In the last six months, I did the full circle going from Apple Notes to trying to find a cross platform app — starting with Apple Notes -> OneNote -> Notion -> Obsidian and then back to Apple Notes.
Apple Notes does everything I want it to do but it has one huge flaw - it is Apple-only, which rules out my Windows Desktop. I have a MacBook pro from 2013 that has slowed down a lot and doesn’t offer the latest Notes features out of the box (updated to Sonoma using OCLP, got the features but at the expense of speed and battery power). So I have had very poor Windows experience on iCloud.com and slow Mac experience. Lots of people get around this by either upgrading their Apple devices, or using a cross-platform app like ToDoist, but I didn’t want a paid app - after all I was getting by using the native apps.
Then, I heard the CEO of Notion talk in this video. His ideas really resonated with me and I was impressed by his vision.
See, I am a tinkerer at heart, but when it comes to productivity, I have to have something that works. When Ivan talked about giving “Lego bricks” to adults to build a tool that they can use to do whatever they want and improve their productivity, that really resonated with me.
The mistake I made last time I tried Notion was going for the mobile app first. The experience is bad there unless you come to it from the Desktop app. Also the Notion Calendar app had not launched. So 3 days ago (June 4th, 2024) I watched a few YouTube videos to grab the basics of Notion’s block and database architectures. Then I dove straight in…
The lucky thing was that I came into this just after the recent quality of life improvements and, more importantly, the new Home page with its My tasks widget.
I wanted an app which I could use to organize my life and work using PARA and GTD methods and have been using a combination of Apple Notes, Reminders and Calendar. After Notion rolled out the calendar feature, and more recently its Home feature where you can bring in tasks from different databases, the whole thing clicked.
Here’s how it works: I have an Inbox where the Web Clipper sends things for me to Capture. I then have a Task List (which syncs to the Home page and my Google/Notion Calendar) with tasks that I have clarified to work on. It has reminders so I get notifications on iOS and also have the Notion Calendar widget, populated with my Tasks database items. Placed its Widget on the iOS home screen and BOOM, I can glance at my to-do list everywhere.
Then there is the two-way sync with calendar. Tasks go there automatically, any changes to date/time are reflected automatically. The appointments I set up there show up in my Notion Home page as well. Just brilliant.
Then there is Notion itself - I have now set up a Content page for all the articles/other media I want to keep, neatly organized and sortable. A books list. All the goodies you can achieve with a sea of templates. I thought the sheer number of templates and possibilities with Notion could be a distraction, but if you can keep your focus, you can build exactly what you want with this app to serve your needs. I am now overflowing with productive ideas about learning, blogging, vlogging, archiving, planning work projects etc. etc.
The app also has backlinks, although no graph view a la Obsidian or Roam - which I found to be a gimmick. So no problems there.
And then ton of other useful features — downloadable templates, standard hyperlink to share to non-users, publishing directly to web, support for many Markdown elements, version history, table of contents, export to PDF/CSV/Markdown formats, an API that helps integrate other apps, the community they fostered… the list just goes on and on.
Even the price is right -FREE for personal and limited with sharing. I may even pay for it given how much it can enable me to achieve.
Can it be better? Sure. Here’s what I really want to see to call this app perfect:

1. Offline availability.
2. OCR support for images/searchable PDFs and documents
3. Design improvements to the mobile app - the Remind toggle and the Time dials are too far apart for example
4. More streamlined design
5. End-to-end encryption - unless it breaks features.

** written in Notion ;) **

Started a new job in a new city this week and after just a few days, my heart and mind are in full blown "I have made a terrible mistake" mode. Everything from the work environment to the physical location/culture feels at odds with who I am/what I value, and since this was a big growth opportunity I'm now coming to terms with what I subconsciously put aside during the interview/consideration process and I deeply regret that. I'm mid-career and in a high paying leadership position and have had several new jobs -- I have never felt so out of sorts. I've considered everything from just staying to just calling it quits now while it's still early. Any advice or wisdom to offer on how to handle this?

In a world where the stormy summer nights never end. The clouds form funnels that form wind velocities more moving than a love ballad. If you know me I have a strong will like an ox, if you ask me to move when you do, you’ll find it’s like meeting a dead end. It’s stronger than my pride, even though my pride can be intestines rolled up inside, if you unwind from the core it will travel around the world five fold. It’s stronger than my pride, as I grow leviathan, the strength of my faith is like a building muscle in the supernatural whilst I stop and have an starring eye competition with the face of adversity. The whirlwinds begin to discontinue enraged noticeably and I start feeling like I’m ablaze unmoved and unharmed, but I can smell myself a little now, as I can say to the winds now that; Yeah; I’m a spirit and I faced the storm, but it finally subsided! You left me alone too long to die. You left me behind, because I seem lowly and incapable to a crimson tide. Yeah, I feel like it will never get old to you. Yeah, it hurts more than you know. Yeah, at times I find it excruciatingly hard to mend my broken heart and mind, to not bleed through the thread of people I know, and then hold on. Yeah, it’s hard for me not wanting to be like you and blend in with the rest, and blame the Devil later, when it’s not even there anymore beside me, the word of god; the word of man; the worst, yeah, you can make out of it what you want, but oh, why should I be discouraged about living with my mysterious mind that often seems to wonder off to a daydream that I have to shake myself out from the reigning powers of over my mind and vision? Yeah, we all know imperfections rise and fall with each hour approaching our footsteps. Yeah, I probably laugh out loud when I should not, but everyone including the powers that be knows my full burning testimony and for what ever reasons are it doesn’t seem to strike you it’s my right; responsibility for me to take care of my wellbeing, because I understand that; yeah; if you were the one and the only one of the receiving end of everything messed up, you would want to laugh out at the worlds small setbacks. Yeah, I said what I said and I am; having being a defeated battle much too long, but I am not worried about your fetishized personality for the fine things you think you always need to have over your neighbors. Yeah, I think father’s are the worst thing, pinning someone else against their own because of agitation that they can’t coexist with the power supervising the child with their own but nobody to relate to; play with; rely on, is it over? This bitter judgement, yeah I know that one day you will see the truth and the eye blinding light. I don’t have to settle down for anything harsh like this beautiful suicide you want me to focus on, you will focus on, be my guest. I’m not settling for the cult of trying so hard to mold the perfect child, you punish me even when there’s no need, yeah, I have had to battle many giants in my lifetime after you, yeah I’m fine it’s not my fault for not calling someone to take me away from the wrath of your heart because you know nothing about bringing a life into delivery you just want us to die. Yeah, I’m trying to say something. You don’t understand, or know how difficult it is for a young black Pegasus to grow into something stronger and resilient or responsible as a millennial in racist country. I’m so sure that I’m done with you. Yeah, because even though it is all I give up on you, because you don’t believe in heaven anymore, yeah , I know that sometimes the darkness comes up so vastly it’s dominating the light of hope. And the last word of hope and faithfulness becomes a blur in the backseat of my memory; it’s faint; on the tip of my head, but I feel like I’m a freshman and new to this law, I barely can feel myself breathing out the fear, breaking our sole tithes apart won’t be easy, yeah, well I know that now. Yeah, I know about extreme fearfulness of the ghost of you pulling me into a familiar place inward in which is unsafe I don’t want to be, I know enough to cut you off. The ranting; scolding; screaming, condemning me for trying to unlock the door to the dread that I am surrounded with water overflowing me, but it seems helpless I feel comfortable with complacency in sinking into liquid flames, my dreadful world you’d rather not live on, but that of I am in chains and chaos doesn’t seem to trigger anything to your consciousness, yeah. I know you want me dead but defeated too. If I am conquered, then it’s not worth raising me up, for a life of punishment all over again, yeah, I know you want to be my god of again, my god in which I can’t escape from the silence of the night. Damn the silence. Damn the darkness. Damn the day, when angels turn against me, because you’re a hazard to yourself and everyone around you touch with your hands or your black soul. Yeah, I have heard that the wages of sin are death, but what about for a divided world? I can’t serve one mad man and please the other for being the only one that has to behave and believe what keeps opposing me through this odd leadership you never see. I have to admit I have already died from the wool but for you it’s not enough, yeah I know can withstand hell and high water, but it doesn’t mean I want to, you will remember me when I’m gone. Yeah, I’m a living testimony; a living sacrifice to what beautiful becomes when devalued and unappreciated unapologetically too long, yeah, yet I know that I am not worthy to blame. I’m not selfish for only my health, but I need time away to make some sense of things, yeah I’m just saying you love to throw things out at me and make believe that I’m a narcissist, yet you don’t even begin to know what it means, you don’t understand what is written down in red, and you misinterpret something’s so simple you just don’t like to face it when it comes out. Yeah, I get it, you just can’t live without playing mind games, but that’s just how you are, even though nothing else is ever about you. Yeah yeah yeah, I already got off your number, you just didn’t seem to come across as rude and abussive. Yeah, we live, and we learn from long suffering and hardships that never untangle from our internal organs. Yeah, after all the pain and strife these wounds enlarge, to make me feel humble and simplified. Whilst I’m living on within it doesn’t mean you’re justified; yeah; I’m willing to forgive myself for allowing this stranger to patrol my doorway, to find I’ve been robbed of life within loving arms and hands that give the way to freedom. Yeah, it’s crazy cool, but it’s your mentality that keeps you a prisoner. It’s just I’m all in to be the poltergeist, yeah, let me in to introduce you to a world of no light, as the darkness fills your eyes, so does your soul, and your mind is open to the darkness that makes madness a familiar place. I want you to know how it feels to be driven by an endless darkness, and unknown force, enticing, divine is it’s stronghold upon the world underneath beyond a human comprehension too dark for my own words, yeah, too good to be. Yeah, I think it’s time for a change in your heart, but I am lousy and unforgiving; I won’t let go, I am an evil angel, it seems, with unfinished business, but you’re the job that makes days prolonged for hues of despair that wrought with the Devil inside the wicked truth as closed eyes are opened to see I’m grateful for you teaching my only weakness is bad choices, that drift me into the hands of bad company that leads to horrible consequences that backfire upon me and transgress the spirit that I rise to see. Yeah, I go to sleep with a broken heart, I wake up to myself in the past trauma of all the awful and awkward things you’ve allowed me to endure, then I romance in leaving you behind, for me the same as you did with all those you gave life unto; the hatred you prophesied life unto over my soul has dethroned the condition and, conscience to love, I fear that I will be denied for forgetting to love your ways, I am likely never to remittance that life without parole, you never know when the road will change it’s mind that will lead me into the pathway straight from me to another stranger that cares any less of me, yeah, for some odd reason they too feel it’s their divine right to conquer me, as I am the enemy within, but without purpose I do this towards myself as I pull myself apart, trying not to give you a yeah, when you make a purposal to take away my freedom. Why I can’t ignore myself at the stoplight, and have a sudden attack of self consciousness within is none of my business but yeah to the nature to, praise and worship the reigning pain; it’s all the hierarchy that I have to make me stronger. Reflecting over time I find how much more I have grown, but I walk with a greater vengeance, through this new order of world salvation I am shining through the darkness and creating within me a clean heart that’s purifying me, giving it all that I have, with every fiber of my being, until the next dawn of raindrops I wash myself Snow White clean of you , cleansing my soul with the highest possible light, a glorious day from the start until the end, you ask me will I pick up my cross and follow you? Yeah yeah yeah; you know everything inside of me says yeah, I’ll follow you; follow you. Giving up my will to bare these scars, yeah I’m giving up on pitty; petty; yeah I know you would like to hold me captive, but I don’t necessarily have the strength to give you the power that is within. Yeah; it’s been a long time coming but you need to hear it from me. Because everything you stole the redeemer is giving it back to me. Yeah. Yeah, I am a driven obsessive poltergeist with no endgame I am thankful to be bound to the soil underneath my ghostly body, turning up the fire, I want total possessive control order over all you are, to drive you up the walls until you become drained of energy and the will to resist the darkness which lye beside you in the night. Don’t fight it, open up your heart and unlock the hate to throw your world into a place that gives us ultimate power over our lives we didn’t choose, but somehow feel urged to create around. Yeah I look in the mirror and hate you a little more than less, but the new me and the old answer yeah, with feeling brings me to find myself in the darkness along the night. Yeah, I look back afterwards everything else I have triumphs over, and think to myself. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I don’t have any regrets weighing down my mind for living my own life, yeah, you can choose your own way out, but this is mine. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! My desolation; your loss. Your success; my storm. My anxiety; your pleasure, whatever happens if I rewrite this equation to fix you, because of a lesson of learned behavior I have learned not to be afraid to sentence you the same as with great woe, and sorrow, if the sparrows don’t give away you the secret , then I am not real. Yeah I have successfully outlived a fairytale, but it was all in vain. I’m not supposed to have acceptance from everyone, so yeah, I don’t have to be like you to know I’m a whole different function of fun. Yeah I’m in constant use to spread my wings and fly over the ground. Yeah, I strongly believe that is the way it should be for me you see. Yeah, you love to put me down out of pure pleasure, but I’m more than just potential, so yeah, get it all out of your system ; look at me, and scream out loud you’re better! Yeah I’m confident that isn’t my insecurities pointing at me. Yeah yeah yeah.
Authorship by Dr. Dashaun Snipes ©Dr. Dashaun Snipes ® Yeah

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

Phone plans in Canada. Everyone gets fucked over because telus or virgin mobile or whatever make you pay $60 for texting, calling, and 1 gig data. If you are lucky you can get 10 gigs data for that. I have a very rare plan on a provider called chatr. My first plan was 10$/month for texting and calling. then I used to pay 25$/month for 2 gigs data and texting/calling. They upped my cost last year to 27$/month. And now they are offering all these new deals to me, since i never change my plan. I can get texting/calling and 50 gigs of data for only 29$ a month. So apparently the data to cost rate is very low, but they still inflate everything so much. I had to pay an extra 17$ for 2 gigs data, then they jangle the fucking deal of +48 gigs for an extra 2$ a month. Fuck you chatr, you will probably make my plan cost that much anyway in the future.
Their app is so broken. I need to add a credit card to top up my plan, and their sliders for the expiration date wont work. I refreshed the app multiple times. and half the time (not joking) they just wont let me sign in. Theres always some malfunction or error and i need to "check back later."
On their website this time I cant select my province. If I press the province slider (I need to select a province to top up my plan.) A pop up appears that just says "province."
And I couldnt order my student transcripts for a few days to go to college because the GOVERNMENT RAN website was down.
These aree just a few examples but theres so much more. Everything is broken, everything is asking you for more money or just taking it, everything is throwing ads at you, etc. And there is no escape because everything is online. Banking, phone plans, jobs, whatever else. and companies purposely make phones and games addictive as possible.

I tried using this idea as a launch pad for discussion in various vegan debate sub-reddits. But, I'd also just be curious if most vegans agree, and if there's anything people would like to add, like other interesting reading that comes to mind.
Many meat eaters grapple with reaching for weak justifications for their meat eating such as appeals to nature and struggle with even putting these weak justifications into words.
I think Ted was a famous example of a person on the extreme end of this spectrum of stubbornly simply getting his views on what is right and wrong from a descriptive reality of how less intelligent animals kill each other to survive, so his attempts at logic are interesting to compare and contrast to many meat eaters arguments, similarly his emotional existential grappling with not being able to come up with a coherent argument whilst intuitively feeling sad about the actions he was taking is also interesting to compare and contrast.
Quoting from one of Ted Kaczynski's (the Unabomber's) journals:

Lately, to tell the truth, I’ve been getting a little sick of killing things. Neither the death struggles of the animal nor the blood bother me in the least; in fact, I rather enjoy the sight of blood; blood is appetizing because it makes rich soups. I enjoy the instant of the kill because it represents a success. But a moment afterward I often feel saddened that a thing so beautiful and full of life has suddenly been converted into just a piece of meat. Still, this is outweighed by the satisfaction of getting my food from the forest and mountain. Rabbits and grouse have beautiful eye; in both cases the whites don’t show and the iris’s are a lovely brown. And this grouse today I noticed that the pupil, black at first glance, is actually a deep blue, like clear, translucent blue glass.

Also, in a letter to his brother, Ted wrestled with the question of; 'is it a good thing that some people feel sad about the animals killed painfully by hunter-gatherers?'
For me, I think yes it is a good thing, I feel sad partly because I relate to hunter-gatherers as people who could be offered lessons in how to grow enough diversity of vegan food at their own desired level of technology such that they would not need to hunt. I also hope one day some people might be motivated to do that for them in a responsible way that only improves their quality of life.
I understand a meat eater might feel sad for many reasons also, even if for example it's just because we have higher level technology today such that we can potentially kill some animals faster today with less pain and less stress. But even though we have the means to blow up an animals head with exploding bullets without the animal ever seeing it coming doesn't mean we always use such methods, nor do I think it would justify cutting short the animal's interest to live.
I find some nihilists & primitivists like Ted's response to this question the most fascinating, they wish they could have been born into a world in which no one experienced sadness about killing animals, but this just feels like desiring a black and white world because it would help them make sense of their place in the universe.
Maybe they fear that if they said yes its good some people feel sad, that the only other track society would be left to go down is exterminating all carnivores and building robot carnivore imitations for entertainment.
However, I think there is a middle ground in simply relating to ourselves as an omnivore species who are intelligent enough to one day desire to build a global vegan social contract. Where among each other we decide that we generally wouldn't like to encourage in any of our fellow humans the act of breeding and killing other sentient animals. For reasons of; 'it has the strongly likely outcome of damaging to an unacceptable degree many people's ability to be compassionate with one another'. So, not an indictment on the subsistence hunter-gatherers and non-human animals who hunt to survive, but an aspirational future goal for humans.
Finally, here is the long meandering letter by Ted I mentioned for anyone curious:

I doubt that the pigmies have any guilt, conscious or otherwise, about killing animals. Guilt is a conflict between what we’re trained not to do and impulses that lead us to do it anyway. Apparently there is nothing in pygmy culture that leads them not to kill or inflict pain on animals. What the pygmies love and celebrate is their way of life, and they see no conflict between that and killing for meat; in fact, the hunting is an essential part of their way of life — they gotta eat. We tend to see a conflict there because we come from a world where there is a gross excess of people who even apart from hunting destroy the material world through their very presence in such numbers. But to the pygmies — until very recently anyway — there’s been no need for “conservation”. The forest is full of animals; with the pygmies primitive weapons and sparse population the question of exterminating the game never arises. The pygmies problem is to fill his belly. The civilized man can afford to feel sorry for wild animals because he can take his food for granted. Some psychologists claim that man is attracted to “death” as they call it. Certainly young men are attracted to action, violence, aggression, and that sort of thing. Note the amount of make-believe violence in the entertainment media — in spite of the fact that in our culture that sort of thing is considered bad and unwholesome and so forth. Since man has been a hunter for the last million years, it is possible that, like other predatory animals, he has some kind of a “killer instinct”. It would thus seem that the pygmies are just acting like perfectly good predatory animals. Why should they feel sorry for their prey any more than a hawk, a fox, or a leopard does? On the other hand, when a modern “sport” goes out with a high-powered rifle, you have a different situation. Some obvious differences are: much less skill is required with a rifle than with primitive weapons; the “sport” does it fun, not because he needs the meat; he is in a world where there are too many people and not enough wildlife, and a rifle makes it too easy to kill too many animals. Of course, the fish and game dept. will see to it that the animals don’t get exterminated, but this entails “wildlife management” — manipulation of nature which to me is even worse than extermination. Beyond that, while the pygmy lives in the wilderness and belongs to it, the “sport” is an alien intruder whose presence is a kind of desecration. In a sense, the sport hunter is a masturbator: His hunting is not the “real thing” — it’s not what hunting is for a primitive man — he is trying to satisfy an instinct in a debased and sordid way, just like when you rub your prick to crudely simulate what you really want, which is a love affair with a woman. Of course there’s nothing wrong with jagging off to relieve yourself when you get horny — it’s harmless. But — even apart from the question of depletion of wildlife — the presence of “sports” in the wilderness tends to spoil it for those who know better how to appreciate nature.

A bit overwhelmed looking into possible surgeons, many options, lots to weigh. I've been thinking probably Turkey since it seems like best bang for buck. I'm in BC so Vancouver might be a good option though I know it will cost big time. I'm not sure that it's worth the extra expense, as I hear they do great work in Turkey.
I have probably a NW 2.5 or so, 37 now- it's been thinning since I was about 17, very very slowly. I started taking fin a couple years ago and that seems to have stabilized things alright. I still have hair and am not thinning at a fast clip or anything, but I figure it's time to sort this out, now that enough time has passed to see that my type of balding isn't super aggressive and I can probably make a HT work for me.
I've got blonde hair, it's always been naturally thin to begin with. The thinning I've had probably wouldn't have made much noticeable impact if I'd started with a thicker head to begin with. My brother has similar recession but his hair is much thicker so it doesn't really show.
So anyhow, any leads you can offer to get me started on my journey here would be greatly appreciated. I know this forum is full of people posting about their experiences with different doctors, but that in itself is kind of the problem for me right now- there's so much information here I don't know where to begin lol.

I just tried to return items at UPS via Happy Returns for the first time- online purchases from a clothing store. The UPS worker told me that I HAD to have the original packaging and without it she couldn't even scan it- said I can't purchase other shipping materials and therefore can't make the return. I reached out to customer service at the clothing company my items came from- Happy Returns is my only option - is there something I'm missing? I have ordered items online before and very easily returned them without keeping their original packaging.

About 2 weeks ago I got an offer for the job in the post title. It came a full month after the final interview - 6 rounds and about 2 months for the full process. I ended up declining for a long list of reasons coupled with too many red flags throughout the stages. One thing that struck me was when they decided to offer it the recruiter told me I was the “top top” candidate for the business… which apparently meant 3 weeks of radio silence where I’d mentally moved on, then trying to lowball my target salary well within their (bogus) salary range when it turned out the call was for an offer rather than a rejection.
Anyway I was wondering if the second choice or any other finalists are on this sub. I’d hate to think how much longer the backup waited after at least a month of crickets. Happy to swap intel or just a post to vent. Good vibes to everyone in RH :)

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Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 2,204,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:
What is the Cryopod to Hell?
Join the Cryoverse Discord server!
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...................................
(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
A few days after Neil and Hope's meeting.
Henry Cliff walks alone down the hallways of the Labyrinth. He wears a purple-colored T-REX, a status symbol put in place by the higher-ups as a sign of his newfound prestige and military ranking. Its color, as well as the other new colors among the army allow for a quick idea of the ranking of any human soldier at a glance, especially among those who don't know the humans well, such as their allies for today.
Henry's feet quietly plod against the Labyrinth's compacted dirt floor. His breathing remains even despite having walked for over thirty minutes. Thanks to his newly enhanced body, he could run for a thousand kilometers without breaking a sweat. Even he isn't entirely certain just how strong he is. Perhaps, if he were to come to blows with a Demon Emperor, he might roll them out like a sleeping bag.
As he walks, Henry's newfound clarity of purpose mixes with the voices and thoughts of ten thousand other members of Jepthath's Legion. No, more accurately, they are Henry's Legion, now. While their power might be derived from Jepthath, it was the Hero-King's decision to give Henry command of them and become his Voice.
Each person who joined on that day possessed their own thoughts, feelings, and talents. Their combined cumulative experience, which could now be tapped into at will, easily amounted to more than 350,000 years. If the age of every person who merged had been 10, that would have given them 100,000 years, but the fact the average turned out to be 35 elevated their cumulative total dramatically.
And that was to say nothing of the people who had once been a part of Jepthath's Legion in the past. When Henry first became inducted into the Legion, he was shocked by just how much wisdom Jepthath possessed. While he did not have the truly unfathomable and vast breadth of knowledge Solomon possessed, Jepthath was amazing in his own way. What he lacked in raw information, he made up in with mastery of combat.
If Solomon possessed the combined cumulative knowledge of humanity, Jepthath possessed its raw hand-to-hand fighting prowess. And that served to bolster Henry's state of mind significantly.
Just by integrating into the Legion, Henry's ability to peer into the essence of combat increased ten thousand-fold. Over the last few days, he had happened to pass by several different training grounds for humanity's soldiers on Maiura, most of them having been erected at some point by Neil Adams in the past six years. Henry was not impressed by what he saw. If anything, he was disgusted.
[Their movements are so crude. So lacking in refinement.] He would often think, while conversing with the ancient Hero-King. [I want to train them. I can't stand to imagine them using their sloppy combat skills against old demon monsters.]
[A waste of time.] Jepthath would chide gently, whenever he and Henry had this conversation. [The knowledge you have obtained effortlessly cannot be communicated through words or demonstrations. The only way one can become as proficient as the members of Our Legion is by directly transferring Our combined knowledge through Our souls and minds.]
[Then we have to convince more to join Us!] Henry would exclaim. [These fools are wasting their time flailing about, trying to reinvent the wheel. If they joined Us, they would gain all of Our power in the art of war and become capable of adding to Our collective consciousness!]
Jepthath shakes his head. [I made a deal with the Wordsmith. We will not forcibly recruit anyone. If you wish to convince more to join Us, you must demonstrate Our power. Not only do you possess knowledge of countless schools of fighting, but you also possess intimate knowledge of battlefield tactics and guerrilla warfare. By demonstrating that Knowledge is Power, you can enlighten the foolish masses as to what they are missing out on.]
Henry nodded sincerely at that time. He looked up at the night sky and clenched his fist with determination.
Humanity was wasting its capabilities! If other humans only knew how small and frail they were, they would jump at the chance to join the Legion!
Less than a week before, Henry had been a disgraced soldier, a mere civilian, a person who might never even get the opportunity to shine the boots of those he had once trained with.
But now he was an officer, an elite warrior many would come to fear and respect.
This realization made his heart leap and his throat dry. In many ways, he sometimes felt he didn't deserve this position. He certainly hadn't earned it.
Not yet. Someday he would. Someday soon.
His thoughts come back to the present. He continues walking, ultimately falling into step beside an ordinary human commando also donning a T-REX. A small artistic flourish on the side of her armor, a pink rose, hints to him the other soldier might be a woman.
The grey-armored soldier turns her head to look at him as she walks. "Oh! You startled me. And you are?"
Unable to see her face, Henry looks at her helmet instead, and her name and other information pop up in his HUD, allowing him to see her identity.
"I'm Lieutenant Henry Cliff." He says. "You're Private Ashley McCarthy? Aren't you the lady who can transform into an orc?"
Immediately, her previously formal tone turns cold. Ashley snaps her head forward, no longer looking at him.
"Every time. Every time! Is that all I am anymore? Just the ugly bitch who turns into an orc?!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Henry exclaims, taken aback by her response. "I'm sorry, uh, Miss McCarthy. I didn't mean to apologize- I mean, I didn't apologize- mean to offend you! I- I uh, sorry!"
He stumbles over his words, feeling suddenly ashamed that he spoke so bluntly without considering the other person's feelings. Then again, how could he have known it was such a sore subject for her? That thought also makes him feel unfairly slighted, as he committed a blunder without meaning to.
"No, no I'm sorry." Ashley quickly says, suddenly realizing how rudely she just spoke to a superior officer. "It's not your fault, Lieutenant. I, I just... it's a long story. I never asked for this ability. I hate it."
"You hate it?" Henry asks, as they round a corner, passing a dozen goblins who carefully press against the side-wall to avoid the giant humans. "Pardon my bluntness, but why? In this time of war, possessing an orc form must make you pretty strong. Valuable. You could be on the fast-track to a higher rank if you have any ambition."
"Higher rank." Ashley mutters under her breath. "As if that's something I'd want. I'm not some big brained Terran from Old Earth. I'm just a normal girl from one of the Wild Worlds. I only want to be pointed at an enemy so I can hurt them."
That sounds an awful lot like something an orc would say, Henry thinks, but wisely keeps to himself.
"Does turning into an orc make you stronger?" Henry asks, choosing to turn the discussion down a more positive path.
"Oh, sure. A bit stronger." Ashley concedes. "You know how the Body Booster improves a human's baseline physique, putting some of us on par with certain low-ranking Demon Lords? Well, my Orc transformation stacks on that, sort of. I can pick up and throw boulders pretty far."
She pauses, before adding, "I mean, it is really fun being that strong."
Henry reaches up to rub his chin, only for his hand to clank against his T-REX's helmet. He gives up on the idea and lowers his arm again.
"I recently got a, uh, a pretty substantial boost to my strength. You remember how Commander Hope offered for people to merge with the Hero Jepthath? I did that, and it made me a lot stronger."
He turns to look at the woman beside him, but she simply gazes forward, her helmet offering no insight into her current expression.
Her words, however, definitely give away what she's thinking.
"Oh. You're one of the cultists."
Her disappointed tone makes Henry's heart skip a beat.
"No, no, no!" Henry exclaims. "Not a cultist. Who told you that?? Jepthath's Legion have simply unified Our minds and bolstered Our bodies, making Us a lot stronger."
She remains quiet for a few moments.
"Yeah... that's... what a cultist would say."
"We're not a cult..." Henry protests feebly, but his words fall on deaf ears.
This isn't the first time someone has directed a look of disgust his way, or visibly cringed when he proudly declared himself one of Jepthath's Chosen.
Jason's words during the Great Debate made a lot of people immediately strike becoming a Parahuman off their list. They'd rather be ordinary soldiers in body armor rather than part of a weird, unified hive-mind.
Dismayed, the young man falls silent. He doesn't say anything for a full minute, and perhaps feeling bad about dismissing him so easily, Ashley decides to reignite the conversation as they draw closer to their destination.
"So what's it like. Being inside a, uh... hive mind? Is it weird?"
"We're not a hive-mind." Henry says, his mood deflating even further. "We're... we're like brothers and sisters. We understand one another. We share thoughts, insights, wisdom."
This time, Ashley tries to exercise a little tact. "It just doesn't sound right for me. I guess everyone has their own preferences. Me, I think I'd die of shame if everyone around me could hear my every thought. The embarrassment alone..."
She trails off and shakes her head.
But this time, Henry doesn't just back down.
"It's not what you think at all." Henry says. "Do you know why you feel fear at the thought of sharing your thoughts? It's because you're self-absorbed."
"What?!" Ashley exclaims, pausing her walk to look at him. No doubt, her helmet hides an expression of disbelief. "What do you mean by that... sir?"
Henry also pauses. He turns to face her, resting his hands on his hips. "You have friends, right? Maybe even a best friend?"
"O-of course!" Ashley says, her tone defensive. "What, you think I'm friendless just because I'm not a part of some bee-hive?"
"That's not what I'm getting at." Henry says patiently, holding out his hand and modulating his tone so he'll come off less aggressive. "Think about your friend, or your best friend. Really think about it. What's the most embarrassing thing you remember about him or her? What's the worst social gaffe they've made that you can't get out of your head?"
Ashley pauses. She lowers her head and falls into thought for a moment.
"I don't know. I can't think of anything. Why?"
"What about other people?" Henry asks. "Has anyone else you know made any serious social fuck-ups recently?"
"Social ones? No. There have been a few generally bad events recently, like finding out Baron Mara killed a bunch of people. But she's not my friend anyway, so..."
"THAT is my point." Henry states emphatically. "You don't think about the weird and embarrassing things your friends do. So why do you believe they're so fixated on yours?"
Ashley lifts her head to look at him. She remains silent, digesting his words, so he continues to press the issue.
"Do you know why you find things about yourself embarrassing? It's not your fault. Most people are extremely self-conscious about their own insecurities. Now that I've become a part of the Legion, I experience everyone else's insecurities all at the same time as I experience mine. In doing so, I realize that mine never amounted to anything at all. When you have ten thousand other people worrying about what they're wearing, or if they look fashionable, or some other tedious bullshit, you quickly realize that all of them amount to white noise. They don't matter."
He throws his hand up dramatically.
"I'm not picking on you. It's just a fact of human consciousness. All people are held back by their fear of social pressure, but much of that is because we don't know what goes on in the heads of our fellow men and women. If you could see their deranged sexual fantasies all at once, you would realize you're not weird at all. Everyone has a kink. If you enjoy looking at gross bugs, guess what? Someone else is unbothered by bodily fluids. We're all weird, and joining the Legion just made that clearer to me."
He pauses, unable to see the look on her face. "Sorry, I hope I'm not coming off as condescending. Does any of this make sense to you?"
Ashley slowly nods. "Mmm. Yeah, it does."
Henry heaves a sigh of relief. "Well, great! Great. I was worried I was starting to sound a little long-winded."
Ashley turns away and resumes walking. "You're definitely in a cult."
"Goddammit." Henry grumbles.
...
Before long, the two of them make it to the meeting location, where they arrive inside a massive, hollowed-out area inside the Labyrinth. There, they find, of all things, a new Volgrim Warpgate installed, its destination some unknown desert on a planet Henry can't immediately identify.
As they enter the massive arena-like staging area, Hope becomes momentarily disoriented. His newly enhanced senses pick up surges of spiritual energy, all spread out across the humans, demons, monsters, and other creatures inside. The powerful Demon Emperors, only a few of whom have yet to Ascend to Demon Deity, stand near the portal, using their strength as a show of force. Despite their proud expressions, Henry's keen senses detect a hint of fear in their eyes, as they seem to be unable to properly stand as strong as they always have. It's as if they are being suppressed by something...
"Whoa!" Ashley gasps. "I can't believe it. Why are the Volgrim here?"
"The Volgrim?" Henry asks, following her gaze based on the direction her helmet is pointed.
Somewhere in the mass of the crowd, a handful of decidedly alien-looking creatures with tentacles writing under their mouths and heavily-armored bodies stand at attention, looking like proud leaders and commanders. Their postures indicate a level of arrogance bred into their bones by millions of years of dominance over the Milky Way. Compared to the slightly fearful Demon Emperors, these Technopaths truly stand out as cream of the crop, with unknown augmentations that likely elevate their combat prowess to the peak.
"Those are Volgrim?" Henry asks. "Huh. The only one I've ever seen was that one female, the one who didn't have a mouth. She was presiding over my, uh, my tribunal..."
"Your tribunal?" Ashley asks.
She pauses, then turns to look at him strangely.
"Cliff... Henry Cliff? What the- you're that traitor! What- how even...?? You're a Lieutenant now? I didn't even recognize your name- no, forget that. Why are you in uniform? Weren't you banned basically forever from rejoining the military?"
"I was banned from rejoining the main military." Henry says, lowering his head in shame. "But, uhm, Hope's Parahumans are... different. It's a different jurisdiction."
Ashley takes a step to the side, pulling away from him. He can't see her expression, but based on her voice, she suddenly seems disgusted by him.
"All this time, I was talking to him." She mutters to herself, as she turns and walks away without another word.
Henry stands there, silently. He watches her depart, a feeling of bitterness welling up in his heart. He could pull rank on her, write her up for insubordination. Given his new status as a high-ranker, it would be easy to do.
But he doesn't.
In truth, he doesn't blame Ashley for her feelings. Because of his actions, Neil Adams was captured and humanity likely lost far more people during Stormbringer as a result. He indirectly caused the deaths of hundreds, perhaps even thousands.
How can he demand respect from her when he feels he doesn't deserve it?
As that thought wells up in Henry's mind, the thoughts of the Legion feed back into him, suppressing his negative emotions. All of them comment on his feelings and insecurities, offering kind words to help him feel better.
[You cannot and should not demand respect, no, but you can earn it back through your actions.] A 52-year-old Legionnaire says. [People like her will come around in due time. Perform admirably and make the Legion proud.]
[That woman is a mere Private.] Jepthath chimes in. [Do not allow your emotions to be tangled up by the feelings of a random soldier. You will need to bolster your Willpower if you seek to reach the peak of what you can achieve.]
[Right. My willpower.] Henry says, as his mood drastically swings back up. He hardens his heart, casting aside Ashley's comment and instead meditating for a moment to clear his mind. [Thank you, everyone, for the support.]
With his thoughts clear, Henry strides toward the front, keeping his gaze fixed on the Volgrim Technopaths. Having never seen these creatures before, he finds their horrid-looking tentacle mouths fascinating and yet creepy to look at. While all of them appear to be gender-ambiguous, certainly at first glance, as he comes closer, he does manage to make out one or two female-sounding voices among them. Or perhaps they might be higher-pitched males. He isn't entirely sure, and it seems a taboo subject to breach.
"-the Task Force will be working alongside these Technopath Envoys." Demon Emperor Yardrat says, his tone even and unbothered by the Technopaths to his left. "Naturally, full command of this operation will still go to the Archdemon, as the ranking Cosmic. However, because he will be busy dealing with the highest level threats, control of the ground forces will go to one member of each species, chosen via several votes of consensus. Today's operation is a test, and its purpose is to ensure we all work together properly. NO friendly fire. Our enemy is the Plague and nobody else. Save your personal grievances, vendettas, and petty squabbles for after we take our galaxy back from the Kolvaxians."
He gestures to the ten Technopaths. "The Volgrim have dispatched an army of 100,000 Technopath soldiers, and they will be commanded by this High Technopath named Loputo Jidelor, a high ranking commander of Clan Symmetra's ground forces."
Each of the Technopaths possesses their own combination of flesh and blood bodily parts mixed with metal limb replacements, armor-addons, and other such things. In Jidelor's case, he stands on two flesh and blood legs. However, in place of his right arm is a long, metallic limb with dozens of razor-thin threads waving to and fro where his 'wrist' ends. Each one moves independently, much like the tentacles on his left arm, but their movements appear far more precise. Dozens of metallic pieces are attached seemingly at random to his skin and skull.
Jidelor nods. "I am an experienced battlefield commander, but I am not a frontline soldier. I will be controlling our siege weaponry and directing our soldiers from the back."
Yardrat nods, then continues. "For the Demons, it goes without saying that just like with the last ten operations, Emperor Serena will be commanding our forces. Her ability to link souls together has proven instrumental in rapid battlefield communications, and her ability to sense souls allows her to keep up with the emergence of new Plagueborn until the point Diablo steals the world core back."
A beautiful demoness with sightless eyes nearby waves her hand delicately. "I will be in your care, everyone. Let us make it to the end without losing any demons this time."
"For the monsters, Fairy Princess Melia will take point." Yardrat says, nodding to another beautiful woman with green hair, fairy wings, and a look of boredom permanently etched onto her face.
Unlike the previous two commanders, Melia doesn't give a speech. In fact, she only rolls her eyes, crosses her arms, and looks away.
"Alright, and for the humans, General Chadwick will be taking charge." Yardrat concludes. He gestures to a massive Norwegian man who has now donned a Rhino T-REX variant and rests his hands around the shaft of a massive battleaxe. Its head rests on the ground, and he supports his massive armored frame by resting on the weapon's handle.
"Everyone." Chadwich says. "It is my honor to lead this mission. Naturally, Commander Neil is not happy about having to work with the demons, and I cannot imagine all of our soldiers are either. However, I pledge on Hope Hiro's honor that we will not commit any cowardly deeds of treachery, any backstabbing, or anything else of that sort! It was Hope Hiro who pushed for this arrangement because he wants humanity's soldiers to get real battle experience against the Plague. Let's be sure to make good use of this time to bury as many hatchets as we can!"
The crowd nods along to Chadwick's words. Some of the humans vocalize their approval, but many more remain silent.
The humans here are not normal civilians. They are military personnel, countless many of whom have not forgiven the demons. They may never forgive them, if their leaders are being honest.
Perhaps sensing the tenseness in the air, Yardrat briskly moves the pace along.
"In thirty minutes, we will begin. Transfer your forces to my world so that I can begin preparation to open the Intragalactic Portals. The Swarm has begun adapting to my tactics of late, so the moment those portals open, we'll need boots on the ground. No delays! If the Plague has its way, it might flood through the portals back to us, and that would be a whole bloody devil-damned mess."
The other leaders nod solemnly. They spread apart to talk to their forces, and Henry heaves a sigh.
In thirty minutes, we'll find out just how stable this alliance truly is.

A few days after Neil and Hope's meeting.
Henry Cliff walks alone down the hallways of the Labyrinth. He wears a purple-colored T-REX, a status symbol put in place by the higher-ups as a sign of his newfound prestige and military ranking. Its color, as well as the other new colors among the army allow for a quick idea of the ranking of any human soldier at a glance, especially among those who don't know the humans well, such as their allies for today.
Henry's feet quietly plod against the Labyrinth's compacted dirt floor. His breathing remains even despite having walked for over thirty minutes. Thanks to his newly enhanced body, he could run for a thousand kilometers without breaking a sweat. Even he isn't entirely certain just how strong he is. Perhaps, if he were to come to blows with a Demon Emperor, he might roll them out like a sleeping bag.
As he walks, Henry's newfound clarity of purpose mixes with the voices and thoughts of ten thousand other members of Jepthath's Legion. No, more accurately, they are Henry's Legion, now. While their power might be derived from Jepthath, it was the Hero-King's decision to give Henry command of them and become his Voice.
Each person who joined on that day possessed their own thoughts, feelings, and talents. Their combined cumulative experience, which could now be tapped into at will, easily amounted to more than 350,000 years. If the age of every person who merged had been 10, that would have given them 100,000 years, but the fact the average turned out to be 35 elevated their cumulative total dramatically.
And that was to say nothing of the people who had once been a part of Jepthath's Legion in the past. When Henry first became inducted into the Legion, he was shocked by just how much wisdom Jepthath possessed. While he did not have the truly unfathomable and vast breadth of knowledge Solomon possessed, Jepthath was amazing in his own way. What he lacked in raw information, he made up in with mastery of combat.
If Solomon possessed the combined cumulative knowledge of humanity, Jepthath possessed its raw hand-to-hand fighting prowess. And that served to bolster Henry's state of mind significantly.
Just by integrating into the Legion, Henry's ability to peer into the essence of combat increased ten thousand-fold. Over the last few days, he had happened to pass by several different training grounds for humanity's soldiers on Maiura, most of them having been erected at some point by Neil Adams in the past six years. Henry was not impressed by what he saw. If anything, he was disgusted.
[Their movements are so crude. So lacking in refinement.] He would often think, while conversing with the ancient Hero-King. [I want to train them. I can't stand to imagine them using their sloppy combat skills against old demon monsters.]
[A waste of time.] Jepthath would chide gently, whenever he and Henry had this conversation. [The knowledge you have obtained effortlessly cannot be communicated through words or demonstrations. The only way one can become as proficient as the members of Our Legion is by directly transferring Our combined knowledge through Our souls and minds.]
[Then we have to convince more to join Us!] Henry would exclaim. [These fools are wasting their time flailing about, trying to reinvent the wheel. If they joined Us, they would gain all of Our power in the art of war and become capable of adding to Our collective consciousness!]
Jepthath shakes his head. [I made a deal with the Wordsmith. We will not forcibly recruit anyone. If you wish to convince more to join Us, you must demonstrate Our power. Not only do you possess knowledge of countless schools of fighting, but you also possess intimate knowledge of battlefield tactics and guerrilla warfare. By demonstrating that Knowledge is Power, you can enlighten the foolish masses as to what they are missing out on.]
Henry nodded sincerely at that time. He looked up at the night sky and clenched his fist with determination.
Humanity was wasting its capabilities! If other humans only knew how small and frail they were, they would jump at the chance to join the Legion!
Less than a week before, Henry had been a disgraced soldier, a mere civilian, a person who might never even get the opportunity to shine the boots of those he had once trained with.
But now he was an officer, an elite warrior many would come to fear and respect.
This realization made his heart leap and his throat dry. In many ways, he sometimes felt he didn't deserve this position. He certainly hadn't earned it.
Not yet. Someday he would. Someday soon.
His thoughts come back to the present. He continues walking, ultimately falling into step beside an ordinary human commando also donning a T-REX. A small artistic flourish on the side of her armor, a pink rose, hints to him the other soldier might be a woman.
The grey-armored soldier turns her head to look at him as she walks. "Oh! You startled me. And you are?"
Unable to see her face, Henry looks at her helmet instead, and her name and other information pop up in his HUD, allowing him to see her identity.
"I'm Lieutenant Henry Cliff." He says. "You're Private Ashley McCarthy? Aren't you the lady who can transform into an orc?"
Immediately, her previously formal tone turns cold. Ashley snaps her head forward, no longer looking at him.
"Every time. Every time! Is that all I am anymore? Just the ugly bitch who turns into an orc?!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Henry exclaims, taken aback by her response. "I'm sorry, uh, Miss McCarthy. I didn't mean to apologize- I mean, I didn't apologize- mean to offend you! I- I uh, sorry!"
He stumbles over his words, feeling suddenly ashamed that he spoke so bluntly without considering the other person's feelings. Then again, how could he have known it was such a sore subject for her? That thought also makes him feel unfairly slighted, as he committed a blunder without meaning to.
"No, no I'm sorry." Ashley quickly says, suddenly realizing how rudely she just spoke to a superior officer. "It's not your fault, Lieutenant. I, I just... it's a long story. I never asked for this ability. I hate it."
"You hate it?" Henry asks, as they round a corner, passing a dozen goblins who carefully press against the side-wall to avoid the giant humans. "Pardon my bluntness, but why? In this time of war, possessing an orc form must make you pretty strong. Valuable. You could be on the fast-track to a higher rank if you have any ambition."
"Higher rank." Ashley mutters under her breath. "As if that's something I'd want. I'm not some big brained Terran from Old Earth. I'm just a normal girl from one of the Wild Worlds. I only want to be pointed at an enemy so I can hurt them."
That sounds an awful lot like something an orc would say, Henry thinks, but wisely keeps to himself.
"Does turning into an orc make you stronger?" Henry asks, choosing to turn the discussion down a more positive path.
"Oh, sure. A bit stronger." Ashley concedes. "You know how the Body Booster improves a human's baseline physique, putting some of us on par with certain low-ranking Demon Lords? Well, my Orc transformation stacks on that, sort of. I can pick up and throw boulders pretty far."
She pauses, before adding, "I mean, it is really fun being that strong."
Henry reaches up to rub his chin, only for his hand to clank against his T-REX's helmet. He gives up on the idea and lowers his arm again.
"I recently got a, uh, a pretty substantial boost to my strength. You remember how Commander Hope offered for people to merge with the Hero Jepthath? I did that, and it made me a lot stronger."
He turns to look at the woman beside him, but she simply gazes forward, her helmet offering no insight into her current expression.
Her words, however, definitely give away what she's thinking.
"Oh. You're one of the cultists."
Her disappointed tone makes Henry's heart skip a beat.
"No, no, no!" Henry exclaims. "Not a cultist. Who told you that?? Jepthath's Legion have simply unified Our minds and bolstered Our bodies, making Us a lot stronger."
She remains quiet for a few moments.
"Yeah... that's... what a cultist would say."
"We're not a cult..." Henry protests feebly, but his words fall on deaf ears.
This isn't the first time someone has directed a look of disgust his way, or visibly cringed when he proudly declared himself one of Jepthath's Chosen.
Jason's words during the Great Debate made a lot of people immediately strike becoming a Parahuman off their list. They'd rather be ordinary soldiers in body armor rather than part of a weird, unified hive-mind.
Dismayed, the young man falls silent. He doesn't say anything for a full minute, and perhaps feeling bad about dismissing him so easily, Ashley decides to reignite the conversation as they draw closer to their destination.
"So what's it like. Being inside a, uh... hive mind? Is it weird?"
"We're not a hive-mind." Henry says, his mood deflating even further. "We're... we're like brothers and sisters. We understand one another. We share thoughts, insights, wisdom."
This time, Ashley tries to exercise a little tact. "It just doesn't sound right for me. I guess everyone has their own preferences. Me, I think I'd die of shame if everyone around me could hear my every thought. The embarrassment alone..."
She trails off and shakes her head.
But this time, Henry doesn't just back down.
"It's not what you think at all." Henry says. "Do you know why you feel fear at the thought of sharing your thoughts? It's because you're self-absorbed."
"What?!" Ashley exclaims, pausing her walk to look at him. No doubt, her helmet hides an expression of disbelief. "What do you mean by that... sir?"
Henry also pauses. He turns to face her, resting his hands on his hips. "You have friends, right? Maybe even a best friend?"
"O-of course!" Ashley says, her tone defensive. "What, you think I'm friendless just because I'm not a part of some bee-hive?"
"That's not what I'm getting at." Henry says patiently, holding out his hand and modulating his tone so he'll come off less aggressive. "Think about your friend, or your best friend. Really think about it. What's the most embarrassing thing you remember about him or her? What's the worst social gaffe they've made that you can't get out of your head?"
Ashley pauses. She lowers her head and falls into thought for a moment.
"I don't know. I can't think of anything. Why?"
"What about other people?" Henry asks. "Has anyone else you know made any serious social fuck-ups recently?"
"Social ones? No. There have been a few generally bad events recently, like finding out Baron Mara killed a bunch of people. But she's not my friend anyway, so..."
"THAT is my point." Henry states emphatically. "You don't think about the weird and embarrassing things your friends do. So why do you believe they're so fixated on yours?"
Ashley lifts her head to look at him. She remains silent, digesting his words, so he continues to press the issue.
"Do you know why you find things about yourself embarrassing? It's not your fault. Most people are extremely self-conscious about their own insecurities. Now that I've become a part of the Legion, I experience everyone else's insecurities all at the same time as I experience mine. In doing so, I realize that mine never amounted to anything at all. When you have ten thousand other people worrying about what they're wearing, or if they look fashionable, or some other tedious bullshit, you quickly realize that all of them amount to white noise. They don't matter."
He throws his hand up dramatically.
"I'm not picking on you. It's just a fact of human consciousness. All people are held back by their fear of social pressure, but much of that is because we don't know what goes on in the heads of our fellow men and women. If you could see their deranged sexual fantasies all at once, you would realize you're not weird at all. Everyone has a kink. If you enjoy looking at gross bugs, guess what? Someone else is unbothered by bodily fluids. We're all weird, and joining the Legion just made that clearer to me."
He pauses, unable to see the look on her face. "Sorry, I hope I'm not coming off as condescending. Does any of this make sense to you?"
Ashley slowly nods. "Mmm. Yeah, it does."
Henry heaves a sigh of relief. "Well, great! Great. I was worried I was starting to sound a little long-winded."
Ashley turns away and resumes walking. "You're definitely in a cult."
"Goddammit." Henry grumbles.
...
Before long, the two of them make it to the meeting location, where they arrive inside a massive, hollowed-out area inside the Labyrinth. There, they find, of all things, a new Volgrim Warpgate installed, its destination some unknown desert on a planet Henry can't immediately identify.
As they enter the massive arena-like staging area, Hope becomes momentarily disoriented. His newly enhanced senses pick up surges of spiritual energy, all spread out across the humans, demons, monsters, and other creatures inside. The powerful Demon Emperors, only a few of whom have yet to Ascend to Demon Deity, stand near the portal, using their strength as a show of force. Despite their proud expressions, Henry's keen senses detect a hint of fear in their eyes, as they seem to be unable to properly stand as strong as they always have. It's as if they are being suppressed by something...
"Whoa!" Ashley gasps. "I can't believe it. Why are the Volgrim here?"
"The Volgrim?" Henry asks, following her gaze based on the direction her helmet is pointed.
Somewhere in the mass of the crowd, a handful of decidedly alien-looking creatures with tentacles writing under their mouths and heavily-armored bodies stand at attention, looking like proud leaders and commanders. Their postures indicate a level of arrogance bred into their bones by millions of years of dominance over the Milky Way. Compared to the slightly fearful Demon Emperors, these Technopaths truly stand out as cream of the crop, with unknown augmentations that likely elevate their combat prowess to the peak.
"Those are Volgrim?" Henry asks. "Huh. The only one I've ever seen was that one female, the one who didn't have a mouth. She was presiding over my, uh, my tribunal..."
"Your tribunal?" Ashley asks.
She pauses, then turns to look at him strangely.
"Cliff... Henry Cliff? What the- you're that traitor! What- how even...?? You're a Lieutenant now? I didn't even recognize your name- no, forget that. Why are you in uniform? Weren't you banned basically forever from rejoining the military?"
"I was banned from rejoining the main military." Henry says, lowering his head in shame. "But, uhm, Hope's Parahumans are... different. It's a different jurisdiction."
Ashley takes a step to the side, pulling away from him. He can't see her expression, but based on her voice, she suddenly seems disgusted by him.
"All this time, I was talking to him." She mutters to herself, as she turns and walks away without another word.
Henry stands there, silently. He watches her depart, a feeling of bitterness welling up in his heart. He could pull rank on her, write her up for insubordination. Given his new status as a high-ranker, it would be easy to do.
But he doesn't.
In truth, he doesn't blame Ashley for her feelings. Because of his actions, Neil Adams was captured and humanity likely lost far more people during Stormbringer as a result. He indirectly caused the deaths of hundreds, perhaps even thousands.
How can he demand respect from her when he feels he doesn't deserve it?
As that thought wells up in Henry's mind, the thoughts of the Legion feed back into him, suppressing his negative emotions. All of them comment on his feelings and insecurities, offering kind words to help him feel better.
[You cannot and should not demand respect, no, but you can earn it back through your actions.] A 52-year-old Legionnaire says. [People like her will come around in due time. Perform admirably and make the Legion proud.]
[That woman is a mere Private.] Jepthath chimes in. [Do not allow your emotions to be tangled up by the feelings of a random soldier. You will need to bolster your Willpower if you seek to reach the peak of what you can achieve.]
[Right. My willpower.] Henry says, as his mood drastically swings back up. He hardens his heart, casting aside Ashley's comment and instead meditating for a moment to clear his mind. [Thank you, everyone, for the support.]
With his thoughts clear, Henry strides toward the front, keeping his gaze fixed on the Volgrim Technopaths. Having never seen these creatures before, he finds their horrid-looking tentacle mouths fascinating and yet creepy to look at. While all of them appear to be gender-ambiguous, certainly at first glance, as he comes closer, he does manage to make out one or two female-sounding voices among them. Or perhaps they might be higher-pitched males. He isn't entirely sure, and it seems a taboo subject to breach.
"-the Task Force will be working alongside these Technopath Envoys." Demon Emperor Yardrat says, his tone even and unbothered by the Technopaths to his left. "Naturally, full command of this operation will still go to the Archdemon, as the ranking Cosmic. However, because he will be busy dealing with the highest level threats, control of the ground forces will go to one member of each species, chosen via several votes of consensus. Today's operation is a test, and its purpose is to ensure we all work together properly. NO friendly fire. Our enemy is the Plague and nobody else. Save your personal grievances, vendettas, and petty squabbles for after we take our galaxy back from the Kolvaxians."
He gestures to the ten Technopaths. "The Volgrim have dispatched an army of 100,000 Technopath soldiers, and they will be commanded by this High Technopath named Loputo Jidelor, a high ranking commander of Clan Symmetra's ground forces."
Each of the Technopaths possesses their own combination of flesh and blood bodily parts mixed with metal limb replacements, armor-addons, and other such things. In Jidelor's case, he stands on two flesh and blood legs. However, in place of his right arm is a long, metallic limb with dozens of razor-thin threads waving to and fro where his 'wrist' ends. Each one moves independently, much like the tentacles on his left arm, but their movements appear far more precise. Dozens of metallic pieces are attached seemingly at random to his skin and skull.
Jidelor nods. "I am an experienced battlefield commander, but I am not a frontline soldier. I will be controlling our siege weaponry and directing our soldiers from the back."
Yardrat nods, then continues. "For the Demons, it goes without saying that just like with the last ten operations, Emperor Serena will be commanding our forces. Her ability to link souls together has proven instrumental in rapid battlefield communications, and her ability to sense souls allows her to keep up with the emergence of new Plagueborn until the point Diablo steals the world core back."
A beautiful demoness with sightless eyes nearby waves her hand delicately. "I will be in your care, everyone. Let us make it to the end without losing any demons this time."
"For the monsters, Fairy Princess Melia will take point." Yardrat says, nodding to another beautiful woman with green hair, fairy wings, and a look of boredom permanently etched onto her face.
Unlike the previous two commanders, Melia doesn't give a speech. In fact, she only rolls her eyes, crosses her arms, and looks away.
"Alright, and for the humans, General Chadwick will be taking charge." Yardrat concludes. He gestures to a massive Norwegian man who has now donned a Rhino T-REX variant and rests his hands around the shaft of a massive battleaxe. Its head rests on the ground, and he supports his massive armored frame by resting on the weapon's handle.
"Everyone." Chadwich says. "It is my honor to lead this mission. Naturally, Commander Neil is not happy about having to work with the demons, and I cannot imagine all of our soldiers are either. However, I pledge on Hope Hiro's honor that we will not commit any cowardly deeds of treachery, any backstabbing, or anything else of that sort! It was Hope Hiro who pushed for this arrangement because he wants humanity's soldiers to get real battle experience against the Plague. Let's be sure to make good use of this time to bury as many hatchets as we can!"
The crowd nods along to Chadwick's words. Some of the humans vocalize their approval, but many more remain silent.
The humans here are not normal civilians. They are military personnel, countless many of whom have not forgiven the demons. They may never forgive them, if their leaders are being honest.
Perhaps sensing the tenseness in the air, Yardrat briskly moves the pace along.
"In thirty minutes, we will begin. Transfer your forces to my world so that I can begin preparation to open the Intragalactic Portals. The Swarm has begun adapting to my tactics of late, so the moment those portals open, we'll need boots on the ground. No delays! If the Plague has its way, it might flood through the portals back to us, and that would be a whole bloody devil-damned mess."
The other leaders nod solemnly. They spread apart to talk to their forces, and Henry heaves a sigh.
In thirty minutes, we'll find out just how stable this alliance truly is.

So, I feel it would be a shame not to highlight my experience with GeForceNow customer service during an issue I was having. I am 100% on Linux and there are a few minor gaming issues with that. One is a lot of games that require third party background anti-cheat software often is not compatible and another is services like XBox and Geforce streaming can be frustrating or have limitations. Other than that, things are good actually and I don't see these as big issues because just like any system, not everything is going to be compatible with everything else. I can't play many PC games on Switch, or PS5 exclusives on Xbox.....etc, so in the bigger context, Linux is far more compatible than most options out there gaming wise even though it gets blasted as if it were some major issue and you only got a 5 game library to play from. LOL
That being said, I read news that GeForceNow had a native Linux app now available. I didn't really look into it too far and assumed it was official and that it was a client just like the Windows client. So I downloaded it and tested it out on the free service to see that it did in fact work. At that point I confidently upgraded to Premium. Come to find out, it was not a full official client, but it was just an app that polished the web version and unknown to me also, was not able to stream over 1080. This pretty much made Premium not worth it for me as I run 4k monitors and was the only reason I was looking into it.
Which brings me to my experience with customer service and the GeForceNow team. In a world of large companies and their LACK of customer service, my issue was resolved quickly and fairly. I found my way to a chat option on what I would say was "off-hours" period of time. It was not a surprise that the rep did not understand the dynamics of a Linux user which I honestly would not have expected. After describing my issue, my discovery of the limitation, and my request for a refund, they escalated it up to confirm. Then notified me of the policy that there is no refunds normally, but they would escalate it again and I should hear something back. The next morning I had an email granting a special scenario refund.
So, I just have to say, a rep was available, understanding, and once it escalated, I not only received a response within 24 hours on a weekend, but they also accommodated a fair solution that they could have just told me sorry for your luck! So... if they ever do end up supporting 4k on Linux in the future, I will for sure be a day one subscriber at that point. They have earned a loyal customer if that ever happens.

Hi! I need advice. We're a small Saas startup, everyone that works here has very full schedules and is often wearing many hats. We hired this person because we have many new sales (yay) and need support to manage these new accounts, future accounts, and provide relief for the team members that have a lot on their plate. We offer unlimited PTO, but typically its for employees who have proven their work ethic and need time to recharge.
We took a very long time to find the right person and signed a new team member three weeks ago, set to start monday (june 10). Two days ago, they sent an email with their travel plans for the year.
They have 30.5 days off planned for international travel (Bali/Guatemala/Portugal/Other places in europe/etc) and then weeks where they will be traveling to Europe and work partial days (not counted in the 30.5 days).
He mentioned that he can work for 10 of these days for two of his trips (Hawaii & Portugal). So that brings his days off to 20.5 (June 10-Dec 31). But I'm curious about the amount of effort that would be put in while he's vacationing.
We feel as if he's pulling a fast one on us because he didn't tell us during the hiring process. We wouldn't have hired him if we knew this because this amount of time off (20% of the rest of the year). Additionally, we have international team members that he would be working closely with that have 14 days off the first year they work with us...so this might cause internal HR issues as well when they notice that he's unavailable a week a month until the end of the year.
We really like him, but we do not think he will succeed with this amount of time off because of the amount that's required of our current team members.
Does anyone have recs on how to handle this situation?

So, I work as an EMT, and a few days ago I got a patient (nothing serious managed to treat on scene) and while we were there we got chatting really well, that sort of good connection you get from time to time? Well I obviously thought "I cant ask for their number or offer mine thats so unprofessional" but then they started asking my age etc along with lots of personal questions asked my hobbies said that was theirs too but had no one to do it with. (Now questioning if that was a hint) So we parted ways I got a heart felt long eye contact thank you and I left. Now I'm somewhat kicking myself because I feel like we should bump into each other when im less professional. Obviously I know full name etc but I DONT want to come across a stalker or breach any of their right to privacy. Any advice or is the moment long gone and I'll just have to feel sorry for myself for a few days.

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On top of these flash promotions, the Temu lightning deals can help you find 50-90% off items. Promotional banners with links to individual discount pages will be displayed throughout the site.
More Quick Temu Savings Tips
Sign up in the app for bonuses, coupons, and offers. Subscribe to Temu's email newsletter for bonus coupons and deals:
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2.Get free shipping on many items across the site
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6.Enable push notifications on your phone to receive instant access to new discounts and coupons via the app
How to Use a Temu Coupon Code
1.Sign in or sign up on Temu
2.Add items to your shopping cart
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Apply your Temu coupon code there to save!
Temu FAQs
How do I get a discount on my first Temu order?
Sign up on the Temu site and check the promos within your account, and you will be eligible for a new customer offer. You can take advantage of a signup bundle with $100+ worth of coupons.
When are the huge discounts on Temu?
Check out Temu on significant shopping holidays such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Halloween, etc. They frequently do special offers around these times and may also offer extra Temu coupon codes to save on your order.
Can I buy now and pay later at Temu?
Yes, customers can take advantage of several financing methods at Temu. Afterpay or Klarna will spread your total over four installments, while Affirm can provide low monthly payments. Each service has its terms and will not apply fees if you pay on time.
Team up with us, watch the prices go down, and discover why smart shoppers are making Temu their go-to destination for everything they love and need. Your adventure in saving starts now – are you ready to shop smarter, not harder? Join Temu and turn every click into a celebration of savings!
Exclusive TEMU promo code: Use code “tak59457 ”for up to 30% OFF!

Thinking about using Sugar Defender to manage your blood sugar levels? Navigating the sea of online reviews can be daunting. Are the glowing reviews trustworthy, or do concerns about a "Sugar Defender scam" hold weight? This in-depth review aims to uncover the truth about Sugar Defender.
We'll explore user experiences and the science behind the ingredients. Whether you've read rave reviews or encountered warnings of a "Sugar Defender scam," this analysis will provide the insights needed to make an informed choice. We'll delve into independent reviews, consumer reports, and potential complaints to offer a balanced view. Is Sugar Defender a genuine solution for blood sugar management, or just another overhyped supplement? Join us as we uncover the truth.

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Sugar Defender's Promised Benefits
Natural Ingredients: A blend of plant-based ingredients designed for gentle blood sugar support. Liquid Drops: Convenient and easy-to-use liquid drops for daily dosing. Blood Sugar Management: Aims to regulate blood sugar levels and improve metabolic health. Appetite Control: Claims to curb cravings and reduce food intake, aiding weight management. Energy Boost: Aspires to enhance energy levels by optimizing glucose utilization. Cognitive Enhancement: Supports cognitive function and memory for better mental clarity. Money-Back Guarantee: Offers a 60-day money-back guarantee to reduce purchase risk. FDA-Registered Facility: Manufactured in an FDA-registered facility, indicating quality standards. Easy to Use: Liquid format eliminates the need for swallowing capsules or tablets. Free Bonuses: May include educational materials on blood sugar management and healthy recipes.
Product Overview
Name: Sugar Defender Health Focus: Blood sugar management Form: Dropper Ingredients: Eleuthero, Coleus, Maca Root, African Mango, Guarana, Chromium, Ginseng, Gymnema Dosage: 1 ml per day Quantity: 30 doses Benefits: Appetite suppression, enhanced energy, improved cognitive function, weight management Pros: 100% natural, plant-based, GMO-free, non-addictive, 60-day money-back guarantee, FDA-registered GMP-certified facility Cons: Available only on the official website, individual results may vary Side Effects: No reported side effects Bonuses: The Ultimate Tea Guide, Learn How to Manage Type II Diabetes Price: $69 Refund Policy: 180 days Availability: Exclusive to the official website Official Website: Click Here Sugar Defender: A Balanced Perspective Pros:

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Natural Approach: Uses natural ingredients for a gentle solution. Convenient Dosing: Liquid drops are easy to incorporate into daily routines. Multifaceted Support: Targets blood sugar, appetite, energy, and cognitive function. Financial Security: The 60-day money-back guarantee provides some protection. Quality Assurance: Made in an FDA-registered facility, ensuring adherence to standards. Cons:
Effectiveness Unclear: Limited independent verification of effectiveness. Varied Results: Individual experiences may differ. Limited Availability: Only available through the official website, affecting accessibility. Unveiling the Formula Sugar Defender is positioned as a dietary supplement for blood sugar management, boasting a blend of natural ingredients aimed at promoting healthy blood sugar levels and overall metabolic health. The primary goal is to regulate blood sugar, potentially curbing cravings and aiding weight management. It also claims to enhance energy levels and cognitive function. However, it's crucial to remember that Sugar Defender is a supplement, not a miracle cure. Its effectiveness and the validity of its claims require careful consideration. This review provides a balanced perspective on its potential benefits and drawbacks.
The Mystery Behind the Creator
Unlike many supplements that highlight their creators, Sugar Defender's origins are somewhat mysterious. There's no readily available information about the individual or team behind it. This lack of transparency might be concerning for some users, as knowing the background and qualifications of the creators can build trust. However, this doesn't necessarily negate the product's potential effectiveness. Some companies focus more on the science behind the ingredients rather than the creators. For those seeking transparency, this anonymity might be a point of hesitation.
If you're considering Sugar Defender, research the ingredients and their potential benefits for blood sugar management. Additionally, look for independent reviews from verified users to get a broader perspective. The decision to trust Sugar Defender, despite its mysterious origins, ultimately rests with you.
The Science Behind Sugar Defender
Sugar Defender features a blend of natural ingredients aimed at supporting healthy blood sugar levels. Here's a closer look at the science behind some key components:
Chromium: May improve insulin sensitivity, aiding blood sugar control, though evidence is inconclusive. Alpha-Lipoic Acid: An antioxidant with mixed results on blood sugar regulation. Gymnema Sylvestre: Contains gymnemic acid, which may reduce sugar cravings and improve insulin sensitivity. The exact dosages and the combined effects of all the ingredients in Sugar Defender aren't well-researched, and the product itself lacks extensive clinical trials. This doesn't negate its potential benefits but highlights the need for further research and a critical approach.
Detailed Ingredient Analysis
Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng): An adaptogenic herb that may help manage stress and improve stamina, though its impact on blood sugar is limited. Coleus Forskohlii: Contains forskolin, which may aid weight management and blood pressure, but its effects on blood sugar are unclear. Maca Root: May boost energy and mood, but more research is needed on its impact on blood sugar. African Mango (Irvingia Gabonensis): Could help suppress appetite and improve cholesterol, with emerging evidence on blood sugar effects. Guarana: High in caffeine, it may increase energy and suppress appetite, though its role in blood sugar management is unclear. Ginseng: May improve energy and cognitive function, with some studies suggesting it could help regulate blood sugar. Gymnema Sylvestre: May reduce sugar cravings and improve insulin sensitivity. Alpha-Lipoic Acid: Plays a role in glucose metabolism, with mixed research results. How Sugar Defender Works Sugar Defender claims to work through several mechanisms:
Blood Sugar Regulation: Ingredients like Chromium and Gymnema Sylvestre may enhance insulin sensitivity and reduce sugar cravings. Appetite Control: African Mango and Coleus Forskohlii might help suppress appetite and manage weight. Energy and Metabolism: Eleuthero, Maca Root, and Ginseng may boost energy and support a healthy metabolism. These are theoretical mechanisms, and the actual effectiveness remains unclear.
Instructions and Considerations Dosage and Administration:
Recommended Dosage: One dropper (1 ml) three times daily. Method: Take drops under the tongue, hold for a few seconds before swallowing, preferably with meals. Consistency: Use consistently for at least three months to see potential benefits. Lifestyle Modifications:
Healthy Lifestyle: Maintain a balanced diet and regular exercise. Sugar Defender should supplement these efforts, not replace them. Consulting Your Doctor:
Medical Conditions: Consult your doctor if you have pre-existing conditions or are on medication. Pregnant/Breastfeeding Women: Should seek medical advice before use. Be Cautious and Realistic:
Approach Claims Critically: Independent research and reviews can provide a balanced view. Individual Results Vary: What works for one person might not work for another. Potential Side Effects Sugar Defender is generally safe but may cause mild side effects like:
Digestive Discomfort: Bloating, gas, or diarrhea. Headaches: Mild headaches due to changes in blood sugar levels. Nausea: Occasional nausea. Dizziness: Slight dizziness or lightheadedness. Allergic Reactions: Rare allergic reactions. Sleep Disturbances: Changes in sleep patterns. If any side effects persist or worsen, discontinue use and consult a healthcare professional.
Is Sugar Defender Safe? Sugar Defender is generally safe for most people when used as directed. It's made with natural ingredients and adheres to quality standards. However, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and those with pre-existing conditions or on medication, should consult a healthcare provider before use. Individual responses vary, so monitor how your body reacts and make informed decisions.
By following these guidelines and consulting with your doctor, you can decide if Sugar Defender is a suitable option for you.
Who Should Avoid Sugar Defender?
While Sugar Defender is generally safe for most individuals, specific groups should exercise caution or avoid using the supplement altogether:
Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women: Limited research exists on the safety of Sugar Defender's ingredients during pregnancy and lactation. Pregnant or breastfeeding women should consult their healthcare provider before using this supplement.
Children: Sugar Defender is formulated for adult use and may not be suitable for children. Parents should consult with a pediatrician before giving Sugar Defender to children.
Individuals with Medical Conditions: Those with pre-existing medical conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or gastrointestinal disorders, should consult a healthcare professional before using Sugar Defender to ensure it is safe and appropriate for their specific health needs.
Allergies: Individuals with known allergies to any of the ingredients in Sugar Defender should avoid using the supplement to prevent allergic reactions.
Medication Interactions: Some ingredients in Sugar Defender may interact with certain medications. Individuals taking prescription medications should consult their healthcare provider before using Sugar Defender to avoid potential interactions.
By considering these factors and consulting with a healthcare professional when necessary, individuals can make informed decisions about whether Sugar Defender is suitable for their individual needs and circumstances.
Sugar Defender: Sifting Through Customer Reviews (4.8 Rating with a Cautious Eye)
Sugar Defender boasts a high customer rating of 4.8, but it's important to evaluate this critically:

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The Positive Side: Many customer reviews highlight positive experiences, such as improved blood sugar control, increased energy levels, and reduced cravings. Users often appreciate the ease of use (liquid drops) and the natural approach. A Cause for Caution: A near-perfect rating (4.8) can be suspicious. Genuine reviews tend to reflect a mix of positive and negative experiences. There is a possibility of biased reviews influenced by marketing or affiliate programs. Looking Beyond the Ratings: Focus on the content of reviews rather than just the star rating. Look for detailed reviews describing the user’s experience, both positive and negative. Consider the reviewer's background and potential biases. Sugar Defender Customer Reviews: A Journey Through User Experiences
30 Days: Sarah M. (4 stars): Noticed increased energy and fewer afternoon slumps. David L. (3 stars): Found the taste manageable but saw no major changes in blood sugar yet. Emily K. (5 stars): Experienced significant reduction in sugar cravings and healthier food choices. John T. (2 stars): Disappointed with no significant change in energy or blood sugar levels. Maria P. (4 stars): Liked the convenience and felt slightly lighter, hoping for more progress. 90 Days: Sarah M. (4 stars): Significant improvement in energy levels and positive changes in blood sugar readings. David L. (3 stars): Cravings less intense, but blood sugar readings still inconsistent. Emily K. (5 stars): Managed to lose weight and stabilize blood sugar levels. John T. (3 stars): Slight improvement in energy levels, unsure about continued use. Maria P. (5 stars): Lost weight and improved blood sugar control, very positive results. 180 Days: Sarah M. (5 stars): Consistent healthy blood sugar levels and improved energy, essential part of health regimen. David L. (4 stars): Stabilized blood sugar readings and managed cravings better. Emily K. (5 stars): Dramatic improvement in energy, sleep, and overall health. John T. (4 stars): Significant improvement in blood sugar control after six months. Maria P. (5 stars): Maintained weight loss, high energy levels, and good blood sugar control. Where to Buy Sugar Defender?
Sugar Defender is exclusively available for purchase through its official website. Buying directly from the official source ensures authenticity, special offers, dedicated customer support, and secure transactions.
Sugar Defender Pricing:
Single Bottle: $69 Three Bottles: $177 ($59 per bottle) Six Bottles: $294 ($49 per bottle) Refund Policy:
Sugar Defender offers a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you're not entirely satisfied with your purchase, you can request a full refund within 60 days of receipt.
Bonuses:
Customers may receive complimentary ebooks, guides, or additional products to support health and well-being as part of their purchase.
FAQs About Sugar Defender:
Ingredients: Eleuthero, Coleus Forskohlii, Maca Root, African Mango, Guarana, Chromium, Ginseng, Gymnema Sylvestre. How it Works: Claims to regulate blood sugar, control appetite, manage weight, and boost energy. Benefits: Blood sugar management, appetite control, weight management, increased energy, improved mood. Usage: Recommended dosage is one full dropper taken three times daily, preferably with meals. Side Effects: Generally safe, but some may experience stomach upset or headaches. Purchase Location: Available only on the official website. Cost: Varies, with bulk purchasing options offering cost savings. Reviews: Positive reviews on the official website, but independent reviews should also be considered. Scam Concerns: No definitive evidence of a scam, but transparency issues and limited clinical trials raise concerns. Alternatives: Other blood sugar support supplements with established brands and clear ingredient information are available. Final Word on Sugar Defender
Sugar Defender appears to be a promising supplement for blood sugar management, but it's important to approach it with a critical eye. While many users report positive experiences, the lack of transparent ingredient dosages and limited clinical evidence should be considered. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new supplement.

Visit Official Website To Order Sugar Defender Click Here

I have been working in my company for 4 years. Recently, my boss calls me and told me that she has resigned and is in the midst of making a new start up company and she plans to bring a few colleagues over with her. She asked me if I would like to follow her and I said yes. My boss has been a great leader to me. She told me it will be a tough year because she is still stablizing the company and will be hiring in batches. The perks would be great opportunies to learn and grow directly under her. Unfortunately, the offer letter can only be crafted after the hired HR who is now serving their notice period officially enters the company.

Too many people here are ultra-fixated on cutting out internet from your lives 99% or even 100%. Sorry folks, that can't be done unless you are incarcerated, dead or are wealthy+have other people do things like pay bills, book flights, etc.
For everyone else who is an adult here in the US, all you're gonna do is make many if not MOST things you deal with more more difficult by going a completely no-surf route. Are you gonna drive to the utility company during business hours once a month to pay that elec. bill in-person? Because they may not offer pay by phone and may require payment in-person by check. Or are you gonna go back to 1990 and start paying by checks, and mailing all your bill payments weeks in advance (or paying costly priority/overnight delivery) to avoid being late? Are you gonna cal your bank to check your balance on a near-daily basis and balance your checkbook/bank account by hand vs. using the bank website? etc etc etc
At a certain point you all need to be realistic. You aren't making your lives easier by going 99%-100% no-surf....all you're doing is adding lots of annoyances, complexity and time-consuming things to your daily routines as an adult.
Should you decrease your Instagram addiction from 8 hours a day to 1 hour? SURE! GREAT IDEA! But can you HONESTLY swear off ALL Meta-related websites and content forever? You say you can, but when a local restaurant only posts its menu on Facebook store profile page or your local utility company only posts-real-time status updates on their FB page............are you honestly 100% of the time from now until the day you die outright avoid/not check these sources?
Let's be real and honest with ourselves.
There's no way to go back to pre-internet times unless you are offloading all that responsibility to someone else (hence rich/jailed person comparison) or dead.
Focus on changes that reduce wasting time and avoid adding complexity to life (like dating apps for example - JUST talk to a person you see walking by or in a store vs. swiping thousands of times on an app).