So I’m trying to find what game it was, but there use to be a few different sims games I had on my PS vita years ago. They were kind of odd, and one of them had a sort of saloon, but across the street was a weird building that had a cow slave inside that was either being milked or had big udders. That is literally all I remember and the whole thing felt like a fever dream. Please tell me one of y’all know what I’m talking about!?

Himiko slouched in her seat during class with her head propped into the palm of her hand as her history teacher, Mr. Tezuki, droned on. Her eyelids were about to droop completely when, suddenly, a small, flat, square object flew onto her desk. She snapped to attention, too afraid to scream. She realized that it was just a folded piece of paper. She smiled and turned around to see Kokichi, who was waving to her a few desks behind. Even though they could have just texted each other like normal teenagers, Kokichi loved the old school way of passing notes because they were more likely to be caught by Mr. Tezuka, which made things challenging and far more exciting. Himiko opened up the folded note, and read in Kokichi's playful handwriting:
Mr. Tezuka's kinda boring, huh? Himiko smiled and rolled her eyes.
Well...kinda, she replied. I am trying to keep myself from falling asleep. Feeling safe enough to pass the note back, she turned to Kokichi and swiftly flung it back to him. He opened the note and giggled at what she wrote. He wrote his response, and chucked the note back to Himiko.
Sooo...what'cha doin' after school? Himiko thought to herself. She didn't really have any plans other than the usual: go home, take a nap, wake up, eat dinner, then hang out with Kokichi until bedtime. Nothing different. She finally scribbled her response.
Same old, same old. She then folded the note back up. Making sure Mr. Tezuka's back was still turned to her, she quickly whirled around and tossed the note back to Kokichi. Some of the students rolled their eyes in annoyance. Kokichi scribbled his next response, then tossed it back.
Boooring! Wanna hang out after school, instead? Himiko frowned in confusion. She turned back to Kokichi, who was grinning slyly at her. She turned back to the note and wrote:
But...we pretty much always do that. She tossed the note back to Kokichi. She watched Kokichi grinning mischievously as he wrote. He tossed the note back to Himiko.
I have a feeling we'll have no choice this time. Himiko stared at it, completely puzzled. What in the world was he talking about?
"Miss Yumeno, are you paying attention?" the teacher asked. Himiko gasped and looked up. The teacher had his arms crossed, and was tapping his foot expectantly.
"No!" Taka answered. "She and Kokichi have been passing around notes while you weren't looking!"
"Geez...nobody likes a snitch, y'know?" Kazuichi said.
"But, it's true!" Taka continued. "And not only is it true, it's also very disruptive!" He looked back and forth between Kokichi and Himiko. "Kokichi, Himiko, you should think more about your classmates, and not yourselves! Think of all the learning you're missing out on!"
"Wooow, you're right, Taka!" Kokichi replied with a cheeky grin. "My bad! Hey! Maybe Mr. Tezuka can totally forgive us for not paying attention in class, riiight, Mr. Tezuka? Besides, there's nothing juicy written on that note, anyways, so it's not like we'll get in trouble for it!" Himiko's eyes widened as she remembered the first thing Kokichi had written down, and her response to it. She turned and shook her head furiously at him, trying to get him to shut up. Kokichi merely kept grinning at her. "Yup! There's no reason why we should be in trouble!" Mr. Tezuka narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kokichi.
"Miss Yumeno...the note?" he said, holding his hand out to Himiko. Himiko sighed as she gingerly handed him the note, glaring at Kokichi. Mr. Tezuka read it and sighed. "Glad to know I bore some of my students, and that you two find it very amusing. If you think it's boring in here with me, Mr. Ouma and Miss Yumeno, just think how bored you'll be...in detention." Himiko gasped and stared at him in horror.
"Nyeeeeh...detention?!" she exclaimed.
"May Neptune have mercy on your soul," Mr. Tezuka droned. "Now...moving on..." Himiko couldn't believe it. She'd never been in detention before. She felt like shaking some sense into Kokichi. She turned to him with an incredulous expression, but all he did was smile and shrug in response. She felt a lump in her throat as she tried to keep tears from falling out of her eyes. The only thing that stopped them from falling was Usami suddenly appearing seemingly out of nowhere in front of the classroom.
"Attention, students! I have an important announcement!" she announced grandly.
"Greeeaaat," Mr. Tezuka sighed, plopping himself in his chair.
"I would like to announce that Hope's Peak will be doing the annual surprise field trip next month!" Usami continued.
"Surprise field trip?!" Sonia repeated. "You mean...a field trip that is completely a surprise?!"
"Yes...hence the words, 'surprise field trip,' " Usami said. "Next month on the 11th, all students at Hope's Peak Academy will be taken to a surprise location! But...in order to make the trip possible, some of you students will have to volunteer for the ever-popular cookie sale to raise money!"
"That shouldn't be too difficult, right?" Sayaka said, glancing over at Teruteru. "After all, Teruteru is the Ultimate Coo-...er, Chef. I'm sure he can bake the best cookies ever!"
"That's right!" Hina agreed. "On his own, he can raise enough money for, like, two trips, or something!"
"I'm very happy to hear two amazingly cute girls like yourselves have so much faith in my abilities as a chef," Teruteru said, eyeing Sayaka and Hina lustfully. "By the way, what are you two doing after school?"
"Ugh...not you, creep!" Hina scoffed in disgust, holding her hand up to him.
"No need to worry, Usami," Angie chimed in. "We can leave this all up to Teruteru!"
"Ha! We'll be goin' on that surprise trip by the time this week is over!" Miu said cockily.
"That's a relief," Kazuichi said. "I sure as heck didn't think anyone would wanna do this."
"I actually did," Rantaro admitted. "But, if it's going to be that easy with Teruteru around, I guess there's no point in the rest of us doing anything, huh?" The others murmured in agreement. Kokichi had to admit that selling cookies sounded like fun, especially if it meant conning people. He eyed Teruteru deviously. Everyone was relying on him to sell cookies, but Kokichi had other plans for him.
After class ended, Himiko stomped out of the classroom, not bothering to wait for Kokichi. She didn't care about cookies. She didn't care about the surprise field trip. She didn't care about anything but wanting today to end already. She angrily threw open her locker door, thrusting her history book into it.
"Himiko!" Kokichi ran up to Himiko. Himiko ignored him, grabbing her book for next class. "Himiko...come on." Kokichi gently tugged at the hem of her jacket, trying to get her attention. Himiko continued to ignore him as she slammed her locker door shut and marched off. Kokichi blocked her path and sighed with a look of genuine guilt on his face. "Okay, okay...I'm sorry I got you in trouble, Himiko." Himiko eyed him like she wanted to strangle him.
"Why did you do that?!" she growled. Kokichi gently pulled her to the side so they could talk without getting in the way of the other students.
"Just thought it'd be something different," he replied with a small shrug.
"Something different?!" Himiko repeated.
"Yeah, I mean...like you said in the note, you're always doing the same old thing everyday after school," Kokichi explained.
"And, so you thought you'd drag me to detention?!" Himiko hissed.
"Not you, us," Kokichi corrected. "And, sure, why not?" Himiko stared at him in utter disbelief. Kokichi chuckled. "Look, Himiko, detention's not that bad. Especially if this is your first time. All you do is just sit in a classroom and talk or do homework for, like, an hour, or two. You're not gonna get suspended, or expelled, or go to prison, or anything like that. It's not bad, I promise." Himiko calmed down a little.
"And you mean it?" she mumbled.
"Yup!" Kokichi replied. "It's only bad if you keep getting detention over and over again, but seeing as this is your first time, you'll be alright, Monkey Buns." He patted her shoulder comfortingly. Himiko sighed.
"Well...okay, then," Himiko said. "But, I'm still a little mad at you." Kokichi poked his lower lip out and leaned his forehead against Himiko's.
"Aw...I just wanted to hang out with my Monkey Buns," he said.
"Then all you had to do was invite me to the park, or to the ice cream parlor, or something not related to delinquency," Himiko said.
"But we've been to those places already," Kokichi said.
"You've been to detention before," Himiko pointed out.
"Mm-hmm, but you haven't," Kokichi replied, wiggling an eyebrow at her. Himiko sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Okaaaay," she mumbled.
"Sweet!" Kokichi said, and kissed her cheek. "I'll pick you up from your last class, and we'll go to the detention room from there, 'kay? Besides, we have some things to talk about!"
"Nyeh? Like what?"
"Nee-heehee...I'll tell you in detentiiiooon," Kokichi sang. Himiko shook her head at him.
"You're not making this any easier for me," she said.

"Tell you what, HimiCocoa Bean, on the way back from detention, we'll swing by the convenience store, and I'll buy you aaanything you want, m'kay?" Kokichi offered. A smile crept across Himiko's face.
"Nyeh...now you're talking," she answered.
Part Two
Hand in hand, Kokichi walked Himiko to the detention classroom located in the basement of Hope's Peak.
"Nyeh...why is the detention classroom in the basement?" Himiko asked as she and Kokichi headed deeper down the stairs into the dark. They came to a corridor with many doors on either side. It looked more like a dungeon than a school basement. At the end of the long corridor was a lone door, and that's where Kokichi and Himiko were headed.
"Pretty creepy, huh?" Kokichi said, grinning with amusement. "It's part of the reason why I wanted you to come here."
"It feels more like...like...we're going to our execution, or something," Himiko said, holding tighter to Kokichi's hand.
"Right?" Kokichi said. "I can hear the execution music going, 'wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-oooo-wah-wah-wah!'"
"What song is that?" Himiko asked, raising a brow. Kokichi shrugged.
"I dunno...it just seems like that's how execution music would go," he said. They reached the door and Kokichi opened it. The room was in chaos. Himiko was surprised to see a few people in there, like Ibuki, Toko, Mukuro, and Ryoma. The others, Leon, Yasuhiro, Hifumi, Junko, Mondo, Hiyoko, and Akane...not so much. Leon was shooting spitballs at Hifumi, Ibuki was playing loud punk music on her headphones while headbanging and air guitaring, Toko was busy screaming her head off at Ibuki because she needed to concentrate on her next book, Junko was talking and laughing obnoxiously to someone on her smartphone while Mukuro stood next to her with a sad face, Mondo was arm wrestling Hiro, who was screaming from the pain, Akane was hopping across the desks like they were an obstacle course of some sort, Hiyoko was shouting at everyone to shut up, and Ryoma merely sat there, throwing paper airplanes at nothing in particular. The librarian in charge of the students, Miss Yamane, merely ignored the students as she sat at the large desk in front of the classroom, reading a book. Himiko stood there in dumbfounded silence. Kokichi grinned impishly at her.
"Welcome to detention, Monkey Buns," he said, and led her inside. They checked in with Miss Yamane before sitting down. Kokichi pulled a desk right next to his so that Himiko would be close to him. "Incoming spitball!" he warned, and grabbed Himiko. They both ducked as Leon shot another spitball at Hifumi.
"Mr. Kuwata, stop that right now!" Hifumi demanded.
"Hahaha...make me, fatty!" Leon sneered, and shot another spitball. Then, he pointed at Himiko. "Hey, look! It's the little witch bitch!" Everyone stopped what they wee doing and looked at Himiko in surprise.
"Himiko? What are you doing here?" Ibuki asked in shock.
"So far...not liking it," Himiko muttered.
"I can help you with that," Leon said. He wadded a small piece of paper up and popped it into his mouth, making sure to make it extra wet with his saliva. He put the straw up to his mouth and shot a spitball at Himiko. It landed on her cheek with a wet smack!
"H-Heeey!!" she cried in disgust. Kokichi wiped it off of her.
"Hey, Leon! Nobody makes my Supreme Lady wet but me!" Kokichi cried. He pulled out a rubber band and shot it at Leon, striking him right between the eyes.
"OW!!!" Leon screamed. Kokichi kept shooting rubber bands at Leon. Leon tried to block, but the rubber bands hurt his hands and arms, as well. "Ow! Ouch!! Stop tha-OUCH, DUDE!!! I GET IT!!! JUST STOP!!!" Kokichi finally stopped. Leon glared at Kokichi as he rubbed the spots on his body that were hit by the rubber bands. Kokichi sat back down and checked on Himiko.
"You okay, HimiCocoa Bean?" he asked. Himiko nodded.
"Yeah," she replied. "How long do we have to stay here again?"
"About two hours," Kokichi replied. Himiko sighed.
"I don't think I'll be able to last," she said.
"Oh...you'll do fine," Kokichi replied nonchalantly.
"Are these guys always in detention?" Himiko asked, looking around.
"Most of them," Kokichi answered. "Toko and Hifumi aren't here as often as everyone else here." Himiko looked over at Mukuro.
"Nyeh...but, what about Mukuro?" Himiko asked. "I don't think she ever misbehaves, or anything."
"She doesn't, but you know how Junko likes dragging her everywhere she goes like she's Junko's personal slave," Kokichi said. Himiko nodded. She felt bad for Mukuro.
"Moo Cow, my feet are getting tired," Junko said, snapping at Mukuro before pointing to the ground. Mukuro sighed and crouched down in front of Junko's desk. Junko placed her feet right on top of Mukuro's back.
"Poor Mukuro," Himiko said softly.
"Welp, not much we can do about that," Kokichi said with a shrug. "Besides, now that we're here, I wanna tell you about the important thing." Himiko brightened a little.
"Oh, yeah!" she said. "What was it?"
"I was thinking that you and I should sell some cookies for the surprise field trip!" Kokichi replied.

"But...I thought everyone was okay with Teruteru selling the cookies on his own," Himiko said.
"Nah, he won't be able to do all that," Kokichi said, waving his hand dismissively. "After all, he's just one guy."
"But he's the Ultimate Chef," Himiko said.
"Trust me, Himiko...his ultimate title won't mean anything," Kokichi said with a devious grin. Himiko still might not know everything about Kokichi, but she spent enough time around him to recognize that grin. He was definitely up to something. She raised a suspicious brow at him.
"What are you-" Himiko began.
"You know, I was thinking about making it a couple competition," Kokichi interrupted. "You know, boyfriend against girlfriend. It's fun being on the same team, but I think it'll also be fun to compete against each other every now and then, too! Know what I mean? We'll see who earns more money in the end!"
"Nyeh...believe me, it won't be much of a competition," Himiko muttered, fiddling with the brim of her hat. "You'll probably win by a landslide."
"You don't know that," Kokichi said. "Where's your competitive spirit, Himiko?"
"I never had one," Himiko replied. "I figured that's something you're born with, and I definitely wasn't born with it."
"You don't need to be born with it, you just need the right attitude," Kokichi said. "You're definitely not gonna sell more cookies if you're moping around all the time, y'know."
"So, you agree with Kaito, then?" Himiko asked, crossing her arms. "The impossible is possible, all you gotta do is make it so?" Kokichi rolled his eyes.
"Himiko, it's not impossible for you to sell cookies," he said. "You just have to-"
"Believe in myself?" Himiko asked with a smirk.
"Be...smart about it," Kokichi corrected.
"In that case, I definitely won't win," Himiko said.
"Himiko, you really need to stop underestimating yourself," Kokichi said with a frown. "How do you know you're not good at something if you won't even try? If you keep talking the way you do, you've already set yourself up for failure. How about instead of whining about how dumb you think you are, try challenging yourself so you can see what you're truly capable of." Himiko looked hurt.
"Sorry," she said, scrunching her shoulders. Kokichi sighed and placed his hand on Himiko's shoulder.
"Look, Himiko, you don't have to do this if you don't want to, but I think you should at least think about it," he said. "It wouldn't hurt to give yourself a chance." Himiko nodded sheepishly.
"Okay..." she said. "I'll think about it."

The US public school system and the public consciousness in general would have us remember that Harriet Tubman only snuck around in the darkness and freed an undetermined amount of slaves. And didn't do much else.
First of all, "Harriet Tubman" is only her second name, her pre Civil War name. She was born as a slave in Maryland, as Araminta Ross, she escaped and changed her name to Harriet Tubman, but immediately before the Civil War she was known colloquially as "Moses" and during the war itself she became known as "General Moses."
She was both the first African American and the first woman to lead US military forces into combat, and she personally freed about ten times more slaves violently than she did in person through the Underground Railroad. She also never lost a military engagement, showing a skill for leading and directing fighting men that was way above the norm.
I'll go into it a little more chronologically.
She was born and enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland. As a young woman, she was hit in the head by a heavy object thrown by an overseer, giving her narcolepsy and vivid dreams for the rest of her life. These dreams led her to believe that God put her on Earth to free slaves and end the institution of slavery. And although the dreams themselves were likely triggered by the brain injury she received when she was young, she met that mission with a determination, efficiency, and ruthlessness that completely overcame her limitations of being a black, former slave, and woman in the 1850s.
In 1849, when she escaped herself, she almost immediately worked odd jobs and gathered funds and support in Philadelphia to go back to Maryland and free her immediate family and friends.
On personal trips she took to free slaves, she only rescued about 70 people total. Which seems low, and people often feel underwhelmed at that number. Even though that's actually a massive number for smuggling easily identified fugitives through hostile territory.
But what Tubman actually did was build a bigger network. She became a fundraiser, and the semi-public face of the Underground Railroad. She interfaced with Frederick Douglas, and other Northern abolitionists. She helped build a network for escaped slaves to escape all the way to Ontario, due to fears of the Fugitive Slave Act forcing Northern states to capture and return freed slaves.
Harriet Tubman did not invent nor control the Underground Railroad. Indeed, it had been a decentralized organization for decades before her birth. But she did flush it with cash and recognition in the 1850s and she energized it to the point that Maryland and Virginia slaveholders were holding meetings about the spike in escaped slaves during that period.
The Underground Railroad is estimated to have freed roughly 100,000 slaves during this period. The margin for error for that is massive, as for obvious reasons records were not kept, but out of a population of roughly 4 million slaves, it was a statistically significant number of people freed.
People started referring to Tubman as "Moses" since she was instrumental in guiding people to a "promised land."
During this period, she met and became allies with John Brown. Brown immediately recognized her as an equal and started calling her "General Tubman," and Tubman immediately started working with him to provide funding and manpower support for his goals on the East Coast. Brown was already known for being a violent slaver-slaughtering insurgent during Bleeding Kansas (another fascinating and important part of history ignored by people in the modern day), and he was not really all that subtle about his reason for being on the East Coast being armed insurrection.
Over several years, Tubman and Brown worked together on the Harper's Ferry armory raid, Tubman soliciting funding from Northern abolitionists and looking for manpower. To put it into context, the Harper's Ferry US Army armory was one of the only two Federal armories in the United States, and one of the only two places the Federal government had the precise machining tools needed to produce firearms directly. Trying to take it and capture it and control it was ambitious, to put it mildly, and massively significant. A modern equivalent would be like trying to take Lockheed Martin's F-35 production line.
However, when the actual raid happened, Tubman was not present. It is unknown if she was never meant to be present, if she was ill and unable to make it, or if she elected not to show up due to her knowing exactly how many people were not coming. Regardless, to the end of her life, Tubman had nothing but praise and admiration for Brown, and she tried to name a building on her 1880s property after him, and undoubtedly would have named a child after Brown if she had been able to have children. Her nephew was also named John, and I highly suspect John Brown was the reason.
Directly before the war broke out, after Lincoln was elected and it became clear that the US federal military would not side with the south in the coming war, she traveled with General Benjamin Butler where he used federal troops to physically occupy Annapolis, Maryland and threatened to arrest any Maryland legislators who voted for secession. Butler is another fascinating historical figure, and pretty damn chaoticgood.
In 1861, the war broke out. Tubman continued to be informally attached to Butler's unit, until Massachusetts Governor John Andrew asked for her assistance in administrating Union occupied areas of South Carolina, and she moved to Port Royal (which is now, incidentally, the famous Parris Island Marine Corps boot camp).
In South Carolina, she worked with a good dozen Northern abolitionists who she had known before the war started, who were now all military leaders. When General David Hunter tried to raise an all black military unit comprised of freed slaves, Lincoln actually pushed back, at which case Tubman penned a scathing criticism of Lincoln that was published in Northern newspapers demanding that slaves be freed.
They soon were, and although Tubman probably can't be directly credited, Lincoln freed slaves for much the same reasons she penned out in her letter.
Before black people were allowed to make their own military unit, Tubman was put in charge of an off the record scouting/spy unit. Tubman was in charge of the budget, giving orders, reporting to superiors, and was treated as a military officer by the men around her. In addition, once freed slaves were allowed to form military units, Col Thomas Higginson with the 1st South Carolina Volunteers and Col James Montgomery of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers started interfacing with Tubman and Tubman would be in operational control during some missions. These units were almost entirely composed of freed slaves, and the men of both white units and black units started calling Tubman "General Moses."
After Tubman devised and led several clandestine raids that freed more slaves, she was put in charge of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. Legally, James Montgomery was in charge, but in his private letters he confirms that General Moses was the true leader of the men. According to the men themselves, it was both, as Montgomery was also an ally of John Brown during Bleeding Kansas and was no stranger to leading freed slaves to slaughter slavers even prewar. The men of the 2nd Carolina loved both General Moses and Col Montgomery, but it should be noted that a general outranks a colonel.
In the raid of Combahee Ferry, Tubman personally directed Union gunboats past Confederate mines that her spy network had mapped the locations of, and then she landed on shore with a force of 150 men and raided three Southern plantations. These plantations were known as the "cradle of secession" and were owned and ran by dynastic old money Southern families who were well known and politically significant in the South.
More than 750 slaves were freed in this raid, with only one death of a slave due to a Confederate shooting her when she was fleeing.
The small Confederate contingent present was annihilated.
At one point in the battle, Confederate troops were firing on one of the ships, and they were destroyed by a full broadside of canons.
One source actually has Tubman's troops literally scalping and then killing any overseers they found, and it is true that zero prisoners were taken in this raid, partially because there was simply no space left after all of the freed slaves they were transporting to safety.
Tubman fought and led in battles as far south as Florida, including the Massachusetts's 54th assault on Fort Wagner (popularized by the movie Glory) and eventually was sent back to the North and hospitalized for sickness until the end of the war.
Unfortunately, after the war, because she was never actually legally in command or even paid by the US Army, her allies fought with Southern politicians for decades to get her paid or even a pension. She was eventually given a widow's pension as a compromise. During the war itself, she was only paid 200 dollars, equivalent to roughly 4 thousand dollars for four years of work in modern terms.
For the rest of her life, Tubman was plagued by money issues. Part of the reason for that is she immediately pivoted to women's suffrage, and even newspapers and allies friendly to black people didn't necessarily agree with her, and she lost some support and funding.
A white woman once interviewed her and asked if women deserved suffrage, as in the right to vote. Tubman replied with "I've suffered enough to believe it."
In 1897, she was invited to a speaking tour and a bunch of celebratory receptions to honor her life, but she was so poor and destitute she had to sell the cow on her upstate New York farm to afford the train tickets to make it.
Tubman's later life is difficult to watch because she basically was absolutely right on everything, and served the United States and humanity well, and basically was never rewarded. She never compromised on her beliefs even once her entire life. She died proud, surrounded by family, but also poor and in relative obscurity.

This is my 1st time doing this, so any tips would be amazing. You can find me on Discord at jaysmoothtv cerdit JayDoseASMR on YouTube if you fill.
Synopsis: You are a Viking Leader Who just raided A town. While looking for anything to take back home, you find something That will change your life.

Clear all the rooms and look for anything we can take back. Gold, food, and water. Nothing gets left behind. I'm going to look in the mayor's home and make sure the boats are ready to go when I come back.
[inside the mayor's home]
(In an angry voice) huh? Who is in here? I can hear you. Come out NOW. Don't make this more challenging than it needs to be.
(in a softer tone) Y- you're just a child. What are you doing here? W-what? You were sold to the mayor as a slave? He had you tied up in here? That coward. Oh no, little one, don't cry. You are safe; that man is gone, and no harm will come to you. Here, come with me. You must be starving if he had you locked in here.
How is your meal, little one? Good? I'm glad little one tell me. Is there any place you can go? Anyone you Can you stay with any friends or family? Nobody? What? Your mother and father left you here? I-I am sorry, little one. I know how hard it is to be alone at your age. Well, little one, how about this? Why don't you come home with me? I will take you somewhere safe. Sound good? Ok, let us go. Take my hand
This is my home, little one. On the left is the blacksmith, where all the axes, swords, and shields are made for battle. Next to that is the barn, where we have all types of farm animals: Pigs, Sheep, cows, chickens, you name it. Over here, we have The Butcher. Next to that is the Taven, where we sing, drink to our fill, play games, and dance the night away. Now come with me. I want to show you something.
This is the Town hall. Yes, it is quite the site. It took us many winters to build. This is a place for everyone to come and join and spend time. Birthdays, weddings, war meetings, everything is held here; come with me. I want to show you something.
This is my room. Yes, it is small, but it does the trick. Sit on my bed, little one. I will start a fire. Ah, nice and warm, huh? What was that little one? What will you be doing here? I don't understand. Tell me what you mean, little one. Will you be a slave here? Oh, little one, no. You will not be a slave. I will not put you through that pain again. Trust me, little one. You will be (pause) My Child. I will give you all the love in the world. I will be here with you for the good, the bad, and the sad. Everything. I will show you all the love you deserve, little one. My little one, How does that sound to you? Good, I am glad. From now on, you are my child, and I will love you forever. Rest now, my child you must be tired. good night (small kiss on the forehead)
END
well, that's my 1st ever scrip. If anyone fills this, that would be dope. Much love

If anyone is interested in grading or looking over my LEQ I would very much appreciate it! I'm also attaching the google doc link for anyone who wants to add specific comments :D
LEQ Prompt: Evaluate the extent trans-Atlantic Voyages affected the Americas during the years 1491-1607
Before Europeans arrived in the Americas, the two continents were already populated by native peoples who formed different societies. Meanwhile in Europe, Spain wanted to find a new trade route to Asia after Portugal’s exploration and trade success and enlisted the help of Columbus. When Columbus arrived in the Americas, everything changed. Trans-Atlantic voyages during the years 1491-1607 greatly affected the Americas through conflicts with Europeans and fellow natives and cooperation through trade and intermixing.
After Columbus arrived in the Americas, more spanish conquistadors arrived with the desire to spread christianity to the natives and more importantly, find gold and wealth. As a result, these conquistadors would cause conflict with the natives. The Aztecs were very aggressive towards the Spanish which led to Noche Triste where they drove the Spanish out. As a result the Spanish returned with their native enemies to drive them out of their lands. This conflict highlights European desire to gain lands and even promoted conflict within natives. As a result, more conflicts would spring up because of Europeans like the Battle of Acoma. Here, the Spanish would drive out the Pueblos out of their lands showing more conflict between the Natives and Europeans as a result of trans-Atlantic voyages. However, conflict didn’t have to rise from wars. There was conflict in the Encomienda System where the Spanish enslaved natives because of their thought that they were barbaric. This greatly increased tensions between natives and Europeans, but it would also later lead to the bringing in of African slaves. As a result, the America’s were transformed by conflict which drove out many native populations and also diversified by the Europeans and blacks.
Not all relationships with the Europeans during this time were violent. Europeans also cooperated with natives during the Columbian Exchange. Europeans from the Old world would introduce goods and animals such as guns, metal tools, pigs, cows, horses, and unfortunately, slaves, while the natives from the New World introduced maize and showed Europeans how to hunt and navigate the lands. However, while this method brought new animals, goods, and people to the continent which transformed the environment, future agriculture, and makeup of the populations, it would also become destructive because the Europeans brought disease. Through this cooperation, many natives would die because of the mass wipeout caused by smallpox lowering the native population of the Americas. However, native populations continue to live on in the mestizo populations. The Spanish, contrary later on to the English, married and had children with natives to promote further cooperation in kinship ties. These children were called mestizos and had a mix of white and native blood. As a result of trans-Atlantic voyages which also brought cooperation with natives, the Americas changed because of the bringing in of new goods and resources, lowering of native populations by disease, and increased in diversity by new peoples such as the Europeans, blacks, and mestizos.
In the end, trans-Atlantic voyages greatly affected the Americas in a variety of ways. Through conflict, natives were driven out of their homes and forced to live under the Encomienda labor system. But through cooperation, the natives were able to gain new resources and goods which forever transformed the geography of the Americas and diversified it by the bringing in of blacks and intermixing which resulted in the mestizos. However, these voyages would also bring in disease like smallpox that would wipe out entire tribes and cultures. As a result, the world, both new and old, would never be the same again because of the trans-Atlantic voyages.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ilawALAwP5ehv1AbKeuBukg33oQADa3fxs4dzrvDt-0/edit?usp=sharing

Earth's orbit experiences an “Orbital Eccentricity”, 100,000 year cycle orbit and inclination variation, going from circular to elliptical, the hemispheres experience more or less sun or exposure to the sun for extended periods, causing ice ages. Scientists estimate we are near the minimum, a 6% change in solar energy. At peak, the earth experiences a change of 30%.
Modern Day Primates, in the wild and captivity, are able to communicate, near and far, using verbal and gesture components, even to other species. Have been observed using wood as tools, and in using medicinal plants to treat wounds.
44 million y a - Hominid ancestors acquire Herpes virus.
10 million y a - Primate ancestors develop genes to digest alcohol.
6 million years ago - Primate ancestors split from Chimpanzee/Bonobo line (15 million DNA mutations have occurred since then; each person born today has 100 mutations distinct to them, most don’t survive.)
5.3 m y a - Mediterranean Sea experiences the Messinian Salinity Crisis, for 600,000 years the Straight of Gibraltar closed off, causing the Mediterranean to shrink down to two inland seas with Italy and Greece separating them. Ends in the Zanclean Flood, a river of Atlantic sea water flows thru Gibraltar and fills the Mediterranean in 2 years.
5 m y a - Arabian-African continent reconnects with Asia. Land based Turtle species start going extinct.
4 - 3 m y a - Hominid ancestors acquire pubic lice from Gorillas (genetic evidence).
3.6 - 2.58 m y a - Considered the Neogene Period.
3.3 m y a - Stone tools found in Kenya and Ethiopia.
2.6 m y a - Mode One Stone Tools found in Ethiopia, would subsequently spread. Flourished to 1.7 million y a in southern and eastern Africa. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Era (2.6 m y a till end of last Ice Age, 11,000 y a). Subdivided into the Early- or Lower Paleolithic (c. 2,6 million years ago - c. 250,000 years ago); the Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000 years ago - c. 30,000 years ago); and the Late- or Upper Paleolithic (c. 50,000/40,000 - c. 10,000 years ago)
2.58 million - 11,700 years ago - Considered the start of the Quaternary Period, and covers the Pleistocene.
2.4 – 1.4 m y a – Homo Habilis (4.5-3.5 feet tall).
2 m years ago - Earliest Hominids start eating meat.
1.9 – 1.8 m y a – Homo Rudolfensis.
1.89 m y a to 110,000 y a - Homo Erectus (first to leave Africa and spread across Asia).
1.8 m years ago - Mode One Stone Tools found on Java.
1.7 m years ago - Mode Two Stone Tools (slicing, hand-axe/butchering, evidence of drilling tools) appear in Kenya and southern Africa.
1.6 m years ago - Mode One Stone Tools found in northern China.
1.6 - 1.5 m y a - Africa, Turkana Boy dies, likely from a tooth cavity infection. He was either 8 or 11-12 years old and 61 inches tall. Brain 880 ccm.
1.5 m y a - Kenya, possible start of Hominids using fire to cook food. (increase in caloric intake, which would lead to evolution; however, Paranthropus Boisei is the local species, brain 500-550 ccm, 54 inches tall)
1 million years ago - Likely split between ancestor of Homo Sapiens and proto-Neanderthal-Denisovan species. (Mitochondrial DNA evidence.) South Africa, evidence of fire use for cooking.
1 m - 700,000 y a - Java, Java Man dies, brain 900 ccm. 5' 8" tall.
900,000 y a – Possible earliest use of boats.
820,000 - 580,000 y a - Durum Wheat develops out of natural hybridization with Einkorn Wheat (genetic analysis).
800,000? y a - Low world temperatures recorded. Height of Ice Age?
790,000 y a - Levant, oldest Fire hearths found. (Homo Heidelbergensis, 1,250 ccm brain, 69 in tall)
740,000? y a - Height of Ice Age?
7-200,000 y a – Homo Heidelbergensis (East Africa and Europe, likely first to hunt large animals with spears)
640,000? y a - Height of Ice Age.
550,000? y a - Height of Ice Age?
540,000 - 430,000 y a - Art: Sea shell formed into decoration by Homo Erectus. (Could indicate when sea shells began to be used as whistles and horns.)
530,000? y a - Interglacial Peak (between Ice Ages, high CO2 content in the atmosphere, 524-474,000).
500,000 y a - South Africa, evidence of Spears. Genetic evidence of Neanderthal spread from Europe to Caspian Sea, Denisovans occupied land from Caspian to the east.
450,000 y a - Earliest physical evidence of Neanderthal.
450,000 y a - Global temperatures had dropped, stayed that way for thousands of years.
430,000 - 230,000 y a - Durum Wheat cross-breeds with wild Goat Grass (genetic analysis).
400,000 y a - Interglacial Peak (between Ice Ages, 424-374,000).
400,000 y a - Germany, oldest Spears found. France (Terra Amata), possible evidence of manmade shelter using prepared wood.
360,000? y a - Height of Ice Age.
335-236,000 y a – Homo Naledi (South Africa, 4’9”)
310,000 y a - Interglacial Peak (between Ice Ages, 337-300,000).
300,000 y a – Mode Three Stone Tools (smaller knife-like, scrapers, developed in Europe by Neanderthals)
300,000-200,000 y a – Africa, Origin of Male Y-Chromosome that all current males are descended from. (40% of males do not reproduce.)
270,000? y a - Height of Ice Age.
240,000 y a - Interglacial Peak (between Ice Ages, 242–230,000).
200,000 y a - France, evidence of Neanderthals fishing. Africa, "Mitochondrial Eve," source of all Human Haplo-groups that everyone is descended from, existed at this time.
194,000-135,000 y a - Penultimate Glacial Period.
190,000 y a - Early physical evidence of Denisovans. (At least three interbreeding events would occur with Homo Sapiens. EPAS1 gene, hemoglobin concentration, Tibetan plateau.)
190,000-50,000 y a - Flores Island, evidence of tool use by the Human Hobbit.
170,000 - 80,000 y a - Body Lice evolve (genetic evidence, feed on human skin, live in clothing; evidence of clothing)
164,000 y a – South Africa, heat treating Silcrete Stone to enhance stone tool production.
140,000 y a - Homo Sapiens found in Europe.
130,000 y a - Evidence of humans in North America. Crete, earliest human settlements found on the island. Art: Neanderthal necklace made of eagle talons. Croatia: Neanderthal teeth show possible dental work.
125,000 y a - Interglacial Peak (between Ice Ages, 130-115,000). Sea levels 4-6 meters (18 feet) higher then today.
110,000-15,000 y a - Last Glacial Period. Grey Wolves would migrate from North America back to Asia prior to the maximum.
100,000-60,000 y a - Flores Island, bone fossil evidence of the Human Hobbit.
100,000 y a - Oldest example of proper human burial. South Africa, Pigment (paint) Creation Kit found. (would cover bodies in mud/clay and then spray the paint over the bodies, sun screen-protection from insects)
90,000 y a – Harpoons.
86,000-37,000 y a – Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens begin interbreeding, based on genetic evidence found so far.
75,000 years ago - Likely rise of Hunter Genotype in Homo Sapiens.
75,000 y a - Art: Drilled snail shells found in South African cave.
73,000 y a - South Africa (Blombos Cave), evidence of Red Ochre art on pieces of stone, stone with deliberate lines cut into it possibly representing count marks.
72,000 y a - South Africa, Beads found in cave.
70,000 y a - Mitochondrial DNA suggests this is when the Haplo-group of early humans migrated out of Africa to populate the rest of the world.
70-60,000 y a - Earliest evidence of bone and stone arrowheads (for Spear Throwers), found in South Africa. 64,000?
70,000 - 35,000 BCE - Neanderthal burials in Europe and Middle East.
68-16,000 y a – Smallpox evolves from an African Rodent Virus.
67,000 BCE - France, burial shows skulls with Trepanation (cutting holes to relieve brain pressure), earliest example of surgery.
65,000 y a - First humans settle Australia.
64,000 y a - Spain, oldest evidence found of Cave Art (Neanderthal hand).
61,000 y a - South Africa, possible evidence of a Sewing Needle.
60,000? y a - Height of Ice Age?
60,000 y a - Evidence of man/Neanderthal using herbal medicine.
55,000 - 40,000 y a - Italy, evidence of Neanderthal using Pine Tree Resin and Beeswax for hafting tools, in cave. (Beeswax can be used in making Candles.)
52,000 y a - Last evidence of Denisovans.
52,000 – 41,000 y a – Archaeological find of “Bast” tree fiber twisted into primitive cordage, possibly as handle for a Stone Tool. (meaning they had access to Clothing, Nets, Cord for Fishing or Hafting tools, rope; thinking processes of Counting, Sets, Patterns, and possibly abstract thinking)
50,000 - 10,000 y a - Mode Four Stone Tools (long blades).
50,000 y a - Australia, last evidence of megafauna. Siberia, needle made from bone found in Denisovan cave. Genetic evidence of Neanderthal spreading to western edge of China.
50,000 years ago - End point of development of Gatherer Genotype (can survive famine), Teacher Genotype (can handle new and different environments, analytical).
45,000 y a - Evidence of Neanderthal and Homo Sapien interbreeding. (Fossil found, DNA tested.) (France, to create stone tools required precision, “Soft Hammers” were likely used.)
44,000 y a - Evidence of art found in Indonesia.
44,000-40,000 y a - Europe experiences cold and dry weather, displacing populations.
43-42,000 y a - Germany, oldest musical instruments (flutes) found.
42,000 y a - Australia, skeleton of man suggests Atlatl use, pre-dating earliest evidence; earliest example of cremation found. Spain, small amounts of Natural Gold found in a cave.
40,000 y a - (Mankind is at the “Forager” level.) Last evidence of Neanderthal. (Inheritance of "STAT2" gene, immune response. HYAL2 gene, helps skin recover from sunburns.) China, test on body found that ate a lot of fresh water fish. Possible example of oldest petroglyphs. Beads found in Lebanon.
40,000 - 26,000 y a - Studying toe bones, showed they became smaller and weaker, indicating shoes were worn. Prior to this, shoes were likely bags wrapped around feet to protect from cold.
38,000 BC - First appearance of Mode Five Ground Stone tools on Japan. (rock was quarried; thin slivers of flint stone, attached to hafts, man is learning the use of a "handle" for tools and "leverage", create Adzes, Celts, and Axes; grinding helps to penetrate trees and was likely discovered when grinding plant matter; found buried with owners; were traded) Lasted till 14,000 BC. (Would not become popular elsewhere until 10,000 BC?) Germany: Clay Figurine featuring human with lion like appearance, thought to be earliest representation of a Deity.
35,000 BCE - Europe, earliest examples of "Venus figurines" found buried in graves (some showing they were deliberately broken or stabbed repeatedly); would later spread to rest of Eurasia. Early examples of skulls and long bones showing red ochre, indicating possible relic worship.
35,000 y a - Germany, flute made from a vulture bone found.
30,000 BCE – Solomon Islands, first humans settle (60 km sea voyage).
31,000 - 27,000 y a - Evidence of Pit Fire (Earthernware) Pottery developing.
30,000-20,000 years ago - Explorer genotype (Ice Age refugees, idiosyncratic, asymmetrical, contrarian mentality)
30,000 y a - Evidence of starch residue on rocks, indicating where plant matter was pounded and ground. (Would likely be the pre-cursor of developing bread from roots of cattails and ferns. Quern Grinding Stones would spread and gain popularity.) Georgia, Flax used as a textile (harvested, dyed, and knotted) found in Dzudzuana Cave. Fertile Crescent, Einkorn wheat harvested in it's wild form. Evidence of man using the Atlatl. Poland: Boomerang carved from mammoth tusk found. France, Lunar Calendar. Likely when Bolas (stone weight(s) and length of cord) began to be used.
28,000 y a - Europe, oldest evidence of rope.
25,000 - 15,000 BCE - Blood Type A develops in the Fertile Crescent. (able to survive Plague, Cholera, Smallpox)
27,000 y a - Australia, oldest example of petroglyphs found. Czech Republic, earliest example of "Weaving" of material together to create baskets and basic cloth. (Leads to counting and simple math, organizing.)
26,000-13,300 y a - Considered "Glacial Maximum", ice sheets extend to the 45th parallel north. (26,500 considered to be maximum glacial reach.)
23,000 - 12,000 y a – Europe, Perforated Batons found, made of antler, assumed to be a form of Atlatl that uses a leather strap or string to wrap around the spear and give it a slight spin, arrow or spear thrower (similar to Swiss Arrow). Right and left handed throwers find preference. Most carved with Horses, have one or two holes (one had 8 holes).
23,000 y a - Israel, Ohalo archaeological site, hunter-gatherer society (6 brushwood shelters, 132 stone tools some attached to hafts, stone Sickles, dwellings showed flint tools were made at entrance, cooking at other end, grind stone showed sand and cobbles to place and had U-shape of seeds around it) that grew/harvested Barley, Millet, Bromus (grass in same tax tribe as wheat/barley/rye, can be used for fermenting beverages, can be eaten by humans and animals), Rubus (same family as Rose plants, similar to blackberries), and various fruits (seeds from 13 different species), earliest evidence for “Bedding” material.
22,000 – 17,000 y a – France, Solutrean inhabitants make use of Antler.
21,000-17,000 y a - France, Atlatl's found in caves.
20,000 y a - Height of the Ice Age, sea levels 120 meters (360 feet) lower. Mode Five Stone Tools (microliths glued to handles, Fertile Crescent). Earliest example of a building/house found. Ukraine, Bullroarer (wood on rope that is swung around to create sound over long distance) found. Iraq-Iran, Zarzian Culture, had domesticated Dogs.
19,050? - 13,050 y a - Oldest Dryas Period, stadial, abrupt cooling period. Sea levels rose 10-15 m in 500 years.
17,000 BCE - Mesopotamia, Wild Emmer Wheat harvested.
18,000 - 17,500 y a - Siberia, earliest example of a domesticated dog found frozen. Germany, Bow and Arrows found. Early evidence of Darts used.
18,000 y a - Japan, oldest pottery discovered.
15,100 - 14,000 y a - Morocco, earliest example of a cemetery.
15,000 y a – Mode Five Stone Tools reach Europe. Southern France, cave art depicting possible Musical Bow, Nose Flute; "The Sorcerer," a figure showing human and many animal qualities (bison), made out of Clay.
15,000 – 10,000 y a – France, Stone Oil Lamps.
14,500 y a - Oldest example of bread making, Jordan desert.
14,160 - 13,820 y a - Archaeological find: infected tooth partially cleaned out with flint tools.
14,600 - 13,600 y a - "Melt Water Pulse," sea levels rose 16-24 m.
14,000? y a - Older Dryas Period, around 200 year cooling period.
13,500 - 8,200 y a - China, wild Rice domestication event occurs.
15-10,000 BCE - Himalayas, development of Blood Type B.
11,050 BCE - Syria, attempts at domesticating Rye.
13,000 y a - Greece, evidence of lentils found. Earliest evidence of Amber used in jewelry. Israel, archaeological evidence of beer like gruel for ceremonial purposes found at Haifa. Likely beginning of Slavery.
13,000 - 12,700 y a - Fertile Crescent, archaeological evidence of man corralling and using pigs.
12,900 - 11,700 y a - The Younger Dryas Period, when temperatures went cold instead of warming from the Last Glacial Maximum.
10,000 BCE - Jericho, considered mankind's first town, is established. Buildings of clay and straw, dead buried under homes. (Would reach 70 dwellings by 94,000 BCE.) Chickpeas domesticated. Earliest evidence of the Bottle Gourd being domesticated and used (Africa and Asia variety). Azerbaijan (Caspian Sea), petroglyphs of reed boats. Starting point of Ocarina type flutes. Cyprus, humans arrive. Germany, Jet artifact (Botfly larvae, which can be eaten). Curved Stone Oil Lamps.
11,700 y a - Considered the beginning of the Holocene.
9600 BCE - Southern Levant, earliest use of wild Emmer Wheat.
11,500 - 11,000 y a - "Melt Water Pulse," sea levels rose 28 m.
11,400 y a - Cypress, archaeological evidence of pigs (indicating they had been domesticated and brought from the mainland).
9400 - 9200 BCE - Jordan Valley, Fig trees found, indicating earliest agriculture since these trees could not reproduce.
9130 - 7370 BCE - SE Turkey, Gobekli Tepe, oldest known worship location.
9000 BCE - Syria, oldest (Saddle) Quern found. Mesopotamia, Copper first used. Bartering of Cattle and agricultural products likely occurring at this time.
9000 - 3300 BCE - Neolithic Era, roughly. Time period of when man has begun herding, before using bronze.
11,000 - 9,000 y a - Mesopotamia, domestication of Sheep; Rammed Earth construction technique developed. Iran, Domestication of Goat (focused on management of the animal, varieties would come later).
11,000-4,000 years ago - Warrior genotype (farmers, soldiers, inventors); Nomad genotype (life upon a horse, can handle different environments, good immune system)
11 or 10,000 y a - Last Ice Age ends.
8800 BCE - Emmer Wheat spreads beyond the Levant.
8700 BCE - Iraq, Copper pendant.
8500 BCE - Domestication of Barley. Domestication of peas occurs around this time. Turkey, Beer production found at Gobekli Tepe. Domestication of Cattle from the Aurochs (two separate populations, one in Mesopotamia [pop. 80], the other Pakistan). (Rendering cattle bones into Tallow allows for the creation of Candles. Beeswax also used.) Oregon, oldest pair of shoes found made from bark twine. Oats possibly start to be harvested, crop mirrors wheat (is like a weed).
8400 BCE – Cyprus, earliest dug Water Well (26 ft).
10,300 - 8,700 y a - China, Millet harvested.
10,200 - 9,500 y a - Emmer Wheat domesticated(?).
10,000 - 7,000 y a - Archaeological evidence of boats.
8000 BCE (10,000 years ago) – Genetic evidence of breeding Pigeons. Palestine, archaeological evidence of pastoralism. Pre-Pottery Neolithic people in the Fertile Crescent form perfectly smooth stone vases. Iran, Goat domestication. Believed to be when primitive dairy-cheese making began. Flax cultivation. China, Quern Grinding Stones. England, Antler used in headdress costume.
9,500 y a - Cyprus, earliest evidence of cat domestication. SE Anatolia, cold-working, annealing, smelting, lost wax casting of Copper.
7570 BCE – Indus Valley, Lapis Lazuli artifacts.
7500 - 5700 BCE - Anatolia, Catal Hoyuk develops as a spiritual center, found many clay figurines and impressions (feminine, phallic, hunting).
7400 BCE - A monolith ends up submerged in the Straight of Sicily.
7176 B.C. – Earth hit by one of the most massive Solar Storms from the sun ever recorded (visible at night with the magnetic field interaction).
7000 BCE - Archaeological evidence for pastoralism in Africa. China: evidence of mead (honey, rice, water fermented) in pottery; evidence of musical instruments. India, first archaeological evidence of Dance (cave art); evidence of dentistry. Armenian Highlands, art depictions of Cymbals. Durum Wheat made thru artificial selection in Europe and Near East. Greece, earliest evidence of grain silos. Turkey, Catal Hoyuk, art depiction of a Slinger. Afghanistan, Lapis Lazuli mined and traded to Indus and Mesopotamia societies. Europe, Cave Wall art of Honey Collecting.
7000 - 6600 BCE - China, domestication of Soy beans.
7000 - 6000 BCE - Turkey, domestication of Bitter Vetch. (Too bitter for human consumption without being boiled several times, has been found to be great for cattle feed.)
6500-3800 BCE - Ubaid Period (Mesopotamian citystates rise, evidence of specialized workers, evidence of taxation)
6500 BCE - Turkey, evidence of lead smelting at Catal Hoyuk. (Wrapping the dead in textiles, too.) China, archaeological evidence of Silk. Kosovo, oldest Ocarina found in Europe.
8,200 - 7,600 y a - Sea levels rise rapidly. Linked to North American great fresh water lake (Agassiz, Ojibway) sudden draining into Atlantic Ocean. 8,400 y a?
6050 BCE - Moldova, evidence of man extracting salt from a natural spring.
8,000 y a - Western Europe, white skin first appears. Iran: earliest evidence of irrigation; man starts choosing sheep for their wooliness, not just meat and skin (2-3,000 years later, would start wearing wool). Georgia, earliest evidence of wine. Spain, cave painting shows people collecting honey from a wild hive, using a container to hold. China, Buckwheat cultivated (near Tibetan plateau), possible first example of Influenza. Earliest evidence of the Ard Plow used (castrating bulls to train 4 years to become Draft Oxen, also means they can be used to haul logs thru and from forests). Mediterranean, Broad (Fava) Beans, Broccoli. Portugal: Almendres Cromlech, begins, aligned to equinox and solstice, occupied for 2,000 years, would become largest complex in Iberian peninsula, equal to other large complexes in Europe. Anatolia: Obsidian polished into mirrors. Spelt Wheat appears. First Stone hafted Axes. Earliest evidence of “Cock Fighting” game fowl. (Iraq, Kiln.)
6000 - 3500 BC - Mesopotamia (Sumer), Poppy domesticated.
7,8-5,000 y a - SE Turkey, Einkorn Wheat grown and domesticated.
5600 BCE - Evidence of The Black Sea Flood, turning the fresh water lake into a salt water sea, rose shorelines and displaced populations (source of flood myths in religions).
7500 y a - Earth experiences a cold climate period? Lasts for 500 or more years.
7500 y a - Earliest example of chickpeas being used. Poland, archaeological evidence of cheese making. Ukraine, Romania, earliest examples of traps used for hunting. Pakistan, evidence of Cotton found in copper beads. Egypt, earliest Combs found (placing a leaf in the teeth can create a primitive sound instrument).
5500-5000 BCE - Serbia, Copper Smelting.
5200 - 4700 BCE - Iran, earliest evidence of a wheel, for pottery, made of stone or clay.
7,000 y a - Earliest example of Dolmen, single chamber tomb, consists of two stones supporting another on top (table design), found in western Europe, would spread and be common 4000 - 3000 BCE in Europe. Iranian plateau, evidence of Bronze made with naturally occurring arsenic. Tin would replace as the major ingredient (and releasing non-toxic vapors) in the late 3000 BCE period. Iran, evidence of wine found, using sealed containers. China, Hemp domestication (smoking was likely cause for spread, Iron Age would use for production); Rammed Earth construction technique, Silkworm domestication begins. Egypt, Badarian culture starts farming, used boomerangs. Roundels, circular enclosure often with entrances aligned to solstice, would be constructed in Central Europe (Germany, 120-150 altogether). Siberia, oldest carpet found (likely a funeral gift, from Armenia, featured griffons). Mesopotamia: first use of Stamp Seals for government purposes; Rotary Quern milling stones are introduced. Armenia: possible origin of Apricots. Lake Zurich, cultivation of Pear. Indus Valley Civilization, using Bitumen aka Asphalt for waterproofing (a basket), adhesive. Bulgaria, Turquoise beads.
6950 - 6440 y a - Papua New Guinea, cultivation of Taro and Yam.
4800 BCE - Egypt, early evidence of peas being grown. Cairn of Barnenez, Brittany, England, begins (burial monument and later bronze age use, considered one of the oldest and largest man made structures).
4700 - 4200 BCE - The town of Solnitstata, considered the oldest known settlement in Europe. Built around a salt deposit.
6,500 y a - Croatia, earliest example of an oven found. Slovenia, dental filling made with beeswax. Indus Valley, irrigation. Wine production reaches Greece. Carnac Stones, Brittany, France; would become large complex of standing stones, menhirs, domens, tumuli (burial mounds, with passage tombs), large rectangle formed by stone. Americas: various tribes domesticated “chili peppers.” Bulgaria, Carnelian beads. Manufactured Red Pottery Oil Lamps.
4500-4000 BCE - China, Investment Casting develops.
4200 - 4000 BCE - Mesopotamia develops true, easy to spin pottery wheels.
6,000 y a - Earth experiences a cold climate period? (Starting maybe 500 years earlier and ending 500 years later.)
4000 BCE - (Mankind has achieved “Farmer status.”) (Thought to be when Cattle were turned into Oxen for Draft Animal purposes.) Egyptians start building big Brick structures; manufacturing Papyrus; Gold artifacts; (domesticated Donkeys?). Earliest examples of Kilns. NE Italy, archaeological find of Appleseeds. Sicily, evidence of wine found. Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Horse domestication begins (they became small and varied in size as compared to their wild ancestors). “Pontic Language Explosion”. [People from north of the Caspian and Black Seas migrated around Eurasia, ancestor of western languages. (shared origins with: milk, horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, grain, copper, carts, yoke, weaving, mead; patrilineal clans)]. Earliest examples of Viticulture (wine making). Levant, earliest examples of harvesting Olives; start using grain Silos. Art: Earliest depiction of Shoes, Sandals. China: example of a Loom for Silk production; Ramie (similar to flax, requires chemical processing, not as popular, believed to be used for Egyptian mummy wraps). Persia (Iran), Mung Bean domestication?, Chang (precursor to Harp) found on artwork, made with sheep guts. Mesopotamia: Stamp Seals come into use; Mirrors made of Copper; 30-40% of animal bones in settlements were pork (understood to be a way of removing trash from community, easy to feed and raise many); Uruk clay tablet describes two temples owning a herd of 95 pigs to be rendered into soap to clean linen; clay pipes for sewage. Europe, farming reaches northern regions. Anatolia, Silver production.
4000 - 1000 BCE - Ethiopia, Teff is discovered (can feed people and livestock, building material).
3800 - 3500 BCE - Czech Republic, possible evidence of earliest plowed fields.
5,700 y a - Lolland Island, a blue eyed, dark haired, dark skin woman spits out some Birch Bark gum; oldest complete human genome extracted; had Mononucleosis ("kissing disease"). Possible archeological evidence of pit traps used for migrating animal hunting.
3630 BCE - Oldest example of silk fabric found.
3600 BCE – Pork bones in settlements (Levant, Mesopotamia) dropped to 16-30% of total livestock.
5,500 - 4,700 y a - Georgia, tomb found had honey remains on pottery. (This culture could identify Linden, Berry, and Meadow-Flower varieties.)
3500 BCE - City of Uruk: (Mesopotamia) begins outward expansion and influence, later first example of organized warfare (would influence Egyptians to start building pyramids); "Cylinder Seals," a type of noble seal, that can be rolled unto wet clay (would be popular until 1000 BCE). Iraq, Kish Tablet, considered to represent the early transition from pictographic to cuneiform. Mesopotamia, earliest Harps and Lyres found; Gold artifacts. Modern humans settle the western coast of Europe, hunter-gatherers. Egyptians show Cat domestication; Gold Smelting; used a vertical Gnomon as a primitive Sundial? Iran, Beer made from Barley. Armenia, earliest Leather Shoe found. China, Pottery in shape of silkworm indicates earliest example of Sericulture (silk worm production).
3500 - 3350 BCE – Mesopotamia, earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles. Indus Valley civilization uses Stamp Seals with a type of script.
3400 BCE (5,400 years ago) - First metal casting. France, Cow skull showing Trepanation found.
5,400 -5,100 y a - Itzi the Iceman dies in the mountains of Northern Italy. Had a copper axe. Earliest evidence of tattoos. Shoes made from two types of animal skin (bear and deer). Arsenic residue in his hair.
3300 BCE - Egypt, tomb paintings show people Dancing. Indus Valley, develop Sanitation.
3200 BCE - Examples of using symbols to represent real life objects (would go to form written language). Ireland, construction begins on Newgrange, largest passage tomb in Europe, aligned to winter solstice. Egypt, Bead made of Meteoric Iron found.
3100 - 2900 BCE - Jemdet Nasr period (following fall of Uruk) would be known as establishing Cuneiform as a proper language.
3100 BCE - Upper and Lower Egypt unified. Mesopotamia, likely evidence of the earliest Lute type device.
3000 BCE - Onset of Bronze. Mesopotamia, Irrigation; Glass Beads appear (possible side effect of making metal); possible earliest Iron working (required higher temperatures), cuneiform mention of Pigeons. Sumer, Medical text found on tablet, believed oldest ever found. Egypt, Hieroglyphs of Pigeons and use of Homing Pigeons for message delivery, first record of a Doctor named, Imhotep; Antimony harvested from rock and made into eye makeup; earliest evidence of domestic Donkeys in the south. Egyptian Mummies show evidence of Smallpox (deathrate 30% especially among babies, can leave people blind). Dromedary Camels likely domesticated in Somalia at this time. (Camel hair can be harvested for shelter and clothing, outer guard hairs make for water proof coats. Camel milk readily turns into yogurt. To turn into butter requires a clarifying agent and extended process.) Chicken reaches Europe from Asia. England, earliest Stone Circles found. Slovakia, Romania, earliest chainmail found. Sheep chosen for wooly coat, not long hair. China, Clay Bells found. India, River Buffalo domesticated (water buffalo); Jute grown for fiber (burlap). Northern Iran, earliest examples of Trumpets. SE Asia, earliest records of Radish. Pakistan, Terracota female figurines.
2800 BCE - Solid evidence of plowed fields. China, Copper smelting discovered. Babylon, evidence of manufacture of soap like substance.
2700 BCE - Chinese treatise on health. 40 kinds identified.
2650 BCE - Egypt, dental work found.
2630-10 BCE - Egypt, Pyramid of Djoser constructed by Imhotep, considered first.
2600 BCE – Egypt, domestication of Honey Bee complete.
2600 - 1900 BCE - Indus Valley, Stoneware Pottery (meaning fired at 1000 degrees Celsius), would become a major industry; (Ivory?).
2580-50 BCE – Egypt, creates first true Ocean Dock for sea trading vessels (with Indus Valley).
2560 BCE - Great Pyramid of Giza completed.
2500 BCE - Evidence of The Amber Road, trade route from the Baltic Sea to Mediterranean Sea. E Iran, Bactrian Camels domesticated. Iraq, "Lyres of Ur," considered world's oldest stringed instruments. Peru, oldest Sling ever found. Egypt, earliest depiction of a Khopesh (sword). Sumerian Clay Tablet with instructions for manufacturing soap (heating mixture of oil and wood ash, earliest record chemical reaction, used for washing woolen clothing). China, axes with Corundum (precious stone). Harappan Culture of Indus Valley, chicken used for Cock Fighting, not food.
2500 - 2000 BCE - Mali, domestication of Pearl Millet. Turkey, Meteoric Iron dagger.
2400 BCE - Sumer, description of Prostitution and a Brothel-Temple to Fertility Goddess.
2300 BCE - Mesopotamia, Urukagina of Lagash, considered the earliest Law Code. (Widows and orphans exempt from taxes, state pays for funeral expenses, the rich must pay in silver and cannot force the poor against will, checked power of priests, protect from usury, abolished polyandry). Iran, Quince (fruit). China, oldest Gnomon (painted stick that casts a shadow for sundial purpose).
2200 BCE - China, first known tax, using salt. Iraq, tablet reads “22 jars of Pig Fat” (each jar 18 liters of Lard, 396 liters total, require 45 adult pigs; likely used to make soap to clean wool of sheep before turning them into textiles)
2200-2000 BCE - Turkey, Iron Smelting.
2100 - 2050 BCE - City of Ur: Earliest written Code of Law discovered. References Butter. (Fines for bodily harm, references murder, robbery, adultery, rape. Two classes of people: free and slave.)
4000 - 3000 y a - Mesopotamia, earliest Scissors (shear, spring type). India, Mung Bean domesticated.
2000 BCE - Murals show horses pulling chariots. Horses become common in western Europe. England, Great Orme Mine started, would become largest copper mine in region (most productive between 1700 - 1400 BCE), used bone and stone tools. China, Bells made out of metal (Bellfounding); domestication of the Swamp Buffalo (water buffalo). Ghana, earliest evidence of Cowpea (black eyed pea). India, Canola/Rapeseed; Diamonds being used to drill beads. Egypt, Lupin Beans. Greece, Kale grown.
1900 BCE – Homing Pigeons used for warfare.
1800 BCE - Egypt, medical text on gynecological issues; Safflower for pigment. India, Iron working.
1754 BCE - Code of Hammurabi (recognized Prostitution and gave women protection and inheritance; theorized that a fertility goddess had a temple that offered sex workers).
1700 - 1200 BCE - (Late Bronze Age) 8 societies in Middle East: Aegean, Egyptian, Hittite, Canaanite, Cypriot, Mitanni, Assyrian, Babylonian. Considered a "globalized world system." Next time this would occur is today.
1700 BCE – Mesopotamia: The "Mari Letters" reference Minoan society, King Hammurabi; clay tablets list Trigonometry Tables and Applied Geometry (for land ownership, speculated to aid in construction).
1628 BCE - Island of Thera/Santorini experiences huge volcanic eruption, possibly causing a tsunami thru eastern Mediterranean.
1600-1500 BCE - Greece, Helmet formed of boar tusks found.
1600 BCE – Levant, Mesopotamia, Pork bones rarely found in settlements (banned from temples in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Egypt). (Found amongst the poor classes, difficult to tax since it did not produce wool or milk or could plow a field.)
1550 BCE – Papyrus Ebers, Egyptian medical text, mentions Chlamydia.
1500 BCE - Modern Trumpet design found in eastern Mediterranean. India, Pigeon Pea domesticated. Egypt, Mercury found in tombs; archaeologists find earliest Sundials; Emerald mines. China, Water Clocks.
1400 BCE - Syria, Hurrian Songs, cuneiform music tablet in Ugarit. Greece, oldest body armor found, made of bronze, Dendra Panoply (not actually worn, more of a showpiece, but clear representation of body armor for battle). China, Meteoric Iron axeheads. Art representation of Scale Mail in Egypt. Art: representation of Shields.
1350 BCE - Turkey, Hittites chronicle Egyptian prisoners of war bringing "the plague.”
1300 BCE - Uluburun Shipwreck, off coast of Turkey, had 300 sixty pound copper ingots (10 tons), 1 ton of tin, and tin objects and ingots of colored glass (blue, rose, brown). From Cypress/Minoa.
1300? - 900? BCE - Eastern Mediterranean experiences a 300? year drought. (Could also be: Cypress 1200- 850. Syria 1250-1187. Galilee 1250-1100)
1279 BCE - Battle of Qadesh (Egypt vs Hittites).
1200 BCE (3,200 years ago) - Onset of Iron smelting. Earliest Camel saddles appear. Last appearance of Megaliths. India, earliest evidence of Firewalking.
1200 BCE - Eastern Mediterranean civilization collapse. Drought in Greece. Earthquake series.
1188-1177 BCE - Egypt suffers invasions from "The Sea People."
1185 BCE - Syria, Ugarit Letter, Famine.
1140? BCE - Ramses 6th, mummy found to have Smallpox. No record of people dying from Smallpox.
1100 BCE - Phoenicians establish nation. Europe, Iron Age.
1100? BCE - Earth experiences a cold temperature period?
1100-750 BCE - Egypt, Iron Smelting.
1070 BCE - Egyptian mummy found with Silk in hair, earliest evidence of Silk Road.
1000 BCE - Early Cuneiform script (late stages, still pictograph in nature). Bactria, Barbat (primitive lute). Egypt, Kenaf is grown for fibers, leaves can be eaten by animals and humans (similar to Jute and Hemp; rope, rough fabric, sails). Mediterranean, Cabbage domesticated. China, Iron Age. Sport: racing Homing Pigeons.
930 BCE - Camel bones found in Arabian peninsula. Jordan, earliest Bloomery for Iron working found.
800 - 600 BCE - Ethiopia, Sorghum Wheat begins to be harvested.
800 BCE - Considered the beginning of Ancient Greece, after the Mycenae Civilization. China, Bloomeries used.
700-500 BCE - The Illiad orally composed. India, Diamond mining starts.
708 BCE – Greece, Olympics, Discus Throw.
700 BCE - Turkey, first Coins in Lydia. Assyria, first equipment recognized as a Saddle for a Horse.
660 BCE – Massive Solar Storm hits Earth.
600 BCE - Earliest example of a Steel Sword.
600-400 BCE - Ancient Greece rise of scientific inquiry and philosophy
550 BCE - The Illiad written down.
540 BCE – Sri Lanka, earliest record of Pearls.
500 BCE - Camels used in warfare. Persians use kettle drums for military maneuvers, frighten enemies. Greece, Grape Syrup, early form of sweetener and preservative; earliest written mention of what could be Influenza. Blackberries consumed around Europe. Spain, Disk Quern developed. India, Cholera described in Sanskrit. Romans manufacture dipped Candles.
430 BCE – Athens, Typhoid Fever outbreak during siege by Sparta.
400 BCE - The "Celts/Gaeil" settle Ireland. Greece, the “Hippocratic Corpus” seventy collected medical texts, mentions Pneumonia, Meningitis, Valerian Root.
396 BCE - Olympics, horn blowing competitions.
314 BCE - China, first mention of Sweet Orange.
298 BCE - Foot powered Loom.
200 BCE - China starts making paper.

Firstly pardon my English I'm not a native speaker. And use language in as simple as possible. And elaborate on the topic that you answer. And use number on each topic answerd so I could know which point are you talking about. And be serious.
1- is utility subjective? How does this effect Marxism and the LTV?
2- scarcity caused war in primitive communist society then those who lost the war became slaves, so scarcity is the primary problem, how do we get rid of it and make sure that it won't happen again? Even if a new item have been made
3- human nature came from the first living individual cell that tend to survive and get the better to itself, capitalism support and give this more attention this is why counter-revolutionism, opportunism, revisionism and currption happen which lead to the fall of socialism, right?
4- people are individuals and individuals have different thoughts so how to end the individual political division that lead to the fall of socialism, and socialist infighting?
5- Lenin in his work state and revolution notes that anarchists and socialists have the same goal which is the end of state and the reaching of the highest of communism, however Stalin in his work socialism or anarchism say that socialists and anarchists are totally different, so which say is more true and why the infighting? And how to solve it?
6- if we took Lenin thought on the topic of anarchists then can we consider studying the highest stage of communism from the anarchist sources?(As Marxist)
7- does the government still exist in the highest stage of Communism to mange People's life, crimes, prison, court, tribunal, laws, economical issues, climate issues and social issues. (I'm here talking about government and not the state, even Kropotkin differentiate between them).
8- is useful labor is a subjective term?
9- is the socially necessary in the SNLT subjective?
10- can we apply LTV to other animals other than humans? Like horses, cows etc. ?
11- how does historical materialism(as Dialectically) is different from historical determinism?
12- why socialism is the next stage, and how much are we sure about it and why socialism and not another alternative and is there any real alternative?
13- does Marxism built on empiricist basis? If it is then if there's another empiricist evidence against it and opposes what Marxism is for then Marxist Phylosophy will fall, right? Or is there a logical and rational thoughts in it? If yes there's some rational and logical then are they considered idealism? And is there's any idealism in Marxist Phylosophy?
14- why Marxism is never a complete theory?is it because empiricism? If it was because empiricism then we have to go back to "if there's another empiricist evidence against it and opposes what Marxism is for then Marxist Phylosophy will fall" , right? And is it ever gonna get complete and end it's development?
15- is socialism moral ? Was it built on moral basis? If not then why we need to end the exploitation, isn't capitalism gonna end itself by itself then why even we try? Or is socialism an idea that we want to make it happen?
16- how to make sure that socialism is not gonna be tyranny and currpted territory?
17- what is the individuals rights under socialism and how to make sure they're not gonna get taken away?
18- how to calculate the cost of production of future produced stuff in planned economy as the conditions are always changing?
19- how to calculate demand under socialism (knowing that demand and want is always changing)? What if people rejected the supply of the 5 years plan in third year of the plan?
Thank you in advance.

I created a sub called progressive_exmuslim if you would like to join. Here is my story, I was devout for a while. My parents are Muslim, and East African, and I found a lot of happiness and peace in Islam. I prayed 5 times a day, I was a hijabi. I didn't talk to boys (even though I later found out I was into women too), I studied and focused on my religion. I didn't have many friends either because I was pretty conservative and the kids around me had different values from me. I was okay with it. I felt happy being Muslim. I was going to be rewarded in the afterlife. I would be in eternal paradise for sacrificing myself in the worldly life. I slowly fell out of Islam because I couldn't justify the sexism. It took many months of going back and forth. I hated myself for having doubts and I kept trying to quiet them. I felt like it was haram to have doubts. I felt like I could not explore these doubts because what if I went farther away from Islam? But if Islam was true then wouldn't exploring these doubts reaffirm my beliefs? It didn't, eventually the more I did research the more I found statements that I couldn't justify. Because believing in Islam is much more than adopting a religion, I saw it as the word of God. That meant that I had to fully believe and justify that I was less than a man. I couldn't do it. Some things I couldn't justify:

1. Men are allowed to beat their wives in Islam al nisa verse 34
   
   1. Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has made one of them excel over the other and because they spend out of their possessions (to support them). Thus righteous women are obedient and guard the rights of men in their absence under Allah's protection. As for women of whom you fear rebellion, admonish them, and remain apart from them in beds, and beat them. Then if they obey you, do not seek ways to harm them. Allah is Exalted, Great.
2. Men can have sex with prisoners of wa female slaves 33:50
   
   1. O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts, who migrated (from Makka) with thee; and any believing woman who dedicates her soul to the Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her;- this only for thee, and not for the Believers (at large); We know what We have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their right hands possess;- in order that there should be no difficulty for thee. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful
3. A womans word is half a mans
   
   1. O you who believe! when you deal with each other in contracting a debt for a fixed time, then write it down; and let a scribe write it down between you with fairness; and the scribe should not refuse to write as Allah has taught him, so he should write; and let him who owes the debt dictate, and he should be careful of (his duty to) Allah, his Lord, and not diminish anything from it; but if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding, or weak, or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness; and call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the other; and the witnesses should not refuse when they are summoned; and be not averse to writing it (whether it is) small or large, with the time of its falling due; this is more equitable in the sight of Allah and assures greater accuracy in testimony, and the nearest (way) that you may not entertain doubts (afterwards), except when it is ready merchandise which you give and take among yourselves from hand to hand, then there is no blame on you in not writing it down; and have witnesses when you barter with one another, and let no harm be done to the scribe or to the witness; and if you do (it) then surely it will be a transgression in you, and be careful of (your duty) to Allah, Allah teaches you, and Allah knows all things.
4. Daughters inherit half of a sons share 4:11
   
   1. Allah enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females; then if they are more than two females, they shall have two-thirds of what the deceased has left, and if there is one, she shall have the half; and as for his parents, each of them shall have the sixth of what he has left if he has a child, but if he has no child and (only) his two parents inherit him, then his mother shall have the third; but if he has brothers, then his mother shall have the sixth after (the payment of) a bequest he may have bequeathed or a debt; your parents and your children, you know not which of them is the nearer to you in usefulness; this is an ordinance from Allah: Surely Allah is Knowing, Wise.
5. Menstruation is called impure and although it is not in the Quran, women are encouraged to not fast or pray on their period
   
   1. Ayah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:222. They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about menstruation. Say, “Beware of its harm! So keep away, and do not have intercourse with your wives during their monthly cycles until they are purified
6. It is haram to be gay in Islam 4:11
   
   1. You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.

I was devout for a while. My parents are Muslim, and East African, and I found a lot of happiness and peace in Islam. I prayed 5 times a day, I was a hijabi. I didn't talk to boys (even though I later found out I was into women too), I studied and focused on my religion. I didn't have many friends either because I was pretty conservative and the kids around me had different values from me. I was okay with it. I felt happy being Muslim. I was going to be rewarded in the afterlife. I would be in eternal paradise for sacrificing myself in the worldly life. I slowly fell out of Islam because I couldn't justify the sexism. It took many months of going back and forth. I hated myself for having doubts and I kept trying to quiet them. I felt like it was haram to have doubts. I felt like I could not explore these doubts because what if I went farther away from Islam? But if Islam was true then wouldn't exploring these doubts reaffirm my beliefs? It didn't, eventually the more I did research the more I found statements that I couldn't justify. Because believing in Islam is much more than adopting a religion, I saw it as the word of God. That meant that I had to fully believe and justify that I was less than a man. I couldn't do it. Some things I couldn't justify:

1. Men are allowed to beat their wives in Islam al nisa verse 34
   1. Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has made one of them excel over the other and because they spend out of their possessions (to support them). Thus righteous women are obedient and guard the rights of men in their absence under Allah's protection. As for women of whom you fear rebellion, admonish them, and remain apart from them in beds, and beat them. Then if they obey you, do not seek ways to harm them. Allah is Exalted, Great.
2. Men can have sex with prisoners of wa female slaves 33:50
   1. O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts, who migrated (from Makka) with thee; and any believing woman who dedicates her soul to the Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her;- this only for thee, and not for the Believers (at large); We know what We have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their right hands possess;- in order that there should be no difficulty for thee. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful
3. A womans word is half a mans
   1. O you who believe! when you deal with each other in contracting a debt for a fixed time, then write it down; and let a scribe write it down between you with fairness; and the scribe should not refuse to write as Allah has taught him, so he should write; and let him who owes the debt dictate, and he should be careful of (his duty to) Allah, his Lord, and not diminish anything from it; but if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding, or weak, or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness; and call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the other; and the witnesses should not refuse when they are summoned; and be not averse to writing it (whether it is) small or large, with the time of its falling due; this is more equitable in the sight of Allah and assures greater accuracy in testimony, and the nearest (way) that you may not entertain doubts (afterwards), except when it is ready merchandise which you give and take among yourselves from hand to hand, then there is no blame on you in not writing it down; and have witnesses when you barter with one another, and let no harm be done to the scribe or to the witness; and if you do (it) then surely it will be a transgression in you, and be careful of (your duty) to Allah, Allah teaches you, and Allah knows all things.
4. Daughters inherit half of a sons share 4:11
   1. Allah enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females; then if they are more than two females, they shall have two-thirds of what the deceased has left, and if there is one, she shall have the half; and as for his parents, each of them shall have the sixth of what he has left if he has a child, but if he has no child and (only) his two parents inherit him, then his mother shall have the third; but if he has brothers, then his mother shall have the sixth after (the payment of) a bequest he may have bequeathed or a debt; your parents and your children, you know not which of them is the nearer to you in usefulness; this is an ordinance from Allah: Surely Allah is Knowing, Wise.
5. Menstruation is called impure and although it is not in the Quran, women are encouraged to not fast or pray on their period
   1. Ayah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:222. They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about menstruation. Say, “Beware of its harm! So keep away, and do not have intercourse with your wives during their monthly cycles until they are purified
6. It is haram to be gay in Islam 4:11
   1. You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.

At the start of our relashionship my boyfriend tried to be vegan to impress me (he told me that now).. made me think he really cares about animals and even tho he was not perfect I thought he's going more and more plant based, not the opposite.
Now, after 2.5 years past, he seems more and more unwilling to make concessions for me..
I know that he's been eating animal products when not home, but now he seems to resent me cause he knows it would make me sad to see him eating animals in front of me. At home we only have vegan food, but he is mostly annoyed when in social situations we have to eat differently.
He got angry with me and gave me the silent treatment when he couldnt try certain food from the places we went in vacations, cause he maybe would "never return there" (mostly vacations funded by my parents - he could've maybe just appreciate he's there and make me feel comfortable, these are my honest thoughts).
He told me that he understands the vegan argument, he knows that he's hurting animals, but he chooses to forget that because he doesnt want to be in a minority or complicate his life.
I feel huge dissapointed because I used to see him as the most sincere, good and selfless person.
I feel especially dissapointed when he tells me that he thought I could "understand" him if he one day would want to bring something non vegan at home and he said that sometimes he eats meet and dairy because he craves it.
This is very dissapointing for me since he knows all things that happen to animals in the meat industry (he watched Dominion) but he just choses to dont think about it. He's a very kind person otherwise, but it is obviously just about the things that are useful and learned societally (if he wouldve been born in a slave owning time, maybe wouldve never have a second thought about it)
If I wouldve been born a cow or pig, he wouldve eaten me, with all the love he claims he has for me.
He knows about animal suffering, his "cravings" and "dont want to be a minority" I think are just about stupidity, insecurity and cruelty.
And all people around us, even my family and our couples counselor, thinks I'm the bad controlling one, cause they're not vegan either.
I CANT love a bully, I cant "understand" an animal abuser, but I'm scared to leave him cause I'm afraid no one could love and care for me as he does, and I feel I'll never find a vegan I'll fall in love with in my area. Even with vegans, you're not sure they will remain vegan.
Just a rant.. consuming only vegan products is easy, having people around as a vegan and maintaining relashionship is horror.

6 month old won’t drink anything but fresh breastmilk. I can freeze the milk directly after it’s expressed and she will eat it thawed but that’s the best we can do.
From birth until about 2.5 months my daughter would supplement with soy formula once or twice a week and take frozen breastmilk from thawed from the freezer. At the time I had an oversupply and stored a lot of milk in the freezer.
Then slowly she stopped drinking anything but from the breast. I thought it was the bottle and we tried a million bottles but it turns out it was the flavor of the milk. If my milk sat in the fridge even for 1 hour before I froze it, the taste of the lipase made it taste so different that she won’t drink any of the milk I have stored in the freezer (probably close to 80-100oz). I even tried mixing it with fresh milk and alcohol free vanilla extract and nothing worked. Now all that milk is a waste. Shortly after she stopped drinking the milk from the freezer she stopped drinking the soy formula too. Cows milk upset her stomach at the hospital so she always drank soy. Now she refuses it all together.
Fast forward to when she was 5 months, I was trying to save up a stash for a work trip at 7.5 months and possibly a bachelorette party at 9 months (both of the tickets are already paid for unfortunately). Now I don’t have much of an oversupply as I did in the beginning and breastfeed most of the day. I pump once in the evening after she goes to sleep and usually get about 2oz. 2oz a day towards the stash only has me at about 55oz so far (of freshly expressed milk straight to the freezer). I have a long ways to go and I don’t think I can save up the amount even to go on my work trip for 3 days in June.
So, we tried to introduce formula again to supplement while I will be gone if there isn’t enough in my stash. Gave her regular formula at nearly 6 months and she was vomiting so badly we had to take her the ER. She is allergic to cow’s milk. So we’ve tried soy formula again and she completely refuses it. I’m at a loss!
Has anyone experienced this before when trying to supplement or wean? Are there any non dairy formulas that don’t taste like liquid dog food like soy and hypoallergenic? Or am I truly a milk slave until she completely weans?

Previous Next First
---Disclaimer: This issue directly depicts a fictionalised practice of slavery and makes moderately heavy allusion to violence of a sexual nature. Sensitive readers please beware.---
​
---Bastion---
​
---Gordon’s perspective---
Jessica leans forward, closing her large, brown eyes (without visible sclerae) and bringing the pink skin of her rostral plate to the mic, around 135cm off the stage, in my cool, atmospherically lowlit club.
She herself is a little under 1.5m with a porcine face, wearing an obedience collar around her neck and a revealing harem-girl outfit that does quite a nice job of highlighting the curves she still has.
‘Jessica’ isn’t the name her parents gave her, of course. It’s what I named her after I bought her.
Even if it weren’t important to strip them of as much of their past life as you can, I wouldn’t have been able to pronounce the name she had in the language that sounds like pig squeals and Korean thrown into a blender(!)
Breathily and with a heavy accent, she sings pp♫Oh, biorenze doez corr me, I’be anzwered bepore I’be made many enmiez, I’be zettord my zcorez But I did gror weary and I zettord down And proudry bore de weight ob my crown♫pp
My club’s patrons listen raptly to the song that one of them requested.
I can easily see how it could raise hackles to allow a slave to sing a song with such strong themes of rebellion… but… I don’t think anyone’s worried(!)
Certainly, all the slaves currently in my employ understand how ill advised it would be for them to resist their rightful lot!… Those that don’t either quickly learn to… or don’t remain long.
This song is for us… Jessica’s just singing it…
I have to say… she was a good purchase!
I almost didn’t buy her because I found the (admittedly cute) piggy face and her initial obesity to be so offputting.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had a vacancy for a singer and she was a minor starlet (waiting for her big break among her species in her past life) I wouldn’t have bothered.
But, with all the weight she lost (while being broken in and since I picked her up) she’s actually become a lot more attractive…
I frown slightly and open my holo.
I see that no one’s yet booked her for after her shift today.
My finger hesitantly hovers over the screen before tapping to delete that slot… my heart palpitating with a mixture of excitement and embarrassment as I do.
Of course, I have nothing to be embarrassed about… She’s mine, I can do what I want with her!
So what if she’s a pig!?
What I really want to add to my collection, though, is one of the local women…
God! Those eyes! Those ears! Those arms! Those slender frames and almost Human faces!
Unfortunately, we still need to stay in their good graces, for the moment… Which means we can only take the ones they sell us and the only ones they’re willing to sell us are life sentenced criminals and people they otherwise just want permanently disappeared… a demographic that skews overwhelmingly male!
Competition for those rare females that arrive at the emporium always ends up far too rich for my blood!
Not that I couldn’t afford it (I am arguably the second most powerful and probably the second richest man in Bastion, afterall) just that I can’t really justify such an expense to myself!
One day, I’m sure I’ll get my hands on one… When I do though, I want her all to myself!
She’s not working the club!
She’s never leaving my penthouse!
Maybe if Cyrus ever gets bored of any of his, I can convince him to give her to me at a discount?
ff♫Iz diz what you want!? Corruption and power!? Werr I won’t ztand por it, DIZ iz my hour! Take ON deze beaztz, I’m now priend to none! Ip you tink you’re a hero, den. DIE. rike. one!♫ff belts out Jessica with all her heart, making me happier with the decision to delete her booking slot.
Once she gets rid of that tiresome accent, I think she’ll be a real money maker!
She is very cute, afterall… in spite of the pigface.
It’s at this point that I see Judith, one of my waitresses (tall, slim, breasty, lilac skinned, grey haired, pink eyed, with cow hooves, cow ears and the ground down nubs of horns on her head) making her way across the bar to wear I sit.
She isn’t running (she knows better than that) but she is hurrying.
“Apologies for interrupting your relaxation, Duke Chandler…” she states, her eyes cast to the floor in front of me, appropriately submissive “…but a message just arrived from the palace for you. The King has called Council and he requires your presence.”
“Ah…” I sigh “…and just when I was starting to enjoy myself!” gesturing to the stage.
I rise from my seat and tip back the remainder of my drink before placing down the glass and swaggering confidently to Judith’s shoulder.
“Send Jessica upstairs when her shift’s over…” I instruct “…She’s entertaining me later.”
“I’ll see that it’s done, Master.” she answers, simply.
I give her insubstantial buttocks a light smack as she bends down to clear the glass.
“Don’t worry, Judith(!)… You’re still my favourite(!)” I smirk as I walk away from her, making my way to the exit.
I stop as I get to the door and turn back to the stage.
I decide to just stay for the last minute of the song.
fff♫I GADDERED my houndz and made dem DEBOUR De ARRIEZ I once knew; zweet priendshipz now zour And ret egzprorzionz rain prom on high And gradry bid my pinar goodbye!♫fff she continues as I stand, genuinely moved by her crescendoing performance of one of my favourite songs.
I’m glad I included it among the ones I made her learn!
She concludes…
No one claps…
We have a strict policy against thanking, congratulating or applauding slaves at this bar… They have to know their place, afterall…
Regardless, from the impressed murmuring that fills the room, I think it’s safe to say the performance was enjoyed(!)
I spare myself one last glance at her curvaceous, exposed pink thighs, either side of her badlah bottoms, before I smirk and walk through the door to the underground foyer.
Stepping through, I catch the eyes of my 2m tall (about 4cm taller than me) Mongolian bouncer, Chuluunbaatar (which I can’t pronounce), and say “Yo!… Chul! I’ve got to step out for a bit. It’s just the girls in there at the moment… Watch the bar and make sure no one tries to take advantage of the lack of oversight to rip me off!”
He gives a nod and a grunt and leaves his post by the door to walk past me.
Not exactly polite but I didn’t hire him for his conversational skills(!)
I climb up the steps to my skyscraper’s ground level (yes, it’s only a skyscraper, we don’t have the resources to make skypiercers here!)
I go to the doors and brace myself… then open them… being hit in the face by a positive wall of heat!
I squint to give my eyes time to adjust to the permanent bright sun of this region before striding forward, into Bastion’s Akropolis District, perched on the rebound peak in the centre of an enormous, ancient, meteor impact crater.
The lower districts, built down on the melt layer all around here, are mainly home to the lazarites… my lazarites… 12 million Humans who only exist because. of. me!
It’s a little hard not to be a bit jealous of those who live in the districts built in the shade of the crater rim, right now… On cool days, when the wind blows from the West, they don’t even need their climate control on inside!
Cyrus was right though… There was no where to build the Akropolis but up here, where we can see and be seen by the entire city!
Some covered, climate controlled walkways might be nice though… Maybe I’ll suggest that at some point?
Probably not today, though… sounds like something urgent has come up!
As I traverse this city’s most affluent neighbourhood, the many slaves and few people I see braving this heat all cut me a wide berth, recognising me as the King’s right hand man… that… or recognising me as a rich Human with a plasmarapier sheathed at my waist and somewhere to be(!)
Not that I’d actually cut a slave in half for failing to get sufficiently out of my way (dealing with the property damage claim from their owner would be far too troublesome) but I can let them keep thinking I might(!)
It is mildly ironic that, due to the relative affluence of the people granted the right to live in the Akropolis, it is also where you’ll be most likely in the whole city to see subHumans!
Upwards of 90% of its denizens own at least one… down in the lower city, that’s more like 5%.
Then, of course, there are your high rollers, such as myself, with counts in the hundreds!
Not all of them work at my club, obviously!… I’ve got them performing a variety of roles around my building…
I finally make it to the bottom of a wide, tall, white stone flight of stairs up to the white stone palace, perched at Bastion’s zenith, mostly empty but for the pairs of guards, standing at it’s sides at 30m intervals.
No other building in town is allowed to be built higher than that palace’s base, leading to an amusingly shear cutoff, along the shady side of the crater rim, where they’d like to build higher up, but can’t(!)
I sigh and brace myself for the climb up the 120m long stairway in this oppressive heat.
Ceremony is important… the King has summoned me so I have to make it!
I’m in much better shape than I ever was before the War.
Nevertheless, it’s simply impossible not to get sweaty, wearing this much clothing and ascending this many stairs in this heat!
I’ll need to give my clothes to Josephine, to launder, and have a shower before joining Jessica in my bedroom, later.
I make it to the top and push open the front door.
I give a relieved exhale as I step back into the cool of a climate controlled indoors.
I know that, with the quantity of sweat I worked up in just that 500m walk, I’m likely to get chilly as evaporative cooling does it’s work… but I don’t care right now… I’m just happy not to still be sweltering!
I navigate through the cool, white palace, its floors all polished to a mirror sheen, to the Council Chamber, standing with its doors open as I approach it, allowing me to see my fellow Councillors sat around a long table, only a few seats still sitting empty.
One is a large, high backed throne, at the far end, made from the same polished white stone as the floor but trimmed with gold.
“Announcing the arrival of Duke Gordon ‘Frankenstein’ Chandler, Head of Chandler BioTech!” shouts the herald-cum-guard standing to my left as I pass through the doorway.
I greet the two dozen or so others who’ve already made their way here as I pass them to take my seat, just to the left of the throne (its right).
No sooner have I taken my seat than a blue hologram flickers into being in the seat directly opposite me.
“Announcing the arrival of Duchess Circe ‘Mirage’ Stoker, Mistress of Whispers!” shouts the man who announced me a moment ago.
I look at the holograph of the woman, currently offworld, whose face has the look of a vampiric kewpie doll… a long way down the uncanny valley.
My handiwork, of course, and I did strongly advise her against it, but she insisted that that was what she wanted and the patient is always right in matters of taste!
“Good to see you, Circe.” I greet (careful to pronounce it as ‘Sir say’, not ‘Sir see’, ‘Sear say’, ‘Sear see’ and definitely not ‘Sir key’, ‘Kirky’ or ‘Searse’, as she gets quite tetchy about her name being mispronounced).
Bearing her fanged, holographic teeth at me in a spine chilling smile she says “Gordon… it’s been a while…” her voice a sultry half whisper, then pouting “…you haven’t missed your dear old Circe too deeply, have you?”
“I’ve managed to pull through somehow, ‘dear’(!)” I say with a wry eyebrow cock.
“Uh(!)… You wound me(!)… Did your mother never teach you to be delicate with a lady’s heart(?)” she teases.
“She did… but I’m not sure such lessons apply to whatever you are(!)” I return.
“You’re an utter brute, Duke Chandler(!)” she grins before looking around the table and asking “Am I the last to arrive?”
“No…” I answer, shaking my head and thumbing the empty throne to my left “…still waiting for the Big Cheese… You know how he just loves his dramatic entrances(!) I’m sure he’ll be along any…”
*BANG* is the sound of the high doors to the royal apartments being thrown open.
“Announcing the arrival of His Royal Majesty, Cyrus, First of his name, King of Bastion and future Emperor of the Terrans!” shouts the herald, taking his cue.
Into the room pads a snow white, red eyed smilodon fatalis, Artazostre, (another piece of my handiwork… who just had to be albino(!))
She makes to her master’s throne and sits beside it, about 3m from me.
Down the corridor she just came from, deep, booming footsteps thunder against the stone floor…
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Tip me on Ko-Fi.
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Discord
Dramatis Personae

First Previous Wiki
Diplomat Orith stood up fully before executing a low bow despite the limitations of the virtual reality. Before him stood three figures. One of them was the Lead Diplomat, and the others were people even children would know.
Heptarchs.
"I greet you warmly, Heptarchs," Orith said, not using their names though he knew them by heart. "I overflow with pleasure and joy at the grace of your pristine presences."
"You should work on your greeting, Orith," Heptarch Mi'lon chided. Orith withdrew his eyestalks, performing another bow of apology.
"But there is no harm in it. You are merely a Diplomat, after all, and this is your first time meeting any of us in person, as much as that can be said for a virtual reality. Now, the Lead Diplomat here has told us of your exploits. You have pursued a laughably belligerent policy with the Sol Alliance. May I know why?"
"Because that is what I was ordered to do, Heptarch," Orith responded smoothly, calming himself and purging his fear.
"Yes, that is good," Mi'lon said. "Yes. You were ordered to see whether the Alliance would respond to blatant provocations, and the Lead Diplomat was able to gain concessions from them as a consequence."
"Concessions?"
"Is that not what you believe happened?"
"I am not of the opinion that the Alliance thinks they have conceded anything. You negotatiated with Phoebe, correct?" He turned to the Lead Diplomat, who looked to the other Heptarch.
"Go ahead and answer him," Heptarch Tawa said.
"I did," the Lead Diplomat replied.
"And she likely offered resources, which are likely easy for the Alliance to produce. I do not think that they see it as a concession, but as a bribe to prevent us from interfering in the war between the Cawlarians and King Siran."
"That is my assessment as well," Mi'lon replied. "I am glad you have come to it. With that in mind, do you think the Alliance would declare war on us?"
"They are mentally weak," Orith replied. "They cannot see what needs to be done, or they do so rarely. It is likely only Phoebe or the hivemind we would have to consider. If we anger the hivemind, it may rouse enough voices to start an invasion. But it would take a lot for that to even happen at all. As long as we do not commit any acts of war against them, or attack the Cawlarians with too devastating a force, then we can move around them."
"What do you think, Heptarch Tawa?" Mi'lon asked.
"I think my orders still must stand. We cannot allow the Alliance as it stands to remain a rising power. They allow the scourge of spirituality in their halls, without opposition except for matters of law and justice."
"That is quite distasteful," Mi'lon agreed. "But it is possible that they may come around with AIs in their empire. Plus, we can show them our continued displeasure, and with the Cawlarians growing wary of their influence, we will serve as an out when the inevitable exclusion happens. We can get them to bend to our desires, but it will require time. We also will need to establish certain operations, it seems. I will discuss that with you later, Tawa."
"With me and likely two other Heptarchs. The ones that would care, at least."
Mi'lon let out a short chuckle of amusement before his eyestalks again turned to Orith. Now that it was no longer necessary, Orith resisted the urge to bow again. If he looked too deferential, it could cause problems for him. Corruption wasn't tolerated in the Heptarchies at all. Orith waited for Mi'lon to direct him to continue.
"I also suggest that after conducting tests on the Alliance's early warning capabilities, that we begin to make more aggressive measures around the war. If Siran turns back to our territory, we can gradually raise the pressure, and figure out what it would take for them to turn back. All the while, we can get our ships in place to possibly take prisoners. If we are able to do that, we open the door to many possibilities. Experimentation, exchanges for goods and services, or blackmail. I suggest looking into a way to abduct Annabelle Weber, if we can."
"The Fleet Commander, in a dreadnaught?" Tawa asked. "That is quite bold. I like it. But not without a sound strategy. We will make nothing of this unless they give us the opportunity. There may be some spies amongst the lower ranks, and I will not have our designs leaked so early."
Mi'lon looked at Tawa again before waving his eyestalks. "We should also exploit their AIs."
"Yes," Tawa said. "Diplomat Orith I order you to open up conversations with Edu'frec. Lead Diplomat, remain with Phoebe. We may be able to open rifts in their unity by only recognizing the AIs, instead of the biological beings in their Alliance. Our sources suggest there is significant tension in their ranks over some unspecified event, which may be related to the Sprilnav's announcement."
"Shall I find the cause of that, as well?" asked Orith.
"No. We will circle around the sides before going in for the kill."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Justicar World News Network Reporter Perishaut 1594 crawled over the wreckage with her team, moving closer to the object of her documentary. She grunted with the effort, and a broken piece of metal scratched at her anti-toxin suit. Smoke and dust fell from all over, though now the firefighting fleets were out in force, purging the remaining fires section by section.
The recovery efforts had been abandoned by all but one single person. And Perishaut was here to see her. Past a mountain of rubble, and between five more, an alien clambered over the remains of a fifth-floor stairway. The massive skeleton of a skyscraper loomed overhead. With a loud creak, the metal groaned, twisted, and snapped.
Girders heavy enough to smash through a personal shield and mulch someone entirely fell down, tumbling closer and closer to the human... and then they disappeared. Her camera drones caught it, too. She was streaming her footage live as well, though she'd edit it properly when she got back home.
But getting a piece of the biggest story on the planet was worth being out here. The alien's eyes turned toward Perishaut when she managed to crest another closer mountain of rubble. Only now, seven Sprilnav were floating above Penny, grave injuries healing as she watched. A few of them were still covered in the firefighting foam, which fell off of them and also disappeared into an unknown location.
Perishaut finally reached her. She stepped onto the uneven and broken concrete pavement, avoiding corpses and skeletons as she moved. Her camera drones whizzed around her, capturing the area and all of the scenery there was to record. The mournful silence of it all. The devastation, with the tips of skyscrapers peeking out from behind the city shields that lay beyond. Clouds of ash and smoke that only continued to hover, trapped within the shield.
And there, a single alien, clad in a dirty black jumpsuit, picked through it all with psychic power, as well as her own hands when she deigned to. Her grey hair framed her forlorn expression and hid her neck as it fell to her shoulders. The ash around her seemed to swirl as it came close as if it was unwilling to approach her directly. Perhaps that showed the human's attitude, but a story was a story. And she was sure that the alien wouldn't kill her while she was streaming live to her viewers.
"Hello," Perishaut said, performing a respectful curtsy as she hoped the alien had a translator with her. "I am Perishaut 1594, a reporter from the Justicar World News Network."
"Greetings, reporter," Penny replied. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"How is my visit pleasurable?"
She wanted to see whether Penny actually thought so or was just making a typical greeting.
"You help to break up the monotony of misery and suffering I've been seeing for the past few hours. It's nice to see some life here that's willing, and not buried under a dangerous amount of weight or horribly injured."
"Ah," she replied. "So it is the fact that I am alive that makes my visit pleasing?"
"I suppose," Penny responded. "As much as anyone can feel pleasure in this place."
"How do you feel about the people responsible for this attack?"
"I feel hostile toward them," Penny said. "But only toward those whose blame has evidence behind it. I don't blame people without cause."
"So you don't think Yasihaut did this, then?"
"I think it is possible," Penny replied. "It's also possible that the gangs did this to strike at me. Either way, I am upset, but my anger will do nothing productive, so I have done my best to put it aside. And given that you have asked me some questions and I have answered them, how about I ask you a few?"
"That is acceptable."
"Alright."
"What made you decide to interview me?"
"Because you're an alien, who's going out of her way to help the Sprilnav. We've been told that you all hate us, so it's odd to see."
"There are those who feel that way. But I am no longer one of them. I ascribe to the view that all people deserve a chance to prove who they are, no matter which species they are. I don't think it's right to hate anyone because of what they are born as."
"And how would you feel if the Judgment wasn't coming up?"
"Differently, but not for the reason you think," Penny said. "Because I would not be here, seeing the culture and realism of people who I have only been told stories of, and not actually seen directly. We normally don't get normal Sprilnav outside your territory. It's all Elders, who can be a little intense. But hatred? I see no need for that."
"The Elders rule us," Perishaut said. "Do you hate all of them?"
"Not all of them, no. I have been shown a different path. There are many Elders who have been a part of antagonistic behavior to the galaxy at large. But there are also many who have not. Elders who remain in their star systems, eating and sleeping and drinking as they wish, but not being actively malicious."
"Such as Elder Kashaunta?"
"Kashaunta is... complicated," Penny said, nervousness clear on her face now.
"It would be difficult for me to say how I feel about her. We differ in opinion on many topics, yet I would still count her as a friend, and not just a business partner. And I'm aware of her complicated history, and I also do not condone the worst portions of it. But there is a point where one must move toward peace to have peace. We don't want war. Nor should anyone want that. But being peaceful should not be equated with being powerless. You can only be peaceful if you also have the ability not to be. Otherwise, you are not peaceful; you are pitiful. I don't go out of my way to cause suffering, though I have caused more than I should have. I have made my mistakes, and am not perfect. Some people build me up as some sort of hero, but I'm not heroic. I fight for selfish desires, and put the people I love on a high pedestal. But I do not believe I am a bad person, either. I don't know if I can declare anyone as good or bad, without knowing myself. Well, except a few people."
"Who are?"
"Certain individuals I'd rather not name," Penny said. "I know you're digging for a story, but I don't want to make things worse."
"Your feuds with the Everlasting, Progenitor Twilight, and Yasihaut are public."
"I only actively pursue one of those. But yes, I do hold grudges. That's part of life."
"Do you think you were wrong to attack the 85th Grand Fleet?"
"I do not, because I was saving my father."
"People were hurt."
"Yes. That happens in battles. They were trying to kill me, with lasers and guns and swords, in close quarters, and I broke bones in return, and did some teleporting. I hardly think that makes me evil, or even bad, considering I was trying to rescue my father, Elder Nilnacrawla, who they had directly kidnapped."
"Your father is an Elder?"
"He is my adoptive father," Penny replied. "My mentor, friend, and yes, my father, though obviously not biological. My biological parents are dead. It was a mutual decision for us to adopt, if you are concerned about that. And I was over double my species' age of majority when we made that decision, because I'm capable of making those decisions as an adult. I believe adoption is a practice common on many worlds in this area, as well."
"Yes. But you have not had problems with him?"
"Not many," Penny said. "And if I did, would it matter? Would it enhance your video to hear my family business, merely because there is an interspecies aspect? I doubt it."
"There is no need to be defensive."
"People do that when you pry into personal matters. He is my family, and nothing else about us should interest you."
"There are things that differ in our cultures," Perishaut said. "So they do have higher levels of interest. One of those things is that despite your power, you have no evidence of having a mate. Why is that?"
"That is also a highly invasive question," Penny said. "The answer is simple, though, and luckily for you, I am willing to give it."
Penny paused as if waiting for something. More Sprilnav appeared above her and were taken away by medical crews.
"Yes?" Perishaut asked awkwardly.
"Yes."
"So... what is the answer, then?"
"It may be quite shocking," Penny warned.
"I think I can handle it."
"Well... I just don't feel like it."
"That's it?"
"Were you expecting a trauma-laden backstory?"
"Kind-of, yeah."
"Alright. You see, I was born at a very young age. My parents died at a slightly older age, and I eventually grew up, went out into the world, went to school, made some incredibly stupid decisions, learned from them, did the same, and learned from those. Repeat and repeat, until I find Nilnacrawla, Yasihaut tortures me, and I gain psychic and conceptual power on a massive scale. And now I am here, on Justicar, walking through the wreckage of a city because some people couldn't accept that I wanted to free their enslaved subjects."
"Are you mocking me?"
"Not at all. I'm being as serious as the situation demands," Penny said. "You have burrowed into my personal life with invasive questions, tried to see if I have trauma of some kind, and are doing so to a live audience in the hopes I slip up. And look, we have reporters back home, too. I respect the grind. Just not when the grind is an axe, and is about to be swung at me. I've saved a few hundred thousand lives since I've landed back here. I really hope you're not trying to paint me as a villain."
"But would you agree that freeing the slaves caused this to happen?"
"Yes, I would," Penny said. "And though such a comment is quite disgusting to say, especially among this very graveyard, it makes sense. But freeing slaves is not bad because some people don't like that. Humanity went to war over slavery in various ways and forms, and oppression in countless more. And I happen to think that oppression, and slavery in particular, are bad. So I will dismantle slavery when and where I see it. And if people don't like that? Too bad. Don't be a slaver. Your society has mass android production. There is zero economic reason you even need slavery besides sadism. So even that worn-out and dumb argument is moot here. I am anti-slavery, and I will not be villified for it."
"The different is cultural."
"Slavery is not a part of your 'cultural heritage' at all. And if you think so, maybe you should re-examine the morality of your society. I do not believe the Elders deserve such a fate, not even Yasihaut. Slavery is an evil I will purge from this entire galaxy if I must, and I will do it happily. Slavers should get bullets, but I'm being merciful by sending them to jail instead."
"Murder is wrong."
"The slavers kill thousands of slaves and set up the conditions for millions to suffer and die all across the galaxy. Would you like to ask the people I have freed if the slavers deserve to die? I can assure you, killing slavers will be a part of their cultural heritage quite soon, if I allow it. I do not know if you came here to get a rise out of me, or to paint me as some evil monster. But there will be no slavery when I finish. I will destroy the gangs if I must. How else would I live up to my name, if I were to let such injustices rest, on a world named after Justicar? I am the Liberator, and that is what I will do. I will stand against a thousand dreadnaughts if I must, and I will be victorious."
Penny vanished. Perishaut took a peek at the comments on her video. They were being swarmed, mostly by people who agreed with Penny. Well, probably half of them were not actually real. The race between AI and bots was eternal.
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Grand Fleet Commander Valisada donned his uniform once again. The center wrapped around his stomach, securing it to him tightly. His skin glimmered from the lotion he'd applied to it, and he'd taken in extra psychic energy to appear even more youthful. With a slight shining of his claws and jaws, Valisada used his implant to look through five mirrors at once. They all showed him in an equally splendid light.
He'd managed to get almost everything he needed across. Given the topic of the event, he also donned a more traditional garment. It was a blue headdress, which would fall back between his ears to his lower neck, hanging down on either side of it. Several servants came through the room to eye him critically before giving him clacks of their jaws to show that they thought he was presentable.
Of course, the servants weren't what they appeared. Very few things so close to him now were. Azeri's faults had been many, and Valisada strove to rectify them wherever he could. One of those was inferior androids. Valisada himself wore an exoskeleton, which would become a full spacesuit upon his entrance to space.
But it also came with heavy conceptual protection, and even a black hole survival kit. Though it was more of a 'survive until a Progenitor fetches you' sort of kit. Breaking the event horizon of a black hole was too difficult to be worth it, and getting anything out was essentially impossible, even after accounting for ergosphere physics.
Only Progenitors, or beings equal or greater to them, could really hope to deal with black holes. And Penny could generate them on some scale. Though his gear likely wouldn't help if she generated a smaller one with the mass of a planet. It was wildly outside her known capabilities, but that was what he planned for. Heavier conceptual protection, more psychic energy, and mental fortification, and even a state-of-the-art mindscape blocker device.
Theoretically, it could totally isolate a region from the mindscape. Practically, it could only be used in a flagship or dreadnaught and only against the lower layers. It was the sort of device with ancient blueprints, though maintenance was so expensive it hadn't been worth it until a certain human had made the cost-benefit analysis move a little to the right.
Valisada didn't know how to think of Penny yet. He felt no disdain for her species, though he disliked her youth. She was far too young to be interfering in any sort of galactic affairs. She had no concept for the ramifications of her events since she had not lived long enough to know them. It wasn't a fault of her mindset, but of her simple age.
And now that they were meeting, he would gain more insight as to her thought process. It would not be immensely helpful in building a profile for Humanity. A sample size of one was never good, especially when hiveminds got involved. Since Penny wasn't connected to the hivemind right now, she was of little use for mental analysis.
Her baseline was what interested him. Could other humans manifest that conceptual power, using the pure strength of their will and determination to bend reality? Stranger phenomena had occurred. Valisada knew about the Ether the hivemind could harness, just as he knew the Source resided in Earth's physical location. Monitoring devices confirmed that every single pulse. The city the hivemind had built caused a little interference, but Valisada had sent teams of specialists to check up on those. Another responsibility that shouldn't have been his, but for the negligence of his predecessors.
It tarnished the species' image to be so lazy and lax with their defenses. Valisada would not let that stand. He strode into the virtual reality room, floating into the air with psychic power snapping into place all around him. Thick shields followed, isolating him in a sphere of pure blue. His implant placed visions over his eyes, and soon, he was standing in a holographic wasteland.
Dead Sprilnav were scattered about; impaled on broken tree branches, lying on cracked floors, and even burnt and bleeding in a rough circle around the green table resting on the soot-covered sand of a beach. The ocean was grey, filled with ash, and the setting sun remained locked in place, orange rays tinting the land with a fell glow. Yellow and orange clouds floated high overhead, reflecting onto four glassy chairs.
Three of the chairs were or normal length, with the typical cushion and all. The fourth, opposite from Valisada, had the same four legs, but was square instead of rectangular, and had a back which sat up to support a bipedal resting posture.
Penny appeared with Kashaunta beside her. The human was wearing what passed for formal clothing among her species. A white shirt, black pants, and a black vest aligned neatly with her arms, shoulders, and chest. A blue piece of cloth hung from her collar before vanishing under the vest.
Kashaunta was wearing battle gear with a thick dress beneath it. Her head was heavy with jewelry, and golden highlights marked her cheeks and jaws.
Justicar appeared next, in full gray armor. He was a normal size, though Valisada knew that it was only due to his wishes. Justicar was hosting the meeting, which was the reason for the violent scenery. Penny had blinked at the corpses, her features settling into a scowl that was pointed Justicar's way. The Elder ignored her anger, his own scowl mirroring hers. But his was directed at Valisada.
Only Kashaunta and Valisada appeared neutral. Whatever Kashaunta felt, she wasn't showing.
"I suppose it is proper as the host of this meeting for me to start the talks," Justicar said. His tone was light but still heavy in some ways. Valisada could almost taste the cold anger wafting forth from him. "I would like to acknowledge the deaths of 455 thousand people, with a death toll that only continues to rise."
Penny bowed her head. The Elders didn't. Valisada didn't take the bait, keeping his gaze level with Justicar's.
"I was aiming today to stave off a war," Valisada said. "I did what I could against Solei. Nothing more could have reasonably come from my efforts."
It was the full truth, which meant Justicar wouldn't be able to handle it. He was always too sensitive about his planet.
"That's it, then? No acknowledgment of the lives lost? Of my citizens being killed? Perhaps even no consideration that this was an act of war upon me and my people?"
Justicar's eyes narrowed.
"I will not be cowed into apologizing for the actions of a fool," Valisada spat. "I don't care for your power politics, and will ignore them and all future attempts at such things. I am here to talk with Kashaunta and Penny. You were meant to be the neutral party."
"A party is generally neutral until attacked-"
"Shut up," Kashaunta said. "Argue later. Do not waste my time with your pitiful arrogance."
"Very well," Justicar said. "I will remember how much my people mattered to you in the future."
Penny looked at Justicar sadly. False empathy, probably. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more, Justicar. I failed you, and them."
"You did, but not nearly as much as certain others did. You care about them, at least. You're a good person."
"None of us are good people," Kashaunta said. "And such platitudes ring empty when you enslave your own kind."
"Enough," Penny said. "I think we should have our discussion. Elder Valisada, it is an honor to meet you."
She bowed her head, though not in a deferential fashion. Kashaunta's eyes glazed over, signifying that she was doing something else instead of watching them with her avatar. Knowing her, it could have been another ploy, but he was willing to grab the lifeline to start the meat of the discussion. And he'd learn a bit more about the current enemy of his people.
Finally, thought Valisada. We can begin.
"I am honored to meet you as well, Champion of Humanity. Tell me, do you know why you deserve that name?"
"Because I'm the strongest human?"
"Because you are Humanity in our eyes. To the Sprilnav, the lower ones as well as the Elders, you are all that matters. It is by virtue of your strength and your accomplishments. And also your character, your mistakes, and all that comes along with you. We see you as a child, inexperienced with the complexities and nuances of war, as well as the sacrifices required.
Your age of a few scant... decades, to use your time units, is an eyeblink to us. You will always be looked down upon for your youth. Yet, you also have potential. You hold Conceptual Cardinality within your bones. You have a speeding space entity, and a strong one, at your side. You have tamed him. And so too have you tamed Elder Nilnacrawla, binding him into a mind bridge when he was once far too prideful for such a thing.
It would be sufficient to say that your story has emerged from that of Humanity, and now risks eclipsing it entirely, as well as the rest of the Alliance. You stand here, the subject of the most dangerous and talked about Judgment in an age, as you look upon beings older than your species. Your planet. Your star. Tell me, Penny Balica, Champion of Humanity and Concept Entity of Cardinality. How would you measure your own worth?"
"By the lives I have saved, and then by those I have cost. Past that, those I have helped, and those I have hurt."
Of course she still didn't understand. Valisada didn't fault her for it, given her age.
"A simple answer, born from a simple mindset. What of those who were altered by your existence? Those who you have affected, but neither in a positive or negative way? Or the people of Justicar, whom you rip conceptual energy from to fuel your budding Liberator title? Would you include them in your measurement?"
"Yes," Penny said. "And now I have a question for you, Elder Valisada. Rest assured, I mean no offense. In the long eons of your life, what are your greatest accomplishments? I would hear of your impact."
"I have had little impact," Valisada admitted. "I was born poor, raised poor, and built my eventual wealth through grit, wit, luck, and determination. I watched the Source crash through my home planet 50 million years after I was born, and 2 million years after that, I watched as the family of artificial intelligence I raised as my children died around me, the universe remaking itself to fit within a reality that no longer included half of the mindscape. And I built my wealth again. It was taken away.
I have killed 320 million people under the orders of the Grand Fleets. I have killed 2 million people by my own free will and choice, though I did not oppose my earlier orders. I remained a Dreadnaught Captain for millennia. Grand Fleet Commanders came and went, retiring or being assassinated over time. I was promoted to the top of the running after Azeri killed the next best four to become the Grand Fleet Commander. But my single greatest accomplishment in my life has been becoming the Grand Fleet Commander of the 85th Grand Fleet.
An accomplishment I only made this soon due to your direct attack on my flagship. There is much more I can say, as my life has been long. But my impact? That does not matter. What matters is how my life has changed me. I look into your eyes and I see the thoughts of others, Penny. I see years of trauma, of hatred, of pain. That burning desire to make the universe better, which my own eyes once held, until I was tempered by the reality of life. Because I have lived long enough to know the truth: there is no hope. So I cast hope away, and focused on greed and envy. Through those, I became a part.
And through deep meditation, a whole lot of drugs, and another few million years, I learned of myself, and the others around us. And what it all truly means, at least to me. Nothing, and everything. My greatest impact has been upon myself, Penny. Because I have spent billions of years in my body, learning and growing as slow as mountains do. Conceptual energy locking my genes. And now, we are here, standing in this virtual reality."
"So you believe that?"
"Mostly. As much as anyone can, I think. But there is a problem. Our futures clash. As do our motives. You wish to destroy the order we have built. As I understand it, your motive lies in the nebulous concept of 'freeing' everyone from misery. The problem with that is simple, and it is why I have brought up my long life in contrast with your short one. It is that solutions like love, respect, and adoration fall away as new generations are born. To borrow an example from your history, Rome once ruled Europe. Now, it is just another ruin, with a new city built atop it. You want to build a new galaxy, Penny. Do you have what that takes?
Can you take it upon yourself to care about and manage more beings than you can properly conceptualize? Can you care about a king of kings equally to an orphan born due to a failed abortion on the streets of a city that stinks of sewage and rot? How do you plan on ensuring that your society filled with a culture of peace, love, and tolerance does not fall to the charisma of evil, security, and safety?
How do you plan to ease the hatred the alien species harbor toward us Sprilnav, and us Elders? What of the Progenitors? Will you kill them all, or risk them going insane and killing more people? And what of the speeding space entities? Will you invade their realm next, subjecting them to the horrors of war because of tales you have heard and a few small areas of abhorrent debauchery and evil?
Your head is filled with ideas, Penny. But they are not your ideas. They are what others have told you. What you require for me to respect you, and what you wish for, is to have a concrete plan. A plan to not only build your galactic empire, but somehow to maintain it without fear. If you do not have that plan, you will fail in the end, and only cause more death once you finish."
"I do not know the answer to that," Penny admitted.
At least she can do that, he thought.
"I do not have those answers. I do ponder those questions, and do what I can to seek them out. But your Grand Fleets are used for ruthless slaughter of innocents. Overturning the galactic order may be too tall a task for the near future, I admit. But that part? Needless killing, the destruction of planets, and sadistic cruelty? That needs to end. The idea of there not being a perfect solution to our problem does not mean we should not seek out a better one."
"So you will be consumed by your idealism, then. You must accept a reality in which death and suffering cannot be ended. There will be war, and it will be needed. In the end, you are a slave to your ideas. Without war, there cannot be peace. All you will do is be a new master. You do not have what it takes."
Penny smiled. "No. I do not have what it takes, and I never will. Because it will always take more effort. I will never be perfect. Even if I become a true concept god, I will make mistakes and learn from them. I will become better. I will not be doing this alone. My species, my Alliance, will stand with me."
"Your Alliance will be broken by the weight of eternity. Whether by our claws or not, Earth will be destroyed, and your shining cities will become blasted ruins upon the rock, just like Rome. You cannot defeat the greatest enemy: Time."
"It is not about defeat," Penny said. "Because in the long dark of eternity, defeat will never be enough. We must make time our ally."
"And how will you do that?"
"By making eternity eternal."
"The universe itself is not built for that."
"Not yet," Penny said. "Speeding space expands, pushing space apart as it goes. That is the nature of what an infinity will do. But I have the answer to that, too. Cardinality. I will not only turn a zero to a one, but an infinity to a one."
"Which you cannot do."
She was being quite lofty with her aspirations. Valisada knew that they were technically possible, but that didn't mean she'd have any measure of success. He'd asked her questions to figure out if she had come back to realism for her plans. If she had, he might have deigned to work with her. But as it stood, only Kashaunta could properly absorb the risks her inane thoughts would pose to the galaxy.
It was hard to topple a regime. It was even harder to build a new one. And it was impossible to ever build a better one. Valisada had watched that play out far too many times in history.
"Not currently. But it is as you said. The way is going to be difficult. Without careful planning, and many dear allies, Rome will burn again. As will Ashurii, Cawlaria, Keem, and Justicar, and every other world that has ever and will ever exist. Why, you might ask, do I deal in idealism, when it has been proven wrong by reality in the past? I will tell you, Elder Valisada, as a gesture of accomodation and respect, as well as a genuine offer for us to not become eventual enemies. I am idealistic because I do not intend to bow to reality."
"I hope you have a better answer for the Judges than that."
Penny smiled at him warmly. "I am prepared for it."
"Good," Justicar said. "The Elders in charge of it are being selected. Now that we are finished with that, I have questions for you, Valisada. I do hope you take the time to answer them to my satisfaction. I require recompense, and you will pay it."
"It will not be as much as you desire."
"Then leave my star system, Grand Fleet Commander."
"No."

Welcome back to the Fallowveil trailer park, where the crack addicts have all seen aliens, the Witch is the glue holding the community together, and it’s been a whole six years since our last meth lab explosion. I never met you, but rest in peace Jones. I’m Mason, and I’ll be your janitor guide to the weirdness.
So I’ve talked about Jennifer, my paranormally sexy, but terrifying neighbor who lives with a married couple, strips under the name “Red Jenny,” and possibly eats people’s souls. She’s just the tip of the iceberg here in this town. I could go on and on about my neighbors. I have to do an entry on Trista the nocturnal hippy (maybe) vampire at some point. I have a feeling she’ll get a kick out of it. We’re actually pretty friendly, since we're both night shift workers. Frankly, she’s a bit too on-the-nose though. Pale girl, windows all blocked during daytime, only out at night, weirdly strong for such a skinny little person, drinks a mysterious fluid from a hip flask that she refuses to share, I mean… she’s either a vampire or a weird healthnut hippy and she dresses like she’s both. We’ll get to her eventually.
For now, let’s talk about the old “Schroeder Slaughterhouse.” The place has been a center piece of the town since it was created. It brought jobs to workers and brought lucrative meat processing trades into town, elevating it to more than just another ‘corn town.’ It’s also got horror stories going all the way back to its construction. Some say it’s been cursed by the devil himself.
I want to talk about this one because Trista talked me into going to one of Petunia’s barbecues last weekend. Not sure why she’s suddenly friendlier with me, but I’m not complaining. She couldn’t come with me of course, being a (probably) vampire and all. But hey, depression only gets worse in isolation. I should ask her out some time. Being a vampire might be fun…
So anyway, I went to Petunia’s cookout. Petunia herself looked up and actually cried out loud and power walked up to me to give me a hug. “Ahhh! I’m so glad to see you outside Mason! The neighborhood misses you!” I'm ninety percent sure that was a lie, but whatever. It’s comforting. I returned the older woman’s hug.
“Thanks Petunia. Couldn’t stay away from your cooking forever.” That got a few chuckles. To my surprise, a lot of my neighbors came up to shake hands with me. I was confused until one of them, a guy named Fred, who lives next door to me, leaned in to say “sorry about that friend of yours that died.”
So that’s what’s happening. Everybody heard about psycho Moe and how he’d dragged me to a strip club where he planned to go on a killing spree. Now they’re playing nice. That’s probably the only reason Trista’s being nice to you too. These people don’t really care about you. You’re worthless.
‘You know what, brain? You’re a real bummer. Now shut up while I try to be social.’ I shot back at my own conscience.
I finally worked out how to respond to Fred after a few seconds of awkward silence that made us both uncomfortable. “He wasn’t really a friend. Just a roommate once. The guy was messed up.”
Fred nodded sympathetically, rubbing at his mustache “Well sure. But that’s a heck of a… situation?” He replied.
“Yeah. I guess it is…” I tried to look thoughtful so nobody could see me rolling my eyes. “But hey! I think Red Jenny took care of it.”
Fred’s eyes widened at that. “No shit? Did he get… did he get a private dance?”
We were both interrupted by a silky smooth voice with a southern twang. “Glad to see you’re okay Mason. Try not to bring any psychopaths to my place of business, alright? It’s got plenty. Our poor bouncer had to headlock that guy.” She said all of this without even glancing towards us. Just sort of talking at the air as she sauntered by. She was glorious as ever, somehow making comfortable sweats look like a sexy bold fashion statement. Jennifer. Red Jenny. I hushed up as she stepped past us, and as she did, she cast a glance my way… and she winked.
Fred and I sat there partly struck dumb for a moment. That woman hardly spoke to anyone.
“Bouncer my ass.” Fred whispered to me. “That chick’s some kind of monster, I’m telling you. What did you see? She offered him a private dance didn't she?”
A few weeks ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to tell Fred everything I could about what I saw, but for whatever reason, I was less enthusiastic at the moment. “Yeah, she did, but I’m not really sure what happened. I was kinda stupified by the guns. She probably got a bouncer to help her, I really don’t know.”
“Never get a private dance from Red Jenny. Some say that’s a warning from wives, but the rest of us know it’s a warning from above. Something ain’t natural at that place.”
“I dunno Fred. But she works hard. I don’t want to badmouth her. Even if it was true, the guy she got was a wannabe killer. So she saved people.”
“Yeah, but how!?”
“I dunno man.”
Fred seemed to figure out I didn’t want to talk anymore about it by then. “Sorry, man. Must have been scary, either way. But hey! We all know you were asking around about Fallowveil’s spooky stories! Guess what!? A bunch of people who used to work at the old slaughterhouse are here! They’re all swapping stories by the grill! You should go listen!”
That piqued my interest. I used my phone to record as much as I could. I think I remember the rest. Now that I’ve looked at all my notes and stuff, I think I can provide a decent history of Fallowveil’s Schroeder Slaughterhouse. At least according to some of the people who worked there, as well as some who’ve lived here longer than me.
Most of the history came from a man named Willard Graves. He’s notorious for being really nasty when he’s drunk, and being one of the oldest people living in the trailer park at the age of 68. When I arrived at the bonfire where the group of workers had gathered, they were all swapping stories.
“I once felt a presence in the women’s restroom!” Said Polly Bucharest. “I was a floor manager in 2007. I was sitting in the stall there doing my business, nobody came in or out, but suddenly I just felt it. I got real freaked out. Like… goosebumps and everything. And feeling that way sucks in the bathroom. So I tried to hurry up and kicked open the stall so I could run to the sink… and the ‘shadow man’ was just standing in the corner. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He was just there, standing. When I turned to look, he was gone!”
“I saw that thing too! The shadow man!” Said Peter Swanson. “Damn thing was standing up in the corner, on the catwalk out in the main floor. Same thing. I was working, one of the cows didn’t go down right away, and I was leaning down to stun it again, then I felt real uneasy all of a sudden. Real scared. Finally I noticed the shadow up there!”
“That happened to me in the break room!” Said Juan Esposito. “I was eating lunch when I felt it. Then there was a shadow of a man, I think, in the corner of the room.”
“It was more of a shadowy blob on the wall for me,” said Polly.
“Any of you guys see the weird bird?” Asked Carlos Sanders. “I saw it once. End of my shift, back in 09. Me and a few of the boys saw it. You were there Juan! You remember?”
“I remember. I’m not really sure though, Carlos. That one might have been a vulture.”
“We see vultures round here all the time! That wasn’t a vulture! No clue what it was. Just some big flying shadowy thing that appeared at sundown and flew off after a while.”
“Lots of people said they saw a strange bird. That’s part of why some people think it’s cursed” claimed Jane Lopez. “I never worked there, but my husband used to tell stories. Some people say it’s an omen. If you see the bird over the slaughterhouse, something bad might be about to happen.”
“I remember the stories, Mama.” Said her son, Martin. “I worked the floor for three years. I never saw a creepy bird. I wonder if Papa was just telling stories again?”
“Maybe, mijo. But lots of people tell stories about that place.”
“How about the one cow that Mr. Kurt takes, like… once a week? Anybody know what’s up with that?” That was Juan again.
“No! And none of us can figure out where the cow goes either! It’s creepy!” Poly replied.
That’s when Willard loudly cleared his throat. Willard was a tough looking old bastard. Usually sporting a frumpy tank top, a grumpy face, and a bottle of something in one hand. “Y’all didn’t work there as long as I did,” he grumbled in his raspy old voice. He kept his head and eyes lowered, like some old cowboy trying to be dramatic. “Y’all know who that shadow even is? I know the ‘sh’tory!”
We were all interrupted by a shout from a very angry Petunia, who was a few yards away manning the grill. “DAMN IT Willard! What did I say!? One beer! One!”
“I only had one! I ‘sh’wear!”
“You’re slurring! If I catch you sneaking any more drinks I’m not giving you any ribs or any cookies!”
Willard’s tough old man act crumbled as he went wide eyed at the mention of cookies. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry Petty…”
“PETUNIA!!”
“Petunia! I won’t have anything else to drink!”
“Damn right! Last thing we need is you making an ass of yourself again!”
Willard sighed as we all hushed a few guffaws. “Anyway,” he said after an awkward pause. That shadow? Any of you know who it is?”
“One of the dead owners?” Said someone.
“One of the dead workers?” Said someone else.
“Nah, nah. It was the FIRST owner. The ghost of Heinrich Schroeder. The builder and owner of Schroeder Slaughterhouse!”
“How do you know?”
“I mean… I don’t, but that’s the oldest story I know about the place. Don’t any of you younguns know about the history there?”
“I don’t. Please tell the story!” I called from outside the circle of former Meat Processing workers, causing some of them to glance awkwardly at me.
“Well alright then!” Willard said with a grin that had less than a full set of teeth. “The place was built way back, right after the Civil War ended, when a bunch of immigrants from Germany started migrating to Nebraska, mostly to Omaha. But one feller…”
“Why did Germans come to Nebraska?” Asked a kid who’s name I didn’t know.
“What? I dunno. They just did. Hush. So this guy saw our little town of Fallowveil and its lush fields. He was in the sausage business before, but figured he could set himself up a slaughterhouse to process cows raised locally. Old Fallowveil was superstitious though. They were always wary of outsiders.”
“Why?” The kid asked.
“They just was. Everyone was after the war ended. Things changing fast, bunch of black folks are citizens and building themselves North Mainstreet, and Fallowveil’s weird. We all know that. Always has been.” Nobody could disagree there. “So. Since they were wary? They didn’t want to let Shroeder build. Supposedly you can find old documents with the town's rejection letters to Shroeder hidden away in the office of the old building. He tried for months. Then, with no explanation at all, they suddenly sold him an unused parcel of land. Nobody knows why, and that’s where a lot of folks think the devil’s curse began. They say Shroeder made some kind of deal with a demon to get them to sell the land to him. They’re the ones that made him follow their rules. Everyone remember the rules?”
“Hell, I had to follow those rules,” said Polly. “Most were pretty standard health and safety measures, but some were downright bizarre. 1. No loud noises in the back of the building. 2. One cow will be selected by the owner for personal reasons and won’t be slaughtered with the others. 3. Keep the blood drains clean at all times, but no specialized detergents. 4. Never agitate the animals. 5. Manure will be transported offsite. 6. Anyone caught past the fence line of the old building will be fired immediately…. There’s a bunch more that are all basically fcc regulations, only these days there’s extra.”
“It’s worth it!” Juan piped in. “The work we do there now got us awards! We make some of the best meat in the country! Pay is good too. No offense, friends, but we’re thinking of moving into a house, soon!”
Petunia cried out. “Ahhh Juan! That’s so wonderful! You’ll have places for your baby!” A bunch of others offered Juan their congratulations. There were also expressions of sadness. Thanks to Petunia? This neighborhood is really tight knit.
“We’ll miss you!”
“When do you leave?”
So on and so on. Juan’s a nice guy. I never got to know him, and I kinda wish I had now.
“Good to hear that place is finally shaping up!” Willard said with a small smile. “Maybe the curse on the place is lifting! Back when I worked there, safety and cleanliness were shit. All them extra rules about keeping the place clean, and the cows cared for, they weren’t there back then. Just the weird shit about noise in the back, staying away from the old building, and one cow being taken away every couple of shipments.”
“Can I ask a question?” I asked as Willard trailed off, lost in thought.
“Did you ever work in the place, new guy?” Asked Juan.
“No. I’m just curious about Fallowveil’s spooky stories. Lived here for a while, and heard em, but now I’m asking around. Also, how am I still the ‘new guy?’ I’ve lived here three years!”
“You stopped coming outside after three months!” Petunia called to me.
“Whatcha want to ask?” Willard wondered.
“Well, why is the old building even still there? The place where you all work is the building in the front, right? New building with state of the art equipment? Why keep the dilapidated old building from the 1860s? Anybody know?”
“Ah. That’s an interesting question. I’d guess nobody here knows that answer, right?” Willard replied. There were nods all around. “Nobody alive today worked in that building. Hell, it was fenced off and boarded up when I was a kid. Nobody really knows why it’s still standing. We all have our guesses. Some think it might have something to do with the devil’s curse. Some say the owners hope to cash in on its historic value. Not sure how. The place is a wreck. So it just sits back there.”
“And they’ll fire anyone who gets curious,” Polly added.
“Exactly. That’s one of the rules. Stay away from the old building. But anyway. Let me get back to the story. The old building, that’s the slaughterhouse built by Heinrich Shroeder. He ran the place for about twenty years. Lot of the newly freed black folks would work there. Nothing too nefarious went on back then, but all the same, everyone felt uneasy working there. Just like now, workers swore they saw ghosts. Place gained a reputation for being haunted. That only got worse over the years. Then came the ‘incident.’ I don’t remember the exact year. But at some point some kind of fire broke out in the slaughterhouse. It was after hours so there were no workers there at the time, but there was a herd of cows waiting there overnight. The fire only affected the inside of the building, but it still spooked the cows. They stampeded out of the pen and the next morning the town had cows everywhere. When the people searched the slaughterhouse, they found that not much of the equipment was damaged at all. Somehow some small section of the floor had lit up. And in the middle of it? They found the charred bones of Heinrich Shroeder.”
“What? How?” I asked skeptically. “You know how hot a fire has to be to melt off everything but bone? I don’t. But I know it’s pretty hot.”
“Oh I know. That’s part of the mystery. Nobody knows what happened. It was like some little explosion of heat just burned everything in this one spot on the floor, including Shroeder. The whole thing is unsolved. A mystery. Maybe it was arson. Maybe it was some sort of accident. Who knows? Anyone who works there could tell you though. That place is cursed. Our theory was, Heinrich went back on whatever deal he made to get the land, and the devil came to collect. Either way, the whole town was in shock. Shroeder’s family buried him at Kugler Mill Cemetery, then sold the place and moved to Omaha to be closer to family.”
“Who bought it next?” Asked the kid that kept asking questions.
“Local man named Jefferson. He moved to Nebraska from the south after the war. Man was a slave owner who had a lot of trouble turning a profit after the war.”
“Also a horrible racist!” Petunia added from the grill. “You left that part out one time.”
“I did not! I didn’t think I had to say it! I said he owned slaves! Of course he’s racist!” Willard shot back.
“Just messing with you, you old cowpoke.” We all stopped to chuckle.
“ANYWAY. Jefferson was no great boss. Lot of stories about cruelty to workers and animals if the stories I once heard are true. He kept the name “Schroeder Slaughterhouse to keep some locals from realizing it was him. That’s how he hired a bunch of black folks. There were lots of accidents. Almost everyone who worked there left missing a limb, like me.” Willard held up his hand, and I noticed for the first time that he was missing two fingers on his right hand. “They were still using old band saws. Only took one wrong move” he added thoughtfully. “So Jefferson took over, but he kept all the weird old rules. Nobody knows why. But the place wasn’t a great place to be. Another fire broke out, this one was the Jeffersons son getting drunk on the floor and lighting a lantern. Three workers died there. There were other injuries, and shitty safety standards. One other stampede occurred, which was caused by the equipment falling apart cuz they never bothered with maintenance. You get the idea. All the while, everyone kept hearing tales about the ghosts. They eventually got the idea that the “rules” had something to do with the ghosts. People swore when they were louder in certain parts of the building, they were more likely to feel uneasy. We all know that story.”
“The Shadow” several people said in unison.
Willard nodded. “People thought it was the ghost of Shroeder. Made the rumors about a curse seem more real. The Jeffersons ignored their employees' discomfort for years. Then in the in 30s, another tragedy struck. The owner, Edgar Jefferson, personally came to oversee the installation of a brand new state of the art meat grinder to produce ground beef for local businesses. He was standing nearby, even though the construction crew told him to move away. He was bragging to news outlets and investors about his new machine, and how he wasn’t affected by the depression at all, and then, out of nowhere, a small earthquake hit. The meat grinder came loose from its crane and landed right on top of Edgar. He died immediately. Right in front of the terrified crowd.”
“No way.” Said someone from the crowd.
“Y’all can look this one up if you want. Library is bound to have the old papers. I heard this story from my very first boss. He was just a kid at the time. Said his dad witnessed the whole thing. One second Edgar was boasting, next, he’d been turned into meat jelly.”
“Please don’t ruin the barbecue, Willard” called Petunia.
He just rolled his eyes at that. “To make matters worse, the Jefferson’s local estate mysteriously caught fire a few days later. Nobody could find a cause. Nobody died, thankfully. The remaining Jefferson’s were spooked after that. They sold the slaughterhouse as well as four different cattle farms in town, and moved out of the state.”
“Who was next?” Came the child.
Willard ignored him. “The next person to buy the land was an industrialist who wanted to stake a claim on small town businesses. Rick Manson. He owned a restaurant in California. He bought up the cattle farms and built a new state of the art slaughter house right next to the old one. He was held up by world war 2, but when that ended, he got the place up and running. Nobody knows why he didn’t just tear the old building down and build on top of it. He was the first owner to leave it be. Supposedly, things started out decent under Manson. He brought lots of decent paying jobs raising cows and working in the slaughterhouse, and he kept the rules and added more for safety. Ran it like that for a good thirty years. That’s about when I started working there. Late seventies, early eighties. I can say without any doubt, that any good things people said about Rick Manson? They were lies. The man was a tyrant of a boss, at a time when we actually knew what hard work was.” I felt everyone else groan with me when Willard said that. “The guy used the cheapest equipment he could find and barely ever did maintenance. He also kept hiring immigrants to work the floor. The injury rates were incredibly high, and whatever workarounds higher ups thought they could get away with, they did. A lot of that was on the farms. The local farms were soon forced to use growth hormones, cheap corn feed, and other shady tactics to fatten the cows up faster. They made every effort to turn the small town of Fallowveil into a bigger meat processing plant. We all suffered for it. People died working in that place. Even more people lost fingers. And nobody ever held Manson accountable. Let me remind you, the place was still unbelievably haunted. The shadow was seen by everyone. People started seeing the weird bird too. Everyone was also pretty sure the owners were doing some kind of satanic rituals in the old building at night. There were stories about lights and weird sounds. The story me and my fellow workers believed was that the one cow that got selected and separated every now and then? They were sacrificing it in the old building.”
That proved a bit too much for me. “Wait… hang on. The place is already a slaughterhouse. Cows die there daily. What’s so special about this one cow? Do others not count?”
“Oh how am I supposed to know? You wanted to know what the stories were right? That’s all we got, nobody actually knows what’s going on in there. All we got are guesses. All we know is that someone always showed up, maybe once a week, and picked out a cow, and lead it away. We’re busy workers so no, none of us ever really saw where it ended up. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t put back on a truck. There’s no hidden field that we know of where they’re keeping them. So where the hell do these cows go?”
“I mean… I don’t know. Do they still do that?” I asked.
Juan answered me. “Yes. I’ve seen it happen. Mr. Kurt is the man who picks the cow. Once a week he picks a cow and leads it away from the others. Usually toward the back. Whenever we ask him where the cow went, he would just say ‘that’s private.’”
“Who the hell is Mr. Kurt?” Willard asked.
“He’s basically the general manager. He’s there everyday.”
“What about the new owner? ‘Antoora’ or however you say that?”
“Antuara. We don’t know. Nobody but Mr. Kurt has met him. It’s really strange. Kurt just says Antuara is a bit of a recluse.”
“Wouldn’t the FDA want to know what was happening with these cows?” I wondered.
“All the paperwork is done. The FDA has been here multiple times. They know one cow gets taken, and… they’ve signed off on everything. So I guess it’s nothing illegal.” Juan concluded with a shrug. “It’s really weird.”
“Huh. That place is just a giant old mystery. Does it ever end? You all know what happened to Mr. Manson?”
“Didn’t he die in a fire?” Asked Polly.
“Not just him. My last boss was the one that noticed this. But right before Mr. ‘Antoora’ bought the place ten years ago, it got bought up by a bunch of corporate goons. They wanted to compete with places like Tyson meats. They bought it after Manson's car was found exploded… with him in it, of course. That’s three different owners who were hit by fires, and two that were killed by fires. But that’s not all. Polly? You worked as floor manager while those corpo guys ran the place right? You remember why they ended up selling?”
“I was never told, actually. You and the boys had your stories, but I always figured it was our numbers. We weren’t doing as well. People weren’t going to local butchershops. I know there was one death…”
“It was another fire. And from what I hear it was ruled as an arson! To this day it hasn’t been solved. There were three deaths like that. And a meat packing plant in another state burned down. Not all of those were ruled as arson, but it’s a hell of a coincidence, wouldn’t y’all agree?” Willard said with a grin as he searched everyone’s faces. He had everyone enraptured by his mystery.
“It’s like the place really is cursed. Whoever owns Shroeder slaughterhouse… catches fire?” Said someone.
“Sure seems that way.”
“But Antuara is different. All the equipment is new, and he trained all of us extensively. We take breaks. We’re required to take breaks. And we clean everything. Then there’s the farms he bought. They don’t use any growth hormones or cheap feed. Hell, Mitchel Farm has enrichment toys for them. If the place was cursed, I have to hope it’s lifted now.” Juan spoke with conviction.
“But you still see the shadow and the bird, right? And nobody knows what happens to the one cow?” Willard said simply.
“Yes. That is true. Mr. Kurt has said he’ll look into the things that are causing our discomfort. But what can anyone do about a ghost?”
“Like I said. That place is cursed by the devil. Years of cruel practice, spilled blood, and bad deals. The owners get burned, the workers suffer, but it just keeps churning out meat. And of course, it’s here in the town of Fallowveil, where witches roam free…”
“As do old assholes” added Petunia
“The woods have a monster, the Hotel is in the damn Twilight Zone, and everyone’s seen something unnatural. The place is still cursed, mark my words. Unless they tear that old building down, it’ll probably stay cursed.” With that, Willard concluded his story. He raised a bottle of beer to his lips, but before he could drink, Petunia appeared and swatted the bottle right out of his hand.
“What the hell did I tell you Willard. No more god damn beer!”
“Sorry Petunia.”
The rest of the day was nice. I ate food, hung out with neighbors, played some horseshoes, drank some beer. It was great. The circle of meat packing workers had a few more tales, mostly about the Shadow showing up to scare people, or a weird thing someone saw around the old building.
I wasn’t sure what to think, really. I’ve never actually been to the place. I know that working in a slaughterhouse sounds like a really depressing, dangerous, and messy job that I never ever want. That’s for sure. I had no idea missing limbs were so common.
I looked up some of the stuff Willard said. It seems he wasn’t embellishing much. There really were owners who died in fires and one who got squashed by his own equipment. I can see where belief in a curse comes from. Interestingly, Juan was right too. Fallowveil has received awards for its high quality beef in recent years. The stuff is so good that some of the food network shows have started showing up to do segments and visit local restaurants. Mostly Nerd Burger. Nerd Burger is incredible. The Spicy² burger is hands down, the best burger in the universe and nobody will tell me otherwise. I didn’t even realize it contracted with Antuara meats, but there you go.
I shared all of this with Trista later that night, and as a result, we went on adventure together. I wonder if it was a date? She wore her regular clothes. Try to imagine a sixties Hippy who got a makeover from a goth. She wore a sarong around her waist that would dance around her legs, with the breeze. It was black as pitch, with a few flowery designs sewn in. She also wore a black hand made tank top, black knee high boots, and her stoner beanie hat that read “total witch.” Seriously. How else can I describe that other than Hippy/goth or Hippy/vampire. She’s weird, and she’s really skinny, but damn it… she’s really pretty. And a lot of fun to hang out with. She might have supplied us with something to smoke that may or may not be legal in this state so I’ll say no more there.
But anyway, we were chatting after sundown, and I told her all about the stories of the Slaughterhouse. “Ugh. That place. Look at me. I’m a hippy. I can’t call myself a vegan, but I still morally oppose the meat industry.”
“Why can’t you call yourself a vegan?”
“I… have a specialized diet.”
“What’s that mean?”
“None of your business, jerk!” She socked my shoulder playfully, which made my whole arm go numb.
“Ow! You are like 140 pounds, max. How are you so damn strong?”
“Maybe you’re just weak. So the slaughterhouse is cursed? Wanna go see it?”
“I… like… Right now?”
“Sure! You don’t work for another hour, right? The hotel can manage without me if I’m late by a few minutes. Come on! I hear you’re more likely to see weird things if you go at night!”
How could I say no? So I drove us to Antuara Meats, formerly known as the Schroeder Slaughterhouse, and got a look at it for the first time in my life. The main building is pretty unremarkable. Just a factory type building next to a big field. We pulled into the parking lot and got as close to the fence as we could, so we could see what we really wanted. The old building.
“Christ. Why is it still standing? Place looks like it should be condemned.” Trista said as we got out and peered through the fencing.
“Yup. Boarded up windows, overgrown ivy everywhere, everything one needs to make a nice creepy atmosphere.”
“How romantic!” She quipped. I’m glad she couldn’t see the confused blushing I did after that. “It definitely smells like blood and rot around here.”
“It does? All I smell is… I’m guessing that’s cow poop?”
“No. It’s metallic. Smells like old blood.”
“You are such a vampire.”
“Har har.”
“Seriously, I don’t smell blood. I can’t see much. It’s too dark.”
“Not much to see. Though I think I see the cow.”
“The cow? What cow? And no way in hell can you see out here. There’s clouds out!”
“Eat your vegetables Mason. It’s good for your night vision.”
“Vampire says what?”
“Nope.”
“So you see a cow? A live cow? Where? Maybe I have a night vision app or something. I dug my phone out of my pocket.
“Yeah, there’s a cow standing out behind the old building. Maybe a hundred yards.”
“I don’t care how good your night vision is, how could you see that far?”
“Will you give it a rest? Not my fault my eyes adjust better than yours.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be an ass…”
“It’s okay Mason, I’m mostly messing with you. There is a cow there though.”
I held up my phone and zoomed as far as I could with the night vision on. She was right. A loan cow stood in an open field behind the slaughterhouse. There were no fences back there, so I wondered if it had gotten loose and just wandered its way to the spot. “Huh. You’re right. There’s totally a cow there. It’s not on the property either.”
“So… you found the missing cow. But I gotta ask. You doing okay? That shit with the Red Nights club was crazy. Anyone would be messed up after that.”
That annoyed me. I’m not sure why. “You think I’m messed up?”
“Well, yeah, that’s why I hang out with you. We’re both messed up. But like… this is seriously messed up. Not fun messed up.”
“Is that the only reason we came out here? Did Petunia put you up to this?” I turned toward her.
“Yes. But no. Petunia is worried about you. And so am I. You’re one of the few regular friends I’ve got. And someone almost shot you.” I saw genuine concern in her violet eyes. She stood there, twiddling nervously with her hands, only partly illuminated by the nearby streetlights, making her pale complexion shine. A strange gust of wind kicked up and blew her wavey Raven black hair prettily across her face.
Oh fuck. You’re getting feels. Stop that. You’re just lonely, and she just feels bad. I wrestled with my thoughts for a moment before replying. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just burying it. I’m okay. At least I think I am. Maybe I'm still processing.”
“Uh. Hold that thought, Mason. The cow is gone.”
“What?” I looked back and held up my phone. There was no cow in the field anymore. “Where? How? There’s nowhere for it to go!?”
“I didn’t see anything. It was there a minute ago, now it’s just gone. Wow. That’s creepy. This place really is cursed.”
“Could it have fallen in a hole or something?”
We actually spent a few minutes searching for a trace of the bovine, but we didn’t find anything. There’s no way the thing ran off in just a minute. So what the hell happened to it? It just vanished. Both of us felt a little unsafe after we reached that conclusion. So we headed home and then went off to our respective jobs. Now here I am. A fully grown cow disappeared before my eyes at a haunted slaughterhouse, and somehow I’m still more concerned with whether or not I should ask Trista out or just enjoy her friendship. But that shit is my business.
I did a bit more reading about the slaughterhouse. police have been called to the place over the years, and they found nothing. There’s even been people that signed papers and got to enter the building legally. There was even a ghost hunter once. They didn’t really find anything interesting either. There’s something weird about that place though. No doubt about it. It’s brought tragedy, creepy stories, and delicious hamburger to our town for generations. Given how delicious locally raised beef is? I'm cool with the place doing whatever it’s doing.

Have a seat, let ‘em settle in(and) don’t be scared,
If this is just a settlement then settle with thirds,
I sat(Set) up nights(Nice) writing, don’t get the
credit I deserve,
I’m the one sending references,
I’m who edit them words,
I don’t ask to be credited,
I just check for the debit deposit, observe(absurd),
While you sit and observe,
I did service for all them platinum hits in the live
jam,
You know, let there be light(Album) was God’s
Plan,
You’d think I jot with God hands,
I was being a handyman,
Hamburger Helper for the logo,
Jumped in the Meek beef just for the promo,
I guess this how the show go when you show low
respect for those who respect and neglect you,
I was the first Adonis, I made you pop(Dad),
You ain’t tell the world who I was,
Stay quite, chillin, was mad but Held back, ain’t
have the right feeling(Filling)
Just know when they too fake(Toothache) you
right(write) wit’ ‘em,
Don’t ride wit’ ‘em, you tight wit’ 'em,
Stuck in the hype, they just tell you to type,
Don’t get the invite to the mansion party,
I see how the Jew do,
I had the location, got it from NuNu,
You asked me to come and battle at the function,
Don’t fuck with the Sunken Places,
Just a taste, I ain’t fuckin’ wit’ you,"
Oh we got some problems,
Told you I was working with triple X,
Don’t reply to my texts,
Now that he died I regret, not sending a verse
back,
But what’s even worse you know who came and
tried to merk that boy,
Oh I’m talking too much,
Trailing, I’m walkin’ too much,
See the youth died, this shit is sick, they
coughing(coffin) too much,
Trolling so I can take control of the stalkers who
stuck,
Algorithms down in my crowd decision notice all
the trolls got big,
But my shit the lowest,
I’m Superman to these bitches,
To get the attention then I gotta save’em,
That is why I behave dumb,
That is why I became some type of internet clown,
Under the stares(Stairs, Movie) they hate me for clowning
but follow those with colourful hair,
sixty-nine(6ix9ine) ways to block me,
Was they being cocky?
I'm just too sick dog, the rabies done got me,
Scabies is high-key(Hockey), the babies in Watts
see, why see not an option,
Think of YC(Rapper, Sports), Racks On
Racks(Hockey Racks),
keep it a stack at the top they keeping the black-
on-black plot,
Blacks don't rap about black-owned stack
property,
Niggas droppin' albums, makin' cracks on pack
poverty,
What’s sad: the fans think it’s a great song,
But why none of y’all helping out Akon?
Light(Lyt) work for the homeland,
You're probably in your mansion choppin’ lobster,
One trip back to the homeland, Waka Flaka,
Give it all back, chains, cars, all that,
Let a nigga see(Sea) it’s no more slave ships,
We aborigine, history(His story) lies,
The mystery rise,
Mister reading his books, but readin' still is the
trap,
Native tongue hung, English,
Old English, we fiending for tall cans,
Awe man, y'all men evil,
Every nut feel different, God said he made all men
(almond) equal,
Capital STEEZ, Prodigy, Triple X, Left Eye, ODB,
the Anomaly,
Every nigga that spoke up for our people got a
depot,
Home Depot, Mexican,
I’m hoping this work,
I have been too focussed,
I'm ready to die for being outspoken,
I'm conscious but still locing(Crip),
I'm crippled(Crip), still a stand up nigga,
Without the crutches,
No marchin' wit' my hands up,
Tell my people "we better lift the cans up",
To get rid of the cancer,
This the only answer, Iverson(Iversen),
I have been surviving in the slums,
Dodging rivals who love thuggin’,
It’s crazy how the enemies is really my
blood(Gang) cousins(Crip),
My cousins bleed the same,
We thug from kids,
No matter how much you Crippin’,
When you get shot, you need blood to live,
It's vital, Fido dog who stay by the bodies,
Shorty load up the shottie, one shot and we come
up short,
Webster(Emmanuel Lewis) hall, don't expect to
ball in a
circle,
The feelings'll rise, your homies'll hurt you,
See the curfew, you get in your feelings(Space-Filling), niggas'll
curve you,
Show your street side, don't let beef slide,
Slippery cow on the East Side,
It’s crazy how the East Coast love me,
But the East Coasters a slug me,
Killin' thugs in my circle,
Show no pity,
My city go silly(Celie) for color purple,
Get a glimpse,
We cry in the Purple Rain(Reign),
Screamin' that BZ Really the Prince,
Believe me the prints, he left in a BZ lot,
We starvin' for leaders(Liters), left bulimic,
Bulimia, see the kids,
Throw-up signs(Sigh),
We glorify on a grape(Crip) vine,
When my partners move, Chop got the tools,
It's ironic how when our crips die(Dye) we got the
blues,
Well(Whale), Moby Dick started killing, living to get
old,
Give praise to the bricks, it only leave you with
missed goals,
The project: government profit,
I forget Sharif was the prophet,
Boyz n the Hood took Chris ball,
Menace II Society told the people to stop and start
living good,
Y'all watchin' a movie but it was filmed inside my
hood,
I seen Caine,
Ziggy and Durant ran the ally when D’s(Cops)
came,
This ain’t a hood movie,
This was a true story,
A unit with the staircase,
Felt this was a two story,
Kids just building-up anger,
Hang with the niggas who hangout, in the hood,
Fly as a plane hanger,
Say the wrong word, you dead,
Niggas is playing hangman,
Stickin' around the bodies,
Do y'all see the stick in the ground?
They kickin' us down, we wanna kick it,
Clickin' it on our own,
Pick up picket signs when they wrong,
Do we get the signs? This a sinus, you don't smell me,
Thinking musk tang(Mustang), is this how it shall
be(Shelby)?
Is this how Michelle be next to Obama?
My mama next to my father,
Please tell me God:
How could I focus in a broken home?
Only way to get dough is if I broke in
homes(Holmes)
Back to Waka Flaka,
Oh let’s do it, my crew wit’ it, I’m too legit,
Get down, your stomach a big round, a hula clip,
You ballin' but still get chopped thinkin’ I’m new to
(neuter) this,
spades(Spayed) was the card I played,
Gazed at the niggas since pickin' my friends,
I got friends in the Knicks,
I wish we could kick it again,
When is shit finna stop?
The plot is constipation,
The hood all stars, hood constellation,
To finish this all we need is guys who patient,
Let's finish this conversation,
I am waiting for a hundred Grapes,
No more huntin' Grapes,
A hunnit Bounty Hunters, a hundred Grapes,
Nigga remember they hung us,
The real enemy is really amongst us,
We the monsters on lock,
We just need to key-free the youngsters who are
stuck in a box,
We get paired up wit' the energy, we come from
the block,
We should square up with the enemies who stuck
us in Watts,
Cocksuckers rushin' the cops, oh don't cop-out,
Tell 'em Ca ca, tell 'em B-Dog(Be dog),
If we all emerge the hood, then Watts'll evolve,
Big Wayne and Lil one,
Killa Twine and Wolfy, call the real ones,
Our fight ain't with each other, our fight is with all
these pilgrims,
Respect in our hood, we gotta protect it,
Don't neglect the plot, it's negligent,
Higher ups gon' reject the block,
We don't show no respect to the other side,
But yet we respect the cops,
When they kill us we get mad and go kill our
killers,
Deal our dealers' life for the drugs,
Drug us in cells for sellin' drugs on a cell,
Then we celebrate, screaming “free the homie”,
We should go free the homie from enemy lines,
We got many G's with the energy, insidious times,
See we really lying to the higher ups,
Watts tower, the wire stuck,
The higher mention our priors,
Don’t try your luck, don't pry us,
It’s just Richard Pryor, screen(Scream) comedy,
The fable, they label me the anomaly,
'Cause Imma meet(Meat) with all of the niggas the
hood was tryna beef wit',
If I am keepin' it real for Christ, then,
I’m just a black boy with light skin(Lytskin).

It doesn't matter how hard you try or how many times you repeatedly get knocked down and crawl back up onto the proverbial horse. Pulling yourself up by your boot straps and facing another day is all for nothing. There aren't any truly good people in this world. From my experience, everyone lies, cheats, steals, manipulates and strives to take advantage of others consistently. We are slaves to work. We are slaves to money. We are slaves to the never-ending task of eating. Even that has increased monetarily and countless people die of starvation, even in the USA. The vast majority eat junk food, because healthy food is too expensive. Our health is declinijg as a result. We work through our best, most productive hours each day. However, those hours are usually spent making another company succeed or fail....not us individually. The cost of living is sky rocketing and even as minimum wage is rising to $15/hr, that's woefully inadequate for even basic survival. We hide incessantly in any form of entertainment we can find. That's why musicians, actors/actresses and athletes are treated like God's. They give us an escape from hell...temporarily. We reward them with millions of dollars as a result. The suicide rate amongst these "God's of society" is staggering. Even they are secretly miserable. We can't see the cancer, because it surrounds us and we've grown accusotmed to the stage 4 illness. Our young children are in daycare and raised by other people, while we give our heart and minds to an industry that could care less about our well being and feed on their own villainous greed. Our kids suffer, society suffers and everyday seems like a total waste of time and energy. We are all slowly dying in an endless cycle of chaos. We are taught that it's normal and just go with the flow. We are taught to put our own needs aside and help others, when nobody helps us on return. Religion and spirituality are both lies of the highest order. We all live a pathetic life, that's mostly empty and void of true joy...and then we die. Everyone dies. Nothing matters. Aside from technological advances, society is declining at a rapid pace. All of our hard work is for nothing. All of our carefully chosen words and diligent actions propell society into the mud. Women are taught that they lack beauty and the cosmetic industry makes trillions of dollars from actively clawing out the self esteem of women, so they are now dependent on their product. Little girls are lied to and before they can even think for themselves, they are catapulted into a lie that this world embraces. They watch their mothers fall helplessly into the trap the world has set. They in turn mirror that dehavior. They dawn eye liner, lip stick mascara, blush, hair color and various other make up components to construct their self esteem...because society has eagerly stripped them of it voluntarily (for the vast accumulation of money). That is sickening and revolting. Young men and women are filtered through the military. They suffer mental anguish and war. They suffer from untold stories of P.T.S.D. so this country can stay corrupt and vile. The government couldn't care less about the wounded, the dead and the mental suffering...as long as they get their billion dollar defense contracts. This world has no ethics, no morals and no real sense of direction. We are all thrown into the fire from birth. So...yeah, it doesn't matter. We are all just fuel for the fire. The smoke slowly disappears and the ashes of our valiant efforts are left behind. It's all for nothing. The lie that life is worth living, might be the biggest one out there. They want you to keep living, because you're a cow in the pasture. The top 1% need the dedicated sacrifice of their "cattle" to fund their luxurious lifestyles. If you commit suicide, they lose money from all the things you're addicted to. It's one less hand stuffing their pockets. So, they need you to stay alive. Life is not worth living. Life is simply a dirty joke perpetuated on the masses. I could keep going, but hopefully you see my point....it doesn't matter anyway.

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1. How AI is Cooking Up Food Innovation!🍔
Hey foodies! Ever wondered how those tasty treats in your pantry get their delicious flavors? Well, buckle up because Unilever's spilling the beans on their secret ingredient: Artificial Intelligence!
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Take Knorr's Zero Salt Bouillon Cubes, for example. 🍲 By harnessing the power of AI, Unilever crafted a sodium-free sensation that's just as tasty as the original—no salt shaker required! 🧂 ...( read more on our student newsletter)
​
2. Crime and Perception: Are People Reacting to the Wrong Alarm?🚨
Lawmakers have two main jobs: reducing crime and making people feel safe. But sometimes there's a big gap between what's happening with crime and how people feel about it.
For example, a Gallup poll showed that more Americans than ever—63 percent in 2023—think crime is a big problem, even though crime rates have actually been dropping. It's like thinking the house is on fire when it's just the toaster burning your toast.🍞 This gap between reality and what people think is a big deal. It affects what laws get made. Lawmakers don’t always look at what’s really happening; they also look at what people believe is happening.
So, when people feel scared about crime—maybe because of news reports about a rise in crime that isn't really there—lawmakers often feel pressured to act. This has led to some places passing tough laws that bring back the harsh punishments of the 1980s and '90s. They're trying to fix a problem that's already getting better... (read more on our student newsletter)
​
3. How TikTok's Chinese Owner Took Control 🇨🇳
TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance has been playing a game of tug-of-war with US regulators, trying to keep its hold on the popular app. But ByteDance seems to be winning the game, pulling TikTok closer into its grasp. 🏃‍♂️
According to whispers from current and former employees, ByteDance has been sneakily moving its staff into TikTok, especially those who speak Mandarin. It's like they’re building a secret TikTok army, spreading from China to the rest of the world. Chinese workers are popping up in TikTok offices worldwide, including the US.
There’s a lot of cloak-and-dagger stuff going on—people are spilling the beans anonymously because they're scared of getting caught. TikTok claims it’s not controlled by China, but insiders say decisions still come from there. Talk about a plot twist! 🕵️‍♀️🔍
Even simple things like picking music for ads need China’s approval. And there's been drama over what content gets the green light. It's a real-life soap opera! 🎶 TikTok’s been accused of being unfriendly to women and minorities, facing lawsuits over discrimination. Not a good look for the app's reputation. 👩‍⚖️( read more on our student newsletter)
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4. Trash Talk: Landfills on the Hot Seat!
Forget blaming cows for methane—turns out it's our trash causing the stink! A new study reveals that landfills are belching out greenhouse gases at nearly three times the rate we thought! Talk about a stinky surprise! 😱
Scientists used fancy tech called imaging spectrometers to scope out the scene from above. No more risky business of wandering around with sensors—now they can fly over and get the scoop without breaking a sweat! The findings? Over half of the landfills they checked out were like methane volcanoes, spewing out more gas than a can of soda! And get this—the buildup of decades-old trash is cooking up a real "garbage lasagna" down there!
Why should we care? Well, methane might seem harmless, but it's a climate change heavyweight! Pound for pound, it's 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming up our planet! ( read more on our student newsletter)
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Hi! I read these books as a young teenager (early 2000's, maybe?) and absolutely loved them but my mother gave them away and now I cannot for the life of god remember the names of them. I'd love to find out what they were called. Help me out, please?
Here is what I remember. I hope we can finally find them and also if I remember something wrong it'd be fun to compare to what actually happened in the books.
OVERALL PREMISE
A teenage girl has the ability to see the forces that cause evil in this world. They seem to be individual humanoid creatures that can fly and are invisible to the human eye. They act in a somewhat unified way or seem to share a sort of common consciousness; so, for example, if one of them notices the protagonist, more of them will know where she is even if they haven't talked to one another. They forcefully will manipulate someone's body to do evil (ex., suddenly drive into someone): this would explain those almost unconscious, spontaneous acts of evil in the world.
The portagonist does not know of anyone else that can see them. She tries to be unnoticed by them, because when they "remember" that she can see them, they focus on making her do naughty, embarrassing stuff publicly to undermine her credibility. As a result, she is lonely and perceived as a basket case.
GENRE AND STYLE
The books are very nightmare-ish and quite dark for teenage literature, but had the simplicity in style and structure of other young adult literature. I think of them as Molly Moon meets RL Stine.
DEMOGRAPHICS
I believe they were a translation from Enlglish and that the books mentioned US American towns and cultural references, but I could be wrong. It is very probable that they were published in the early 2000's or late 90's, if they were relatively new books when I read them.
I believe I owned the first and second volumes of the series and have no idea whether there are more.
PREMISE BOOK 1: INTELLIGENT FARM ANIMALS WITH PSYCHIC POWERS THAT REBEL AGAINST HUMANS
Seemingly the first of the series, it was the first I owned. Her family seems to have financial problems and move around quite often whenever her father gets a new job. This time they move to a small countryside village with lots of farms around. There, I believe, she is for some reason quite popular and gets a boyfriend or starts to know a boy. The evil spirits decide to attack this village, I don´t remember why, and make it so that no one can leave the village. Then animals start to become increasingly intelligent beyond human capacities, acquiring human language, societal organization and psychic powers. They decide to take revenge on slaving humans that have mistreated them for centuries and take control of the village, entrapping humans, allowing them a life only a bit better than the ones they had themselves under their rule and physically and psychically punishing them. In one instance I believe a cow attacks a teenager psychically and telepathically convinces him that he has been hit in the belly; the boy believes it to the extent that is body starts manifesting signs of a physical attack.
Somehow the conflict is solved and everything goes to normal in the end, with the exception of a dog who can still talk and retains his human intelligence. No one remembers anything but the protagonist, who "adopts" this dog. They remain close friends for the rest of the series, even though they were enemies in the first book, because they are the only ones who understand and remember what really happened.
PREMISE BOOK 2: A MIRAGE IN THE DESERT LEADS TO A MENACED LAND OF DREAMS
After this incident the family (dog included) moves to an abandoned airport in the middle of the desert, where the dad has found a job because the last employee disappeared out of nowhere. The family settles there and the father starts acting very weirdly (it gives intense 'The Shining' vibes).
After someone's disappearance (the parents, maybe?), the protagonist finds about a mirage in the desert and crosses it, as it was indeed a portal. They arrive in a sort of dream land where anything and everything can come true. All the disappeared in this dessert through Time peacefully and happily cohabit in there, where there is no such thing as death or aging. Dream-like situations play out for their entertainment.
The protagonist is skeptical about this Dream Land and quickly hears about a menacing force that is turning Dream Land into a nightmarish place and threatens to end this places. There has been numerous attempts to get at the root of it, which is in a palace in the middle of a gigantic garden. She and the dog join an expedition through the garden, which becomes increasingly dangerous and dark as they march on.
At one point they find a hut with a diary in it that belonged to an old expedition just like them. Upon reading it they see they all died there. I remember there is a instance where they all get poisoned by the smell of gigantic flowers and believe they are made of honey and eat themselves? It's really dark.
They somehow survive and get to the palace and discover the evil spirits are behind it all. They liberate Dream Land and are rewarded with the possibility of returning to the real world with their family, which they do. Again, no one but the protagonist (and the dog, I think?) remember anything from this adventure. I assume this happens at the end of every book, but I haven't read more.
DESIGN
This was an edition in Spanish, so maybe not very helpful. I had 2 volumes and one was red and the other one purple. The covers were drawn. One of them depicted the evil forces as somewhat of a ghost-like creature. I think the protagonist was white and must have had short straight brown hair and glasses.