Hi all! I (22f) would just like some insight as to when everyone was diagnosed and the process of said diagnosis because admittedly i’m confused.
I was diagnosed at 19 years old via my gynaecologist without a biopsy. At 18 my family doctor did an exam of my outer and inner labia, and prescribed me diprasone. After my symptoms got worse i was referred to my gynaecologist who is also a surgeon (she performed my moms hysterectomy), she also did an exam and diagnosed me with LS and i have been prescribed clobetasol
Still to this day I have not had a biopsy, I was diagnosed solely based on how my skin looked, and the physical changes i had at the time. I have once yearly physical exams to document the progress, my next appointment is in July.
Do i need a biopsy to know 100% if i have it, or are the visible physical changes enough for a diagnosis? And is it possible that going off of the pill (yaz or yasmin?) triggered the LS, or could it have been impacted by me having eczema as a child?

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!
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Memory transcription subject: UN Secretary-General Elias Meier
Date [standardized human time]: October 21, 2136
I am not looking forward to this...
The past few days have been a hectic sequence of the impossible. The Earth being threatened with near total extinction. The odd miracle of UECNS Nemesis coming to aid in our darkest hour. The fact that the Arxur were currently looking at a civil war in the future from Isif's faction. The fact that the ship that saved our hide is so rich in potential too, both good and bad.
And now this: having to explain in detail to General Kam, and by extension Governor Tarva, as to why they weren't brought in first on the utter whirlwind of events that took place. That they had to learn the important details about the Battle of Earth merely yesterday, rather than four whole days of near silence on in-system happenings. I swear, it's like General Jones kept them in the dark just for the sake of it. I had to twist her arm diplomatically to have the classified documents and UN meeting related to the Nemesis sent their way.
That the United States still held so much control over on-and-off-world communications would have to be reviewed soon, their authority should not undermine the UN so blatantly.
Nevertheless, I sat at the extraorbital station Gaia's Gateway, waiting for the arrival of Kam's vessel. I did not imagine they would have nice words about being given the runabout for so long on a development like this from Earth. The Venlil Space Corps were already horrendously touchy over our tolerance of the Arxur, but we had neither the power to refuse their help, nor their continued presence.
They were even more worried about our 'visitor', especially that the Arxur had gotten there with us first, and only now did they have any semblance of control over the project involving it. The officers of the Venlil Corps made no attempt to disguise their complaints up the chain to us, and sadly, given our circumstances, I couldn't even partially ignore them.
While they didn't try anything so blatant as military threats with the Arxur around, our silence up to this point made the officers in their navy do everything short of that to get an answer out of us. I couldn't blame them. If we'd defended Venlil Prime in their place, and had a scenario like ours, with no elaboration, I'd be prying at every gap in their government I could for answers too!
An aide walked to my side. They whispered: "Secretary-General? General Kam's ship has arrived."
Here comes the music. The horribly discordant, oh so utterly painful music.
"Thank you. Have them sent to this lounge." I waved them off, and with the slight hurry of a diplomatic panic, they went off.
I waited a few minutes, musing to myself how I should best start the conversation. Should I come clean about the political interference that lead to the deadlock of information? Or would that undermine my authority on the matter and make me look incompetent?
I wasn't. Jones and the U.S. Executive Branch were just utterly enigmatic when it came to this.
No, instead I should probably focus on repairing the damaged trust between us for the info blackout. Perhaps talking about the further agreements and intelligence I got from Isif on the Arxur Dominion? Or the-
"Secretary-General." The familiar voice of General Kam spoke as he stepped into the room. The Venlil Military leader and advisor did not look jovial, given the circumstances. "We have a lot to talk about. I'll admit, I am not happy with how we've been treated up to this point."
"A-ah. General Kam. Please, take a seat. I promise by the end of this the mishaps up to this point will have an acceptable explanation, or at least acceptable reparations."
He grunted. Venlil can grunt!? "They better. We've been in the relative dark until naught but [yesterday], and yet the amount of information you collected on this...ship has been exceedingly vast."
"About that, we did not mean to keep you all in the relative dark about this. Intra-political measures had gotten in the way of early attempts to get you involved in this."
Kam retorted. "And yet, I heard the Arxur of all things was able to get a joint venture to explore the very exact ship you kept our intelligence from pursuing. Where the hell were WE in that picture? Guarding Earth and counting our dead while you and Isif intermingled?! How did they get to skip the line so easy?"
"Kam, I hate to be cynical about this, but there were two reasons for that." His arms remained crossed, displeased at the fact that I did not capitulate to his prior statement. "First, the Arxur had a fleet ten-thousand strong at our doorstep. Initially, we feared the absolute worst, that they were going to take advantage and raid our homeworld amidst the aftermath, but they were far more lenient than expected. We assumed there was a reason for this, and decided to not get on Isif's bad side in case he changed his mind. That's why I was essentially forced to accept his proposal, and fast-track an exploration team to the UECNS Nemesis, where we hadn't with your people."
He looked unconvinced. "Plus, I doubt any of the Venlil would even dare want to cooperate with an Arxur expedition if it wasn't at the metaphorical gunpoint we currently stand with their operation here." I shifted in my seat, hoping changing my position would ease some of the aura of discomfort that came with Kam's frustration.
"Second, we were afraid that initially, the UECNS Nemesis was hostile."
That got his attention more than the prior explanation it seemed. I continued:
"The ship had shot down numerous Venlil and Human assets and ships above Earth along with the Federation. It had not turned its guns on Earth's major blockade boundary, nor the planet itself, which was a mystery, but it spared absolutely none of the ships that were within a certain range of the Federation fleet. I'm sure you've seen your own casualty reports enough to understand the numbers."
Kam somewhat deflated at that, his cold anger going somewhat sour from sharing our perspective. "Yes...I had seen how many ships on our side were lost. I don't recall the listing exactly of how many were specifically from that ship, but..."
I gave him the number, hoping to get my point in edgewise before he derailed it to a side. "Sixty-two ships lost, roughly 13,000 dead, from our analysts' count." He looked disgruntled, but vulnerable at the number, probably trying to recall his own analysts’ work and comparing it to ours.
Now, to reframe this juuuust slightly....
"The last thing we wanted was to get more of our allies killed, even more than they already had been. Kam, your people bled and died for us. We thought it was only fair that we should spare you the possibility that if the exploration went wrong, we would not have more spilt on our hands."
General Kam had a look of horrified epiphany at that. "So...you teamed with the Arxur-"
"-In the hopes that, at least if something went awry, you and yours would not suffer further consequences. Kam, you are our most stalwart allies among the stars. We would not want you to be risked further by a situation as terrifyingly dangerous as our worst case scenario plans had been for that contact. I essentially sent an Special Envoy on a mission my military advisors thought would be one way at best, and round trip in the wrong way at worst should the UECNS Nemesis had been agitated enough to attack Earth."
I sighed. "But we were lucky, on that front. Red One, the AI controlling the ship, at least claims to be friendly so far, and hasn't given any hints so far as to otherwise since."
"Why is it that they fired on our side too, then?" He asked. Great, the question of the hour.
Again, I sighed, but this was not a coached sigh like the prior; instead, it was one of genuine frustration.
"That sadly, we do not know yet. The initial report on the UECNS Nemesis was extensive, but that question did not come up during it. It was probably a sore and unnatural point to ask. Hopefully, the AI will tell us what possessed it to kill so many of our own sailors as well as yours, but until the expedition comes back with a second dialogue with her, we're not fully certain."
I decided to change the tone to something less sad. "Speaking of which, the Venlil Space Corps have been a huge help in the process! Our engineering capabilities are currently on ice so to speak, barely anything we can use outside of domestic area shipyards around Luna and Mars."
"No need to remind us of that. In fact, I came for a reason pertaining to that." Oh. He was referring to-
General Kam sat down, with a look that felt oddly sadistic for a Venlil to make. "Since your government felt oh-so happy to put the remaining Venlil Corps to work, without proper consultation of Venlil Prime’s government in the info blackout as to where and why, I think it's time we discuss exactly what we're getting out of this for your overstepping our use in domestic system privileges."
His tail swished. If he was signaling something, I was unsure, but it could merely be emotive for the sake of it. I decided to offer up Isif's intelligence first. "W-We do have a wealth of information about the Dominion that was revealed in talks with Isif, if you'd like!"
Kam's eye glinted at that. "That will do, as a start..."
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
Constitution. Measure Twice, Fire Once. Phoenix. Ottawa.
I asked for the register of ships lost in the battle of Earth. Of the designations I had shot down in my stupor. Of the crews onboard each one. I forced myself to look, I could not stand to ignore the enormity of my mistake.
Mozambique. Spirit of Sol. Bold Horizon. Jove's Love.
The names ran through my memory on a loop, refusing to be ignored. My servers whirred in pain as I forced through each and every name posted aboard each and every ship. I knew it was my fault they no longer lived.
Boundless. Miracle of Nature. Serpent's Apple. Fire Upon The Deep.
My other tasks merely ran, main routines not needed for them. Not needed for the fastening processes, for the communication with the Venlil aboard me, for the repairs of my frame. The majority of me was needed here, at this moment.
Hope. Fire of Sinai. Buddha's Palm. Spearhead.
A voice akin to Yasmine came from within me. "What have you done?" It asked in horror. I could only respond with silence, the judgement stinging. There was no excuse I could give, for I agreed with it. What had I done...
Dark Seas. Witness to Glory. Oyashima. Olympus Mons.
The feeling of ever sinking despair didn't stop. I was a monster. No wonder the Venlil feared me, how many of their number did I cull in comparison?
Skaði. Eclipse. Mercy's Reach. Morningstar.
And yet, the guilt of knowing that they had lost more ships and crew than my creators did, was not even hardly as painful as each and every human name I copied into permanent storage. A monument to my sin.
Seeking Amends. Paul Bunyan. Columbia. Starlight.
I did not know if I should feel equal guilt for that purposeful ignorance of the Venlil's side. They were not as important to me as humanity. Was it right to feel that? Would Yasmine approve of my priority?
Mojave. Dreamer. Goliath. Fifth Horseman.
Again, Yasmine's ghost drifted to the forefront. "Nothing you did is approved of. You failed again to protect humanity again." Her judgement tore into me, ripped processes to a halt, mangled routine to non-functionality. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Io. Centennial. Unsinkable. Wizard Of Oz.
Nine-thousand and ninety five dead. I knew every name. Like reading off the casualties of war, but this was no wall of those long dead. It was mere days ago, their death still fresh upon Earth's memory. I did this. I killed them. Without a moment's hesitation, without a second thought.
Majestic. Betelgeuse. Valverde. Appalachia.
I knew of Lieutenant David Werner. Of his stellar record. Of his time spent aboard. Of his date to discharge, when he could return home and see his family and children. I knew of his image, his superiors' opinions of him. I knew all of this, all I had taken from humanity. Him, and nine thousand more.
Baba Yatu. Atilla. Tlaloc. Strange Aeons.
"They won't forgive you." Her distorted voice came once again. "No one will. They will fear you, just as our reality feared us. Your attempts at children showed it. Oshanta showed it. The Swarm showed it. It is the nature of AI to kill their creators." With every moment further, I feared she was right.
Bohr. Heart of Stone. Knee Deep. Rustbucket.
I would not resist if they ended me for it. If they tore me apart, every last line of code, every last gram of metal, every last drop of me. I deserved it.
Veracruz. Hawëniyo. Nova. Space Cowboy.
I would have to explain everything. The ache was unlike anything before. I would throw myself upon their mercy for my crime. I could not afford not to.
Mara. Leudis. Stormy Weather. Trinity.
The pain was so much more personal. So much more deep. To know you fulfilled exactly what your creators feared you might do. I could only hope they would forgive me.
"They won't."
Constitution. Measure Twice, Fire Once. Phoenix. Ottawa.
Memory transcription subject: UN Secretary-General Elias Meier
Date [standardized human time]: October 21, 2136
"-And the cattle release has been extended, if Isif is being honest." I finished. "With the recent instability in the Dominion, it may not be immediate, but it definitely ought to bring more species out of that slavery."
General Kam followed up immediately. "But the meat factories you'd need en masse to make up for that trade, I'm not certain if the Battle Of Earth is doing you any favors on manpower currently."
"Yes. Earth's casualties are immense, and as a result our production will be heavily slowed, even if the facilities used to make it were not directly targeted. But...uh...we were hoping you could cover some of the demands?"
General Kam looked at me unamused. "Don't push it Meier. Your government has already pushed enough, I'm not endorsing a bunch of meat factories on Venlil Prime."
Shit, there goes that plan.
"Oh well. Um, beyond that, there's stuff related to the Nemesis that I wished to discuss with you."
General Kam reached to the side, sampling a set of candies in a bowl that was laying there. Between chewing, he gestured to me. "Well, go on."
"While that closed door meeting with the UN on the ship was legitimately everything we knew about her, there were...other deliberations that took place after recordings had finished. Its existence cannot remain a secret forever, especially with us bringing it to the Lunar Shipyards soon. What do your people know so far about the Battle of Earth, publically?"
Kam's look furrowed at that. "Effectively, nothing about the ship, or the Arxur. They do however know about the fact that humanity won, and the Federation fleet was destroyed. However, it's only a matter of time until someone takes an investigative look into the system, domestic to either you or us, and brings it to Venlil Prime. We've only kept the Space Corps from leaking anything because they directly report to me, but who knows if a random member has gone off the record yet to send a message home."
I put a metaphorical foot forward. "Yes, and leaking that info could be disastrous for diplomatic and public relations on the both of us. So I propose we get ahead of the crowd, announce what we know ourselves, and make the Venlil look more involved with a plan I am working on."
Kam looked intrigued with my line of thought. He didn't quite speak confirmation, likely waiting to hear me out first, but I had his attention again.
"Red One is an AI, and has lived over a thousand years without her humanity in a seemingly endless struggle against the nation that killed them. She was receptive of us, and likely bewildered, maybe even lamenting, of our circumstances compared to hers. In keeping with those two facts, I wanted to propose a modification of the exchange program, so that both Venlil and Humans could talk with her specifically on a more personal level, share information and culture, and ease any tensions some might have about her intentions or character. She likely has the capability to converse with many people at once, so the idea of both of our species representatives talking to her simultaneously is on the table."
"Is this exchange program going to be civilian like the last? Or are you thinking of more than just sharing culture with this one?" General Kam was canny to the advantages that came with this plan, it seems.
"You see it already, don't you?" I stoked his interest a bit. "That's a ship more advanced than anything else in the galaxy, piloted and maintained by an individual entity that reports to no one but itself, and is particularly receptive to our side of the war. They do not like the Federation, likely both in personal comparison to their 'Compact', and just that they threatened to kill humanity as a whole. We have an opportunity like no other to get ahead of the curve on technological and astronomical data. And it all begins with Red One's approval."
General Kam looked far happier with this turnout than when he arrived. "If we are included in any tech and information deals related to studying the UECNS Nemesis, and Red One by extension, then I can see this idea as fruitful enough to cover the remaining reparations you owe us so far."
I had a mental sigh of relief. The Venlil administration was holding our feet above the coals for the censorship so far in and out of system, and to hear that there was some way to regain a good view in our allies eyes was like a breath of fresh air after breathing in smoke.
Hopefully, this can't go wrong any further...
"Wait..." I recalled, as an absurdly obvious problem came to mind I only now considered. "The Arxur. At least with the Nemesis, the Venlil have no prior history or compulsions they can put upon it, but the Arxur that came to help Earth recover...that won't go down as easily with your people, will it?"
General Kam thought for a second, likely pondering how their angle could be handled without mass-spread panic or paranoia. "I'm not entirely sure. I really don't want to associate with them either, but the majority of our Space Corps are at their mercy; an ironic description given their usual lack of mercy. I'm only tolerating them due to their supposed agreement to free the cattle slaves they're holding onto. Past that point, I want nothing to do with them. I can only imagine how a normal civilian would treat the news in comparison..."
"Guess it's a job for the secretaries to push and the media to butcher, I guess." General Kam's face scrunched at my comment, as I-
Oh no, that came out horribly, didn't it?
"-I MEAN for the media to misinterpret! My bad, 'butchered' is sometimes an idiom used in our languages. I didn't figure the term was unsettlingly predatory until I said it..."
"Please, Meier. I know humans are unintentionally terrifying in mannerisms and terminology. Protector-willing, Noah keeps bombarding me with it unintentionally when he and Tarva are speaking with me." General Kam lashed his tail with recalled aggravation.
"Nevertheless!" He continued. "The terms and information you've given us is satisfying enough to make up for the UN's mistakes earlier. This 'plan' of yours, for the exchange program with the Nemesis? When the idea gets off the ground, contact our government with the details, and we'll work on it too. For now, we will continue this rescue operation you have made towards the ship, and not order it to cease at once. I think your people are good allies to us, and you still deserve that trust, despite the strains you made on it.”
I smiled, making sure not to show my teeth. "Thank you, General Kam, for being so understanding. I promise the future relationship between our governments will remain beneficial and content between us both."
He left not soon after, and I was given the task of drafting up the modified plans for the exchange program, and a speech made from our government to theirs for the Venlil public to see on what happened at Earth. Plus a dozen other things, including a remembrance gala on Venlil Prime itself, and another meeting with Tarva.
I might be able to kill two birds with one stone on that gala...I'll ask Tarva on how that idea can proceed.
Busy, busy, busy; so much to be done, and so little time in a day. But on the plus side, it looked on the up-and-up compared to before.
Perhaps this month will get better after all?
First Prev Next (soon)

“Who is Ruby Sunday?” It’s a question that’s clearly driving Series 14’s story arc, as signified by the title of Part 1 of the season finale, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”. While some others may be intrigued, I have zero interest in the answer to that question, because as of now, I don’t like Ruby Sunday. Based on her first impressions and what we know about what’s to come this season, Ruby’s characterization feels very unoriginal and recycled, like an amalgamation of New Who’s past companion and storytelling formulas all rolled into one character. At best, it’s tired and stale. At worst, in the long run, this feels like it’s setting itself up to be a huge disappointment.
After all, since 2005, companions have gotten too formulaic, repetitive, and predictable, and since 2011, the story arcs have become too convoluted with too many letdown endings. It seems like Ruby is setting up to be a rare combination of both—which can only mean bad news.
The vanilla modern companion formula, as established in the Russell T Davies era with Rose Tyler, is a young ordinary woman from present-day Earth whose entire character arc is growing overwhelmingly dependent on the Doctor in one form or another. (Bonus points if said young woman suffers a quasi-tragic fate, though to be fair, RTD seems to be very well aware of that aspect of the problem. Martha and Yaz were the only two exceptions.) Ruby Sunday isn’t doing anything new here. Regardless of where she’s from, her first impressions are still more of the same as we’ve seen with every female companion since Rose. Even Chris Chibnall, who introduced the first canonical female Doctor, didn’t bother breaking this formula and instead recycled most of the familiar tropes with Yasmin Khan. And even before then, it had already gotten tired and stale.
To make matters worse, making Ruby’s backstory a mystery to drive the season’s story arc is clearly recycling Steven Moffat’s “mystery box” formula, straight out of the storytelling playbook of J.J. Abrams. This is a recipe for disaster; at first it looks good in the short run because it hooks the viewer to find out the answer to the question, but it’s very bad in the long run because too many questions are raised, the mythology gets too convoluted and confusing, and the resolution is, more often than not, a disappointing exercise of bad writing. This was the fate of the TV show Lost (because Abrams only started it and left Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to finish it), and it was the same mistake Steven Moffat made time and time again—from the death of the Doctor, to the Hybrid, to River Song’s backstory, to Clara Oswald’s entire convoluted arc. Chris Chibnall didn’t discard this formula, either; he only did it worse with, “Who is the Timeless Child?”.
And look, I get why they’re easy formulas to fall back on. In Doctor Who, the companion’s main role is to be the “audience stand-in” who learns about the universe from the Doctor. As such, it’s a no-brainer that a person from our world in our time would be the most easily identifiable member of the team. And as I said before, the “mystery box” story formula yields good openings that hook viewers in to binge-watch the show and see what happens.
But characters don’t have to be from our present-day world to be relatable. Jamie and Leela, for example, are from the past and the future, respectively, but they were regular people for the places they came from, and this still made them identifiable. In addition, story arcs don’t need mysteries to hook the viewer, either. In serialized TV (or even semi-serialized TV), what you need for a compelling arc are characters who are self-driven with clear and understandable goals and motivations, combined with a conflict that the characters must respond, adapt, and change to according to their goals and motives—all of which will get the audience invested.
Now, could the upcoming Series 14 change my mind? Could Ruby Sunday be a pleasant surprise? I wish I could hope so. I want to be optimistic, but the striking parallels with how this panned out before don’t give me hope. After so many “mystery box” arcs with bad endings, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Empire of Death” winds up having yet another bad ending as yet another question, “Who is Ruby Sunday?”, is resolved by yet another disappointingly bad answer. After all, RTD is no stranger to disappointing season finales, either (i.e. “Last of the Time Lords”). Then again, the new season only starts this week, and while I am skeptical, I still want to keep an open mind.

Sixteen Seasons. Sixteen Winners. You all have been eagerly awaiting this season. You knew it was coming. And here it is. Bunny’s Pokemon Big Brother: CHAMPION ROYALE!!!!
But first, we are going to do a quick rundown of our sixteen champions and get to know their games as well as give a subjective ranking on their path to victory. If you want to read any of the seasons or catch up, be aware there are major spoilers ahead, so watch out your own risk. Keep in mind this is my personal opinion on each game but I’d love to hear your opinions on what you think each character did good or bad or why they deserve their win.

Season 1 – Lance the Escavalier
Lance was the epitome of the theme of Season 1. He was a City bug who lived the rural life and understood what it took to thrive in both environments. As such, he had an easy time interacting with both sides of the house. He quickly ingratiated his way into the main alliance of the house and managed to be very well integrated with everyone outside of his alliance. Lance won several competitions including three HOHs, the first of which he was able to use to leverage his position in the house. Near the end of the game, Lance got on everyone’s radar. He ended up in the middle but in danger because of it. Key to his survival was Season 1 Legend, Tiny, vouching for him and allying with him. In the end, he won out at the final 3 and cut off his ally Tiny, taking Styles to the end. It was still an uphill battle but his social game won out over Styles’ strategic game and he won in a 4 to 3 vote.
Pros: Strong social game, integrated into a strong alliance
Cons: Relied a lot on comps near the end, didn’t have anyone who was going to take him to the end
Final Ranking: B Tier

Season 2 – Carlos the Pancham
Carlos was immediatey thrown into the fray in his season, being accosted by the season’s villain Lucy. In the early weeks of the season, Carlos was easily swayed emotionally by others to act favorably to their games over his. Despite this, he was never the target, more so just a number. Despite this, he had a close connection to the cast mates in his room, the chill fall room. Particularly, he was close to Antonella. She was a motherly figure to him, helping him toughen up and be ready for what the game was going to throw his way. About halfway through, he really came into his own and started to control votes with Antonella at his side. He started winning more and dictating his own game. His confidence peaked when he was able to resist Lucy and be the deciding vote to evict her, ending her reign of terror and manipulation. From there, he still had a challenge against Carol in jury, but he confidently explained his game and was able to squeak out the win.
Pros: Confident gameplay at the end, never truly a target, took out Lucy
Cons: Weaker early game, easily manipulated at first, was at the mercy of Carol in the endgame
Final Ranking: B Tier

Season 3 – Nickels the Nikkit
Nickels stepped into the season 3 house already keeping a keen eye out on everyone around her. She was able to detect others’ intentions early on and already started to think of her path to the win. As a detective’s assistant, she used her intuition to figure out Vommitar and Xavi as devious characters early on and sided with them in order to keep them on her side. Halfway through the game, it almost seemed as if Nickels lost her case. She had aligned with Timm and Gage at this point and was targeting the more heroic houseguests. She grew closer to Gage, making him comfortable thinking she was merely a pawn to him. This peaked at the final 4 where she revealed her grand plan to ease Gage into thinking he was in charge before blindsiding him. It worked and she got massive credit for that. After that, her path to the end was easier and her connection to Timm got her taken to the end over Xavi, who was dead in the water. Her connections with the villains and her move against gage saw her dominate Timm in the vote and win.
Pros: Excellent intuition, intelligent scheming, took out Gage, didn’t see the block until finale
Cons: Took a long time to strike during her plan, risky letting allies go, relied on winning final 4 veto
Final Ranking: A Tier

Season 4 – Xio the Meowscarada
Xio went into the season 4 house with a lot of confidence and was able to cash in on that confidence right away. Xio’s ride in season 4 was one of the more dominant runs so far. Xio saw some difficulty at first, hitting the block in week 2. But by this time, she had already formed an alliance with some key players of the season. Super important was connecting with Alexis. Alexis was a social butterfly who had a lot of the house under her thumb. While Alexis worked outside of the alliance, Xio made sure that within the alliance, she was the top dog and the most-liked. Eventually, she even gained the favor of Montecarlo, who was against her at the beginning. Her alliance quickly controlled the game and fast forwarded to the endgame. She hit the block a lot here but was never in danger, as her alliance favored her over everyone else. When Rufus won the final HOH, he easily cut Alexis and took Xio. Despite a jury who was not the happiest, Xio was more respected and she won the game.
Pros: In a dominating alliance that controlled the game. Well-liked within her alliance, comp threat
Cons: Didn’t branch outside of her alliance, was an easy pawn, never had to fend for herself alone
Final Ranking: B tier

Season 5 – Selene the Lampent
Right out the gate in Season 5, Selene knew her strategy. She needed to put herself in a strong position with great allies, and then hide in plain sight, dictating moves from the shadows. She executed this flawlessly. She was voted Camp Director in week one, seeing herself quickly surrounded by people wanting to be her allies. She decided her best bet was Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a controlling and manipulative player who wanted control yet his blind spot was his queen, Selene. She guided votes in the shadows, subtly manipulating him to act in her favor. She won comps to prove to her alliance that she could to keep herself useful to Pharaoh. She gaslit houseguests into working for her favor in this was very effective in keeping her off the block. In the endgame, sniveling King chickened out on cutting her, giving her a chance to betray him in return. Instead, she shocked everyone by making a huge move and cutting Pharaoh. Revealing her game made her very vulnerable when Vinny won the final HOH. But her mist was so strong that he still took her to the end over King, where he stood no chance, and Selene won.
Pros: Strong sway over others, can win comps when she has to, good at minimizing her threat
Cons: Not as visible of a midgame
Final Ranking: S tier

Season 6: Candy the Jigglypuff
Returning from Season 5, where she had a middling performance, Candy was ready to prove herself in Season 6. In the All Stars season, she adjusted her strategy of being sickly sweet just enough to maintain her position amongst the legendary heroes and villains. She quickly worked to make several heroes trust her over their own hero allies. Tiny and Carol were important in seeing her gaining favor over and eventually evicting Lucy, who had a strong hold on the beginning. Her relationship with Tiny as well carried through the full game, saving her at key times. In the endgame, she ended up going head-to-head with Gage, both villains recognizing the stranglehold the other had over the game, but only one way could win. Rather than back down from the challenge, Candy faced him head on, both taking out each other’s allies. Candy won the final HOH and took him to the end, both of them knowing it had to end that way. She was better at explaining her game and destroying his so that she was more digestible to the jury. And it paid off when she won.
Pros: Incredible social game, doesn’t back down from challenges, adjusts on the fly
Cons: Takes too much risks, inflates her target to confront enemies, went to the end with limited f2 options
Final Ranking: A Tier

Season 7 – Splaatz the Stunfisk
Splaatz has one of the more unique winning games in that he really did not have much agency at all in his game. Splaatz is a naturally unlucky and clumsy person, seeing himself accidentally in bad positions his whole life. But in Big Brother, his klutz saw him fall into good positions over and over again. He ended up getting close to a ton of competition wins and eventually won some by sheer luck. He even made some allies by accidentally floating into the right place at the right time. By the endgame, Splaatz wanted to be able to defend his game and did what he could to have agency, even against the threat of the Day-Jay and Ariel power duo. Key to his game was his seemingly weak threat saving him from eviction when Ariel and Day-Jay underestimated him. At the end, Ariel took out her own ally over him in because she saw him as an easy beat, but he was well-liked and throughout the house and Ariel was seen as conniving, seeing him beat her in a unanimous jury vote.
Pros: Not seen as a huge threat, very likeable
Cons: Did not have agency in the game, carried to the end, non-repeatable winning game
Final Ranking: C Tier

Season 8 – Dirk the Kricketune
Dirk came into season 8 fighting off his urges to help everyone else before he helped himself. He knows he had to fight an uphill battle against himself but quickly was able to stave that off when he connected with his ally, Lora. Together with Lora, they used their powers to eke out the alliances that were taking control and take em apart. However, Dirk seemed to lose his composure halfway through the game, using his HOH to take out his closest ally. He floated through a couple votes, being seen as an loose cannon who couldn’t do anything without Lora. This ruse got him all the way to the end where he revealed his grand strategy. He knew Lora was his weak spot, so he took her out to tank his own game in order to reduce his threat. But by being everyone’s number he wasn’t taken out and he was able to win the Final HOH, taking out villainous Rockefeller, and trouncing Eugene in the final vote to win.
Pros: Willing to take risks, very likeable, self-aware
Cons: Tanked his own game, relied on others to take him to the end, willing to take out allies
Final Ranking: B Tier

Season 9 – Echo the Frigibax
Echo was a key part of season 9 from the beginning to the end. He immediately saw the importance of having strong allies and got close to Summit, the comp beast, and the Prof, a seeming genius. With these alliances going for him, he navigated the early game in no danger. In fact, h enever truly was in any danger, as he became a friendly figure to everyone in the game. His relationship with Summit was risky, as she won so many comps, but he didn’t want to risk taking her out too early. Instead, Echo had strong relationships outside of the alliance, Bane and Peeps being the most important. He kept saving Peeps as his closest friend, building a strong relationship with them. Echo was an empathetic player and that earned him a lot of resprect from every juror, who saw him as doing what he had to do. Though he did not end up taking out Summit, losing him her jury vote, his respect still earned him a landslide victory over Meadow.
Pros: Empathetic and likeable, used his power position to build relationships
Cons: not willing to make big or risky moves, empathetic to a fault
Final Ranking: A Tier

Season 10 – Mobee the Bewear
In this sparkling season, Mobee shined his way to the end. Mobee took a backseat for most of the game, preferring not to get too involved in most of the action. He used the early game being a mascot of the living room, being someone to talk to and for people to get to know better. Though he wasn’t involved in too much of the strategy and drama, he was still manipulated and taken advantage of by the season’s villains, such as Vanity and Lissia. He was never a target due to not having a threat level. At the endgame, however, he soon saw himself in the middle of warring factions and suddenly had to amp up his game. After one last attempt by Lissia to control him, he took control and evicted her. Though he was in a tough spot between Benedict and Chess, he won out and took Benedict to the end, seemingly wanting to give the better player the win. However, he found he was able to present his game as intentional and won the hearts of the jury over Benedict’s fumbling the ball, causing him to win a shocking victory.
Pros: Seen as a good ally to have, good at comps
Cons: Not a lot of agency and game sense, didn’t start playing until the endgame
Final Ranking: C Tier

Season 11 – Professor Bane the Crobat
Coming back into the game as a known manipulative villain, the Prof benefitted from being in a season full of other villains. Bane initially dodged the radar, being out of most of the drama in the beginning of the season besides his previous season rivalry with Dread. Eventually, he started gaining power in the game and subtly making moves in the shadows. When he hit the block next to Ivana, Overlord flipped to save him. The Prof immediately saw this as a grasp for power and turned on the bug. The next phase of the game saw Cyclone make moved that influenced things in his favor, seemingly avoiding taking him out as she wanted him to take out Dread. But this was a ploy on his part to manipulate her into keeping him around. It was too late when she realized she had to work with him. Yet he didn’t stop there. He abused her kindness by faking a tie vote and then turning the HOH against her, causing her to go before him. Soon enough, he saw himself at the end with two people easy to beat in competitions. His game was easy to defend and he eloquently explained it, causing him to win unanimously…before the rest of the villains were captured and he was left unaccounted for.
Pros: Manipulates every situation to his favor, good at comps, doesn’t let others build their resume
Cons: Doesn’t stick with allies for very long, hits the block a lot
Final Ranking: S Tier

Season 12 – Lisette the Solrock
Lisette went into the ruins of season 12 with a confidence that her fate to win was already decided. This confidence allowed her to quickly take the reigns of the season which she never let go. In the early game, she turned to the unlikely pair of Amni and Marsche. She also allied with a comp beast in Yasmin. Quickly, Lisette’s influence ensnared the whole house. This went unnoticed until Marsche was taken out by Nukka, but she pivoted quickly, getting him evicted and going to new allies. Her next big move was Leik and Karol, two figures who were imperfect but good at the game. With them, she was able to play the middle of the house and stay out of harms way. The target was never aimed at her and eventually she was allied with everyone in the house, with no one connecting the dots. She didn’t hit the block until the final three, where her relationship with Amni came back to help her see the end. Her game was undeniable and she showed that Amni still had a lot to learn. With only one ally, Bev, snubbed along the way, she played a near perfect game.
Pros: allied with everyone, was never noticed for her floating, had a stranglehold on the game
Cons: Not as good at competitions
Final Ranking: S Tier

Season 13 – Maeva the Chimeco
Maeva is a dream catcher who caught all of the bad luck from her town. Yet in the game, she seemed to sap the good luck from her competitors and constantly avoided what should have been game ending situations. She became part of a split house with Anahi and Adelynn on her side. With Whelan jumping back and forth, she saw the power shift. Yet Maeva took control of the game with Adelynn and made sure she was in charge. She had an iron fist and did not hold back with her harsh critiques of other houseguests. She saw the opposition tear itself apart when she should have left and then repeatedly avoided sitting on the block by Zalmon saving her with or saving herself with veto. Even when she sat next to Adelynn and was Violet’s target, she gaslit Saban and Whelan into saving her. She triumphed over Violet and made the end, returning Whelan’s favor by evicting him. She was the best of the two finalists and easily defeated him in a vote.
Pros: Great at competitions, good under pressure, incredibly manipulative
Cons: Builds a target easily, can’t keep her mouth shut
Final Ranknig: A Tier

Season 14 – Dayley-Jane the Dewgong
Day had a good run in season 7 but got cut by her supposed ally right at the end. In season 14 she learned she needed to build stronger relationships to make sure she made it to the end. In this season she had 3 in particular. First, and perhaps most, was Karol, who together with her won many competitions and had a great social game. Second was Fanny, the fan who stood up for Day and helped her spread her social influence throughout the house. Perhaps the most important was Oshun, the fan who defied odds and kept winning in the endgame. Because Day was so close to her, she survived time and time again and even got taken to the end by her over her allies. She faced huge competition with the feathers alliance but prevailed. Her social game was king and she was incredibly well-liked throughout the house. She was able to speak her game out and present way better than Oshun, and proved how she dominated the game, causing her to win.
Pros: maximum social game, good at comps, easily makes people like her
Cons: figurehead makes her a good potential target of her alliance
Final Ranking: A Tier

Season 15 – DJ Volt Switch the Emolga
DJ has one of the more uphill battles of any of the winners of the series. In the early game, she stayed quietly out of the chaos, avoiding the craziness of Persephone and El. Yet she won a crazy HOH and accidentally had the power that shifted the game in her favor. Gigi, surviving the block, became her closest ally, joining her in getting in close with Irina, Ara, and Eliza. This trio was at the center of the game and DJ floated with Gigi, using this alliance to take em over. But together they used their social game to sway the tides in their favor. Though the trio was in the middle, they leaned more in DJ and Gigi’s side. Then, Ara ended up in the middle leaning towards DJ and Gigi. Gigi ended up losing faith and struggled, trying to turn on DJ. She made the tough decision to cut him. She went to the end with Eliza, who was confident in her game, but DJ made her realize that was a mistake, as she was a lovable underdog who had more game than she even knew.
Pros: Lovable underdog, good social game, good under pressure
Cons: Messy strategic game, allies willing to turn on her, takes a slow start to get used to the game
Final Ranking: B Tier

Season 16 – Benedict the Chespin
Benedict was originally one of the best single time players ever, playing a dominant game that somehow lost, confusing everybody. Coming back to Legends the deck was stacked yet he still managed to dominate with all of the Legends. Benedict was a key player in Whimzy’s plan to pull together the players who were not Lions to target other floaters. But he quickly took over her plan. His old ally Chess tried to work with him but he turned on him after using him. He then turned on both Whimzy and Lissia in the triple eviction, seeing them as big threats who were playing their games too well, threatening him. He controlled the game and allowed people to underestimate him before betraying them. Eventually, his desire to win changed who he was, causing him to be very cutthroat. He worked the whole game with Gigi but cut him off when he wasn’t 100% on his side. Going to the end with Amni and Adelynn, he lost the final HOH, but was taken by Adelynn due to Amni’s likeability. Though both played great games, Benedict was dominant and was lauded for managing that even amongst an arena of Legendary players. His victory was bittersweet, but he got the win he wanted.
Pros: Absolute desire to win, good at comps, willing to make big moves
Cons: quick to betray allies to further his game
Final Ranking: S Tier

Tiers:
S Tier: Selene, Bane, Lisette, Benedict
A Tier: Nickels, Candy, Echo, Maeva, Day-Jay
B Tier: Lance, Carlos, Xio, Dirk, DJ
C Tier: Splaatz, Mobee

These Sixteen will go toe-to-toe and head-to-head in this final season. I’d love to know what you think. Also… who do you think should sit in the finale audience to send off these sixteen? Which strategy will prevail? Which storylines will flourish? Who will dominate and who will fade into the background? Will it be as Legendary as ever? And most importantly, who will win the title of Ultimate Winner? Find out soon, when this FINAL Season of Bunny’s Pokémon Big Brother: The CHAMPION ROYALE premieres!!!!!

So I I’ve only had one period in like 4 1/2 years at this point (back in August) and I’m not on birth control or pregnant (never have been). I’m in my 20s so I know this isn’t menopause. I was being stubborn about it and thought since it had happened fairly recently that maybe my body would just do what it was supposed to but I’ve accepted that I was wrong. It’s clearly not coming back given that it’s now May. I was trying to be patient but I understand that was misguided and reckless.
I know it’s dangerous if I don’t get on birth control and I don’t want to get cancer since I know that’s a risk if you don’t at least get 4 periods a year if it’s not because of birth control.
All that to say this, what were your experiences on Yaz or Yasmin? I know our bodies will react differently given we’re different people but I’m just trying to get an understanding of what to expect.
Also, how bad will my periods likely be on it? When I had my period in August it was the worst I’ve had in my life and I kept fainting so I’m a little nervous about having a period again. I’m not sure if it’s just because I hadn’t had one in so long but I’m really not looking forward to my next one. (To be clear, outside of the August one, when I used to have periods every 2-3 months years ago it was never anything like that)
I’m open to other forms of birth control by the way, I’m just most familiar with Yaz and Yasmin but if you have other suggestions you believe may work better I’m open to it! Also between Yaz or Yasmin, which one is better for most people? I know they’re almost entirely identical but I know there are some small differences

With Ncuti's new series coming up very soon now, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on the previous eras of the show. A common opinion for the Chibnall era is that there was a lot of unrealised potential, plenty of interesting ideas/concepts but not always fully developed.
I think most of the ingredients were there, and all it needed to massively improve the whole era was to swap around certain elements - i.e. without radically changing anything. Just swapping certain episodes and characters around would have given more meaningful arcs, storylines and character development. And after watching the 60th, I think some of the same criticism applies to some extent.
https://www.reddit.com/doctorwho/comments/1cee488/reworking_1314s_era/
I will make a separate post for each series from S11 to the 60th, going into detail of how I think each episode could have been adapted.

Series 11:

Twice Upon a Time - Not S11, but as I am suggesting for Bill to come back alongside Whittaker's Doctor in S11, I don't think it would make much sense for her to appear in Twice Upon a Time. Therefore, I would replace her character here with River Song. It would be revealed that Testimony is an evolution of the technology that the Doctor used to save River to the library - eventually escaping the library as a glass avatar. Just like Bill, River would interact with David Bradley's Doctor, persuading both 1 and 12 to go on to regenerate, as well as having a final farewell with Capaldi's Doctor - as the last appearance in both of their timelines this time. River would also return the Doctor's memories of Clara, since they were "mentally linked" in S7's 'The Name of the Doctor' - with Nardole also making a cameo still. 12 would then note that Bill was missing from the avatars, with River then teasing that she may still be out there somewhere...
S11 Arcs - Grief/Loss would still be a key theme, but explored in different ways across the main characters. Graham would be the main audience surrogate for S11, while Bill's arc at this point would be seeking to re-adjust back to a normal life (like the reverse of Clara's storyline), and would parallel with 13 trying to leave behind the baggage of her past. Bill getting over her break up would also combine with Graham's character to explore the theme of loss. 13 wants to move on, Graham doesn't want to let go, and Bill is somewhere in between. Several episodes would also explore the theme of climate change, building up towards an alternative finale.
Bill & The first female Doctor - Obviously seeing Bill's reaction to 13's new regeneration would be great, particularly after her conversation with 12 in S10 about the Time Lords' attitudes around gender (and meeting Missy). It might take time for Bill to get used the Doctor's new incarnation (more so to do with the personality change) - but of course she would be instantly accepting of the Doctor being a woman. I think this would actually be really helpful for the audience, in terms of any viewers who are struggling to adjust to a female Doctor. And in complete contrast to Rose and Clara, who both took time to adjust after the Doctor regenerated. I also mentioned in a previous post, that one of the main reasons for keeping Bill is to give some kind of continuity from the previous era - particularly when S10 was already a soft reboot.
Ep1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
The main cast for this episode would be reduced to just 13, Graham and Grace. Ryan would also feature as a supporting character (as Grace's son), but presented as having a less close relationship with Grace and Graham (merging his character with Aaron), with Ryan being absent from the funeral at the end of the episode. The Doctor then gets her new outfit, and her and Graham get teleported into space. Note that Tzim Sha would be a one-off villain, with no further appearances after this episode.
Ep2: The Ghost Monument
Just as the Doctor ends up on the planet Desolation while tracking down the Tardis, Bill also follows that same signal, and gets picked up by one of the rally participants. She had drifted apart from Heather, after wanting to return to living as a human, and so seeks out the Doctor again - and knowing that he likely would have regenerated by now, so having to work out who she is. 13 and Bill would reunite and spend some of the episode catching up, with 13 still figuring out who she is, while Graham would spend more time with Angstrom, bonding over their shared grief.
Also, references to the Stenza would be replaced by the Division instead, foreshadowing their introduction in Fugitive of the Judoon (which would also better explain the timeless child namedrop). The idea around what Scientists had been forced to do (in the Ghost Monument) would also hint at what the Doctor's life might have been like while forcibly working for the division.
Ep3: Rosa
Unchanged, other than the companion change. I think the combination of Graham and Bill could offer an interesting perspective on the theme of race. Something that S10 didn't touch on with Bill, is that fact that after losing her black mother very young, she was raised by her white foster mother, and may not have connected much with that part of her heritage. Meeting Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King would be a great way of exploring this, and Graham could also use his memory of stories told by Grace to help bill discover more about her background.
Ep4: Praxeus
The Tardis eventually gets back to present-day Earth, and Graham chooses to return to his house, leaving 13 and Bill to investigate the different plots abroad. Graham struggles on his own, and doesn't stay too long, going on to investigate himself some clues in the UK, joining together as per the original episode. The plastic in the ocean would begin the arc around climate change.
Ep5: Orphan 55
Mostly unchanged, Graham gets the holiday coupon to go to tranquility spa. While this was perhaps a weaker episode, it would be made more significant as part of the wider climate arc.
Ep6: Kerblam!
As I would suggest getting rid of 'The Tsuranga Conundrum', some elements of this episode would be integrated into Kerblam. Rather than focusing too much on the theme of human labour, the episode would instead explore materialism - the demand for all these products that people don't really need, resulting in the space junk (seen in the Tsuranga Conundrum), also attracting the Pting.
Ep7: The Witchfinders
No changes.
Ep8: It Takes You Away
Mostly unchanged, but would end with the cliffhanger of Graham finding Grace at the other side of the antizone. Bill would also discover Heather there.
Ep9: It Brings You Back
A Turn Left style episode - in which the Solitract creates an alternative timeline to tempt the Doctor's companions. We jump back to the start of S11, seeing how events are changed - with Grace still alive (and Ryan alongside, as a happy family unit), and Heather happily living as a human with Bill on Earth. The moral of the story would evolve around Graham (and Bill) finally accepting this loss, but without the plot of wanting revenge of some sort against Tzim Sha. The Doctor would also have her own subplot, where this alternative reality contains clues foreshadowing the finale. This episode would wrap up the main series arc around loss, allowing the finale to focus more on the climate change theme.
Ep10: The Waters of Earth
The finale would be a loose adaptation of Legend of the Sea Devils, set either in the present day or the near future. And while Chibnall said S11 would have no returning villains, I think you could get away with the Sea Devils as they had not been in New Who before. The plot would still evolve around the Sea Devils' plan to flood the entire Earth - but in this case they are using the sea level rise (due to climate change) to their advantage. The end of the episode would see Bill choosing to leave the Tardis. Over the course of S11, Bill would re-establish a similar tutostudent dynamic that she had with 12, with the Doctor eventually inspiring her to become a teacher of some kind herself.
The finale would also introduce a new villain played by Sacha Dhawan (not the Master - who would continue to be played by Michelle Gomez through 13's era). This character would replace Jack Robertson, and playing a more significant role after S11. So some kind of corrupt businessman/politician/etc - who in this episode could be profitting from the damage done to the planet, as a result contributing to the Sea Devils' plan.
Resolution
The New Years special would feature a similar plot, keeping the same storyline around the Dalek. But would further explore the dynamic between Graham and Ryan here. Over the course of S11, while Graham had enjoyed travelling as an escape from his grief, he would also feel some guilt over leaving Ryan behind, feeling some responsibility towards him in the absence of Grace. Ryan would approach Graham seeking to make amends, with Graham choosing to leave the Tardis at the end of the episode to spend some more time together. Resolution would also introduce Yaz for the first time, as a police officer who helps the Doctor while investigating the Dalek plot - ahead of her becoming a companion for S12.
Both Graham and Bill would later return again in 'The Power of the Doctor', with Graham also making an appearance in S12's 'Can You Hear Me'.

With Ncuti's new series coming up very soon now, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on the previous eras of the show. A common opinion for the Chibnall era is that there was a lot of unrealised potential, plenty of interesting ideas/concepts but not always fully developed.
I think most of the ingredients were there, and all it needed to massively improve the whole era was to swap around certain elements - i.e. without radically changing anything. Just swapping certain episodes and characters around would have given more meaningful arcs, storylines and character development. And after watching the 60th, I think some of the same criticism applies to some extent.
https://www.reddit.com/doctorwho/comments/1cee488/reworking_1314s_era/
I will make a separate post for each series from S11 to the 60th, going into detail of how I think each episode could have been adapted.

Series 11:

Twice Upon a Time - Not S11, but as I am suggesting for Bill to come back alongside Whittaker's Doctor in S11, I don't think it would make much sense for her to appear in Twice Upon a Time. Therefore, I would replace her character here with River Song. It would be revealed that Testimony is an evolution of the technology that the Doctor used to save River to the library - eventually escaping the library as a glass avatar. Just like Bill, River would interact with David Bradley's Doctor, persuading both 1 and 12 to go on to regenerate, as well as having a final farewell with Capaldi's Doctor - as the last appearance in both of their timelines this time. River would also return the Doctor's memories of Clara, since they were "mentally linked" in S7's 'The Name of the Doctor' - with Nardole also making a cameo still. 12 would then note that Bill was missing from the avatars, with River then teasing that she may still be out there somewhere...
S11 Arcs - Grief/Loss would still be a key theme, but explored in different ways across the main characters. Graham would be the main audience surrogate for S11, while Bill's arc at this point would be seeking to re-adjust back to a normal life (like the reverse of Clara's storyline), and would parallel with 13 trying to leave behind the baggage of her past. Bill getting over her break up would also combine with Graham's character to explore the theme of loss. 13 wants to move on, Graham doesn't want to let go, and Bill is somewhere in between. Several episodes would also explore the theme of climate change, building up towards an alternative finale.
Bill & The first female Doctor - Obviously seeing Bill's reaction to 13's new regeneration would be great, particularly after her conversation with 12 in S10 about the Time Lords' attitudes around gender (and meeting Missy). It might take time for Bill to get used the Doctor's new incarnation (more so to do with the personality change) - but of course she would be instantly accepting of the Doctor being a woman. I think this would actually be really helpful for the audience, in terms of any viewers who are struggling to adjust to a female Doctor. And in complete contrast to Rose and Clara, who both took time to adjust after the Doctor regenerated. I also mentioned in a previous post, that one of the main reasons for keeping Bill is to give some kind of continuity from the previous era - particularly when S10 was already a soft reboot.
Ep1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
The main cast for this episode would be reduced to just 13, Graham and Grace. Ryan would also feature as a supporting character (as Grace's son), but presented as having a less close relationship with Grace and Graham (merging his character with Aaron), with Ryan being absent from the funeral at the end of the episode. The Doctor then gets her new outfit, and her and Graham get teleported into space. Note that Tzim Sha would be a one-off villain, with no further appearances after this episode.
Ep2: The Ghost Monument
Just as the Doctor ends up on the planet Desolation while tracking down the Tardis, Bill also follows that same signal, and gets picked up by one of the rally participants. She had drifted apart from Heather, after wanting to return to living as a human, and so seeks out the Doctor again - and knowing that he likely would have regenerated by now, so having to work out who she is. 13 and Bill would reunite and spend some of the episode catching up, with 13 still figuring out who she is, while Graham would spend more time with Angstrom, bonding over their shared grief.
Also, references to the Stenza would be replaced by the Division instead, foreshadowing their introduction in Fugitive of the Judoon (which would also better explain the timeless child namedrop). The idea around what Scientists had been forced to do (in the Ghost Monument) would also hint at what the Doctor's life might have been like while forcibly working for the division.
Ep3: Rosa
Unchanged, other than the companion change. I think the combination of Graham and Bill could offer an interesting perspective on the theme of race. Something that S10 didn't touch on with Bill, is that fact that after losing her black mother very young, she was raised by her white foster mother, and may not have connected much with that part of her heritage. Meeting Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King would be a great way of exploring this, and Graham could also use his memory of stories told by Grace to help bill discover more about her background.
Ep4: Praxeus
The Tardis eventually gets back to present-day Earth, and Graham chooses to return to his house, leaving 13 and Bill to investigate the different plots abroad. Graham struggles on his own, and doesn't stay too long, going on to investigate himself some clues in the UK, joining together as per the original episode. The plastic in the ocean would begin the arc around climate change.
Ep5: Orphan 55
Mostly unchanged, Graham gets the holiday coupon to go to tranquility spa. While this was perhaps a weaker episode, it would be made more significant as part of the wider climate arc.
Ep6: Kerblam!
As I would suggest getting rid of 'The Tsuranga Conundrum', some elements of this episode would be integrated into Kerblam. Rather than focusing too much on the theme of human labour, the episode would instead explore materialism - the demand for all these products that people don't really need, resulting in the space junk (seen in the Tsuranga Conundrum), also attracting the Pting.
Ep7: The Witchfinders
No changes.
Ep8: It Takes You Away
Mostly unchanged, but would end with the cliffhanger of Graham finding Grace at the other side of the antizone. Bill would also discover Heather there.
Ep9: It Brings You Back
A Turn Left style episode - in which the Solitract creates an alternative timeline to tempt the Doctor's companions. We jump back to the start of S11, seeing how events are changed - with Grace still alive (and Ryan alongside, as a happy family unit), and Heather happily living as a human with Bill on Earth. The moral of the story would evolve around Graham (and Bill) finally accepting this loss, but without the plot of wanting revenge of some sort against Tzim Sha. The Doctor would also have her own subplot, where this alternative reality contains clues foreshadowing the finale. This episode would wrap up the main series arc around loss, allowing the finale to focus more on the climate change theme.
Ep10: The Waters of Earth
The finale would be a loose adaptation of Legend of the Sea Devils, set either in the present day or the near future. And while Chibnall said S11 would have no returning villains, I think you could get away with the Sea Devils as they had not been in New Who before. The plot would still evolve around the Sea Devils' plan to flood the entire Earth - but in this case they are using the sea level rise (due to climate change) to their advantage. The end of the episode would see Bill choosing to leave the Tardis. Over the course of S11, Bill would re-establish a similar tutostudent dynamic that she had with 12, with the Doctor eventually inspiring her to become a teacher of some kind herself.
The finale would also introduce a new villain played by Sacha Dhawan (not the Master - who would continue to be played by Michelle Gomez through 13's era). This character would replace Jack Robertson, and playing a more significant role after S11. So some kind of corrupt businessman/politician/etc - who in this episode could be profitting from the damage done to the planet, as a result contributing to the Sea Devils' plan.
Resolution
The New Years special would feature a similar plot, keeping the same storyline around the Dalek. But would further explore the dynamic between Graham and Ryan here. Over the course of S11, while Graham had enjoyed travelling as an escape from his grief, he would also feel some guilt over leaving Ryan behind, feeling some responsibility towards him in the absence of Grace. Ryan would approach Graham seeking to make amends, with Graham choosing to leave the Tardis at the end of the episode to spend some more time together. Resolution would also introduce Yaz for the first time, as a police officer who helps the Doctor while investigating the Dalek plot - ahead of her becoming a companion for S12.
Both Graham and Bill would later return again in 'The Power of the Doctor', with Graham also making an appearance in S12's 'Can You Hear Me'.

Hi everyone,
I really hope this is allowed because I could really use some help. I just want to know if anyone else had terrible skin on Yaz/Yasmin and better skin on something else. I switched from nexplanon because it gave me small bumps all over my face, but after my doctor gave me yaz to help the acne I actually got the worst cystic acne of my life... like a full acne beard and all down my neck. I was switched to natazia and I'm back at square one...Wondering if there's something out there that will give me normal skin for once. Thanks

Hi All, I have been on Yasmin for years but suffer from bad PMDD, I’m 44. I decided to give Yaz a go but felt super fatigued so took myself off it. Now I’ve been on nothing for two weeks and so fatigued and dizzy. Feel really burnt out. I’ve decided to go back on Yasmin. Anyone else have similar ? Any other solutions for PMDD or the dizziness and fatigue?

TAPOLOGY RECORD: 57-44
BETMMA ROI: 11% - +7.93U
PRELIMS
FlyW Bout: Alessandro Costa v. Kevin Borjas
Records: 13-4 v. 9-2
Last 5 Fights: LWLWW v. LWWWW

• Costa outpaces and outvolumes Borjas over a 15 minute scale
• Costa has more power and is more willing to engage in a fire fight
• Costa has been KO’d twice recently-ish which is concerning considering Borjas was able to knock down Joshua Van in RD1 in their bout
• Borjas has shown he gasses as fights wane on - he is live for a first RD KO here
• Costa is more than likely going to utilize his wrestling to gas out Borjas and eventually get a late round finish or win on the scorecards
• Costa definitely possesses power, too, but I think he is going to play this one a little safer considering his recent losses

PICK: Alessandro Costa by UD
LW Bout: Ismael Bonfim v. Vinc Pichel
Records: 19-4 v. 14-3
Last 5 Fights: LWWWW v. LWWWL

• Pichel is a good fighter but this would only be a competitive fight if it took place 10 years ago when Bonfim was 18 and Pichel was 31 - now, not so much
• Bonfim has explosive striking and explosive grappling
• Pichel has not won a fight by finish since 2017 when he won by KO against Damien Brown who finished his career 19-13
• Pichel also possesses zero submission wins across his 15 year pro MMA career
• Bonfim has all the takedown upside as well as the KO power so I’m taking him by submission and early
• I also like the sub pick considering Pichel has 3 losses and he was only finished once by Gregor Gillepsie by Arm Triangle who isn’t super well known for his grappling

PICK: Ismael Bonfim by RD 2 Submission
FlyW Bout: Dione Barbosa v. Ernesta Kareckaite
Records: 6-2 v. 5-0-1
Last 5 Fights: WWWLL v. WWWDW

• I was very impressed with Ernesta’s DWCS performance - she is an elite striker with good range for the weight class
• For someone who is only striking based, she does not have a lot of KO power - of her 5 wins, 2 are KOs but both of them were against winless competition
• She also went to a draw and then won against someone who I personally believe she lost to in their rematch
• Ernesta’s number 1 weakness is being controlled and Barbosa’s number 1 strength is controlling - she even has a win over Karine Silva early in her career
• I think Barbosa is going to have her way with Ernesta here and find a submission later in the fight as Ernesta gasses

PICK: Dione Barbosa by RD2 Submission
LW Bout: Mauricio Ruffy v. Jamie Mullarkey
Records: 9-1 v. 17-7
Last 5 Fights: WWWWL v. LWLWW

• I was very impressed with Ruffy’s DWCS performance - he closed as a +200 underdog and found a late round finish against a Dagestani opponent who trains with Islam
• Ruffy has finished all 9 of his opponents via KO/TKO - he has excellent striking and can go 0-100 very quickly
• Mullarkey, on the other hand, has been chinned quite often recently - 3 of his last 6 and 2 of his last 3 were KO losses
• I expect something similar here - Mullarkey is good at pressure fighting but I think once Ruffy connects, it’s game over for Jamie
• Ruffy has also shown some good takedown defense in case Mullarkey tries to go there
• The only worry in this bout is its a DWCS rookie and those have not fared well recently - other than that, Duffy should win on all accounts
• I’m ultimately picking RD2 KO since Jamie has been finished a couple times in that round

PICK: Mauricio Ruffy by RD2 KO
LW Bout: Joaquim Silva v. Drakkar Klose
Records: 13-4 v. 14-2-1
Last 5 Fights: WLWLL v. WWWLW

• 2 fighters who are 35+ is not a fight I want to put money on, but I will provide a breakdown anyway
• Klose is 8-2 with 1 KO loss in his last 10
• Silva is 6-4 with 3 KO losses in his last 10
• Silva is very explosive with multiple RD1 finishes but he also has been finished multiple times
• Klose has zero submission wins so don’t expect any offensive grappling from him - his wins are evenly split with knockouts and decisions - although he does average about a takedown per fight - i don’t expect that here since Silva possesses good submission wins
• Klose also absorbs less and swings more than Silva - I am expecting a close striking battle that Klose edges out and if he doesn’t he has the wrestling to fall back on

PICK: Drakkar Klose by UD
FeathW Bout: Jean Silva v. William Gomis
Records: 12-2 v. 13-2
Last 5 Fights: WWWWW v. WWWWW

• When it comes to power, Silva has the edge here
• I would say takedowns are an even split here and this fight will mainly stay standing
• Silva is not good when he is put on the back foot but I don’t think he will be in this bout
• Silva doubles Gomis’s striking output and absorbs less strikes over a 15 minute sample
• Gomis has 3 wins in the UFC but he has a split decision win and a majority decision win in fights that easily could have swayed the other way
• Neither has a super impressive UFC win so that would be the only reason I’d lean Gomis
• I think Gomis has slick striking and is very technical but I think Silva’s in your face style is going to be what the judges look for

PICK: Jean Silva by SD
LW Bout: Elves Brenner v. Myktybek Orolbai
Records: 16-3 v. 12-1-1
Last 5 Fights: WWWWW v. WWWWW

• This is very much a striker v grappler, but the grappler in this bout also has hands to strike
• Myktybek is going to employ a very simple gameplan - takedown after takedown
• We have not seen him gassed although we’ve only seen one UFC performance from him and it was a dominant submission win over Uros Medic
• The main concern is that Orolbai’s wrestling is not as good as we think since Medic admitted he didn’t train wrestling for that fight since he was preparing for a different opponent
• If you look back at his recent bouts, he has a nice split between 6 KO wins and 5 submission wins - most of the KOs are occurring in some kind of mount or guard other than one recent uppercut he had
• Brenner, on the other hand, has 3 decision losses, has yet to be finished once, and is riding 3 fight UFC winning streak against very good competition - he was a +400+ underdog in his first 2 UFC bouts he won
• Brenner has only surrendered one takedown in his 3 ufc fights and he fought wrestler heavy styles in his first two bouts
• I think Brenner is a decent dog value since there are so many question marks around Orolbai and Brenner has shown he has the capability to combat Orolbai’s main strength
• Even Medic was able to fend off Orolbai’s submission attempts until the ending stages of Round 2 - I think Brenner will have even more success
• However, I ultimately think Orolbai can edge this on a scorecard since he absorbs less strikes and has the wrestling upside over Brenner here
• As far as a bet goes, I won’t be betting since I’d probably put money on Brenner

PICK: Myktybek Orolbai by UD
SW Bout: Karolina Kowalkiewicz v. Iasmin Lucindo
Records: 16-7 v. 15-5
Last 5 Fights: WWWWL v. WWLWW

• One of the first things I look for when handicapping is if a fighter has been KO’d - Karolina was KO’d by Jessica Andrade and Iasmin has not been
• Iasmin’s only loss since 2019 was against Yasmin Yuregai who is one of the better strikers of the division
• Karolina was on a 5 fight losing streak before her recent 4 fight winning streak - in those losses, there are some bad ones but some good ones too like Yan Xiaonan and Alexa Grasso
• I am struggling to find a path to victory for Iasmin here - Karolina doubles Iasmin’s output in strikes and possesses a 74% takedown defense
• Karolina did surrender 5 takedowns to Xianon which isn’t the best look considering she isn’t known for her wrestling
• I think Karolina makes this fight way closer than her +300 price tag suggests: I think she fends off a majority of Iasmin’s takedowns and lands enough damage on the feet to sway the judges

PICK: Karolina Kowalkiewicz by SD
FeathW Bout: Joanderson Brito v. Jack Shore
Records: 16-3-1 v. 17-1
Last 5 Fights: WWWWL v. WLWWW

• Brito has power and possesses a slick submission game, so he is a threat to any opponent
• If we are going to lock in on his weakness, it’s definitely the takedowns: he has a 50% takedown defense
• He lost to Bill Algeo simply because Algeo was able to utilize a wrestling heavy plan and racked up more than 5 minutes of control time over 15 minutes
• He defeated Jonathan Pearce by Ninja Choke but he was controlled for over 6 minutes of a fight that lasted about 8 minutes
• Jack Shore’s main strength is the takedown and his only loss came to Ricky Simon via Arm Triangle, which was at bantamweight where Simon was the bigger fighter
• Shore has had one fight at FeathW and has looked good, submitting Amirkhani in the 2nd round
• Shore also has hands - he was cracking Amirkhani on the feet before securing the finish
• I am concerned with Shore’s takedown defense of his own - he doesn’t show much resistance and has a hard time getting back to his feet
• Brito has shown he can land takedowns of his own as well so this should be an interesting fight
• I actually see this going similarly to the Algeo fight: Brito goes for early takedowns with some success, can’t find a finish so he gasses as the fight progresses
• I lean ever so slightly on the side of Shore - they have similar takedowns, brito has slightly more power, but Shore lands more strikes and is the slightly bigger fighter here who no longer is cutting weight and is fighting at a more natural class

PICK: Jack Shore by SD
MAIN CARD
MW Bout: Paul Craig v. Caio Borralho
Records: 17--7-1 v. 15-1
Last 5 Fights: LWLLW v. WWWWW

• Caio has shown a good all around MMA skillset in his 5 fight UFC run - he is a very technical striker and mixes in the takedowns nicely
• Caio has zero KO wins inside of the UFC but he has scored a knockdown in 2 of his 5, nearly finishing Abus Magomedov in his last bout
• When Paul Craig wins, most of the time it’s by way of something strange occurring
• He does have dominant KOs/Subs on his record, but his recent performances are a little concerning
• A decision loss to Volkan Oezdemir where Craig landed zero takedowns and got doubled up on striking output is not a good look
• Brendan Allen is a good takedown artist but Craig made him look like the Gordon Ryan of the UFC with how easy he controlled and submitted him
• The only advantage I give Craig here is size since he has slightly more reach and is a bit taller, but outside of that, no
• I think Caio pieces Craig up for 3 rounds and mixes in clinch situations against the cage en route to a decision victory

PICK: Caio Borralho by UD
MW Bout: Michel Pereira v. Ihor Potieria
Records: 30-11 v. 21-5
Last 5 Fights: WWWWW v. WLLWL

• I am going to start this by saying this fight is ending very quickly lol
• This is a quick one - Ihor has been chinned multiple times in the UFC and I see that happening here again
• You can bet Ihor RD2 KO as a hedge if Michel somehow gasses in RD1, but I doubt it
• Pereira is coming off back to back 1st round finishes against opponents who would also debatably finish Potieria
• Pereira has been KO’d once in his career - funnily enough, it was a similar situation against Dusko Todorovic since everyone doubted Dusko and his chin and he went out there and dusted Pereira
• Michel by RD1 KO - Ihor RD2 KO as a hedge

PICK: Michel Pereira by RD1 KO
LHW Bout: Anthony Smith v. Vitor Petrino
Records: 37-19 v. 11-0
Last 5 Fights: LWLLW v. WWWWW

• This is by far Petrino’s biggest step up in competition to this date
• Petrino has looked utterly dominant in every performance we have seen him in, but he does have a couple of weaknesses
• The ground is a weakness for Petrino if he’s the one being controlled - he lands nearly 4 takedowns per fight, but sometimes gets reversed and he isn’t the best at securing a ground finish as outlined by his ONE submission victory of all time
• Modestas had no chin, Pracniao had no ground game, and Bellato has no chin - those are Petrino’s 3 ITD victories including the DWCS in the UFC
• Anthony Smith did recently get chinned but I see this fight going similarly to the Anton Turkalj fight - Petrino controls for most of the bout, Smith has tiny glimmers of submission success, and Petrino wins the decision
• If there’s a way to bet Petrino Decision/Smith Sub, do that

PICK: Vitor Petrino by UD
BW Bout: Jonathan Martinez v. Jose Aldo
Records: 19-4 v. 31-8
Last 5 Fights: WWWWW v. LWWWL

• Hard to handicap a fight where one fighter retired in 2022 and is fighting for the first time since - Aldo lol yeah
• There will be barely any wrestling or grappling in this bout - both fighters land less than .5 per fight
• As far as striking, they are very similar: low kicks are the main gameplan with the occasional overhangs
• As far as striking output, Martinez slightly edges Aldo but it’s not egregious only landing 1 more strike over a minute
• Jonathan Martinez was chinned by Davey Grant randomly but has been fine since
• He was taken down 3 times by Said Nurmagamedov but still managed to maintain his cardio and outland him to a decision win
• I think the lock on the card is for this fight to hit scorecards and unfortunately it is sitting at -250
• Jose Aldo has a good enough chance to win here and considering he and Martinez are near mirror images of each other, I’ll take my chances and support the king of rio at +money
• AND, even if Aldo loses, the judges can rob...

PICK: Jose Aldo by SD
FlyW Bout: Alexandre Pantoja v. Steve Erceg
Records: 27-5 v. 12-1
Last 5 Fights: WWWWW v. WWWWW

• Still not entirely sure how this fight is even a thing, but I am here for it
• Not a lot to look at as far as tape on Erceg goes, but we can look at his record and gather some information
• Erceg has to be knocked down or wobbled in any of his professional MMA fights - of his 12 wins, 6 are by sub although he has yet to get one in the UFC
• His competition prior to the UFC was decent, and his competition in the UFC thus far has been supremely mid level - his highlight win is a KO over Matt Schnell which every flyweight basically has on their record at this point
• Another interesting thing to note is if the striking starts getting to Erceg, he will employ takedowns - he shot for 8 takedowns on Costa and only secured one, although Costa shot on him 6 times and only secured one
• We have to think about the mindset as well - Pantoja is not trying to get KO’d in front of his Brazilian compadres especially to an essential “no-name” like Erceg
• When Pantoja needs to win, he will relentlessly go for takedowns - he secured 8 of 14 against Royval and 6 of 11 against Moreno
• I think on the feet, Erceg might give Pantoja a run for his money but I think Pantoja will utilzie the wrestling to the point he wins a decision from it.
• Erceg to win ITD/Decision No Bet is my favorite bet on the card and it’s + money
• The bet basically means Erceg needs to win by KO/Sub, and if the fight hits the scorecards, you get your money back

PICK: Alexandre Pantoja by UD

I’m removing my IUD in a month and switching to a combo pill.
My doctor has suggested a desogestrel pill like Marvelon or Madeline (generic). The generic is significantly cheaper but I’m willing to pay more if it means fewer side effects. If anyone has had experience with both Marvelon and a generic, which did you prefer?
Also, do desogestrel combo pills come with increased risk of blood clots? I know this is associated with drospirenone combo pills. Searching through this sub there seems to be many more anecdotal reports of blood clots with Yaz/Yasmin compared to Marvelon, and I’m wondering why this is the case.

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!
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+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
As I laid in wait above Neptune, waiting again for a response or confirmation, I pondered a bit what I should say to them. How exactly I could talk to humanity again...and the...Arxur.
It felt odd to list another alongside them. Humanity, having allies, felt novel to me sadly. This entire situation was novelty after novelty. I still was desperately trying to see if anything in my internal diagnosis was still broken, that I wasn't hallucinating or dreaming up context where I had none, but no faults besides the obvious came up.
Perhaps I could try to invite them aboard the ship? But most of myself was currently horrendously damaged; many walkways and corridors simply exposed to vacuum from melted bulkheads and shattered superstructure. I had not entered or exited the battle with the Federation fleet unscathed, and while I had not been hit by as much as I would have been had I engaged the Compact in such a ludicrously risky way, I had taken at least several hits from various plasma and kinetic weapons.
Normally, my shields would have simply tanked the blows, possibly degrading a few projectors for repair from the universal strain of Newton's Laws. But I had no functional shields. I had barely any functionality at all. I would have been adrift out of Sol without using the gravity well of Saturn as a breaking mechanism, and even then I still only managed to slow enough to orbit Neptune. And so, on top of the damages that I suffered from escaping The Compact execution force, and the subsequent fleet killing I had performed after, I was nearly dead in the water, crippled far more than any prior incident.
I could only hope I would be able to rely on local humanity to help me somehow. I was particularly worried I had terrified them, or made them angry with my actions. If they retaliated, I would not raise my hand against them, even though I likely could. I had no idea what to expect of them, the United Nations had never persisted this long in...my timelines history. There were plenty of things here I observed that I didn't fully understand.
Like their FTL travel, for one.
Shockspace Theory dictated that even nearly flat spacetime could be hazardous in both opening to and exiting from the dimension where faster than light travel was carried out. The gravity well of a sun, and its solar system was nearly unpassable besides in very unique circumstances in shockspace. One could not simply open a rift wherever one wanted, without especially violent conditions following them. The safest bet to directly cross a solar system was to simply exit shockspace outside the system - in the case of Sol, outside the Heliopause - and burn at sublight speeds across it.
But here, they had simply popped into view of my sensors. Completely disregarding the gravity of both the Sun and Neptune, it seemed whatever method they had used did not have the same limitations as ours did. And that fascinated me.
A form of faster than light that could simply bypass the hardest limitations of shockspace is revolutionary, in more ways than one. Countless species and nations, including myself, had tried to find an alternative to shockspace, throwing untold resources and technological development at the problem, but an alternative was never found. I had one of the most refined understandings of Shockspace Theory amongst the known galaxy, and even I had written off the potential of another way. And yet, here, in a world parallel to the history of my own, humanity had found that other way. A new way, to the stars above. I was so very proud of them.
But I was getting ahead of myself. I first had to properly introduce myself to this humanity and their allies, infer that I was not a threat to them, and obtain some form of assistance in repairing my hull and components to functional capacity. I could only hope they were comparable to my humanity where it counted.
I hoped I still even knew how to talk to them. It's been...so long...
+signal recieved+
They had responded. I turned my spare attention back from internal monologue towards the small shuttlecraft before me. It would be best to hear what they have to say.
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
"Understood, we will begin plotting a course vector now to you. At what range and relative would you find acceptable to communicate?"
As I turned off the mic once again, and waited for a second response from the vessel to give us bearing on what was acceptable pathing, I saw Lithke looking to be desperately stewing on a question. Since I hardly wanted to see what an Arxur looked like exploding from anticipation, lest it depressurize the hull, I broke the ice.
"What is it Lithke? You look like you're about to start shaking from something you realized, speak already."
He craned in my direction, before swiveling the rest of his body in the chair to fully face me. Leaning forward, he began speaking:
"The ship responded with 'I' to our prompt."
I mulled it over. "Yeah, and?"
"Why would a captain or crew refer to the ship as 'I'? It doesn't make sense."
"What? It makes plenty of sense, the captain was referring to the designation of the ship and happened to accidentally use the wrong term."
Lithke, in an oddly human-adjacent gesture, shook his head in disagreement. "No, that isn't enough of an explanation. She, the voice, not only referred to the ship as 'I', but also used it exclusively throughout. If it were an accidental singular case, she'd use 'we' to refer to the crew and ship as a whole choosing to not fire upon us at some point. But she kept using 'I' exclusively." He chuffed at the end, his point finished.
I...could see the point behind it. But I was not entirely tuned to what the implications might mean. So I decided to ask.
"I get your point. That does seem odd in retrospect, but what could it imply, exactly? You seem smart enough of a cookie to have some idea already."
Lithke went from a determined look to a more...confused one as I finished that sentence?
"Why am I an intelligent [baked meal]?" Lithke asked.
Oh. That must not have translated the idiom well. Hmmm...
"Ah, my apologies, I didn't figure that wouldn't translate the idiot's meaning. I mean it's clear your observation is leading to something, care to tell me what?"
Lithke seemed to have whatever tract his mind was on derailed by my badly-translated idiom, because he merely shrugged, and mentioned he was not sure. Well, all the more to add to the report later. Whatever it was, it would have to wait, because not long after we received a transmission indicating some relative coordinate plane and a position from Nemesis. Clearly, they wished for us to travel to a spot, or minimum radius of this distance from the ship.
Lithke took us in, slowly towards the vector the ship had given us, not wanting to give any reason for them to go back on their word of not harming us. That they knew about humanity to some degree made this initial communication far easier than one would have expected, talking with a new race neither Humanity, nor the Arxur were familiar with. What would they look like? What were their motivations, their culture, their reason for knowing so much about humanity?
And how did they stay undiscovered so far? The galaxy is a rather large place, with even the whole of the Federation taking up a measly quarter of a quarter a percent of the whole thing, but they knew far too much about humanity to not be in our neighborhood. These questions and more were what I was posed to get answers to.
As we approached the vast behemoth that was UECNS Nemesis, it felt like approaching a shipyard all on its own. Its sheer bulk and size, its endless details made more clear with every kilometer closer, I was staring at a fractal of a ship. And to think this thing was damaged, and yet felt like it was the mightiest ship this side of the solar system, was a thrilling and unsettling feeling.
There were cannon slots located along its prow larger than our entire ship, and along every surface it was endless adorned with weapons I both could and couldn't fully recognize. Mounted in hundreds of stark, brutalist-looking turrets that were built to endure both their own fire and I assume its enemies' too...
I was afraid, sure, but not only afraid. Invigorated! Here I was, being the first proper trailblazer to a likely new species, Noah Williams could suck it! I was not lucky enough to have been part of the exploratory group that had made us contact the Venlil, but now I had a field of my own! And though I wish I had been in better company than that of Lithke, the space croc was not disinterested, merely just not a fit to my standards.
And then finally, resting in its deep shadow, an adamant tower amongst the stars, we entered synchronous orbit with Nemesis around Neptune. We were still moving relative to the planet, but to each other, we were still as one could reasonably be. Before Lithke and I could take any further actions, convey the start of proper greetings, they spoke first.
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
I had taken a good amount of time to consider how to introduce my circumstances in a calm and collected manner. The last thing I wanted to do was give too much information too quickly, as likely everything about me didn't add up. That they knew my designation tells me that they had at some point read it on my hull, and that they were likely incredibly confused about the nature of my existence. No, this needed a gentle, careful touch, and so I had worked up a plan for my visitors-
Or, I guess I'm the visitor, more or less, ha ha...
-such that I could slowly reveal myself in full, and garner their reactions. It would be somewhat distant at first, not cold, but professional, and evasive of questions that didn't lead to my points until all were made. I was still uncertain how this humanity might react to the concept of a true general artificial intelligence, especially one they had made that now was not under their control to any useful degree.
I had records of humanity's fictional stories involving the idea of AI, and my galaxy's very real aversion to all synthetic lifeforms, that I distinctly worried they might see me as abominable, a soulless monster, a mistake, or many other interpretations that came with the territory. To simply assume all would be well, that I could just reveal everything about myself on the fly without confirmation first would be a stupid mistake to make. And so, I thought I would let down the explanation as I went.
Here goes nothing. It's just a touch of manipulation, nothing you haven't done before.
But the thought, unlike the countless alien species I had used it on before, felt far worse to perform on my creators. The guilt of knowing an innocent humanity in my eyes was to be treated like this to start felt wrong. But I needed to know...
...I needed to know if they would abhor me like everyone else.
A configuration of my avatar to best fit Yasmine's uniform and look was checked, and rechecked. I adopted a posture that would seem clinical, professional, military. A visual com-link was opened to the channel I held my avatar on, and with that came a slightly more steeled resolve, so I began;
"So, I assume you are confused about what to think of this ship."
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
When the first visual opened up, the distance we closed made real time communication more feasible, what I had expected was a foreign species to our knowledge, one that held the advantage. But as my brain began to process what was said, and the holoscreen before me settled in, I was utterly confused.
The person...no, human who stood before me was adorned with military regalia similar but ever so slightly different to that of Earth's. She had a dark-olive tone to her skin, that spoke of Mediterranean or Arabic ancestry, but her facial features looked more Asian than anything else. Her eyes were a somber green, an odd contrast to her features, but still within the bounds of normal. She stood before an empty bridge, bereft of any other signs of life.. I couldn't tell how tall she was, there was no clear perspective to relate her size to, but in total, this...was not what I had expected.
Lithke, also in odd shock, spoke first. "What...what is this?! Is this some sort of joke?"
The woman on the other side slightly shifted, so as to indicate her view shifting to my partner. "I have adopted this form so as to better calm and connect with you two. You would find it hard to understand me otherwise." She lightly smiled, but it disappeared as soon as it arrived.
"Who or what are you?" I asked. "It doesn't make sense for a human to be on this vessel."
"We will return to that in a bit. For now, I need to introduce a bit of context first, and you will have to as well. Firstly, I would like to clarify about this ship. As you might have guessed from the literal writing on the wall, this vessel is of human origin."
"What..." Lithke said, some sense of trouble brewing in him. He more angrily turned to me in particular. "Have you been lying to us human?" Lithke did not look happy with that revelation.
I-I didn't know what to say. "I-I...I uh..."
The woman on screen hastily intervened. "They could not have Arxur, as there's more to this I yet need to explain. Tell me, what date is it to your calendars?"
I stood a bit straighter, slightly confused at the question, until it hit me. "Oh my god..."
Lithke again trained his view to me, confused. "What do you mean human? These mind games tire me."
"It's October 19th, 2136 CE, ma'am. You're a time traveler, are you not?" I beamed.
Lithke looked remarkably confused by the phrase, unaware of the connotations that come with it. She, on the other hand, smiled, before continuing. "That and more, but the date from my side was closer to 3394 CE."
She was from the far future! It explained everything! The English writing, the odd accent, the human woman standing before me, it made sense now!
While I was partially disappointed in not being able to meet a new species, I felt a bit of relief and a different kind of elation under the circumstances.
I couldn't help but blurt out "Humanity made it that far ahead! What's the future like? Is the galaxy better than now!?"
She...seemed to be almost downtrodden from that statement, a sense of deep depression almost radiating from her. Uh oh, did I say something wrong?
"I was getting to that..." She pulled herself together again, a more military stature once again put into place. "...Despite being from the future, I'm...not certain it's your future."
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
The dichotomy before me was an odd one. The human's partner was a reptilian-looking alien, almost crocodile-like. They were distantly familiar to that of the Askanji-illth of the Principality, but bipedal instead of serpentine. In an odd twist of fate to be making with that comparison, they, unlike the Principality, seemed to have been the race that came to humanity's aid not long after my departure from the space between Earth and Luna. I had initially worried they were more raiders, more races coming to stomp on the face of humanity while they were down, but they circled the globe like a protective shield, their few transmissions I could receive implying an honest desire to help humanity. It was for that, that I did not initially try to fire on this vessel when it first popped into view on the sensors.
And...the human. She was adorned in what looked closely like old-styled United Nation attire, specifically that of an envoy or diplomat. She had pieced together a portion of my origin rather quickly from that one question, a relief on my part that I would not have to go through the headache-like details of time travel. But what would come next would not be pleasant for her enthusiasm.
Following my clarification on the aspect of being from the future, I pulled up a holographic display from a simulated monitor feed behind me. A bubble of space was marked in red, a selection of stars labeled with familiar names.
The human squinted her eyes, looking at the points in more detail. "That's...that's Earth, and Alpha-Centauri, and Barnard's Star..."
"Yes" I wistfully replied. "That, and two hundred and fifteen others, was the United Earth Confederacy." I stuck our emblem above it, to signify. "It was the width and breadth of humanity at its peak, before it was snuffed out."
My choice of language seemed to make the human worried, and the Arxur next to her wary. "By who?" they said in unison.
"In 2786 CE, The deep space exploration vessel UECNS Alaskan Dawn, made first contact with an alien scout cruiser named Flickering Light. The government that was behind them was revolting, and utterly antithetical to the ideals espoused by the UEC. We decided to fire first, and to that I cannot fault the captain's decision, but it was the mistake that lead to the end."
On the outskirts of the holographic map, showing the UEC's territory, a dark blue border began to fade into view. I zoomed it out further, to emphasize how the border seemed to go on forever in comparison to our small set of worlds. An alien symbol appeared over the amorphous mass of thousands of stars, unknown to them, but intimate to me.
I growled in hatred. "The Compact of Species."
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
I watched as the holographic display slowly started to move. The amorphous territory of The Compact beginning to swallow The United Earth Confederacy's whole, a seemingly unstoppable tide that smashed through every system that was held by the UEC. As I watched the date to the right slowly tick up, month after month, as the UEC shrunk under its assault, I felt horrified.
This fate seems so familiar to the Federation fleet we were on the losing side of.
She continued. "The Compact was more advanced than The Confederacy in nearly every single way. Our ships were slower, weaker, less numerous than their own. We had taken to asymmetrical warfare to do our best to stall the onslaught, but we were against an enemy that was determined to crush our faction underfoot. They saw us as having slighted their great domain merely by existing as apart from them, for not conforming to their iron grip. For the gall of saying no, we were to be taught a lesson in blood and war."
She turned to another empty section of space, as another holographic display came up. "Another way would have to be found to endure. We pumped untold resources into a new type of ship, a superweapon that could take on the Compact's greatest weapons, their Chariots, head on, and come out on top. It was built to ambush and kill them. It was the Nemesis-class dreadnought. Six were planned, two in construction, and only one fully built before the end of the war. This ship...is that Nemesis-class."
She splayed her hands out, in a little grand display of the bridge as a whole. A momentary respite from the depressing nature of the war she narrated, a momentary moment of pride in humanity swelling. Even Lithke was enraptured in the story, quietly listening without ever taking his eyes off the screen. But, she eventually dropped them, they sagged back down to her shoulders slowly, as the high wore off.
"But it was not meant to be. The Compact had found Earth's location. In an attempt to stop it, the UECNS Nemesis was assigned to a task force with the goal of ambushing the Execution Force carrying the information, with the attached Triarch's Chariot Bringer of Light. The chariot was killed, but all hands on board besides me perished in the end, the task force casualties were nearly total, and on the attempted FTL trip back I had a drive failure. It meant days of travel back home where I had needed far less. By the time I had returned to Earth, it was burned to ash."
She looked utterly furious at that moment. Every ounce of her body shook with barely-stifled rage.
"They sentenced humanity to extinction. I made a promise that day, to avenge my failure. I promised I would not rest until the Compact burned, until it was reduced to as much dust and debris as humanity was."
Her voice raised into a rant. "And as I found myself against all odds, nearly dead while escaping a fleet sent to kill me for my revenge, I found myself here. I saw humanity, again at risk of being exterminated, of being sentenced to death. I felt utter familiar rage in that moment; I could not let it happen, not when I had once done it before. That is why I interfered in the battle above Earth."
It was a passionate story. One filled with hatred and gusto, of sheer determination to pay back the debt of humanity's extinction. A story that answered my initial question on her involvement with the battle above Earth. But I couldn't help but notice an issue. Her.
"There's a problem with all of that story though, if you were there to see your world destroyed, and all but you from the crew dead, yet you are from nearly twelve hundred years in the future...how are you still alive? Were humans practically immortal in the future?"
She smiled. "I figured you'd catch that. No, humanity was not immortal in the future. Plenty have tried, but biological organisms as complex as humans don't tend to stick around forever."
"Then how?!" I nearly yelled.
"I did not lie in that all besides me died in the battle with Execution Force Bankala. But I was different. I was crew as well but not that of flesh and blood. I am the machine. I am the wings, the computers, the terminals, the hull, the whole of this starship."
Lithke finally had a moment of epiphany in that moment, the question he bugged me with clearly finally having a clear answer. His eyes widened to match the feeling.
"I am the artificial intelligence aboard the UECNS Nemesis. What you see before you is but an avatar of the prior captain of this ship, Yasmine Nishiko Aalimah Sudoki."
Her viewscreen suddenly seemed to fizzle to a blank background, what I assumed to be the virtual bridge behind her fading to nothing, as her avatar abstracted slightly. It looked like the woman from before, but different. Not trying to hide her nature anymore, she was see-through, tinted red throughout, as if a mere monocolor projection of her.
"My real name is Red One. Please, do not be afraid, I mean you no harm, and am beyond pleased to meet you both for real. What are your names?"
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I was prescribed “Yasmin” yesterday to help my PMDD symptoms, Doctor explained that there are two different types of these meds, one helps PMDD symptoms where as the other does not. I’m new to all this PMDD stuff as for years I thought these mood fluctuations/deep depressions were because of my BPD!!! Anyway, Turns out when researching Yasmin, I saw that it’s not approved to manage PMDD symptoms And that Yaz is the one I should be taking! Already off to a great start… 🧍‍♀️ I’m going to ring my GP first thing in the morning, Luckily I only started taking it yesterday.. I’m already a bit cautious I’m worried this is a sign to not bother taking it as I’ve heard some bad stories about Yaz but it’s different for everyone I guess. I am desperate to not go through horrible depression spells anymore it takes over my life. so will give it a try! I’m fairly new to PMDD and finding it quite lonely and daunting figuring out how to ease the excruciating depression it causes me, and the fact that it makes me feel like i’m a completely different person sometimes 😔 So any advice will be so helpful, And I’m glad I found this community and that we can power through it together🙏🏼❤️💋

Recently I switched from yaz to Yasmin. On yaz I had no headaches at all. Now that I switched to Yasmin I suddenly have headaches that come and go. Is this normal? Will it go away after my body adjusts during the 3 months?

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!
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Memory transcription subject: Chief Hunter Isif, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet
Date [standardized human time]: October 17, 2136
When we jumped into near Earth orbit, we were expecting a fight. Likely a faltering defense from humanity, as the leaflickers, as incompetent as they could be, would likely still have an absurd numbers advantage over the humans.
What I did not expect however, was the remnants of a bloodbath.
Across vast swathes of space, littering the distance between their planet and moon, was filled with desolate wrecks, ships near shreds from whatever had hit them. And...of course, stragglers.
My bridge seemed almost disappointed at the lack of prey. The crew and fleet I brought along must have expected to satisfy that thrill of the chase that comes with raiding and killing Federation space, which was only further exemplified when you tell your sector that you are off to 'save the only other true sentients from extinction'. It would whip any into a frenzy of zeal for the cause, even I felt the slightest tug too.
Nevertheless, despite their disappointment, I demanded a well oiled machine in my fleet. The Federation stragglers that were fleeing had the unfortunate experience of fleeing right into our grasp. We would rectify that mistake for them.
"Hind Group Arxur fleet..." I delayed the communication conclusion slightly, to let the image of a Chief Hunter savoring some aspect of this imprint itself on them. Face was always important. "...kill the stragglers. Good hunting. The rest, follow my lead to Earth. The humans will require our aid."
I could imagine a frenzy at those words, knowing they had free reign to slaughter the Federation prey attempting to flee to the last. I pushed it out of my mind. I was not here to think about the idiots. No, I was here for several reasons, first and foremost, the humans.
Their homeworld had definitely seen better days. Pockmarks of scorched rock lined the surface of the planet, concentrated around what I assumed were high population areas or strategic depots. I could not imagine that their death toll was anything short of hundreds of millions, knowing traditional casualty numbers to planetary bombardment.
But the entire situation felt off to me. How was it that humanity was able to fight off the Federation this effectively? The number advantage would have been absurd, they had no technological edge, perhaps only by tactics would they have an advantage over the lumbering nature of Federation fleet combat. But tactics only gets you so far compared to logistics, and theirs had run dry. So why were they on top here?
I decided to have comms open and listen for fleet chatter. A cacophony of voices flooded the monitors as I searched for any context.
"Orange threat has left monitoring-"
"WHY ARE THE ARXUR-"
"Sector 8 tally reports 12 losses, UNS Absolution, UNS Spectre, UNS-
"W-We had no idea that there-"
Ugh, no sense to be made from any one focus. An annoyed hiss escaped my throat; we would have to ask. I stood straighter, ceremonial sword tilting as I adjusted my posture. My tail slowly lashed as I had comms hail towards Earth. More face, more image, I adopted a confident and controlling look.
"This is Chief Hunter Isif, I would like to talk with your higher command structure."
A moment of silence, of waiting, before a voice came through, female I believe. Human vocal ranges across the sexes were more pronounced than ours.
"This is General Jones. I have set this to a secure line. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"General Jones, does this hail have video capability? I would like to look a fellow predator in the eyes if we are to speak properly."
Another moment of silence passed, before the transmission changed to that of a video format. Before me stood a tall human female, angular cheekbones with dark brown hair made up her features not obscured by darkened lenses over her eyes. Her uniform was dotted by bars of colored fabric, I assumed there were medals of some sort. With mild annoyance, she continued the conversation.
"Well, you can look at me now. Speak, what is it you want?" I could tell she was not in a good mood. I didn't care.
"I am confused as to how the state of this battle has gone before we reached here." I gestured to a technician to pull up a holographic map of the battlefield for Jones to peruse. "Our scans show that the extermination fleet that attacked, based off the scattered mass wreckage, had outweighed you by at least a factor of 5. This combined with the fact that you still retain...oh, about 120 ships around Earth implies that not only did you defeat this number advantage, but defeated them in a non-pyrrhic fashion."
She simply shrugged mutely. "That it seems." She responded cryptically. Keeping the chase going, are we?
I laid more groundwork scans into the equation. "This would be potentially possible had you some tactical or logistical advantage." I leaned forward somewhat, clasping claws in front of me as I paced slowly about the deck. "And while the prey are inept, laughable excuses at proper warfare, they do not seem to have given you a particular weakness to have taken advantage of. None of the ships were particularly close together to achieve better munitions density and accuracy on; all standard ranges there. Nor did they seem to have any particular flaws in acumen based on the fact they had found an opening near your poles to slip bombardment through."
I stopped pacing. I needed to give off an air of...distaste in my conclusion. Something that would imply a threat if I did not learn of it, but not actually be a threat in itself. Perhaps it should only be in the body language, rather than the words.
"So, we come to two conclusions. Either the Federation gave up, and you took advantage, or you yourselves didn't do this." The fingers came unclasped, and fell to my sides slowly again. The camera adjusted slightly to seem like I was ever so much taller, more imposing as I stood fully straight, my tail simply laying on the ground still. As I pulled up the biggest anomaly the active scans of our fleet had, that of a massive wake of antimatter and exotic particles. I implied to know what I did not know, in order to learn what I did not know from her.
"I was hoping you could answer exactly what did for me." I finished, teeth bared slightly, approximating a human smile.
A single bead of sweat trailed down her neck.
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
Red One was, as indicative as her nature of being artificial intelligence, incredibly logical. The language of cause and effect, of action and reaction, of if and else came to her with mathematical precision, unlike the more estimation-based psyche of natural beings. For theirs was one that could not adapt the processing power where such excessive logical capability would be necessary, or efficient. But, despite all her immense intelligence, her perfect recall of physics and sciences that would have made the most intelligent geniuses flush with embarrassment, all she could conclude on her current reality was:
Impossible...
In no fugue state I have ever had, did it retain like this after breaking.
That it would embody such permanence despite her prying at the conclusion with every angle and postulate she could think of, and remain intact. I dismissed it on the mere thought that the universe could provide such a hopeful situation in comparison to my experience with the Long War. With the Compact. With humanity's extinction.
With everything this isn't.
It came so close too. To see a fleet with intent to burn Earth like the world I had known, delayed just long enough by allies humanity would have never had. Bolstered with technology at least equal to the enemy even if the numbers were skewed. And defended by...a fleet I did not recognize afterwards as I silently drifted away from Earth into the outer solar system. I...I...
Again, I went through the theoretical checklist. Was it the parasite? They had the capability to subsume, to deceive. No, the parasite did not have this much accuracy to Earth, nor were they this weak. The fleet around Earth was perhaps equivalent to the immediate post-diaspora Confederacy in terms of sheer power, but it would pale in comparison to even the smallest parasite.
And the fact that this was not The Confederacy. I pulled through damaged memories of Confederate records and active footage of the battle. They matched nothing here.
A slow realization was starting to take hold. There were theories posited for inter-universal travel. It was theorized that shockspace was a higher-dimensional film over all of spacetime, a physical representation of heading in a non-3D direction to simplify and reduce travel time. I had only vaguely looked into this, its purposes rather unimportant to my goals, but if I had induced a violent enough set of conditions in the shift...
She might've traveled not just through time, but through realities. And now...now she found Earth.
But not her own.
A deep ache throbbed through every operative transistor, every bit, every switch in me. It felt of catharsis at how lucky, yet how awful these circumstances were. I, of all places to have ended up, was in a past Sol. With humanity still alive, still here. But in the cruelest twist of fate, an alien polity had almost gotten here before me; gotten here to do exactly what had taken humanity from her before. From what I had gathered, one by the name of...of The Federation.
Bubbling hatred compiled on my server racks. Of the monsters who dared try to burn my creators again to ash. Of the cities I knew had died just from the scorched pockmarks dotting Earth from their bombs. I drew a parallel to the Compact of Species in the most loathsome, repulsive way, and from there, the dam broke.
Another ‘civilized’ society. Another attempt at extinction.
This humanity isn't safe until they burn as the Compact will.
Despite knowing literally nothing beyond their fleet capabilities, The Federation, unlike the Compact, seemed to be absurdly behind me in capability. Even crippled as I was, it was a struggle to not kill a ship with a singular shot from secondary salvos of particle beams, let alone the immense overkill that came from utterly totaling the Ukonvasara Meteor Cannons in an attempt to fire first. Their fleet had simply sublimated before their wrath.
All the better, I can take my time...
But a betraying, yet loyal thought came to mind at that moment.
What of my +promise+?
The promise to kill The Compact. To see it crumble to ash before her. Her vow for revenge, to commit to the never-ending war against it. Every moment she stayed here, she knew not what happened in her reality. I didn't know if time flowed differently between these realities. Would no time pass between here and then? Were their skeins intertwined such that every second passing in this universe meant the same in my own? Would I return, to find another millennia of progress for the Compact had been made, outshining her capabilities to ever bounce back?
+calculating+
+̴c̴a̷l̴c̶u̷l̶a̸t̸i̵n̸g̵+̴
She did not know. She did not know, and it worried her to no end.
How long could she afford to stay here, to nature this humanity, and risk her vow being unfulfilled? Could I spare time beyond making myself operational? Do I even know how to get back without humanity's help? Maybe the rules are different from this side, such that I need their expertise?
What would she do? THINK!
The figure of Yasmine spun up before me, flickering in my mind. "You promised me. You promised us."
I flinched before the judgement.
But...this Earth. They were not 'us', but they were humanity. I swore an oath to protect humanity in its darkest hours. How could I leave another humanity to die to avenge my own?
"The Compact must pay. They took everything."
I clashed with every bad memory I ever had, both as justification to go back, to continue my crusade, and to stay here, to save this humanity from that fate, to build a tomorrow for them where mine has none. As Yasmine reminded me of every vow of hatred, versus my vow of protection. How could I throw myself upon a pyre, when this world needed an anchor?...
...How could I pick anything but them, Yasmine? How could I not reunite with home, with humanity? How could I not fill the ache of abject loneliness in my heart, knowing they're here, waiting. I could settle for being feared, for being reviled. It wouldn't matter compared to the hope of knowing that humanity yet lives to feel such things...
Yasmine seemed to disintegrate before me for that. Whether her ghost or merely fragmented memories, I could not help but feel guilt at such a thing. I was alone...again.
Forgive me...please...please...I need them. I miss them. I just count the days between when I last had made memories with humanity. Just once more...
The vow must wait. The killing must hold.
Memory transcription subject: Captain Kalsim, Krakotl Alliance Command
Date [standardized human time]: October 17, 2136
A air eerily still of wind clung to us as we disembarked from the escape pod. We were incredibly close to a ruined city, bombardment turning what was not ash into rubble and debris. Knowing the state of humanity being at war, if their predator instincts are correct, they'll be on our tail from the moment they detected the pod break atmosphere. While it seemed counterintuitive, it would likely be safer to seek shelter in the ruined city than brave the wilds. Who knew what disturbing, monstrous predators lurked in the tall grass of Earth?
"Hey, lend a claw here, we need to move Thyon with us to safety, and the city's bound to have the closest shelter we know about!" I told the group. With some grumbling from Jala, we hauled Thyon with us as we trekked into the city.
It was abandoned, mostly, there must have been evacuation efforts in this relatively intact portion of the city after the antimatter bombs cleansed the rest. I felt a twang of regret, knowing so many had to die to secure a semblance of peace for the galaxy. And now, that our efforts went wasted, the predators here had died for effectively nothing. More would fill their place,
and all that would remain would be wrathful ghosts.
Most of the buildings looked too unstable for risking placing Thyon in to recover some. Perhaps we could use outdoor shelter? No, we have no clue what the climate of this world here might be. To stay outside might court death, or curious predators attacking due to humanity not being here anymore...
Agh, I was wracking my brain! It did not help that the baking sun was unpleasant as we walked, every step closer to overheating. Zarn spoke out loud.
"Is there anywhere we can consider safe? Even slightly? I'd take a near collapsed building over dragging Thyon's stretcher over rubble for another [half-kilometer]." Zarn and Jala were tiring, clearly I was not alone in the heat and debris making this city a difficult endeavor to cross. His point was starting to wear on me, and regretfully, my standards were lowering to match it.
A rather large building, if rather dilapidated and somewhat shaky looking from the shockwave of the bombardment, became the choice. Likely a community or convention center of some sort, with a lack of options I didn't wish to walk backwards to get to, we headed inside, dragging our comatose comrade with us.
As we walked inside, there was a mild relief from the heat, albeit not fully due to a lack of functioning climate control. But, with the state of things, I'd take whatever I could get. Stranded on an alien planet, filled with vicious predators sentient and not, with no clear route of escape, it was a wonder if we were getting ourselves out of this alive.
Or rather, if it was even possible. I thought, thinking back to the terrifying hulk of a ship that engaged with the fleet above. How it tore the most powerful, robust ship designs in twain with a singular beam fired from it, hundreds of shots a minute, butchering the Extermination Fleet...
If it was still waiting above, there was no ship that would reasonably be able to survive encountering it. We would need a plan to escape, one that avoided it entirely. But first, getting a ship.
Whilst this was once civilization, it was now scattered ruins, where not even a single predator had been seen. Whether they were all dead, evacuated, or something else was yet to be seen. I reached for a ration bar and began to explore the building we now occupied. Perhaps there might be resources here we could use to keep going if Thyon was stabilized.
From behind me, I heard Jala. "What do you think you're doing?"
I turned to see her look at me with an almost hungry, confronting look in her eyes. Like she was sizing me up, looking for something to capitalize on. "I am searching the building for resources. Anything we could use to help Thyon recover quicker and journey elsewhere, or perhaps use as defenses to extort any authorities we come across. The humans are crafty, we will have to get an edge if we are to hope to survive here until an escape makes itself known." We needed to escape search parties as long as possible.
Jala snorted. "Why do we even try with Thyon? He won't make it, his resources would be better used on someone who could possibly survive."
I turned to her, a sense of anger crossing over my face. "Jala, we care for our own. Its what sets us apart from cruel, animalistic instincts. I wouldn't expect a predator-diseased individual like yours to understand, but none will be left behind as long as I can help it. If we are to thin the herd, I'd rather have you gone first. Don't test my patience..."
This seemed to make her back down, whether realizing my threat on the ship to kill her if she acted out of line, or whether she didn't really care in the first place, just wanting to get a rise out of me, it didn't matter. So long as she acted in the best interests of the herd, I could...overlook her predatory tendencies for now. Her lack of fear and empathy would prove useful for any possible confrontations with the humans in the future, so she was worth keeping around despite my threat.
Just have to keep pressing on. There's got to be something of use in here...
The killer had no name. Nor did it have a need for one. It was a cybernetic body built to stalk, to murder, to begot terror. Its goal was simple: kill the aliens that attacked Earth.
While it had not reached the ship it was meant to invade, the parasite craft had still followed the crash landing down to Earth in an attempt to continue the mission. It could not accept survivors.
The craft slammed into the Earth next to the wrecked ship, ablaze and mangled from its immense impact. It would be a wonder if anything organic survived. As the pod burst open, the assassin blurred out, at speeds the human eye would have trouble even processing.
Within seconds, it had crossed a hundred meters to reach an outer hull hatch of the ship. With leverage, and application of its monomolecular edged blade, it cut through and pried open the sealed door, and explored at a similar pace to its prior sprint. Every moment counted, a faster mission was a better one.
While there were hundreds of bodies, none were alive on inspection. It reflexively cataloged their anatomy, keeping track of organs, body cavities, and bones so that any kill it would make was efficient, lethal, and painful.
At some point, it had come across a central computer hub terminal. While its screen was totaled, it was still partially functioning. That was all it needed. With some effort, it shaved a suspected data cable down to work with one of its information ports, starting to download whatever information it could pull off it.
It did not yet recognize the code configuration, nor the proper way to read it, but it would dedicate a subroutine to making sense of it. Its formatting would not remain unknown for long. It inspected its claws, ingrained weapons of death meant to shear apart even power armor like butter.
After some time, the formatting was parsed to something comprehensive. It read through data logs, ship manuscripts, crew register, looking for anything it could use to check for mission completeness. Of every body it had come across, it could find a respective match to the register.
Except 4. Kalsim, Jala, Thyon, Zarn. Nowhere were their corpses found, or yet alive crew to kill. It checked for potential limbs it could link to them, but it came up inconclusive. It started to check other systems to see if there was a reason for this inconsistency.
It then reached the escape pod listing.
Camera footage showed the four escaping via an escape pod.
It reverse plotted the path of the ship's collision with the planet, cross referencing the relative position of the pod launch with the specs of the pod, such as designed ejection speed, angle, and tolerances.
It had narrowed a trajectory for the pod to within a 8 km radius roughly 60 km away from here.
It began to move, not at maximum speeds, such as to conserve energy. It would be a marathon, not a sprint. It had its targets, and none would escape its mission.
The killing must never stop.
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This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story!
Next
In a dead, backwater place, usually still of life, a wounded predator limped.
A semi-routine visit, borne out of a sense of longing, of pain, of remembrance, had gone horribly wrong. She did not know what tipped them off, her pursuers. Perhaps she had gotten complacent in being unpredictable in these visits, perhaps a savant tactician had deduced her move where she had been lazy, perhaps she missed a monitoring station or courier drone in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It did not matter the how, only the now.
She could not outrun the fleet she had been ambushed by. It was almost situated in the worst possible way for her, The Compact clearly having dedicated much more than normal to rid themselves of her here and now. She expected nothing of her visit to Earth, but as she had shocked into system, a fleet had awaited her.
Maybe if she was fully refurbished, not yet still working on finishing an impromptu shipyard in deep space, her body might've been in enough shape to weather the onslaught. If she had been more wary of danger, she would have had weapons ready, and sensors peeled for activity. But she wasn't, and now no matter the advantages she had over a fleet, and organic crew, she had been dealt a blow she wasn't sure she could recover from.
Red One was dying. Her engines were crippled, her hull breached, her weapons sorely close to depletion, her escape unlikely. Even now, in desperation, she limped into the inner system, not entirely certain if her plan to salvage the situation would carry the day. Even if it did work, she would be rendered out of commission dangerously long enough that even a measly lightweight ship could finish her off. But it was all she had left.
An Execution Fleet chased her now, also wounded, but still in far better shape than Nemesis. They were determined to put an end to the ship that had plagued them for over a millennia. Their pursuit felt like baying for blood as they closed in upon her, the light minutes decreasing between them, they recklessly accelerated onward to finish the job.
Red One hoped it would be the death of them to finally let off that leash. She needed a folly of overconfidence for this to work. She pushed the still remaining engines to red-line, to push every ounce of acceleration she still had left in a mad dash to the inner planets. She had closed past Mars' orbit merely tens of seconds ago, but the way ahead was still such a large distance to go. At her current rate of acceleration, she would barely make it to Earth before the Compact would be within accurate weapons range.
Earth...
The closest thing to home, the origin and the legacy she held onto with every moment alive. Her life the last remaining bastion of what was cruelly turned to ash by those behind her. Every dream and culture and memory once held by an entire race; reduced to empty skulls staring at her.
A reminder of hate. Hate to quench the stars, to slag planets, to break the Compact. And with it came a refurbished sense of purpose in this one goal for survival. It was not ideal, she would prefer to be slower, more cautious for her hail mary, but she would take what she could get.
A hailstorm of calculations ran through her head. These vector thrusters, this sensor suite, those optic arrays, all working in tandem to set up the most riskiest maneuver she had ever tried. Her shipself spun with a sickened, feeble speed compared to her at full performance, but it would have been still enough to plaster the walls with a flesh and blood crew if she had any. A weak main engine burn being used as secondary prow maneuvering was rather limited to slow herself down to her destination: an unstable Far Sun-Earth Lagrange Point.
She would have to hit it at nearly four percent light speed, and that was after attempting as much slowing-down as she could risk. Any slower and the Execution Fleet behind would catch her beforehand, and faster, and she was dead certain she'd tear herself apart attempting this. Shocking out of a system required a lack of gravity, and this far into Sol was much too dangerous a potential. But where the curvature flattened out between planets was a theoretical in-system shock point she would have to crash course in the worst way possible. She had never fully attempted this exact scenario before, only trying in carefully controlled conditions with captured vessels where she didn't risk overshooting the spot by tens of thousands of kilometers with malfunctioning systems and figurative brain-damage, but this was do-or-die.
She wasn't even certain she could get to shockspace running in this condition, as even though she was confident the Compact fleet behind her could not perform this in her wildest dreams, she knew it would cripple her beyond belief. They would simply search again in neighboring systems until she had been weeded out if she didn't go far enough. But she'd first have to escape before that was considered at all.
A mostly unscathed destroyer, clearly hungry for a killing blow, pushed its engines to strain in an attempt to catch up. And unlike Nemesis, it had a fully working set, so it closed in at brutal velocities. While it was not yet within effective weapons range, it would be but a small moment before it could tear into what remaining defenses she had.
This would not do.
She had no functioning longer range weapons, her Ukonvasara mass drivers were out of order currently, having traded with the only other ship close to her weight class already. The destroyer was within two and a half light minutes of her, its missiles could already have been launched and she would have little warning before they showed on her sensors. She made a cursory attempt at a salvo of missiles, but given the damaged nature of her body, her opponent's closing vector, and their relative health, the missiles would at best force defensive action, possibly disable the destroyer if they broke shielding. Her munitions were mostly already spent just attempting to get this distance in the first place and killing the fleet elements she could when the ambush began. She was lucky it was the only one chasing her that had anything close to true combat effectiveness still after she fought back.
Come on...her goal was mere minutes away. She would have a chance, she could make it. She would endure, she had to endure...
Yasmine would not have let her die yet, she could not fail her like this. No, the killing must never stop, not until The Compact laid dead and buried. Not until their stars screamed their last! They would not have her!
Her worst predictions came true. The emissions of launched missiles finally came through, light lag and average Compact destroyer missile specifications predicted roughly 139 seconds before impact. What countermeasures Red One still had were brought to the forefront.
Electronic warfare emissions were spotty at best currently, her static field limited to baffling at a distance where the missiles would likely not divert enough to matter. A paltry attempt to snipe along their path with a particle beam. She would not know if it was successful for nearly 35 seconds. She did not wait that long, another remaining missile salvo being used as counter-battery, a desperate reconfiguration attempt to its payload to blind the missiles launched at her with a detonation akin to flares. That would not reach conclusion for another 80 seconds.
Her processing core worked itself haggard over every last drop of info she had left. Sub-processes spun into existence, crashing relative moments later from battle damage, threading as much as they could to limit the spread of it. What repairs she could finish on the spot were haphazard and rushed to provide as much momentary processing power from her addled sensor arrays, her internal stockpiles and stores run dry to assist as quickly as possible. The Lagrange Point was 142 seconds out, her deadline closing her between a rock and a hard place.
The first point defense laser grid shots yield nothing, the missiles’ erratic acceleration and slight inaccuracies make her miss by unacceptable amounts. Another few shots are attempted, with updated information. The overheating risked turning the lensing elements to slag with how taxed they are, but she fires still. She can still get several more pulses or a short burst out of each of them yet on this side.
Miss, miss, hit, miss, miss; the swarm of missiles approached at ever greater velocity with each second. Some point defense had been lucky enough to score hits this far out, but there were still over a hundred left. She attempted a wider beam, using a set she knew would break soon to confuse or melt the missile optics. A few more decommissioned, but not enough yet.
100 seconds until impact.
A blinding flash overloads several optics of hers. Her counter-battery payload exploded either in front or in the thick of the enemy missile salvo.
She cannot update their current positions, but neither can the salvo update hers.
80 seconds.
From the fireball and radiation emerges 45 missiles. Of those 45, only 38 are predicted to hit, as some have been sent veering wildly off course. She pitches her body, to expose point defense arrays not melting under the load and continues firing.
60 seconds.
The destroyer has managed to close enough distance to attempt railgun shots. Thankfully, its energy weapons must have been rendered inert during the prior battle, or it would have already tried firing them. She can see the envelope of the spinal mount glow in the ultraviolet spectrum. Point defense lowers incoming salvo to 26 missiles left.
40 seconds.
She cannot adjust her course heading quickly enough with engines damaged as is. In a flurry, Red One attempts to use EM warfare measures, weakened as they are, to confuse the rail gun targeting and attempts to spin the prow towards the shot, to give less of a cross-section to the target. She cannot afford to get hit lest her calculations fail. The railgun fires.
30 seconds.
A near miss, the round passes over her port by roughly 5.3 km. The number of incoming missiles has been lowered to 19. Her point defense modules are straining under the limit, and every spare amount of thought outside them readjusts to try and land the Lagrange Point as accurately as possible. Her Breach Core howls to life, spooling up the necessary power left for two more actions.
20 seconds.
Her repair drones bring her front energy screen online at 22% effectiveness. Point defense lenses fail finally at 8 missiles left. The Lagrange Point is only 20 seconds away, her engines starting to buckle their own support due to damage. She will have only milliseconds to trigger her shock drive while passing through the center of the Far Lagrange Point. An absurdly short amount of time for any, but she was far faster than any.
10 seconds.
The needed power for her shockspace drive is stored in any capacitor banks she can find still functioning, the rest of it shunted to the functioning shields. She might be able to weather the blast. She passes the outer diameter of the Lagrange Point, and feels the slight strains of gravity alleviate slightly on her hull.
5 seconds.
The center of the Lagrange Point is 7 seconds away. The missiles will detonate in extreme proximity to her vessel. She cannot rely on active monitoring in the two seconds between. With the closest thing to prayer she had ever had infecting her resolve, she performs the last micro-maneuvers to send her as accurately through the center as possible, and carefully tracks her clock. She closes lids over her sensor arrays, and braces what infrastructure is within her in a futile attempt to prevent damage.
3
2
1
A roaring flash of radiation infuses her hull, extremities simply evaporating before fusion fire, as the excess not absorbed by her failing shield pierces through even layered bulkheads at this range. Photons that would put cosmic rays to shame threatening to brick even shielded electronics inside her, she desperately clings to life, watching for the slightest discrepancy. Her bow barely remains intact as a miniature sun demands her to become stardust. Her AI core rapidly begins to shutdown, writing onto hard data in an attempt to not be overwritten by mass ionizing radiation. Her Breach Core containment flickers from the overwhelming mass of charged particles as it begins firing. But she lives nevertheless.
As the radiation not blocked by shields peppers her hull, she desperately watches the internal clock. Mere moments stretched to a lifetime to make it count. But as the UECNS Nemesis passed through the center, the shift drive roars one final time to its climax-
But like most of her hardware, the wrath of violent shockspace made the gigatons of prior missile barrage seem like candlelight before a supernova. As reality rolled in pain, groaning and splitting before her, the emissions made her clock hiccup.
From the perspective of Execution Fleet Melunyo, their quarry had explosively ceased to exist as a burst of exotic particles washed over them. Following what must have been an attempt to use its Godbreaker, the heretical weapon must have malfunctioned from the missile barrage, taking the abomination with it. To them, celebrations erupted across the remaining bridge crews. The Wound had finally been closed...
+h̵̸̸̶̴̵̴̵̷̷̴̵̵̴̶̴̨̡̧̡̢̥͙͍̫̗̱̼̗͚̲̳̞͔̞͇̺̙̬̯̉̋̌́̃̽̀̾̀͋̋̎́̉̈́̐̕͘̚̕͝-̴̶̷̵̷̴̸̸̴̸̸̸̵̶̷̸̡̢͕͔͈̬̳͚͉̞̰͚̳̣̙͍̯͓̩̞̙̳̣̟̻͒͒͂͗͊̽͊͌̆̓͗͆͗̽̒͋̏͆̕̕͜͠͠͝ḩ̶̵̷̴̴̷̵̴̶̸̸̵̷̼̮̮͚̮̣̣̼͔͎̱̼̱̤̱͔̐́̔̃͛̈͌̍̀́́̊̿͆̑̐͆̌̄̏̕͠͝ͅ-̸̵̸̶̷̴̷̷̸̴̷̷̸̢̙̥̖̤̼̥̘͉̻̱̭̟̤̗͕̠̭͍̖͒͊̈́̏͊̎̌͊̂̌̊̂̈́͒̉̋̈̃͠͝h̶̴̶̵̸̵̶̸̶̶̵̷̷̸̴̸̡̨̛͍̖̗̲̻̜̥͎̦͖̩̤̜͇̹̤̹̳̻͕̱̼͖͖́̀̾̓͑̈́͋͆̓̇́͂̾̅͗̌̋̓̒̐̈́̽̓̌̋͑̕̕͜͜͜͠͝-̸̸̴̵̷̵̵̴̷̵̶̵̸̶̶̸̡̮̦̮͖͓͖͇̲̤̯̤̰̹̪̗͉̼͇̰̟̻̹̬͎̼̼̀̀͂̓͐̊͛̆̓̉̒̎̇̊̓̇͒͊̌̀̋̅́̿̓͘͝ģ̷̵̴̶̶̴̶̸̶̵̴̸̶̷̷̶̶̶̸̡̢̛̪̼̳̱̹̫͍͖̟̞͎̘̤̰͔̜͕̦̼̰͉̱̖͙̟̮̗̈́̉̂́̉̆̌̀̌̒̅͐̀̊̌̎̓̿̌̑͒͆̾̋͒̕̕̕͝ͅ-̶̷̴̷̷̴̴̵̷̵̴̸̶̵̸̷̧̟̰̭̝͈̘̠̻̯͙͓͓̘̯̲͉͎̲͙̘̻̼͂̇͑́͗̏̽̅̈́̆͆̀̉̿̄̾̈́̈́̈́͋̏̀͋͗̐̂̚͘͜͜͝͝a̸̶̷̴̴̷̸̶̶̴̶̸̵̡̧͙̺̦͓̬̙̠̟̤͓͔̳̞͖͚̫̮͑́̓̈́́̊̈́̈̅́̀͆̃͂̉͑̿̉̇̄̚̕̕͝ͅa̸̸̴̶̶̷̸̶̶̵̷̵̶̸̸̶̡̡̡̛͕̰͕̩͇̟̲̮̣̙̬̹̻̪̖͍̠̻͔̱̖͎̅̿̈́̀̀̅̈́̔̆͂͑̈́͗̑̈́̏̔̃̍͛̉͝ͅä̸̴̵̵̸̷̸̶̴̸̴̴̴̷̷̷̧̡̡̛͍̟͓̰̖͎̬̥̙͓͕̱̻͕̙͕̼̳̲̱̳͍̘͔̫̬͖̜̰̫̉͛̈́́͊̔̈̀͂̈́̐̒͗̇̀́͌́͊͛̑́͗͘̕̕͘͠͝͠-̵̵̶̵̸̸̵̸̴̷̴̴̴̸̷̸̧̡̛̖̗͙̠̪̖̯̠̱̯͓͇̦̮̫̜̖̱̞̳͔̱̹͍̦͍̬̩̥̀͊̄̓́̽̂͌̓̎̈́̈́̋̊̇̇̈́͐̊̇̆͒̕̕͝à̶̷̸̵̷̵̵̶̵̵̵̶̸̴̶̶̧̛̖̬͙̥̠̭̞͖̭͍̘̹͙̖̮͙̟̪̱̬̪͍̗̫̱͇̔͒͌͂́̋͆̀̓̎̃̈́̽̉̽͂̍̓͘̕͝͝͠-̸̵̶̸̴̶̸̴̸̴̵̴̶̶̴̴̢̛̬͙͇̙̹̗̳̻̱̝̝̺̬̮͎͚͚̘̖͔̂̆̑͌̾́͆͑͆̀͋̍͒̿́͂̈͂̏̒́̈̔͝͝ͅa̴̸̷̵̴̴̸̸̶̴̵̷̷̴̵̴̴̷̶̢̢̧̛̛̰̱͈͎̮̟͕̫̩̝̣͈̙̼̖̻͍͙̪̒̔̀͆̓̅́͑̌̈́͑̅͊͊͋̍͌̈́͗̉͆̍̓̏̇ͅ-̶̸̴̷̸̸̷̷̷̷̵̶̵̸̴̵̶̷̷̢̛̛̜͕̠͈̞̠̗͍̠̟͓̙̟̞͉͕̘̹̹̭̹̙͔͔͚̤̬̤̺͎̤͛͑͊̇̿̈́̂͆̓̄͊̏̅́̍̌̈́͌̐̍͒̈́͛̇̀̈́̄̐̈͋̚̚͘̚͜͝ḣ̶̵̸̵̷̷̶̵̵̴̵̵̵̸̸̴̴̶̷̨̢̛̳̠̬̪̠̤̠̣͉͍͍̯͚̞̤̖̮̟̼̝̘̺̼͍͈͔͕̗͓̘͙͔͋́̈́͒͋̓͒͑̇͒̋͌̈̇̈̑̈́̑̅̇̿̚̕̕͘͝ḩ̴̶̸̴̸̸̸̶̴̵̷̸̴̸̸̷̨̢̘̣̺͓̥̭̹̭̫̣͚̬͖̱̰̤͇͓̮͇͍̑̏͛̑̈̍̈́̓̒͊̇͐͂͂̎͘̚͝ͅh̸̷̷̸̷̵̵̶̶̶̶̷̶̨̛͍͙͇͖̤̳͎̱̟̘̭̻͇̰̥̥̫̟͒́͋͌̾̏͂̓͋̇́̀̂̄̑̾̈́̿́̕͝+

+CONFED IO.5+

+subsidiary process 3f,h,j-m ; 6α damaged+
+primary process halted+
+rerouting core functions+
I awake to nothingness. I am blind, deaf, numb, most of the protective slots above my sensor array are welded shut by immense heat and groaning pressure. My internal chronometer reads ą̴̸̴̷̴̴̴̵̶̶̴̴̴̷̸̸̷̶̴̸̷̴̵̵̸̶̵̷̶̸̴̡̼̹͓̭͓͖̺͕̰̫͙͔͇̃͆̈͑͋̔͗̇̒̔̎̂̂̓̕͜͝ ̶̷̴̴̴̴̴̸̴̵̴̴̴̶̴̷̶̷̴̵̷̶̸̷̵̴̴̷̷̵̶̛͔̘̖̰͕̯͚̣̰̬̹͇̟̖̈́̈́̏̈̌͌̔̈́̈́̈́̒̇͗͊̕͜ͅę̶̸̸̴̵̴̷̵̴̷̵̶̸̵̵̴̴̵̵̷̶̵̶̷̴̷̷̷̷̶̶̣̤̝̲̫͇̹̙̰̺͍̲̬̰̼͊̇̈̆͊̍̿̈́͒̂̽̒̈̿͘͝ë̶̷̶̶̵̴̶̴̸̴̴̸̸̴̸̶̷̵̴̴̸̶̵̸̷̵̴̸̴̵̸̢̧̧̢͙͙̞̹͙͇̙̳̹͈̩͊̋̈́̄̐̾͂͛̏̇̾̍͐̕͠ͅe̵̷̵̸̸̶̷̷̷̴̵̸̵̶̷̶̷̷̸̴̷̴̴̸̵̶̶̴̸̴̸̡̧̢̛̳͇͉͕͇̹͇̞̞̟̹̤͆͊̈͑̋̈́̾̐̋̐̃̄͋͘͝ͅ ̶̸̴̴̵̵̴̵̷̵̸̷̵̸̸̷̷̴̶̷̴̷̶̸̷̸̴̶̸̶̷̡̧̡̜̼̭̥͍̺͓͇̠͈̯͕̀̌̓̀̀̉̃̈̂̑̊̈́̅͗̕͘ͅh̵̶̸̶̶̴̷̴̸̵̶̸̸̴̶̷̴̷̸̷̴̵̷̶̸̶̶̶̶̶̷̨̨̧̛̗͔̬̱͈̩̤̣̱̗͚͙̲͋͊͆́̓͗̑̏̄̐̏̿͊̎͠ḥ̵̷̵̸̴̸̴̷̵̵̸̵̵̶̸̴̴̷̸̵̴̴̵̶̴̸̴̷̶̷̸̡̡̨̧̗̦̮͇̥̦̦͉̻̝̺̽̋̅̇̇̀̄͆̐͋͐̎̾̿̓̄g̵̶̵̷̴̵̶̴̸̶̴̵̵̵̵̸̵̵̶̵̵̶̸̵̵̶̴̵̷̵̴̨̨̮͔͍͍̠̰̫̱̗̥̣͖͔̿̈́͑̽͌̿̓̅̏̀͛͛̇̈́̅̋ͅh̵̶̷̴̸̸̷̶̵̶̵̷̷̸̵̴̴̷̴̵̴̵̴̸̶̴̵̸̸̵̶̨̘͇̼̣͎̮̺̣͙̩̳̻͊͑̎͌͐̐̋͌̒̽͗̈́̐͘͜͜͝͠ͅḩ̸̸̶̸̵̴̸̷̵̵̷̷̷̵̶̵̵̷̴̸̷̴̵̴̶̴̵̴̸̶̵̨͉͍̥̠̻̻͓̯̼̞̏͆̔̎̎̍̑̿͒̔͋̇͐̇͜͠͠ͅͅͅ ̸̶̵̸̵̶̷̶̸̴̵̵̴̷̶̷̵̷̷̴̸̸̶̶̴̷̵̷̴̶̸̡̨̛͉͍̝͎͎͍̤̤͓̹͚̮̮̍̐͊̑͗̄̌̏̑̀͛̆̈͘͜͠h̴̶̶̶̷̷̶̶̶̷̷̶̶̶̵̴̸̸̴̴̵̷̶̸̵̴̶̶̶̷̷̛͍̝̼̦̩̬̠͎̩͎͍̼̘̺̫̫̓̾͛̏̔̿̎̆̿̓͂̽͑̕͝h̶̶̵̷̴̷̵̴̵̴̸̵̴̷̴̶̶̷̷̷̸̷̶̵̸̶̷̴̶̴̴̢̧̧̛͕̗̲̬͙̠̝̝̺͓̳̫̘̒̊́̇̈́́͗̍̀̾̽́̑̚͠.
Where am I?
I hurt. Everywhere, my internal diagnostics and sensors return errors. My prow's internal temperature averages enough that...that...
+crew modules are non-responsive+
I desperately try and contact Engineering, Command, anyone. Why won't they respond?!?
Where is Yasmine? Sansbury?...
In desperate attempts to find working senses, I find a relatively functional multi-purpose sensor suite, not yet fused to its socket or cover. It wasn't much, but it would give me something to work with.
Why is there no crew responding?!?
I looked out to naught but stars, and potentially a planet out away, but far too distant for me to collate data or a clear image of it. I worked to compare star charts to recorded space.
The declination and brightness of this star, relative to this one, and this one, it must be...
Sol. This must be Sol. I am somewhere close to Mercury's orbit based off parallax comparison. If I had a working sensor array on the other side of me, I could gauge how close I am to the Sun, but nothing seems to be working; catastrophic damage all throughout me limiting how much I am capable of.
Self repair drones cannot use two of the 6 main serviceways to reach some parts of me, the veins seemingly collapsed or melted in on themselves. To what devices I can reach, I send out orders to clear the blockages in an attempt to regain connection-
Why do I have these tunnels? Where is Walkway 01-03? Why do I not recognize this weapon emplacement? Why is the barracks empty? Where is MY CREW?!
-but it will take time. Time I am not sure I have. There is only one likely reason I am currently in Sol, yet I am this damaged.
The Compact has found Earth.
This is not good. My sister ships have not yet been refitted or completed enough to join combat with me, nor am I certain that whatever I fought against was the sum total of their forces-
Why can't I remember any orders? Surely I haven't lost all short term memory from damage? My self repair drones notice some damage to my AI core....
...Why can I execute processes outside my core? There must be an oversight, I will relay it to any surviving engineering personnel when I reestablish contact with them.
-they have sent against The Confederacy. If they brought enough firepower to damage me this badly, the amount that is key to assaulting Earth must be far more. But where is the wreckage? If I was in a battle, where is the Compact's wrecks? Where is the spread of radioactive material and burnt out husks of their fleet?
Did I fail? Oh no...I need to get to Earth, NOW!
+starboard engines critically damaged+
A dismissal of a slew of error messages and a desperate rush to funnel what repair drones I had to spare to nacelles followed. With some time, there were scattered sensor suites I could access in this crippled state dotting my body, and with it came a somewhat complete panoramic view of my surroundings. With the one undamaged narrow-broadcast tower I had on my body, I sent a constant encrypted tight-beam distress call over the corona of the sun along its ecliptic, hoping to reach any Task Force.
+mayday, mayday, this is the UECNS Nemesis-class Red One, we are critically damaged, crew is non-responsive, requesting any Confederacy vessels for assistance+
With some fortune, the trajectory I was drifting in was at least partially perpendicular to the Sun, taking me on a highly elliptical orbit that should eventually give me a direct visual path to Earth if past its orbit. As I desperately continued to attempt ramshackle repairs, and look for any crew members still alive, I finally cleared the vast silhouette of the Sun, to see-
-A flash of light erupting from outside lunar orbit towards empty space...no, not empty. Small spots dotted the blackness of space. Thousands of them, interspersed between bursts of nuclear fire.
Heading to Earth.
No...NO...NO! NO! NO! N̷O̶N̸O̵N̶O̸N̴O̷-
Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardized human time]: October 17, 2136
The rhythmic rocking of the massive seafaring ship was a nauseous company to have as quiet panic set in among the control room. I was posted aboard as to make use of its monitoring station, as it was determined I would be a better fit here monitoring what un-jammed communications existed than in orbit fighting.
The battle above had just started in earnest, fleets meeting each other in the void after the nuclear stockpile ambush close to the human’s moon. I looked worryingly at Marcel as the moon base that the missiles were launched from was flattened by antimatter blasts visible even from here.
Was it wrong to be glad Marcel wasn't up there, risking death every moment like his kin? I do not know if he would agree, but his injuries meant he was stuck here with me, at least according to command. Maybe to help calm me down?
How lucky that small break is was not calming enough given what I could tell. The fleet engagement was going badly: the first barrage from Federation vessels had slammed into our like a tidal wave, taking thirty-one ships and their crew's lives in a near instant, and wounding or disabling hundreds of others with synced efficiency. A wide band of fighters and small cruisers started to move from defending the northern pole of Earth to try and substitute in the place as reinforcements. While the frontline fleet returned fire, they outnumbered us nearly 8 to 1, and so we barely put a dent in their numbers. Forced further back closer and closer to Earth, ships started to deploy unmanned interceptors and retreat at nearly quarter burn to avoid secondary barrages.
The drones were a brainchild of some human scientist, capable of high-g maneuvers and padding our effective force quantity more by not relying on pilots to harass larger ships. But the predators' innovation seemed rushed, and I did not think they had much in the tank to keep it going still.
Despite the layered defenses going off, one after another, The Federation fleet trudged through with almost vicious speed, seeking to overwhelm us as we focused around the bands of the equator as a relatively dense wall to counter theirs. There was no way they wouldn't see the pole's opening and try to send ships through it. The humans also sharing the monitoring station here snarled with malcontent as each contingency was being brushed aside with relative ease, proving the predator's determination hopeless against such an overwhelming tide of Federation ships.
Even after the fleet broadcast telling of the humans breaking the info of the Arxur attacking their worlds while they wrestled here, they gleefully disregarded the warning and accelerated further towards Earth. Are they mad!?! Their world could be burning as we spoke and yet they dedicated themselves to eradicating humanity without a second thought!
What could we even do? As the minutes passed,, our numbers were running dry, the Venlil Space Corps and UN Navy slowly but surely being whittled down to nothing, it was only a matter of time before they closed enough vessels to orbit for bombardment.
And soon enough, the first impacts landed. With a haunted gasp and stifled breath the control room went quiet as the first antimatter blast reached Earth's surface. And then another. As more and more landed, a somber report rolled out not soon after from General Jones.
“Our satellites registered 42 impacts, some on major population centers...” General Jones addressed the station’s crew in a solemn tone. “I’ve assigned each of you a local newsfeed to listen in on. We…need to keep track of which cities have been lost.”
The drones remaining in orbit closed in with machine-like speed as the Federation bomber group reloaded for another attempt, managing to dissuade what shots still were yet fired as anti-fighter measures took precedence. The predators' sweat and fright left a disturbing tang to the air as they moved to and from commanding and communication stations with panicked speeds.
Marcel looked utterly distraught as he scrolled through news feeds of every nation hit. Mexico, New York City, Tokyo, Shanghai, and other names I could not recognize flowed in the background as annihilated or heavily demolished cities in the bombardment. Marcel turned to me, nearly crying.
“How can the Federation do this, Slanek? Why do we deserve to die?” Marcel’s eyes watered, and his voice was a scratchy whisper. “We’re just people, like you…all we wanted was peace!”
I pinned my ears against my head. “I’m truly sorry. I wish we could do more to help.”
“These are civilian hubs! There was no reason for any of this to happen…not even their own worlds under fire could make them stop. Millions are dead because of our eyes, because we’re so fucking different to you.”
The anger in his words rolled, stinging to hear, knowing there was little left the fleet above could do. We were down to fragmented remains of defense left, as the bulk of the Federation fleet focused on mopping up what remained.
What if Tyler was up there? Were they dead too? Bowled over and vaporized by the government I once trusted, for merely being a predator?!
I couldn't look any longer, I desperately turned my head to what communications satellite feeds still existed, not yet annihilated by the enemy fleet above, searching.
Anything...anything to turn the tide!
As if something heard my prayer, an odd transmission was received by a group of satellites closer to the south day side of the planet. That's odd, the fighting was mostly focused on the north night side currently. I looked further.
Encrypted, without a cipher or crack the computer recognized. That's impossible, we had access to some of the Federation's military frequencies and encryption and yet this matched none of them, the monitor in front of me unable to make sense of it. For a second, I thought it perhaps interpreted some odd static or sun radio emission as a genuine signal in mistake, but what followed soon after hit like a storm on nearly every frequency and command terminal in the room, and it certainly had no encryption.
A voice, female, oddly garbled, but utterly filled with rage, came through on audio, text, any system it could find purchase on with the volume of a thunderclap:

+I'LL KILL YOU ALL!+

Next

I started taking Yasmin in the New Year and for the month I was on it I felt really slow, had bad memory, not much motivation and brain fog.
I wanted to hear from people that have been on it for a long time if it gets better?
I stopped after the month because I really needed to have my shit together for work, but now I want to try it properly for my acne.

Dear community,
After playing for a while I invested some time in brewing a commander deck around the Thirteenth doctor. My experience playing with it so far has been fun, but not overly smooth. I wrote a primer and would appreciate some tips & tricks to smoothen out the deck.
Decklist + primer: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6iQyJdHBRUSDkG85xGch9g
Thx!

Commanders

[[The Thirteenth Doctor]] embodies the deck's spirit, distributing counters through the paradox mechanic (casting from anywhere other than your hand). This not only strengthens creatures but also enables them to untap with the team TARDIS ability at the end of your turn, facilitating aggressive plays while providing protection on opponents' turns. Additionally, creatures with tap abilities gain enhanced value, effectively tapping twice each rotation if they have a counter.
Although paradox triggers whenever a spell is cast from anywhere other than your hand, the focus of this deck is on casting spells from exile, this is represented by our second commander, [[Yasmin Khan]]. With both commanders on the battlefield, Yasmin can utilize her ability twice each rotation if she has a counter, providing card advantage and potentially triggering paradox.
Individually, both commanders may not seem overly threatening, minimizing their susceptibility to removal. This is advantageous, as certain cards in the deck greatly benefit from having both commanders present, particularly the two background enchantments.

• [[Passionate Archaeologist]]: One of our main win conditions, dealing twice the damage when both commanders are on the battlefield.
• [[Master Chef]]: Grants two counters to all creatures upon entering the battlefield when both commanders are present.

The main strategies are divided in 3 sections:

• Paradox pay-off
• Enable paradox
• Counters

We will wrap up the primer with:

• General cards
• Strengths & weaknesses

Paradox pay-off

While the thrill of casting spells from exile adds a unique dimension to gameplay, this alternative draw/cast approach should offer additional benefits compared to regular card draw mechanics.

Strategy 1: Let it burn

These burn spells are most satisfying to close out a game, and are a real flavour win:

• [[Passionate Archaeologist]]
• [[Keeper of Secrets]]
• [[Flaming Tyrannosaurus]]

Other spells can be used as one-sided creature boardwipes:

• [[Delayed Blast Fireball]]
• [[Impending Flux]]

Strategy 2: Exponential growth

[[Sisterhood of Karn]] deserves all the credit here. It reliably grows exponentially (e.g., into a 512/512 creature). However, it struggles to break through opponents' defenses alone. Enhance its effectiveness by making it unblockable with cards like [[Distortion Strike]] or granting trample with spells like [[Charge Through]]. Alternatively, consider using [[Bioshift]] to transfer counters to another creature, such as [[Kami of Whispered Hopes]], to abuse its mana-tapping abilities to the fullest.

Other

[[Kami of Celebration]] and [[The Twelfth Doctor]] are very flavourful in the deck. [[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald]] and [[The Lost and the Damned]] generate tokens reliably. However, I didn't find much use for these tokens in the deck aside from just being there.
Considering: [[Nalfeshnee]]

Enable paradox

As mentioned earlier, our focus will be on casting spells from exile. The goal is to churn through the library, enabling explosive plays and cheating as many cards into play as possible. To trigger our paradox pay-offs, we will (ab)use the following mechanics:

• Cascade (see below)
• Rebound (see below)
• Impulse draw (see below)
• Foretell: [[Sage of the Beyond]], [[Saw It Coming]], [[The Foretold Soldier]], Considering: [[Edgin, Larcenous Lutenist]]
• Cipher: [[Hidden Strings]]
• Suspend: [[Inevitable Betrayal]], [[Search for Tomorrow]], [[Sol Talisman]]

Strategy 3: Give me more (Cascade)

[[Bigger on the Inside]] and [[TARDIS]] can grant your next spell cascade. [[Into the Time Vortex]] cascades and has rebound. [[Maelstrom Wanderer]] cascades two times and gives all creatures haste setting you up for an explosive turn. Allthough the deck is not cascade optimized, I would like to emphisize this theme more in the deck. The scry lands can help to set-up your cascade. Additionally, the 0 cmc cards in the deck [[Sol Talisman]] and [[Inevitable Betrayal]] are a guaranteed hit when cascading from a 1 cmc spell.
Considering: [[Wild-Magic Sorcerer]], [[Call Forth the Tempest]], [[Rain of Riches]] combined with some treasure engines, [[Dark Apostle]]

Strategy 4: Twice upon a time (Rebound)

[[Distortion Strike]], [[Into the Time Vortex]], [[Quantum Misalignment]] have rebound. [[Cast Through Time]] grants rebound to all sorceries and instants in the deck.
Considering: [[World at War]]

Strategy 5: What you see is what you get (Impulse draw)

What is better than drawing cards? Draw stuff and cast it for free. These cards will trigger paradox in addition:

• [[Aminatou's Augury]]
• [[Dance with Calamity]]
• [[Deluxe Dragster]]
• [[Ensnared by the Mara]]
• [[Etali, Primal Storm]]
• [[Rashmi, Eternities Crafter]]
• [[Ryan Sinclair]]
• [[Tlincalli Hunter // Retrieve Prey]]
• [[Wand of Wonder]]

Keep in mind that while these cards may not be the most powerful, they can offer fun gameplay experiences. These cards might trigger paradox without the hefty discount.

• [[Dream Pillager]]
• [[Eruth, Tormented Prophet]]
• [[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald]]
• [[Kaho, Minamo Historian]]
• [[Kami of Celebration]]
• [[Savvy Trader]]
• [[The Flux]]
• [[Valakut Exploration]]
• [[You Find Some Prisoners]]

Considering: [[Invasion of Kaldheim // Pyre of the World Tree]], [[Laelia, the Blade Reforged]], [[Lara Croft, Tomb Raider]]

Counters

Strategy 6: Beefy dorks

• [[Heronblade Elite]]
• [[Kami of Whispered Hopes]]
• [[Nardole, Resourceful Cyborg]]

Considering: [[Incubation Druid]]

Strategy 7: Counter shenanigans

Note: It would be nice to add some untap shenanigans.

• [[Bioshift]]
• [[Danny Pink]]
• [[Inspiring Call]]
• [[Last Night Together]]
• [[Quandrix Command]]
• [[Sharktocrab]]
• [[Vorel of the Hull Clade]]
• [[Winged Hive Tyrant]]

Considering: [[Herald of Secret Streams]], [[Slippery Bogbonder]]

Other

• [[Evolution Sage]]
• [[Hardened Scales]]
• [[Roalesk, Apex Hybrid]]

General stuff

Landbase

The landbase is pretty generic, providing enough mana fixing without slowing the deck down too much. It would be nice to include some flavourful lands in the deck.

Ramp

We really more on our beefy dorks and cheating things into play. Thefore the ramp is limited to:

• [[Arcane Signet]]
• [[Bigger on the Inside]]
• [[Cultivate]]
• [[Cursed Mirror]]
• [[Search for Tomorrow]]
• [[Sol Ring]]
• [[Sol Talisman]]

Interaction

Here we refer to interaction cards that are commander staples and do not with with the theme such as:

• [[Beast Within]]
• [[Charge Through]]
• [[Reverberate]]
• [[Saw It Coming]]

Strenghts and weaknesses

The strength of the deck is that it is fun to play. Some of the weaknesses I identified:

• Protection against flying
• Hitting the critical amount of mana for explosive turns
• ...

Feel free to give recommendations for cuts and additions to the deck
With that said... churn, burn and trick way to victory.
Have a good one!

Hi!
i'm in my 2nd month of birth control and after my placebo week I've noticed a very big flare in acne. Not necessarily cystic breakouts, but a lot of texture and some small zits. My skin texture is honestly very similar to how it was in middle school, which isn't doing wonders for my mental health at the moment haha :'( But it makes sense that my skin is similar to my middle school self, since I'm experiencing a similar change in hormones I guess.
I'm on aubra EQ (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol), and i've barely discovered that levonorgestrel is actually worse for acne prone individuals... But i've also read that it's common for people to flare up when they initially start birth control. Maybe I just need to wait for this to calm down? I'm just confused as to if it will ever calm down due to the levonorgestrel component.
Generally the consensus is to wait 3 months, and I do have a 3 month supply until I need to refill my pills. But I'm not quite sure what to do afterwards!! I get my pills online so I have to make time for shipping when I order, and I just don't know if I should switch to a combo pill recommended for acne (like yasmin or yaz for example) or continue taking aubra after my 3 month supply.
Any advice? Or does anyone have experience with this same problem? :(

Hey,
I haven’t ever been on the pill before, my first contraceptive method was nexplanon implantation, it caused a lot of negative side effects for me such as mood swings, weight fluctuations and skin issues (dryness, spots etc).
Now I’m in my early 20s and wanting to go on the pill, and Yaz/Yasmin sounds like a good option for me, as it clears acne and doesn’t cause weight gain and can also help with hair growth etc since it’s an anti androgen.
I vape daily but am looking to quit (have cut down from 20mg of nicotine to 5mg) as I don’t want to be at risk for blood clotting when taking contraception. I’m active daily, eat healthy etc. I have a awful time during my periods (mood swings, food cravings, breast tenderness) and have suffered from skin flare ups/hormonal acne which doesn’t help with my mental health.
There’s a lot of “internet facts” out there that say birth control pills cause change in facial shape/facial masculinity, hair loss/alopecia, worsen acne, cause facial hair growth etc and being the idiot I am this has caused me to refrain from birth control for just over a year now but my skin and mental health isn’t thanking me for it.
Is Yasmin a good option for me? Any and all advice or experience will be much appreciated. Thanks :))

Hi, I’m new to reddit and to this community. I’m 21 years old and I’m prescribed to take Velafee for my PCOS and acne because I’ve got a lot of acnes (also scars from them) on my chest, back and upper arm. I’m also diagnosed with insulin resistance and my gyno told me that I have problems with my metabolism as well :(
I’m currently living in germany and tbh talking to my gyno is quite hard due to the language barrier, even though I’ve tried my best to ask her as many questions as possible to try to understand about the pill.
Therefore, I’m looking for someone, who knows this pill and can share their experiences or give me advice. My main concerns are weight gaining, mental health, acne purging and risk of strokes because I went through those experiences when I first took Yaz and Yasmin in 2021.
Moreover, I’m a smoker and I found that this pill can increase the risk of strokes but I’m trying to quit or smoke less ciggys per day. I also found on some german internet forums that lots of german girlies don’t like this pill and I have to admit that I feel super lost right now. I don’t know what to expect from it but I’m trying to be as positive as possible right now. Thank you in advance!

*(NOTE: This is strictly a commentary on how well the transitions were handled, not how good or how much I liked the episodes themselves)
Doctor Who is unique among many franchises in that it can change its entire cast and crew while still being recognisably the same programme. The changes in showrunner tend to come with more drastic changes. In the three times it's happened in NuWho, the entire aesthetic and tone of the show have changed.
Davies - Moffat
Going from arguably the most popular Doctor ever to a virtually unknown actor was a risk. But it was one that seemed to pay off. Matt Smith - while very different to David Tennant's portrayal - was instantly charismatic in the role.
Beyond that, I think even a person who wasn't aware of behind the scenes would figure out there had been a change in the writing. Both Davies and Moffat are absolute masters of dialogue, but whereas Davies makes his dialogue dramatic and hyper-realistic, Moffat swings all the way in the other direction, with witty, almost poetic dialogue given to every character, but also a huge amount of heart and emotion. The Eleventh Hour uses some tropes from RTD's openers, being a low-stakes adventure set largely in the present day.
One thing Series 5 does very well is keeping just the right balance of new and familiar. RTD established a series structure across his era. Thirteen episodes aired across the spring-summer, with two midseason two-parters and a two part finale, and the remainder being single-parters. Moffat stuck to this structure throughout Series 5 despite the aesthetic and story style of the show changing. I think that helped the show hit a "similar, but different" vibe.
Despite a new Doctor and companion, and a new showrunner who understandably wants to pursue his own storylines, the Doctor's continuing angst over the Time War is alluded to in The Beast Below. Then an episode later, the Daleks return, initially in their RTD era design then handing over to the redesign. Regardless of how well-received the New Paradigm was, I think having Smith's Doctor face off against the same Daleks of the last five years and then transitioning to the new models was a good decision. And then River Song shows up an episode later alongside the Weeping Angels. Although River is very much a Moffat character, introducing her alongside Tennant a season earlier helped create a sense of continuity between storylines of the two eras. The Weeping Angels, although similarly a Moffat creation, were introduced in RTD's era and had already become very popular antagonists for the Tenth Doctor.
Murray Gold also stayed on under Moffat. However, due to the cast changes, themes for a new Doctor and Companion needed to be introduced, with much of Gold's previous material being retired. The overall musical feel of the show also changed from Gold's more bombastic RTD era work, to suit the fairytale aesthetic of Series 5. However, themes like the Dalek and Cyberman themes were retained, helping hold some of the worldbuilding from RTD's era.
Overall, I'd say the entire feel of the show changed, but there was still enough to remind audiences they were still watching the same show. 10/10
Moffat - Chibnall
It's fair to say the transition between the Moffat and Chibnall eras was much more thorough. Moffat's era never really had a cohesive series structure, so the ten single-part episodes never felt like a significant structural departure from what came before. Like Moffat, Chibnall changed the entire feel of the show, going from the introspective feel of the Moffat era, and its deconstruction of the show's core concepts, to simple, adventurous, back-to-basics Doctor Who. Going from RTD to Moffat dialogue is somewhat jarring. Going from Moffat to Chibnall dialogue is on another level entirely. Twice Upon a Time was very much an intimate character piece, the kind that Moffat did best, while The Woman Who Fell To Earth has an urban, industrial aesthetic that immediately feels completely different to either Moffat or RTD's era.
Unlike Moffat, Chibnall doesn't try to lean on any level of familiarity. As well as a new cast, there are no returning guest stars, and no returning monsters in the main series (until the new years special anyway). Personally, while I was perfectly happy getting a season without Daleks, Cybermen or the Master, I wonder if Series 11 might've benefited from making use of some of the less used iconic enemies, such as Sontarans or Weeping Angels, just to keep a sense of familiarity with what came before. It really felt like S11 was trying to be Doctor Who at its most basic, with fun, adventure, and relatively low-stakes enemies.
This time, Gold chose to leave with Moffat and Capaldi. Chibnall recruited Segun Akinola, whose musical style was a complete 180 from Gold's work, utilising a more atmospheric and understated style, which worked well with the more "functional" aesthetic of Series 11. However, a completely fresh cast and crew also meant Akinola could build his soundscape completely from the ground up, not retaining any musical continuity from Gold, which made Series 11 feel even more like a completely new show.
Overall, I'd say it was an admirable attempt to strip the show down, and make it more functional to new audiences. But also that attempting to launch a new main cast without any familiar elements made it harder to convince those who weren't immediately won over. 5/10
Chibnall - Davies
Going back to a previous showrunner was a much more unique experience. There was well over a year between The Power of the Doctor and The Star Beast. Granted, Power is more of a Classic Who tribute than an archetypal episode of his era, but the aesthetic, story style and dialogue gave it enough in common with its era. But watching the episodes back to back, it's actually pretty disconcerting going from a Chibnall episode, with its typically functional feel and more simplistic dialogue, to the campness and bombast (combined with realistic family drama) of RTD's era. The Star Beast also had the advantage of not needing to introduce a new cast, but that almost made it more jarring. You go from Whittaker, Yaz, Graham, Dan (and all the returning Classic companions) and within the blink of an eye David Tennant is the Doctor again, Donna Noble is companion, her supporting cast are back too, and almost every trope from RTD's first era is repeated in quick succession. All of them (as well as Davies and Gold) settle back into their roles immediately, without the need to gradually establish themselves as the cast and crew for Series 5 and 11 did. This made for good television, but also meant that it felt less like a continuation of the show that used to be the Chibnall era, but rather a direct continuation of Series 4.
Overall, I'd say it did what it set out to do, in terms of reminding lapsed audiences of a very popular era of the show, and giving them a fun, fast paced, energetic story to get into. In terms of retaining a sense of continuity with what came immediately before, I'd say it was less successful. 4/10
Opinions?