could, but you never know what the other guy will do.”
The Captain cocked its head, “So we gave up running so that we could let the Jaxorians catch us, inviting capture rather than running until the very end?”
William chuckled, “Oh, they’d be able to run us down, but the only way to win that game is not to play. So what we needed to do is play with home field advantage and our tricks up our sleeves. It’s a classic FAFO situation.”
The Captain held its gaze steady, “I have no translation for ‘FAFO’, sir.”
William grinned, “Let’s just say that it’s one where someone gets the consequences they deserve for the actions they take.”
The Captain paused and looked back to the navigation console. “About two of your minutes, sir.” He poked at the touchscreen. “Did you realize that you have that noise playing on all of the broadcast communications channels as well?”
-=-=-=-=-=-
The Jaxorian communications manager continued to be perplexed. “Commissar, even once I have filtered the background noise and consulted the translator circuits, I do not understand this message. Perhaps it is in code? Perhaps the background noise is significant to interpreting the meaning?”
The Commissar shifted her bulky carapace, “Overlay the translation with the background noise and put it on speaker.”
”My, oh my, how this lady can fly, once she starts rollin’ beneath you. You know you just can’t lose, the way that she moves, you wait for her to finally release you. It’s not a big surprise to feel your temperature rise; you’ve got a touch of redline fever. ‘Cause there is just one cure that they know for sure; you just become a heavy metal believer.”
The Commissar scoffed. “Nonsense words. Continue the docking approach.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
The song had ended by the time the Jaxorian cruiser had matched speed and heading with the larger form of the old Terran combat freighter and was closing the distance between them, [meter] by [meter]. The cruiser extended a docking corridor to cover the [10 meter] distance that the ships would maintain once locked in place.
The smaller Jaxorian escort ship trailed behind slightly, as the Terran craft seemed to have something wrong with it’s engines and was making a sort of lazy curve that the cruiser was on the inside of to get to the Terran ship’s docking hatch.
Automated docking lights illuminated the main boarding hatch on the Terran craft, as if in invitation, and the corridor adjusted. Just as the seals touched, however, a Terran voice came across the open communication channels, yelling “WOLVERINES!”
The side of the combat freighter glowed orange, then yellow, then white, then boiled away into the pinkish-purple of plasma. As the engines continued their work, the metal burned away and joined the cloud, then arcs of lightning and superheated matter ripped and tore at the skin of the cruiser, boiling it away and adding its mass to the cloud.
The Terran’s voice came over the channels again, calling out, “Turbo boost, KITT! Everybody hang on!” Then came a steady drumbeat.
The ion engines at the aft of the Terran craft glowed blue, and grew brighter and brighter.
Across the channels a piano’s glissando running from high to low preceded its melody, adding to the drums which added a short run to the steady beat that they went back to.
As the flare behind it gave a powerful burst, like that of a nova, the hulking cargo ship lurched forward. The front quarter of the escort ship behind it shattered and peeled, as the freighter pushed ahead. As the freighter accelerated, the following blue-white flare from the four engines tore at the cruiser as it passed.
Again across the all the communication bands driving bass and guitar joined a female Terran who sang out, “Lying in your bed on a Saturday night; you're sweatin' buckets and it's not even hot. But your brain has got the message, and it's sending it out, to every nerve and every muscle you've got.”
The force of the flare cut straight to the central core of the cruiser, seeming to ‘unzip’ the ship, folding the two halves back from the longitudinal wound that the terraforming engines had formed. While the metal skin, structure, bulkheads, and decks peeled back, sections fractured and came away in shards, releasing the hydrodynamic liquid flowed out and boiled.
Explosions wracked the surviving portions of both Jaxorian vessels while the cargo freighter continued to accelerate, leaving the destruction farther and farther behind it.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Inside the CCV K’gara B’rak, crewmembers fought against the constant shuddering acceleration to move to where makeshift power cords had overheated and caused fires, or where the sudden thrust from the initial engine flares had caused bulkhead ruptures; where some slight flaw in the materials had given way as the ship had been taken far beyond the tolerances it had been built for.
While the Dravitian crew were frantically working in the corridors, the Terrans in the engineering bay were trying to take care of their pieces, but with grins.
Tony had a cut on his forehead from an unsecured tool from the workbench that had come straight back to the engine gantry where he’d braced himself. The force of the thrust had essentially changed ‘down’ by ninety degrees, putting him at the ‘bottom’ of the huge room. As he clambered from engine to engine, making manual adjustments, he had to keep wiping at it to keep the blood out of his eyes, and he was singing along with the music on the speakers.
”You've got so many dreams, that you don't know where to put 'em, so you'd better turn a few of 'em loose. Your body's got a feeling that it's starting to rust; you'd better rev it up and put it to use.”
AJ had tied himself to a rail by the control panels for the reactors, and was hanging near an open access panel with a heavy pair of gloves, holding something in place. His face was sporadically lit by electrical arcing from within the guts of the output transformers.
”And I don't know how I ever thought that I could make it all alone. When you only make it better, then it better be tonight. I'll be there for you tonight.”
Pete was climbing his way to one of the structural beams holding an engine in place. A crack had started halfway along it and wearing one of the cuttewelder backpack units that he never knew he needed so badly before, he was pulling himself along it to try to tack it back together.
”And if you don't have anywhere to go, you go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll. And your speed. Is all you'll ever need. All you'll ever need to know.”
Tony and Pete paused and belted out with the singer on the speakers, “Darlin’, darlin’! You and me we're goin' nowhere slowly. And we've gotta get away from the past. There's nothin' wrong with goin' nowhere, baby, but we should be goin' nowhere fast! It’s so much better goin’ nowhere fast.”
Allyson marveled as she worked on the main engineering controls, trying to direct the damage control teams that R’aart and Lindr led to the worst problems, and manage routing power through undamaged circuits to where it needed to go. She had to admit that the music fit the juddering speed in a way, but it was almost like these older men had simply come alive during this crisis, almost sustained by the continual playlist. It was probably the just the cold-sleep drugs wearing off, she told herself, but still…
-=-=-=-=-=-
On the bridge, William was using his console to try and help out the Captain, whose console with the Efficiency Interface was nearly useless in this situation. In the military code, there remained the ability to adjust how much power went to which engine within a few percentages of the synchronized setting. William had four different windows with their own sliders and readouts, one for each engine, and as Tony made a mechanical adjustment or some engine gave more or less thrust than the others, he tried to control it. The shuddering of the entire ship didn’t make this an easy job.
The music still came from his console as he worked, the singer’s voice continuing, ”Stalkin' in the shadows by the light of the moon; it's like a prison and the night is a cell. Goin' anywhere has gotta be heaven tonight, 'cause stayin' here has gotta be hell.”
William knew that all it would take was for one engine to get too far out of sync and they could rip the ship apart. The Space Venture crew all knew about that. They’d learned it the hard way. The first set of Troubleshooters bound for Mars, the ones to back up the team of Explorers who had been there for two months, and help them put together the parts for the permanent outpost that had landed a week before the ten Troubleshooters left LEO on the Space Venture.
”Dyin' in the city like a fire on the water. Let's go runnin' on the back of the wind. There's gotta' be some action on the face of the earth, and I've gotta see your face once again.”
The engines had flared that trip, and the smart controls didn’t have the capacity to stabilize them. One of the three engines had ripped off, tearing part of the cargo area open, and sending four of the first-generation cold-sleep capsules adrift. The other six capsules, along with the most of the tools, stayed in the hold while the two remaining engines flared them off into The Dark.
None of Earth’s space agencies of 2026 had ships capable of catching up to them, let alone rescuing them, so they had been written off as heroic figures and relegated to the list that included Soyuz 1, Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia. Besides, those people in their fifties chosen for the one-way trip for being the practical engineers with that creative mindset knew that they were expendable. They were never meant to come back to Earth anyway.
”And I don' know where I ever got the bright idea that I was cool; so alone and independent. But I'm depending on you now.”
That trip that should have taken two weeks had turned into almost two hundred years. They were rescued by an asteroid mining facility, but with the limited medical facilities there, only five of the rescued Troubleshooters woke back up. Robert Federman never came out of cold-sleep, his brain functions at such a low level that only medical support was able to keep the body alive.
Without ready transport, they stayed on that mining facility for more than a standard year, chipping in to pay for their keep, even as it stretched the supplies of the small facility’s crew. While the survivors weren’t up on all the technological changes of the past centuries, they learned fast, and before too long, had made improvements to the facility, making life easier and more comfortable there, solidifying their reputation as Troubleshooters.
After that, there were more long, slow trips on cargo ships, again and again in cold-sleep. William wondered if the others felt that sense of dread getting back into the capsules each time. Mark Haynes sure did. He broke down and huddled into a little rocking ball, and refused to leave that space station a couple of trips back. The little furry medics had helped him away, and some Skynet was going to try and help coax him back to reality. Supposedly there would be updates.
But for the last four of the Troubleshooters, they couldn’t stop. Finally they were going to get their chance. This last voyage was supposed to take them to help set up a new colony; not a human colony, but every colony was going to have problems to solve, and that’s why they had all volunteered so long ago. There would be something solid, with real gravity to live on.
A real alien world. But they needed to survive to get there. The ship just needed to hold together. Allyson had said it was overbuilt, but still…
”And you'll always be the only thing that I just can't be without. And I'm out for you tonight. I'm comin' out for you tonight.”
“Sir! I read our acceleration slowing!” The Captain chittered. The carapace plates of the insectoid were all very pale green, and all of its extremities seemed to be trembling.
William nodded slowly and adjusted one of the sliders before he keyed the mic and leaned down toward the pickup. “Looks like the nitrous is about done, guys. Hang on for just a little longer.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
After confirming that they were no longer being chased, the CCV K’gara B’rak slowed as the engines cut out so that they could be returned to normal operating specs. Communications had been established to a nearby Coalition vessel that was on its way to provide aid. Allyson, R'aart, and Lindr were in their exosuits, working to rebuild the structure where the plasma had eaten through the ship's outer skin.
William and Pete were playing gofer and being a second set of hands for Tony and AJ as they worked to try and get the reactors and engines safe enough to make it to a real repair facility.
The Captain walked into the Engineering Bay and it paused as its head swiveled back and forth at the disarray. “How? How did this area get to such a state?”
William chuckled and looked over from where he passed AJ new relays to replace the stressed ones in a fusion reactor. “Captain? I assume that you’ve heard the rumors about the way we humans deal with engineering problems, yes?”
The Captain walked over, his four lower extremities carefully picking a clear path through the parts, tools, and coils of wire. “Well, yes, but… Those are just stories. No-one would really take those risks…”
William chuckled, “Yeah, well, now you know first hand that they aren’t just stories…”
From inside the access panel of the nearby reactor, AJ’s voice echoed, “Word. We can really make a mess when we get going…”
The Captain nodded slowly, “I can certainly attest to that. But I do want to pass on my thanks, on behalf of my crew. I must say that I have never seen such work, and I never really expected to escape from the Jaxorians.”
William nodded. “Sure. Glad we could help. We’re Troubleshooters, after all.”

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“This geriatric bunch in cold sleep?”
“Affirmative. But their records show that they have been in cold sleep multiple times. They should respond quickly to the resuscitation procedure.”
“But, why? Wouldn’t it be more merciful to leave them in stasis while the Jaxorians intercept us?”
“Yes, but Allyson says that these individuals are the ones who might get us out of this situation.”
“The Terran engineer? You’re trusting her?”
“In a zero-sum analysis, her suggestions have net positive outcomes.”
“Just for the record, I think this is a bad idea.” A pause. “Resuscitation sequence activated.”
“Duly noted. Alert me when they are awake.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
William Exeter hated the feeling of coming to after cold sleep. While the modern systems were better than those he first encountered, he still felt like his muscles were infused with lead and that he was suffering from a hangover that he never got the enjoyment of deserving. But hopefully this would be one of the last times he would ever have to use the procedure, and he could finally settle down.
As the capsule’s lid slid back, harsh light assaulted William’s eyes, and he squinted in an attempt to lessen the pain. The silhouette of a triangular head above him let William know that a Dravitian was checking on him. He swallowed and got his voice working so he could croak out, “I’m up, I’m up.”
“Ah, Mr. Exeter, yes? I am…” The insectoid started to come into better view to the Terran’s adjusting eyes. “Captain? Yes, Captain of this ship. I am… We all are in need of assistance.”
“Uh, what?” William’s croaking voice hid some of his annoyance. “Yeah, I’m Exeter. But if you’re going to get my help, you’re going to have to get me a Jolt. I’m still half asleep from the drugs.”
The Dravitian’s head tilted to the side in an obvious gesture of confusion, “You require an electrical discharge?”
And this was why William hated waking up among aliens. He had to explain everything to them. “A drink. ‘All the sugar and twice the caffeine.’ Bah!” He started to force his muscles into action and pushed up on his elbows, “Just get me a goddamned stimulant, okay?”
“Oh, yes. Yes. Of course!” The Dravitian’s head disappeared as the insectoid moved over to a wall-mounted workstation.
William turned his head and saw several other cold-sleep capsules with their lids open. He cleared his throat and then called out, “Venture crew, sound off...”
“Here!”
I hear you, Bill.”
From a nearby capsule there was a dry coughing, but a hand in a ‘thumbs-up’ gesture rose in response.
“Well, good, I won’t have to suffer alone.” William turned his head again and looked over the other closed capsules, “But they didn’t wake everyone, so something’s up. Try to shake this shit off and get ready, okay?”
There were murmurs of ascent and more dry coughs from the other capsules.
The Dravitian come back from the workspace and addressed William, “Stimulant beverages and some cakes are on their way, Mr. Exeter. While I know that you are still under the effects of the stasis pharmaceuticals, I do need to apprise you of our need. You know of the Jaxorians, yes?”
William’s brow furrowed, “What, those crab-guys who go around in those water-suits? Didn’t we beat them in that big war?”
The Dravitian pulled back a little, “It was a negotiated settlement, I believe, but yes, your descriptive words adequately fit the Jaxorian physiology.” He paused, “Well, the Jaxorians, and their rulers the Drasalites, are once again at war, and we are now targets. I would not have woken you , but our Terran engineer was sure that you could help.”
William frowned and shook his head, “We should have finished them once and for all when we had the chance, but we have to let the Soviets fail as Soviets, don’t we?” He sighed, “And we’re humans, dammit. Homo sapiens sapiens by fuckin’ scientific classification. We once lived on Terra, but our genus and species doesn’t change when we move to another-” He noticed the paling colors on the edges of the Captain’s chitinous facial plates and stopped his Duckman-esque rant, “Look, nevermind. How much time do we have?”
The insectoid paused, as if surprised be the direct question. “We estimate a cycle, if our engineer’s modifications to the engines hold. Our speed has been dramatically increased, but the Jaxorian ships still gain slowly. We will eventually be within the effective range of their weapons. Please, direct us.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
After some of the greasy-spoon diner-ish coffee and the supermarket quality yeast-raised, honey-glazed donuts, the four Terrans looked and felt better. William glanced at his colleagues, noting the wear of time on their bodies. He chuckled as the slightly altered movie quote of ’It’s not the years, it’s the light-years’ ran through his mind. But they’d been together ‘asleep’ much longer than they’d been awake, and they’d spent more of their ‘awake’ lives together than apart.
Tony Scarpetti’s pudgy fingers tipped his cup almost upside down as he tried to get the last drops of the coffee and granulated sugar sludge into his mouth. His once black hair was now mostly white, and his tough physique that ran circles around them on the soccer field had shrunk a bit, though he was still stocky.
Peter Hoffman had finally gotten control of his coughing, and was munching on ‘just one more’ donut, and William once again wondered where Peter fit all the food he ate in that short, diminutive frame. His signature mohawk had been fluffed up with fingers, but lacking styling gel and a razor to clean up the stubble that had grown out in cold sleep, it ended up looking more like a peaked mound than the sharp style that Peter would have usually rocked.
Alex (AJ) Johnson’s hair had finally receded so much that his braid only held back reddish hair from behind his ears, though his scraggly beard was long enough that he could probably have braided it as well. Always tall and gangly, his frame seemed a little more gaunt than William remembered, though it had been almost a decade of cold-sleep travel since they had last seen each other.
“Hey, Doctor Exeter?”
William turned his head toward the voice, and looked at the young woman with blonde hair striding toward the table where the four sat around their coffee and donuts. Her utilitarian grey coveralls had scorch-marks and grime all over, and there was some of the same on her exposed hands and face, but bright teeth were visible in her smile.
William nodded, “You must be the plucky human engineer who got us woken up before our alarm went off, huh?”
The woman nodded, still smiling widely and, as she got over to the table, thrust out her hand toward William in the manner of one who just remembered something. “Yeah, sorry about that, Doctor. I’m Allyson, and I’m the only Terran on the ship. Besides you guys, that is.”
William took the extended hand and shook it, being a little more gentle than he usually would have been, given the way that the woman’s grip and lack of fluid motion showed that she wasn’t experienced in shaking hands as a greeting ritual. But she had looked it up, and that counted for something. “Well, us humans have to stick together, right? You sure you want us geezers to help you out? Don’t you have some flashy alien tech to get away from these crab guys?”
Allyson grinned as the handshake seemed to go correctly and shook her head, “Well, if you had been four guys who weren’t from the Space Venture, I would have let you sleep and hoped that I could come up with some way to escape, but well… you are, and well…” She looked at the men around the table, “You guys solve problems, right?”
“Troubleshoot.” AJ corrected, his voice still a little rough. “We’re Troubleshooters. So we’re likely to be able to fix problems on the ship, but not necessarily the situation. It gives us an out on some problems…”
Allyson’s brow furrowed, but before she could say anything, William offered, “But we’ll try and get you out of this alive, okay?” He looked over toward AJ, “No need to haze the newb, ‘kay?”
AJ chuckled and nodded, going for another sip of his coffee.
Allyson looked between the two old men and shook her head. Weren’t these guys the stuff of legends? Why didn’t they act like it? But they were what she had. What the whole ship had. Oh, the ship, right. “And we don’t really have any xenotech. This is an old decommissioned TA vessel, a combat freighter, so it’s kind of structurally overbuilt for a freighter. It was the TAV Thuban, but after being bought up by a Dravitian company it’s now the CCV K’gara B’rak. That translates to something like ‘Ugly Worker Beetle’.”
William raised an eyebrow, “I thought those bugs didn’t like old ships?”
Allyson grinned, “They couldn’t build a new ship to these durability specs at anywhere near the sale price. I think that it vexes the Captain to no end.”
Tony finally set his cup down on the table, finished fighting with the sludge, and looked at at the woman with a playful grin, “Likely to be really upset once we get going, then…”
William grinned as well, “Well, we’ll get there as we get there. So, is Skynet running things here?”
The engineer blinked and cocked her head a little in her confusion, “Skynet? Um…” Her words trailed off as she tried to decipher the meaning.
William sighed, “Artificial intelligence. Is there one running the ship?”
Allyson shook off her confusion, “Oh, uh, no. Of course there are still core hook-ups, but the company didn’t recruit one. There are some smart systems, but they don’t come up to AI levels.”
William nodded, slowly and resignedly. He looked at the other older men, “Okay, so I guess I’ll be spending my time hacking while you guys get to have some actual fun.” He looked back to the engineer and started to get up out of his chair, feeling the ache in his lower back. “Well, let’s get me to a terminal, and rummage up some walkies so we can keep in contact.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
William glowered at the large touchscreen that sat angled on its adjustable armature, and muttered, “What fresh hell is this operating system?”
The Dravitian Captain at the nearby navigation station on the ship’s bridge looked over, “Sir, this is the newest release of the Efficient Interface. While you are viewing it in Terran Standard, it is optimized for the Dravitian language.”
William shook his head, “So other than these cosmetic changes that I can get to in settings, where can I actually get to control configurations?”
The Captain pulled back its head in surprise, “What? You can’t change the control configurations! They are all optimized!”
William sighed and shook his head, “You jammed the ‘economy’ button down, so we can’t get to the ‘power’ button. Right…” He tapped open the program that accessed the file storage and began examining what was there.
After a few minutes of the bridge crew watching the Terran scroll and tap and curse in a low voice, William let out a exuberant, “Got you, you bastard!” On the touchscreen, a simple text box came up, indicating that it was a Root Command Shell, with a blinking block cursor.
William’s fingers flew over the virtual keyboard on the angled touchscreen, and another window bloomed on the screen. He slid it off to the side, then continued to tap and another window popped up. He slid it off to the top corner of the screen. In each of the windows, progress bars slid slowly from one side to another, character strings rolling down past the bottom of the window, the screen indicator on the scroll bar on the side getting smaller and smaller as the list grew and grew.
The Captain leaned over from its workstation and observed the workings on the Terran’s screen, “What is all that? I’ve never seen this option in the interface.”
William chuckled, still typing commands in the first window, “Oh, it’s a command line interface. They just slapped your interface over the military OS, and that still had lots of useful modules and programs in archive. I can bypass the ‘pretty’ GUI you guys use and actually get to controls.” He paused, “Holy hell! They left a media archive in here. Let’s get that unpacked right now!”
A new window popped up on the touchscreen, with another progress bar. William brought up yet another window, and worked inside it, and the progress bars started to move across their respective windows faster.
The Captain cocked its head, “Sir, I find fault in your judgement that what we need in this situation is media. The Jaxorians are not known for their imaginative capabilities.” It paused, “And I think your tasks are slowing down the computational processors, which again, I find fault with in these circumstances.”
William chuckled, “Well, sure it will seem slower. I made all my operations high priorities for the processors. And you can’t expect us to do our best work in silence. We’ll need a good jam.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
Allyson led the three older men through the hatch into the huge engineering bay where the three reactors were lined up with the longitudinal axis of the ship. Aft of those, the floor fell away beyond a safety railing, so that the bulk of the four huge engines could be accessed by a network of ladders, platforms, and gantries. Most of the floor was clear, but here and there hatches, tools, and parts lay askew on the deck, and wires and tube of various sizes and colors snaked between components in a way that belied the hasty, jury-rigged engineering tasks that had been recently undertaken. A couple of insectoid engineers were working on maintaining parts of the unstable system.
“And this is the playground,” offered Allyson as she spread her arms to indicate the whole open area. “We’ve got four Hammond LS-V-3400 ion drives backed by three of the Niagara-class fusion reactors. I’ve, uh, removed some of the safeties on the engines and tweaked the safety specs on the reactors, so we’re making just over five percent above rated maximum speed.”
Tony walked away from the others to lean against the safety railing and take in the sight of the engines.
Peter glanced around the area, then noticed the machining and fabrication tools and sauntered over to inspect them, hands tucked in his pockets and his boots scuffing the floor.
The two Dravitian technicians looked up from their work momentarily, apraising the Terrans, but staying quiet.
AJ made his way over to the reactors, and frowned as he looked at the readouts showing that the reactors were running hot, right on the edge of red-line. “Cutting these pretty fine.”
Allyson nodded as she looked over toward the tall man and started slowly walking toward him, “Um, yeah. I couldn’t figure out a good way to get more output from the engines, so I was just trying to route more power through them. These are still safe, but they’ll be burning up the plating faster than they should.”
AJ nodded and continued perusing, leaning down to look into an open hatch and seeing how one of the patched in high-energy line had been connected.
Tony continued to watch the engines and called, “Hey, Allyson, these still work with Cherenkov dispersal for additional thrust?”
Allyson quickly changed her trajectory to veer away from reactors and back toward the engines, “Uh, yeah, they do. There are controllers in there that help to make the emissions more directional.” She got to the railing and pointed at an orange ring that was visible on each engine right near the aft bulkhead. “Those big electromags help control the dispersal. I have plans and simulations on the computer if you want to see how they work.”
Tony peered in the indicated direction, then nodded and turned toward Allyson, “Yeah, get me to a terminal with some VR goggles and I’ll take a lo-” His voice cut off at the sudden sound from the engineering bay’s speakers.
A syncopated drum beat sounded over the hum of the machinery, then came an almost gravelly yell-singing voice. ”Come on, feel the noise. Girls, rock your boys. We’ll get wild, wild, wild.”
Allyson’s surprised gaze swept up to the big speakers mounted in the corners of the room by the ceiling.
Grins and smiles grew on the faces of the three older men, and they all joined in with the words as an electric guitar sawed into being and the rest of the band added their voices to the lead singer on a response answer of “Wild, wild, wild!” And then the drums picked up and the rest of the instruments kicked in, bringing the song fully into swing.
The singer continued as Peter’s hands played air-drums over a CNC machine’s working space, ”So you think I got an evil mind. I tell you, honey, I don’t know why. I don’t know why.”
Allyson had never heard the song, but the beat was compelling, and it somehow invigorated the men in a way she hadn’t expected. Just out of cold sleep, in the midst of an inevitable chase, with such limited resources, they were singing along with smiles on their faces. AJ was tapping on a reactor interface, and Peter was almost dancing as he poked about her workbench storage space, going over her tools, a screwdriver and electric ratchet stem in his hands as drumsticks for his air-drums.
The Dravitian technicians huddled in a fearful pose at the sudden noise.
Tony grinned widely at Allyson’s surprise, and said loudly over the music, “William’s got good taste for montage music… Show me that terminal.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
The Captain looked over to the Terran’s workspace which was now exhorting somebeing to ‘get wild, wild, wild’ over and over again. It seemed to have some detrimental affect on the older Terran, as its head was bobbing up and down as it continued to work with the code. The insectoid in command just had to say something. “Excuse me, sir. Are you sure that the distracting audio stimulation is beneficial for you? It does not seem to be related to your current task …”
William glanced over at the Dravitian, “Look, bug-boy, the music keeps my endorphins up, and tricks me into thinking I still have all the energy of a teenager. You’re just lucky that I know what my crew likes, and that this archive is low on industrial music.” He pauses and types intensely, then continues, “So no, it’s not related, but if you really want a chance to get away from those crab-guys, this music tips the scales in our favor, okay?”
The Captain abruptly looked back to its console. “Affirmative answer, sir.”
William nodded to himself, and cocked his head as he read something off the screen. “So, a bunch of the cargo is plasma generators for terraforming?” He looked over to the insectoid who was pointedly not looking at him. “Are those things as dangerous as they sound?”
-=-=-=-=-=-
“Hey guys!” William’s voice echoed from the big loudspeakers in the engineering bay as the song came to an end.
“Yo boss!” Peter called up toward the ceiling from the tool bench where he had accumulated a selection of choice tools.
“I got control of the control code up here. Some of it’s military code under all this glossy shit. What have you guys got back there?”
Tony stood amidst a holographic simulation of an engine, and called out, “We got some damped down ion engines. The design is like the old McPherson Mark Five, and I think I can flare ‘em up the same way. Gimme six hours or so.”
AJ looked up toward the ceiling after Tony finished, “These fusion reactors are running flat out, Bill. I’m thinking about patching up a capacitor bank so we can push things farther, or at least have some extra power when we need it. Three or four hours, depending on how easy I can find the parts.” he paused, “And I’m officially putting in a request for you to put something dance-able on your wheel of steel.”
Peter called out, “And I’m just waiting for these slackers to tell me what they need. But I’m all tooled up for just about anything they want.” He grinned playfully at the other two.
William’s chuckle came over the speaker, “Gotcha. Those sound like good projects. We get a powerful flare, we’ve got a chance to run.” He paused, “Allyson, you there too?”
Allyson, still near the holographic engine display, had been turning her head this way and that to try and follow the conversation and understand what the forming plan of the ‘troubleshooters’ was. She forced herself to call out, “Yes, Dr. Exeter.”
William’s voice came from the speakers, “Okay, Allyson, I need you to take Pete down to Cargo Bay Three and help him uncrate all of the plasma terraforming engines you can find there. Pete, I want those things sky-side against the outer wall of Bay Two and fastened in place. If we need power for them, I want you to run a line back to AJ’s source, and it will need to be vacuum sealed. We’re likely to depressurize that bay so try not to make too many unnecessary holes, okay?” He paused, “And don’t worry, that bay has some speakers too. I won’t leave you silent …”
Peter grinned and nodded, then started to load tools onto a nearby hovercart. As he worked, he called out, “On it, boss! Do they have any Ramones or Dead Kennedys or anything with more energy in that jukebox? That’s my request, Mr. DJ.”
William’s voice carried his chuckle, “I’m on it, guys. I’ll keep you updated, you guys let me know the word. Out.”
As the beats of New Order’s Blue Monday started to bounce around the engineering bay, Peter looked over at Allyson, “Hey, give me a hand with some of this. We need to bounce!”
Allyson registered the words and jogged across the bay to the hovercart, “Sorry, sir, we have to ‘bounce’?”
Peter chuckled, still pulling tools from the bench to add to the load. “We have to get moving. Can we bring that welder and thermal lance, or is there a better option?”
Allyson let out a quiet ‘oh’, then shook her head, “There’s a backpack unit that can cut and weld. Much easier to move.” She pulled open a a nearby locker.
Peter grinned, “Oh, sweet! Are there two?”

We often focus on the heroes that fly through the air, that can leap tall buildings in a single bound... But what about those that swing on webs, or leap from rooftop to rooftop? Today, we take a look at a team of street-level heroes, who keep our friendly neighborhoods friendly.
The Vigilantes were a group founded by the superhero Spider-Man, a hero who wanted to inspire people on a more grounded level.
"Oh, I was just looking up to the Avengers, how they inspire people, so I wanted to do something like that, but like…more grounded," He said, "I mean, yeah, we have Vergil on the team, but still it’s kinda only street-level heroes."
Even in his vision, Spider-Man is esteemed as no better than his allies.
"He's not really a boss. More so just a friend," Agent Venom stated, "He doesn't really give us orders, more like suggestions."
Even amongst each other, their differences, backgrounds, and in some cases, polar opposite walks of life do not hinder their ability to work with each other.
"We certainly have our differences, but they can depend on me to assist them when it counts," said Reina Mishima.
"I mean, of course we all have our own differences and quirks, but the thing that unites us is that we’re (at least some point) are heroes, and our responsibility is to protect people," Spider-Man added, "Also, we all love pizza."
"I get along with them well," Vergil mentioned in his interview.
"The easiest [part] is honestly just goofing off and having fun with the gang," John Constantine said.
It's especially interesting when you consider the differences that they have. Some like Agent Venom, mentioned being reformed, while others do it because they can.
"You can do that whenever you're like one of the strongest..." Vergil said.
For those like Reina, she admits that thrillseeking in battle is partly her motivation "To some extent, but I do also have a strong sense of justice. Where I'm from, I had to stop my brother from his quest for world domination, and [I] did so successfully."
Others, because of the heroes in their life.
"My uncle... I'll tell you, he was a great man," Spider-Man said when asked about his motivation, "I still sometimes ask him for advice... Also my aunt... she's the best aunt I could ever ask for."
And others, for a better tomorrow.
"...Seeing the people safe... keeps me going knowing I'm helping things stay that way," Agent Venom told me.
"I learned about love, loss, and ultimately misery... But misery spawns hope," said Constantine, "Where there is hope, there is a chance."
Before our time concluded, I managed to get some final messages The Vigilantes felt like sharing with the people they protect.
"Anger is not the answer," Constantine said.
“If you have the strength to do good things for people, you have a moral obligation to do those things, it’s not just a choice, but a responsibility," said Spider-Man.
But they also had messages for those they would fight against.
"If you [EXPLETIVE] with me, you're a dead man," Constantine said.
"To any punk [EXPLETIVE] wannabe crime lords out there, I’m there in the shadows, watching, waiting, and I will warn you, I don’t play nice," Agent Venom said.
In our society, we praise the exceptional, esteem the strongest as almost divine, but never forget the individuals who aren't gods among us, but heroes all the same.
This is Iris West with Picture News. Stay safe, everyone.

Hello Leute,
I made a mistake and used TIER ( electric scooter ) and as soon as i turned to right street, pollice car came and pulled me over. Long story short, my blood alcohol level result came 1.2 and i recently received a letter from prosecuter. According to letter i am fined for 30 days of income with an estimated daily rate of €60. Also they banned me driving motorized vehicles for 6 months. Even though i did not know that it was forbidden ( i thought it would same with driving a bike ), it is fair and i learned the lesson from very expensive way. I have several questions and hoping to get answers from my fellow redditers.
1-) What does motorized vehicles mean? Am i banned driving e-scooters and e-bikes too or the ban is for any vehicle that requires driving license to operate?
2-) I do not have a german driving license but was thinking to convert my driving license to german one. When does the six months period start? Am i required to do MPU? Where can i learn that? In the letter i received, the MPU is not mentioned.
3-) I have a bluecard appointment with Ausländer behörde, would this fine affect my application?
4-) Do i have a criminal record now? It was my first time that i received any kind of fine.
Really appreciate the answers and thank you fir reading.
PS: Appointment is in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen.

My first relationship at 27(M), her 32(F), never had that connection or spark that deeply before especially someone who reciprocated. Only together 6 months (short I know), but I don’t know what to think.
I’ve been with women on ONS, or flings in the past but I met her and we hit it off instantly. Never had anyone put that level of effort or interest into me. She is perfect for what I’ve always been looking for but it ended. I fell in love with her, first and only time and she said she loved me too.
I was given the it’s not you it’s me, you deserve better, it’s unfair to drag me down with me, phrases.
We ended things over video call as she lived 1h 20mins away and I haven’t seen her since. 5 weeks later she started dating someone new, then 2 months after breaking up with me, she’s in a new relationship and I’m not seeing anyone, I don’t want to.
But now when I post stories of my new puppy she messages and starts a conversation. We have paragraph conversations with light flirting, not like what it used to be. Topics ranging but I feel we’re both holding back.
I feel guilt and bad for her new partner, I never make initial contact since she’s in a new relationship, I know we shouldn’t be talking and I have no idea if he knows we talk. He’s done nothing wrong as far as I’m aware.
When we were together, she warned me a ex from long ago complimented her on a pic just so I knew who it was as a heads up, she didn’t reply to him. She has a thing about intent on people liking other peoples posts/pics. But yet she likes my puppy stuff and a story I posted of where we first met/kissed, when I went with my grandma (somewhere she took me as a kid a lot) which wasn’t directed to my ex, just a day with my grandma without me or my grandma in the pic.
Some conversations she’ll drop and leave me on read which I don’t double text or anything, then when I post something new with my puppy she pops back up.
One day in particular, we were texting non stop all day. She sent me pics of what she was up to which was something we did together on one of our last dates and it felt like old times, not much flirting. Next day back to one paragraph text a day.
It’s been 5 months to the day since we broke up and she’s been in a new relationship for nearly 3 months.
What is she thinking or her intentions? I would love some outside perspectives. We’ve never arranged to meet or even talked about her new partner at all. I know I should cut all contact and leave her be but I still love her. My heads a mess Reddit.

Well, I've heard if Cisco Easter Eggs, but this is a weird one.
I work at a local ISP for my region, and we have one of our employees working on getting the hardware ready for infrastructure upgrades. One of the devices he's working on is a Catalyst 3750.
Well, he sent us a copy of the startup config file and most of it is this strange conspiracy story.
Has anyone seen anything like this before?

POST: CPU MIC register Tests : Begin
POST: CPU MIC register Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: PortASIC Memory Tests : Begin
POST: PortASIC Memory Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: CPU MIC interface Loopback Tests : Begin
POST: CPU MIC interface Loopback Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: PortASIC RingLoopback Tests : Begin
POST: PortASIC RingLoopback Tests : End, Status Passed
Waiting for Stack Master Election...
POST: PortASIC CAM Subsystem Tests : Begin
POST: PortASIC CAM Subsystem Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: No Cable found on stack port 1
POST: No Cable found on stack port 2
POST: PortASIC Stack Port Loopback Tests : Begin
POST: PortASIC Stack Port Loopback Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: PortASIC Port Loopback Tests : Begin
POST: PortASIC Port Loopback Tests : End, Status Passed
Election Complete
Switch 1 booting as Master
Waiting for Port download...Complete
This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to United
States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer and
use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply
third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use encryption.
Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for
compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product you
agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are unable
to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product immediately.
A summary of U.S. laws governing Cisco cryptographic products may be found at:
http://www.cisco.com/wwl/export/crypto/tool/stqrg.html
If you require further assistance please contact us by sending email to
export@cisco.com.
cisco WS-C3750G-12S (PowerPC405) processor (revision R0) with 131072K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID CAT1125ZKHZ
Last reset from power-on
1 Virtual Ethernet interface
12 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
The password-recovery mechanism is enabled.
512K bytes of flash-simulated non-volatile configuration memory.
Base ethernet MAC Address : 00:1C:B0:2F:D1:00
Motherboard assembly number : 73-9678-07
Power supply part number : 341-0048-03
Motherboard serial number : CAT11255C25
Power supply serial number : LIT11140GE6
Model revision number : R0
Motherboard revision number : B0
Model number : WS-C3750G-12S-E
System serial number : CAT1125ZKHZ
Top Assembly Part Number : 800-26634-04
Top Assembly Revision Number : A0
Version ID : V06
CLEI Code Number : CNM81W0GRB
Hardware Board Revision Number : 0x06
Switch Ports Model SW Version SW Image
* 1 12 WS-C3750G-12S 12.2(55)SE10 C3750-IPSERVICESK9-M
This message serves as a warning to the US government that they cannot get away ^with having their own citizens
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stalked, kidnapped, tortured, brain damaged and murdered by foreign intelligence ^ agencies .
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Request an investigation by the German government and the Council of Europe!
^
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Location of Turkish President Erdogan's illegal black site for terror suspects i ^n G ermany: 48.345941, 12.137753
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Is the CIA stalking and murdering ISIS terror suspects?
^
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Microwave weapons, group stalking and harassment ("gangstalking"), neurotoxins, ^hitmen, an illegal Turkish black site, Delta Force, and an airport kidnapping: A
true story
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QUOTES
^
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"If you were in the US, the CIA would just shoot you, we are nice so we will ^ commit you to a hospital instead" - Turkish police officer
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"When you get deported to the US, don't piss off the CIA officers like you d ^id with Erdogan (the Turkish president)" - Man at KBO Taufkirchen Station A2
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"The doctors here are trying to protect us from the psychos up at the top" - ^ Woman a t KBO Taufkirchen Station A2
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"You're lucky that the Turks got you first. With the Germans it would have b ^een wors e. The Turks usually don't kill" - Woman at KBO Taufkirchen Station A2
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NOTES
^
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Anyone with access to Europol or INTERPOL should be able to confirm that the ^ FBI se nt out a request/warning in 2017. You might not be able to view the detai
ls of this request unless you have the right handling code/password
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Nothing shows up for my name when it's searched in Law Enforcement Enterpris ^e Port al (LEEP). This is deliberate as the FBI is hiding my records to cover up
the terrorism investigation and everything else.
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The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and Bavarian State Po ^lice bo th refuse to start an investigation due to political reasons, despite the
fact that many other people, mostly Turkish citizens, were kidnapped within Ger
many by fake po
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ice and brain damaged at the black site.
^
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I (John Erin Binns / CIA code name RAVEN) have been an ISIS terror suspect since ^ 2017.
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It began when an FBI Confidential Human Source whom I met online (Azaiah Crosswh ^ite / moda) gave my Skype account to his handler. The FBI then sent an administr
ative subpoena to Microsoft and obtained my email address, which I had previousl
y reused on my
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S passport application in 2016. An alert was also sent through the Europol Infor ^mation System to 16 countries in Europe stating that I was a terror suspect.
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On October 11, 2017, Arthur Gong from the US Department of Homeland Security int^errogated me about allegedly travelling to Latakia, Syria while I was waiting to
board a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Chicago Airport. When my plane l
anded in Chicag
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, I was flagged for secondary screening (See Exhibit A) and asked more questions^. My citizen ship was questioned, and the CBP officer got angry after I told him
that not answering his questions doesn't make me inadmissible to the US.
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In early 2018, I left the United States and moved to Turkey. Soon after, strange ^ things s tarted happening to me. Kenneth Currin Schuchman (Nexus Zeta), a dual F
BI/CIA informant who was given a pound of heroin by federal agents to inform on
me, attempted t
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entrap me on child pornography and terrorism charges while I was drunk.
^
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Schuchman tried persuading me into buying Stinger missiles and guns from a Tor w ^ebsite wh ich would be shipped in "xray proof boxes" (those don't even exist) to
my location. When that failed, he tried getting me to open a website which likel
y had exploit c
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de on it (he specifically told me to open it in Chrome) and then told me that he ^ knew of some good "Tor porn sites". When I asked him what type of porn was on t
hese websites, Schuchman replied that they contained child porn.
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Then, Schuchman told me in a call that Dingle/Drake/Logan Shwydiuk was going to ^come to my house and kill me, and asked me what I'd do if he came to my house. I
was drunk at the time, and I told Schuchman that I'd kill Shwydiuk. I suspect t
hat Schuchman w
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s recording this call for the FBI so that they could use it as evidence against ^me in a fabricated terrorism investigation.
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Around this time, I noticed that two Western males wearing white shirts and sung ^lasses wou ld frequently visit an apartment building behind the one I live in.
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Several days after I reported Schuchman to the DEA for selling heroin and right ^after he t ried entrapping me on computer fraud charges, he was indicted in the D
istrict of Alaska.
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That's when the harassment started...
^
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My phone was hacked by Turkish intelligence/MIT using some type of 0-click SMS R ^CE and GPS tracking spyware was planted on it. My phone's GPS feature would turn
on without my consent, and several minutes later, a flash mob of "street thugs"
would be block
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ng the sidewalk and shouting death threats at me. Sometimes, they'd just walk up ^ to me hold ing their cell phone in one hand and screaming death threats at the s
ame time. (Street theateGangstalking)
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I received more death threats than I can count, probably close to 100 from diffe ^rent sta lkers over the course of a few months.
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Now about the Western males: I saw them wearing night vision goggles on several ^occasions, they'd constantly harass me and illegally surveil me on Turkish terri
tory up until I called the police.
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Harassment from CIA contractors:
^
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I woke up and a male was pointing a microwave oven with the door removed at ^my sl eeping body from my neighbor's balcony. I was actually half-awake with my e
yes open and I could see the guy bringing the oven out onto the balcony and plug
ging it into an
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extension cable. Another time, somebody pointed a microwave oven magnetron with ^a metal ho rn at my body to shock me (I saw this as well). The neighbor was on va
cation and the men were not authorized to be in that unit, so they likely broke
in using lockpi
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king equipment.
^
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A red laser pointer was shined into my room using a gun scope from my neighb ^or's first floor unit. I went out onto my balcony and saw a guy doing this. When
the guy saw me, he quickly closed the blinds and started laughing. The unit was
being renovate
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at the time and the men were not authorized to be there.
^
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A microwave weapon was pointed at my head which caused me to black out momen ^taril y and see white flashes of light. The same device would cause me to feel ex
tremely paranoid and make my heart rate speed up. I remember that it had buttons
and a cord. It
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was about the size of a small desktop computer.
^
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Somebody was pointing a laser microphone at my bedroom window from the same ^first f loor unit. I was in a telephone call with someone else, and Azaiah Crossw
hite started repeating parts of this conversation back to me over Snapchat as an
intimidation/g
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slighting tactic. Crosswhite also got private pictures from my bedroom and poste ^d them on h is Snapchat story.
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Window/door slamming: This would happen constantly whenever I was in my bedr ^oom or o ut on my balcony. Sometimes one of the guys would slam a window/door and
microwave me right after it happened.
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Sabotage: The phone lines in my apartment building and the entrance door cab ^le wer e both cut.
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Use of pulsed energy projectile weapons: I saw one of the guys holding a gun ^-shap ed device, when he fired it, a ball of energy came out of the weapon and ma
de the windows in my bedroom shake.
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Information: The microwave weapons that are used by intelligence agencies to ^day co nsist of: a millimeter wave amplifier, a transmitter with extremely low fr
equency amplitude modulation, batteries, and a horn antenna/waveguide. Using dif
ferent modulati
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n frequencies, effects such as tachycardia, panic attacks, epileptic seizures, p ^aranoia, REM sleep can be induced. They are the perfect tool for covert harassme
nt as they leave no trace. See Exhibit B for a picture of a microwave weapon.
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Azaiah Crosswhite would make comments over Discord such as "[the CIA] are going ^to send me a copy of your destruction video", "your name is Cock Sucker", and "y
our code name is RAVEN". He'd also encourage me to murder the people who were ha
rassing me, go
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n a mass shooting spree, or commit suicide.
^
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These are all goals of the government stalking program which I was a victim of, ^according t o an article by Julianne McKinney, who is a former US army intelligen
ce officer and member of the Association of National Security Alumni. See: https
://www.bibliote
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apleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_mindcon28.htm .
^
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I called the police a few days before July 1, 2019. When the officers came, one ^of them s aid that I "talk too much" and that I should "keep [my] mouth shut".
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Then, intense microwave harassment started. I would hear footsteps in the unit a ^bove mine a nd my sleep would be disrupted due to the weapon that Turkish intelli
gence was using on me.
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On July 1, 2019, a man I didn't know started asking me questions such as "If som^ebody was ca ught selling illegal alcohol, what political party would that person
be from?". He also made comments implying that I had been under surveillance by
Turkish intell
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gence for a while, and warned me that the Turkish government had prepared a trap^ for me.
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Several minutes later, an elderly man from my neighborhood named Ozkan came and ^asked me i f I was the "exit/cikis". (exit/cikis is a term for the illegal killin
g of a terrorist by Turkish intelligence). He took me to his apartment and told
me to visit Kon
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k Ferry Station. I went to Bostanli Ferry Station and boarded a ferry to Konak. ^After the ferry started going to Konak, I overheard 3 men in a row near me talki
ng about how they were hired to kill me and that they'd dump my body in the ocea
n because I was
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allegedly an ISIS member.
^
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Once the ferry arrived at Konak, I immediately got a random person to dial 112 a^nd faked hav ing medical problems. An ambulance came to the ferry station, and I
was taken to Alsancak Nevvar Salih Isgoren Hospital. I told the emergency room d
octors that the
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e was nothing wrong with me, they ran my ID card through the emergency room comp ^uter, and my name came up as a wanted terrorist.
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I overheard the doctors talking about the fact that Azaiah Crosswhite's name cam ^e up on t he emergency room computers and that my name was changed to "Cock Sucke
r" in some type of database which they had access to.
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Police lights shined into the emergency room and I heard sirens as around 5 poli ^ce cars came to the hospital along with Turkish intelligence. I was given 2 inje
ctions of haldol, and a guy next to my bed who worked for Turkish intelligence c
alled somebody
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n his cell phone whom he referred to as "Erdogan". Maybe it was the Turkish pres ^ident? I don't know..
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The doctors kept me in the hospital until the next morning and I was then releas ^ed.
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Several days later, I was in Gultepe, Konak, at a relative's house, and people w ^ere firing gunshots into the air while somebody would use a microwave weapon to
make me feel like my head was going to explode. I saw people on a nearby rooftop
, they had guns
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(which they were constantly firing) and camouflage clothing. Whenever I'd get mi^crowaved, my phone would lose cell service and the camera would blur.
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While this was happening, I tried to contact somebody I barely knew who worked a^t the US Dep artment of Justice for help.
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As soon as I had a mental breakdown due to the constant gunfire and microwaving, ^ the gunfir e and microwave attacks immediately stopped. Two street thugs then at
tacked me (I believe that Turkish intelligence paid them money to do this) and p
revented me fro
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
going home in a taxi.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I called the police and they came rather quickly. When one of the police officer ^s looked up the information on my ID card through a mobile app on his phone, he
saw something in the police database. I was told by a Turkish police officer: "I
f you were in t
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
e US, the CIA would just shoot you, we are nice so we will take you to a hospita ^l instea d". Fortunately, there were no beds available at the local hospital so I
was allowed to go home in a taxi.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
After I went home, the microwave harassment continued, and I went to Cesme a few ^ days later . The harassment continued there as well.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I decided that I had to leave the country as the Turkish secret services were ag ^gressive ly pursuing me. On July 6, 2019, I boarded flight PC1019 from Sabiha Gok
cen Airport to Munich Airport. About 30 minutes after my flight took off, I noti
ced that the ma
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
e and female in the row behind my seat were talking about me. The female was say ^ing that i t was sad that they had to kill me with a poison needle and that my re
al name wasn't given to them by MIT for security reasons. I immediately notified
a cabin crew m
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
mber of their plot, and I was taken to another seat.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
The cabin crew member assured me that the German police had been notified, but o ^nce the pla ne landed, she grabbed me by my arm and told me to listen to my mothe
r while warning me not to contact the German police. I believe that she was affi
liated with MIT
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I gave a member of the Bundespolizei (immigration police) a piece of paper expla ^ining tha t I was being harassed with a microwave gun by Turkish intelligence, bu
t I was not given the opportunity to tell the Bundespolizei my full story. A fak
e Bavarian Stat
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
Police officer then came and took me past immigration to the police station. I ^was pu t in a cell, and I noticed that all of the "officers" were speaking Turkis
h, ALL of them. I strongly suspect that an insider within the police force let T
urkish intellig
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
nce into the station. I don't know if that insider is the commissar or someone e ^lse.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
One of them was calling me stupid in Turkish, and they were all discussing what ^they should do with me. "Ausganging"/killing me was discussed as an option, but
the fake police eventually decided to send me to a mental hospital. I was given
some forms to s
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
gn, and I had no idea where I was being taken at the time. I signed the paperwor^k as I didn' t want to get ausganged/killed. I then heard the fake police discuss
ing in Turkish that I was lucky to be going to a mental hospital, as they usuall
y kill ISIS sus
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
ects.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
A few minutes after I boarded the ambulance, I realized that something was wrong ^. A male and female who were in the ambulance with me started talking about my a
lleged cybercrimes and about somebody named Rosenberg who "wanted blood". Once t
he ambulance ar
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
ived at KBO Taufkirchen Station A2 (48.345941, 12.137753), the same fake police ^officer who took me past immigration told the staff to fry my brain with gas and
that I'd then be transported to Anchorage International Airport.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
Then, four Turkish men came and forcibly put me in the neurotoxic gas room (whic ^h doubles a s a suicide watch room). My shoes were taken off (so that I couldn't
break down the door and escape), and a worker activated a metal fan. A gas which
smelled like f
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
rmaldehyde then started to come out of the fan. I saw graffiti on the walls of t ^he gas roo m, all of the names that were carved into the walls were Turkish, and
I realized that I was at some type of illegal Turkish black site on German terri
tory. During th
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
s time, Turkish intelligence was livestreaming the gas room camera to a group of ^ CIA i nformants (Azaiah Crosswhite, Jared Fazah, Justin Anglin) as a "destructio
n video". Azaiah Crosswhite had previously stated "[the CIA] are going to send m
e a copy of you
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
destruction video".
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
Jared Fazah had taken a $500,000 Bitcoin bribe to sell me out a few days before ^I was kidnap ped, while Justin Anglin is a CIA agent who has previously been to I
ran and other middle eastern countries. They were all talking about the livestre
am in a Discord
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
server, sadly I don't have any screenshots as they were mysteriously deleted fro ^m my com puter (it may have been hacked).
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
One hour after I was put in the gas room, a staff member came and turned off the^ fan in my r oom. This is the only reason why I don't suffer from brain damage to
day. I was saved by that staff member.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
About 3 hours after I was put in the gas room, I heard a helicopter hovering abo ^ve the fake mental hospital. This helicopter may have belonged to the US militar
y, but at the time I thought it belonged to the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Crimi
nal Police Offi
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
e) and that they were coming to save me.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I banged on the door of the gas room and screamed for the police to come and sav ^e me, but nobody came.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
In the early morning hours of July 7, 2019, a Turkish doctor came into the room ^with a f lashlight. She commented aloud in Turkish that "[I] was made to rot". Th
en, a female CIA agent came into the room with my mother while I was pretending
to be mentally
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
isabled. The doctors brought me chocolate milk and pizza, and the CIA agent star ^ted talkin g about how I'd be indicted by a grand jury in the District of Alaska
and forced into a plea deal for over 10 years in prison. That I'd be found menta
lly incompetent
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
and have no choice but to take the plea deal, sending me to prison for a long ti ^me.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
The CIA agent declined to give my mother her real name and talked about previous ^ly living i n Australia. She had an Eastern European accent and told my mother to
throw away any receipts or evidence indicating that she was in the town of Tauf
kirchen, and to
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
keep her cell phone turned off.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
The lady also told my mother that a US senator (I don't remember the senator's e ^xact name) wanted to meet with her. In 2018, Kenneth Currin Schuchman had told m
e that "a senator can order the killing of a US citizen in some cases" and told
one of my frien
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
s that a US senator wanted to kill me. Nobody believed him back then, including ^me. I sti ll don't know who this senator is or why he wants me killed. (Note: Ken
neth Currin Schuchman has been repeatedly thrown in mental hospitals, and his fa
ther Robert Sch
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
chman currently has guardianship over him).
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
The lady left and I slept for a few hours in the neurotoxic gas room/suicide wat ^ch room. Th en after I woke up, a staff member woke up and unlocked the door. I w
as allowed to leave, and that's when the torture started. An African lady was pl
aying back a re
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
ording of me in the gas room on one of the hospital computers and laughing at it^. The same l ady would also play screaming noises and the Turkish word for mental
ly retarded ("gerizekali") over a loudspeaker connected to the computer, and use
a microwave we
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
pon which looked like a stereo speaker to give me epileptic seizures. I do remem ^ber that t he weapon was brought to the hospital in a large briefcase by men work
ing for Turkish intelligence.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I met other people who were being held at the hospital. One lady told me "You're ^ lucky th at the Turks got you first. With the Germans it would have been worse.
The Turks usually don't kill". She also claimed to be a spy.
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
I borrowed a cell phone from one of the other patients and called the police. On ^ce I told them that I was being held at a fake mental hospital run by the Turkis
h secret services, I was told that I "belonged in [the hospital]" by a German po
lice officer an
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
they never responded to my emergency call.
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
SETUP: new interface Vlan1 placed in "shutdown" state
Press RETURN to get started!
*Mar 1 00:01:17.242: %STACKMGR-4-SWITCH_ADDED: Switch 1 has been ADDED to the stack
*Mar 1 00:01:18.752: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Vlan1, changed state to down
*Mar 1 00:01:20.102: %SPANTREE-5-EXTENDED_SYSID: Extended SysId enabled for type vlan
*Mar 1 00:01:54.705: %PARSER-4-BADCFG: Unexpected end of configuration file.
*Mar 1 00:01:54.705: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from memory by console
*Mar 1 00:01:54.907: %STACKMGR-5-SWITCH_READY: Switch 1 is READY
*Mar 1 00:01
Switch>
Switch>:54.907: %STACKMGR-4-STACK_LINK_CHANGE: Stack Port 1 Switch 1 has changed to state DOW N
*Mar 1 00:01:54.907: %STACKMGR-4-STACK_LINK_CHANGE: Stack Port 2 Switch 1 has changed to sta te DOWN
*Mar 1 00:01:55.183: %STACKMGR-5-MASTER_READY: Master Switch 1 is READY
*Mar 1 00:01:55.477: %SYS-5-RESTART: System restarted --
Cisco IOS Software, C3750 Software (C3750-IPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(55)SE10, RELEASE SOFT WARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2015 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Wed 11-Feb-15 11:40 by prod_rel_team
*Mar 1 00:01:55.511: %SSH-5-ENABLED: SSH 1.99 has been enabled
*Mar 1 00:01:56.140: %PHY-4-SFP_NOT_SUPPORTED: The SFP in Gi1/0/8 is not supported
*Mar 1 00:01:56.140: %PM-4-ERR_DISABLE: gbic-invalid error detected on Gi1/0/8, putting Gi1/ 0/8 in err-disable state
*Mar 1 00:01:56.173: %GBIC_SECURITY_CRYPT-4-VN_DATA_CRC_ERROR: GBIC in port Gi1/0/12 has bad crc
*Mar 1 00:01:56.173: %PM-4-ERR_DISABLE: gbic-invalid error detected on Gi1/0/12, putting Gi1 /0/12 in err-disable state
*Mar 1 00:01:56.719: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface Vlan1, changed state to administratively dow n
Switch>en
Switch#conft
Translating "conft"...domain server (255.255.255.255)
% Unknown command or computer name, or unable to find computer address
Switch#show run
Building configuration...
Current configuration : 988 bytes
!
version 12.2
no service pad
service timestamps debug datetime msec
service timestamps log datetime msec
no service password-encryption
!
hostname Switch
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
!
!
!
no aaa new-model
switch 1 provision ws-c3750g-12s
system mtu routing 1500
vtp domain Null
vtp mode transparent
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
spanning-tree mode pvst
spanning-tree extend system-id
!
vlan internal allocation policy ascending
!
vlan 61
name fttx
!
!
!
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/2
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/3
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/4
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/5
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/6
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/7
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/8
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/9
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/10
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/11
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/12
!
interface Vlan1
no ip address
shutdown
!
ip classless
ip http server
ip http secure-server
!
!
!
!
!
line con 0
line vty 5 15
!
end