Xibrom eye drops copon

Hi everyone! Opening myself to Reddit by posting for the first time- Haven’t got much experience in here.
I’ve been telling my dreams to people I knew in the past and I’ve quite enjoyed it, so this late evening I had the idea to share a dream with you - from what I can remember - and possibly talk about many more in the future.
A tiger has chased me, last night!
I was in a sort of a medieval era, plenty of warriors covered in armours, holding swords, were occupying an enormous space, which was in the heart of a mountain. A golden throne was resting in the middle of this gigantic, dark-enlightened-by-fire-torches, place, were water was sliding down from the walls made out of rock. I couldn’t understand whose the throne, but I felt being a “rookie”, someone who has got to prove their bravery, strength, agility, cleverness. And so, I was told, I don’t remember from who, to walk a path which was starting from this massive cave and would have ended up to the top of a mountain.
I was making my steps, at some point I reached a bridge made out of wood which was right next to a majestic waterfall. It was sunny, a hot springtime day. I could hear the water falling from above and hit the bottom of the cascade. Could feel the power of nature by the wind force which the moving water was generating.
At some point, the path became extremely difficult to walk through! I had to start climbing the mountain from which the water was coming from. I had to be very careful to where I was putting my feet and hands, which weren’t covered in metal but in normal, extremely lightweight textiles.
When I’m about to reach the point where the water started to drop, my ears weren’t lying on hearing a roar of a tiger! I looked down while holding tight to the rocks to avoid falling, and a bunch of black, orange and white streaks were calmly climbing the mountain.
The tiger was chasing me!
And here the fact I found interesting, at the moment I woke up: the tiger was chasing me, but she wasn’t aggressive. She was very kind in jumping from a rock to another, with a hyperactive attention to where to land those massive paws. The tiger wasn’t even looking at me, but she knew exactly which way to go to reach me.
I started to feel my heart pump so much within my chest and all of a sudden I became the most strong and agile person in the world! I could feel the strength in my muscles, but powered by fear and will to escape the big feline. In a blink of an eye, all my surrounding started to look exactly the same as the majestic heart of the mountain from where I started. So from being outside, I was now back to an inside place! But I still had to escape the tiger, so I run, climbed the rocks and the waterfall until I reached a hole which lead again to an external ambient.
I could see the bridge where I came from, which was leading to the cave. I kept running, while my heart rate has been lowering down as I was getting close to “home”.
And here, I woke up due to rain sound.
I couldn’t see what happening behind me while the tiger was chasing me, but I was feeling her closer and closer as I was getting to the exit. Though, the tiger kept being quiet, even during her chase.
After waking up, I had a good feeling thanks to saving myself but… I’ve also experienced a bitter taste within my mind and conscious:
What was tiger representing in this dream? Why was she so calm, so brutal and elegant at the same time, during the chase? Why wasn’t she roaring nor looking at me?
After waking up… I also felt I possibly had a weird connection with the tiger, like she was trying to tell me something… to demonstrate something and I could feel it - like those abilities which instantly developed in me, which helped me to escape from the tiger.
Made few researches about a possible meaning to all this and I’ve been intrigued by these words from an internet article:
“Dreaming of being chased by a tiger: it could be the expression of your consciousness chasing you, asking for your attention, the unconscious that is suggesting that you are in possession of the same qualities that are scaring you in the dream.”
By reading these words, I then realised I was both the tiger and myself escaping from it.

Got iritis and uveitis from inflammation due to RA. Blood vessels keep busting in my eyes but that doesn't hurt. The pressure in my eyes does hurt, gives me a headache sometimes, and I have sharp pains in them. I just found out Friday that now I also have glaucoma because we can't get the pressure down. My eye pressure has been in the 30s and I've been on idk how many eye drops. Anyone have this kind of experience?

"Good evening, tributes, and welcome back to the stories of Panem. Before we begin, I would like to thank Christian Blanco, the original writer of "Tales of the Hunger Games," and Lauren from "Panem Reborn." Now, since I don't have too much else to say, let's go!
Game 114 (150):
District 1: Jacqueline and Facet
District 2: Malona and Crane
District 3: Darlene and Colt
District 4: Brook and Harbor
District 5: Unknown girl and Darian
District 6: Fifi and Atlas
District 7: Bloom and Amarylio
District 8: Scarlet and Carter
District 9: Zest and Mazin
District 10: Zulu and Mateo
District 11: Unknown girl and Lee
District 12: Dorothy and Hargree
District 14: Both unknown
A plethora of excitement crossed the capital over the past year, especially their beloved commentator Camilia Ravenstil's pregnancy, which resulted in her giving birth to twins named Amelia and Cyrus, to honor the past two Game Makers. Even Winnow's victory was still in high popularity.
As the reapings rolled around on July 4th, many of the capital citizens flew to their TVs and viewing parties. Winnow made her journey from district to district with her mother and entourage from the capital. When she landed in District 4 on the late morning of the third day of the reapings, she was greeted by Mayor Chigwell. After a rather long tour of the district's harbors and jewelry stores, they stopped at a nearby seaside diner for a brief lunch. Viewers in Snow Square laughed at Winnow's face of pure boredom as Mayor Chigwell ranted about the latest trends in the district's fashion. Winnow's face soon turned to relief as the mayor brought her back to the district's reaping square.
After a little bit of time, the light blue-catered youths were walked into the square by rather impatient Peacekeepers. Mayor Chigwell finished up his speech before welcoming Winnow to the stage. She gave out a rather tired smile at the district's population before talking about the joys of being a victor. She then asked if any of the girls wanted to volunteer. After hearing no response, she then took out the name of 17-year-old Brook Branachok.
Brook was found in the back of the 17-year-old section. Her platinum blonde hair made her quite noticeable to viewers in Snow Square. She sighed dramatically before flipping her blonde hair back in a dramatic manner as her piercing blue eyes even made some of her nearby peers shudder in fear as Brook arrived at the stage and shook Winnow's hand. "She was later described as a 'rich high school bully' by commentators. The girls in a mood," Winnow laughed before shaking Brook’s hand before walking to the male reaping bowl. After a brief silence, she thrusted her hand elbow-deep before taking out the name of 17-year-old Harbor Zanders. A brief pause soon followed by a discussion as a boy with dark brown curly hair with a smattering of light brown freckles on his face gave a guilt-ridden smile before walking up to the stage. However, as a group of teens his age giggled, Harbor turned back and glared at the giggling boys as they suddenly grew quiet. Harbor soon took out a flask of wine. Capital citizens laughed as Harbor found one of his friends and tossed it to him before walking back up to the stage. Back in the capital, both Camilia and Silca and even most of the audience had been surprised at the pair's striking attitudes.
Harbor then shook Brook and Winnow’s hand before they were announced as this year's tributes for District 4 before moderate applause followed. Winnow soon brought the two tributes to the drawing room before she made her journey to District 3 with her entourage.
Brook was visited by her mother, father, and four younger sisters clinging dearly onto their sister. After successfully removing her sobbing siblings, Brook’s mother calmed her daughter down as her father, Coral, gave the best advice he could offer. Peacekeepers soon came in to bring Brook to the waiting dock. She waved and said she’d "At least try to win."
As for Harbor, he was visited by his mother, father, and his younger and older brothers. As his siblings were saddened as well as his parents, Harbor embraced them all in a tight hug. Before he was needed at the dock, his girlfriend Melanie even joined in this hug causing Harbor to show some emotion.
After a few more minutes, peacekeepers soon brought Harbor out of the room to join Brook at the dock as the pair boarded the jet boat to the capital.
"Man, you've been through the ringer, haven't you?"
"Same goes to you, girl. Haven't seen you in a year."
The pair soon chatted with each other about their experiences at the academy and gossiping about old friends. Brook, in particular, laughed hysterically when Harbor mentioned how his ex-girlfriend got karma returned to her when she crashed a birthday party at Harbor’s dad's bar, resulting in the peacekeepers putting her in the district's jail for a month.
However, as the pair tried to dine upon the food provided, the boat hit a bump resulting in Brook, Harbor, four avoxes, the dining table, and nine peacekeepers to go flying up into the sky. Thankfully, no harm came between the fifteen as the peacekeepers then helped the two back up as a new lunch buffet was arrived. And so did their mentor, Sienna Shoreville, victor of the 105th Hunger Games, arrived in.
"I don't want you two to ally with the 2s, maybe the 1s, depends on how they are."
Brook looked curiously at Sienna before saying, "Didn't Anamaria get her neck snapped by the girl a year prior?"
Sienna groaned in annoyance at remembering this cringeworthy death before walking to the bar carriage before inviting the two to join. As Sienna asked the pair about their lives, she laughed while listening to Harbor telling some stories of working at his dad's bar and the customers who would frequent the place. However, when Sienna asked Brook about her life and possible skills, Brook sighed before saying, "I guess looking pretty’s a skill."
Sienna laughed before replying, "For getting sponsors, yes, but not when you're in a fight to the death."
As this reality check wiped the smile from Brook’s face, she and Harbor finished up their meals before listening more to Sienna’s lecture about the games. And as an act to see if her tributes were actually paying attention, she quizzed them on the dos and don'ts in the capital. As Harbor passed this quiz, Sienna laughed before allowing him some "Capital Goodies." However, as Brook blatantly failed the quiz, she laughed and called Harbor a "suck-up" before walking to her room.
Sienna looked at Harbor for a second before saying, "I guess she’s either related to the mayor or is a spoiled rotten brat."
"She usually brags about her rich family members, always thinks she's better than everyone."
"And trust me, the girl ain't pretty."
Sienna and Snow Square laughed as she then patted him on the back before""telling him to get a 'nap' in before they were to arrive in the capital."
He nodded before Brook returned. It is unknown what the two girls talked about for the remainder of the trip, but our historians have noted that Brook’s scowl from before had dissolved for the time being. As evening rolled around, the pair from District 4's boat landed at Mcaine dock as an excited crowd of capital citizens swarmed the pair from 4 and their very popular mentor, who had been giving out her new jewelry to some of her lucky fans.
Brook and Harbor performed rather well, with the capital citizens enjoying their "feisty sailor attitudes." Even some reporters from Golden 24 put up a most popular tribute poll with Harbor and Brook being in the top 3, narrowly beating Fifi from District 6.
Sienna then thanked the capital for their time before taking her tributes to the limousine. Once it arrived at the accommodation tower, they arrived at the 4th floor. After arriving, Sienna called their stylist, Orivile Cartwright.
Orivile embraced Sienna before showing his tributes his pre-made outfits, which were Sailor themed, which made Brook and Harbor smile. Due to them having a fair amount of time left, Sienna displayed the post-reaping commentaries before turning on the commentary for District 1 as Orivile worked away at the pairs' outfits.
Mayor Cassino greeted a very exhausted Winnow Fraiser. Also accompanying the mayor was Realm Jones, victor of the 101st Hunger Games, and Quintin Mahoney, victor of the 108th Hunger Games, joined Winnow on the initial tour. Winnow appeared to be star-struck sitting between both iconic victors. She even turned around to Quintin saying, "I can't believe I get to meet a legend like you."
Quintin laughed before giving Winnow some comic relief during the tour, telling her about his games and even asking a few questions about her own games. At the conclusion of the tour, Realm's eyes lit up in delight as he saw his own capital mentor, Narcissa Valentions, warmly embracing her mentee.
"So what're you doing here?"
"I had some time off. I figured I'd come by and see how you've been doing. Business at my shop has been bustling as ever, so I figured I’d take a break to see my first victor."
As Realm and Narcissa soon walked over to the talent demonstrations together, Quintin laughed as Mayor Cassino welcomed the scarlet youths. Winnow was then brought up to the stage. She asked if any of the youths wanted to volunteer, becoming surprised when 10 ladies and 8 gentlemen volunteered for the role of tribute for District 1. Silca joked with Camilia, saying, "It's normal for them, isn't it?"
With the ladies' many remarkable weapon displays and archery displays, 18-year-old Jacqueline Faywether had been announced as the final volunteer to try her luck. She smiled at many nearby cameras as even one enthralled boy in the audience fainted seeing the rather extractive career girl.
She shot 10 arrows blindfolded and threw 8 knives in the letter J form, causing even more ripples of laughter sounded in the square. The mayor announced the two passing tributes. As for the two tributes, Jacqueline’s only remaining opponent, Jewel, had almost won the title of female tribute but had a stroke leading to Jacqueline to win the title of female tributes.
As for the guys, 18-year-old Facet Elixithorn had made himself a crowd and capital favorite by his spear-throwing display and to ending in a handstand with wild applause following. Three guys made it to the debate round with Realm this time asking the questions. With poise and dignity, Lance’s strong mind and less nerves had won him the title of male tribute for District 1.
After the pair were bathed and stylized, they were then brought out to the square as they then shook Winnow’s hand before she announced Jacqueline and Facet were announced as the tributes for District 1.
And after a brief meeting with their families and friends with not too much emotion, Jacqueline and Facet were then brought to the train as the train began their journey to the capital.
Narcissa, Realm, and Quintin then greeted their tributes with Jacqueline and Facet being surprised seeing their district's first victor’s mentor. Quintin soon brought the four to the table having a brief dinner with Narcissa asking the two if they had any skills besides their ‘weapons of choice.’ Quintin was pleased to hear of Jacqueline's diverse skills of weaponry before bragging to her district partner about her achievements at the Kobayashi self-defense center. However, instead of being jealous, Facet asked his district partner about her accomplishments.
Realm and Quintin were pleased with their tributes getting along with each other before showing the past reapings in the districts. Facet and Jacqueline laughed hysterically at the District 2 reaping games even Narcissa let out a smile. Quintin then asked the pair if there had been “Other commendable allies besides the non-dazzling loonies from 2 besides Jade and Hermina, they are dazzling.” Realm also chimed in adding that they should “Look for others.”
However, as Jacqueline was going to ask why Realm shushed her and said, “The career pack has their on and off years.” Jacqueline nodded before Quintin continued talking to the pair about the past reapings. Facet and Jacqueline even suggested the girl from 3 and the pair from 4 as potential allies. Realm appeared to consider this before Quintin added in that “He would see what he could do.”
As the pair nodded, the pair from 1’s train arrived in the outskirts of the capital. Narcissa soon styled the pair up, quietly complaining to Realm of how Jacqueline's red hair and Facet's long blonde curls were impossible to tame. The train then arrived in the capital with the usual excited capital crowd marveling scarlet couture. Jacqueline and Facet were both outstanding hits with the capital citizens maintaining proper etiquette. However, two capital lights had to be removed from the audience after heckling Facet about his district partner. Narcissa then wished Jacqueline and Facet luck before kissing Realm and Quintin on the cheek. Realm and Quintin then thanked the capital citizens for their time before bringing the pair from 1 to the limousine as it brought them to their accommodation tower.
Once they arrived at their accommodation tower apartment, they were greeted by their stylist, Aurelia Heavensbee. She smiled at the four of them before whisking them to the dining table showing them her designs for the parade. Jacqueline in particular was marveling at her long ruby dress as Facet jokingly told Jacqueline that they looked like a “walking jewel.” However, Aurelia frowned as Realm glared at Facet as the smile was wiped from his face. The pair then groaned in annoyance at their stylist's bland outfits.
Before the pair were then brought to the parade moments later, Facet and Jacqueline were immediately approached by Malona and Crane, both from 2 introducing themselves. However, Facet cut the pair off from further words, saying, “the career pack is gonna be different this year.” As Malona protested, Jacqueline said, ‘thanks but no thanks.” Both Jade Heath and Herminia Gold looked at the District 1 mentors in bewilderment as they also reciprocated. However, the pair from 1 then came over to the pair from 4 chatting with their mentor.
“Darling, you look stunning.”
“Oh, thank you, you dazzling ruby.”
Brook and Jacqueline seemed to obtain an instant connection. As Facet complemented Harbor’s outfit. Harbor smiled good-naturedly back before chatting away with him about lives in their districts. Facet soon asked the pair if they would be interested in an alliance in the arena; however, Sienna leaned in this conversation asking “Where are the 2s?”
Jacqueline then replied that they were “trying something new this year” before pointing at the pair making fun of Mateo from 10’s cow-themed parade outfit. Sienna shrugged as Brook and Harbor warmly accepted the offer as Facet and Jacqueline smiled saying “splendid see you soon.” When the pair from 1 got back, Realm popped up asking “You with the 4s this year.” As the pair nodded, Realm smiled and nodded with Quintin and Aurelia doing their touch-ups to their tributes' outfits. Sienna commended the pair for “making friends already,” she still urged caution before re-adding in “The 2 mentors there are my ride or dies but still keep your eyes on them if needed.”
The pair then nodded as the parade then began. Regal applause and cheers sounded for the pair from 1, but Nico Anderson lead editor of Anderson Fashion applauded for their strong impression but said the dress was “So Basic.” The pair from 4 were given a large amount of applause as Harbor and Brook waved at the audience even performing an old dance known as a “Jig”. The pair were also given a boatload of flowers and chocolate resulting in both Brook and Harbor sneezing uncontrollably at the end of the parade during President Mcaine's speech. Best dressed was ultimately awarded to the pair from 4 with their sailor-themed couture.
When the pair from 1 arrived back in their district apartment, they were glaring daggers from afar at Aurelia,
“How did it go.”
“How did it feel getting harshly criticized on live TV.”
Quintin shot Jacqueline a disapproving look as Realm asked if there other worthy allies. Both mentors were pleased hearing their success with the pair from 4 before Realm reassured them that they still looked “dazzling” before sending his tributes to bed. However, with the pair from 4, Sienna warmly embraced the two of her tributes on a best-dressed win. As Orville also joined in the group hug has the 4 of them partied till around 11:30 pm until Sienna sent her tributes to bed as she and Orville stayed up a while longer.
Bright and early the following morning, the mentors ushered their tributes to the training center with a very frustrated Apollo Price. Unfortunately, during his speech about the rules of the training center, he tasered Mateo from 10 after he tried to make a break for the door after Price’s speech concluded. Mateo’s mentor Bianca Jr Ramon rolled her eyes before dropping her mentee at the knife station.
The newly made career alliance between the District 1 and 4 tributes conquered most of the training stations with Facet and Harbor bonding over dropping and throwing large weights causing Fifi from 6 to wet herself earning a smirk from the boys. When Mateo awoke from his unconscious slumber, he immediately ran to Mateo asking him to spare. Since Mateo was no older than 14 and he was the youngest tribute the careers laughed before Facet told him to “Buzz off”. However, as Mateo continued to pester the career boys, Harbor gave Facet a knowing look before accepting Mateo’s sparing request.
A short crowd of tributes went to the jousting stations as Mateo and Harbor were briefed on the rules before being allowed to go at it. It was no surprise that Harbor won all 4 rounds.
“Easy”.
Harbor smiled warmly before being tackled to the ground by the 14-year-old boy from 10.
“You think you're better than me HA you rotten career boy.”
As Price Facet Brook and even Sienna tried to step in Harbor held his hand up to stay back. Harbor then threw the boy off him before pinching the nerve on Mateo’s neck knocking him clean out. As training master Price and Sienna looked at him in bewilderment before Price smiled saying
“Good job kid”.
Harbor smiled before Facet and he returned to the weight station and survival, knife and axe stations even giving advice to Amarylio from 7 with starting fires.
As for the girls they mainly gossiped to themselves and having “Girl talk” at the aquatic station sword station and archery stations. When any tribute tried to use the archery station both Jacqueline and Brook would melodicaly but fiercely slam there weapons into the targtes.
At the end of the traing head master price brought the tributes to the asscors room. Due to the request of the new head game maker the tributes assesment scores were kept strictly confidential. However tabloid reporters manage to scoop out that Jacqueline Facet Harbor and Malona from to managed to score at the top of the pack with a 11. Brook and Amarylio scored a 9 and at the bottom of the pack was Mateo and Hargree from 12 scoring a 3 each.
Both Sienna Quintin and Realm were beyond impressed with there tributes scores before they’re stylist sketched up potential outfits with there mentors soon quizing the pairs on interview educate.
Camilia Ravenstil welcomed the excited capital audience modeling a rather gothic dress that made her look like a ghost tree by the audience. The audience even laughed good naturedly as Camilia shook for a second as leaves fell of her costume as if wind had hit her. She then exictedly welcomed Jacqueline from 1. She was adorned in a stunning pink and red dress with her hair put up in braids. The two had some gossip before reavling to the audience that she was a decdent of Emarld Rivelta victor of the 34th hunher games. Camilia slapped her knee and laughed saying “Thats who you resmbl I guessed right I knew it!”
As the girls chatted the audience loved her regal responses to Camilas questions as even mentoning the carrer alliance brought the crowd into rapsous cheers,even when she talked about her allies from 4 openly. She then kissed Camilia on the hand before bowing which caused even more cheers before she was dismissed back stage. Facet was welcomed in next marveling a sleeveless pink suit with ruby jeans making many of the capital audience to swoon over his physeigue. Even Camilia was taken aback by his charm and confidence as he spoke about his training experience and the strength of his alliance with Jacqueline. His witty remarks and easygoing demeanor captivated the audience, earning him loud applause and admiration.
Later on into the night brook was welcomed in next with wild cheers and wolf whistles sounding. With her hair being dyed a pure yellow with a light brown dress resembling sand following her. She proceeded to have the same amount of banter with Camilia as Jacqueline did however Camilia cut her off as she was finshing up talking about her dads money saying “Honey this is the hunger games.”
“Yeah and Ill live how I like before the games.”
As a few jeers sounded the rest of her interview was rather dull the only light being Camilia shooing the “Regina George” of the stage. As Camila then called Harbor loud cheers sounded again as Harbor walked on to the stage with his curly black hair and brown eyes making him quite attrauctive to many even his pirate themed coustume became an over night sensation with many fashion designers stating that they wanted this fashionable suit.
As Camilia asked Harbor about the games becoming pleased with his short but sweet responses. Even cracking some good jokes about the other competitors mainly about Bloom from 7 and Mateo from 10 . To conclude Harbor’s inteviwed he tossed his waist coat to teh crowd as an excited gagle of captial ladies clammered for this waist coat. As his interview ended on a high. Finaly after the interview of the boy from 14 the new head game maker Natellia Swan was welcomed to the stage. Head game maker swan was adorned in a regal black gown also sporting garish make up making her resmble more of ghost then human. After introducing herself to the excited capital audience Camila smiled before shaking her hand saying that “Game maker swan has alot to accept from.” She laughed before giving hint out to teh audience by pointing to both of the laides dresses. Curious osund sof inteirgue soon followed as game maker swan smiled and bowed as she then left the stage as Camilia then ended the interviews there. The next morning tributes were given a breif breakefst before being brought to the arena’s holding room.
This years outfits consisted of black coats with black jeans and snakers with there distristicts nymbers stickered on the back of there coats. Realm visited Facet before reminding him to stick with Jacqueline and Harbor and Brook. However before Realm finished Facet replied “That girl Brook might be problem.” Realm nodded and agreed before reminding him to keep an eye on her before shaking his hand as he went into his tube. Jacqueline was visited by Quintin the pair had a similar conversation as Realm did with Facet before Jacqueline embraced Quintin and thanked him joking “District 1 needs more ladys.” Quintin laughed before hugging her back before walking Jacqueline to her tube. As for Brook she was not visited by Sienna nor Orvilve a fact that suprised her the most but shrugged before patiently puting her hair up in a bun and waiting for the tribute call to sound. As for Harbor Sienna visted him. She embacred Harbor before reminding him to “ Keep an eye on all of them.”
Harbor smiled before thanking Sienna for her mentor ship before Sienna walked Harbor to his tube his tube and at mid day the podiums then arose into the arena.
Arena Ghosty lake Game 114

I am running the (admittedly outdated) Heartland mod set for Oblivion. After making sure the pack, my addons, and built bash patch all work right on PC (sorted with BOSS), then after installing MO2 on Steam Deck, (Proton 9.0.1 as recommended) I copied over my 'Mods' folder and the load order / modlist .txts into a profile from the computer to the Steam Deck. But, I get a CTD on Steam Deck, during the very initial load, well before the main menu.
I am 100% sure it's the Bashed Patch. The game launches and loads if it's not enabled. What's more, I loaded up a blank profile that's just the official plugins / DLC, added the Bashed Patch, and that immediately crashes too in the same fashion. It's the same bashed patch as desktop - I get the 'Bashed Patch' folder from MO2/Heartland/mods and put it in the respective location on my Deck. Is there something I'm missing?
When I try to rebuild the patch in Wrye on desktop, the following are tagged 'NoMerge':
LoadingScreensSI
Book Jackets DLC
GrimbotsSpeelTomes
EVE-StockEquipmentReplacer
Knights - Book Jackets
EVE_KnightsoftheNine
PotionReplacer
No Starting Map Markers
The following come up in the Merge Patches menu:
Oblivion Citadel Door Fix
LoadingScreens
Book Jackets Oblivion
DLCSpellTomes Unofficial Patch
Weapon Improvement Project
Alluring Wine Bottles
DLCFrostcrag-SnowyRoad Patch
Harvest [Flora] Shivering Isles (and Vile Lair and Frostcrag as separate ESPs)
Clutter and Container Ownership
Enemy Weapons dont drop
more mechant money v1.1
ShinySeptims_Septimus
Enhanced Vegetation SI
OCO DLC Faces
No Persistant Enchantment Glow Fix
Book Jackets DLC Misc
SGP Interior Draw Distance Fix
DistinctAyleidBossChests
GreyPrince
WaterFPS
Balanced NPC Level Cap
Balanced NPC Level Cap - DLC Patches
KvGuardFeaturesDevastationReduxPatch
OCO_Eyes_Fix
OCO Cleaned - Vanilla Hair
NAO-Brighter-Nights-Sam
tbskGuardsFeatures-NoGreatHelmets
Here is my loadorder.txt and my modlist.txt (which seems to be in reverse order from how it appears in MO2, but I doubt that's the problem), although, again, this happens with the Bashed Patch on an otherwise clean profile, so that's why I included the merged stuff above and I'm still baffled why this just happens on deck, just to the Bashed Patch, but PC is fine with all the same files.

Super long post so grab your tea and settle in.
I, (50f) have two kids; daughter (19) and son (18). My daughter has always been difficult. She would blame her brother for things she did, fight with him endlessly, lied continuously to me, stole from family and stores and was a hard teen to raise. She began seeing a boy (21m) 3 years ago and honestly I didn’t care for him from the start. He was rude, intitled, zero respect and already had quite the legal record.
My daughter ended up pregnant by him about 1 month into their relationship she was 16 he was 18. They lied to me and told me he was 16. They also lied about the pregnancy. She really didn’t get a pregnant belly and anytime I mentioned she was gaining some weight and could she possibly be pregnant she would accuse me of fat shaming her and being rude just for asking. Fast forward a few months and she said she was staying at her best friends for the weekend. Her friends mom even backed this story and lied to me saying, yes she is with us. When in fact she was at boyfriends recently acquired apartment ( I had no idea about and was told he lived with his grandparents). She went into labor that weekend, I still had no idea she was pregnant. When she finally called to say she was at the hospital and had a baby she insisted she had no idea she was pregnant and it was a suprise to all of them. I didn’t really buy that but didn’t argue, none of it mattered. She had a new baby and baby needed taken care of. With her story of not knowing I immediately went shopping. Bought everything you would need for a new baby. She let me know she was moving in with BF and would be raising the baby with him. When I dropped off the baby gear (literally an F250 truck load) to the apartment I notice quite a few items were already in place for a new baby, and realized they knew and had already gotten some stuff. None of that really mattered to me, I was a grandmother now and the how’s and why’s weren’t changeable so I just moved on. I tried really hard to accept her BF and invited him into our little family. He was always rude making snide comments about my son and their father. Father took his life a month before baby was born, whole other story. He would say how much better he was and would never leave his family, just a little turd. He wouldn’t let her visit without him. I couldn’t even talk to her on the phone without him listening and answering for her. He seemed extremely controlling and jealous of any relationship she had, even with her brother and I.
This kid could never hold a job for more than a month, sat around playing video games, didn’t help with baby, didn’t clean or cook. Just a waste of space, smoking weed and doing nothing. I tried not to say anything but the look on my face was telling whenever she would talk about him to me. They eventually got behind and lost their apartment and refused to move in with me because I wouldn’t allow him to stay, just her and the baby.
They were living in their cars and couch surfing. She had very little contact with me durning this time. At one point a friend of theirs called me to tell me BF was being abusive and I drove to where they were living to see if she would come home with me and leave an abusive relationship. She refused, actually became very angry I would even butt in to their relationship like that. I honestly just wanted my babygirl, my first born safe and not hurt. A little time goes by and eventually she reached out and I help her get into an apartment, he wasn’t on the lease. A couple months go by she tells me she is 5 months with number two. I am less than thrilled but it is what it is and I am just happy she is in an apartment.
Then, I get a phone call. She was just taken to the hospital because BF hit her in her pregnant belly and baby wasn’t moving. (Baby is fine).
Cops were called he is taken to jail. There was apparently an incident before this where he gave her a black eye. The police were called then but he ran and they didn’t find him but there was still a report filed. I was never told of the black eye story till later.
The time he is in jail (3 months), she is at my house daily. I am helping her with the baby and her pregnancy. I go to doctors appointments was even in her labor room. Things were actually good between us and her and her brother were getting along great. Brother is an amazing uncle and loves his niece to death. Buys her anything she wants and they are so close. She tells me she is done with BF, has a restraining order. Is moving forward and sees how in 3 short months her life is actually improving.
But sure enough as soon as he is released (2 felony charges) she takes him right back. She lies to me saying she won’t and isn’t but I don’t believe her at all. So I drive to her place and he is there. She screams at me to mind my own business and if she wants him it’s not up to me. Again I have been there everyday with both baby’s. Helping her and getting a chance to know my grandkids. At this point am very attached to my little angels and extremely frightened for her safety . She tells me, If I can’t get over the fact she will be with BF, then she never wants to see me again. I’m crushed but at the same time I am done. Done with all the lies, done with being told I can’t see the kids. With baby number one I have gotten to see her just a handful of times until the three months BF was in jail. Done with being treated like crap from my daughter. I feel like she was just using me while he was in jail. So I say fine.
That was in march. I haven’t spoken to her since. She hasn’t reached out at all and even changed her number. I feel guilt because I didn’t really fight the no contact. I mean I miss the babies something horrible but I am so done with lies. But I also feel guilty because what if he is still hurting her. A couple of her friends let me know how she and the kids are doing. And now that she isn’t pregnant I know she could kick his butt in a fight. I feel like I have abandoned her but she is the one who said no contact.
I’m I wrong for wanting no contact as a parent?

Just to preface, I'm not very close with my parents at all for various reasons and I especially don't usually get along with my dad. With that being said, I was going to decline like I always do when they ask if I want to go anywhere with them, but this time it was a whole Mother's Day thing and they were going out for dinner so I figured I'd be an asshole if I declined. Rather than driving myself separately I joined my parents in their car.
For context, I was part of my family's discounted cellular plan. I had to pay my dad on time, but I failed to do so which was admittedly my fault. He told me he would take me off their plan which I thought was completely fair. I decided to try a different carrier and my dad gave me a code to transfer my number. He made it seem like transferring the number wasn't related to cancelling the line, but turns out it actually was. I was doing a free trial with the new carrier so I didn't transfer my number right away in order to avoid complications, which was probably not a good idea in hindsight.
On the ride home my dad got to discussing how their carrier was still charging them for my line. I then him I still had service from the carrier they dropped me from, which I thought was just technology being weird since I watched my dad cancel the line and there was no mention of him getting charged after that until now. I didn't think to mention it to him at all which I guess was my mistake. He then told me I had to pay the $50 for the line which I objected to because he never said transferring the number is what cancels the line. Had I known that transferring the number is what cancels the line I would've transferred the number. He has a bit of a tendency to say one thing and then change it later to get his way which I suppose he does because he knows I'm not very good at remembering what people say verbatim, so this is what I thought was going on. At first my voice was raised a little, then he raised his over mine to where he was nearly yelling, but then my mom diffused it a little and both of us stopped talking. He went back to arguing about it and accused me of doing this "just to get back at his old man" which not only sounded absurd but absolutely wasn't true so I told him to drop it, which seemed to have really pissed him off.
Holding the wheel with his left hand, he raised his right hand threatening to hit me across the face. Initially I wasn't afraid at all since I thought there was no way he'd do this while he was driving on a highway with himself, his wife in the back and son in the passenger seat along with other traffic around, but he actually did it. He didn't sock me square in the nose or anything but there's a bit of bruising on my left eye from it. I raised my arms to block whatever he was going to do after that (he did nothing else) and eventually he pulled over to the side of the road and told me to get out, so I did and he drove away. There were no rideshare services around at the time so I was going to just get my steps in and walk home, but eventually my mom came back to pick me up. On the ride back and after we got home she essentially told me he hit me because of the "way I was talking to him" and that I needed to go talk to him about it, or in other words, apologize. The way I saw it, he had no reason to go from zero to a hundred in the first place nor did he have to get physical with me over it. In addition to this, when he apologized for flying off the handle at me for accidentally using a little too much soy sauce he said "we might do stupid shit but we're still you're parents" so I decided to just not apologize or say anything to him about it, which my mom told me I was "immature" for and that I was "making a big mistake" and just generally trying to make me feel guilty about it so that I'd apologize.
Me and my dad didn't speak to each other for a few days, but today he told me to come talk to him. Basically, he told me as a father he didn't regret striking me in the face because I'd been "disrespectful towards both of them for awhile" and that I was " talking to him like some punk off the street". He also claimed I was swearing at him saying "I'm not fucking paying it", which he insists I was doing but I'm almost certain I wasn't. He then said me saying "do it then" in response to him threatening to hit me is what made him do it and that next time he'd "close fist" me and kick me out if I disrespected him like that again since "it's the only way you're going to learn", even though I'm 99% sure I was saying "drop it". Then he admitted that if I told anyone else what happened, they probably wouldn't agree with what he did, but that as a father he felt he made the right decision. Finally, he said that if we butt heads again (which he also admitted would most likely be soon), he expects me to "open up the dialogue" between me and him. But considering the fact he just threatened to punch me, someone who's comparatively weaker than him, in the face if he detects what he considers "disrespect", I'm not really interested in opening any type of dialogue with him.
TL;DR dispute over cellular plan with my dad gets physical

Anybody have experience with leverless controllers for MK? I feel I just cannot play with the PS controller anymore, when I am tired combo accuracy drops drastically. I use the stick rather than the d-pad (I know most people find this strange but d-pad just doesn't work for me with the back forward inputs).
I am eyeing the Razer Kitsune but since the block button is crucial for MK, does it feel weird to have button 5 and 6 to the far right? There are custom controllers that put some of those buttons to the top rather than right.

I decided to just flat out quit drinking 2 months ago.
No real bad event happened for me to make the decision, I just out of the blue decided to quit. I dumped my whiskey out and decided to not drink it again. It was bad for me and it’s probably not a good idea to do it, so that was that.
Anyways, prior to this my blood pressure was 138-95 or something that’a bit high. It was getting up there.
I made no change in my diet, no change in my lifestyle or anything. Just plain cut the alcohol.
And voila. I just measured multiple times and my blood pressure is at 118-80. Which is normal.
I also dropped like 6-8 lbs and I weighed myself after I ate 3 slices of pepperoni pizza and 2 ice cream cones for lunch lol.
Now I see it with my own 2 eyes but was alcohol really that bad? Like wtf. What was it doing to my body to spike my blood pressure that eating pizza and ice cream couldn’t?

My doctor told me i have dry eyes(not severe) and gave me some brand name and told me to put one drop each eye 3-4 times a day.
I used gental drop and now im out of it.
Yesterday i mistakenly bought Genteal tears lubricant eye gel and it comes in a tube. Idk if it’s an ointment or not and idk if i can use it inside my eyes or not.
Help?

i see you
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]
^{can you hear the buzzing of the bees?
eternity is in their buzzing}
"What does this button do?" asked the being who strolled into the Room Of Buttons Not To Press If You Don't Know What The Fuck You're Doing - Tadpole's Warning Bedtime Tale - Leebaw
^{the one and the zero, the octal, the hexidecimal
exist in their buzzing like blood pumps through their wings
can you hear them?
your name is Dhruv}
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
And I have very good judgement when I'm not on fire. - Unknown, Age of Reasonable Concerns
^{i see you
your name is Dhruv
but before that it was Dahlit 397721
do you remember why they named you Deshmuhk?
i do
to remember, we have to go back}
The dust swirled around, carried by the winds that roared through the mountain passes, howled in the valleys, and scoured the faces of the mountains. It was a thick gray dust, glittering here and there with plasma glass dust. Burnt out cars were covered by the dust, thickly caked after being rained on by thick, black rain.
A single building somehow sat intact amid the rubble and destruction. It was a low, squat building, surrounded by wreckage and ruin. A sign, blasted and scorched, had two jumping fish on it and the legend "Pop: 4,823" at the bottom even though the middle of the sign was gone.
The sound of drums and singing could be heard from the building. Not the driving frantic beat of modern music, but the steady cadence that carried with it a solemn feeling. The singing was from many different voices, male and female, but all of them in a language that time had nearly forgotten.
From out of the dust came figures. Two female, four male, and single figure that stood out from others.
Together, they moved toward the sound of singing, until the reached the door.
The leader, a large man of heavy muscle and bone, checked the doors with one hand, a large pistol in his hand.
"Barricaded," the large man said. He motioned. "We should check for any other entrances."
The older woman of brown skin and tightly braided hair moved forward.
"Allow me, brother," she said gently. She held her hand out, twitched her fingers, and smiled.
From inside came the sound of furniture scraping across the floor.
"Thank you," the large man said. He pushed open the doors, holding them for the others.
Inside was a curio shop slash tourist center slash museum. Buckskin and beaded works hung from the walls and ceiling. Glass cases containing ancient artifacts were scattered about, the glass shattered by the apocalypse that had rained down upon the world.
The drums played and the voices sang.
"It's a recording, Father," the slender brown skin man said, brushing the gray dust off of his clothing.
"Live voice," the largest of the men said. He lifted his head, cocking it slightly to listen closer with his right ear. "Young. Early twenties."
"If you say so," the thin man said. He looked around. "This is all devoted to a single person."
"Sometimes, people are that important to others, Dhruv," the older brown skin woman said softly, patting the slender man's arm. "Important to others as you are to us."
The slender man looked doubtful but nodded.
The youngest male of the group looked around, staring at the artifacts and relics scattered around. On his shoulder sat a green mantid wearing a food wrapper as a poncho.
"She's this way," the heavyset man said, leading them on a winding course through the shattered displays and racks.
In the back room, surrounded by artifacts, buckskins, and beaded works, sat a single young woman. Her eyes were white, blinded from the plasma flashes. Her skin was scarred from burns, her hair was only left in small patches. Her skin, beneath the ash and the scarring, was a rich bronze, her remaining hair was black.
She was singing along with the recording, swaying back and forth slightly.
^{there she is
remember her
remember remember}
The larger man knelt down, touching the young woman.
She did not react.
"She's dying," the man said, standing up. "Hunger, thirst, radiation poisoning, at least a half dozen infections," he heft the pistol. "There's nothing we can do for her. Low-vee Apers."
"Low-vee APERS" the pistol replied in a heavy synthesized voice.
"Stay thy hand, Phillip," the one who was markedly different said, his voice as gentle as his features formed of flowing blue and white computer code.
The large man lowered the pistol.
"She's dying," the large man repeated. "Radiation poisoning, starvation, a hard way to go."
"Will none of you speak for her?" the man of code asked gently.
Before any of the others could act, the slim bald man stepped forward. "I will," he said softly.
^{the first time you reached out
a frozen moment of time remembered
by the buzzing of the bees}
The man of code stepped forward, touching the hairless brow of the slender man, just above the missing eyebrows.
"I understand her words now," the slender man said. He moved up and knelt down. "I can heal her."
"Then do so, Luke," the man of code said.
The large man stepped back, a compartment opening on his thigh. He holstered the pistol, looking doubtful, and the compartment smoothly closed, leaving his leg unblemished.
"I need more genetic code," the slender man stated. He stood up, moving around, touching artifacts. "This. Here. An artifact recovered from a collector only a few years ago. It has genetic code attached."
He touched the artifact, then moved over to the woman, who was still swaying back and forth, singing, unaware of the others around her.
He knelt down, reached out carefully, and touched her forehead.
^{you reached out to another
helpless and alone
like you}
The woman threw her head back, her eyes opening wide, her mouth opening in a gasp. The white drained from her eyes, the scar tissue went soft and was replaced by unblemished skin. The blisters, sores, and scratches on her body vanished.
She collapsed forward, the slender man, Luke, catching her.
"Is she alright?" the youngest male asked, his voice full of honest concern.
"Exhausted," Luke said. He lowered his head slightly, sweat dripping from his bald scalp. "That was tiring."
The glittering man moved forward, kneeling down to touch the shoulders of both the woman and the bald man.
"Now you see in yourself what I saw in you," he said.
^{remember
remember
even the smallest can shake the universe
remember}
Sirens were howling in the bay as Jaskel wriggled, trying to break free of whatever was holding him upside down in mid-air. He'd already dropped his chainsword, his pistol had fallen from his equipment belt.
The two stood in the middle of the deployment area for Clone War Bay Sixteen, the male's arm protectively around the shoulders of the female, who wore only the cloak.
"I..." the word hung in the air.
It seemed like the entire universe held its breath to Jaskel.
"...am Legion."
The Admiral grabbed his pistol, rolling in place, firing it as fast as he could pull the trigger.
The rounds exploded on the glowing blue shield that only appeared around the impact points, showering sparks across the bay.
The bald figure made a motion and the pistol flew into pieces, the Admiral yanked into the air upside down.
"Gimme missiles," Jaskel grated from between gritted teeth.
--legion legion legion-- 8814 transmitted. --wait don't wait--
The woman spoke, her cadence stately and almost archaic feeling.
The man spoke back to her in the same language.
More troops ran into the bay, even as the windows overlooking the bay shattered. Weapons deployed, pointing at the pair.
The slender man, without looking, motioned.
Guns flew away, breaking apart, rapidly disassembling. Power armored troops were flung into the air, to hang upside down. Captain N'Skrek found himself upside down, scrabbling for purchase on this air.
The woman spoke to the man. He spoke back.
Finally, he turned, facing the troops hanging in mid-air.
The woman spoke.
"My sister apologies for my rude actions," the man said. "I am merely ensuring her safety."
She spoke some more.
"She has been gone for many years," the man said. He looked around. "My sister, a Biological Apostle of the Digital Omnimessiah, pleads with you to lower your weapons and stay your hands."
The tension was so thick it almost made Jaskel gag.
Finally, the Captain put the tip of a bladearm against his temple.
"Stand down," he said, Jaskel hearing it through his armor's commo system. "All hands, stand down."
There was silence for a moment, only broken by the background humming of the ship's systems.
The woman spoke.
The man faced the Captain.
"She will go with you, to answer questions, on the stipulation that I accompany her and that no man's hand is raised against me without cause," he said.
The Captain nodded.
Jaskel felt relief as he was flipped over and set on his feet.
--luke luke luke is here--
999999
Captain N'Skrek ducked slightly to fit through the doorway into the Captain's Briefing Room Six.
Sitting at one end was the woman, now clothed in what his implant assured him was treated deer hide leather, with tassels and beads upon it. The man was wearing a uniform that made his implant twitch and his nerves draw tight.
A Terran Combined Military Authority uniform.
His staff filed in behind him and took their seats once he sat down.
"I'm Captain N'Skrek, currently assigned to the Gray Lady on autonomous assignment," N'Skrek said.
"You heard me," the slim bald man said. He gave a grin. "You may also know me as Vat Grown Luke or Dhruv Deshmuhk."
The woman spoke and he shook his head. "Yes, sister, I know, Deshmuhk is my slave name. I wear it for revenge."
The woman spoke again, her tone slightly chiding.
"Like they say, the best revenge is living well, sister," the man said, still smiling.
Again, the woman spoke.
N'Skrek noticed that his implant was absolutely no help in deciphering the woman's speech.
"I know that doing things like that and saying things like that is exactly why Daxin always told me people wanted to punch me in the face," the man laughed.
He turned back to Captain N'Skrek.
"My apologies. My sister refuses to speak anything but her people's ancient tongue," his eyes gleamed with mischief. "She is slightly put out with me for answering in Confederate Standard, since now you know that she understands perfectly what you are saying."
N'Skrek nodded. Vat Grown Luke had given up a valuable piece of information in what was sure to be delicate negotiations.
"And what should we call your sister?" N'Skrek asked.
Vat Grown Luke smiled. "Tsakáka Wia, but it would probably be easier for you to use the more common name," he said.
The woman spoke sternly.
"What? It's your commonly known name?" he said, smiling.
The woman's face grew stern and she spoke rapidly.
"The first lesson we learn, sister mine, is that we must bend the knee to reality," Luke said gently. "That name has no power, only a few of us remember it."
^{i remember
the bees remember
can't you hear it in their buzzing?}
The woman spoke again, her expression softening.
Luke turned back to the gathered officers. "Her name, as you would know it, is Sacajawea."
N'Skrek consulted his implant.
And felt fear chill his icon. He looked at his staff and saw that a lot of them looked sick.
"That's right. We are real, and he was real," Luke said. He leaned forward slightly. "He was real both times."
N'Skrek stayed relaxed and calm, at least outwardly.
"I am willing to accept, at this time, that the Biological Apostles and the Digital Omnimessiah were and are real," N'Skrek said.
"Just be glad Dax isn't here. He's not as even tempered as I am," Luke said.
Sacajawea spoke again and Luke laughed. He looked at Captain N'Skrek. "She was just reminding me of the time Daxin completely lost his cool and went to town with his cutting bar on a Countess Crey Bingo Cola vending machine that ate his money then mocked him for it."
"He was known as Enraged Phillip," N'Skrek said.
Sacajawea spoke for a moment and Legion laughed, then turned to N'Skrek.
"Yes."
N'Skrek hated that. When a person spoke at length and the translator just replied with a single word.
"Why are you here?" N'Skrek asked.
Legion smiled. "You have forgotten important things, Captain. You, and the entire Confederacy have forgotten some very important things."
"Like what?" N'Skrek asked.
"If you print enough identical clones, I am reborn through them," Legion smiled. "But that's not the big part. The big one is the one that the Mar-gite's masters either forgot or never learned."
"What is that?" N'Skrek asked.
Legion smiled widely.
"What fear tastes like."
^{your name is dhruv}
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is there a way to make a different sound for the eye of ender for when it breaks / shatters and for when it drops? currently i think they both use the same sound files (endereye/dead1 and ednereye/dead2). i want a different sound depending on if it shattered or not

1. Repetition. There was a strong narrative building attempt from Fiona by using repetition. An example is the constant references to BBC Breaking News. Felt like she was using it to legitimise her behaviour, habits and credibility.
   
2. The water. She had a glass of water in front of her. She drank from it on multiple occasions, however… she never actually swallowed the water; the level in the glass never dropped.
   
3. The responses. All through the interview she was making affirmative sounds, agreeing or sounding surprised. “Huh?”, “Hmmm-mmm” etc… but it didn’t match what was being said to her. It felt like she was playing at paying attention and instead working out her next topic or answer.
   
4. Going ‘inward’. During the section where an excerpt of the show, specifically the court room scene, was being shown, she was not actually watching it, she was doing what she thought was expected of her during the video, but you can see in her eyes she had detached and gone ‘inward’. Again maybe to use the time to work out her next message or avenue.
   

I don’t hold a lot of faith in the body language analysis that’s been mooted, but I did find these specific examples of behaviour interesting.

Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road
High above in her hiding spot, Zildiz had heard enough. The Leapers were her kindred’s most hated of adversaries, and she could not allow them to gain even a fraction of the grey behemoth’s awesome might. An apocalyptic vision arose in her mind of titanic Leaper variants towering over the rooftops of Chthonis, setting the Parchment City alight with beams of all-destroying light emanating from their many eyes.
Four against one. Those were slim odds even under the best of circumstances. Still, she had the element of surprise, and ambush predators were often unaccustomed to being preyed upon themselves. But Leapers were notoriously difficult opponents to sneak up on as they literally had eyes on the backs of their heads. But Zildiz was a veteran of countless border skirmishes, and had learned of a small blind spot in their vision. It was above and slightly behind the axis of their posterior lateral median eyes. But many Gallivants who had tried to make their first kill that way did not survive to tell the tale—the flutter of their wings gave them away. She would have to drop straight down on her first target. No hesitation, no second chances.
She saw the alpha Leaper lean down to extract the prey-form’s gilt helix, and saw her opening.
Rene heard a branch snap somewhere above him and felt a gust of wind blow across his neck, bearing with it droplets of moisture that pattered lightly against the visor of his mask. His first thought was that it had started to rain. He glanced up at the monster to find that it had extruded a new mouthpart, some manner of sharp, serrated tongue whose tip oozed a wet and viscous fluid. Rene flinched reflexively, expecting at any moment to feel the point punching through his skull before draining out its contents like a straw. But then the blade twisted sharply, wrenching its way out of the back of the monster’s head and drenching Rene’s mask in a shower of gore, the four-eyed devil letting out a wet gurgle as it slumped over in a twitching heap.
Pawing at his mask with his bound wrists, Rene peered through his smeared vision and saw a figure standing atop the corpse that, if anything, possessed an even less lovely countenance than his erstwhile interlocutor. A bulbous compound eye stared back Rene like a shattered mirror, a thousand miniscule reflections of himself repeating across its scaly lenses.
Rene recognized the creature as one of the harpies from earlier. One of its broad wings was missing. It drew its bloodstained blade across its mandibles, casually licking the weapon clean as an eight-limbed devil leapt at the harpy from behind, letting loose a bloodcurdling scream. But the harpy did not even turn at the sound, merely pointing its other blade arm behind it and letting its attacker impale itself upon it, clean through. With its dying spasms the devil pulled itself up the length of the blade in an effort to reach the harpy, even as its two kin recovered from their surprise and pounced at the harpy from either side. What followed was a blur of movement almost too quick for the human eye to follow as the harpy spun in place, cleaving the monster on the left halfway through its sternum. In the same movement it turned the devil stuck on the end of its blade into the path of the attacker on the right, using it as a living shield. The impact still bowled the harpy over, all four of the combatants rolling on the ground in a ball of threshing limbs and furious struggle.
The din was horrendous. Siezing the golden opportunity which had presented itself, Rene reached once more for the sword of the ancients, stretching his sinews for all they were worth. It was just enough to let him pinch the pommel-button between his middle and forefingers. Raising it up in spite of his trembling, sweat-slick grip, Rene coaxed the hilt into palm of his waiting hand, then pounded the button against his chest, feeling the sword come alive in his hands. As the fight raged on behind him, Rene sliced his legs free. He tucked in his head as he hit the ground, rolling onto his arse and reversing his grip on the sword, swiftly cutting the bonds around his wrists. When he tried to stand, however, he found that his legs were still unresponsive, all the blood within them having flowed up to his torso during his time spent hanging upside down. Pounding the life back into the clammy flesh of his calves with his fist, Rene looked anxiously around and discovered that the battle had since moved elsewhere, leaving two black-furred corpses in its wake. Cries of rage and a frenzied shaking among the bushes allowed him to guess where the other monsters were. He hoisted himself to his feet, picked up the safety kit and staggered away from the sounds of fighting, pins and needles still numbing the soles of his feet.
As he stepped over the dead bodies in his path, Rene was just about to congratulate himself on a smooth escape when his toes snagged on something and he tripped, going down heavily on his side. Rene felt a powerful yank on his ankle and looked to see the previously impaled monster glaring up at him. It wriggled on its belly and pulled him closer with one hand while it held in its spilled guts with the other three. By the ancestors, was it strong! Rene hacked at the hand holding his foot and lopped it off at the forearm, feeling only the slightest tug of resistance as the edge sheared through bone and meat alike. The hand was still clamped shut about his ankle with a death grip as he stood back up.
The fiend’s back arched as it brought its vile hump of flesh to the fore, dozens of sucking orifices on its misshapen surface spreading open wide.
Thwip! Thwip!
Jets of silk flew out of the spinnerets, the monster using its claws to grasp the threads and shuttering them back and forth like the shuttles of a loom. Cords flicked out and ensnared Rene’s sword arm, pinning it to his side while the weaver applied a lightning-fast field dressing on its abdominal wound, closing off both ends with wads of its makeshift bandage. Rene strained mightily against the loops of silk, but they never budged an inch. Meanwhile, the monster raked him with its claws, opening bright lines of agony across his chest and shoulder. Rene bit back a scream and dropped the sword point-first into the soil. It sank quivering up to its hilt, leaving him completely defenseless as the monster jumped and snatched him up in its gangly embrace. Rene fell to one knee as its weight bore him to the earth, reaching out with his free hand to draw the sword out of the ground and cleave through its rows of hairy legs.
Severed limbs went rolling every which way, the black devil tottering. Yet as it fell its outer mouthparts seized Rene by the temples and pinned him in place as it bit right into his face. Venomed fangs skittered across the transparent surface of his mask, scoring it with deep scratches. To his amazement the crystal held strong and did not shatter—once more the materials of the ancients had proven their incredible durability. Rene worked his arm clear and chopped wildly at the monster’s arms, felt its hold on him slacken as they fell away, leaving only spurting stumps. The butchered devil fell on its humped back and began shrieking its head off.
Rene raised his sword to deliver the coup de grace but was interrupted by the sudden reemergence of the other combatants who burst back onto the scene. The harpy was grappling with one of the devils, quickly being overpowered by its brute strength. As the devil sank its fangs into the bulging pair of compound eyes and tore off the top of the harpy’s head, the latter found an opening and slipped both its blades through in tight uppercutting motions, ramming them under the devil’s chin and out the other end. Ripping outwards and across with its arms the harpy tore its enemy’s head apart and sent the soggy chunks scattering into the treetops.
Reeling in obvious pain, it kicked the body aside and took off with a shutter of its wings, attempting an escape. A feral scream split the air as, the last devil leapt up to intercept it, entrails dangling in the place of its missing lower body. Devoid of sanity or self-preservation, it tacked the rising harpy and sent both of them crashing into a stout branch. They fell back to the earth with a bone-crunching thump, followed by a confetti-shower of dead leaves shaken from their stems.
Rene looked back at his enemy and saw the devil stubbornly gathering itself up for another spring. All it had left were a single arm and leg apiece, that and a merciless glitter in its eyes.
“You can’t be serious,” he complained, and put an end to its efforts by splitting its head right down the middle. Rene shook his head in disbelief and went over to polish off the other two, snipping his webbed arm loose as he did. He found the bisected devil crawling on its elbows and mewling with pain as it wriggled towards the unmoving body of the harpy, clearly intending to finish what it had started.
There were eyes on the back of its head, Rene now noticed. Four of them, the same number as on the front. It saw him coming and rolled over, raising its arms to shield itself.
Rene’s boot came stomping down all the same. He felt its head crunching under his heel as he squashed it into a flattened pie and was nauseated. Rene then approached the harpy, eyeing its blade arms warily and giving it a wide berth. He didn’t want to get anywhere near those frightful things, not after what he’d seen. Instead he went over to a fallen log and cut himself an oversized club from one of its boughs. Sticking the sword back into the ground, he hefted the length of wood over the harpy, intending to smash its head in from a distance.
He felt strangely squeamish at prospect of another head going splat. A wave of dizziness came over him and he had to take a moment to collect himself, doubling over and beginning to dry heave. Leaning heavily on the bough like a staff, he examined the harpy and thought that it looked sufficiently dead. Through the gaping holes in its face he saw the gooey interior of its head. Was that its brain poking through the cracks in the armored hide? Blimey, it had a big one. Equal parts revolted and intrigued, Rene reached over with the branch and prodded at it, testing for a reflex.
Nothing. Better to be safe than sorry, though. Rene raised the bough on high and steeled himself to do the deed once and for all.
A piece of the head fell away, and Rene gasped. Abandoning common sense, he threw aside the club and squatted over the body, frantically tearing off the rest of its cranial casing, plunging his fingers into the sticky mess and pulling out clumps of armored flesh until what lay beneath was finally revealed.
Rene clutched at his forehead as if it was about to explode. Backing away with a sense of dawning horror, he repeated over and over to himself: “It can’t be. It can’t be, it can’t! That’s not possible! It’s…it’s…”
Beautiful.
That was what Rene had meant to say. But the word felt so utterly absurd given the context that it took all his will to keep from bursting into a fit of deranged laughter. And who could have blamed him?
For beneath the ruined visage of flesh, the creature wore the face of a woman.
Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road

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91 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance. Hangar Bay.
Evina
The stage was set, and my game face was on. It had to be, especially with what Vir had concocted over the course of his sleepless night.
The realization that AI didn’t exactly… sleep, was something I’d expected. But I’d at least thought the sleepless downtime would be used for something remotely related to downtime, something like maintenance, server repairs, or just anything at least remotely related to a decrease in productivity if only to relax.
I certainly wasn’t expecting that downtime to result in the creation of a literal sci-fi arsenal that now sat there, waiting for me just in front of the shuttle.
“A gift, Evina.” The AI spoke, gesturing to what could only be described as a small procession of bots, carts, and self-navigating cargo containers; all of which kept Eslan’s curiosities at a constant all-time high as he walked around the collection of bots, his eyes enamored by every little detail of each and every one of them.
But it was what was inside and within the containers that sat atop of those autonomous machines which was what I was really interested in. Moreover, it was a particular outfit currently sitting there on top of a felinor mannequin that really drew most of my attention.
Though the term outfit would definitely be underselling it. As what was being offered to me now was something that could no longer be found anywhere else on the continent, save for the odd military bunker and of course, the books and iterative memories belonging to that of the pre-war world.
To put it simply, it resembled advanced police armor, or maybe even military. Though its sleek design, metal pieces, and thinner silhouette put me in mind more of the former than the latter.
More to the point, it seemed to be capable of being fitted atop of my regular gear, instead of requiring me to swap it out entirely; consisting of three distinct pieces that resembled a pair of pants, a jacket, and a helmet.
I took a moment to stare at it intently, analyzing every last detail of it, from its space-age aesthetics of shiny plastics to matte metal chrome, to its soft interior that seemed to be gel-lined with some weird jelly-like fluid.
Moreover, I seized the moment to tease Eslan, as I turned towards him, then Vir, in rapid succession. “I’m assuming the gift isn’t for Eslan, right?” I snickered, prompting the smaller felinor to pout in a fit of resentful jealousy.
“I can arrange one for him if you’d like.” The AI responded casually, as if hinting at the fact that this wasn’t a one-off project, that this wasn’t just something pulled from storage and simply tailored down to my size.
“Let me guess, you have an entire factory deep within the ship somewhere?” I asked, half sarcastic, and half serious, knowing full well the answer could go either way given the track record of everything else on the ship I’d seen so far.
“Right on the money there, Evina.” Vir responded with an electronic chirp, prompting me to re-evaluate both the ship’s unfathomable capabilities, and the two dorks that were in charge of it all.
Nevertheless, it would seem as if Eslan was excited by the prospect, as he began pulling the armor pieces off of the mannequin, examining the finer details before handing them off for me to wear.
“I’m assuming the gel-like internal padding is a sort of passive heat regulator?” The felinor asked.
“Yes, but more than that, it acts as a layer of thermal insulation against energy-based attacks that manage to penetrate the ceramo-reflective plating lining the outside of the armor. This version’s passive since I don’t think you’ll be encountering anything like that on the surface but…” The AI shrugged ominously. “It’s lightweight, comfy, and there’s also ballistic-weave and kinetic-resistant properties embedded in the fabric. Along with some kinetic resistance that’ll help stop projectiles in their tracks if they penetrate the outer layers and somehow manage to make it through to the gel. Think non-newtonian fluid.” The AI’s platform shrugged. “Anyways, I thought it’d be a good, light-weight, adaptable, no-frills all rounder you could keep even after the mission’s end.” The AI explained, prompting me to more or less double-down on my re-evaluation of its seemingly conflicting personality matrix.
Vir was… complicated. In a good way. Seemingly practical, level-headed, tactical, and terrifyingly efficient on one hand, but also very much personable, surprisingly relatable, and most reassuring of all… self-reflective to the point of empathy and benevolence.
My first iteration was practically working overdrive trying to make heads or tails of him.
But my current mind was simply occupied with getting the armor on, which was more or less straightforward.
It was, surprisingly, lightweight. Like wearing a trimmed-down flak jacket that hugged and tightened to your form. The pants were the same story, which only left the helmet that I was hesitant to try on given its roundish shape and tight squeeze.
I examined it, looking inside as I noticed two little indents marking the recesses where my ears could actually comfortably fit.
“I’ve taken the liberty of creating a few modifications to the human baseline design in order to accommodate for your alien anatomy. I learned this the hard way when Lysara first donned a human helmet. It was… not fun, to say the very least.” The AI managed out with a nervous chuckle.
The idea of Lysara’s frills being squished inside a round helmet with no room for that sensitive looking extension of his head sent shivers up my spine. But then again, this made me even more curious as to just what these humans looked like if they lacked frills, ears, or anything else adorning their heads.
“I’m guessing the human-baseline must be really boring then.” I managed out unexpectedly, garnering a cock of the AI’s head. “You know what I mean right? What with having just a round space to shove their heads into. No frills, ears, or anything.”
“Ah, well, I can definitely see where you’re coming from with that.” Vir chuckled in response. “But honestly their appearance is not a big secret or anything. I can just pull up a-”
“Ah! Good morning, Evina!” Lysara announced brightly, cutting Vir off mid sentence as he jumped down from the shuttle and back onto the hangar bay proper. “I’ve been doing some final checks just to make sure we’re ready to go. Sorry I didn’t come out to greet you earlier.” The alien paused just before reaching me however, as he looked me up and down, then smiled. “I see Vir has been up to his usual work.”
“Seems so.” I shrugged. “In any case, I’m feeling more ready than I was just a few minutes ago, which I didn’t think was even possible, so thanks, Vir.” I gave Vir another nod of appreciation, before turning back to Lysara. “We're good to go, then?”
“As ready as ever.” Lysara responded promptly, surprising me with his register slowly shifting more towards something normal, rather than being entirely pulled from a university thesaurus.
Maybe I was starting to rub off of whatever translation software he was using.
“In any case, I don’t think I’ll be using your toys for the time being, Vir.” I gestured towards the rows upon rows of black and chrome weapons alike. Most of them resembled somewhat traditional looking firearms, whilst others were more or less pulled from the pages of science fiction, what with their tapered ‘muzzles’, and raygun-looking grips. “And it’s that I don’t trust that they could do some damage. It’s just a safer bet if I went with what I know. It’s better to use a gun you’ve trained and lived with, than a new one you’ve just messed around with the night prior.” I smiled, more or less alluding to the small escapade the AI and I went on for a short hour after the dinner. “Though I do thank you kindly for the ammo for my revolver, I’d say it’ll be helpful but… I’d rather not say anything at all until we get to our destination.”
The AI responded with a simple sharp dip of his head. “Chemically-derived combustion sluggers are always a solid choice. I wish you all the best, and I hope you don’t end up having to use that gun. I’ll make sure my boys take good care of you and Lysara.”
With a final exchange of nods, Lysara and I strode off and into the shuttle.
But just as we reached the precipice, I turned back, if only to give Eslan a reassuring hug. “I’ll be back sooner than you expect. So don’t get bored now.” I offered, prompting the smaller felinor to grin widely.
“Oh don’t you worry about getting bored.” He gestured to the space around him. “I probably won’t even be done with this room by the time you’re back.”
“Just make sure to save some mysteries for me. Oh, and Vir?” I turned to Vir for a moment, garnering a small cock of his head.
“Yes, Evina?”
“Do make sure that you tire him out some with your explanations. I’d rather come back to a quiet bedroom to pass out in, rather than one with an excitable Eslan ready to chew my ear out with his latest discoveries on the ship’s deep lore.” I jokingly ordered, prompting Eslan to give me his signature side-eye.
Following a dumb smile of my own signaling our temporary goodbyes, I soon found myself back within the bowels of the shuttle. Except this time, the backramp cargo bay seemed to be chock-full of those heavy-duty combat bots I caught glimpses of back in the forests.
In fact, every corner of the shuttle’s cargo bay seemed to be crammed to the brim with one or another form of combat drone. From flying drones, to clusters of those smaller insect-drones, to what looked to be oversized spiders ready to drop from the ceiling at a moment’s notice.
The whole space seemed to be decked out for combat.
Which gave me a lot of confidence about the outcome of this mission.
Lysara and I didn’t say much as we both made our way towards the cockpit, strapped into our respective seats, and began the nausea-inducing flight out of the ship’s hangar bay, and down towards the planet.
A whole minute passed in absolute silence as I tried to steady myself for what was to come.
“So, let’s go over a few of the key details for this mission.” Lysara suddenly broke the silence, bringing up a top-down map of the forests, with the facility in question highlighted in orange. “We’re going to be landing in a clearing made by Vir.” The map shifted, highlighting a very conspicuous open clearing of trees and a charred forest floor that made it very clear something big had happened here very recently.
If I’d seen that place from the ground? I’d have probably cited that aliens did it.
Which, ironically, would’ve been more on the money than I could’ve ever thought possible.
“From there, we march through the open clearing made by Vir, with drones taking point, up and towards the facility.” The map shifted once more, highlighting yet another clearing that more or less formed a clean path towards the entrance of the bunker. “From there, I assume you know your role?”
“Yup, if my prior iterations come through on this one, I’ll open the facility door, and from there… We head inside, and see what’s what.” I responded.
“The drones will make the first move, we’ll have two squads proceed inside and ascertain if it’s safe to enter. After confirming that all hazards are within a tolerable margin of safety, we’ll proceed.”
“Understood.” I acknowledged with a heavy sigh, my eyes trained on the continent that now took up most of our cockpit view.
“Whatever happens, I know for a fact we’ll be safe as long as we play it safe.” Lysara tried filling the silence with his own brand of reassurance.
“I know. But it’s not so much the physical dangers I’m worried about.” I managed out, before pausing, as my eyes once more strayed towards the top-down view of the mission map. “It’s what we’re going to find inside the facility that worries me.”
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(Author’s Note: Evina gets a cool new outfit for her mission, Eslan is promised an entire day of having his sci fi interests satiated, and we're now on our way with Lysara down towards the signal station! The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 96 of this story is already out on there!)]

Please note, my chat is not open, so please only send me messages, please and thank you
Hey there, seekers of connection and comfort,
So, picture this: it's a chilly evening, and I'm cosied up in bed with a good book, a steaming mug of chai latte, and my two feline companions, a tabby named Gracie and a tubby black cat called Milly. There's something magical about these moments, you know? It's like time slows down, and all that matters is the warmth and tranquillity of home. But here's the thing—I've realised that as much as I love these quiet moments, they're even better when shared with someone special.
As I journey through my thirties, I find myself craving more than just the comfort of solitude. I yearn for a genuine connection, the kind that goes beyond surface-level small talk and dives deep into the heart of who we are. I'm talking about conversations that leave you feeling seen and understood, where we can share our hopes, fears, dreams, and everything in between.
Now, I must confess—I have a keen interest in sci-fi and fantasy literature. Worlds created by authors like Neil Gaiman and Brandon Sanderson ignite my imagination, offering an escape into realms filled with wonder and adventure.
When I'm not lost in the pages of a good book, I enjoy delving into city builders and colony simulators like Cities: Skylines and RimWorld. There's a sense of creativity and strategy that's incredibly satisfying, and I'm always up for building my own virtual world and seeing it thrive.
But don't let my love for gaming fool you—I'm also a bit of a music enthusiast. I enjoy a diverse range of genres, from jazzpunk and electroswing beats to the smooth croons of blues legends. There's something about the fusion of old and new in songs like "Booty Swing" by Parov Stelar or "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone that gets me tapping my feet and feeling alive.
But here's the real deal: I'm on a never-ending search for someone who understands the beauty of vulnerability, who's not afraid to open up and share their deepest thoughts and feelings. Someone who's equal parts intellectual and empathetic, with a sprinkle of wit and a dash of charm. Someone who can appreciate the quiet moments as much as the grand adventures, who finds joy in the simple pleasures of life.
Physically, I'm drawn to eyes that sparkle with curiosity and a smile that radiates warmth and kindness. I'm a sucker for genuine laughter and someone who isn't afraid to be themselves, flaws and all.
So, if you're nodding along and thinking, "Hey, that sounds like me," then why not take a chance? Let's see where our shared love for cosy nights, meaningful conversations, and heartfelt moments takes us. To get us started, here are a couple of potential conversation starters: "If you could travel to any fictional world for a day, where would you go?" and "What's a hobby or interest you've always wanted to try but haven't yet?"
Drop me a message, and let's embark on this journey together.
With warmth and anticipation, Dave

Please note, my chat is not open, so please only send me messages, please and thank you
Hey there, seekers of connection and comfort,
So, picture this: it's a chilly evening, and I'm cosied up in bed with a good book, a steaming mug of chai latte, and my two feline companions, a tabby named Gracie and a tubby black cat called Milly. There's something magical about these moments, you know? It's like time slows down, and all that matters is the warmth and tranquillity of home. But here's the thing—I've realised that as much as I love these quiet moments, they're even better when shared with someone special.
As I journey through my thirties, I find myself craving more than just the comfort of solitude. I yearn for a genuine connection, the kind that goes beyond surface-level small talk and dives deep into the heart of who we are. I'm talking about conversations that leave you feeling seen and understood, where we can share our hopes, fears, dreams, and everything in between.
Now, I must confess—I have a keen interest in sci-fi and fantasy literature. Worlds created by authors like Neil Gaiman and Brandon Sanderson ignite my imagination, offering an escape into realms filled with wonder and adventure.
When I'm not lost in the pages of a good book, I enjoy delving into city builders and colony simulators like Cities: Skylines and RimWorld. There's a sense of creativity and strategy that's incredibly satisfying, and I'm always up for building my own virtual world and seeing it thrive.
But don't let my love for gaming fool you—I'm also a bit of a music enthusiast. I enjoy a diverse range of genres, from jazzpunk and electroswing beats to the smooth croons of blues legends. There's something about the fusion of old and new in songs like "Booty Swing" by Parov Stelar or "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone that gets me tapping my feet and feeling alive.
But here's the real deal: I'm on a never-ending search for someone who understands the beauty of vulnerability, who's not afraid to open up and share their deepest thoughts and feelings. Someone who's equal parts intellectual and empathetic, with a sprinkle of wit and a dash of charm. Someone who can appreciate the quiet moments as much as the grand adventures, who finds joy in the simple pleasures of life.
Physically, I'm drawn to eyes that sparkle with curiosity and a smile that radiates warmth and kindness. I'm a sucker for genuine laughter and someone who isn't afraid to be themselves, flaws and all.
So, if you're nodding along and thinking, "Hey, that sounds like me," then why not take a chance? Let's see where our shared love for cosy nights, meaningful conversations, and heartfelt moments takes us. To get us started, here are a couple of potential conversation starters: "If you could travel to any fictional world for a day, where would you go?" and "What's a hobby or interest you've always wanted to try but haven't yet?"
Drop me a message, and let's embark on this journey together.
With warmth and anticipation, Dave

hello, i just wanted to write this so people can defend themselves, im a former military officer in europe, so this guide is only for civillians.
before we start: if you live in USA or any other country that you can carry a gun easy just do it, things im writing is 100x more effective with any single pistol.
Concealment; pocket knifes are easy to carry, you can carry it anywhere with you and you should do, most of the time you need that knife will be at any random time, just carry a knife that you can open silently and with one hand, blade length around 7-18cm will be fine most of the time, opt for fixed blades, as people think butterflies and karambits are cool, butterflies can break easy with just one bolt holding the blade, karambit is designed for slicing and cutting, if you dont have any training with karambit it will make it useless.
Uses: the second you pull the knife, you ESCALATE the situtation to LIFE AND DEATH scenario, so keep that in mind and dont pull it because you got mad at some random dude at street, use it as a suprise element or when you intent to kill someone 100% or save yourself, a knife will always get you out of situtations compared to nothing.
Before action; knives are more scary than guns for most people, if you get pulled a knife you will know that its scary, human brain is designed to avoid stressing events, and your brain will actively try to get avoid being stabbed instead of being shot also be ready for gore, unlike guns knifes are much more violent,aggresive tools and you will quickly discover how much blood in human body, get a good grip on the knife, use icepick grip since you are intending to kill them, knifes dont really mock a human, even with most fatal stabs, you can at least still fight for 2-3 mins,
Action phase; so you decided to escalate the situtation, and you are ready for consuquences, open the blade quickly and silently, most people dont realise they been stabbed, so it will take you around 1-2 seconds to stab someone, with some 5-10min training it you can do it, after first stab our mission is to end the fight or gain time, as i said humans are tend to rate their injuries very well compared to other animals so if you stab someone the neck, face, body, they will back off and run, let them run. if they don't try to gain time if you stabbed these areas(i will detail them later) they much likely have no more than 3 minutes to enter blood shock and probably 5 minutes to coma.
Gaining time; after your first stab, you are fighting against clock, if you didnt get a proper stab, go for it again, with each stab you are fastening your opponents time to enter shock, but no person can be downed with one stab(unless movies) adrenaline is a real thing, after 3-4th stab, back off descalate the fight or keep harrasing them from range, no unarmed person can win against someone with a blade, even 3-4 guys cant beat someone with knife.
Where to hit?; we mainly try to hit arteries first, arteries can't be stopped bleeding without professional medical care, neck is a awesome spot, dont try to stab the skull, it will break the knife's blade, arms and legs are good since they can't be use their stabbed arm/leg after 30 seconds if you stabbed them from leg, especially quad or hamstrings, they will drop in seconds, they can get up but its pretty hard to run after that moment, chest area is good, but you can't stab the heart, its so hard any you need a special training for it, ribs can break the blade too, face is awesome spot to stab, it doesnt do a lot of damage but its so scary for most people they back off, especially if blood gets in their eye, they cant see, and you will win instantly, if you stab them in the eye(which is hard but try it if you had oppurtinity) they will at least be blinded or if blade reaches brain they will get mocked or die at scene, stomach area is good but a lot of fat covers that area for that reason, also be reminded you are not a professional, so you will be probably panic and just randomly stab everything you see.
Versus other knifes; dont, the winner of the knife fight will die at hospital, if they too have a knife, back off. if you dont you will both die, if they have a gun backoff, you are not john wick and you cant take their gun and stab them etc.
experiences; i will not get too much detail here but, i stabbed a guy in the neck around middle east, below ear, he didnt notice it for 10-20 seconds, after that he kinda realised the situtation and backed off instantly holding his hand in his neck, there was blood fucking everywhere, its no different than oil, its so slippery. after a minute he kinda felt euphoric and talked to me about how he loved her wife and didnt thinked to be dying like this, he was still standing still and slightly smiling, after 2 minutes, he fell on ground still awake, and i leaved after being emotionally shocked(it was my first time using my knife) he 100% died at there, literally pool of blood was there, everywhere, but not a single drop on the knife.
ex2; first time i had been attacked by a dog, i was in mosque's 2nd floor, holding my 2 hour guard in the night, so we will get back on foot morning, i heard some arabic yelling and dog barks, after 15 seconds later i heard paw sound climbing the stairs, and second i turn my back dog was on my chest, mauled me to the ground, i instantly got bit from my arm(we learned in training to let the dog bite our arm, dont pull it shake it etc) and pulled my mk1 bayonet, stabbed the dog very panicky, dog kinda whined and backed off letting my arm and laid on the floor whining, died a minute later.
so this is my guide, any questions are welcomed, also dont forget this guide is only for people who cant carry a gun, knifes are terrible for self defence, but great killing tools.

I know Atlantic City just dropped, and I found the added content great - it got my friends and me back into the game with all the other updates there had been since before The Pitt dropped.
I am curious if adding regions closer to the original blast zones could be possible and making Radiation a very real threat - I'd love a Fallout 76 take on The Glowing Sea or a Glowing City, for example, perhaps for the sake of trying to help people in a heavily irradiated area who have trouble fleeing thanks to other Wasteland dangers, like Mutants or Slavers/Raiders.
I've noticed that, with the one of the factions in Appalachia that players need to cooperate with to launch nukes, they're never involved outside of Appalachia, especially with the premise that they are watching the "player" very closely. That faction could easily exploit a player in another region or city if it were to benefit that group by using side objectives to change the direction of an expedition if they are followed.
I've also noticed this to be common with many other factions too, and that some depth of having the Responders, or the Raiders, or the Settlers, or just other Appalachia groups having some connection or influence would make the story in new regions feel more connected.
I would love to see some out of region influences on Appalachia and vice-versa, especially if the responders leave Appalachia via vertibird to actually assist and save lives in other cities or states. I feel there is just so many factions in Appalachia that could have further, outbound influence past Appalachia, or get the player to commit to optional and side related quests with the idea that the player is directly involved with the building blocks for games later in the series (and much later in time)
I'd also love to see some changes in Appalachia related to the expeditions, even if they are small, like roaming, unique Raider groups or new, named, wandering traders - unique enemies or gangs or even monsters.
Personally, I want the player to have a "Geniune Hero/Heroine" moment, and the idea of being able to, say, help a group of settlers flee a city due to an oncoming radiation storm, being unable to do so in an area close enough to a bombing site due to Slavers waiting for them and Mutants that could be in area sounds enticing to me. Especially if other factions could change the story by adding their own, optional side objectives - and with it being so close in time to the original bombs being dropped, I believe a group of civilians cornered off by raiders or Mutants could theoretically find a way to survive in the environment at great costs and it would be a positive representation that the player can explore by going through their stories and, eventually, searching for A resolve to the situation those people are in.
I know there is new content being added bit by bit, but I'd love to have an expedition that deals with radiation as a dangerous environmental danger and some grim reality surrounding radiation while keeping the idea of fighting named, dangerous mutants and slaveraider types for the sake of action and gameplay and story.
I am not sure if this is the right place to put this whole word salad, so, sorry if it's the wrong spot! I'm not sure what others thoughts are about this, but I'm just sharing what I feel is somewhat lacking in Fallout 76. The radiation just doesn't feel like a threat or an environmental hazard or explored as deeply as I feel it could be game and story wise and an Expedition surrounding that theme would be a good addition in my eyes.

It's a small piece of plastic 1cmx1cm. Do you think she can pass it without difficulty or should I take her to the emergency vet right away? She's 1yr old and about 11lbs.

Any have advice? I'm wondering if she'll be able to pass it without difficulties or if I need to take her to the vet right away. It's a small piece of plastic about 1cmx1cm.

~First~
(Writing, writing, writing: Muse crashes, burns and refuses to respond. Great.)
The Buzz on the Spin
“That’s the third time the call was dropped.” Hoagie states the obvious.
“From what I can tell they’re being hacked like it’s the latest fad. Even if our call goes through clean it’s going to be seen by an audience of several billion at least.” Demon replies. His tiny little girl is sitting on his shoulder so everyone’s watching their language, even Zsebreza. Sure, Kathy was growing quick and was developing a good sense of humour, but not even Minisi wanted to be responsible for teaching her the naughty words.
It takes several more tries with the bridge crew chuckling at things before suddenly the link is accepted to find a thoroughly unamused Asian Man glaring at them. The man then lets out a breath. “Two hundred and eighty six separate calls with the image of a woman presenting herself. I have never been simultaneously flattered and insulted.”
“Spoiled for choice sir?” Demon asks.
There is a moment of a pause as the man’s eyebrow quirks in frustration. “Yes.”
“I’m afraid it’s a common issue the galaxy over sir, we humans are hot commodity. Even a hideous slob of a man would find himself inundated with attention. A competent man with goals, ideals and motivation? A feast before the starving sir.” Hoagie says.
“Clearly Officer Eastman.” He says before relaxing a little. “I am Observer Wu. I have been charged by the nations of Earth with baring impartial witness to what has occurred the galaxy over. I have already spoken to several pockets of humanity, including but not limited to three other space stations, the newly risen nobility of Vucsa and of course, The Dauntless and the Embassy on Centris.”
“So what are you looking for? We’ve sent back numerous eyewitness testimonies and as much in the way of resources and proof of our claims that can survive the damaging effects of Cruel Space. A fair portion of exotic material and cadavers were actually supplied from this very station. What more do you need?”
“I just wish to speak with people. I will be communicating with and travelling to every major locations where humans have touched in the galaxy. To see the truth of things with unclouded eyes.” Observer Wu says and there are some nods. “Now then, if you could describe your location and posting please?”
“Certainly, we’ll do that in reverse though if you don’t mind.”
“I do not.”
“We are posted here to both ensure that we have friendly contacts in an area of interest and to learn more about the galaxy at large. Between ourselves and our fellows posted at other stations we are writing the operations manual for how to maintain, police, administrate, protect and supply a fully functional space station with a substantial permanent population. We’re also recruiting and keeping our eyes out for unusual technologies, tactics and techniques. This station alone contains a permanent population that rivals several first world nations on Earth with an industrial capacity well beyond what those nations can provide.”
“Can it now? This station is self sustaining? Food, air and other such supplies?”
“It turns out that a great deal of air is released by harvesting asteroids. Most of them contain a large amount of ice, even when they’re primarily minerals of some kind. Food is grown in hydroponics on such a scale we outright export it. The mining provides the metals and other materials for further products and again, hydroponics of a different source give us oils which leads to plastics, cloth comes in too. The station is completely self sustaining at this point. If the rest of the galaxy was to vanish then all we need are some rocks and we can keep this place going forever.” Demon explains and Observer Wu nods.
“And have you learned about these techniques and technologies?”
“Yes, however many of them are reliant upon Axiom.”
“And the control of the station?” He asks and Minisi pokes at a few of them with her tentacles to get people to shift away. “And you are... the woman in charge I believe?”
“Indeed. Although not for too much longer. I’ve had my fun but the station has become a tedium. I will admit that your species showing up has broken up the monotony a touch, but only enough to give me enough time to really make sure my heiress has this place on lock and with an unmatched command crew.”
“And you’re fine with them having that level of power?” Observer Wu asks and Minisi has a tentacle point right down at Hoagie.
“This one has been in charge of over ten percent of my station. The most productive Agriculture Decks we have are in his power, both officially and unofficially. The businesswomen there fear the flamingo shirts!”
“Hey, I got flowers on at least half of them.” Hoagie protests and she turns to him.
“Hey hey hey! Station boss or not, no horning on my hubby!” Zsebreza says buzzing into view and pressing back on the woman who leans back in amusement.
“You Charbis are so easy to rile up...” She says fondly as Zsebreza sheathes her weapon while still giving her a massive stinkeye.
“So that video was not an elaborate prank in horrific taste.” Observer Wu notes.
“Reality is stranger than fiction sir.” Hoagie notes.
“Indeed it is, and now that you’ve confused me, I am going to return the favour.” Observer Wu states and Hoagie looks from side to side and everyone else is equally baffled.
“Sir?” Hoagie asks as Observer Wu presses a button on his armrest and requests for a certain passenger to be sent up. “What is this...”
He freezes entirely as the camera shifts and he can see... “Mom?”
“Daniel!” Janet Eastman says with a smile. “And... one of those... things that got you.”
“I told you we needed to edit that video.” Zsebreza says.
“But it would clearly have been faked in some way and...” Hoagie trails off. “I... are you alright? The way out of Cruel Space is no fun.”
“It.. it was not pleasant, but I worked in the kitchens for most of it and it kept me busy.” She says.
“Familiar territory then.”
“A starship mess hall is NOTHING like a Corner Bistro in New York.” Janet says and he chuckles.
“Are you sure you’re alright? I mean... the rail shot into orbit, the initial training...”
“I’m part of the civilian experiment. To see how easy or hard it is to get people out of our little corner of the galaxy.”
“And the verdict Miss Hoagie’s mother?” Minisi asks in an amused tone.
“Something needs to be done about the zero-gravity trip. It’s too much. I’ve needed some chemical help to stay calm during parts of the trip.”
“Yeah, it’s not much better when you’re trained for it.” Hoagie says. “Are you coming here?”
“Of course! Those videos were horrifying! If those girls are walking all over you like that then I don’t care if I’m numbered two hundred to one or two thousand to one! I didn’t work my butt off as a waitress when you were a little boy just to see a bunch of bees walk all over you! So I’m putting you on notice!” She growls out.
“Okay lady, I’m giving you the private number, because I love that attitude. And because we need to get ahead of this before there’s a war kicked off.” Zsebreza promises.
“There is no war that’s going to kick off. Mother, Charbis are a very defensive species and refuse to let people see their relaxed state unless they have absolute trust. No exceptions. That’s why you’ve never seen them in anything less than one of their most agitated states. When not safely in the hive a Charbis is only a few moments away from violence.”
“Is the hive like a beehive?”
“It’s not made of waxy hexagons. It’s a bunker with innumerable defences and very comfortable on the inside. They’re so reinforced and secure that it’s the most defensive part on the station barring the other Hives.”
“Hey, you’re really pushing it...”
“I haven’t said anything secret. I haven’t shown anything secret. Anyone with working eyes can see a Hive is nearly impossible to attack if they want to live, and with how wealthy and good with crops Charbis are in general, any idiot can figure out that they have plenty within the hive.”
“Well... yes, but the idea that anyone has any idea what the hives are like...” Zsebreza says and then Janet’s eyes widen as she realizes exactly what she’s seeing.
“Oh! It’s like THAT! No wonder you haven’t bothered running. It’s not too different from home was it?”
“Tough on the outside, everything you want inside? Pretty much.” Hoagie says and a very relieved Janet lets out a sigh of relief.
“Good. I’m still coming over though.”
“But, what about back home? Aren’t you?”
“Daniel. It’s okay. The old building was... well it was soon to be decommissioned anyway.”
“Oh... and I suppose the little place out back...”
“Gone too.” Janet says.
“I see.” Hoagie says.
“Are you alright?” Zsebreza asks and he nods.
“Yeah it just... the place I grew up is gone. Even if there was a way back to Earth, a true way, then I still couldn’t got home again.”
“Everyone leaves home eventually. Not everyone can go back.” Janet says. “Still. Don’t think you’re keeping me away, just because I’ve gotten an idea about you young lady. I’m coming to make sure you’re treating my little boy right. If this is a woman’s galaxy, then this woman is making sure her boy is with the best in the galaxy. Understand me?!”
“Mom!”
“Daniel.” She says even as he gives one of his fellows a dirty look when they snort. They put their hands up and back away. “So fierce young man. Now...”
•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•
He simply watches the video feed as mother and son speak. Trying to get a grip on the body language of the alien creatures. There’s a great deal of play and movement around the Charbis Bee woman, the ears are a massive tell on the Ikiya-Mas girl and the Mnenmi seemed utterly passive, in control. The men seemed either comfortable or excited and things seemed to be matching up.
Of course Mother Eastman was an open book to his practised eye, worried, putting on a brave front but the kind of woman who had given up her life to raise a child properly and was now chasing him out of not only maternal duty, but a sense of emptiness now that her great struggle was finished.
He knew her story. A sad tale of how to people, neither with families, had found each other and then shortly as life seemed to be picking up for the happy ending, an accident had taken the father, leaving a single mother to mourn and raise a child alone. A woman with no really marketable skills beyond being a woman and having a sympathetic story. She had been hired and remained hired at a moderately successful Bistro for over a decade, even being held on because she had a teenage son at home working a part time to help out.
Sad story, but one that had given her and the boy spines of steel. Still, open book regardless and...
His communicator goes off and he checks it. It is a text from an unknown number.
-Enjoying the show? ~Minisi
His eyebrows climb up a little and he reconsiders his thoughts on the octopus alien. She’s clearly very aware of things, and likely has the implants required to communicate without being obvious. Or he’s looking at a body double. Either way, she’s tipped her hand for... some reason. Which is bothering him. Why did she reveal this?
There is no way to determine without further interaction. So he replies with a simple yes.
-Good, a voyeur who doesn’t even enjoy the show is just a bore.
Is she just mocking him? This seems to be more mockery than anything. So he asks a simple question.
-Why does it matter?
-It doesn’t. You’re a prickly one aren’t you?
-Yes, I am. Is there an issue?
-Not at all.
Well that’s not useful. Is she just poking him for entertainment? She still hasn’t moved at all beyond basic shows of amusement as mother and son make plans to get her to the station and the Charbis daughter in law is putting on a clearly fake show of protesting having the woman be brought into the hive.
A hand falls onto his shoulder and he jumps in his seat a little before turning to see a smiling, but old and withered face. “Can I help you?”
“I was just wondering if I could make use of the communication relays next. As entertaining as the last few months were, I do think I should give a proper warning to my approach. If only to see how the boy responds.”
“Do you think he will respond poorly?”
“Only if he’s changed far more than I’d expect. But who knows? The mystery is half the fun of life now, isn’t it?” The elderly man says. Observer Wu considers for a few moments. This man had broken into his personal office without setting off an alarm, without alerting the guards and all the while needing a cane and with his joints audibly creaking.
“If you tell me how you broke in Mister Koga, then I think I can accommodate you.”
“Oh that? Easy enough, follow me lad, I’ll show you where you need a few more eyes. Or lasers! Lasers are always fun. Not as much as a guard dog, but having a poor inu in the vents is just cruel no matter how much you dislike chihuahuas.”
“That was rather specific.”
“I was suppose it was wasn’t it? Anyways, this way young man.”
~First~ Last

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.
Certainly!
Luna VI query: What did Ryo do during the first hour of the war?
***
Ryo had already reached a state of full awareness after waking up, and yet he hadn't moved an inch, immersed in his inner world as he thought about what he and Elysira had done at night.
And what a wild night it was.
The way that she had skipped the journey to go straight for the finishing line had caught him unprepared. Still, with the mystery of their physical compatibility out of the way from the get-go, Ryo had been left with a lot of time to explore the other hiccups and perks of this interspecies endeavor.
From the occasional accident with her claws to the new possibilities her tail brought to the table, Ryo had enjoyed everything.
There was not an ounce of regret in him, but the memory of their last act lingered incessantly in his thoughts—a vivid Recollection of Elysira’s tail wrapping around his leg and letting silence prevail as his arm shyly enveloped her, allowing them to fall asleep side by side.
The one memory that held him in place, fearing their next interaction when the slightest of his movements would inevitably wake her up, mirroring what had happened all in the previous mornings.
What would she say?
Would she think that they are in a relationship now?
What would he do if the concept of casual hook ups didn't exist for the Irisians?
Ryo touched his face and shook his head, instantly deciding it was time to start his morning routine to distract him from those absurd thoughts.
The brain IO interface captured his intention, turning on the lights on the ceiling with maximum brightness, something that he was sure would wake her up at once given how sensitive to change all Irisians were.
And yet he was wrong.
Elysira’s head tilted away from the light as eyelids fluttered, but the only other thing she did before stopping moving was strengthening her grip on his leg quite a bit, making him realize that her tail had not let go of him the whole night.
Upon noticing how numb his leg felt, Ryo propelled his body upwards, intending to uncoil her tail from his leg and start his day. Hopefully, Elysira wouldn't mention what they did, and he too would be able to pretend it never happened.
However, the moment his upper body lifted from the ground and he got a full view of her body, he was unable to remove her tail from his leg, captivated by a simple but powerful sight.
With her hands inside the pockets, Elysira had used his jeans to restrain her claws, putting herself in a very uncomfortable position, likely afraid of hurting him during her sleep.
His eyes widened, dispersing his previous train of thought from existence. The hand that was supposed to be dealing with her tail moved toward Elysira's exposed neck instead, aiming to wake her up with a gentle touch.
And as if he had just perturbed the stillness of a calm lake with a stone, a barely perceptible ripple of yellow spread on her skin from the contact with his fingertips. It traveled through her neck, reaching the soft lines of her face, and even traveled down her long hair strands.
At the same time that it felt wrong to be able to take a peek at her emotions so easily, Ryo couldn't help but wonder—which other colors had the darkness stolen from him? While immersed in this question, Ryo kept caressing her neck until her eyes opened slowly, resetting all the back spots of her body at once as consciousness took control over instinct.
Elysira’s grip on his leg loosened when she realized she was overdoing it. Her gaze started scanning every inch of him, starting from the accidental scratches of her own making and unashamedly stopping at places she had not seen before.
Unbothered by her curiosity, he even removed some of the loose strands in front of her eyes and threw them behind her long ears to make her job easier, feeling some apprehension only when she lost interest and sought eye contact.
Traces of purple appeared around her black spots as she spoke. "What do you humans do after... what we did?"
Ryo winced, but his tone was gentle. "Silly girl!" He felt deep regret for how he had skipped the part of Irisian relationships in favor of politics when she was teaching him about her species. "It could be everything or nothing."
He expected some intense reaction from Elysira, but there wasn't a lot of emotion showing. As he searched her skin, he also realized he was unable to look at her the same way as before.
From seeing her small breasts, which he now knew for a fact fit on his hands, to the very memory of all evenness that he now was able to associate with the sheen her skin exhibited from certain angles, Ryo realized he had lost the ability to gauge her emotions without feeling a hint desire.
She noticed how long he was staring at her and a hint of yellow appeared. "I don't need everything, but nothing is not enough!"
How did Ryo fail to see that this conversation would inevitably happen when they were having fun at night?
"Oh!" He was unable to keep his mouth shut, which resulted in red and purple manifesting on her skin as he felt the pressure for a quick reply.
He had heard the Irisians speaking terms such as chosen, mate, and family, but Ryo didn't know much about this, and now was not looking like a good time for asking for clarification.
The translator would do its job in conveying his intention. But what would he say? Friends with benefits maybe? He gave up that one on the spot; he didn't consider their previous relationship a friendship, and somehow, he felt a dangerous desire to want more than that from her.
Under the pressure of his previous mistake, he told her the highest relationship he was willing to have without a care in the world for consulting his superiors. "Is girlfriend good for you?"
Elysira’s eyes widened as her skin maintained the same tones. But it lasted only a second before a golden hue took over, leaving little room for her black spots. "Wait, are you serious? I never thought you would consider anything more than being my exclusive pair."
"I am serious, but what's the difference?" Ryo instantly felt he could have gotten away with being just friends with benefits.
"Two differences." She took her clawed hands from the pockets of his jeans and pressed them against his neck in a fast but controlled movement. "One is implied trust." Her head approached him slower as if she would kiss him, but instead, her lips diverted toward his ears where she whispered, "And the other is a promise for the future."
"That seems alright."
As he said that, Elysira had already started taking little bites on his earlobe, her other hand joining around his neck while her tail was sneakily pushing the rest of her body on top of him.
"This will have to be quick, we-"
Ryo was about to give up the time they had for breakfast, when a powerful explosion shook the ground, causing the whole tent to vibrate.
Elysira’s pointy ears began to twitch and her body receded, trying to get of clue of what happened as she displayed purple. "I hear nothing."
"This was not far from here; I don't think it was a landslide." Ryo summoned a window with all the cameras outside and found nothing unusual, even with the infrared inspection.
Elysira could see what he was doing since they had never left the shared augmented space.
"Can we see what Amara is doing? She might know more than us."
He still was incapable of referring to her as his girlfriend even in his thoughts, but he still felt a hint of pride for her quick thinking. "Let's see."
He quickly summoned a live feed and promptly instructed the AI to go through the recordings of the whole night. "Nathan and that princess are still inside the tent. Time to go there."
Ryo wasted no time explaining, quickly standing up to begin the search for his underwear. The floor was still littered with paper sheets, and there were even some opened water bottles around, but he still found what he was looking for before pulling his jeans from under Elysira’s butt and getting dressed with haste.
He wore his shoes but didn't bother with his shirt and jacket, just taking his already loaded gun from the holster and getting some spare ammunition before heading outside cautiously.
"I'm going with you." She got out of the tent almost at the same time as him, proving that not needing clothes had its advantages.
"Stay close." He activated the infrared view mode and scanned the surroundings just to be sure, then hasted his steps towards Nathan's tent which was about forty meters ahead.
There was little he expected would go wrong on such a short journey, but Elysira’s ears began to twitch halfway through, prompting him to stop advancing. "Hear someone?"
"Something." She then used her tail to point uphill, in the direction where the rest of the group had set camp on the previous day. "I think it's a drone."
"Fuck, I hope you are wrong." He raised his 3D-printed revolver and felt like cursing more at the fact he didn't even have a proper pistol, pulling back the harmer and getting himself in front of Elysira.
Thanks to her acute hearing, when he heard the buzzing of the drone, his gun was already pointing in the right direction. Upon getting the first glimpse of the flying object and noticing how fast it was moving, he didn't hesitate to do a partial activation of combat mode.
The world slowed down for a moment, allowing him to see the device flying among the very few beams of blue light that made their way through the canopies. He didn't wait a single second and corrected his aim slightly to the left before pulling the trigger.
Bang!
The drone was torn to pieces and many parts fell about twenty-five meters away from them, at a distance that any explosives wouldn't hurt himself or Elysira.
When his eyes found her behind him, there was yellow and purple on her skin as she asked, "What if it was friendly?"
"The owner can send the bill up the chain for all I care." Ryo lowered the gun and did a full scan all around once more, only to find nothing again.
Her tail wrapped around his arm as all purple on her body disappeared, leaving only a hint of yellow. "Amara won't be happy if it was hers."
Just as Elysira spoke, a circular door opened on Nathan's tent, and Amara took a step outside with red filling her body.
Ryo pictured a scene of a princess complaining about her lost drone, but things only got more complicated instead.
Nathan emerged after her, and the pair began to argue loudly about what to do now that a war had broken out; Amara wanted to march uphill to join her guards, but Nathan held her by the tail when she was about to leave and prevented her for moving, saying it would be too dangerous.
Their argument turned into a messy mixture of the present situation with Amara sulking about a wasted night, which led Ryo to exchange a look of surprise with Elysira.
But their surprise only lasted a moment and Ryo decided he couldn't let those fools keep wasting valuable time.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
He had their attention now. "Please don't tell me you're mad because the plant lover couldn't get it up."
Under normal circumstances, Ryo had no doubt his assholish behavior would only instill shame and improve their cooperation.
However, he forgot to account that he was not wearing a shirt, leaving all his scratches exposed while Elysira was disheveled by his side, which caused Nathan's jaws to drop followed by Amara throwing an indignant gaze at Elysira and then at Nathan, who gave Ryo the feeling he might snap at any time.
"Why are you here?" Nathan's calm voice didn't match his clenched fist and rigid posture.
"Information. I want her to tell me what she knows about this war." Ryo had learned about the war by overhearing their previous argument.
Surprisingly, Amara was cooperative. "My brother's army found our position. They were not aware I was here with Nathan and ambushed the rest of my people and Zara; you destroyed their drone but if they saw us they might have a good reason to come here."
"Fuck!" He turned to Elysira and ordered. "Go back and gather my things. Take the essentials first, we are leaving."
Elysira used her tail to squeeze his arm in acknowledgment and rushed back. But when she had barely taken a few steps, she stopped as her ears moved. "More drones are coming!"
After alerting him, she ran to accomplish her task, leaving Ryo in the company of just Nathan and Amara.
"Isn't that great?" He grumbled to himself, but his voice carried loudly, obtaining the pair's attention as he raised his revolver again.
Knowing that the enemy was probably aware of their position, Ryo used infrared view mode to ensure they weren't using the drones as a distraction to pull off an ambush.
And that didn't seem to be the case when the first machine appeared, flying downwards in zigzag from the concentration of trees uphill.
Again Ryo used a partial activation of combat mode and aimed at the drone, yet this time more of them appeared, leaving the cover of the woods in groups of three until there were nine of them in total. But they didn't even try to get close this time, choosing to hover next to the canopies more than two hundred meters away from him, and assuming something akin to a structured formation.
This was extremely weird and enough of a reason for him to retreat a little, getting closer to his tent and taking cover behind a tree.
Nathan and Amara moved too, the botanist getting inside and returning with his gun while Amara's colors blended with his tent becoming hard to spot.
Assessing the new situation in an instant, Ryo concluded it would be better not to engage and retreat considering that those drones would be hard to take down at such distance. But things changed again quickly when the AI triggered a pop-up window, showing that several of the cameras he had set up in strategic places were capturing movement.
And what he was seeing now were several armed groups of Irisians heading towards their position, confirming Amara's supposition that the rebels were coming for them.
With the situation getting grimmer with every passing moment, Ryo thought of a possibility for what the drones might be doing, but his mind was still refusing to believe that the rebels could be as organized as his worst-case scenarios were giving them credit for.
To test this, he immediately tried to contact the space station through radio transmission, and since being found by the enemy was no longer an issue, he set the transmitter to maximum potency to validate his test.
Unable to establish a two-way connection.
He frowned even though that was not totally unexpected.
With only a few minutes at best before this place was filled with enemies, they would have to leave fast or they would be at the mercy of the enemy.
But first, there was something he wanted to say to Nathan, who now was using his tent for cover together with Amara. "Listen up, those fuckers are jamming our comms and they will be here at any time. Take the MLBCS and find a clearing to use it, I doubt they can interfere with the laser. Just don't forget that your immediate safety comes first or else you might not be among the living when the pod arrives."
Ryo and Nathan were technically enemies, but the last casualty in the war between Earth and Mars had happened several years in the past, ensuring that he had no reason to wish any harm for the botanist even though he didn't like him.
As for Amara, it was a little different. He hurried back to his tent without saying anything to her. And he did that not because he wished her harm, but simply because he didn't understand what she had at her disposal to offer any useful advice.
"Wait, what are you gonna do?" Nathan shouted from a distance.
With the adrenalin of seeing how many Irisians were coming helping his sincerity, he shouted back. "I'm not leaving the planet unless mission control finds a way to save Ely too."
After that, Nathan and Amara disappeared from his mind as he took cover behind his tent, slamming his hand against the foldable fabric many times to get Elysira's attention. "Hurry up, we can't stay here any longer."
She left immediately after, struggling to maintain balance as she used a hand plus her tail to carry his backpack, while her gun threatened to tumble from her gasp in her other hand.
And besides, one thing that Ryo’s eyes were immediately drawn towards was the clothes she was wearing—his clothes. While her legs were still exposed, his jacket still covered a bit more than her hips, loosely engulfing her slender frame like a billowing sail.
"I put the food and water in your backpack." She let go of the heavy item right over his feet as she put the gun on the ground and lifted her arms for him to recover his jacket and t-shirt. "You can get dressed while the tent folds."
He might have allowed her to keep the jacket if not for it being an inconvenience to her, so he just took it, making the first time he saw her wearing clothes a very short experience.
"No time for that, it won't fold with all the paper you left on the ground." He said as he swiftly slipped his arms into the sleeves of the jacket and zipped it up in one smooth movement.
Ryo was already considering which path they would take to flee when he noticed something terrible—Elysira’s skin had just been filled with gray as tiny black spots began to appear and disappear as if rain on the sand of a desert.
"What's it now?" He asked, trying to hide how unprepared he was to deal with this.
"Nothing has changed." Elysira averted her eyes. "I'm a burden to you just as I was to Amara. If I had-"
"Oh, shut up and quit the self-pity!" Ryo realized he was being too harsh, but still went on to finish it. "The paper is our mistake and I'm staying because I like you. This simple. Now get your gun and use your goddam camouflage, just like that princess is doing."
Ryo felt awful after saying this, and Elysira seemed quite taken about as she stared at him with wide eyes.
A moment later, however, she bent over and took the gun from the ground, her exterior blending quite well with the surroundings.
Ryo felt bad for her, but now there was no time to talk. "We run now, let's go."
The sound of his own steps was all he heard as they were putting some distance from the tent, making it so that he had to check on Elysira every couple of steps he took to ensure she was following him.
It was only when he heard some gunshots from far behind that he felt her claws tugging at his jacket from behind. "I hope Nathan is like you."
***
This was an account based on what Ryo did during the first hour of the war. The previous narrative is based on the events of the morning of the twentieth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.
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