What will opana test positive for oxycodone or morphine

What Could Go Right?

2013.08.03 01:36 What Could Go Right?

A SUBREDDIT FOR UNEXPECTEDLY POSITIVE OUTCOMES.
[link]

2008.01.25 07:51 Sex

sex is for civil discussions pertaining to education and advice regarding your sexuality and sexual relationships. It is a sex-positive community and a safe space for people of all genders and orientations which demands respectful conduct in all exchanges. There is ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CREEPY OR HARASSING BEHAVIOR HERE — in posts, comments, messages, or any other contributions. No exceptions.
[link]

2017.01.13 14:18 BlackSnakeMoaning Porn that gives you a wholesome feeling

The sub is closed permanently because of people harassing our mods and Reddit not doing anything about it. Don't message us.
[link]

2024.05.15 19:26 YaminiPatel2410 HOTEL INTERNET BOOKING ENGINE

What is a Hotel Internet Booking Engine?
Online hotel reservation software is a vital tool for travel companies looking to streamline their booking process and increase direct bookings.
A hotel booking engine is a software tool that smoothly integrates into your hotel's website, allowing customers to easily search for available rooms, compare rates, and make secure reservations online. It operates as a central hub, displaying real-time pricing and availability while streamlining the booking process.
With reliable and effective hotel booking software, hotels can increase overall revenues significantly. The booking prevents commissions involved in booking and aids in increasing profits

Some factors that should be considered while selecting a Hotel Internet Booking Engine are discussed below:


Why is the Hotel Internet Booking Engine important?
Hotel Internet Booking Engine is one of the most significant and vital aspects for any hotel, OTA, travel agency, or tour operator looking to prosper in the digital age. It's a strategic investment that allows your hotel to thrive in the digital age by attracting more visitors, boosting revenue, and enhancing the entire guest experience.
Travelers look for the best hotel deals for their stay. An advanced hotel booking engine assists these travelers book the best hotel that suits them. They can search, explore, and book from a variety of hotels.
Getting a reliable hotel booking engine can help travel companies make a huge profit and increase their web presence. With the right hotel booking engine, travel companies can save a lot of time as such a booking engine is integrated with the standard list of hotel suppliers. This eliminates the need to integrate additional hotel suppliers. Also, the best hotel prices along with the proper hotel description like images, amenities, and full property information are displayed.
Implementing a user-friendly and feature-rich booking system allows you to manage your online presence, streamline operations, and position your hotel for long-term success. It aids in the management of bookings and inventories by providing clients with accurate information about their upcoming bookings.
Online hotel reservation software makes the booking process easier for both travel agents and customers. By allowing guests to easily book a hotel room online, it saves time and effort for both parties.
A travel agency or tour operator can utilize the software to manage bookings, availability, and pricing, while guests can benefit from features like online payments, reviews, and special deals.
Furthermore, the software can provide hoteliers with significant insights about client preferences and behaviors, allowing them to serve their guests better.
Are you looking for the best Hotel Internet Booking Engine?

The hotel booking software from Trawex is one of a kind. Trawex offers reliable, user-friendly hotel booking engine software that is tailored to the specific demands of OTAs, travel agencies, tour operators, etc.
Our software offers several features and benefits that ensure an intuitive and efficient booking process for your guests. Software provided by Trawex is already being connected with 70+ hotel supplier APIs across the world. This solution is also connected with Xtranet where agency can manage their own contracted rates effectively. And many more features that help you to grow your business multiple times.
Trawex hotel booking engine brings the best available deals with their multi-supplier connections. This hotel booking engine keeps travelers informed of the exact availability status of hotels.
Trawex's online booking system allows guests to conveniently manage bookings through the hotel's website. It is also an excellent way to collect payments and secure reservations at the desired hotel.
Guests can now make bookings directly on the hotel's website. The complex security and simple navigation features enhance the appeal of the hotel booking system.

Why choose Trawex as your Hotel Internet Booking Engine?

Trawex is a leading tech company provider of hotel booking software solutions. Our comprehensive hotel booking system has a range of features and benefits, making it an excellent choice for travel enterprises.
One of the most significant advantages of Trawex's hotel booking software is its ease of use and simple interface. Our platform enables consumers to effortlessly search for and book available rooms, manage their reservations, and make secure and fast payments. Additionally, our software provides hotel staff with the ability to manage bookings, generate reports, and track bookings to assist their customers as required
Trawex provides reliable, user-friendly hotel CRS tailored to the unique needs of OTAs, travel agencies, tour operators, and others. Our software has an abundance of features and benefits that will make the booking process for your guests easier and more efficient.
Trawex offers B2B Hotel Booking System, B2C Hotel Reservation System, Hotel Reservation API, Hotel Booking API, Hotel Extranet System, and B2B2C Hotel Booking Solutions to help you grow organically.
With Trawex, you can expect:


Types of Hotel Internet Booking Engine are discussed below:

B2B hotel booking engine
A B2B hotel booking portal allows agencies to market to travel agents where travel agents can book for their clients and determine the markups while making the booking. With the help of an excellent B2B hotel booking engine, sub-agent networks can be managed without any complexity.

~B2C hotel booking engine~
A B2C hotel booking engine is directly used by travelers. It can be integrated with numerous hotel supplier APIs to access hotel deals. Travel companies utilize hotel booking portals to provide the best hotel information, make it easy to book, and optimize direct sales.
Why should you integrate a white label hotel booking engine?

The adoption of a white label hotel booking engine saves time and money, allowing travel organizations to save on development costs. They need to use their branding and make marketing efforts to increase their web presence.
The hotel booking system helps manage hotel reservations efficiently. Here, the bookings made by the hotel website are managed. Travelers can check the availability of accommodations in real-time and make bookings online. Following that, the system provides quick confirmations of bookings. It's a great technique to achieve 100% client satisfaction.

Benefits of a Hotel Internet Booking Engine:


What are the key features of a Hotel Booking System?

Here is the list of hotel booking system features:


Key Factors Impacting Hotel Booking Engine Development Costs

The cost of establishing a hotel booking engine fluctuates significantly and depends on numerous critical factors, listed below:
Understanding these essential aspects will enable you to make informed decisions about the development of your hotel booking engine, allowing you to successfully manage costs while generating a high-quality product.
Trawex excels at all aspects of hotel booking engine development, establishing itself as an important player in the sector. Our agile strategy allows us to quickly navigate each development step, reducing expenses without compromising quality.
In the initial phase, our dedicated team conducts complete market research, analyzing customer trends and competitor strategies. This research not only informs our project plan but also aids in cost optimization.
During the design and development process, we excel at user interface design, creating visually appealing and user-friendly experiences. Our front-end and back-end development experience provides seamless interactions and effective data management. Rigorous testing and quality assurance are diligently carried out to deliver a bug-free, reliable booking engine.
Deployment and maintenance are executed flawlessly, ensuring a smooth transition into real-world usage. We excel at payment gateway integration and security compliance, providing a secure and user-friendly booking engine. With Trawex, you get a cost-effective, technically excellent, and user-centric hotel booking engine solution that outpaces the competition.

CONTACT US:
For more details, please visit our website:
~https://www.trawex.com/hotel-internet-booking-engine.php~
Email id : [contact@trawex.com](mailto:contact@trawex.com)
Phone No : 91485 87111
submitted by YaminiPatel2410 to u/YaminiPatel2410 [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 19:19 x993231 X From Ihub with a few thoughts See some of you next week

Lol now ihub punk is asking “What is the current sales pipeline for Lightwave Logic's polymer modulators and other products? Can you share any details on the size and timing of potential deals with the 20+ major corporations that have viewed the technology demo?"
"When do you anticipate Lightwave Logic will achieve its first $1 million revenue quarter? What milestones need to be hit to reach that level of quarterly sales?"
"What is the company's plan to become cash flow positive and profitable? When do you expect Lightwave Logic to reach profitability?”
Punkin has come a long way, he used to say that it could never be done, now he keeps falling back, apparently trying to hold the line, lol, now he is asking questions about revenue and dang even invoking God to help humanity as his reason for posting in his credentials. Even if one thinks that they are right that is quite a statement, typically something that a reasonable person keeps to themselves a life's effort is something between them and their creator. I have no idea where this technology will lead or what it will solve, my goal is an investment, certainly not divine, I have no clue in the end who it will truly benefit but the medical thing does have potential.
Today I'm happy with thousands of modulators on a foundry produced wafer. And thousands of modulators from a few ounces of Perkinamine. These modulators Triple the speed, reduce the power and are 1/30 the size of today's modulators. Lebby will fill us in on what we need, he is far more intelligent than anyone on this board.
Read on folks.
Oh and do not forget about those that sold early (or didn’t sell early) that purport to be long and like to consistently complain every single time the price drops. Let me try to explain it this way, this is not a sports game, this is a technology, so unlike sports, points can be literally be taken of the scoreboard by simply borrowing and selling shares (shorts). Remember though that those shares must be purchased back and until then the actual score of the game is not known. So the shorts agenda is to sell it down then try and convince folks to sell them shares at that discounted price. Some longs do not understand that they are helping the shorts at their game. That being said, there are currently 17% more shares sold than exist. They have borrowed those shares and pay interest daily and have sold them to us with the hope of buying them back at a reduced price (Some purported longs even try to help them) apparently, they think that if they complain it will force an NVDA, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon to reach an agreement with Lightwave sooner. Well, it will not change the speed of the adoption of the technology, I’m all for doing a tier1 agreement, but a few quick little agreements could force their hand so the Tier1’s do not have to have to honor those agreements should the company be taken over. Some seam to forget that until now Silicon photonics could keep up, but no more and with AI we just entered a new world, where the pace set by Moore's Law for silicon photonics is leisurely compared to this new demand. AI is totally on a sprint, with its computational power doubling not every two years, but approximately every six months.
Let me look at what the shorts have said over the years basically throwing spaghetti at the wall and have been proven wrong. Patents were filed in 2020, 2021, ALD I think was 2022. Patents were not made public, the shorts were babbling meanwhile Lebby had not only solved it but wrote and submitted patents.
Here are the 10 top B.S. short myths, trying to suppress the stock so they could try and cover I also think that there are a few purported longs that sold prematurely that are now helping to push the shorts game forward, meanwhile with the next deal announcement the dam is about to burst.
I’d love to see Punkin hold a conversation with Lebby one on one for 5 minutes, it would be hilarious,
Shorts and those paid by the shorts to act like they “know something” won't even tell you when they are short, they just say, no not short just here to spend my life 7 days a week helping folks that I have never met. Well, here they are, you tell me guys.
1.) The shorts had worked for months to try and convince investors that Lightwave had a problem poling. Then low and behold Lightwave unveiled 2 patents they submitted years prior solving that issue.
2.) The shorts claimed for years Lightwave could not protect the device in anything other than a gold box, then Lightwave unveiled the ALD patent that they had acquired. Basically, hair spray over the finished chip is all that is needed. The foundries are using the same thing over the electronics side of the chip. Understand that even if someone else invents an EO Polymer Lightwave Owns the Patent on ALD over Polymers. Comprende?
3.) The shorts claimed Lightwaves material was not stable, Wham Bam blown out of the water yet again.
4.) Shorts said that Lightwave could never get this under 1 volt, well Lightwave did, in fact Lightwaves polymer is so sensitive that their modulators can function without the aid of driver to boost the voltage. Basically the electrons in the 1's and 0's rolling off the silicon can embed themselves into the laser using Lightwaves polymer. Oh and by the way, Lightwave also owns the patent on a driverless Polymer Modulator. Even if someone perfects a stable sensitive EO polymer when the want to do direct drive, they have to come knocking on Lightwaves door with cash in hand.
5.) For the 6 months leading up to last years annual shareholder meeting the shorts stated Lightwave could not close a commercial deal all the then like now trying to convince us that the sky was falling and once again Lebby delivered.
6.) For months the shorts said Lightwave could not use anything other than gold on their electrodes, well guess the F what, yup, once again (at the shareholders meeting) Lebby put up a slide of successful foundry runs and when asked by me if the contacts labeled AL on the slide stood for Aluminum Lebby said “yes, we use that any many other materials as well”. I asked about aluminum corrosion, the response was, X (you idiot) that is what the ALD will also protect.
7.) The Shorts were trying to convince longs that the foundry had not made progress on PDK’s, Lebby certainly blew them out of the water on that as well. As info PDK’s are process development kits, it is how the foundries make Lightwaves devices available to the public so when an NVDA’s, Amazon (AWS), Cisco or Fujitsu are designing devices they can check that box and add that to their device in the foundry. 2 weeks ago lebby said the foundries have thousands of modulators per wafer. On question that I need to understand is that with thousands of devices on a wafer how many of those thousands of modulators are affected by the kerf when dicing (sawing or scribing?)
8) The shorts used to say that it couldn’t me done now as you see Pumpkin is asking Yes but “What is the current sales pipeline for Lightwave Logic's polymer modulators? Can you share any details on the size and timing of potential deals with the 20+ major corporations that have viewed the technology demo? When do you anticipate Lightwave Logic will achieve its first $1 million revenue quarter? What milestones need to be hit to reach that level of quarterly sales? What is the company's plan to become cash flow positive and profitable? When do you expect Lightwave Logic to reach profitability?” Lol, Lol and again Lol It sounds like Pumpkin is finally being honest, perhaps it is by divine intervention on his posts
9) As info the institutions now own 26% of the shares, The shorts would have us believe that is irrelevant, wait what?
10) I like this, Ted who also has another ID said that he gets his info from the internet because everything on it is true. When asked why he does not use first-hand information he said that he is not good at reading people, lol and yet he watches every video with baited breath.
I know some do not see it but as evidenced by their latest efforts the shorts are worried and it is obvious that whomever they got their info from was consistently years behind making up issues that had in fact already been solved. I would not want to have been an advisor to the shorts.
Lightwave is finally at the stage where they have the patents in place, moved into additional lab space, hired additional lab personnel for making larger quantities of perkinamine, (a few fluid ounces can make thousands of devices) the new lab will be equipped to test larger quantities of chips coming back from foundries, work on new polymers for additional devices (they even have another polymer available for licensing) produce data sheets, standardize bulk testing, they have even hired a dedicated deal maker, oh also a V.P. dedicated just to working with foundries that are actively running wafers. Now they have added a former Intel deal maker to the board of directors.
Soon this thing will in fact snowball because the industry's "go to" good old silicon photonics has hit the wall it simply cannot run faster. Lightwaves material when added applied to Silicon triples the speed and because it is so sensitive it is 30times smaller and uses 1/10 the power all at a time when AI is pushing the amount of data processed by the data centers through the roof.
~Some of us were wondering why the Lightwave employees were still in town (apparently held over) for an extra 2 days over after the OFC San Frisco meeting, now we see that there were no less than 20 companies that apparently requested an unscheduled impromptu demo on a holiday week (good Friday) after the convention was over. Not only did Lightwave employees not go home but it sounds like a bunch of Tier 1’s and such saw it as important enough to see ASAP. And yes while many on here say that NDA’s do not exist, LOL I’ll bet that not only were NDA’s mandatory but I bet that every demo was “private” by scheduled appointment only and also attended by the various expert employees at Lightwave to get the most bang for the buck.~
Lightwave makes the thing that makes the component better anyone communicating using fiber optics needs it, the entire industry needs it. Think if BASF produces a chemical that makes paint last longer. Why would the paint manufacture tell its competitors what makes their paint so durable. Lightwave is going partner with many and they will simply sell devices that are faster and require less energy, those companies are not going to tell the competition what they do to make that happen. Lightwave will quietly market to the tier1's and they will insist on it in their data centers and devices. The one exception that I see is that if the foundry runs were paid for by Lightwave Logic (vs. say an amazon or facebook etc) Lightwave would do joint public PR of where the industry can order chips with Lightwaves Perkinamine on it (It is called checking the box on the PDK).
The shorting situation will be solved by additional Partnerships and look out when those Partnerships are accompanied by a dividend in a new 3rd party company licensing say the ability to develop the Lidar device market or for the biotech crowd a medical sensing partner, wham short situation solved in short order. Remember that currently they are only talking about Telcom 2km to 10km market but there are so many more.
Currently 1k difference between the buys and sells changed it 1 penny. Folks this is just normal trading without any pressure on the price. This time next week we’ll either be in the lab or in the meeting.
Still trying to digest the effects of T+1 on the shorts especially the foreign exchange rate, Fails To Deliver, Naked shorting etc. it is coming the Tuesday after Memorial Day (Holiday in the U.S., which is the weekend after the Shareholders Meeting), Finra Settlement Date 5/31 which then will mean a trade date of 5/30.
Short Game, Market Maker Game, Institution Game, changing technology
Check it out rainy day so I thought I’d look Punkin “I never said any of those things in that context. I’m just here doing Gods work” https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174419282 That was in reply to JimJet218’s statement. 1. Couldn't be poled. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169035142&txt2
  1. Needed a gold case. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170733222&txt2
  2. Would never be less than 1 volt. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=144502197&txt2 Pumpkin claims to be doing “Gods Work”.
Xster Rainy day so I thought I'd spend few minutes today,
Getting spanked so far today.
submitted by x993231 to LWLG [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 19:09 DramaticWall2219 Anyone have experience with being symptomatic and having positive thyroid antibodies with in range TSH?

After months of testing an appointments, I finally got a positive on TPO and TgAB tests because I specifically asked for them to be done. I have been suspicious of thyroid issues for a while because of my symptoms and the steady decline of TSH over the years. I am hopeful because I desperately need to get to the bottom of my symptoms. They are really interfering with everyday life. But I am worried that without TSH docs will not be willing to attempt treatment. Anyone have experience with this scenario or have suggestions on what tests to ask for next?
Last two TSH readings were .6 (august) and .8 (march). TPO is 267 (high cut off 35) and TgAB is 1.2 (high cut off .9). They did not conduct TRAb test.
I also have mildly low complement 4 and mildly high ana.
submitted by DramaticWall2219 to ChronicIllness [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 19:00 Commander_Z Cyborg #59 - Test of Strength

Cyborg #59 - Test of Strength

<< < >
Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Arc: Machine Mayhem
Set: 96
Previously:
Victor Stone, Donna Morris and Keiji Otari worked together to create a robot called Atlas to participate in the collegiate Machine Mayhem tournament, a robot fighting competition. The humanoid robot easily crushed its competition in the first round but disappeared overnight before the second round. His three creators split up to track him down, with Keiji finding the machine in a back alley a little ways away from the stadium...
Keiji stood before the massive figure, blinking, trying to focus his mind. He had had many late nights and early mornings over the past couple weeks, so Keiji figured he was still sleeping. Or hallucinating. Or both, somehow. But, the voice rang out, its clearest yet, “No.” ‘Clear’ was a very generous and relative term, though. The noise wasn’t modulating through a speaker or a voice box, instead Atlas was making his own speaker by vibrating the motors and joints that allowed him to move.
The alley that Keiji found Atlas in was less than an ideal to make changes to a robot, but Keiji figured that Atlas would be understanding considering the circumstances. He pulled out an old bluetooth speaker out of his backpack and gestured towards Atlas with it.
“This’ll help you. No more grinding gears to talk. Just got to trust me for a few minutes, okay?”
Atlas stood still for a few moments, whether he was thinking or just unsure how to make a positive affirmation with his joints, Keiji couldn’t know. But, after awhile, he responded.
“Yes.”
Keiji set his backpack on the ground in the gross alley, making a mental note that he’d have to clean that later and got to work.
Around ten minutes later, he was done.
“Okay, Atlas. Try to use the speaker. It’s connected to RO23 on the tertiary control board.”
“...T…Te….ing…Test…Testing. Speaker operation confirmed.” Atlas spoke in a deep, synthetic voice that occasionally warped itself in tone, like how a whammy bar would add vibrato to a chord on a guitar.
“Great. So… Atlas… What's going on with you? Why’d you leave?”
“I am performing my task: defeat opponents, become the strongest. No foes in that arena were a challenge. Therefore, I left.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “That’s… not what we made you for. We made you to win Machine Mayhem, not to pursue strength as some sort of goal in of itself.”
“Incorrect. Nowhere in programming was “winning the Machine Mayhem tournament” a specified goal.”
“Okay, but I programmed you, and I’m telling you that was the intention.”
“Intentions are irrelevant. A teacher may shape their students’ minds, but they cannot determine what anyone does with their knowledge. That is a privilege reserved for each and every individual being. You say I was programmed to win a tournament. I say that I was programmed to make myself the strongest being. Only my interpretation is relevant.”
‘I guess that’s not an invalid interpretation of what I programmed him to do. But… that’s not exactly a sane or safe perspective on life…’
“And how are you doing that? Just fighting anyone you can see?”
“No. I have already stated that I found those machines in that arena unworthy of my efforts, in my short time in the outside world I have seen humans to be much the same. Few of you would pose any challenge.”
“Well, that’s a little more reassuring that you won’t just be fighting everyone you see. But - ”
Suddenly, a woman about Keiji’s age flew into the alleyway, riding on a metallic pink hoverboard. She wore hot pink combat boots with dark black leggings, and a matching hot pink sleeveless top with thick metallic bands around her wrists that went up to her forearms. Her eyes were obscured by a visor-like pair of glasses, tinted a reflective red to hide her identity.
And yet, Keiji knew instantly that she had to be Donna Morris. He knew that she had been working on some other project with Vic before they started Atlas, but he figured it was just for some shared class or lab work. But this… This was unexpected.
“Halt… robot! Step away from the civilian and no one needs to get hurt!”
‘Why’s she speaking so formally? Guess it’s some mindset thing.’
Neither Atlas nor Keiji reacted to what Donna was saying. Keiji knew she wasn’t talking to him, and Atlas just seemed indifferent to her presence. Finally, Atlas turned and faced her.
“You seem powerful. Show me the strength of your will and I may concede.”
“This doesn’t need to be violent. We can talk it out, here or somewhere else.”
“Actions speak louder and truer than words.” Atlas moved into a combat position, leaning forwards on his left leg, raising his fists up to his chest.
“Come.”
“Don- ”
“When I’m in the suit, it’s Black Narcissus. Some of us like to keep our identities secret, no offense to Cyborg, wherever he is.” Donna said.
“Okay, nice to meet you, Black Narcissus. Just… be careful with Atlas. He’s stronger than he looks.”
Donna smiled. “So am I. Just watch.”
Donna pressed her thumb and index finger together on both hands and a large light on the back of her hands turned gray. She pointed her hands right at Atlas, who still stood in his combat position, waiting.
A thick, gray fluid shot out of her gauntlets, ensnaring Atlas’ arms to his body and his legs to the ground.
“Gotcha! That’s industrial strength adhesive - ”
Atlas flexed his arms and the adhesive snapped with ease, then crouched his legs before springing upwards towards Black Narcissus and her hoverboard. She quickly flew out of the way but Atlas managed to barely get one hand on the board. Black Narcissus pressed her thumbs to her middle fingers, changing the cartridge in her gauntlets. The light on the back changed to purple and she fired her gauntlets again, launching a blast of energy at Atlas.
The extra energy rattled the robot’s circuits, and he released his grip on the board to escape further damage, sending him crashing back to the ground. She shot another salvo of energy blasts at the machine, keeping him stunned on the ground.
She switched her left gauntlet back to adhesive, hoping that it would be able to restrain a weakened Atlas. Before it could reach him, the robot rolled out of the way and grabbed a trash can, hurling it at Donna. She swerved out of the way again, then dodged a second trash can thrown as a follow up.
After the second can, she was on her toes, prepared for a third, but it didn’t come. She looked around, trying to find where Atlas went, but he was completely out of sight. She sensed him at the last moment, coming from the rooftop that he jumped up to. He grabbed her board and slammed it to the ground with her on it. The board shattered into a million pieces, but Donna seemed unharmed. Atlas sprung up, ready to keep fighting, and Black Narcissus rose fractions of a second after. She pressed her thumbs to her ring fingers and the light on the black glowed a dark red.
She swung a right hand punch at Atlas who caught it in his left. But the light on the back of her gauntlet started to glow brighter as she put in more effort, pushing back against his metallic muscle. Atlas pushed his legs back, trying to stabilize himself. Donna started to push him back more and Keiji could hear the motors start to strain. Atlas stopped resisting against Donna, then, before she could take advantage of it, he kicked up some of the pieces of the broken hoverboard at her. Using her momentary surprise, he punched her square in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to the ground.
“You fought well,” Atlas said, turning away from her.
“Wait,” Donna said, getting up. “I’m not done with you.”
“Yes, you are. Accept your defeat. There is no shame in losing to the strongest.”
Before Donna could protest, Atlas turned to Keiji. “Come, and bring your things. I have use for you.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow, but grabbed his backpack and started to follow Atlas further down the alley.
He turned back to Donna and mouthed “I’ll text you” to her. He hoped she got the message.
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
“Stop here.”
Keiji stood behind Atlas, who was peering into an old garage a couple blocks from the alley where he fought Black Narcissus. He grabbed the padlock that was keeping the door shut and squeezed it, turning it into dust.
“You will find the tools you need in here. Repair the damage caused in the last fight, human.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “First off, I don’t really like being called “human”. Technically true, but feels hurtful in this context. Second, I’m a software guy. I couldn’t fix you if I wanted to. Third, being nicer to people will generally get you better results. Not really inclined to help someone who starts by insulting me.”
“Niceties are a waste of time. Fix me, or I will end you.”
Keiji shook his head. “No, you won’t. I can’t fix you, but you know my teammates can. And they’d never do that if you hurt me at all.”
Atlas punched the concrete wall in frustration, cracking it. “Very well. You are correct… I do need your help. What will they require to do so?”
“I don’t know. But come back to the arena with me. We can talk with them there and see what it takes.”
“Very well. Let your friends know that I require their assistance.”
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
Atlas stood before Vic and Donna, who made it back to their workspace just before the robot did. He towered over the three humans, but if any of them were intimidated, it was hidden behind a masterful poker face.
“Y’know, I thought more people would care that we just walked in with a robot and are talking with him like he’s a person,” Donna remarked.
“People are busy and indifferent. The other competitors probably think it’s a marketing scheme or something and are just ignoring us. I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Keiji said.
“Yeah, that. But so… Atlas has become sentient. Good for you, really. But… hooray. Another sentient robot,” Vic said.
“You see a lot of those?” Keiji asked.
“More than you’d think.”
“I am glad that you are not concerned by my presence. That saves me much effort. But the question at hand remains: I have been damaged and require repairs. Will you repair me?”
“Yes,” Vic and Donna said at the same time.
Vic looked at her, surprised. He figured she’d have some hesitancy.
“But, I’ve got a small condition for you. Should be no big deal. Win us the next round of the competition.”
“Ridiculous. You ask me to do something so trivial it is unfair, like a pro athlete competing at a preschool.”
Donna shrugged. “Yeah, it’s trivial and easy, but it helps us a lot.The club will look much better and get a lot more support for next season if we make it into the semifinals.”
“I’ll even raise the stakes. If you win the next round, we won’t make you enter the finals. Instead, I’ll give you a real challenge. You can fight me.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Because I’m the strongest one here by far. And, if that’s still not enough if you beat me, I’ll show you how to repair yourself. Then, we’ll let you go live as you want, provided you promise to only fight people who want to fight.”
Donna looked at Vic, concerned. “Who would want to willingly fight someone like Atlas?”
Vic sighed. “Trust me. There are plenty of weirdos in this world who just want to fight. It’s much better than me just throwing him in prison or taking him apart.”
Atlas made a noise that Vic thought was supposed to be a scoff. But maybe it was just static. The speaker wasn’t that high quality.
“You make a very strong set of promises if I win, which I will. But if by some miracle, you managed to cheat your way to victory… what happens then?”
Vic shrugged. “Pretty much the same thing. I’ll teach you how to repair yourself and let you go with the same stipulations. You just have to know that a human beat you.”
Atlas laughed. “You are a fool if you think that could ever happen. I accept your terms, human. Guide me to the arena, those boxes of scrap will be reduced to dust.”
Vic walked him over to the arena as as if he were any other competitor, but instead of waiting by the sidelines to see the results, he walked back to their workspace. He knew that Atlas would win and wanted to try and make sure that Donna and Keiji were on board with the other part of his plan.
When he got back, Donna was nervously pacing around while Keiji was scrolling through some webpage.
“So.. Vic… do you really think that this is the right idea? You’re just… unleashing him on the world. Isn't that irresponsible?” Donna asked.
“I don’t think so. Yeah he wants to fight people but he has restraint to some degree. He knows the difference being fighting every random person he sees and fighting someone who has a reasonable amount of strength. I dunno, I think him messing up and fighting… Superman or something and taking a big loss would teach him far more than we ever could or throwing him in jail for being dangerous. Is it a risk?… kinda. But so is any option.”
“So your best guess is just… let him go and figure it out?” Keiji said. “Isn’t that a bit too… hands off?”
“Got a better idea? That’s pretty much what we got to do.”
“No. I don’t. But this just feels... risky.”
“Yeah, it is. But he’s fairly reasonable after being conscious for what, 12 hours? Over time, he’ll probably mellow out and if he doesn’t, I can take care of him then. But he deserves a chance like anyone else.”
Keiji nodded. “Fine Vic. If that’s what you think the best path is… I’ll stand by you.”
“Same, Vic. I want to believe in him too.”
“Thanks guys, really. Hopefully we can all look back on this and agree this was the right path.”
A horn sounded and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Semifinal-2 has ended! The winner is the University of Michigan’s Atlas! Please collect your robots and be ready for the finals at 1:00 PM.”
The team stood up and gave each other a round of high fives. They really had made something great. Now it was time to see just how great he really was.
⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
Two hours later.
The team packed up after their semifinal match, citing an unspecified emergency with the tournament staff. They weren’t happy with the anticlimactic end, but ultimately they couldn’t force the three of them to continue to compete and so they left without much hassle.
The three of them drove north until they found the first open field that Vic and Atlas could have their match in. There wasn’t anywhere that they could find in the city that wouldn’t attract too much attention or put innocent people at risk and they managed to convince Atlas of that too. The robot was in the trailer towed behind the three of them, much to his chagrin.
But after a half hour or so, they found a spot. A wide open, grassy field with no one around to interfere or get hurt. A perfect spot for them to settle things. Vic got out of the car and started to stretch, trying to limber up after the car ride while Donna and Keiji helped Atlas out of the trailer.
Atlas rotated his head, taking in the environment. “A flat, quiet field. An honorable place for battle.”
Vic let out one lat calming exhale before approaching Atlas. “Plus, no one is around to get hurt. That’s important too.”
“...Yes. That too.”
“The rules are simple. A clean match, no foul play between either of us. Whoever is left standing when the other yields or is unconscious wins.”
Atlas laughed. “I will never yield.”
“We’ll see,” Vic grinned.
“Oh, one other thing. Not really a rule per say, but a strong suggestion: Try not to seriously hurt each other. You’re not trying to kill or maim each other,” Donna said.
“Yes, yes. May we begin?”
Vic nodded, and took a step backward, creating about ten feet of space between him and Atlas. Before the dust even settled, his arms were force cannons launching pure energy right at Atlas’ chest. Vic had designed Atlas, he knew that he wouldn’t be very damaged by those. But he had underestimated just how much he would be able to tank them. The force blasts did little more than chip the paint and an exhilarated Atlas sprinted at Vic like a charging bull.
Once Atlas was a few feet away from Vic, he prepared a concussive grenade and exploded it directly against Atlas, using the force to stagger him out of the charge. Before the robot could launch another attack, Vic swung a full force punch into the robots’ chassis, crumpling it inwards slightly. Vic followed up the punch with another, but Atlas was ready for it and parried it with his left arm, then kicked Cyborg away, sending him flying backwards.
Cyborg shot his force canons at the ground to give himself some momentum in the opposite direction, slowing himself down. But Atlas had some tricks up his metaphorical sleeves too. Having realized that a direct approach was difficult, he used his powerful hands like a backhoe to scoop up a massive piece of earth and hurled it at Cyborg. Vic was unsure how to react to this, or more precisely, how he expected Atlas to follow this attack up. The boulder itself was a problem, sure, but it was just to close the gap. Atlas could be using it to block his line of sight and be jumping right behind it, or he could be using the temporary blindspot caused by the massive object to approach from either side.
Instead of guessing, Vic decided to power through the problem. Vic shot both of his force cannons at the projectile, sending bits of dirt every which way. Atlas was hiding in what was once the dirt ball’s shadow and Vic took advantage of his surprise to launch himself at the robot. Cyborg shot his force cannons behind him, propelling himself forwards rapidly in a charge mirroring Atlas’ own.
He knocked the massive machine to the ground and sat on his chest, using his arms to pin down the machine’s.
“You’re down, Atlas. Do you yield?”
“I told you. I will never yield. I am the strongest!”
Atlas began to press his weight against Vic’s strength. Vic knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength but there was one key problem: stamina. Vic’s body was, of course, cybernetic in part, but it wasn’t the same. He was still human and human beings got tired. Machines did not.
Vic could already feel his muscle starting to fatigue. The fight hadn’t been long, but any fatigue was going to be the difference. He knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength when he was at 100%, but every percent below that made it more and more likely to be Atlas’ win.
‘I need to end this fight now or the immediate future if I want to win. But my normal attacks aren’t doing anything to him. I could try a sonic attack, but I don’t think that’d really effect him. I could try targeting his joints specifically, but those were designed to take more than I can give. But I can’t just let him overpower me for the win. That’d make him overconfident and more likely to get into trouble afterwards. No… I’ve got a better idea.’
In an instant, Vic’s muscles stopped resisting. “I yield.”
Vic pushed himself off Atlas, who stood up and looked at Cyborg, confused.
“What foe yields when he has his opponent on the ground, at his mercy? I demand you continue!”
“No. This fight was never to the death, only to yielding. But frankly, you aren’t strong enough to interest me. You said it yourself, you will never yield. And pummelling you to a point where you are the equivalent of unconscious just isn’t worth my time. So I yielded. Congrats. You win.”
Atlas stood, incredulous. “No. That is not allowed. I did not win. You lost! Those are not the same!”
Vic turned to Keiji and Donna and then noticed that the fight had taken them about 30 yards from where they started. He started to walk back towards them, and Atlas followed.
“Guys, I yielded that fight. Doesn’t that mean I lost?”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “I guess?”
“See? Congrats, you won.”
“... I do not accept this victory. This is a loss in all but name. Mark my words, Victor Stone. I will wander the globe, facing foe after foe to grow stronger. I will become the strongest being and when I do, we will have a real fight, one where you must acknowledge my strength for real.”
“Looking forwards to it. Stay out of trouble until then, understood?”
Vic held out his hand for a handshake which Atlas begrudgingly accepted.
“Understood.”
“Atlas, catch.”
Keiji tossed a small flash drive to Atlas who had to bend down to grab it.
“That has all your schematics and drawings on it, as well as all the parts we used to make you and where we sourced them from. It’s probably the best thing out there to help you repair yourself.”
“Thank you. You all have given me much to think about it. When we meet again… I will be stronger in body and mind. Farewell for now but I will return to challenge you again, Victor.”
“I’ll be waiting. And I promise to go all out next time, Atlas.”
Atlas took off to the west, heading to only he knew where.
Once he was far enough out of sight, Vic laid down on the ground, exhausted.
“Well, that’s enough bluffing for the next decade. I really underestimated him.”
Donna sat down to his left, Keiji on his right.
“Told you that you were being cocky. We all built him but he’s out of all of our leagues,” Keiji said.
“Yeah… but I really wanted to do it, y’know? Kinda humbling to be beat by your own creation.”
“If it makes you feel better, I lost to him too,” Donna said.
“Wait what? When did you fight him?”
“I’ll tell you on the way back. Not my finest moment, but I put up a good fight.”
“Proud of you. You’ve come a long way in your training. But after that fight… I’m going to need to get a lot stronger and pick my own training back up. I kinda feel like I’ve been stagnant for awhile, just sort of winning my fights through grit and will power. But if Atlas had been hostile… I don’t think I could’ve stopped him. So, I’ll need to get back to the drawing board and see what I can do to take myself to the next level.”
“And we’ll be there to help you however we can. But uh… Vic, finals are in like two weeks. Maybe focus on that first?” Keiji suggested.
“I’d rather get beat up by another robot,” Vic groaned.
<< < >
submitted by Commander_Z to DCFU [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:58 HeadOfSpectre There's An Abyss Even Deeper Than The Mariana Trench

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.
submitted by HeadOfSpectre to nosleep [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:48 GabbotheClown The Devaluation of the Candian Engineer

The Devaluation of the Candian Engineer
https://preview.redd.it/itm3w9n8dm0d1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=9951b08747a2e6767ba64c5b04592d01940d882d
Over this past year, I have noticed a terrible trend that seems strictly Canadian: the devaluation of experience in the Canadian engineering workforce. Although I am happily employed, I randomly peruse the indeed.ca website to see what local companies are up to, understand what skills/markets are trending, or even find that unicorn. I have noticed that a fair amount of companies are posting meagre wages while asking for ridiculously high competency levels/experience. Take, for instance, this position above from Digital Shovel. They are asking $65-75K ( that's about $50K USD) and one must have a deep understanding of LLCs/Forward Converters/etc. I have a fairly deep understanding ( in that I know how to design them ), but this knowledge took my years of self-study, designing, failing, testing, etc... around 15 years to be exact. Digital Shovel values my experience at an intern salary.
Digital Shovel, a crypto company, doesn't know what they are doing or asking when they post these ridiculous job postings, but they are not alone. Another posting from a sizeable company in Toronto is looking for someone to build a 100kW 3-Phase Converter with three years of experience ($80-$90K). This would be a herculean task for a company, let alone a single junior engineer.
These job posts are likely to remain unfilled, and while one might expect the market to self-correct, there's a possibility it may not. This raises concerns about the long-term implications for the Canadian engineering workforce? Or is this a trend we will see in the US/Europe?
submitted by GabbotheClown to ElectricalEngineering [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:12 EmbarrassedCrawfish Should I end my almost decade of abstinence?

I (31F) deeply value the camaraderie and wisdom of women of all ages and this is probably the touchiest situation in my life. I am utterly lost.
I’ll preface this by saying I consider myself a deeply religious person despite not going to church and being very liberal and left-leaning in my values. I am very sex positive (I even have friends who are sex workers). I stopped having sex when I was 24. But even before then, it was never a positive venture. I started when I was 16 because a boy at school manipulated me one day claiming he wanted to come over and watch a movie (I was an EXTREMELY sheltered and abused child and my parents had just died around that time so I was just was happy someone wanted to talk to me at all.) I didn’t even understand what was happening. He was extremely mean to me over the course of a few months until he got tired of me. I was a heavier girl all my life til about about 24-ish. And I had SEVERE cystic acne. So any sexual experiences were with men who were promising love and adoration but ghosted me immediately after and didn’t want to be seen with me in public. After my skin cleared and I lost the weight, I noticed I was universally considered very beautiful. I am regularly complimented on my appearance almost daily as well as my personality (This is only mentioned to drive home the fact that dating itself isn’t an issue of lack of options or interest).
But I stopped having sex because, frankly, men are so cruel. It is as if cruelty is the point. I watch them. Playing cat and mouse with women they deem weaker than then. Resenting them for perceived falsehoods. Almost angry that they even have to feign interest to have access TO them. I am a high-earning woman, which I don’t discuss with men but when I say what my job is it can be naturally surmised by anyone that I am not at all poor. I also have a bit of a public profile. And I am not exaggerating when I say I feel I’m almost punished for this by men I’m meeting. One man asked me if I’d be willing to quit working once I got pregnant (I’m childfree by choice) and he was angry when I laughed. As if I’d ever let the trajectory of my life or my potential children’s lives be determined by how long a man was interested in fucking me. I met one guy on Hinge and we went on an extremely pleasant date! But because I wouldn’t go upstairs to his apartment with him once it was over, he stalked me for a year, found where my relative and I were living at the time, and tried to break in and kill us. I only met him once. The other times I’ve wanted to sleep with men, they’ve refused to meet me halfway and get tested. One said “this is alot of work for a little pussy.” You can see why I’ve been celibate awhile.
And yet. The problem remains. I’d like to have sex again one day. Truly, I’d like to experience GOOD sex. Preferably within the confines of a relationship. My friends say that only gives me the illusion of safety and that a man could leave immediately after. Relationships don’t mean anything. Leftover religious trauma makes me feel like if I tried the casual sex route, the earth itself would swallow me whole. Casual sex also gives men the idea they have carte blanche to treat those women like dish rags. And men always ghost me when they hear I’ve never had a relationship or that I haven’t been sexually active in almost a decade. They think something is wrong with ME. I meet men all the time who only want to sleep with me. Not only am I growing sexually frustrated (hey 30s hormones! Lol) but existentially frustrated as well.
Therapist, grandmother, and friends say to save a horse and ride a cowboy. What say you all? ⚖️
submitted by EmbarrassedCrawfish to AskWomenOver30 [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:09 DrDoritosMD [Stargate and GATE Inspired] Manifest Fantasy Chapter 16: Power Play (Part 2)

Author’s Note:
Upvotes and comments go a long way in helping me reach a larger audience <3
First
Inside GB-2
“Huh, that wasn’t there before,” Ron said, pointing to a new hole in the wall – another passageway.
Henry turned to look where Ron pointed. Sure enough, there was a new doorway. It must’ve been a section that opened after they restored the power. “Huh, yeah. Let’s check it out.”
He went through, finding a short hallway past it and another room just beyond. Henry signaled for his team to form up, preparing to breach. As they stepped in, they found themselves in a brightly lit room filled with various types of furniture – empty pedestals, comfortable-looking single couches, and empty desks with opened cabinets.
Henry stepped further into the room, eyeing the oddly arranged furniture. The single couches were lined up in neat rows, all facing the same direction – towards the empty desks. It was like some sort of waiting room, but for what?
“Is it just me, or are these couches set up weird?” Isaac asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind. “I mean, who lines up a bunch of single couches like this?”
“Strange, indeed,” Sera agreed. “They seem arranged as though for spectators, yet naught lies before them to behold.”
Like a movie theater, Henry thought. However, there weren’t any screens or holograms to watch. If there was a clue, it would probably be within the couches themselves.
Dr. Anderson approached one of the desks. “Perhaps this was some sort of office or workspace? The desks and cabinets certainly suggest that.”
Isaac then decided to touch one of the seats, eliciting no reaction. He pushed further, sitting down on one of them. At that point, the couch began to adjust its form to better suit Isaac’s envirosuit, as if able to optimize its comfort for the user. Then, a nozzle slowly stretched up from the seat’s headrest area, stopping just short of Isaac’s neck. “Woah!” Isaac bolted up as the nozzle bonked against his helmet.
“Neural interface, maybe?” Henry wondered. “I think we should leave this to the researchers… unless you wanna volunteer as a lab rat?”
“Hell nah,” Isaac vigorously declined the offer. “Hey, there isn’t anything on my helmet is there?”
Henry dusted off the back of Isaac’s helmet with his glove. “Nope, you’re clear. Just gotta hope it ain’t grey goo.”
He could see the dread and uncertainty through Isaac’s visor. Henry gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Well, think about it this way: if it really was grey goo, it would’ve gotten to us – or the Spiranids, for that matter – long ago. C’mon, let’s secure the next room.”
With a nod, Isaac fell in line behind Henry as they moved towards the doorway leading to the adjacent room. Peeking inside, it couldn’t be further from the rest of the room’s they had encountered so far; not at all what they could’ve possibly expected inside an ancient, high-tech alien facility. It was expansive, with a layout that reminded Henry of a high-end restaurant. Comfortable booths lined the walls, while tables of varying sizes filled the central space. The furniture looked almost human – perhaps even indistinguishably so.
The room was tinted with a soft, cozy yellow light. The warm and inviting ambiance felt soothing compared to the clinical feel of the previous areas. The lighting, combined with the plush booths and elegant tables, gave Henry a nostalgic impression.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Ryan remarked. “Think they got any cheesecakes?”
If it wasn’t for the alien decor and helping of sleek devices scattered around the room, Henry would’ve thought they were back home. Hell, there was even a bar, filled with exotic liquors that could probably fetch millions at an auction – or give them the trip of their lives. Beside it however was something unusual. Where he might’ve expected a path leading to the kitchen, he instead found a wall with a slight, rectangular-shaped recess that was just big enough for a tray.
He glanced at Isaac, who returned a knowing look. “Replicators,” Isaac said.
Henry smirked. “Personally, I’m partial to synthesizer, but to each their own.”
They gathered around the wall, which didn’t seem to respond to their presence. Taps on the wall didn’t seem to do anything, either. Henry considered probing further, but decided against it. “Alright, let’s not take any chances. We’ll make a note of this for the research teams to analyze later. Let’s keep looking around.”
Henry split apart from the others, pairing with Ron as they continued to walk around the room. They soon came across another doorway on the far side of the room, which opened up into a short corridor that led into multiple sets of doors. Each had a symbol on the wall beside the doors – one that depicted the basic figure of a person.
Ron pushed open one of the doors, taking a peek inside. “Looks like even the Gatebuilders needed restrooms.”
Finally! “Alright, let’s take a quick break here. Bring everyone else over.”
Thankfully, the amenities within were easily comparable to those of modern society. The toilet looked like a toilet, and the sink resembled a sink. Even in a space as mundane as this though, the Gatebuilder’s technology was evident: self-cleaning surfaces and enough technology to put a high-quality Japanese bidet toilet to shame. At least, that was just from the look of things. Henry didn’t think now would be the best time to check whether the restroom had ass-washing robots or not.
After a few minutes, Henry regrouped with the rest of the team around a central table in the ‘restaurant’. Dr. Anderson was already present, his archaeological kit opened and a spread of alien items organized on the table.
“Ah, Captain!” Dr. Anderson noticed him approaching. “We found cabinets that weren’t empty. Most of the artifacts appear to be personal effects.” He held up a necklace, emphasizing his point. “Jewelry, memorabilia, and some other artifacts that I – admittedly – can’t quite describe.”
Dr. Anderson pointed his pickup tool at a small disc laid out on a padded mat. “It hasn’t shown any active properties yet. It’s rather peculiar; it seems to be a solid disc. Lightweight, unblemished surface, no visible markings or etchings.”
“Have you tried touching it directly?” Henry asked.
Dr. Anderson frowned, manipulating the claws of his pickup tool. “Well, not directly.” Catching the implications in Henry’s query, he continued, “I’ve checked for radiation, toxins – all clear. While I’d advise against direct contact, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit curious.”
Henry nodded. Yeah, the Doc was probably right, but what was discovery without risk? He reached out and picked it up, rotating it in his hands. As his gloved fingers brushed against the surface, the disc suddenly emitted a soft glow.
Henry flinched slightly, almost dropping the disc in surprised. As he fumbled with it, the disc seemed to respond to his touch. Suddenly, a series of objects materialized on the table, appearing out of thin air.
“Oh, shit!” Ron exclaimed. “It just… spawned a bunch of stuff!”
Henry stared at the new items. Several containers, probably holding some kind of food, were still sealed tight and impossibly effective at insulating its contents. It was crazy to think that the food inside might still be hot after who knows how long.
Next to the containers was a bracelet. Possibly normal, possibly enchanted or integrated with technology they couldn’t hope to understand. There was also a bottle of some bright blue liquid – probably for drinking, but there was no way to be sure until Perdue tested it. And then there was the picture, showing a strikingly human couple, holding each other underneath a gorgeous alien sky. It reminded him of memorabilia people would sometimes keep in their wallets, though why humans were there was a mystery.
The last object the disc spat out was a thin, transparent sheet. Coincidentally, it was about the same size as a smartphone. If he had to guess, it probably had the same function as one, too.
“Incredible,” Dr. Anderson gawked at the items. “The disc must be the Gatebuilders’ version of a wallet, somehow using dimensional storage technology!”
“Akin to the Holding Bags,” Kelmithus noticed. He peered into his own Holding Bag, his expression indicating that he was connecting the dots. “Fascinating!”
Dr. Anderson then inspected the image, his face reflecting the same confusion Henry felt when he first saw it. While they continued to sort through the items, Henry explored the sheet further. The moment he tapped the screen, a holographic interface sprung into existence above it.
What he had initially thought was a simple hologram was something far more advanced, almost indistinguishable from reality itself. Almost instantly, they were surrounded by mountains and valleys, details springing up to form a realistic, three-dimensional map.
It was like a pocket holodeck. The only anchors the projection had were the various icons and pockets of text floating around – and the fact that the hologram was transparent enough for him to see his surroundings and his teammates.
Sera seemed to be the most shocked out of all of them. He couldn’t blame her. The sight was surprising enough for himself, who was even familiar with the concept through sci-fi; how much more alien would it seem to someone from – effectively – the past?
“I’ve not beheld such a spell… ever!” she exclaimed softly, pausing to gather her thoughts. “Hold on…” she continued, pointing to the distant peaks. “Why, yon mountain range! Does it not strike you as familiar?”
“Huh?” Ron squinted at it. “Does it?”
“No, yeah, it does!” Isaac said. “Shit, uh, is that the Ovinne Mountain Range?”
Henry brought up the file for the Ovinne Mountain Range on his visor, comparing it to the hologram. “Huh, yeah, it is. What’s a map of that doing in here, though?”
Dr. Anderson raised his hands in the air and spread them apart, mimicking a zoom. Lucky for them, the alien tech seemed to understand what they were going for. Now up close and in full detail, the Ovinne Mountain Range dominated the room. Somewhere in the mountains, an icon that looked like a pair of glasses sat right on top of a Gatebuilder tower, barely poking out of the mountainside.
Ryan crossed his arms as he scrutinized the hologram. “Is this what, Find My iPhone?”
“Hmm… rather likely,” Dr. Anderson agreed. “This device must be some sort of Locator.”
“Locator, huh?” Having this clue was an incredible breakthrough, but he noticed something else. “And right where the Ovinne Mountain Campaign’s supposedly taking place, at that.”
“Indeed, that you mention it, such alignment is surely noteworthy,” Kelmithus remarked. His voice took on a more excited note, “Be it fate, perhaps?”
Henry smirked. “Hah, you’re sounding a bit like Sera, now. Well, looks like fate’s telling us where to go next. Let’s pack this up and head back.”
They carefully stowed the various artifacts in their holding bags, Henry holding on to the Locator. They made their way back to the locker room where they first entered, everyone excited for the next step in their mission.
Henry stepped through the airlock first, emerging on the other side. As he did so, a faint sound caught his attention. It was distant, muffled, but definitely not a sound that belonged to this facility. He wanted to take off the envirosuit, but it seemed that had to wait.
Ron came through the airlock after him. “Bro, you think –”
Henry held up a hand, stopping him short. He raised his weapon, picking up on the ‘something’s not right’ vibe.
Activating his infrared vision and using the laser mounted on his M7, Henry searched for signs of thermal distortions, just like he’d done back at Duke Vancor’s mansion. Ron did the same. As the rest of the team emerged from the airlock, they quickly caught on to the situation. Without a word, they joined them in securing the room.
After clearing the locker room, Henry signaled to move on to the lab next door. It was just as empty as the locker room, but now the sounds were more audible, definitely coming from the hallway just outside. Instructing his team to hold still, he crept toward the doorway to investigate.
He peeked around the corner, and felt his stomach drop. There, in the main hallway, was a group of soldiers. They were decked out in distinctive black armor and cloaks. They had no identifiable markings or insignia on their armor, but it was obvious – these were Nobians.
Henry pulled back, returning to his team. “Contact outside. At least a dozen Nobians securing the hallway.”
Ron’s expression grew serious. “Shit. Any idea on their entry point?”
Henry positioned himself behind a desk, aiming his weapon at the doorway. “Probably the same way we came in.”
“Main corridor’s the only play, huh?” Ryan said.
The main hallway only had one line of sight, and it just happened to be the only way out. Well, the only one they could reasonably access. The facility probably had other exits or fancy teleporters, but they’d already scoured the area for the former and wouldn’t be able to figure out the latter.
“Dozen hostiles doesn’t seem like a lot,” Isaac pointed out, taking out another Black Hornet from his bag. “We’re still good on ammo, too.”
Ron shook his head. “Dozen? Yeah, a dozen that we can see.”
“Owens is right,” Henry agreed. “We can’t confirm their numbers outright. If I had to guess, it would probably be at least fifty. Manageable, but I’d prefer that to be our last resort.”
“How might we fare with a disturbance?” Sera offered.
Kelmithus gripped his staff. “I might conjure an echo of noise distant hence. It shan’t last, but it can afford us enough time for our escape.”
Kelmithus’ plan seemed like it could work, but only if the Nobians didn’t know they were here. “No,” Henry disagreed. “They’ve seen our MRAPs outside. We’d get surrounded.”
“How about negotiation?” Dr. Anderson suggested, a hopeful note in his voice.
“Negotiation? With the Nobians?” Kelmithus questioned.
They all knew what the Nobians were like. It really did come off as a ridiculous idea, but what if Dr. Anderson was right? The archaeologist defended himself, “I know, I know. However, we have yet to confirm their hostility, and it would not serve us well to initiate hostilities with the Nobians.”
Taking in the silence as contemplation, he continued, “If talks break down, we hold our ground here. It’s not ideal, but we’ll control the engagement area and prevent them from flanking us.”
Henry reviewed the situation again. 12 hostiles, but they should expect the worse, so at least 50 hostiles plus failed negotiations. Holding the only way out, they were likely spread out between the hallway, the cave system, and possibly even the forest outside. Dr. Anderson’s plan was solid, but he had a few minor qualms. In particular, holding the line meant possibly exhausting themselves in a battle of attrition.
“Alright. We’ll open with negotiations. I’m skeptical, but it's worth a shot. Should that fail, we can’t engage in a drawn-out conflict. We’ll disrupt their positions and quickly move to the cave outside.”
“Smoke grenades and flashbangs,” Ryan muttered.
“Affirmative,” Henry said, nodding in agreement. “If we can’t see them, we’ll level the playing field so they can’t see us.”
“Captain,” Kelmithus quickly interjected, “Bid me aid your efforts. I’ve insight enough to create fog. I’ve learned from our encounter with the Sentinel Lindwyrm.”
“You can replicate that heavy fog?” Ron asked.
Kelmithus held up his palm, producing an opaque puff of steam to prove his point. “Indeed so, Lieutenant. Adequately do these envirosuits shield us, that I might harness more extreme temperatures for more effective casting.”
Henry was impressed with how quickly the archmage grasped such a concept. “Good. Yen, get that drone into the cave. We’ll hold for updates.”
Yen nodded, carrying out Henry’s order silently. The drone’s feed directly streamed to their HUDs, and after a few minutes, Isaac looked up. “Done.”
Henry analyzed the data. They had visual confirmation of a dozen Nobians inside the facility itself and a staggering forty outside, both in the cave and around the cave entrance. It was an assumption, but there probably weren’t many cloaked soldiers past the hallway. He sighed; the worst-case scenario would have them facing a hundred men in total.
It was a challenge, but the drone’s intel granted them a critical tactical advantage. He analyzed his minimap, selecting and sharing a route with minimal enemy contact. “After clearing the facility’s entrance, we’ll proceed along the designated path. Upon exit, I’ll deploy a flare to signal our movement to the MRAPs for extraction. We will then rendezvous with Zulu-9 and coordinate with air support before re-engaging to secure the site.”
His team nodded, fully on board with the plan. He took a deep breath to steel himself before checking his watch – 16:24. “Alright, time to show ourselves.”
Letting his M7 sling over his chest, Henry prepared two flash grenades – one in each hand – before stepping out. With his team in tow, he moved to the center of the hallway, catching the attention of one of the Nobian patrols.
“Attention, Nobian forces! We request parley. I am Captain Donnager of Alpha Team, Tier 6 Adventurer. We are on an official quest sanctioned by the Adventurer’s Guild. We have no intention of hostilities and seek to discuss our presence and objectives to ensure mutual understanding.”
As Henry’s words echoed through the hallway, the Nobian soldiers snapped into action. He heard the sounds of bowstring being drawn taut and the rasp of metal as swords cleared their scabbards. His hands tightened around the flash grenades.
He kept his gaze steady, projecting a sense of calm; of confidence – enough to convince the Nobians that even outnumbered, he and his team were still no match for them. More soldiers joined the patrol, until all twelve of the previously identified Nobians were upon them. They kept their distance, but Henry could feel the tension boiling.
Just as the standoff seemed to reach a critical point, the air in front of them seemed to fold outward from itself, like watching the effects of gravitational lensing on light. A figure coalesced from the distortion – so this is what invisibility magic looked like.
The man was broad-shouldered and tall, seeing eye-to-eye with him, even despite the extra inches in height the envirosuit gave. As the last wisps of the cloaking magic faded away, Henry found himself staring into a pair of piercing gray eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul.
The newcomer had an angular face and was clad in black armor with a different sheen than the black armor of his comrades. Silver trimmings and an insignia emblazoned on his chestplate – a dagger through a swirl of mist – differentiated his status. A cloak of the same dark hue billowed behind him as he walked forward and drew his sword.
Keeping his sword to the side, he stopped a respectable ten meters away from Henry. “I am Carvus Alnect Virelius, Umber Vicearch of the Order of the Shadow.” He then pointed his sword at Henry, declaring, “Of desecrating sovereign Nobian territory, you stand accused.”
As Carvus spoke, more soldiers materialized alongside him, shimmering into existence as they dropped their cloaking spells. Henry had expected this to happen, but seeing it play out still sent a chill down his spine. How many more were still lying in wait?
The Vicearch kept his weapon on Henry, eyes narrowing. “Commander unto commander, I offer a choice: cede your Holding Bags, that secure passage may be granted unto you. Refuse, and you shall be declared as spies and enemies of the Nobian Empire, your lives forfeit to swift execution.”
READ 2 WEEKS AHEAD: Season Finale Chapter 17 is now available for Tier 2 Manifest Fantasy Patrons and higher!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/drdoritosmd
Discord: https://discord.gg/wr2xexGJaD
Next
submitted by DrDoritosMD to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:03 KamchatkasRevenge Out of Cruel Space Side Story: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 6 Ch 18

The next day finds the military part of the Bridger family waiting in one of the larger cargo bays. Paladin company and Shark Platoon are on hand, all in full power armor except for Makula, with the exception of Jaruna who's standing next to Jerry in a family uniform with her shotgun and sword slung over her back. Jerry had also elected for a dress uniform today, though he'd paired it with a 'ceremonial' curaiss that could still take a hit from a plasma cannon or two... and concealed a small shield generator. Mixed with his cloak and the Crimsonhewer war ax on his belt, Jerry thought he looked every bit the barbarian warlord... if a bit too clean cut for a Hollywood depiction of such.
The situation reminded Jerry of a similar reception back on Serbow... but this one was a bit less ceremonial and a bit more... dynamic. They didn't have any formal bonds with Clan Karchara, or their Khan, Komugai. So as a meeting of two new to each other factions, things could get... exciting. Which considering they were talking about Cannidor meant that things could potentially get very violent, very quickly.
They usually didn't. Not any more. Yet... it never helped to play it safe, even with a clan that had a decent reputation like the Karchara. More cut throat clans had been heard to disguise themselves for meetings like this for meetings so they could ambush their targets after all. Plus as always, there was tradition to observe and satisfy. Tradition which could be best summarized as 'Offer one hand, but arm the other.'. The Cannidor were ready to fight a war naked among any people but their own. They were beyond dangerous. So an armed society wasn't so much a polite society as the unarmed were likely mentally infirm, and to be politely left to their own devices.
A sharp whistle from the 1MC draws Jerry from his thoughts.
"Now hear this! The Clan Karchara envoy is arriving!"
The Karchara drop ship slides into view out of the black and makes it's way towards the docking day with all the leisurely grace of a terrestrial shark swimming towards a coral reef. Whoever's piloting it is clearly a hot hand on the stick because the ship moves as smooth as anything Jerry had ever seen out of Cruel Space, extending it's landing gear and coming to a halt with nary a hint of a bounce in it's suspension and shock absorbing gear.
"Hmmm. The Karchara..." Jaruna rumbles. "An interesting contact in Cannidor space to be sure. So to recap what we talked about, they're somewhat on and off again allies of my old clan. Decent types for the most part. No idea who the Khan is now, and a little searching online didn't turn anything up. Don't think the intelligence weasels had anything either. Save that they've been having some internal structural changes. Seized a new planet too, lighting raid, unconventional tactics, whatever that means. Gives them complete control of... ten decently populated and industrialized star systems I think. They're firmly in the middle of the power band for the Khans by that measurement, exact position depends on the number of warriors under arms they can bring to the Golden Khan's muster."
"Right. Well. Guess we'll have to see what Khan Karchara wants to chat about, and hear about this plan of hers."
The Karchara drop ship settles onto it's landing gear, and it's flight crew leaves the engines running. Tradition. You never knew if a reception was actually friendly after all, and it was also a mark of respect for the hosts. You might be asked to fuck off after all.
The forward assault ramp drops, and the honor guard warriors of the Khan march out, in power armor, but with their helmets off, fanning out to cover their leader. The lack of helmets was very much a declaration of intent, the human equivalent of open palms for a Cannidor in power armor.
Jaruna's brow instantly furrows as she scans the faces of the honor guard.
"...Wait. I know some of those girls. One of my aunts, Norkath is there on the left, and that's... but that."
Jerry can hear Jaruna's brain crunching that information.
"...Komugai. You said the Khan's name was Komugai? Not Jelvuna?"
"Definently Komugai."
"...Unless she changed her name... but then would Aunt Norkath join the Karchara proper without her...?"
Jaruna mutters to herself, clearly trying to puzzle whatever's eating at her out, when the sound of heavy boots on the assault ramp sound, and an utterly massive Cannidor woman starts to come into view. She cuts an imposing presence. Her uniform not too far off from Jerry's, a mix of barbarian warlord and modern dress uniform. The massive war ax over her shoulder tipping the scales on the barbarian - modern officer scale towards barbarian. It was easy to miss her other various weapons in the sheer scale of her. Her stark white fur, the three brutal scars across her muzzle, and another two over her left eye, which had a cybernetic replacement.
Khan Karchara stands for a moment, surveying the room silently... and before anyone can say anything, Jaruna breaks the silence;
"...Mom?"
Khan Karchara cuts loose with a booming laugh that reminds Jerry of Khan Isuras, and if this is indeed Jaruna's mother, he can immediately see exactly why the two women cut palms and swore sisterhood. He wouldn't be hard pressed to believe they were actual sisters.
"Heh. Glad to see all that time on Centris hasn't dulled your powers of observation! Always said you were a sharp one."
There's no sarcasm there, a little maternal teasing perhaps, but she's not mocking Jaruna. Anyone with eyes can tell Khan Karchara is damn proud of her child.
"And this'd be my son in law... bit small but hell just from your first date with my little girl I know you're a first class head kicker, plus you already gave me four grandbabies to spoil! Hahah. I suppose these bigguns here are the older girls? I... say. I thought there was three of you."
Karchara points at Makula.
"You're a bit old to be Hippolyta considering she was born a couple weeks ago. Who are you, girl?"
"Makula Sa'Bridger, I was adopted a few days ago. Honored Matron."
Karchara grins, her numerous teeth gleaming in the light of the hangar.
"Matron? Not Khan?"
"You are my mother's mother, standing in my family's clan hold. To refer to your title by right of blood is most appropriate."
Another bark of laughter.
"Well drilled and whip smart I see. You know the ways of our kind well, granddaughter." Karchara smirks, looking smug before turning to her honor guard.
"See girls? Five now! Haha! What a stud of a bull!"
Khan Karchara turns back to Jerry and Jaruna.
"Ah but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get the formal bit done so we can go jaw a bit and then hopefully I can visit with my eldest daughter, my son in law and these fine young ladies."
She quickly shifts her body a bit, drawing herself up to her full, imposing twelve foot height.
"I am Komugai, Khan of Karchara. I come to broker peace and fellowship between our clans, to join them in a bond of steel that will stand the sword storm for all time."
Jerry nods slowly. More than they'd expected actually. That was laying out intent to conduct some very, very serious negotiations.
"I, Jeremiah, Khan of Bridger, Admiral of this fleet, lord of these proud warriors before you, bid you welcome, Komugai of Karchara, bring your banner among ours, that they might rest together while we discuss the business of peace, and of wars yet to come."
"Well spoken indeed... and the steel in your eyes." Komugai nods slowly. "Yes, I see what you see in him, Jaruna, well past his considerable combat skills. All the better my dear son-in-law that you have already begun working on my grand design... but come, let us dismiss our warriors that they might go and eat, drink and enjoy themselves. We need only you, Jaruna, and perhaps my granddaughters for this business, so that they might learn the ways of leadership."
"I think we can accommodate that." Jerry says before turning and pulling the ax off of his belt and raising it high, an ancient Cannidor signal for attention from the leader of a warband to their warriors.
"Warriors, we walk with friends, show them to the promenade, that they might share our table while we discuss business."
Jerry and Jaruna guide Komugai to the conference room they'd prepared, while Joan and the girls quickly hustle to get their armor stowed and get their tails to the same spot. None of them wanted to miss a minute of this!
Still, the tension in the room's fairly heavy when the door closes, and Jaruna turns on her mother.
"Alright. We got a couple minutes till the girls get up here. What the hell, mom? You changed your name? Took over the Karchara? What the heck is going on?"
Komugai settles herself in a Cannidor scale chair, grinning all the while.
"You should be happier, daughter. This was inspired by you after all. When you left our band. Left the old clan... I knew you were right. We won't speak of that business, but we were obligated... and I should have been brave enough to refuse, but I lacked the standing... and perhaps the courage. So I did what any good Khan worth her blades would do and crammed it down their throats. Broke that clan, took them in, then subsumed the Karchara with my new band. They've got the older name, so I became Khan Karchara instead of remaining Khan Jormuntide. Your Aunt's got the title now. I'd offer it to you, but you've got your own clan now."
"So Jormuntide remains at least." Jaruna shuts her eyes for a second and lets out a slow breath. "You really did all this because of my idealistic and childish temper tantrum nearly a century ago?"
"Hardly childish. Idealistic? Absolutely. There's something to be said for actually trying to live up to our own ideals though. Especially as warriors. However, that is personal business, and we have business to discuss for the Undaunted first."
Komugai turns to face Jerry square on.
"Admiral Bridger, I'm prepared to offer two things to the Undaunted. One. I want to ally myself and my clan formally with the Undaunted. Second, I prepared to gift an entire star system to the same from my holdings. It is populated, but sparsely across three habitable worlds. Ripe for ongoing colonization and industrialization. To keep things fair, people within my clans will be given a chance to move to or from as they please if for some reason they don't wish for Undaunted citizenship. The Undaunted will then have the standing to select a Khan for your Cannidor population, both in Cannidor space, and Undaunted wide. A non voting position at first, but as the clan grows you will achieve that status quickly I believe."
Jerry stops dead. "...Did you just offer us a star system with three habitable worlds?"
"Yes."
"...Okay, I'm on board, but why?"
"Simply put, the worlds are marginal. They need investment. They need settlers. You need worlds. A strong alliance with humanity... and being the first Cannidor clan to extend that hand formally, even having your realm within my space... only benefits me. As I grow my own territory I might even cede another system to the Undaunted. If the Undaunted Khan helps me in those battles I damn sure will." Komugai chuckles. "We'll see how many Khans are stupid enough to try to fight me in the next few decades of course. The other thing I'm trading on is Undaunted naval power. As you just learned, we don't really do navies. I want a professional navy, the Undaunted have agreed to help me get it... and help secure my space once we secure them my end of the bargain, that, Admiral, is where you come in."
Jerry arches an eyebrow and gestures for Komugai to continue.
"Simply put, you need to do what you just did with that border bandit Khan Irgalas, but across Cannidor space. This isn't a done deal. It's up to the Grand Council and I'm but one vote. You already have an in with some of the other Khans, and the Undaunted are doing business with Cannid Solutions. That's an excellent start, and you just made a stellar formal introduction of yourself to Cannidor space. A flawless orbital and ground fight like that'll make sure word gets around that the Undaunted are here... and as dangerous as their rep says they are. I got a little list of the other movers and shakers you need to press the flesh with to win over key parts of the council. You make the rounds, and I'll be doing the same on my end. We meet on Canis Prime for the council meeting, and then we either have a huge brawl to make our point or toast victory with some top quality booze."
"You make it sound pretty simple." Jerry says, clearly not believing there's all there is to it.
Komugai shrugs. "It is simple in its concept. Pressing the flesh and winning the various Khans over won't be. They'll all have their little tests and challenges for you to get the measure of both humans and the Undaunted. We've seen a lot on the trivid as a species. A lot of us have heard stuff in the news or from kin. This is your chance to just straight up show people who you are and what you're about. Because now you're here, and therefore 'real'. If that makes any sense. Cannidor don't really care much about shit happening on the other half of the galactic disk. Undaunted, Humans, being here? Now? Now people will really start paying attention besides idly seeing if there's some interesting amateur porn or more combat footage available."
The Khan points over at Joan, Boudicca, Khutulun and Makula. "These four will likely be very critical to the warrior house's opinion of you... your next generation of warriors, your daughters. How are they treated? How are they trained? What's their mettle like? If they're strong, and worthy, you will impress the khans in a very good way. If my granddaughters are found wanting, they'd question a great many things... and could cause trouble when the Grand Council meets to discuss my little proposal, among other orders of business."
Jerry looks over at Joan and the girls, all four of them are suddenly looking very tense, especially Makula. "I have every confidence in all of my daughters to deal with anything the Khans can throw at them. Even Hippolyta if a trial suited for an infant is on hand."
That gets a chuckle from the girls, relaxing them a hair.
"Still. We'll burn that bridge when we get there. No sense borrowing trouble that hasn't come yet."
Komugai nods. "Wise words. Your diplomats have already approved this plan on their end, they'll send you the itinerary and all the fussy details shortly. Unless you have other questions for me?"
"I've heard there's a grand council of patriarchs too. Would getting in good with them help?"
That gets a full on shrug from the massive warrior woman. "Yes? I mean. Probably. No good way to arrange that though beyond asking my hubby, and I have. He said their council will handle things if it's deemed appropriate, and I don't need to fuss about it too much, and I know a polite way to be asked to fuck off when I hear one... so keep your head on a swivel on that one Jerry, I'm sure the patriarchs are well aware of the Undaunted... and are looking at a possible way to make warriors out of their sons without making their wives piss their frilly panties."
The khan's brilliant white teeth glitter in the room. "Back when we were the more traditional kind of savages back on our homeworld, the bulls did a lot of the leading and the fighting on an individual basis. Women however have always fought the wars. As we grew as a species, developed power armor, space travel, had our population bloom, a bull fighting another in single combat became less practical, and the other traditional male roles of shaman, guide, and brain trust came to the forefront. The council of patriarchs is an old body Jerry. Pre space flight. One of our first forms of international diplomacy between the khans. The matriarchs hold all the power... but when the council of patriarchs speaks, people know to shut up and pay attention."
Jerry nods slowly. Seemed like he'd just have to wait and see... and make sure he made a good impression when the opportunity presented itself.
"Well. I think that concludes everything we need to talk about professionally. Unless you have something else Khan Karchara?"
"Aww, just call me Mama like my big fuzz ball over here used to when we're not working! I've heard a bit about this little fortress of yours, could you all give me the tour? I'd like a chance to talk to all my new granddaughters after all."
Jerry shrugs. "Sure, we'll head up to the Den for a bit, then head down to the promenade to join the girls for some drinks and skewers. Our Cannidor eatery's got the best skewers in wild space whenever we're there."
"Don't I believe it, get to try some more Earth meats too! Bought a little sampler pack from a friend and good goddess, if you start exporting that bacon stuff in bulk, I'm going to invest in a chain of gyms, because there's going to be a lot of girls fighting to keep their girlish figures!"
First Last (SFW) Last (NSFW)
submitted by KamchatkasRevenge to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:03 yelpvinegar How to Create a Great Website Hero Section

10 practical tips for designing a motivating Hero Image that always works

The Hero Image is the first thing people see when they open your page. It’s your unique chance to win them over — or lose them forever.
It takes mere seconds for the user to process the first screen. But behind the scenes, there’s a lot of painstaking work by marketers, designers, and developers. How can you quickly find the right solution and pick the perfect image?
I have compiled the best practices for creating an effective Hero Image to share with you. Let us learn from the best.

1. Don’t lose sight of Hero Section goals

The goal of a Hero Section is to make the user want to learn more and perform the next action. It serves as an introduction and invites further communicat

2. Don’t lose sight of user goals

In an attempt to surprise and keep the viewer on the first screen, some designers unwittingly replace the user’s goal with their own: to make an awesome design. But the user’s goal is not design.
The user’s goal is to get something he or she needs: a thing, a service, or particular information. The design should facilitate this task rather than hamper it.
Smart design doesn’t draw attention to itself, or distract users from their goals, or make them gape in amazement, forgetting why they came. This is especially true for the hero section.
Here’s a typical case. The key points presented to the user are:
The message is obvious: our company is great and the user should hurry up and press that button. Alas, that’s not how it works.
User goals have nothing to do with the goals of website owners, marketers, or designers.
Any info that has no immediate value for the user must be held back. Messages like “We Are the Best,” “Celebrating Ten Years of Success,” “Why People Trust Us,” etc. belong at the bottom of the visual hierarchy.
Hero Section visuals must prioritize user goals.
Show the users what they want to see, and make it look really good. That’s your number one priority. All the rest — reliability, trust, guarantees — only serves to cement the user’s conviction that they’ve come to the right place.ion.
At first glance, what users want to see are benefits and problem solutions, not how great the company is or how cool the design looks. :) That stuff stays in the background!
A Hero Image is a visual stimulus. It promises benefits, improvements, and positive changes.
The user will be willing to take a step forward if:

3. Remember: no clutter

The home screen must be crystal clear and easily navigable for the user. This is where you showcase the very essence of your offer. Do your utmost to maximize readability. This includes:
Keep it simple and concise!

4. Turn the user’s goal into a visual magnet

The designer’s task is to visualize the user’s goal, making it look attractive, lively, and catchy. Do a comprehensive study and analysis of your users, product, and competitor sites. This will help you find inspiring images and motivating messages for your audience.
Customers often arrive at the page with a specific image of their goal in mind. It’s important to take this into account and meet their expectations. Predictability is what people expect from you. This applies to both visuals and user experience.
Follow the “one idea, one image” rule. Let your heading resonate with, reinforce, and enhance the image. The image and text must stimulate the user’s desire and willingness to take a step toward gratification.

5. Look for specific triggers

As you work on a Hero Image from concept to final design, remember: you are creating a motivational trigger. Feel free to use any and all marketing, design, and psychology tricks to influence user perception.
Every audience has its own motivation. Get to know your users and find the best way to engage them, both emotionally and rationally. (An emotional reaction is followed by a rational assessment of the information.)
User emotions need to be designed and incorporated into the project at the concept stage.
Specific triggers, such as images and/or text, are especially good for engaging emotions.
To find the best trigger, ask yourself:
Finding an emotional trigger often requires a good brainstorming session. Make a list of emotions and their possible visualizations, such as engaging images, illustrations, or videos. Test the best ideas.
This is the key to your future conversions and audience love.
The emotions don’t necessarily have to be positive. Apple once successfully exploited fear by designing a blood-red AIDS awareness website with an invitation to become a blood donor. It looked impressive. I don’t know about donations, but a lot of people bought red iPhones. :)

6. Show explicit or implicit benefits

An effective trigger is always associated with user benefits. The trigger pushes users to perform actions that will let them reap these benefits.
Popular Hero Images are focused on:
Any type of the Hero Image must convey benefits.
Explicit benefits: highlighting the apparent advantages of using the product or service.
Implicit benefits: visually and psychologically highlighting the user’s improved status, importance, success, skills, and opportunities.
User analysis will help you decide what should be made explicit or kept implicit on a case-by-case basis. Showcasing an implicit benefit is always a win-win. A website that sells nails, for example, will fare much better if its hero section features an image of a thrifty, smart, and neat worker than if it simply has a photo of a house or a bunch of nails. Customers will enjoy feeling like handy homeowners.

7. Manage the user’s attention

Be clear about where you want the viewer’s eyes to go. What will they see first? What next? Where should their gaze linger? Everything depends on the goals of your website and product. The hierarchy of highlights needs to be planned in advance and then tested to make sure it looks like you need it to.
The user’s gaze is controlled by dominance and focal points. Dominant elements are the largest and most attractive ones. Focal points are icons, buttons, and other elements that the user sees after the dominant element. They are responsible for the user’s interest zones and hold his or her attention. They’re typically located at the edges of the screen.
Lifehack #1: Blur your design layout and show it to an average person (not a designer). What’s the first thing they see? What merits more or less attention? It’s a good way to rectify failed ideas before it’s too late.
Lifehack #2: Use eye-tracking software. Even a simple freeware app will help you check if the highlights are in the right places.
If you find that the user’s gaze doesn’t linger long enough on any given element, get to work. Perhaps it’s worth highlighting this element further by making it larger or brighter, adding animation, increasing the font size, and so on. (Test everything!)
Note: Place the main highlight on the emotional trigger, not the CTA button.
All visual composition tricks and instruments must be hierarchically ordered. Shape, color, shade, contrast, size, balance, movement, typography — everything must follow the principle of priority.
Note: Remove distractions. Everything that’s not a first impression priority must have reduced visibility, hidden, or moved elsewhere.

8. Use relevant images

Images are relevant when they match the website’s purpose, idea, and content. Any mismatch between the idea and its visual representation leads to misunderstanding and mistrust. It’s not just out-of-context imagery. A website dedicated to innovation using outdated designs is also an example of irrelevance. Unnecessary wow effects that distract from the message are likewise irrelevant.
The Hero Image must visually convey the essence of the content.

9. Use a short, powerful tagline

Use a short, powerful tagline to engage the user. Coming up with it isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s a creative process. Again, I recommend brainstorming. You have limited character space, yet you need to succinctly convey your values, explain some benefit or problem solution, or ask a related question that will pique the user’s interest. Brainstorming is a great way to find an original idea.

10. Be subtle with your СТА

You may have a great hero image with a good conversion potential, but it will be worthless without a CTA. However, CTA should be approached with caution.
Never use CTA to exert pressure.
Design your CTA to be friendly and non-aggressive rather than demanding. Do not pressure the user into learning everything at once, making purchases, or subscribing. CTA is a logical step on the user’s path toward their goal. If you failed to pique their interest with your tagline and visualization, no CTA button or text will work.
CTA is an organic continuation of your design and business idea. Your visitors are welcome. That’s the point of a CTA button or message: it invites the user to join the action.
Focus your UI and UX on making the user’s goal attractive.
Only then will your CTA be effective. A button motivates no one. People are motivated by ideas and images of the future.
Thanks for reading. Don't forget to follow analyzeoptimize for more such insightful content to grow your online busines.
submitted by yelpvinegar to analyzeoptimize [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 18:00 stel1234 [Meta] Weekly Feedback Friday Thread

If you'd like to test a pairing, get feedback on a demo or finished track, or get advice on keys, tempo, and/or structure, you've come to the right place. Welcome to the weekly Feedback Friday thread!

What is good feedback?

Good feedback mentions the positive aspects and areas to improve (if any). Here are some examples as a guide (don't copy them word-for-word):
While I won't require it this week, please try to give feedback at least as much you ask for it.
Note: Depending on the demand, this may become weekly. Stay tuned.
submitted by stel1234 to mashups [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:58 ArmChairAnalyst86 Space Weather Update - 5/15/2024 - Short to Medium Range Forecast & Observations - Article Teaser

Space Weather Update - 5/15/2024 - Short to Medium Range Forecast & Observations - Article Teaser
Good morning everyone, AcA here and I have a brief (haha) update for you this morning. I felt it was pressing to give everyone an idea of what I am seeing and feeling headed into the next epoch of space weather. What a ride AR3663/3664 were? Long before most of you showed up for the biggest storm in decades, AR3663 was trying to get there, only to be usurped by AR3664 stealing the show. Well AR3664 has now departed, and the sunspot situation is complex, but not as intense as before it left. There are certainly more spots and active regions, but we are missing one with significant complexity and size like AR3664. As a result, we can probably expect a quieter stretch of space...
Something wild just happened. Something that has happened numerous times since I have started this. Call it stupid, tell me I am ate up, call it woo woo, I don't care. I don't call it anything, I juste note its occurence. As I am writing this brief little snippet, X-Ray spikes, and topped out at X2.99. For the last 10 days, when I have seen magnitudes like that, I automatically go to AR3664, or went to I should say, but AR3664 is gone...so what AR is responsible? I can barely see the leading edge of the plage, but it must be respectable.
That is the beauty. Nobody knows. It is not visible and as a result has not received a numeral yet and we have zero real idea of what it looks like. However, we can extract 3 key details from this information.
    • The sun is still very active - X flaring continued overnight with an X3.3 overnight and this most recent X2.99~ from a new contender.
    • Something imposing is hiding behind the limb, and will be rotating into view, and appears that it will be X capable off jump street.
    • The flare topped out at X2.99, but based on the signature, I would not be surprised if the actual flare magnitude is north of that. THis often happens when flares occur so far on the limb they are occulted by the sun. It affects our probes ability to measure it.
    • The radio emission from this flare was over 1000 km/s. Wowzers
https://preview.redd.it/mg1mt1ugvl0d1.png?width=818&format=png&auto=webp&s=ebf33ff307f1bc8dde5b507717bd2a1b221077ee
Buckle up folks. Now hopefully you have got the drift. There is no certainty here. I think many people are forgetting one key fact about this game. Its comprised of two words. Space & Weather. Space suggests its distant, massive, and on scales far bigger than a human. Weather suggests its an interconnected and dynamic system of more variables than we can track or understand. Our brightest minds, best models, and best computers, cannot tell you with any high degree of certainty whether it will storm 5-7 days from now, maybe not even rain. If that is the bar for terrestrial weather, than what is it for space weather? I give you my take. I give you my analysis. I hope I am right, and alot of you are here because I have had a pretty good track record so far. Do not think for one second that I don't know that track record could fall apart tomorrow. I need you to understand that.
Internally though? That is a different story. My confidence is rising. My perception broadening and my understanding increasing. The beauty of space weather currently, is at some point you have to make a gut call. You read the same data as everyone else, and you make your prediction. The finer brush strokes don't always come out perfect, but the big picture is definitely coherent at this point.
OFFICIAL FORECAST - SUN
https://preview.redd.it/9bja58vvvl0d1.png?width=414&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bc0bf36701972c3c52f5e74e004db2bc937e34b
I expect a brief lull in activity affecting earth. Flaring may remain slightly elevated but we cannot escape the fact that AR3664 is out of the mix. The other groups are growing, but they are not growing exceptionally fast. That could change and we will keep close eyes on active regions. Here is a link to all SDO imagery with a few pointers
AIA 131 Teal - best for capturing the flash of flares.
AIA 171 Gold - best for capturing magnetic connections, overall activity, post arcade loops
AIA 211 Purple - best for capturing eruptivity during flares and dimming
AIA 193 Bronze - good for coronal holes esp, but a blend of 171 and 211 showing activity and a glimpse of eruptivity
AIA 304 Red - best for plasma filaments and prominences and eruptivity
The others are great too and have various specialities but the primary ones are above.
If existing active regions do intensify, the forecast will change. We cannot assume they will, although I think they will. The sun is active overall and is able to generate big flares from any location or sunspot group. Even though the existing are not huge gashes like AR3664, AR3664 had humble beginnings too. Even though the spots on the disk are compact, they are fairly intense. I believe the official forecast reflects this. Even with AR3664 off the disk and no longer listed, the M-Class chances are 75% (too low) and the X-Class chances are 40% (I agree). They are seeing the same thing.
OFFICIAL FORECAST -EARTH
WSA-ENLIL shows an atypical setup. There are some small CMEs in the pipe and we are passing through a solar wind enhancement. Not sure where it came from but the parker spiral action is carrying it to and through us. Nothing big out there right now though. CME production remains elevated, including several potential full and partial halo, but currently nothing substantial aimed directly at us. DONKI shows a minor impact in the coming days with max Kp3.
Our star has made its most prolific run yet over the past few weeks. Both generating massive geomagnetic storms on earth and massive flares. Yes, SC23 was more intense in every facet, but SC25 is not over. It has already far exceeded SC24 though and its not close. Get this little fact.
In SC24 there were approximately 48 X-Class flares in the entire cycle which spanned from 2008-2019. In the past 2 weeks have seen more than 25% of that total. In 2 weeks, we got 25% of the way to the entire total of the previous 11 year cycle. And that does not even count the years and months prior of SC25, just the last 2 weeks. I think Mr McIntosh can take a victory lap. He went against the grain, called this a big cycle in direct opposition to NOAA on the basis of his own theory. Bravo! Its not done. We are in solar maximum and that is clear, but what is not clear is just how max this max will be? Nobody can predict the future or what will happen tomorrow on the sun, but I can say that there has NEVER been a better time in all of our recorded civilization to get acquainted with and understand space weather. Not only because of the activity level, the tools available to everyone for free, but because we must be on watch. We are the watchers. If you are here, you know what is up. The rest of the world does not. They do not understand space weather and the think its impossible to do so. Too complicated. Well that is where you come in. Learn it. Understand it. Teach it. Its going to matter in the coming decades, and I would bet everything I own on that. Does that mean CE 2.0? Hell no. Don't immediate jump to extremes, but here is the simple facts. We hit extreme storm levels last weekend from not so extreme storms. It did not harm anything. No widespread damage, just some localized stuff. A transformer blew up in a city about 50 miles from me overnight. Don't see that often. Could it be coincidence it occurred as our earth is trying to process all of the excess energy and current coursing through it? Sure it could be, but I am paying attention. Seismic activity is sharply rising the past few days, with significant attention paid to the south pacific and the caribbean currently. Weather and cloud anomalies all over the place and in strange places. The link to cloud anomalies shows iridiscent clouds usually spotted in polar regions only, yet these are in Vietnam. Many other places too. Are you paying attention?
Coming Article Teaser and Open Letter
I am going to touch on my article that is in the works just a little bit. A teaser if you will because I think it needs to be discussed right now, but when I release it, you will need no less than an hour to read it. It will be comprehensive and supported. I am shooting from the hip here, but I do so from an informed standpoint, the same standpoint I want you to arrive at.
What does ALL of this mean? Should I be scared? Can I jump to conclusions about this? Stop it. One day at at time. We are not scientists here. Most of us have no degrees or letters behind our names. We come armed with logic and the powers of perception, ready to learn. We are in the observation stage. We are looking for signals, correlations, coincidences, anomalies, patterns, etc. We must all determine for ourselves the truth of the matter, with our own eyes, and it starts right here at solarmax.
Now let me get something straight. I am very excited about aurora chances and the study of this field. I have no reason to believe we are in imminent danger. I have no reason to believe that we are in imminent danger tomorrow, or any other time. I recognize that like many forces of nature and the cosmos, that the sun does have the ability to make life pretty hard here, as well as makes all life possible. I give it the respect it deserves, but I do not give it fear or panic. I give it logic and rationality. Logic and rationality tells me that something is up with our planet, and I am not sure its so easily explained by the current narrative. I see man made climate change used far and wide to excuse every development from earthquakes, length of day glitches, changing earths rotation, etc and who am I to argue? I have no degrees as I said. I am just a self taught dude who likes space.
But I would offer them a challenge. Find a way to attribute last weekends massive geomagnetic storm from some relatively low magnitude CMEs to climate change. Go ahead, I will wait. No one would argue that the CMEs from 2003 were stronger, yet the effects were nearly identical and anecdotally more intense. How did our Co2 do that? They will attribute it to starlink satellites or something else man made. ESA swarm mission will tell you that its only decreased 9% on average whatever the hell that means. How can that be, if its been weakening at absolutely positively no less than 5% per century on average with modern estimates much closer to 5% per DECADE. The average rate of loss is no longer reported and is a mystery and possibly a closely guarded secret. As a result, I have no numbers or figures I can give you that I can prove. I will offer you a challenge too though.
Look around. Do you see a pattern? Do you see an acceleration of "things"? Everyone does. Cant deny it. Climate change is a good candidate for it, but we must factor last weekends geomagnetic storm in as anecdotal evidence that something could be changing, quickly. Its not proof. We could not go to a court of law and establish it as fact without refute. Some could say the CMEs combined in an unusual way and it somehow drastically magnified the overall energy content into a single wave. Maybe that is true. I cant refute it with data.
But....we can watch for the next one. We will get another big storm? I dont know. But we will be watching. If we see another storm like last weekend from low end X-Class flares, that could change. Our argument could strengthen, but we must approach it scientifically and logically, even if we are not scientists. Immanuel Velikovsky said that the test of a theory should be the explanation that requires the least in the way of modification, qualifier, and assumption to arrive at a conclusion. Pardon my french, but fuck what the mainstream is telling you. I am not saying they are lying, but am I saying trust your eyes, your instincts. This is IN you. It is in us all.
Thank you for making SolarMax a top 12% space and astronomy subreddit. I am a modest and humble man, but we are doing good work here. I am moved and touched by all of the posts, comments, questions, articles, and observations. Someone made an excellent observation overnight about the possible sympathetic nature of the flaring yesterday on direct opposite sides of the sun that I had made myself, but not brought to your attention. I thought maybe the timelapse just made it look sympathetic, but evidently others noticed too. That is what this is all about. Again, I am an armchair analyst. I make no bones about that. I have no qualifications that I could point to that says I know what I am talking about. When I say self taught, I do not just mean this subject. I am self taught in life. I barely graduated high school. I was essentially guaranteed graduation because my high school could not wait to get rid of me. If you are looking for good grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc you will not find it here and ultimately qualified or not, the results and predictions will pan out and prove it or they wont. Either way I will not lie to myself about it. I have been preparing for this for months and I did not know why I was preparing, or why I felt making this sub was so important when so many resources already exist. I am going to ride that wave, but I expect you all to keep me accountable.
I am sorry this was longer than expected. I hope you can get the message and be an adult about it. I am not saying we are in trouble, but I am saying we need to be paying attention. If you want to freak out about it, I cant stop you. Arm yourself with knowledge, and you yourself will know, when or if it is time to freak out. Arm yourself with knowledge and you will not be swayed by twitter idiots and AI written articles which sensatonalize the topic and only give the worst case CE scenario because it sells. I realize now that its not practical to guide you through each event, that we will grow past that point, and as a result, you must teach yourself with the tools here and elsewhere. Not even just for yourself, but for the rest of the world who do not understand space weather and they need someone to trust. Why not you?
With love and respect,
AcA
submitted by ArmChairAnalyst86 to SolarMax [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:51 TorontoNotesAnki Toronto Notes - (MS4/R1) Internal Medicine Deck - 15K cards

Hello everyone,
I'm excited to share my Toronto Notes deck (only the medicine booklet for now). There isn't really a great Canadian resource out there and so I made one. Links in the comments because they keep getting flagged.
This deck covers the entire Toronto Notes Medicine booklet (IM+Neurology) in the style of Anking with screenshots. There is a demo at the end of the video. It is 15,000+ cards currently and so you will definitely need to be selective about your approach to using it (hence the video) because it took me 6 months to finish making it and mature the whole thing. I am working on SOME primary book areas (EM, FM, Anesthesia, Pali, Psych) and may or may not finish 1-2 surgical decks promised in the video if it rains a lot in the next 1 month, I can't cycle outdoors, or I get bored.
I found this deck invaluable for my MS4 experience, letter hunt, and enjoying Medicine Team Jeopardy, and wanted to share it more broadly than just locally. Feedback on it was very positive and it's quite useful for the subspecialties included and there's a lot of stuff in here that came up in junior (even senior sometimes) resident teaching. As discussed in the video, overkill for the MCCQE as it doesn't test the Medicine book to this level of detail.
Also if anyone wants to finish some areas that are missing (someone please do Peds and OBGYN) feel free to reach out. This reddit account is solely for Anki and so I won't be monitoring it that closely. There is a youtube video I made that also keeps getting flagged, just search "Toronto Notes Anki" that provides more detail on the deck and design philosophy.
In the posted video I go over the deck itself in terms of rationale, pros/cons, approach to card making, how to use it, etc... It's not an intro to Anki talk but a video to really understand the deck and hopefully make it easier for someone to finish similar decks for the missing content areas. You do not need to watch the video if you don't want to, you can also skip to the relevant sections. Also looking around pretty sure there are some decent clinical MS4 level decks but nothing for IM I see so that's probably not accurate when I said that, oh well.
I would recommend watching:"What areas are covered""What is the design philosophy""Advantages and disadvantages""Who should use this deck"
Hopefully this is useful and if/when I get around to adding the other areas that would make it relevant to a broader audience I'll post an update.
submitted by TorontoNotesAnki to medicalschoolanki [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:35 avatarkhaine Sec+ Passed and Now What

The Good News: I passed my Sec+ 701 test last week!
The Bad News: The referrals I was promised never even got me an interview.
While I have a strong non-technical background in cyber, having worked in a non-technical role in cybersecurity company, I was a little disappointed to not even get to have the conversation with the hiring manager I got referred to. (Not my own company, I’ll say, just friends who worked at different companies). Initially, I was like so many others who thought Sec+ could open up a few doors for them and while that may be the case for some, it doesn’t seem to be the rule (hopefully a miracle happens and the market changes and that will no longer be the case!).
So now, I’m thinking, what next. I have a communications degree from a 2 years ago, a couple years of experience in the cybersecurity community, and a good working (non-technical) knowledge of the current threat landscape and cyber tools. Currently unemployed for 8 months bc layoffs. I’m using HackTheBox to get some hands on pen testing experience and their academy is a wealth of knowledge. Spending at least 6-8 hours a day studying on there or for the next test.
Mainly, I’m thinking to get my A+ next and start applying for help desk jobs after that. If I can land a help desk job (by the grace of the cyber gods), I’ll take it for the experience while also studying for my Net+/CCNA, all while still applying to junior cybersecurity jobs. From there, hoping I’ll have enough hands on experience from HackTheBox and certs to show that I can actually do this job to hiring managers.
Looking for any thoughts or feedback, as im just like the next guy looking for a job! Appreciate any positive constructive thoughts on cert paths, tools to learn, and any advice that could help!
submitted by avatarkhaine to CompTIA [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:32 OkEntertainment1677 CS50 Help - Week 9 - Finance

I have been at this project for days now. I had removed it three times and restarted from scratch. I tested flask after modifying each area. I was doing well until the "index" code. Once I did that, my webpage no longer will open. I've checked with ChatGPT and it's saying my code looks fine. Please help! I'll attach what I've done so far in app.py and my index.html.
import os from cs50 import SQL from flask import Flask, flash, redirect, render_template, request, session from flask_session import Session from werkzeug.security import check_password_hash, generate_password_hash from helpers import apology, login_required, lookup, usd # Configure application app = Flask(__name__) # Custom filter app.jinja_env.filters["usd"] = usd # Configure session to use filesystem (instead of signed cookies) app.config["SESSION_PERMANENT"] = False app.config["SESSION_TYPE"] = "filesystem" Session(app) # Configure CS50 Library to use SQLite database db = SQL("sqlite:///finance.db") @app.after_request def after_request(response): """Ensure responses aren't cached""" response.headers["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" response.headers["Expires"] = 0 response.headers["Pragma"] = "no-cache" return response @app.route("/") @login_required def index(): """Show portfolio of stocks""" # Get user's stocks and shares stocks = db.execute("SELECT symbol, SUM(shares) as total_shares FROM transactions WHERE user_id = :user_id GROUP BY symbol HAVING total_shares > 0", user_id=session["user_id"]) # Get user's cash balance cash = db.execute("SELECT cash FROM users WHERE id = :user_id", user_id=session["user_id"])[0]["cash"] #Initialize variables for total values total_value = cash grand_total = cash # Iterate over stocks and add price and total values for stock in stocks: quote = lookup(stock["symbol"]) stock["name"] = quote["name"] stock["price"] = quote["price"] stock["value"] = stock["price"] * stock["total_shares"] total_value += stock["value"] grand_total += stock["value"] return render_template("index.html", stocks=stocks, cash=cash, total_value=total_value, grand_total=grand_total) @app.route("/buy", methods=["GET", "POST"]) @login_required def buy(): """Buy shares of stock""" if request.method == "POST": symbol = request.form.get("symbol").upper() shares = request.form.get("shares") # Check if symbol is provided if not symbol: return apology("must provide symbol") # Check if shares is provided and is a positive integer elif not shares or not shares.isdigit() or int(shares) <= 0: return apology("must provide a positive integer number of shares") # Lookup the symbol to get the current price quote = lookup(symbol) if quote is None: return apology("symbol not found") price = quote["price"] total_cost = int(shares) * price cash = db.execute("SELECT cash FROM users WHERE id = :user_id", user_id=session["user_id"])[0]["cash"] if cash < total_cost: return apology("not enough cash") # Update user's cash balance db.execute("UPDATE users SET cash = cash - :total_cost WHERE id = :user_id", total_cost=total_cost, user_id=session["user_id"]) # Add the purchase to the transactions table db.execute("INSERT INTO transactions (user_id, symbol, shares, price) VALUES (:user_id, :symbol, :shares, :price)", user_id=session["user_id"], symbol=symbol, shares=shares, price=price) flash(f"Bought {shares} shares of {symbol} for {usd(total_cost)}!") # Pass total_cost to the template return render_template("buy.html", total_cost=total_cost) else: return render_template("buy.html") @app.route("/history") @login_required def history(): """Show history of transactions""" return apology("TODO") @app.route("/login", methods=["GET", "POST"]) def login(): """Log user in""" # Forget any user_id session.clear() # User reached route via POST (as by submitting a form via POST) if request.method == "POST": # Ensure username was submitted if not request.form.get("username"): return apology("must provide username", 403) # Ensure password was submitted elif not request.form.get("password"): return apology("must provide password", 403) # Query database for username rows = db.execute( "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?", request.form.get("username") ) # Ensure username exists and password is correct if len(rows) != 1 or not check_password_hash( rows[0]["hash"], request.form.get("password") ): return apology("invalid username and/or password", 403) # Remember which user has logged in session["user_id"] = rows[0]["id"] # Redirect user to home page return redirect("/") # User reached route via GET (as by clicking a link or via redirect) else: return render_template("login.html") @app.route("/logout") def logout(): """Log user out""" # Forget any user_id session.clear() # Redirect user to login form return redirect("/") @app.route("/quote", methods=["GET", "POST"]) @login_required def quote(): """Get stock quote""" if request.method == "POST": symbol = request.form.get("symbol") quote = lookup(symbol) if not quote: return apology("Invalid symbol", 400) return render_template("quote.html", quote=quote) else: return render_template("quote.html") @app.route("/register", methods=["GET", "POST"]) def register(): """Register user""" # Forget any user_id session.clear() # User reached route via POST (as by submitting a form via POST) if request.method == "POST": # Ensure username was submitted if not request.form.get("username"): return apology("must provide username", 400) # Ensure password was submitted elif not request.form.get("password"): return apology("must provide password", 400) # Ensure password confirmation was submitted elif not request.form.get("confirmation"): return apology("must confirm password", 400) #Ensure password and confirmation match elif request.form.get("password") != request.form.get("confirmation"): return apology("passwords do not match", 400) # Query database for username rows = db.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?", request.form.get("username")) # Ensure username does not already exist if len(rows) != 0: return apology("username already exists", 400) # Insert new user into database db.execute("INSERT INTO users (username, hash) VALUES(?, ?)", request.form.get("username"), generate_password_hash(request.form.get("password"))) # Query database for newly inserted user rows = db.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?", request.form.get("username")) # Remember which user has logged in session["user_id"] = rows[0]["id"] # Redirect user to home page return redirect("/") # User reached route via GET (as by clicking a link or via redirect) else: return render_template("register.html") @app.route("/sell", methods=["GET", "POST"]) @login_required def sell(): """Sell shares of stock""" return apology("TODO")
My index.html code is,
{% extends "layout.html" %} {% block title %} Portfolio {% endblock %} {% block main %} 
Portfolio
  {% for stock in stocks %}  {% endfor %} 
  
 Symbol Name Shares Price Total Value 
  
 {{ stock.symbol }} {{ stock.name }} {{ stock.total_shares }} {{ stock.price }} {{ stock.price * stock.total_shares }} 
 Cash {{ cash }} 
 
 Total Value {{ total_value }} 
  
 {% endblock %}
submitted by OkEntertainment1677 to cs50 [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:31 SupplementaryView Consolidated FFELP with Navient - Any benefit to reconsolidating direct?

Originally 5 subsidized and 6 unsubsidized, currently 1 consolidation loan: FFELP Consolidation, currently stuck with Navient (for many years)
Entered Repayment: 8/23/2005
Principal: $51,884
Interest: $93
Interest Rate: 2.88% (fixed)
Current monthly payments: $360.58
Income: currently $0, but will be changing hopefully soon to an amount I cannot remotely predict, but very likely under $65K for up to 3 years of internship, and hopefully more after that.
TL;DR: is there any benefit to try and change my current student loans via reconsolidation to, I believe it would give me, FFELP direct loans? My goals are twofold: pay as little per month as possible without getting stuck with a shitty interest % or giant payments in the future, and qualify for any loan forgiveness options that apply to me (I have never worked public service so PSLF is not an option I'm considering).
*
More Info:
All of my loans are graduate school, I graduated summer 2005. At that time, the interest rates were about to go variable and estimates were as high as 10% or more so I immediately took the consolidation option that claimed a fixed 5% life of loan rate and started paying during what should have been the 1 year grace period while I was already broke AF. I've seen that "fixed" rate change over the years, and while my memory isn't perfect, I believe it's always gone down (but I have a vague memory that it was closer to 2% than the 2.88% it is currently, but no documented record that I know of on that).
I've been trying to follow all of the various student loan forgiveness options over the years (including attempting military service, details at the end of this post) and during covid finally gave up trying to track after finding out that my loan type didn't qualify for any of the covid-related relief and then applying for the debt relief program November 2022 that was promptly defeated in courts. After this I've had so very few spoons to deal with trying to keep up.
Last night I discovered this subreddit, read a ton until way too late, learned there is presently some "one-time" payment count adjustments toward IDR and that I can apparently consolidate (again?) into direct loans through the ED where forgiveness and other programs that I've been totally missing out on are available? However, to get in on the payment count adjustments, am I correct that I would have had to apply a little over 2 weeks ago which I couldn't have done because I didn't even know? Do I have any option to get in on this? Is it better to suck it up and stay with the loan and terms I have now with Navient, the servicer that I hate SO much but have learned to just deal with all these years?
I'm so confused about what does or doesn't apply to me because my loans have never qualified for anything previously because they are the wrong type (as if I had a choice at the time I applied - it was the only choice they gave me via FAFSA application at the time, as if I even remotely understood or could predict the ramifications for my future back when I was 23 and took out these stupid loans - the worst financial decision I've made in my freaking life), and I wasn't aware I could potentially consolidate them to be the "right" type to get any relief I've missed all this time, and I've been so scared of going IDR through Navient for ALL THESE YEARS despite numerous stints of unemployment and underemployment because, as far as I could tell, my guaranteed fixed interest rate that wouldn't ever go above 5% would be removed - potentially meaning later in life I could owe exorbitant monthly amounts if/when I ever made more. I spent years of choosing to go without food before I went without paying back these stupid loans that I cannot ever file bankruptcy to remove and Navient has been THE WORST about trying to apply for any changes other than changes to terms that give them more interest %.
I'm presently not working but hopefully will be within the next month or less (ZERO concept of how much I will be making as I'm working toward a psychology internship that will only pay me for actual client hours and not any of the in-between hours, training, workshops, planning, case notes, etc., and depends how many clients come into whatever internship agency hires me as well as what their reimbursement rate is), and my tax return from last year was laughably low, so IDR right NOW would almost certainly give me a very low, if not a $0 repayment. Navient wont give me an unemployment deferment because I'm not on unemployment insurance as I voluntarily quit last November to try and change career paths (back to work related to the graduate degree I've been paying toward for all these years).
When I was 34, I even applied for a "critical shortage" position with the Army because, at the time as I had just learned which is why I applied, there was a student loan forgiveness program if you stayed something like 4 or 6 years in a "critical shortage" job. After several months of application processes, numerous tests (both intelligence as well as medical), getting 10 years' worth of my residency, school and medical records, and more, I qualified for the position but 2 weeks before I turned 35, I was declined for medical reasons. There was a medical waiver option, but that took 4 weeks to get and you age out for entrance at age 35.
I have no other debt and my credit rating is in the "excellent" category (because of this stupid student loan that I always prioritized over even food).
submitted by SupplementaryView to StudentLoans [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:14 Guide10000 QS - Multiple R&D Technician Temporary PosItions To Last about 90 days

Why would QuantumScape post several R&D Technician Temporary positions for multiple shifts, and not full time? Looking forward to seeing what the 2nd half of 2004 for QS brings in terms of Raptor scaling and possibly Cobra?
https://careers.quantumscape.com/search/?createNewAlert=false&q=&locationsearch=&optionsFacetsDD_customfield1=&optionsFacetsDD_customfield2=&optionsFacetsDD_dept=&optionsFacetsDD_customfield3=
R&D Technician
Responsibilities:
You will collaborate with a team of technicians, engineers and scientist to scale-up manufacturing processes. Trained to work on automation equipment and with high temperature processing equipment. You love a fast-paced, team partnership, and learning new skills. The work will be in cleanroom environment, process, product and individual safety is of utmost importance. Working in shifts to operate 24/7 manufacturing.
These openings are Contract/Temporary openings that are scheduled to last about 90 days.
Temporary Cell Process Technician
Description:
QuantumScape developed the industry’s first anode-less cell design, which delivers high energy density while lowering material costs and simplifying manufacturing. Our innovative battery cell technology can store energy more efficiently and reliably than today’s lithium-ion batteries.
Join us on our mission as we transform energy storage to enable a more sustainable future. We are looking to add a Cell Process Technician (Level 3) to our Cell Engineering and Process Development team. This individual will be responsible for supporting Engineering on developing tools and techniques at the cell assembly level to improve the manufacturability of our solid-state lithium-metal batteries. This work includes building cell assemblies with both new and existing procedures for testing and validating various manufacturing processes. Experience working with electrochemical energy storage devices such as lithium-based batteries or similar technology is highly desired.
submitted by Guide10000 to QUANTUMSCAPE_Stock [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 17:12 presumedinnocense Two pieces of critical evidence in triple murder trial are sketch as he!! 30 year vet imprisoned on a life sentence - how did this even happen? Our justice system is truly broken. #freekitmartin

Imagine if you will that you have been accused of a triple murder. Sentenced to a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Twelve jurors in Kentucky found the evidence convincing enough to convict Christian "Kit" Martin for the murders of his neighbors Calvin Phillips, Pam Phillips and Ed Dansereau.
His defense is that he was framed by a vindictive wife (Adele "Joan" Harman) that threatened to ruin him if he divorced her. The jurors got to hear very little about the backstory, a pattern of wild lies and deceptions and accusations against prior men in her lives when things didn't go her way, all discovered by private investigators.
This was a heavy circumstantial case. Joan and her son were allowed to plead the 5th and that fact was not disclosed to the jurors. Out of more than 100 DNA samples tested not one belonged to Kit. There were two key pieces of evidence that convinced these jurors beyond a reasonable doubt the Kit Martin was guilty. Kit claims those two pieces of evidence were planted so lets take a closer look:
First we have the dogtag. I mean, Kit must have done it because he left his dogtag right? There are four critical problems with this evidence:
  1. The name on the dogtag read "Martin, Kit" so this dogtag is not military issue. The military only issues tags with the full name (not nicknames) which would have been printed instead "Martin, Christian." Fake souvenir tags can be purchased online (an even in kiosks in some locations) to read what you input on your order. I know a lot of military people and know exactly zero that wear their tags outside of work. But let's say for arguments sake that the souvenir tag really was Kit's. The murders were planned in "precise military fashion" according to the prosecution, yet Kit chooses to put on a souvenir tag with his name on it that morning? I find that very hard to believe.
  2. This souvenir tag was tested for fingerprints and DNA and they found none. The prosecution argued that while Kit was cleaning up the blood from the carpet in the foyer, the tag must have kept getting in his way so he took it off and set it up on a shelf. That seems really far-fetched.
  3. The tag was on a string and not a break-a-way chain which was also tested for DNA evidence and there was "some DNA evidence" but apparently not enough to make a comparison to Kit's. This seems really off to me. If someone had just committed three murders, I would imagine they would have sweat a bit leaving behind DNA. Yet interestingly there is no DNA evidence on the tag or string matching Kit.
  4. Besides the most ridiculous idea that a murderer would even put that tag on before going to commit these murders, he had the forethought to wipe it down real good when removing it when it was in his way (to remove any fingerprints and DNA). Instead of putting it in his pocket, he places it on a shelf and then he forgets to take it when he leaves? Wow, really?
So the second major piece of evidence in this murder case was a spent 45 casing that matched the Glock found in Kit's safe. Here again there are a few problems with this evidence:
  1. Kit was portrayed by the prosecution as a highly trained ranger who skillfully planned out these murders (or at least Calvin and Pam's as Ed was an unexpected variable). But then afterwards he walked across the street and placed the murder weapon in his safe instead of ditching it? That's not too bright.
  2. The 45 casing was found by family members when cleaning the porch area FIVE months AFTER the murders. This was despite the porch area being processed THREE separate times; once by Christian County Sheriffs Department, once when Detective Scott Smith went to spray the scene with Blue Star (Luminol), and lastly when Crime Scene Investigators came in to try to determine where on the property the shootings took place.
  3. The bullets found in Cal's body were not conclusively linked to Kit's Glock in his safe. But the 45 casing found by family members WAS positively identified as being fired from Kit's Glock.
  4. Kit testified that when he first moved to the area he hung out with Cal some and did target shooting in Cal's backyard. There is no doubt that Kit was a gun enthusiast, but that does not make a person a murderer. He had spent casings in his backyard, Cal's backyard and in his truck bed. So it would be easy for someone to collect one of Kit's spent casings and plant it on the porch through the latticework.
So there you have it - so much reasonable doubt, zero DNA evidence yet Kit sits in prison with a life sentence. I want justice for the murders of Cal, Pam and Ed as much as anyone but I want the true killes behind bars. The entire case was aired on Court TV but a great book outlining this complicated triple murder along with much of the backstory was just released: https://www.amazon.com/WILL-RUIN-YOU-Twisted-Behind/dp/1960332651/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16F4EJ1ADIAFW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0Uv31xRkigJgf0YtFU_hoTDA5NKrUkmCjLdhWuYJt7PGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.JPhlG_WJosxW0v7nGrsHoDXG_IlDGM6632INYnJiFwA&dib_tag=se&keywords=emilio+corsetti&qid=1715785721&sprefix=emilio+corsetti%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1
A good reference for this case is the Dateline episode "The Evil That Watches." https://www.nbc.com/dateline/video/the-evil-that-watches/9000190878
Another good shorter synopsis (though a HUGE mistake is minute 4:25 where he states the phone found in the driveway was determined to be Pam's. It was Ed's phone found in the driveway. Joan was actually the one that took Pam's phone into the ATT store about a month after the murders saying she found it and wanted to get it unlocked (that's a whole crazy part of evidence that also convinces me that Kit is innocent - #joanhadthephone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WbFF7SyeSg
submitted by presumedinnocense to DatelineKitMartin [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:38 Imagen-Breaker GT9 Rewrite Part 14.4 - Older Scenes

Part 14.3

Heracles VS Lernaean Hydra

Author Note: I was thinking about it and I really wish that GT9 used more draconic symbolism throughout the story when (or if) I revisit Team Crowley VS Rosencreutz I'll have symbolism of Aleister (TheBeast666), Aiwass (Codename: DRAGON) and Coronzon (The Dragon of the Abyss) all have symbology of them being Dragons preying on a God/Hero like CRC and the reversed conflict of Chaos VS Order you see in mythology, I also wanted to achieve something similar with Kakine Teitoku as he can represent the Fallen Angel and the Seraphim but for now I'll try adding draconian symbolism into Gunha VS CRC.
True Expert Christian Rosencreutz, with his golden rosy cross sword, clashed relentlessly against the indomitable force of the Strongest Gemstone, Sogiita Gunha. With each clash of their powers, the air crackled and compressed, and the pavement trembled beneath.
CRC, observed Sogiita with a mixture of intrigue and disdain. "You fight like the legendary Heracles," he remarked, his voice carrying over the din of battle. "But know this, I am the Lernaean Hydra, and no matter how many heads you sever, I shall always rise again!" Rosencreutz roared to slice the #7’s midsection.
Sogiita, his entire body wreathed in unknowable energy, met CRC's blade unyielding. "Bring it on, old man!" he retorted, his voice brimming with confidence. "I'll knock you down as many times as it takes! I won't stop till you come to your senses and remember your roots, like the roses you love so much, Rosencreutz!!"
Their clash intensified, that old man’s higher dimensional sword colliding with the raw power of that boy’s fists and kicks as they pushed each other to their limits with each sword swing, punch, kick and flash.
Sogiita unleashed a barrage of punches, each strike carrying the force of a meteor, while that silver young man countered: he wielded his sword in his right hand and released impacts followed by white light that was enough to previously take down all of The Bridge Builders Cabal.
As the battle raged on, the very fabric of reality seemed to warp and shift around them, bearing witness to the titanic struggle between two unparalleled forces.
The founder of Rosicrucianism who intimidated reality itself to obey his will and that Gemstone with an unstable personal reality that could change on a whim.
The atmosphere crackled with electrifying distortion.
Sogiita's fists tore through the air with the ferocity of meteors, their velocity enhanced by his ability to adapt and accelerate, surpassing even CRC's speed. As each blow was released, the friction with the surrounding air molecules ignited a scorching heat, intensifying the impact.
The rapid movement of molecules generated an escalating thermal energy, causing the air to seethe with increasing temperature. It was akin to a tempest of incandescent projectiles hurtling towards CRC, their speed surpassing the limits of human perception.
It was like a storm of brilliant fiery arrows was fired at Rosencreutz.
These blazing arrows of force were reminiscent of the elusive strikes employed by the Rose & Cross Leader, ignoring distance with deceptive agility.
With each thunderous punch, that bandana boy sought to overpower his adversary through sheer kinetic force, his unwavering resolve palpable in every motion.
But that wasn't enough for this superhuman.
CRC, wielding his cross sword with precision and skill, deflected each and every one Sogiita's flaming arrows with calculated strikes of his own. Each impact unleashed a burst of blinding white light, sending shockwaves rippling through the chaotic city.
"You think brute strength alone will defeat me?" the silver man taunted, his voice cutting through the chaos of battle. "You may be strong, but strength without strategy is nothing but raw power wasted."
Sogiita grinned, his confidence unshaken. "Strategies for cowards who can't handle a real fight," he retorted, his voice ringing with defiance. "I'll K.O. you with my fists and guts alone!!!!"
Rosencreutz's eyes narrowed as he parried another of Sogiita's punches. "Your arrogance will be your downfall," he warned, his tone tinged with certainty. "I may not match your overall speed, but I have something you lack: intellect and precision.”
Christian Rosencreutz then plunged his cross sword into the ground.
"This is what harmed Kamijou Touma," he declared, grinning and unleashing a torrent of lethal invisible attacks from his outstretched palms.
However, the #7 countered with a relentless barrage of flaming arrows from the thermal aftershock of his punches.
Each strike akin to a particle accelerator in its intensity and speed. That Gemstone was the particles being fired on the right and that True Expert was the particles fired on the left.
As the attacks clashed, the battlefield became a spectacle of raw power and precision.
“Roar!” CRC held his open palm to his mouth and blew gently on the tip of the middle finger.
That was all it took for a blaze easily outdoing a flamethrower to rush out. And this was not just any fire. It fed on the power of a ley line and stole vitality from space itself. This overwhelming mass of light and heat was wielded for no other purpose than to take lives. Anyone who tried to survive it using simple composite armor or special fibers would dry up and burn away in less than a second.
But that wouldn't kill another superhuman would it?
Of course not.
“Aaaaarghhhh!!!!” screamed the #7.
Some assaults bypassed the fray entirely, slipping through the chaos like elusive particles in a collider.
A smokescreen.
Those brilliant fireworks from hell weren't meant to take Sogiita’s life. They were meant to disrupt the Gemstone's senses and sight so he couldn't counter all of that old man’s deadly attacks.
Invisible strikes found their mark on that Gemstone, and the searing arrows of the arrows scorched Rosencreutz.
CRC was wounded but he rejected to make any whimpers. Instead with a sudden burst of velocity, the young silver man picked up his cross sword from the ground and launched a flurry of strikes, cutting at the #7’s body with pinpoint accuracy.
His arms, his head, his face, his stomach, his legs, his midsection, his back.
Each blow landed with devastating force, causing Sogiita to stagger back under the onslaught.
If that bandana boy hadn't had his defenses and general stats raised by the #5 he’d be cut to pieces.
The #7 fell on his back.
"There's a fire," Sogiita declared, his voice ringing out amidst the chaos of battle.
With each attempt to break his spirit, Sogiita's resolve only grew stronger, fueling the flames of his determination. "Every time someone tries to make me give up, it's like wind feeding my flames, making them burn even brighter just like my punches," he explained, his words carrying the weight of his unwavering determination.
He refused to stay down.
With a roar of defiance, Sogiita surged forward once more, his movements blurring with speed as he disappeared from view. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared behind Christian Rosencreutz, catching the magician off guard.
"Hey, old man," Sogiita taunted, his voice filled with confidence as he seized Rosencreutz from behind.
Christian Rosencreutz's eyes widened in surprise as he realized he had been outmaneuvered.
As Sogiita Gunha faced off against Christian Rosencreutz in their airborne duel, he felt the flames of determination burning within him, driving him forward with unstoppable force.
Before he could react, the boy lifted him effortlessly and slammed him onto the pavement below with a resounding thud.
"I'm not just a kick-boxer!!" Sogiita sang.
As the impact reverberated through the air, the young silver man let out a pained cry. The force of the collision compressed the surrounding air, heating it up until it crackled with energy. Christian Rosencreutz's head struck the ground with a velocity equivalent to mach 20, igniting his body in flames upon impact.
This move is called a suplex.
Struggling to regain his bearings, Rosencreutz muttered in a daze, "The House of the Holy Spirit...the seven walls..."
"You said it yourself, didn't you?" the gutsy boy retorted, cocky. "My power and my guts can break through your impenetrable walls. And I can spread those same guts to the world around me."
With a grimace, Christian Rosencreutz acknowledged the truth of the boy's words. "Your uncontrolled AIM field grants you the ability to imbue non-organic objects with the properties of your virus," he observed, his voice tinged with begrudging admiration. "Allowing them to bypass even the defenses of the seven-walled tomb.”
"A virus? Don't be so gutless, CRC," the #7 retorted, his voice filled with defiance. "This battleground ruled by wills is a two-way road between you and me."
Christian Rosencreutz raised an eyebrow at the boy's words. "Hey Gemstone, you could've killed me if I weren't a superhuman with an idealized body that accomplished The Great Work and crossed the Ungrund, what then short-stack?" he questioned while fitting an insult against his height.
Even without the seven-walled tomb or sheets of diamonds Rosencreutz was cartoonishly durable.
"Sorry, old man," Sogiita replied, his tone tinged with annoyance. "I might've gotten carried away, but I know it'll take more than that to kill you. No matter how many heads you regrow, like Hydra, I will not give up until I've completed all my labors."
"Mhm, so you do know your mythology," CRC remarked, a hint of amusement in his voice. "The Lernaean Hydra, or simply Hydra, is a serpentine lake monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, known as an entrance to the Underworld. In the canonical myth, the monster is slain by Heracles as part of his Twelve Labors."
"Yeah, I know," Sogiita replied confidently. "I studied the tales of great gutsy heroes in school.”
"So, short-stack," Christian Rosencreutz began, his voice carrying a hint of scholarly interest. “Have you ever considered the parallels between our battle and ancient Near Eastern religions?”
Sogiita listened intently. "Are you saying you see yourself as a god of war or a hunter?" he inquired.
CRC chuckled softly. "In a sense, indeed. We are both assuming roles in this grand theater, are we not? I, the Hydra, and you, Heracles."
He continued, "Consider the Second Labor of Heracles. Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns, sent Heracles to slay the Hydra, which Hera had raised specifically to defeat him. Heracles approached the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelled. To protect himself from the poisonous fumes, he covered his mouth and nose with a cloth and shot flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, causing it to emerge and terrorize the surrounding villages."
CRC paused, drawing a comparison. “In our own clash, the flaming arrows that Heracles hurled at the Hydra find their echo in your lightning-fast fists, generating shockwaves that ignite the air with their speed and force. It's as though each strike of yours is akin to shooting a flaming arrow, much like Heracles did.”
“Huh? Are you suggesting we're caught in a time loop? That some enigmatic group, like the Bridge Builders Cabal, manipulated events to resurrect you, pitting us against each other in a timeless struggle? I've never met them, and I'm certainly no child of Zeus. Are you implying that our battle will be distorted into a Greek legend by a meddling time traveler?!” frantically asked the boy.
“No, no, you simpleton. This world contains synchronicities. In Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian mythology, the war and hunting god Ninurta was celebrated for his deeds. The Angim credited him with slaying eleven monsters during an expedition to the mountains, including a seven-headed serpent, possibly identical to the Mushmahhu, and Bashmu, whose constellation was later associated with the Hydra by the Greeks. In Babylonian contexts, the Hydra's constellation is also linked to Marduk's dragon, the Mushhushshu.”
“Uhhh….” That shounen boy was dumbfounded.
"Hhm, I suppose calling it a time loop isn't technically wrong," Christian Rosencreutz began, his tone measured. "I'll break it down from history class and reconstruct it through the lens of the occult. Historic recurrence, young Gemstone, is the phenomenon of events echoing throughout time. Whether it's the rise and fall of empires or the repetitive cycles within a single society, it's all part of this grand plan that was decided when Adam ate the forbidden fruit."
The #7 with his guard up but curious listened: "So, history just keeps repeating itself? Just a series of coincidences?"
Christian Rosencreutz shook his head sagely. "There is no such thing as coincidences. Take, for instance, the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence, pondered upon by thinkers like Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Nietzsche. While it's said that 'history repeats itself,' it's not quite that simple. Rather, these recurrences stem from identifiable circumstances and chains of causality."
He continued, his voice carrying the weight of centuries of philosophical debate. "Consider the phenomenon of multiple independent discoveries in science or the reproducible findings in natural and social sciences. These recurrences, whether in the form of rigorous experimentation or comparative research, are vital to our understanding of the world."
Christian Rosencreutz paused, allowing the weight of his words to sink in. "G.W. Trompf, in his seminal work, The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought, illustrates the recurring patterns of political thought and behavior since ancient times. Through these patterns, history offers us invaluable lessons, often leading to a sense of resonance or déjà vu."
Their words reverberated like a challenge to destiny itself, a testament to their unyielding determination in the face of adversity.
That Gemstone didn't surrender his characteristic fervor. "History echoing through time, huh? It's like the universe itself is stuck on repeat, and we're just caught in the cycle. But you know what? If history's gonna keep looping, then let's break the pattern! Let's smash through those chains of causality and forge our own path. Who cares about déjà vu? We'll create something entirely new, something that'll shake the very foundations of this world and we’ll do it with guts!!!" He defied that silver monster.
But Rosencreutz wasn't finished. He pulled out his Crystal World Map.
The supposedly old man listened intently to that boy's impassioned response, his expression inscrutable behind his clairvoyant card. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke.
“Gemstone, you speak of breaking free from the chains of repetition, of forging a new destiny against the backdrop of eternal return. It is a noble aspiration, indeed. However, consider this: eternal return is not merely a philosophical concept or a whimsical notion of fate. It is the very fabric of existence, woven into the nature of time itself.” He pressed his finger on the Miniature Garden and a 3D holographic projection flew out—
“In ancient times, the Stoics grappled with the idea, seeing in it both a sense of cosmic order and a challenge to individual agency. Augustine and others recoiled from its implications, fearing it as a negation of free will and salvation. And yet, Nietzsche, in his brilliance, dared to confront the concept anew, exploring its depths in the crucible of human consciousness.”
Didn't Aleister Crowley say that he had to shatter every single phase in order to eliminate the concept of fate?
“I will shatter every last phase and put an end to all mysticism. It can be helped and we need not restrain our tears and bite our lip when faced with tragedy. I will bring back the pure world in which everyone can feel anger like normal and question it all like normal!!”
And didn't Coronzon appear to break down all the phases including the Pure World?
Partial destruction would be meaningless. If anything remains and an eternal distortion is born from that, then it will all happen again. I will eliminate the ten spheres, the twenty-two pathways, and the hidden eleventh symbol. Collisions between phases? Sparks and spray? You cannot save anyone if you only treat those symptoms. All of the fundamental clogs must be removed. All so we can pass the baton to whoever comes next.”
“Sparks and Sprays…” Rosencreutz muttered.
“Eh?” The #7 didn't quite hear him.
"Beside time stands fate, cruelty's steadfast herald. In the silent chambers of the soul, whispers the most profound wisdom. Humanity, in its folly, neglected to exalt life's splendor, its radiance, its grandeur. Truly, it is a rare gift to comprehend the forces that shape our existence.” That magician spoke in despair.
“From the moment man ate the fruit of knowledge, he guaranteed your species’ failure... Entrusting his future to the whims of fate, man clutches to a flickering hope. Yet, within the Miniature Garden lies the key to all revelation. Beyond the well-trodden path lies the ultimate terminus. It matters not who you are; Death is the sole certainty awaiting all.” he finished with scorn.
Shokuhou Misaki was currently linked to Sogiita Gunha so she was overhearing the entire conversation.
“Are you okay, Leader?” asked Kamijou back at the hospital.
“Yeah…” she responded.
*“Really?” Mikoto breathed a white sigh. “It wasn’t the shock of seeing their school destroyed. Nor was it the fear of having those rioters attack. …They’re afraid of their own power. And after learning how exactly to use that power to survive, they’re not sure they can just switch it off and return to their normal lives. So their gears have ground to a halt.”
Tokiwadai Middle School was a prestigious esper development school.*
The young ladies registered there were Level 3 at the lowest and Level 5 at the highest.
Almost all of the students had a power that surpassed that of a blade or handgun if used properly, but something had become twisted.
Yes.
“A lot of them weren’t really sure why they were training their powers.”
Shokuhou breathed a white breath, wrapped her own arms around herself, and rubbed her thighs together.
Why are you studying?
How many people could give a proper answer to that question? Because my parents told me to, because my teachers taught me to, because that’s how the world works. Those would be most people’s answers. Even the students with a clear vision of their future would only have something vague like “for the entrance exams” or “for my future”.
Only a small handful would have specific puzzle pieces in mind, such as “I need to learn how to use this equation so I can build a rocket”.
The young ladies of Tokiwadai Middle School were the same.
What if the very gears that humans have…their actions, reactions, inactions were all the result of some transcendental entity hovering above.
Like God or The Devil watching over humanity’s reality sphere and ordering around his system like everyone was a pre-programmed NPC that had specific events occur to them to get them to develop in the way that they did and determined their genetic bloodline that composed their psyche?
Is there truly a free will?
It was said that in order for you to break out of the system of society that the working class was stuck in you had to climb to the top where the corrupt elites resided.
Imagine Breaker negated sparks, Aleister Crowley could see through the veil thanks to Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass, Great Demon Coronzon could always see the cogs.
Christian Rosencreutz could view the entire world through his Miniature Garden.
The rest of humanity was at the mercy of their own destinies.
A Guardian Angel wouldn't arrive to save a parent’s child from fate every single time.
"Okay, nice poetry, can we get back to fighting already?" asked the #7 impatiently.
"Seems I got carried away," the old man conceded with a nod. "The synchronicities of this world, akin to the astral configurations in astrology, serve as an example of synchronicity, according to Jung. It describes circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection, much like the parallel relationship between celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Synchronicity experiences entail subjective encounters where coincidences between events in one's mind and the external world may lack a clear causal link but still harbor an unknown connection.”
"Ah," Sogiita chimed in, recalling his philosophy class discussions. "We talked about synchronicity back then. Jung thought it was a good thing for the mind, but said it could get dicey in psychosis. He cooked up this theory as a kind of mental link between those meaningful coincidences, calling it a noncausal principle. This term came about in the late 1920s, and then he teamed up with physicist Wolfgang Pauli to dive deeper. Their work, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, dropped in 1952. They were big on this idea that these connections, even the ones that don't seem to have a cause, could still teach us a lot about how our minds and the world work."
“Mhm, you know more than you lead on, Gemstone.” pondered CRC.
“Oh this? My teachers say I'm not good at remembering speeches hahaha…” The #7 looked slightly nervous. “You know, analytical psychologists really push for folks to get what these experiences mean to boost their awareness instead of just feeding into superstitions. But funny thing is, when clients spill about their synchronicity experiences, they often feel like no one's really hearing them out, or getting where they're coming from. And hey, having a bunch of these meaningful coincidences flying around can sometimes ring the schizo bell. Delusions aren't healthy.”
Where was this conversation going?
"Delusion! Hah! That's a good one coming from you," CRC fired back.
"The real delusion is thinking humanity isn't worth a darn," Sogiita shot back, pulling out some info from Johansen and Osman. "Some scientists think coincidences are just random flukes, but counselors and psychoanalysts reckon there's more to it, like some deep-down stuff needing to come out. Unconscious material to be expressed."
Rosencreutz interjected, his expression reflecting a mix of confusion and concern. "Aleister Crowley's actions have left a lasting scar on this world and this city," he began, his voice weighted with solemnity. “The vacuum-like dichotomy between magic and science created by the use of that colossal psychotronic weapon, has damaged this world's memory almost irreparably.”
Psychotronic weapon?
The Archetype Controller?
He paused, his gaze piercing as he continued, "Jung's exploration of synchronicity as evidence of the paranormal paved the way for further inquiry, notably by Koestler and the subsequent embrace of these ideas by the New Age movement.”
Sogiita shrugged, "Some folks say synchronicity is impossible to test or prove, so it gets labeled as pseudoscience. Jung even acknowledged that these synchronicity events are basically just coincidences, statistically speaking. But hey, who's to say what's really going on without some solid scientific studies, right?"
"Dubious as his experiments may have been," CRC interrupted, "Jung believed in a connection between synchronicity and the paranormal, drawing parallels to the uncertainty principle and works by parapsychologist Joseph B. Rhine.” CRC posed a thought-provoking question, "How are we to recognize acausal combinations of events, since it is obviously impossible to examine all chance happenings for their causality? The answer lies in the fact that acausal events are most readily expected where a causal connection appears inconceivable upon closer reflection. It's impossible, with our current resources, to explain ESP or meaningful coincidences as mere phenomena of energy. This challenges the very notion of cause and effect, as these events occur simultaneously rather than in a linear cause-and-effect manner. Hence, I have coined the term 'synchronicity' to describe this phenomenon, placing it on equal footing with causality as a principle of explanation."
Getting closer to that Gemstone, CRC emphasized, "Esper abilities cannot be fully understood with science alone. They defy traditional cause-and-effect explanations, instead representing a convergence of factors that create a quantum phenomenon affecting both the micro and macro. Why were there the naturally gifted and the naturally ungifted?”
Why did some students get praised for their abilities while others needed to work harder?
Others among them would have worked every hour of their free time and not progressed anywhere in this city’s leveling curriculum.
Why did this city present such an unfair and unpredictable status quo of potential?
Why did hard work barely matter in a city of empirical evidence to record any possible progress?
Sogiita Gunha wasn't a normal Level 5 but he wasn't always this powerful. He went through the curriculum same as everyone but if the outside conditions for his Gemstone ability to manifest didn't form in the exact way that it did, in such an acausal form then would he even be here to challenge Christian Rosencreutz right now?
Everything just happened to fall right into place.
All those puzzle pieces that would lead to this moment here and now.
Was it all just talent? God picking a fool as his champion?
The #7 leaned back, absorbing CRC's words with a thoughtful expression. "So, what you're saying is, there's this whole other layer to reality that we can't quite wrap our heads around," he summarized, nodding slowly. "I mean, it's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands—slippery and elusive."
He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "Historic recurrence, synchronicities, all these things—they're like pieces of a puzzle scattered across this substantial reality. And sometimes, they just... click into place, right? It's like the universe has its own plan, and we're just along for the ride."
That bandana wearing boy's gaze drifted, lost in thought. "You know, CRC, it's funny," he remarked, a wry smile playing on his lips. "Here we are, with all our powers and potential, but at the end of the day, we're still grappling with the same questions as everyone else. Talent, destiny, divine intervention—maybe they're all just different sides of the same coin."
He shrugged, the weight of the philosophical musings settling over the broken city. "Who knows? Maybe God does have a sense of humor, after all.” that boy chuckled.
There was a deep silence between them.
Rosencreutz’ response was swift and resolute, his tone filled with certainty. "All this ‘universe has a plan’ banter is just a distraction from the inevitable," he declared, his eyes narrowing. "We can debate the nature of us being all-powerful yet struggling with mortal issues until the sun burns out, but it won't change the fact that our fate was sealed upon the knowledge Adam learned."
“To think so many trivialities have developed while this old man wasn’t watching. Heh heh. Then I should assume the thread of fate has again begun to weave its strange connections between myself and some unknown human.”
He rose forward, his movements purposeful. "It's time to put an end to this dance of platitudes," CRC continued, his voice cold and unwavering. "We'll settle this the only way that somewhat matters—through objective action in this grand play."
“Silence, preserved doll. Illusionists are meant to remain silent. That is all we magicians are: wielders of substanceless illusions. Opening your mouth serves only to break the illusion.”
With a flicker of resolve in his eyes, he locked gazes with the #7. "I am Hydra, Gemstone," he said, his voice carrying a hint of challenge. "Our battle ends now.” CRC opened both his palms and began shooting at their surroundings, the buildings, the pavement, the apartments, the rubble.
It probably wasn't random as it seemed to create a pattern.
“Huh are you getting senile old man?” asked the young Gemstone.
“What fun. I never imagined someone would bother diligently polishing their skills this far while knowing it is all essentially an illusion. Didn’t you ever feel silly going to the effort?”
Rosencreutz dropped to all fours, his rosy cross sword gripped tightly in his right hand.
He moved—
“Arrgh!” Sogiita yelled amidst the relentless and precise and precise strikes from that golden cross. “Old man?” he asked.
That magician didn't say anything.
That silver man’s movements became more beastly.
Faster.
Stronger.
Fiercer.
Something new was beginning to manifest.
With each strike of his higher dimensional blade that old man’s blows seemed infused with an otherworldly energy.
The wounds inflicted by his weapon burned with a venomous intensity, sending searing pain coursing through Sogiita's body.
That boy grimaced as the poison from that silver man’s strikes surged through his being, each wound feeling like it was ablaze with venomous fire.
"Damn... That burns…like a killer hornet’s sting," he muttered through clenched teeth, his voice strained with effort. Gritting, he fought to maintain his focus, despite the agony threatening to overwhelm him.
Was this another application of The Four Stages? Citrinitas? No, there was nothing yellow here, it was more like a dirty purple.
But it wasn't just the physical damage that posed a threat.
As the Rosy Cross leader leaped on all fours his movements took on an almost erratic quality, he was bouncing from one building to another with an animalistic agility.
With each jump, a shockwave rippled through the air, carrying with it a palpable sense of dread.
Something was spreading.
The air around them seemed to thicken with a toxic miasma. The #7 struggled to breathe, the noxious fumes clouding his senses.
Like a chaotic monster’s venomous poison breath.
The once-clear air now felt thick and suffocating.
Gasping for breath, the bandana boy struggled to maintain his focus amidst the swirling chaos.
His vision blurred, his movements sluggish as he fought against the oppressive atmosphere.
Blinded that heroic boy could only fire a flame arrow without his sight.
His fists striking out with all the strength he could muster. Igniting in that poisonous compressed air.
It seemed to be flammable like a dragon’s breath.
???
At the hospital, Shokuhou's voice carried a mix of surprise and relief. “He caused real damage.” she exclaimed.
Kamijou turned his attention to her, intrigued. “What happened?”
“It's hard to see clearly, but it looks like the #7 managed to blast off CRC's left arm,” she explained. “Though, I'd say it was more of a lucky shot. I can read he acted on pure instinct.”
Kamijou nodded, a hint of melancholy in his tone. “Yeah... the psychic link and all.”
Had the #7 Level 5 given up on the old man?
Back on the battlefield, Sogiita cursed under his breath. “Dammit... Sorry, old man,” he muttered. “I was aiming to hit your whole body to maximize the surface area, maybe break a few bones as a casualty. We can probably get your arm reattached at the hospital. Heaven Canceller has enough guts to even fix me.”
It was clear—he hadn't given up.
It was an accidental strike of his arm.
“As each ghastly head was severed from its serpentine form, dreadfully, two more writhed forth from the abyss.” a cryptic voice amidst the chaos spoke.
Wasn't it said that the Hydra’s lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid.
Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld.
The abyss.
The Ungrund.
There is no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake, and I know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able to reach the bottom of it since not even Nero, who had ropes made several stades long and fastened them together, tying lead to them, and omitting nothing that might help his experiment, was able to discover any limit to its depth. This, too, I heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance, calm and quiet but, although it is such to look at, every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged down, sucked into the depths, and swept away.
The keeper of the gate to the Underworld that lay in the waters of Lerna was the Hydra.
The serpentine Lake Monster.
“Rosencreutz……?” The #7 muttered.
That magician chuckled ominously. "Indeed, young Heracles," he intoned, his voice echoing with a bizarre resonance. “The Lernaean Hydra's curse is upon you now.” as he said that he ripped off a bit of his arm that was cuterarised and it began bleeding.
Anna Sprengel’s blood was said to create unknown miracles when spilled.
Christian Rosencreutz’ blood was so virulent that even its scent was deadly.
As Sogiita Gunha glanced at his severed arm lying on the ground, a creeping sense of horror enveloped him. "All of fate is a curse and that curse," he murmured, his words barely audible over the din of battle, "extends even to my severed limb.”
Christian Rosencreutz’ left arm grew back.
No.
Two new arms grew in its place.
The fate of chaoskampf? The hero battling the dragon?
The arm was fully functioning with no defects.
Although one of the arms appeared somewhat scaly and lanky like a serpent.
It had human anatomy but something was abnormal here.
He almost looked like a spider as he emerged from the poisonous fog as he remained on all fours.
“So short-stack. Are you ready to complete your final labor: Crossing the abyss!!!” He challenged that boy with his cross sword facing him.
"Boss, what's up? You look kinda stuck," Kamijou asked, his tone concerned.
Two students were sitting together in the waiting room at a hospital.
"—abyss, Hydra, curse, synchronicities, Historic recurrence." she replied, her words carrying a weight of unease.
"Huh? What? Can you give me the lowdown?" Kamijou prodded, his urgency evident.
"Can't quite wrap my head around it. But what I can tell you is that after CRC started talking about these esoteric concepts, he leveled up his power ability, managed to seriously hurt the #7 despite me cranking up all his stats for the win condition," the honey-blonde girl explained, frustration creeping into her voice.
"Can you beam all that stuff into my head, like a memory download? You're a psychological esper, right? My right hand won't mess with it, and we've done the telepathy thing before," Kamijou suggested.
"Memory download's not quite it, but I can send you a recording," she clarified.
"Got it," Kamijou muttered as he absorbed the info.
"You got any ideas to help the #7’s situation ability, Kamijou-san? We're kinda desperate here," she asked.
"I wish Index was still here, dammit.” he lamented, “But you know about magic, right?" he queried.
"Yeah, people converting their delusions into reality right?," she admitted.
"Well, magic's not just about delusions; it can be tied up to the whole world. Not sure if it's relevant, but based on Idol Theory, Rosencreutz might be pulling in 'energy’ from the Greek 'phase’ of Heracles for an edge," Kamijou theorized.
"Like a chessboard flip?" Shokuhou Misaki inquired, her brow furrowed with concern.
"No, more like... imagine you're playing checkers with a buddy, and you're totally crushing it because you're a checkers pro. Then suddenly, your buddy switches it up and challenges you to an arm wrestling match, and you lose because, well, arm wrestling isn't your forte," Kamijou Touma explained, trying to paint a vivid picture.
"So, by taking on the role of the Hydra from Greek myth, he's essentially forcing the #7 into the role of Heracles? But didn't Heracles defeat the Hydra?" Shokuhou sought clarification.
"Yeah, but..." Kamijou recalled the tale from the movies he'd seen. "Lichas gave Heracles a shirt soaked in the Hydra's poisonous blood from his arrows, which ends up killing him by tearing his flesh down to the bone," he elaborated.
"It was actually Nessus seeking vengeance and tricking Deianira into giving it to Heracles as a gift, delivered by Lichas without disclosing the tunic's lethal bloodstained secret from the Lernaean Hydra, but you're right," Shokuhou corrected gently. "So, Rosencreutz is harnessing the power of that legend to slowly poison the #7?"
"Not literal. I mean the poison is real but his slashes do significant harm now so it's more like shifting the paradigm in his favor…shifting his position.” The spiky-haired boy wasn't in the mood to explain Phases, “Earlier, he mentioned Sogiita spreading his 'virus' throughout the world. A virus isn't a poison in the traditional sense, but the Rosicrucians originally sought to create a universal cure for all illnesses. Now, CRC is spreading a literal poison, positioning himself as the ultimate predator and his opponents as prey rather than his savior role, the paradigm has been shifted." Kamijou concluded, his voice tinged with gravity.
“So he’s changed the environment to get the win condition? The #7’s durability doesn't matter in the face of the world being forced to go about a certain way because of Rosencreutz stage play?” The girl asked.
“Yeah…if things keep going this way…Sogiita will….goddamnit….” The spiky haired boy swore. “I can't let someone else die after all that's happened but I feel like if I go out there I really will kill him…” he muttered that last bit while clenching his right fist that began shaking uncontrollably.
The girl’s eyes seemed confused.
“What did you say?” The honey blonde middle schooler asked.
“Nothing, just mumbling to myself.” he spat out.
That boy and girl could never come to the right conclusion on their own without the aid of former Magic God Othinus by their side.
“Did you think I had challenged you with no hope of succeeding, you cesspool? The magic born on earth is bound by the directions based on the earth’s magnetic field and by the density and composition of the air which is determined by air pressure which is in turn influenced by gravity. That is inevitable when you are focused on the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west or on the basic elements of fire, water, wind, and earth. But what you will find upon leaving the atmosphere is an unknown. Coronzon, are you sure there will be no malfunction in the magic giving you control of Avatar Lola? And before, my power was bound by the puny speck named earth which failed to become a black hole or even a sun, but once we enter outer space, just how far do you think that power will be released? I do not mind at all that I will lose the support of Academy City.”
Well the boy was half right.
“Let us test it out, you cuspidor. On one side, we have you using the planet and bound to an avatar. On the other, we have me exposed and freed from the planet. Now, who will be the star of this show?”
Christian Rosencreutz did not shoot at his surroundings for no reason.
The battlefield transformed into Rosencreutz's canvas, resembling the legendary battleground of Lerna where Heracles once clashed with the Hydra.
Yes.
He didn't unleash his powers randomly; every action was deliberate.
In the magical side of Idol Theory, mimicking an object, event, or person allowed one to tap into a fraction of its power.
And that even applied to locations that essentially worked as stage plays.
Idol Theory was so absolute that even the basic cross held a portion of the son of God’s power.
As Above, So Below.
As Below, So Above.
Macro to micro.
Micro to macro.
And the macrocosm and the microcosm are always linked.
submitted by Imagen-Breaker to Toaru [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:01 SharkEva The age gap is most definitely not the issue /s - AITAH to leave my ex best friend during her pregnancy

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/hey_itsawonderfulday posting in AITAH
Concluded as per OOP
1 update - Medium
Original - 22nd January 2024
Update - 6th May 2024
​
AITAH to leave my ex best friend during her pregnancy
​
I (25F) had been with my best friend Jessica (24F) for over 5 years, we met while we were both working at McDonald’s when we were both 18, started the same day and became best friends ever since. Even though our lives turned out quite differently, as I ended up finishing my degree and became an account, and Jess became a janitor at the university, I still loved her very very much and we maintained to be our original self as when we were 18.
All this until a year and a half ago, while she’s working at the university, she met this fella “Funnel” who’s 69 years old two years ago and starting to see him romantically. At first I wasn’t a fan of the relationship, as there’s such an age difference. But Jess moved in with him and I started to accept their “relationship” and got to know this Funnel guy….
Funnel has two daughters in their late 40’s and a son in his early 30’s, has grandkids in their late teens and early 20’s. Overall, this guy makes me so uncomfortable as he is quite creepy(?) but hey as long as Jess is happy, I’m happy. About half a year ago, I recognize that Jess’s body changed and asked if had her period, she answered no, so we went and got some pregnancy test. Of course, it came back all positive (all three of them).
She stated that she hasn’t had her period for over two months. When we found out, I offered anything I could possibly think of, driving her as she does not have a car or license, offered her financial assistance as I make significantly more then she does and shelter as I own my house and has spare rooms, as she never paid rent in her life (she lived with her mother before she moved in with the old fella).
I basically told her that whatever she needs I will be there, but first thing first we need to go see a OBGYN. She said yes and I drove her home, two days later I asked if she want to book an appointment and when should I take some time off work to take her to these appointments. She basically told me she had her period and she doesn’t think she is pregnant.
I stated ok we still need to go see a doctor and get you check since it may be a miscarriage, she then basically ghosted me. I tried reaching out multiple times and got 0 answers or reply, her mother even reached out to me to see if I have been in contact with her as she had not been in contact with her for awhile, which is super unusual for her as we are constantly in contact.
I was super worried about her well being as the old fella might be controlling and telling her that she can’t share her pregnancy with anyone, as we live in a small town. After three weeks of trying to contacting her, I gave up and told her that if she doesn’t want my help or want me in her life anymore I will be happy to cut contact with her. No reply. So I blocked her number, her social media.
Now half a year later, I found out she is very pregnant, still living with the old fella that’s probably gonna die sooner than later due to him being an alcoholic and have history of cancer, leaving her with nothing as he does not own anything and lives paycheck to paycheck. AITAH to just leave her knowing that her and the baby will struggle?
​
Comments
​
skorvia
NTA
She has what she looked for, she also stopped talking to you, she abandoned you and preferred to stay with an old man twice her age. She stopped talking to you, why should you be the one to come back?
OOP: I guess I just want to get through her what she’s signing up for if she does not have any support, she hates her mother and has no other friends.
redditreader_aitafan
old man almost 3 times her age with grandchildren her age.
​
**Judgement - NTA*\*
​
Update - 4 months later
​
Jess(24) had the baby, and after 10 months of no contact, she reached out.
We went for coffee, and she updated me what happened in those 10 months, and admitted she cut me off on purpose, as she is jealous of my accomplishments. The 70 year old baby daddy is now 71 and he asked not to be on the birth certificate and he’s not, he hid the baby from his family (3 adult kids in their 40s). He was not there during the delivery and didn’t even bother going to the hospital.
She got kicked out of his apartment and living with her abusive mother, where she desperately wanna move out. The reason why she reached out is due to she ran out of money due to her shopping addiction and she now needs support. She asked if she could stay at one of my rental properties for free or if she can borrow some money from me.
It was a pretty easy decision for me, as I told her straight up that I’m not a ATM machine and if she would’ve kept me as a friend 10 months ago I would’ve consider to help her. However, I am still willing to be friends and work on our friendship. She was pretty upset about it and said that since I am so well off I should help her. I told her no again and said we will revisit this conversation again if we maintain friends.
Well, since that conversation I invited her to have lunch and coffee a few times. And stop paying for things and driving her around like I did before.
She pretty much stopped communicating with me immediately.
I guess my question is AITAH to put her out on the streets?
​
Comments
​
dheffe01
NTA, its called child support for a reason she needs to get it
OOP: Can she get child support if he’s not on the birth certificate?
dheffe01
the court can compel a DNA test especially if its evident they have been in a relationship
​
Carolinamama2015
NTA, she has made her choices, just cause she let the babies father off the hook( for truly no good reason) it's not anyone else's job to step up and support her child. She has options. She could've put him on the birth certificate She could file for child support through the courts.
OOP: I feel bad for the baby as he would be high risk for health problems in the future due to the father’s old age.
​
Chaoticgood790
Imagine Fing an old dude and not securing money. Your friend is a few crayons short and all that. She can get a job like everyone else
OOP: She had a job as a janitor, but now on EI (employment Insurance) due to maternity leave.
​
Guilty-Web7334
Oh, I take it you’re in Canada? At his age, he’d be receiving Canadian pension. Are there survivorship benefits with Canadian Pension plan like there is with US social security? As an aside, though, if she’s low income with no father on record, her Child Tax Benefit will be minimum $600-700/month. So she should be somewhat okay between EI, CTB, and the Baby Bonus. Not rolling in it, but if her mother isn’t making her pay rent/utilities, she should be okay. She just has to not be an idiot.
OOP: Yes, I am in Canada. He has pension, old age pension, Canadian pension plan AND income from working. She has Child Benefits which is $660 per month. EI which is $800 something bi-weekly (or weekly). But she has shopping addiction, each time we go out she spends $200 on random stuff like new clothes or jewelries. No child support from baby daddy so far tho.
​
MtnMoose307
So NTA. I can't recall a post on Reddit where one person could make. so. many. stupid. choices.
OOP: I think she made these decisions due to no life experience, she’s 24 turning 25 now. But never paid rent or have a drivers license.
​
Pretty_Little_Mind
She’s a fool if she’s doesn’t file for child support and establishes paternity through the courts. If the man dies while her child is a minor, I would think the child would receive SS benefits. That being said, she does not sound trustworthy or prudent with money.
OOP: She said the guy “promised” to leave some money in his will. Nothing is written down obviously.
Pretty_Little_Mind
Uh huh. My first comment stands. And what money? He lives paycheck to paycheck.
OOP: I’m just waiting to see when she would realize that he’s not paying.
​
I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments
submitted by SharkEva to BORUpdates [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:58 tinyglittertitties Am I loosing weight too quickly? Is semiglutide fixing something else?

*losing - my b
TLDR: losing weight surprisingly fast on a low dosage, curious if it’s because of a different issue that is being fixed with ozempic other than hunger suppression (like giving me normal hormone levels or something)
I started semaglutide one month ago. My dosage is .25mg, but the dr told me to start taking .5mg today.
In the past month, I have lost 15 pounds (190 to 175, I am 5’8 & pretty muscular) and I’m concerned I’m losing too much too quickly. It’s kinda crazy to see, because I really feel like I haven’t changed my lifestyle habits that much (or maybe I’m not noticing it). For example, I still have some nights where I binge eat, but it’s a slightly less amount than I used to without the medication. I am unable to workout due to an injury but I do walk at least a mile a day.
Anyways, I’m wondering if this has to do with something that’s wrong with my body? What I mean is that before taking this medication and my injury, I would workout 5-6X a week and eat pretty healthy but still gain weight. Nothing I did would help and I’m even on adderall which meant I didn’t eat much during the week. I got tests done for PCOS & other blood tests for my thyroid/hormone levels, and the doc said everything was normal (other than a ton of follicles in my ovaries lol). My mom has PCOS and thyroid issues which is why I thought I might. This was super frustrating because there had to be something wrong…has anyone been in a similar position? I will say the hormone test were very basic and my general doctor is questionable 😂
Grateful for any advice!!
submitted by tinyglittertitties to Semaglutide [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:46 Key-Palpitation854 BRAND BUILDING

In the intricate process of brand building, there are numerous pitfalls that brands must navigate to maintain a positive reputation and resonate with their target audience. Avoiding these pitfalls is crucial for establishing a strong and enduring brand presence. Here are some common mistakes to avoid in brand building:
  1. **Inconsistency**: Consistency is key in brand building. Inconsistencies in messaging, visual identity, and customer experience can confuse consumers and dilute your brand's impact. Avoid mixed messages and ensure that all brand elements align cohesively to convey a clear and unified identity.
  2. **Lack of Authenticity**: Authenticity is essential for building trust and credibility with consumers. Avoid the temptation to portray your brand in a way that doesn't align with its values or mission. Authenticity resonates with consumers on a deeper level and fosters genuine connections that can lead to long-term loyalty.
  3. **Ignoring Customer Feedback**: Customer feedback is invaluable in brand building. Ignoring or dismissing feedback can lead to missed opportunities for improvement and damage to your brand's reputation. Actively listen to your customers, address their concerns, and incorporate their feedback into your brand strategy.
  4. **Overpromising and Underdelivering**: Making grand promises that your brand can't fulfill is a surefire way to erode trust and credibility. Be realistic in your brand messaging and ensure that you can deliver on the promises you make to consumers. Consistently exceeding expectations will help build a positive reputation and foster loyalty.
  5. **Ignoring Social Responsibility**: In today's socially conscious landscape, consumers expect brands to take a stand on important social and environmental issues. Ignoring social responsibility or engaging in practices that harm people or the planet can result in backlash and damage to your brand's reputation. Align your brand with causes that reflect your values and demonstrate genuine commitment to making a positive impact.
  6. **Failing to Adapt to Change**: Markets, consumer preferences, and technologies are constantly evolving. Failing to adapt to these changes can leave your brand behind the curve and irrelevant to your target audience. Stay agile and proactive in responding to shifts in the market landscape to remain competitive and resonate with consumers.
  7. **Neglecting Employee Engagement**: Your employees are ambassadors of your brand and play a crucial role in delivering on your brand promise. Neglecting employee engagement can lead to disengaged staff, poor customer service, and a negative brand image. Invest in training, communication, and empowerment to ensure that your employees are aligned with your brand values and motivated to deliver exceptional experiences.
  8. **Ignoring Brand Perception**: Perception is reality in brand building. Ignoring how your brand is perceived by consumers and stakeholders can lead to missed opportunities and reputational damage. Monitor brand sentiment, gather feedback, and proactively manage your brand's reputation to ensure that it remains positive and aligned with your objectives.
  9. **Short-Term Thinking**: Building a strong brand takes time and requires a long-term perspective. Focusing solely on short-term gains or quick fixes can undermine your brand's credibility and sustainability. Invest in building enduring relationships with consumers and prioritize long-term brand-building strategies over short-term gains.
  10. **Failure to Differentiate**: In a crowded marketplace, it's essential to differentiate your brand from competitors. Failing to establish a unique value proposition or effectively communicate what sets your brand apart can result in being lost in the noise. Identify and emphasize your brand's distinctive qualities to stand out and capture consumers' attention.
In conclusion, avoiding these common pitfalls is essential for successful brand building. By prioritizing consistency, authenticity, customer feedback, social responsibility, adaptability, employee engagement, brand perception, long-term thinking, and differentiation, brands can build strong and resilient identities that resonate with their target audience and withstand the test of time.
To know more about brand building click here
To visit our home page Idigitalboost
submitted by Key-Palpitation854 to FinancialCareers [link] [comments]

http://swiebodzin.info