Hello all - I'm having issues dealing with a hostile boss at work and was curious what some of your guys' experiences have been. It's not so bad to the point that I want to confront him just yet but I am taking screenshots of messages and collecting evidence for whenever I do confront him directly. I've been in this job for a year and would say it's going okay. I know there are things they wish I did better and there are things I wish they did better but overall I enjoy working here and do feel valued to an extent. I feel like one of my boss' loves to take jabs at me in group messages that other colleagues are in and this bothers me. He's from the UK and they can be a little smart sometimes but I don't think he would appreciate me being smart/snarky back to him. I know I'm not the only person who has dealt with this and I think people have even left because of him. It's a smaller company that is growing and I'm not ready to jump ship just yet.
What would some of you guys be doing? Or feel free to share some of your experiences with your hostile boss' to make me feel better about mine.
Thank you all have a lovely day

Me and you. Not two peas in a pod but more like 2 rabid animals in a cage. Every moment we found some time together, it would be filled with insulting jabs, belittling, almost insulting phrases to knock each others confidence. Why?...well we aren't really sure. It wasn't like anyone got hurt or we went too far, but the rivalry that came out of nowhere seemed to stem from some sort of unrequited attraction that we were too stubborn to admit.
A few years later, we've moved on with our lives and the old high school days seemed to be behind us. We matured, grew out of our spite and went about our mundane adult lives. I changed my name, moved across the country and essentially started a new life. I wasn't flowing with cash at the time so i found that the best way to save money whilst getting a new connection in the city was to put an ad online for a new roomate in the apartment i chose to stay at.
Unbeknownst to yourself, you were also looking for the same deal and so you hastily accepted the ad, not knowing that it was in fact your old high school rival that was to be your roomate. Will we still hold the same grudge like angsty teens or find more common ground through our grown up eyes?
Greetings all, i hope the above premise caught your interest. If it did, feel free to read on.
I am a 21 year old male based in the GMT timezone and i am seeking to roleplay with a literate female writer about the above plot. I am a literate writer myself where i write multiple paragraphs and I'd say im pretty detailed with my writing.
Availability wise, i am mostly free throughout the day as im in between jobs at the moment. I don't mind what timezone you're in but it would be good to know so i can generally keep track of timings on your end.
I want to write with someone passionate, detailed and who i can talk to OOC and develop a good connection with as i feel like its important to enjoy the company you write with. I will always be open and transparent with my thoughts and feelings and i trust that you will be too.
I also prefer roleplaying on discord so it'd be handy if you preffered it too.
Reference pictures for characters are always preffered. To preface, i don't use realistic ones.
If you're interested, feel free to send me a chat and introduce yourself. I'll get back to you as soon as i can.
See ya~

Martial Arts using my imaginary opponent. Does it even work or worth it?
I have discovered Martial Arts when I was 15 (Or 16, can't remember which) and I wanted to learn Martial Arts, but the problem is, I can't go out because I am too young. So I searched up on YouTube for Martial Arts lessons and did Taekwondo first begore moving into Muay Thai, Silat Cimande, Sanda/Sanshou and Arnis/Kali on Youtube lessons. But another problem is, I don't have an opponent to spar on (Not even my siblings or parents). So the only way for me to not make an excuse, I had to use my imaginary opponent to make it real (Well, almost). It has been 4 years since I have done it (Now 18, not really yet after my birthday) and I WAS sure that I got the practices right, but when I applied the techniques to one of my friends, like dodging their punch, Sanda's wrestling and blockings, (Do not worry, I wasn't going full force even for them, just testing it out. No harm was intended) and it just doesn't work on them, even I suck at reacting the incoming jabs that was meant to be fast a bit (They were just testing me by trying not to actually punch me in the face, well they just touch my face like that), even I tried to make my imaginary opponent jab me unbelievably fast, and that's where it got me thinking if my 4 years of training Martial Arts with my imaginary partner even worth it or work? Or am I even missing something? I enjoyed Martial Arts with using my imaginary opponent, but I have a doubt that it won't be effective in the long path if I keep doing this. For those who had done this and experienced this before like I do. What are your opinions, and what do you think? And I know this is a stupid answer to ask, feel free to call me an idiot, but I can't get off the feeling of it.

Added a picture to illustrate exactly where I feel the pain.
I (35M) will start by stating the following: I am going to include all background information I believe may be pertinent towards the diagnosis of this pain, and investigations that have taken place up until now. It will include me mentioning the covid vaccine. I am not an anti-vaxxer or a conspiracy theorist.
I have had this pain almost continuously since late-December 2021. Up until this point I had never had any physical or mental health issues, other than GERD which I had been taking Omeprazole for since my late teens. I had also been taking over the counter ibuprofen every day for 3 years due to a leg injury sustained in a car accident in 2017. I haven't taken any for about a year by now.
I got my second Covid booster (Pfizer) on 22nd December 2021. After having zero ill-effects from the first one, the second floored me for a couple days with strong flu-like symptoms but I was generally ok by Christmas day, other than a burning feeling in my stomach. However, as mentioned above, I have GERD so I thought nothing of it.
A few days later, the burning in my stomach had turned into more of an ache and although this was initially positioned to the upper left of my abdomen (just behind my bottom couple of ribs) it eventually settled exactly where my Xiphoid Process is. On top of this, my urine became very frothy (something that's persisted to this day) to the extent where it looked like I had been mixing it with dish soap! I became very worried about this, so called NHS24 (I am in Scotland) and got referred to emergency out of hours doctor. The took my bloods and ran a urine sample. Urine came back normal which gave me relief, and later that week the bloods came back. I can't remember exactly what was "raised" but it showed that my body had been dealing with trauma. Their solution to this was to wait it out a couple weeks, give me painkillers, and then do a new blood test to see if the levels returned to normal. They did this as planned, and by that point my bloods then showed as "normal" and NHS basically didn't want to do anything more about it.
However, for me the pain persisted and it was now the pain and location it has been ever since. It is with me all times of the day, it doesn't seem to matter if I am full or hungry, moving or sedentary. The pain is always there. Sometimes it is barely noticeable, other times it is uncomfortable but never excruciating. The only thing I have noticed that seems to make it worse is caffeine intake. Painkillers have no effect. Omeprazole has no effect. Stretching doesn't do anything. Nothing I have tried has any impact on the pain at all. When I touch/push in the area around the Xiphoid Process, it always feels tender and bruised, as if I have just taken a really hard punch the day before. It's been like that now for 3 years.
I went to my GP in Feb 22 - she ordered more bloods (looking for infection) and ordered me a chest x-ray. Again the bloods showed trauma! The x-ray didn't show anything. New round of bloods had returned to normal. At this stage, the GP didn't know what else to look at (NHS albeit a free service, are very reluctant to order additional tests they may deem as unnecessary). GP tried to say it would just go away on its own, was probably a strain in my rib cage - I work out 3 times per week, weight lifting - and threw more painkillers at me.
My job provides me with private medical care, so I went to a specialist who ordered a CT scan and more bloods. Once again the bloods showed trauma levels which suggested to him I was fighting something off in my system. The CT scan didn't show any abnormalities and the specialist basically put me on a "wait and see" solution, which was to go away for 3 months and see how I got on. I lost hope with this and eventually stopped any further medical interventions at that point. It was clear to me I wasn't about to drop down dead any time soon, and all major illnesses had been ruled out, so I left it at that. I subsequently haven't had it seen to since then, which was mid-2022. Yet some 2 years later, I still have this persistent pain.
I am wondering if anyone else has experienced similar and got anywhere with this? It's driving me crazy not knowing what is wrong with me and has me worrying about my future. I have 2 young kids and feel I am doing them a disservice by just ignoring this in case it gets worse.
TLDR Summary: Have an aching/bruised-like pain in my Xiphoid Process area for 3 years. Never goes away with different levels of severity. Had bloods, urine tests multiple times. Chest x-ray and CT, all normal apart from bloods frequently showing trauma reaction. Started almost immediately after my second Pfizer jab. Have told this to all doctors, largely ignored. Specialist did acknowledge it but admitted medical knowledge hadn't yet caught up with possible side-effects.
https://preview.redd.it/ypu6ocz8wc0d1.png?width=572&format=png&auto=webp&s=e11f91252010141e2b09851b5a2757b3d3d0327d

Hey everyone. As usual, feel free to remove if it's inappropriate to post here.
So I am originally from the US, so that could be the cause of my confusion here but I'm hoping for either an explanation or a recommendation.
Ive had some pains the past few months that made me suspect my IUD was in the wrong place. After an ultrasound to check the position of it, it is in fact too low. This has happened before, but I was in the US, and my provider, (a woman) simply removed the old one and replaced it with a new one.
Today, my doctor (a man) basically told me that it's...fine? That I could just leave it where it is?? This doesn't seem like medically sound advice- it could cause damage in there, from what I understand about IUDs. It's not causing severe pain, but a jab here and there, and more when I have cramps-but ultimately, I can still function.
So I'm hoping you all will weigh in- Do I try and get a second opinion? I know doctors are SLIM pickings.
Or do I just go along with what my doctor says, despite the fact that it's contrary to how the issue was handled previously?

Or rather, in a dedicated repost, because silly me couldn't read the pinned post and wait a few hours before posting my text the first time.
​
After giving a proper rewrite to Ayano, it's now time to do the same for her love interest. But first, I must give my apologises. The title of my post is "Reworking Taro", but it's actually misleading because there was barely any work to redo to begin with. Ok, there was the easy jab at the original character. Reading my previous rewrite posts isn't necessary to understand this one, but would allow you to grasp the differences with the official game better. If you're too lazy to do so, just keep in mind that my rewrite is a bit more social-focused. Anyway, here's my full-fledged take on our senpai.

Just an ordinary upperclassman: Daiki Tanaka (田中 大樹)

Although Taro Yamada is a perfectly valid Japanese name, it's literally the Japanese equivalent of John Doe. This name just gives me the impression that nothing really matters about him, and that it isn't even worth the effort thinking about a proper name. That might have been the dev's intention, given Taro's characterisation in the game, but I personally can't consider being so lazy about the second most important character. So, rather than keeping this name that makes Senpai seem like some background character, I chose names that actually are very common in Japan in order to keep the "average guy" feeling. The most common Japanese surname is Sato (佐藤), but that sounded a bit too generic for me, so I opted for Tanaka (田中), another widespread name that you might already have seen in some anime. Surprisingly, despite also being common, Yamada (山田) doesn't even come close. For his first name, "Daiki" (written like this: 大樹) means "big tree". It's a fairly popular boy name during the last decades and doesn't refer to anything particular, except maybe the fact that he is a big brother.
Just like many other mediocre harem MC, the main problem with Taro is that he is extremely bland. There's literally nothing worth noticing about him. Now don't get me wrong, making one of your main characters an Average Joe isn't a bad thing in itself, and I know that a yandere having a crush on ordinary people is nothing uncommon in modern Japanese media. However, even the most boringly average person that you can think of still has defined personality, goals, and passions that makes them at least more interesting than a slice of stale bread. In our case, you could replace Taro with a random object and the story would still make as much sense, which usually isn't a good sign for a story meant to have a serious tone. Just like my name choice suggested it, I wanted my version of Taro to stay ordinary. However, I tried to flesh out the little characterization he originally has to make him stand out in his own way, so that the numerous girls' interest in him would feel a bit less unbelievable.
This is Daiki Tanaka, a 17-years old Japanese boy living with his parents and his little sister. Like many other Japanese high-schoolers, he goes to high school from Monday to Friday, attends classes, studies for his tests, and hopes he will be accepted in a good university. And just like many other teenagers, he is is having interrogations about what he wants to do after graduation, how his classmates view him, and whether he'll find himself a girlfriend. Clearly, he's just an average student. Among the typical students you can find in a school, Daiki is a hard-working one. Pressured both by his parents and himself to get the best opportunities he can to settle his future, he is self-conscious about his academic performances and is always trying to improve his grades. Thus, he preferred to remain clubless and spend his free time alone to focus on his studies. Most of the time, he is seen studying at the school library, or reading a book of classic literature next to the fountain. But behind this ordinary reserved bookworm loner appearance is a kind and cultivated boy with a strong sense of justice and a clear passion for the old texts he's reading, making him actually quite a charming person to spend time with for those who can see past his plain exterior. Ayano, of course, is one of those few people, but little did she know that she won't be the only one interested in her dear senpai.

Gameplay role

According to the wiki:

Gameplay-wise, Taro is more similar to a "moving obstacle" rather than a regular interactive student, as he cannot be interacted with normally.

And you see, to me, that's a big problem. You spend the entire game keeping rivals away from Senpai by killing them, making them uninterested in him, or ruining their reputation, and after all the bad experiences he had with those (rather) normal girls, you expect me to believe that the girl Senpai, the perfectly normal guy at all levels, ends up choosing is the creepy lonely student that he has barely spoken to? Nah, I don't buy it. This is why, in my rewrite, my Senpai would be (most of the time) considered as a regular student that you can actually interact with. That means, first, that Ayano wouldn’t get immediately flustered by him when approaching him. I understand that people, especially teenagers, can act shy, nervous, or a little clumsy when their crush are at sight, but seriously, the depiction of this behaviour in the game is completely ridiculous. So, in my hypothetical game, you will have a small amount of time where you will be able to act normally near Daiki and talk to him before your heart starts beating louder and the screen gradually turns pink. Past this point, things pretty much happen the same as in the official game, since Ayano is emotionally unstable. Naturally, the more you interact with Daiki, the longer you will be able to remain calm in his presence.
Now that Senpai can be interacted with, it’s time to explore the potential of this addition by giving him another feature regular students have: tasks. Even if you can withstand his aura a bit better than in the official game, most of the conversations you’ll have with him won’t be long due to Ayano’s shyness. So, if you want to befriend Daiki, those little errands are the key to increase your affinity with him. For a more immersive narration, Daiki's tasks won't be your usual fetch quests that you can accept or refuse, but small talk where you must pay attention and figure out what to do to by yourself. The tasks will be at first very simple, like bringing him his schoolbag that he forgot in his classroom or gifting him the book he wanted to buy. Then, as he feels more comfortable around you, he will start talking a bit more openly about his life and his preoccupations, naturally leading to more complex tasks with more vague formulations and less obvious solutions, such as helping him become less invisible among his classmates. What would be the point of doing all that, will you ask? Having a higher affinity with Daiki will allow Ayano to make him follow her if you need to tactically move him for one of your eliminations. He will also be more likely to reject the rivals’ love confessions in case you don’t have the time to deal with them yourself. Moreover, narrative-wise, I think having the main character interact with their love interest would be a more realistic and healthier depiction of romance in the story. Well, as “healthy” as a yandere can be. But of course, you could also completely ignore this mechanic and focus on eliminating if you want to.
Finally, I would like to improve the reactions he has regarding students' disappearances. Despite all those things happening near him, he is shocked for a bit and then just kinda... accept it like nothing strange happened? The second most important character of the game, ladies and gentlemen. I get it, Senpai is a loner, he is passive, and he is dense. But at this point, that's not being passive anymore, that's being a wooden plank. So, this is my take: Daiki's sense of justice and passion for literature gave him a natural curiosity for crimes because of its depiction in novels. When facing murder, he will mostly act according to the loner archetype. However, if too many deaths or disappearances near him stay unresolved by the police and his sanity is high enough, he will find the courage to take a more active role and investigate on the crimes himself. Obviously, Daiki won't be able to arrest anyone by himself, but he has the advantage of being directly at the crime place and closer to the people at school than the police. Thus, he could report them additional details that they might have missed, like a student acting stranger than usual, missing tools or places cleaner than usual. This could put you in trouble unless you cover your tracks very well, or just prevent him from investigating. And of course, I would also implement Senpai's sanity meter that has been promised for I don't know how much time (but honestly, are you still hoping for it to be implemented after all that happened?), although slightly reworked. Daiki's sanity would decrease with any person dying. The closer the person is to him, both physically and figuratively, the lower it would drop. The deaths that would affect him the most would thus be those of his sister, his childhood friend, or anyone murdered right in front of him. On the opposite, a random student dying at the other side of the school would barely have any effect. A low sanity would have various effects on Daiki depending on its value and the amount of time he has spent with the other students. Those effects could be taking private lessons due to his grades dropping, joining a certain club to feel safer, or shutting himself in at home in one of the worst scenarios. In any case, this would affect his routine. Just like in the official concept, he would be able to recover sanity with a long enough crimeless period or giving him gifts. Only now would the rivals also be able to use the later method to gain affection, making them act a bit more like romantic rivals. I hope you don't mind actually caring about your senpai's mental health.

Relationships with other characters

The rivals
Obviously, a reworked senpai means reworked dynamics with your main targets. Since detailing everything would be way too long for a single post, I'll just link here my take on the romantic rivals that I decided to keep in my hypothetical game, and here, what I'd do with the discarded ones. Since they are Daiki's closest people, and the most likely to affect his mood in the game, I'll still put here what I have in mind for my version of Osana and Hanako.
His sister
Just like his canon counterpart, Daiki loves his sister very much. A feeling that is reciprocated a bit too much. Unlike her brother who has a balanced lifestyle, the middle-schooler is a very clingy girl who can't imagine being away from him. She has the bad habit of leaving her school during lunchtime just to visit him, which greatly embarrasses Daiki. Even if he appreciates the time they spend together in the end, he knows that this behaviour is unhealthy, and hope that, one day, his sister will find the confidence to become more independent. In my rewrite, the little sister isn't a romantic rival, but someone that I'd call a "big obstacle", as her role is mainly to appear at random (or maybe not, I haven't decided yet) days during lunchtime and potentially mess up your planification for the day. You wouldn't want to kill someone in front of your crush's beloved sister, right?
His childhood friend
Daiki and his sister have known their neighbours' daughter for more than a decade. All three of them used to play together during their childhood. The neighbours' daughter is a brash and impulsive girl, whose personality clashes with Daiki's quieter nature. Despite frequently being at odds and arguing about trivial things, both of them deeply care about each other and would be the first person to help the other if they were having problems. Daiki and his friend didn't have many occasions to see each other since elementary school, until the girl coincidentally transferred to the same high school as him. Even if he is now more serious and reserved than before, deep inside, he is still the same kind boy that she knew. Now that they can once again spend much time together, the girl has come to realize she was in love with her dear friend, but her internal turmoil and her personality make it difficult for her to act sincere and confess her feelings. She stays otherwise pretty similar to Osana, except for the greater consequences when dealing with her by using lethal eliminations, and maybe the fact that she won't be the first rival to appear.
Budo (or whatever name I'll end up giving him)
Yes, you read it right. That guy that overshadows Senpai among the fans is one of his friends in my rewrite. Because even the most introverted individuals are able to develop relationships with people that aren't potential romantic interests. The leader of the martial arts club is an outgoing action-oriented boy who is pretty popular at school. Unlike Daiki, Budo always knew in his heart that his place would be in a dojo, and thus doesn't have much interest in academics. But despite having such different backgrounds and personalities, both boys share the same sense of justice and admiration toward heroes. When he's not attending classes, studying or reading, Daiki hangs out with Budo, and is sometimes invited to watch the martial arts club members practicing. If too many dangerous events happen around Daiki, Budo, as an aspiring hero and good friend, will propose to escort him at certain periods, becoming basically a part-time bodyguard.
Ayano
Nothing much to say here. Daiki unknowingly reminded Ayano, who has locked her heart for years, how great it is to have feelings when they first met, and now she wants to make sure nothing stands between them. How she will reach her ends is your decision. If she decides to spend time with him and do his tasks, he will think of her as a peculiar, but well-intentioned girl. Just like in canon, Daiki is oblivious to Ayano's feelings, but it's more due to the fact that they barely know each other.

Trivia

• Regarding his career choice, Daiki is hesitating between becoming an author, a lawyer or a criminologist.
• Like Taro, he also likes nature and gardening, but to a lesser extend.
• Sometimes, instead of a book of classic literature, you can see him reading the latest crime novel at the fountain. With a pen and a writing pad, because he's just that invested.
• Since he is friend with Budo, he sometimes feels too plain and boring compared to him regarding romance. If you use matchmaking to eliminate a rival, his self-consciousness will grow a bit stronger.
• He has never bought a panty shot from Info-chan, but honestly, do you really find this surprising, or even relevant? He has never even contacted Info-chan.
• I had quite the choice among popular Japanese boy names. Daiki could've been named "Yamato", "Daisuke", "Hiroto", "Yuto", "Yuu", or even "Satoshi" instead.
• In the official game, if Ayano commits a crime in his sight while wearing a mask, Taro will rip the mask off her face with no regard for his safety or his character consistency. I would like to get rid of this behaviour for Daiki, except for one specific circumstance.

​
And that was my full-fledged take on Taro. When you have an ordinary person as a character in the middle of very colourful ones, the key to make the public care about him is to give them tangible preoccupations that, even if they aren't always relatable, make this character at least feel like a real person with human struggles and dreams, and not just a barebone plot device. And that might seems obvious, but if you have to write a love interest, make sure you actually show your public what your main character likes about him. That's even more important in the case where many people are attracted to this character. I tried to take those two things into account when rewriting Taro, and I know it's far from perfect, so don't hesitate to tell me what I should improve. In any case, if you made it to the end, thank you for taking the time to read this long post. I hope I'll find the motivation to do the same with other characters.

With each week that passes, more facts emerge that demonstrate how we were justified to be critical of the experimental jabs. Still, reddit seems oblivious to reality and their knowledge is frozen in 2021. Is there anything that could sway admins and mods who banded together to shut down free speech and critical thinking?

Some context: I'm a chronic gamer and my friend works 18+ hours daily so I honestly have more free time to play casually and practice competitively. It's Tekken 8 and we both started playing and learning the game together. We recently got into an argument cause he felt like I was being cheap and "spamming".
More context: He was frustrated and in my opinion started playing with less effort and started being "unsportsmanlike" (cheap lmao) Jab punching 3-9 times (not a "true combo" IMO), throw mix-up mashing, only using one command combo out of 100+ commands on the move list is insane honestly (Alisa's back + circle)
Last bit of context: what I'm doing is essentially doing 3-6 command combos and throwing in the 10+ hit combos and mixing up what I know and have learned.
Hell get annoyed by me doing the same strings with a character and start complaining or something else and then starts throwing the game by not playing or as I mentioned he'll try and compare my play style and what I'm doing to jab spamming, only doing one command Blasé Blasé etc.. and start complaining or shortly end the session afterwards.
For me it's semantics because I took the time to look at the move lists with my favorite characters and practice what works and what connects into other moves. he'll literally get frustrated by me playing the game properly and competitively and start playing with less effort or cheap by only doing back + circle with Alisa or the x/circle chain combo with Eddy. two blatantly broken metas ATM IMO.
He's the kinda guy who's old school so he ain't much for arguing or even heated conversation hell get frustrated talk shit and then hop offline instead trying to converse so he wasn't honestly tryna hear me out or my perspective either and I get it cause he was frustrated so I just sent em some long winded replies and let it be.

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MNS Trassau

Speinfoent turned around to face Loenda and reported the battlegroup status. “Commander, all ships have successfully completed the blink. Squadrons 4 to 12 all reporting in.”
“Good. Now let’s find out if this ridiculous scheme of yours gets all of us killed,” Loenda said. “Are you sure your sire and dam were not Grass Eaters?”
Speinfoent ignored the jab and continued with the report, “Our sensors are still resolving the enemy ships, but I am certain we are in the right place.”

ZNS 1841

Ditvish woke to the urgent cry of the ship’s klaxon. Wiping sleep from his mind, he picked up his communication device. “Did Skvanu get the raiders from Sixth Fleet?”
“No, Ten Whiskers, you must come to the flag bridge at once!”
“What is it this time? Can’t you ask your combat computers?” he grumbled tiredly.
“Ten Whiskers, the enemy fleet is here!”
He woke up in a hurry. “What?! Here? In Datsot?!”
“Yes, they just blinked in! Their fleet is heading our way, and they have just gone into a full combat burn!”

MNS Trassau

“We are seeing two to three squadrons of space combat ships, mostly Forager-class missile destroyers, and their Thorn-class battleship, the 1841. In orbit of Datsot are another thirty-two orbital support ships and several dozen other support vessels,” Speinfoent reported. “The enemy combat ships are stationary and in a loose formation. It looks like we did catch them off guard.”
“For now,” Loenda hedged. “They’ll be ready and engines hot hours before we come into range. And we don’t have the Nile’s magic sensors working with us this time.”
“No, but we did get the other fishing supplies in the last shipment.”
“We have only been exercising with those for a week!” Loenda exclaimed. “It is risky for our first live use to be against a fully capable combat fleet.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in exercises…” Seeing the ugly expression forming on her face, Speinfoent hurriedly moved on. “Anyway, the missiles will work. They may be barely fastened to the outside of our hulls, but I’m sure they work. After all, we didn’t make them.”
Loenda counted up the enemy ships on her console and did some calculations in her head. “Against my every instinct, we will go ahead, but with the most risk-averse option you came up with earlier. Execute Option Charlie.”
“Affirmative. Maintaining burn. Execute vector change in three minutes…”

ZNS 1841

“Ten Whiskers, they are performing an orbital transfer,” Ditvish’s computer officer called out, eyes glued to the glowing screens of her console.
Ditvish leaned forward. “What is their heading and intercept now?”
“It appears there is no intercept. If they continue their current burn, they may eventually move into a parallel orbit to us.”
“Parallel orbit? That doesn’t make sense. They didn’t come here just to make us wet our pants. Ask the combat computer, how far from us will they be at their closest?” Ditvish asked, puzzled.
A minute of calculations later, she relayed from her console, “It depends on whether they execute another vector change, but at their current burn and at their closest, they should come no closer than twelve times the maximum effective range of our missiles.”
Ditvish peered at the sensor panel, racking his brain for ideas.
None of this made any sense. Skvanu reported in earlier with a blink relay ship since the FTL radios were not working. In the data packet, he said that he was chasing three squadrons of the enemy fleet and planned to run them down with the superior blink fuel capacity of the Znosian ships — these must be the other nine squadrons from Sixth Fleet.
What were they doing here?
If these Lesser Predators forced him to engage in fleet battle here, they very well might have an upper hand, with their nine squadrons to his mere three. But they weren’t cutting him off aggressively or forcing an engagement. If they did move in boldly, he could always back off… delay until Skvanu finishes, returns to Datsot, and coordinate to trap this fleet in the system. But the enemy seemed almost… disinterested in combat; it did not even look like they were going to transfer into range.
“What are your orders, Ten Whiskers?” the computer officer asked.
For the first time in a long time, Ditvish felt at a complete loss. “None for now. Continue to observe the enemy and stay on high alert. Be prepared to move. And update me when Eight Whiskers Skvanu reports anything.”

MNS Oengro

The vacuum of Plaunsollib once again filled up with the communication chatter and munitions of the Malgeir fleet.
“Weapons-free… Kraken away.”
“Bandits deploying glow-worms.”
“Anchor gadgets to Jackal. Tracking.”
Grionc sat back and watched the controlled chaos of the Oengro bridge unfold as they engaged the outnumbered supply convoy escorts in front of them as they continued to stay one step ahead of the massive armada right behind them. The task remained familiar. The practiced crew could have completed this in their sleep. The stakes were higher now, but the job remained the same.
“Vampire swarm. Defending.”
“Popping confetti and turning up the music.”
“Vampires trashed.”
Either through luck or because they had gotten really good at it, most of the projectiles the eight escorts launched at them went wild, flying off into space chasing dazzler signals in errant directions. A few did come closer but were fooled at the last second by decoys and other countermeasures. The remaining were shot down by the Malgeir’s native close-in defense systems that were now being boosted by superior gravidar sensors aboard the Nile light seconds away.
The enemy convoy was not so lucky. Their sensor signatures disappeared from Grionc’s console, one by one.
“Splash four Forager. No, make that five.”
“Kraken away. We have two more on the way. They’ve gone pitbull.”
“That’s splash six and seven. Can someone confirm number eight?”
“Check. I have number eight.”
“Roger.”
Finally, Captain Vastae turned to Grionc to confirm. “High Fleet Commander, the supply convoy has been destroyed. Looks like the supplies self-destructed too.”
Grionc nodded in acknowledgement, not taking her eyes off the sensor console.
To underscore how common this type of success had become, even the crew’s cheers were subdued. In tonnage, this was no less a victory than it was the first time it was pulled off, but this was a crew who had been there before. They’d seen it. They’d done that.
And there were still the hundreds of enemy combat ships trailing them. Some were getting uncomfortably close to entering their missiles’ maximum powered ranges. None had fired yet; the Znosians were not so undisciplined, but it was close enough to make Grionc nervous.
She nodded at Captain Vastae. “Follow the vector we have been provided towards the systems limit. I don’t want to be one second behind schedule.”

ZNS 2228

Eight Whiskers Skvanu had known from his hatchling-hood that he was different than the others. His educators and caretakers always complained he asked too many questions and never took enough responsibility for his own actions. He learned to suppress the questions and to fake contrition, even when it didn’t make sense, saving those thoughts for the privacy of his own brain. He found this practice useful, and he used it to quickly ascend the totem-pole of rank in the Znosian Navy.
A meritorious society with supposedly transparent accountability, it should not have been so easy for him to breeze past promotion after promotion in his career. But when it was so easy for him to think for himself and simply obscure failures when they occur, his competitors didn’t stand a chance.
That was until he met Ten Whiskers Ditvish.
There, he met not only a kindred soul, but also one who could see right through him. At times, the senior fleet master made him feel like a fraud; at other times, he felt special, as if he’d been given a gift. Under Ditvish, he thrived. He was given more responsibility than normally assigned to regular eight whiskers officers by Ditvish, and here he was proudly commanding the bulk of his fleet.
Skvanu was determined not to let his mentor, and increasingly his confidant, down.
He looked at the sensor panel on his console. They will catch these Lesser Predators.
“Eight Whiskers, we still can’t talk to the Datsot fleet on FTL radio,” his computer officer reported. “I take full responsibility for this continued failure.”
“Don’t worry about it, Six Whiskers,” he replied casually. “We expected this to happen. It must be those Lesser Predators. Either a device on their fleet, or somewhere else hidden in this system. It is truly a war-changing upgrade, in ways that they might not even fully understand. Once we defeat them, we will take apart their wreck bit by bit and chase down every lead until we find it.”
“Yes, Eight Whiskers,” the officer replied. She hesitated for a moment but then decided to speak her mind. “I am— Don’t you find it deeply unsettling to know we are out of contact with the fleet master and— and the rest of the Prophecy?”
He looked up at her, gazing into her frightened eyes. “No, not at all. In fact, I am comforted by the silence. No micromanagement. No orders from above. Just our own wits to survive and win this battle. Full responsibility, for my actions, for all our actions. Today, there is truly no one else to blame.”
“Yes, Eight Whiskers,” she bowed, thankful for his insight and her confidence bolstered by his self-assurance. “That is an enlightening way of thought.”
“Indeed, it is. And besides, we still have our blink relay ships, even if they are slow in getting information through.”
“Yes, Eight Whiskers. Another has just departed with news of the supply losses.”
“Now, tell me what the enemy has done since they rejoined Six Whiskers Mgnats and his ships with the Prophecy,” Skvanu ordered, looking at the console in front of him. The enemy’s three squadrons had taken apart the eight escort ships like they were a knife through water without losing a single ship. It would have been difficult to believe had he not watched it happen through his sensors in real time… Almost real time. The two-hour light speed delay meant that his fleet died before they saw it get engaged. But the fleet was closing on the cursed Lesser Predator ambushers…
“They had been a half leap ahead of us the whole time, but the combat computer evaluates that one of their ships may have been damaged in the… skirmish with Six Whiskers Mgnats.”
Skirmish was an… ambitious word choice, Skvanu thought. Slaughter might have been closer. He prompted, “How did the combat computer come to this assessment?”
“Their acceleration is now slightly but measurably lower than when they went into the fight. It’s about a ten percent reduction. It thinks that one of them sustained minor damage and the rest of the fleet is matching its acceleration profile to mask the identity of the wounded ship.”
Skvanu frowned. “That does not seem right. Is there any evidence that Mgnats’ ships scored a hit on the Lesser Predators?”
“No,” she admitted. “Our sensors saw no debris. But it may be an accident, friendly fire, or some kind of a technical malfunction aboard one of their ships. The combat computer is speculating. But they are moving slower now: that much is clear to the sensors.”
“How does that affect our intercept timeline?”
“Given our current vector and accelerations, we will intercept slightly after they reach the system limit. They will probably attempt to blink out, but all we have to do is observe their blink vector and follow.”
Skvanu nodded. “And at that point, for all the upgrades these Lesser Predators have received, there’s only so much blink fuel they could have retrofitted a combat ship to carry. They can’t have improved their blink range much. Not enough to overcome our two-to-one fuel capacity advantage, at least. Today, the predators shall become our prey.”

Meta

State of war map updated.
Previous
Chapter 52: Just Passing Through

Disclaimer: I have to shorten the words on this one because the chapter had gone on for to long and stole the word count limit. Every person in this section has my deepest and most sincere thanks for the art, memes, and love they have shown my series.
Thank you to: for proofreading, editing, and this art. Check his fic here!
u/Talentlessfurry for this art.
u/Roddcherry for adding Novel to the charismas party he drew.
u/everyveryever for this art.
u/Emotion-Senior for the meme.
u/Orphandestroyer99 for the comic and art.
u/abrachoo for the meme.
u/guaiwutongzhi for the art.
u/United_Patriots for the art.
u/migulehove for the art(s).
u/aMANTEIGAdo for the art.
u/SlimyRage for the art.
Thank you to each and every one of these amazing people!
CW: Accidental Substance Abuse
Memory Transcription Subject: Novel, Kolshian Scientist and Self-Proclaimed “Gamer God”
Date {standardized human time}: October 19th, 2136
The elevator ride took a lot longer than I would have liked, my excitement and anticipation making it difficult to stand still. Ada’s room was almost at the top floor of the building — along with those of the other members of my herd — making it take a bit longer to get to than most of the other Humans’ I’ve visited while here.
Seems they are keeping the various tribes in their own groups. The fourth floor has the Germans, French, Polish, and Austrians, with a few Danes and Swedes mixed in. I wonder if they did that to keep the different tribes from fighting with ones they don’t like? Doubtful really, everyone seems to get along well enough, disregarding a couple jabs here and there. Probably just makes geographical sense to put them together.
My pondering was broken with a soft ding of the old elevator doors opening. I stepped out of the elevator quickly and took in my surroundings. There were very few humans milling about the quiet halls as they went about their business. One human with comfy-looking pelts had noticed me step out of the elevator and had frozen where they stood. After a short, yet still uncomfortably awkward moment, I gave a wave with one of my upper appendages and walked down a different hall.
A few moments later, I pulled out my pad to look at the message Sindre sent me.
Room 441, hailey and i went to get some stuff for the sesh. ada will be there in a bit. see you soon, {censored}
From: Sindre(Human)
I quickly typed out my own message.
Thank you! I’ll meet you there!
From: Me
Stowing the pad, I made my way there. Along the way I encountered several more Humans, each of which having some sort of reaction to my presence. Mostly just freezing in place or casting glances at me as I walked by. Some of them recognized me, either from when we baked together, or when I was in the rec room when the news dropped and gave me a wave in return. There was one case though when a Terran exited their room, saw me, and let out a noise I can only describe as a squeal before diving back into their room.
That last one confused me to no end, as I had never seen that reaction from a human before. I considered knocking on the door before thinking better of it and continuing down the hall to my destination.
How curious… I'll have to ask Ada about that human and why they ran away from me... Heh, prey scaring predators. Not so long ago, such a concept would’ve been seen as the ultimate goal, any real-world examples derided as only that of a dreamer’s fallacy, and yet now… I don’t think I like the idea so much…
I made a mental note to apologize to them if we ever meet again and kept walking, this time with my form hunched and my pace a little faster than before so I could avoid bothering the Terrans as much. It seemed to work, and the humans seemed to look away a little faster than they had previously.
Arriving at Ada’s door, though, I composed myself as best I could, straightening my back and taking a deep breath to calm myself. I knocked on the door a few times, only for it to open a slight amount. Cocking my head in confusion, I listened to the slight groaning of the hinges before I gently pushed it the rest of the way, the door creaking loudly in resistance.
The room smelled of wax and freshly harvested Othll bark, like I had just walked into the home improvement aisle of a store. Walking further inside showed me the source of the smell, which was a set of candles sitting on top of a nightstand in the corner… next to a fire alarm with the battery taken out.
That’s a little concerning… that can’t be safe at least. I should tell her to put it back in when I see her… wherever she is.
Looking around the room some more showed it to be quite unkempt, with pelts and other junk laying strewn haphazardly across the floor. Personal knick-knacks and picture frames sat on shelves and tables around the room, making the places feel a lot more homely than the other rooms I’d been in. A large TV sat on the other side of the room across from the bed, which had been recently used, going by the blanket on the floor and the pillows tossed about. Against the wall next to the bed was a large couch that had clearly seen better paws, the top layer peeling heavily and scattering the little bits of plastic covering everywhere.
Sitting next to the TV appeared to be some sort of Terran gaming console, complete with bright colors plastered across its many faces and with several different wires coming out of it. Far more than there should be, since part of the case it was in had been smashed to fit more cabling into. Tools, used wires, and broken plastic laid scattered next to the patchwork job.
Seems they really did modify it. Makes sense, since I doubt it would normally work on our systems at all… we should really put that fire alarm back in…
Just as I started walking over to inspect it, my lower tentacle caught something soft on one of the suckers. Looking down showed it to be one of the chest pelts Ada had been wearing the paw I met her. Closer inspection showed the whole floor was covered in discarded pelts, including some I had never seen before!
I let out a sigh as I looked around at the mess… I hope she doesn't mind if I cleaned up a bit.
And that's exactly what I did as I waited for my host to return. It did not take long for me to find the garbage can and hamper she used for her used pelts. While I worked though the piles, I took note of the stranger clothes I saw. Most of them were the regular chest pelts that I’d seen every human wear, but others were completely unique or otherwise somehow unusual.
One such example was what I can only describe as some sort of winter gear? It had a very intricate design on the front made of lace and a very soft interior made of a kind of purple fabric. What made it even more strange was that I found several of these scattered around the room, meaning that she was wearing these pretty regularly too!
Hmmm… perhaps it is meant to keep their ears warm? That would explain the strap on the back, as it would be meant to go under their chin. That doesn’t explain why she would be using it though, and to have so many! It must get cold in here when the A/C kicks in, I guess. This place is really old after all.
Either way, they went into the hamper. I left the tools where they were, in case they belonged to different people, but everything else went straight into the trash. The whole process was pretty exhausting, but the room ended up looking much nicer than it had before!
Just as I finished bagging up the garbage can, the door gave a loud creak as Ada stepped in wearing some pretty comfortable-looking pelts similar to the ones she had been wearing a few paws ago, pink prey head slippers and all.
A few {seconds} pass as she starts pulling out clear totes full of what I assume to be her things before I break out of my confusion and flick her a tail wave.
“Hey Ada! Whe-”
“AAAAHHH!!!”
She screamed as she stumbled onto her back, causing me to drop the bag and jump in fright. We stared at each other for a moment before Ada spoke up.
“Nov’?! What the fuck are you doing in here?! You weren't… ya Allah, you scared the crap out of me!”
My arms and tentacles raised up in a pleading gesture after I realized what I did. “S-sorry! I-I thought you would see me! And Sindre said to meet you here? F-for the games?”
Ada took a few more moments to calm down on the floor, but eventually, she stood up and took a few breaths. “You’re fine, squiddie… Sindre didn’t mention how close you were so… oh well, doesn't matter I guess. Uh, what’s in the bag you got there? Also… where are all of my clothes?”
At her observation, I picked up the trash bag and held it up for her to see. “Well… your room was a bit of a mess, a-and you were gone, so I did a bit of… cleaning? Nothing major, just throwing away some trash and putting the pelts in the hamper.”
“Oh, well, thanks Nov. I was gonna get to that befor-” Suddenly she stops herself mid-sentence. Her eyes widen as she casts her forward-facing gaze over to the pelts’ bin.
For some reason, the human's usual light brown features darken considerably with a crimson bloom. Ada turned to look at me, and I gave my best happy expression I could muster to put her at ease. This time, the human's face twisted into an obvious forced snarl before she gave up, running a hand down her face.
“Novel, j-just a heads up for the future, it’s considered rude to go through someone's room and touch their… pelts without permission. They are, um, quite personal belongings, and we don’t let other people touch certain ones. Fuck, uh, don’t tell the other two about this either. It would be, eugh…” Ada’s snarl gets larger as she looks back to the hamper, the crimson still blooming across her face. My tail flicked curiously as I looked between her and the pelt basket.
How peculiar… Hailey seemed just fine with dumping all sorts of pelts on me when she was showing them off. Perhaps that's because she studies it, so in that case it’s seen as okay? Maybe it has more to deal with how I came in here without her supervision? Predators are known to be territorial in the wild, and the Humans seem to be that way as well with their many borders. Letting someone into your ‘territory’ must be a pretty personal thing in the first place. Which would mean that she must be upset that I just walked in here and started messing with things! Speh!
A tentacle reached out, or up I suppose, to Ada’s shoulder while my tail signaled my sincerest apologies. “I-I am so sorry, Ada. If I knew, I would have never touched anything! Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone! Do you want me to… put it back the way I found it?”
The human seemed to find my appeasement worthy as she let out a quiet laugh. “No, Nov’, you’re just fine. Thanks for cleaning up too, I guess; I was gonna do it myself, but oh well… not something we need to talk about.” She lets out another laugh as she walks over to the modified console and grabs a controller.
Yet, before she could get a word out, there was a sharp knock on the door, followed by it swinging open to reveal the last two members of our herd. Sindre came in first, carrying several different bags filled to the brim with snacks of all varieties. He gave a simple head nod and rushed over to the table by the TV to deposit his haul, dropping a few on the floor in his haste.
Hailey walked in right behind him with a plastic grocery bag over her shoulder filled with many different colored bottles of drink and a tray of small dark-brown squares covered in plastic wrap. Her free hand gave us both a wave while she walked to the table in a much calmer manner, at least when compared to her compatriot.
We both gave our own wave in return while I spoke up. “Hey guys! Welcome! What did you get from the kitchen?”
Hailey set her things down on the table. “Not much. Some dried fruit, chips, cookies, soda, juice, and even some fresh brownies someone made! I assumed they were for the taking since they had a few trays sitting out to cool down, but we didn’t really have time to ask since we kinda rushed up here. Oh, and the kitchen stinks to high hell for some reason. Might have to tell Emmanual about that.”
My head tilted curiously at the information as Ada and Sindre moved the couch over to where I was standing. Once it was in place, I took a seat at the opposite end from Hailey. “Well, I’m glad you got what you wanted! Do you mind if I take one of those, uh, brownies?”
She gave me a hand wave as I reached over and undid the plastic wrap around the treats. They were still quite warm from the kitchen! I took a small bite out of the corner to get a taste of it, only to then gobble up the whole thing in one bite.
This is amazing! It’s like strayu but… richer? With an almost cough medicine aftertaste mixed with that strange spice? Such a strange and yet fascinating combination!
“Such a weird taste… but definitely a good one! Are there any more downstairs?” I asked while covering my mouth as best I could for the sake of manners.
She took one herself and took a small bite. “Yep, at least a couple more trays from what we saw. Though I bet most of those will be gone once word gets around.”
My head nodded solemnly as I picked up another.
Might as well enjoy them while we can!
Ada walked over to me and flicked the space in between my eyes with her fingers. Her other hand passed me a human game controller before taking a seat right next to me. “Save some for us, ya green goblin! Pretty sure we’re meant to share those!”
The humans let out a soft chuckle while my face warmed in embarrassment. Luckily, they didn’t stay focused on it for long before she pointed to the controller. “So, do you need help with that? It’s not exactly built for you.”
Moving it around in my appendages was more than enough to prove that fact, but I tried to give her a dismissive tail wave while sitting down. “Don’t worry… I should be able to make this work…” I said while using all four of my limbs to hold the piece of plastic. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it’ll do the job for now.
“Not the first time I had to do this. There are a lot of different species on Aafa, and some of them have very strange, uh, manipulators… you just have to get used to it.”
There may not have been a lot, or really any other species in my home town, but that college certainly did. Me and Cloyta used to hang out with a few different herds whenever we had the time. That Tilfish remote was an interesting experience to use. Having to use smells to figure out a puzzle in a game like it was normal was really something else.
The TV and console suddenly turned on with a bright flash as Sindre held out a remote towards them both. He used his controller to navigate to a menu on the system to reveal a vast collection of Human games. I grabbed my pad out of my pack to translate some of the games as Sindre scrolled by.
Doom of Kevsar, Helldivers: Super Dating Simulator, Papa’s Pizzeria, Skyrim 2… all these seem fine, I guess. At least not super violent like I thought… A good sign!
Sindre spoke up first as he continued to look through the archive. “Anyway, we were talking the other day about which game to show you first, but we couldn’t agree on what would be the best showcase. So instead of one game voted in from all of us, we are each going to show you a game we think you’ll like best. Sounds good?”
My tail thumped against the back of the couch in acceptance. “Yup! That actually sounds really great! Get to see a wider spectrum of human ‘entertainment!’ Who’s going first?”
“Sindre is…” Hailey speaks up in between bites of her confection, “His system, his pick… still think it’s a dumb fucking game though.” He says as he stops his scrolling and arrives at a very brightly colored preview with several… Humans? Human-like creatures in what look like Dossur vehicles?
He presses a button to select the game as a grin grows on his face. “Hey, Mario Kart Galaxy 3 is a classic! You’re just mad because you’re bad at it.” Sindre turns his head to me while Hailey leans forward. “You’ll love it, I swear. Really shows off the real Humanity we have to hide from you guys.”
“That's for a good reason, you dolt. But it’s your choice…” Hailey said while wiping her hands on a napkin.
I hoped he was right as some cheerful music started playing.
{Memory Transcription Time Advancement: 19 Terran standard minutes…}
Sindre was right! This is fun!
The upbeat music continues to play as I make another turn around a corner, drifting a little to build up some momentum. The ‘Birdo’ creature in my ‘Kart’ does a little dance as I time it right and get a small speed boost, sending me further down the multi-colored track.
“Hmmhmmmhm, hmhmhmm~.” I tried my best to hum along to the music as I continued with the race.
I never would have thought that a racing game could be interesting. Cloyta and I played a few when we were much younger, but they seemed slow in comparison. Usually had a goal at the end as well, like delivering some fruits to a market, or maybe trading on spacefaring merchant vessels in the more complex ones.
It was super fun though! Competing against each other felt a little off, but I wrote it off as a Human cultural thing. A way of bonding, as with most things for them it seems. Other than that, I found the racing to be a lot of fun! There was so much going on, and yet it somehow managed to really keep you aware of everything going on at all times.
A projectile here, a fruit peel trap there, there was so much to think about that I almost forgot to pay attention to the humans! Which, if I weren’t here to study them, might have been a good thing. There were times the competitive nature of the game seemed to draw something else out of them, something I hadn’t expected.
It was… well…
“If I run into one more fucking banana, I will kick you down a flight of stairs and jump on your head from the top step!”
“How the hell did that hit ME!? Broken fucking hitboxes in this shitty ass game!”
“GET YOUR CRUSTY TOAD ASS OFF ME BEFORE I RIP YOU ASSHOLE TO ASSHOLE!!!”
…intense.
My enjoyment of the game seemed to be pretty one-sided unfortunately. Even by the already high standards of the Humans’ previous banter, this was truly something else. While I was still learning the game and slowly climbed up the leaderboard, the Humans all led the herd by taking the top 3 spots every time. They were so close together in some of the races that it was nearly impossible to tell who would win until the last moment, making their yelling even more vicious and bloodthirsty.
There were times I thought they were about to get physically violent with each other once it got to the final lap, but thankfully, it never came to that, aside from maybe some light pushing. Their… banter? Fighting? Uh… verbal abuse towards each other made learning the game a lot harder too since every time I tried to ask a question, my voice would get drowned out in all the yelling. They did show me the basic controls before we started, but it’s a little hard to ask for pointers when your coaches are threatening severe bodily harm against each other.
As I drifted around another sharp turn, my mind wandered back to what Sindre said when we’d first started:
‘Really shows off the real Humanity we have to hide from you guys.’
Was this supposed to be the ‘real Humanity’? I sure hope not… I think I’d prefer if they actually came to blows instead of continuing this barrage of foulness they are constantly spewing. They don’t even seem to be enjoying it! They have to be doing it for a reason… right?
I continued to think as I continued down the track and finished my second lap. The argument was starting to build up again as the stakes started to rise.
“Oh, yeah, of course you get a red shell in 2nd and I get fucking bananas in 3RD! Gotta love this piece of shit game!!” Hailey shouted, leaning forward like she was about to pounce on the TV.
“Not my fault you can’t aim for shit, dumbass! Just throw better!” Sindre quipped back.
“How about I throw you out a five story window?! I mean, I would if your fatass wouldn't snap the floorboards if I tried!” Ada finished it as he gave her an aggressive shove with his shoulder.
Yet, unlike how I expected, she didn’t push back. That's what makes this all so confusing! Each time they antagonize each other, the other person does it back, and they just stop! Their words sound like they mean it to hurt, and their actions reflect that… but they aren’t acting on it.
Hmm… the ‘real Humanity’, huh… Maybe I’m approaching this the wrong way? Something less about who the Humans are, so to speak, but more how they feel? They’ve been awfully emotional in every interaction I’ve ever had with them… Aggressive, too, admittedly. Maybe… maybe this is a way for them to vent some of that aggression safely? Around people they really trust with a game you can complain about, but demands too much attention to leave them to do more than yell at each other? Things have been rather… stressful, lately.
My tail thumped a few more times against the dilapidated couch, sending a few more puffs of stuffing into the air. The theory kind of lined up with what I knew, but I was here with the primary source for a reason, after all. I would just ask them, but…
“I am going to FUCKING DEEPFRY THAT FUCKING MUSHROOM {Ass Violin}!!!”
They were busy.
They seem pretty angry… but if it helps them deal with their stress, then I am just fine with it. I’m glad they are getting through it in their own… ‘special’ Human way.
In any case, it was still better than damming it all up until it overflowed and someone really got hurt. Safe in the knowledge that the Humans (probably) wouldn’t actually attack each other, I just resolved to focus on the game instead. The third and final lap was coming around, and things were starting to ramp up even further. The Humans’ false violence got even louder, and coupled with the occasional and really rather distracting limb shooting out and the rapidly intensifying music, my poor heart was not in the best condition as our racers closed in on the finish line.
But then, all of a sudden, something very strange happened. The Humans simultaneously began to curse louder than ever before, screaming and wailing as an odd blue indicator flashed along the top of the screen, indicating some kind of blue spiky ball rapidly approaching us from behind. All three of them illogically slammed on the brakes, clearly trying to dodge the oncoming projectile, but it was to no avail. The ball flew right past my ‘Kart’ and struck the center of the tightly crowded humans, unleashing an explosion of blue fire that stunned all three.
Allowing my Kart, driving at maximum speed in hopes of any shot at outrunning the projectile, to shoot right past them and cross the finish line first.
Wait… what?
A brief silence hung in the air at what just happened until my arms went up in the air
“Hey, look! I won! Hehehe! I didn’t know I would get so lucky on my first try! Is that sort of thing… common…?”
I stopped my celebration as all the Humans were giving me very intense looks with their stares. They lacked the familiar friendliness most Humans looked at me with, but instead seemed much… angrier.
Speh, right. They are still mad from before, and now I just beat them at their own race… O-okay, they don’t mean it, they are upset and need to let it out. Just have to get through it.
Seeing what was about to happen, I curled in on myself and braced myself for the barrage of verbal slurry coming my way. A moment passed as I waited for the insults to fly but… they never came? Opening an eye revealed the Human’s expressions had changed from fury to…
Amusement?
“You alright there Nov’? You’re shaking pretty bad… Was that too much?” Ada asked in a quiet voice while patting me on the back roughly. It took a moment for my brain to catch up before I could speak again.
“O-oh, uh, sorry, I thought you all were going to… yell at me? Like you did with each other?” My voice was a little shaky as I unfurled myself.
All of the Germans seemed to wince a little at that. “Yeah… fuck, sorry about that. Mario Kart is a pretty rage-inducing game. Shoulda thought about that beforehand.”
My tail attempted to signal calm while trapped behind me. “N-no, it’s fine… I did learn a lot actually. It was fun too, besides the yelling part. Um, can we move on though? I think I’ve got enough out of this one.”
Sindre exits the game with a nod while the others let out deep sighs. “Yeah, sorry Nov’. It’s one of the most popular party games Humanity ever made, so I figured it would be a good one to show you. Next is… Ada’s pick… we sure we should do this one?”
The woman turned her head to look at Sindre. “Positive. They have a vegan option in the settings, so it’s not going to get us arrested or anything. Plus, it's a cooperative party game! Feds seem to love that whole ‘herd’ thing, and Nov’ liked the last one so I’m sure it’ll be fine!”
She gave a dismissive hand wave before turning back to me. “It’ll be fine, really. I played this game as a kid all the time, no need to panic, right?” She seemed a little worried at the end of that sentence, so I tried to put on a brave face.
“S-sounds great! What’s it about?” I mentally chastised myself for my stutter and reached towards the table to grab another pastry. “Ahem. There’s nothing predatory in it, right?”
She grabs one herself and a glass of an orange fizzy drink. “Nope, none at all! Just some harmless cooking with your friends! You’ll love it!” Her enthusiasm helped me calm down as the game started booting up on screen.
Overcooked 5: Season of Seasoning.
Looks cheerful at least. Cooking is fun too… It’ll be fine, yeah.
I took a bite out of my brownie as the game's main menu music started to play.
{Memory Transcription Time Advancement: 23 Standard Terran Minutes…}
You know… I think I get it.
A soft relaxing track played in the background as the four little chefs on screen ran around doing various tasks needed to keep the kitchen functioning, like preparing vegetables, or washing dishes. A timer at the top of the screen was slowly counting down while a little ‘onion’ next to it with a Human face rambled on about something or other.
Orders start coming in quick, and all of us get to work in a flash… or at least, all of us SHOULD be.
“Can you three stop licking the dust clouds in the vents and actually do something to help me, PLEASE?!”
A trio of Human giggles was my only response as I leaned forward in concentration.
This game. This brahking game. They should use this for testing for intelligence like those quizzes we took back home, since clearly some people go brain dead trying to do literally anything that isn’t getting in my stars-damned way, or otherwise waste valuable time by huffing the gas coming off the stove!
Finishing up one order of seaweed wraps and lettuce salad, I tried to get back to the kitchen, but was immediately blocked by… a plate on the floor.
“WHO-!! Why is there a plate on the floor?! The counter is literally right there! It’s such a simple job to-” A ding rings out, showing several new orders that needed to be filled. The timer started flashing red as we reached the one ‘minute’ mark.
A deep, frustrated growl builds in my throat, causing my Humans to laugh for some reason, incensing me even further! We all get to work in completing the last orders, however. Things were going well as the Terrans seemed to (finally) get it together to actually make some good food. Sindre had just finished cooking the rice while Ada chopped the carrots. Me and Hailey were putting everything together on the other side and sending it through until—
“Is, oh my stars, did you guys really send over raw rice?! It’s not even partially cooked!! Are you all a bunch of mountain dwellers? Do you eat your dry grass with a side of brahking pebbles and pond scum?! Cook it again!” I threw the rice back, hitting Sindre in the back of the head with the pile of rice, causing his character to fall over with a cartoonish thunk sound effect.
The Germans laughed loudly at the scene, which made my face heat up in frustration. The timer was running short as we waited for the rice to actually be cooked this time.
“Nov’, I, haha, I’m sorry. I’ll get it done this time, have mercy! I thought the last one was done so I-”
My head turned just enough for my eye to be focused solely on the pale Human. “IT WAS BRAHKING RAW!! There's a bar at the top that tells you! Do you need eye surgery?? Can you even pass a driving test??”
More laughter.
“AND STOP LAUGHING AT ME!! IT’S NOT FUNNY!!”
A ding came from the pot to signify it was done. Ada immediately took it out and walked over to the counter to pass it.
“Perfect, now just- what are you doing?”
She wasn’t passing it over. Instead, she was charging up her throw way more than she needed to. I was just about to say something as the clock flashed brightly ‘till she threw the rice at full force.
Directly at my little chef. The rice beamed directly off the side of my character's head, sending me flying away from the plate and sprawled across the kitchen floor as the rice landed gently on the ground.
“ADA!!!!!”
The countdown is drowned out by the humans erupting into laughter as I desperately try and recover. Yet, just as I make it to my feet, the countdown reaches zero, and the mission ends. Defeat fills my chest while the onion man does a little dance to tally up our points.
49600… only two out of three stars…
It’s over…
I slumped against the back of the couch, fury and betrayal stirring in my chest while the predators laughed to each other for several moments. Their raucous, howling laughter eventually started dying down, at least enough for them to actually say something to me.
“Nov’, come on. It’s just a game. I’m, hehehe, I’m sorry okay? We were just having a little fun is all.” She ran her treacherous hands down my back in an effort to calm me, to little effect.
“Dumb game. Stupid… start the next mission…”
She chuckled a bit. “Maybe we should play a different game. You don’t seem real happy playing this one.”
That made my tail flick in light amusement though the frustration. “Now you sound like my Dad…” My anger at the game started to fade more and more, replaced with a growing sensation of guilt. ”I-I think that’s a good idea. Um, sorry about that.”
She removed her hand, but kept her eyes on me and the gooey trail now stringing from her hand. “Eugh… hey, you’re fine. If you can deal with us screaming at each other, then we can handle your little squeaks.”
The other two smiled and nodded in agreement while I looked at her in confusion, feeling a little offended. “My… squeaks? But, um, thank you... W-what's the next game? Hailey’s turn, right?”
On cue, she brushes her mane to the side and starts scrolling down. “Yes, actually! Unlike these two walnuts, I actually picked a relaxing game. A classic. An art piece~” Her hands did a slight flair, yet I remained unmoved.
“Hailey, that's what the other two said too. While those games were… fine, I wouldn’t call them ‘masterpieces.’ Are you sure about this one?” I asked while grabbing another brownie.
I keep eating these things, but I just feel more and more hungry… weird…
The Humans chucked as she selected her game. “Hey, have a little faith in me. I haven't met a Human alive that can say this game is bad. Just watch!”
A flash came from the TV as the game's title came into view.
Minecraft: Anniversary Edition.
“We’ll use one of the worlds we were playing on back on Earth so you can get an idea of what it’s really like. And, uh, make sure it's peaceful too, just in case.”
I took a bite of the treat and settled into my spot, preparing myself for whatever was to come.
{CONTINUED INTO THE COMMENTS}

[First] [Previous]

...
I… I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
I can’t do this.
...
Not without her.
[MEMORY TRANSCRIPTION UNSTABLE]
[RELEVANT STABLE MEMORY FOUND]
[PLAYBACK MEMORY TRANSCRIPTION? Y/N]
[Y]
[BEGINNING PLAYBACK]
Memory transcription subject: Jorlka, Venlil Youth
Date [Standardized human time]: DATA CORRUPTED
Blackness.
Sleeping in my bed, in my room, under a thick comforter that presses down gently on me. No school this paw so I can enjoy sleeping in without a care on Skalga. Nobody was home either. If I recall correctly, my father went out early to assist with setting up the storehouse for tomorrow’s harvest, and my mother went off with him for a trip to the market. For the first time in many paws, I was alone, and I could enjoy some peace. A rare luxury in my life, one I fully intend to take advantage of… Until I heard the sound of a metal hinge creaking open.
It was followed by a light breeze on my snout, as wind was now flowing through the opened window. I tried to ignore it; I didn’t want my luxury to be stolen from me because my bedroom window listed open from the morning breeze.
There was a songbird in the distance, probably out in our small orchid, and the whistles from it were clear. I tried to ignore it; I didn’t not want my luxury stolen from me because an animal was singing their morning rituals.
There was the sound of a light paw step on my creaky floorboard. A voice I most certainly knew then muttered a curse under her breath. I tried to ignore it; I did not want my luxury stolen from me because my best friend wanted to prank me.
Wait.
Something small hit my snout, landing into my slightly open mouth. This stole my luxury away.
“Freya, what are you doing?” I peeled my eyes open slowly to see standing figure of a young Venlil girl, ten cycles old, the same age as myself, standing at the side of my bed with a paper bag in her arm, and a small round black object between the digits on her paw. Her wool was as white as snow, and incredibly fluffy and springy in its texture, and her eyes were a striking blue. As rich and as deep as the cerulean sky during a festival.
“Come on, bite on it.” Her tail was moving behind her happily, large sweeping movements side to side at the base, and twirling in small circles at the tuft on the end.
I rolled my eyes at the request, still clueless to what was placed in my mouth. My senses were not yet fully operational due to my sleep addled state. I moved my tongue in my mouth to feel at the object. It was small, smooth, and cool, with a springy firmness to it. Very familiar to a part of my mind, yet it did not jump out at me. The true nature of the object illuding me despite my attempts to investigate it.
I looked at Freya once more as she watched me expectantly, before finally acquiescing to the odd situation. I rolled the object between my molars and applied pressure. The soft object gave under the force, revealing the soft mushy texture under the skin, and the incredibly vibrant juice underneath.
This flavour was reinvigorating, the delightful blend of sweet and sour assaulting my sense of taste, enveloping it. The sudden change shocked my system and was the kickstart I needed to fully wake up.
I woke up excited.
“No way!” I sat up right and jumped onto my paws. “I thought the shade berry harvest wasn’t for another two paws!” I looked down at the paper bag in my friend paws, before hesitating. Now that I was standing upright, it quickly became apparent that despite us being the same age, she had a good [60 centimeters] height over me. “Freya, please don’t tell me you-“
“I didn’t sneak into the harvest to pick them early, and I am offended you would think that of me!” She raised her paw up to her chest in mock, pretending to be hurt by the accusation that hadn’t even left my lips. “The tree in Fitalni’s backyard bloomed early, so she shared them!”
Fitalni was the elderly mother of the previous chief guard, Ridlaz. She was a sweet woman who me and Freya would frequently assist in her chores and errands. Her son was a great person who worked hard to keep Twilight Meadow safe, so that was the least we could do to say thanks.
“Well, alright then! Pass them here!” I reached for the paper bag in her grasp, to which she responded by lifting the bap up over her head.
“Nuh-uh! If you want them, you gotta earn them! You’ve been growing, so now’s a good chance to see if you can take me on!”
Oh, of course. She is using them as bait to spar with me.
The enthusiasm drained from me when the condition for the berries was revealed. “Freya, that’s not fair! We both know I’m just a-“
“NO.” She cut me off. “You’re not allowed to call yourself a runt. You’re a strong Venlil, you just haven’t come into it yet, and you never will if you keep knocking yourself down like that.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re the one that’s outgrown our entire class. You’re even bigger and stronger than Hiltz’s group! You’re the one that always protects me when they go after me, and you’re the one that’s great enough to be the next chief!”
Annoyance flared up in the back of my mind when I said that name. A pack of dishonourable bullies that make my life hell, always torturing me because of how small I am. I was too annoyed at the mention of Hiltz to notice that Freya bloomed lightly when I complimented her.
There was a ripple. Something changed. Static, in the back of my mind. My body felt fuzzy for the briefest of moments… And I saw a flash of grey wool.
A new voice. It was distant and muffled. Faded in the background, as if the person was far away. A voice I knew. A voice I loved. A voice that didn’t belong here…
[MEMORY UNSTABLE]
“-J̴̴̘̽o͖̰̐̕r̗l̳͟͡k̟̏ȃ̶̛͙̅ͭͫ-“
[TRANSCRIPTION FAILURE]
She could have left me behind at any time. I was small. Weak. Not worth the effort to protect, but she did it anyways. She was truly the best of us, and the type of Venlil that would have made an excellent chief guard.
[RELEVANT STABLE MEMORY FOUND]
[PLAYBACK MEMORY TRANSCRIPTION? Y/N]
[Y]
[BEGINNING PLAYBACK]
Memory transcription subject: Jorlka, Blighted Venlil Youth
Date [Standardized human time]: DATA CORRUPTED [Estimation: Two years after prior memory]
Pain shot across my snout as the impact knocked it in. My body crumpled down beneath me as I collapsed into the thin dry powdered snow that lightly coated the ground of the shadeberry orchard. I could feel my blood trickle out of the now damaged orifice, with my sense of smell becoming enveloped by it.
“Get up. I’m not done with you, you little shite.”
Hiltz.
Him and his two idiotic friends.
I caught them in the middle of pilfering the orchard, attempting to steal fruits before they could be harvested. The three of them are a dishonourable bunch, never caring for anyone other than themselves. They have a wanton history of being vandals, thieves, and nuisances, but always manage to avoid trouble.
The problem is that they’ve never been caught by someone with actual authority, and it’s been getting to their heads. They’ve been getting more brazen with their degenerate behaviour, leading to them trying to steal a large portion of the town’s food stock.
I blinked my eyes in pain, and pushed myself upright, fighting against my tired and shaking legs. My eyes glossed over the pair of Venlil, slowly loading more fruits into a wheelbarrow, distracted by watching me get my wool stuffed in.
“Th-Those are for the to- HHHHHUUU”
A sucker-punch to my stomach knocked the wind out of me again.
“Don’t look at them, look at me.” The dark brown venlil looked down at me with contempt as I keeled over in pain. “It’s not like you to be so brazen, Jorlka. Freya is not around to protect you.”
“I... I don’t need her to beat you.” I led out with a choked gasp as I took a step back from him, doing what I could to right myself as quickly as possible.
I then charged at him, keeping my sparing matches with Freya in mind. She’s taught me how to best approach a stronger Venlil than myself. The key is watching their legs, seeing how they shift their weight, and Hiltz doesn’t know this.
I feinted to his right, keeping my focus on his lower half. When he shifted his weight I ducked to his left, right when his arms fell to the right to intercept me. He didn’t correct quite fast enough and I was able to tackle into the left side of his torso.
I heard air get sucked into his mouth as he let out a gasp in pain, but it didn’t stun him like I had hoped. His arms found themselves on me as he got me into a hold, quickly getting me into a lock with his left arm around my neck.
“You little fuck, think you actually got one over on me!?” His fist jabbed into my stomach again, getting another gasp of pain out of me, spittle and blood coughed onto my attacker. “What the brahk does that girl even see in you? Tiny-” He punched me again. “-Weak-” His fist hit me again. “Pathetic, yet she lets you cling to her like you’re courting.”
Another voice joined the conversation over my coughs. One laced with a smouldering rage under the surface.
“I would certainly prefer to be courting someone that isn’t a dishonourable piece of shit.”
The phantomesque form of the strongest Venlil I knew had practically phased out of nowhere; Freya had appeared from between the orchard trees, the surrounding snowy landscape allowing her to approach undetected, her wool had blended in perfectly to allow her close without notice.
“Fuck!” His hold on me tightened as he quickly barked an order at his companions. “Deal with her!”
They broke off from the wheel barrel and took up positions facing Freya from opposite sides as she took up a defensive posture.
They most certainly tried to ‘deal with her’, but it was futile. Freya kept calm as the pair charged at the white Venlil. With one graceful movement she had dodged one, grabbing the wool on his side with her claws as he passed and tripped the other over with her tail. Then, she positioned herself just right under the one she had grabbed, and used his arm to leverage him into the air, throwing him over her shoulder and on top of the one that was prone on the ground.
Freya straightened herself and ran her paw over her crown, readjusting from of her fur that had gotten dishevelled from the movement. “Now, are you going to try me Hiltz, or are you going to be a spineless whelp like your father?” She looked him dead in the eyes and took a step forward. “Then again, you are sheared from the same wool as him.”
“Blighted whore!” Hiltz used his free paw to open a pouch on his belt and pulled out a knife, which he quickly spun in between the digits of his paw to press against my throat. “Fucking, say that rot about my father again, and see where it gets your little breeding stock toy here.”
This stopped Freya’s approach as panic became evident on her face. The concern that she showed for me provoked more emotion from within me that the blade threatening to kill me. Seeing my best friend distressed, and knowing it was because I am too weak to protect myself, filled my mind with a maelstrom of angst and loathing.
“N-Now, don’t do anything you’ll regre-”
“Forget about me, Freya!” The force of these words escaping my mouth sprayed out bloody spittle. I had refused to let this blight of a venlil win though the use of a hostage. “Just fucking go at him!”
“Shut up! Both of you! I’ll fucking kill the little shite if you take another step!” Hiltz barked out. “Now, you’re going to get the FUCK out of here Freya, and if you’re lucky, I’ll leave enough of him here for you to take back to his fam-”
Suddenly, Several things happened in rapid succession that my mind didn’t properly register until it was all over:
A new paw shot across my vision. A light grey, wool trimmed down clean, showing the toned muscle that ran the length of the arm underneath. It had grabbed at the wrist of Hiltz’s arm that had the blade to my throat and gave it a quick twist. The loud crack of the bone under getting twisted was audible in the close proximity of my ears, and the knife fell to the ground.
I was then pulled away from Hiltz by another grey paw as Hiltz shouted out expletives, shocked by the new pain shooting up his appendage. The tall grey Venlil underhand pushed me away as he got himself between me and Hiltz, and I fell to the ground several meters away, my body rolling to a stop in the snow.
Finally, I heard the loud sound of hardened skulls colliding, and a body collapsing onto the ground unconscious before I could right myself to see what had just happened.
“Jorlka!” Came from Freya as she ran to my side as I sat upright, desperate to figure out what had just happened. There, standing over the now knocked out body of Hiltz, was Glindet, the Chief Guard of Twilight Meadow, as well as two more guards who were jogging up behind him to witness the scene.
He righted his posture, giving the two of us a quick glance to ensure I wasn’t harmed.
“Thank you for the tip off, Freya. Because of you, Hiltz has been caught in the middle of an attempted murder.” His ears swivelled in appreciation for my friend. “I assure you, him and his friends will no longer be causing problems in this town again.”
We all knew what that meant. Banishment was going to await the three of them by the end of this paw.
Freya’s arms wrapped around my torso. “I don’t care about that; I just wanted this goober to be safe.”
[Time Advancement: 15 minutes]
We gently walked along the dirt path along the fields that led back to my house. Freya kept her arms on my body to support me as I was still walking with a limp. We were coming up on a large boulder I recognized, for it was one that marked where my families fields began. My house was not much further.
Rage coursed through my heart. Rage over my own weakness. Rage at how time and time again I had to be the one protected by her.
She is so much stronger than I am.
Wordlessly, I pushed away from her, wiggling out from her caring grasp.
“Jorlka, please, let me help.”
“No. I...” I looked at the boulder. “I...”
I shook my head and hardened my resolve. Fighting through the pain in my leg, I stepped onto the first hold I could find on the boulder and proceeded to climb it. It took a few pained and shaking steps, but I got up on top of it fairly quickly. With the rock under me as a platform, I was now taller than Freya by over a head.
“I’m going to get stronger.”
I looked back down at the pair of Venlil. The brilliant white wool along side the speckled grey wool. Both of them looking up at me with kindness in their identical striking blue eyes.
“I promise, I will get strong enough to protect you for a change!”
[MEMORY UNSTABLE]
"-I̡ͯ'̻̮͘l̂ľ͇͝ h̯͋ͥol̖d y_ͨou͊ tͪo̡̡ t͙́h͘a͉͔t̓͘.-̻͂"̐
[TRANSCRIPTION FAILURE]
Did she always love me? Was I always stuck in my own problems to the point that it made me blind to her?
[RELEVANT STABLE MEMORY FOUND]
[PLAYBACK MEMORY TRANSCRIPTION? Y/N]
[Y]
[BEGINNING PLAYBACK]
Memory transcription subject: Jorlka, Venlil, Member of the Twilight Meadow guard
Date [Standardized human time]: DATA CORRUPTED [Estimation: Eleven years after prior memory]
I paced back and forth, hidden from view behind the stage, wrecked with nerves over the coming announcement.
Glindet had reached the end of his fifteen-cycle term, and the town has a pool of viable Venlil that are capable of the role. He would be stepping down this paw and announcing the next chief guard. If the town hadn’t had a viable pool of candidates, the Crown Guard would have instead brought in an external Venlil to serve as acting Chief until a proper candidate could be found locally.
Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary. The town had two incredibly capable Venlil, and the two of them were together in this room.
I’ve been working closely under Glindet for several cycles now, acting as his Vice Chief. Ever since I had my final growth spurt before I came of age, I had become the strongest Venlil in the town. Glindet capitalized on this by immediately recruiting me into the guard upon my fifteenth birthday. Freya was a few weeks younger than me, but she also joined as soon as she could. We worked closely together as a pair for the first three cycles, before Glindet appointed me as his second-in-command.
He viewed me as a natural prodigy in the guard and worked tirelessly to get me trained as his successor. I did not have a single problem with this. I was enthusiastic to be working with the man that saved my life all those cycles ago.
Freya as back behind stage with me, one of the rare times we have been alone in quite some time. Since most of my time is dedicated to my job, I’ve not had the time to spend with my best friend. She obviously understood this, and always encouraged me to keep on improving. She knows as well as I do that Chief Guard had become my dream since that snowy paw in that shadeberry orchid.
Here we were, that dream about to become reality. I fully intend to name Freya as my Vice Chief as my first act up on the stage, which is why she was back here with me. She’s the only one that’s tuned into my methods, the only one that understands how I think. The only one I trust.
“Jorlka.”
My nerves are fried right now. I may have left a mark in the floor with the amount of pacing I have done in the few minutes since I began.
“Jorlka.”
Can I actually do this? Am I truly capable of handling such responsibility?
“JORLKA.”
Freya had stepped into my path with her arms outstretched, and I walked directly into the hug before I knew it was coming.
“-Hhh, Freya, please.” I shook my head and looked down at the Venlil woman who was now shorter than me. “We don’t want to risk this being viewed as fraternization. Not when we’re so close to the goal.”
She let out a sigh at this and slowly released me. “I know, but you’re clearly at ends right now. Just thought you needed some support.”
“I know, and thank you, but we both know that-“
“I know. We both know. To do this, you’re gonna need to be the hard ass boss for the next fifteen cycles. I won’t be able to be all chummy with you.” She looked down dejected. “I’m just gonna miss my big goober is all.”
I watched as sadness traced through her body language, my own heart feeling heavy at the sight of someone I cared so much for becoming gloomy on such a happy occasion. I felt compelled to immediately fix this. “… Thank you Freya. Truly, for helping me all this time. For being such a powerful, stoic rock in my life, keeping me on the path I needed to be on.”
We stared at each other in silence as I noticed that she had started to faintly bloom at my words. It was a bit out of character for me to speak with such sincerity, so it likely caught her off kilter.
“O-Of course…” She shook her head and let out a light cough to clear herself of the coyness. The air felt different. I could not place it, but it was as through an unknown tension that existed prior to now had been released.
“… Jorlka?”
“Yeah?”
“There is something else. I need to promise you something.”
“Promise me something? What do you mean?”
“… What I mean, is that when you’re done this job. When your term is over… I have something that I will want to say to you. It’s something I cannot say to you now, but I promise you I will. Even if it takes a thousand cycles, I promise I will say it.”
This felt extremely cryptic. Like she had handed me a puzzle box through the use of words alone.
“I don’t… Understand?”
“That’s fine, you’ve always been been a literal person, kinda crap at reading between the lines. Good thing you’ll have me to help!”
The two of us laughed at this, sharing one final moment of sincerity before I can no longer tolerate such an insult.
It became silent again. She broke it a final time.
“Come to me when it becomes too much. I’ll always be there to support you. Always.”
I didn’t have any time to respond to the offer as two pairs of arms wrapped themselves around me. Two Venlil named Freya, both with the same tender caring embrace.
I opened my mouth to say something, but the door to the stage opened, letting light into the room, and with it carried the sound of Glindet’s voice.
“And it is my honor to welcome Twilight Meadow’s next Chief Guard! JORLKA!”
[MEMORY UNSTABLE]
“Kͧ̀n̆͟ȏ͖̪c͉̄k̡̈́͒ t̍ͮhͩe͇̒̇m̼͠_ de͒ad̹,͔̮͟ B̈o̦ͦͤs̠̍̓sͤ.͈͘”
[TRANSCRIPTION FAILURE]
…
…
I breathe.

“And in that moment, right when the Dark Lord was gloating about the weakness in heroes hearts, I charged up from behind him and cracked his head in with my war hammer! Crumpled like a cloak.”
“One and done?”
“One and done!” Thorin confirmed.
“HA! Classic boy!” One of the older heroes slapped his knee as he said it and the table broke out into cheers. The tavern had already been rancorous, and it wasn’t every night someone came back from saving another world.
“Good Ol’ fashioned hubris,” Thorin held up his stein, “To HUBRIS! May our enemies have it!”
“And we only have what we deserve!” The barkeep called from across the room.
“Aye! And get my friends another round! All this gold from that world is weighing me down!” Thorin pushed out from the table and patted the old-hand he’d been talking to on the back. He had a lot of people to visit tonight. It’d been a while since he’d been back at The Valhalla.
Thorin approached the bar, and the Barkeep turned their attention away from their conversation and toward the man ordering the next round of drinks. “Lookin’ for something cheap, I assume.”
“Something hard if you have enough, but don’t leave me beggin’ on the street.”
“You can sleep under one of the tables instead.”
“How’d you know my favorite place to wake up in the morning?”
“You talk in your sleep Thorin, I’ll save a pillow for you under table three.” The bartender added, before walking away to prepare the drinks. Once he was out of sight, or at least not staring at Thorin, the hero softened for a moment.
Coming back to the Valhalla was always a joy, but a bittersweet one. These heroes all went out into other worlds, getting summoned across space and time to stop calamity after calamity. It was the greatest profession someone could ask for, but Thorin couldn’t help but miss parts of the world he went to save.
He’d lived there for years, after all.
The bartender served Thorin first, exchanging another set of jabs before beginning to distribute the round. The cheers of free drinks added to the cacophony, snuggling in with bard songs, tall tales and gambling debts. Thorin considered the drink. There had been one back in Halensya, they called it Dragonglass. It’d burned in such an interesting way. He’d need to figure out the recipe, if it was something they could make in The Valhalla.
“I know that expression,” a woman said as she leaned backward against the bar to join Thorin. “Feelin’ homesick for a place you’re not from?”
“Happens a bit every time, right?”
“To every one of us,” she nodded along with what he’d said. Kalena was an old hand in The Valhalla, a talented sorceress who’d saved more realms than Thorin’d seen. She always strode around the bar like a mobile rainbow, covered in colourful trinkets and fashions from the lands she’d rescued from darkness. “Got a question about your story if you’ll lend an ear.”
“I got two for a reason.”
“Thank ya kindly,”-Kalena accepted her drink from the passing barkeep- “In your story, you mentioned a maiden. What happened to her?”
“Oh, Aerenae?” Thorin suggested.
“Your story, not mine. Don’t pretend you don’t know the name.”
“Yeah, Aerenae.”
“What happened with her? You talked about her at the start and then never told us how it wrapped up.”
“Eh,” Thorin grunted. He took a drink of the near-toxic swill he’d ordered for the bar instead of giving a proper answer.
“Well, consider my curiosity satiated.” Kalena rolled her eyes as she said it. “Don’t wanna give the gory details. I get it. Just thought she was critical.”
“She said no.”
There was a pause. Certainly not in the bar, but in this conversation.
“Pardon?” was how Kalena broke it.
“She said no.”
“To a night with you?” she clarified. “Ah, well. Happens to the best of us. Can’t find the best fling on every plane an--“
“I asked her back to The Valhalla with me.”
Another pause in the conversation. This time it was Kalena waiting until the bar was loud enough to cover their voices again. “You asked her back?”
“And she said no.”
“That was it?”
“She said no,” Thorin reiterated. “Didn’t wanna leave her kingdom. Told me she couldn’t. Not after everything that happened.”
“Did you tell her we save kingdoms all the time? Worlds even?”
“She knew where I was from, Kalena,” Thorin sighed, “and she said no. Now if you don’t mind. I’m trying to have fun drinking about everythin’ else so I don’t ruin a lifetime thinking about it.”
“Thorin.”
“She said no, that was the end of it.”
“Yeah, of course,” Kalena broke her casual backward lean against the bar, turning to match Thorin’s hunched posture. Her multicolour bangles jingled as she fell into the conversation again. “But you’re asking a girl back to the Valhalla. I’m just wondering…“
“I’m not gonna tell her everything she told me. She had her reasons and—”
“Thorin, what the fuck are you doing here?” Kalena cut him off. It wasn’t like he was making the right argument. “You offered this Aerenae your one invite, and when she said no, you just left?”
“What was I supposed to do? World was saved. She said no.”
“Stay. You stay there, you dumbass. Send back your medallion and we’ll find another hero. Gods.”
Thorin shot up. What the hell was he doing back here? He’d saved a hundred worlds and nobody had ever tempted his invitation out of him. Now he was just going to... “I need to talk to Odin.”
“Yeah, you do,” Kalena rolled her eyes as Thorin pushed off from the bar and sprinted toward the door. The bar fell silent as he ran.
Then. Once the door was closed, the Old Hand Thorin’d expounded his adventures to spoke up. “He going after that Aerenae girl?”
“Yessir!” Kalena confirmed, “He’s going back!”
“GOOD MAN!”
The bar broke into cheers. Another hero found their deserved fate, and this one had been obvious to anyone who’d heard Thorin’s story.

Russian forces are making a push, animal testing ramps up for H5N1, and over 365 days of temperature records…
Last Week in Collapse: May 5-11, 2024
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, stunning, exhausting, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 124th newsletter. You can find the April 28-May 4 edition here if you missed it last week. You can also receive these posts (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox with Substack.
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Earth experienced its largest CO2 concentration increase over a 12-month period, scientists say, from March 2023-2024. It was a jump of 4.7ppm more of carbon dioxide, blamed on deforestation, fossil fuels, and El Niño. Experts are saying that El Niño has peaked, and will transition to La Niña within a few months. La Niña lasts about 1-3 years, and it generally cools the Pacific Ocean, and brings more rain to India & Bangladesh, among other changes. Earth also experienced its greatest atmospheric moisture for the month of April.
Venezuela has lost its last glacier, the Humboldt, which was reclassified into an “ice field.” It is the first modern nation to lose all its glaciers. Scientists believe Indonesia, Mexico, and Slovenia are next in line to see the extinction of their glaciers. Colombia is also rapidly losing its remaining 6 glaciers.
Wildfires in Chile have killed about a hundred people, and injured & displaced thousands. Flooding in Afghanistan. And climate change is ruining cotton crops, and livestock, in Chad. Plus, flooding struck the DRC, overflowing rivers and latrines—affecting some 500,000 people. And some climatologists think we have been underestimating how much climate change is driving greater rainfall & flooding; the worst is yet to come.
The first week of May saw so many temperature records broken; some are claiming that it might be the “most record breaking month in climatic history”—until June, that is. Earth has been seeing 13 months of monthly records being broken for global sea surface temperatures. Literally 365 days of record-breaking ocean temperatures.
A study in PNAS examined North Pacific “warm blob” heat waves from 2010-2020, and concluded that China’s reduction in aerosols, which cleaned the air but also removed the sun-reflective particles, incidentally probably caused marine heat waves which killed fish and resulted in algae blooms.
Bees are having difficulty acclimatizing their nests to rising temperatures. The dugong, while still rarely seen in parts of the world, has been declared extinct inside China, having gone 24 years without a known sighting. In Florida, the suburbification of land under development is pushing the Florida panther closer to extinction; some 100 panthers remain in the sunshine state.
Siberia’s Batagaika crater—I prefer its alternative title, “megaslump”—is expanding by about 1M cubic meters, every year. Scientists naturally blame the rapid permafrost melting on climate change.
A cruise ship entered New York City with an endangered 44 ft {13.4m} dead sea whale stuck on its bow (front). Investigators are looking into whether it was already dead when the ship hit it. A study in Conservation Letters looked at the 100 largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)—which cover 7.3% of all ocean area—and found that almost 60% of this area is not in range of meeting the 2030 preservation goals.
Part of India broke May records already; the Maldives, too. Eastern Ukraine ended a far warmer & wetter April than usual. And a heat wave in Mexico scorched previous May temperature records across 10 cities, as well as small regional blackouts. North America felt its all-time hottest May temperature...
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AstraZeneca is pulling its COVID vaccine from the EU over a rare blood clooting side effect. Nevertheless, some experts claim that vaccine saved over 6M lives. Whatever U.S. CDC data on COVID is still available points to “a small rise” in cases later this summer, mostly from the growing KP.2 “FLiRT” variant.
COVID patients and immunocompromised individuals are still using lots of healthcare resources, and the rise of resistant superbugs is developing alarmingly fast. According to the article, “It only takes about a year on average for bacteria to grow resistant to treatment, when they used to take 21 years to evolve back in the 1960s.”
Engineers and medical professionals remain concerned about nanoplastics, between 1-1,000 nanometers wide. One grain of sand is about 500,000 nanometers, and one strand of DNA is about 2.5 nanometers. A single wavelength of light ranges from 400-700 nanometers.
South Africa’s water shortage is projected to worsen through at least 2025. Nairobi’s water shortage continues, despite the city’s dams being filled with floodwater. Costa Rica is facing a Drought so bad it’s rationing electricity. Mexico City—the second-most-populous city (by metro area: 21.8M; São Paolo is #1, at 22M) in North America— is seeing more than 20% of freshwater sources exhausted, and rationing is not enough. It’s almost like we’re living at unsustainable levels of consumption…
As Latin America warms (and suffers flooding), disease is becoming more common—as well as heat stroke & serious hunger. Benin is refusing Niger the permission to use its port to export oil, as a result of a border dispute.
A paywalled study in Nature Water tested a new method for removing PFAS foam particles in water, with “near-complete destruction of PFAS in various water samples contaminated by the foams.” The process involves “ultra-violet (UV) light, sulfite, and a process called electrochemical oxidation” and does not require heat or high pressure. The number of U.S. states phasing out PFAS is growing.
As forcible repatriations of thousands of Afghans continue, millions of Afghans are suffering from lack of humanitarian aid—aggravated by recent deadly flash floods in the beleaguered, landlocked, failed state.
Yeasty superfungus Candida Auris infections were detected in 77 cases in Germany last year, authorities say. Candida Auris was only identified 15 years ago, but its three separate genetic variants (each on a different continent) have stealthily and stubbornly grown to pose a stealth threat to humankind. It is incredibly resistant to antifungal drugs, and it survives at higher temperatures than most other fungi. The WHO has listed it on a shortlist of top fungal pathogen dangers.
3 cats died from H5N1 in the United States last week. Some health professionals are getting more worried about a future H5N1 jump to become human-to-human transmissible, and claim that we are not ready as a species. Experts say we are not doing enough testing, and may already be in the prologue of a much more devastating pandemic. Scientists still say it is unlikely that a strain will make the critical mutation necessary, but the similarities between human and cow (and other mammal) flu receptors present potential complications.
The world is supposedly being divided into three general trade blocs: U.S., China, and the non-aligned states. For better or worse, globalization is crumbling, and governments are imposing tariffs, attempting to reshore industries, and restructure debt & credit flows. What will happen when the people, long-trained to expect high returns, find their profits wanting?
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Two camps for internally displaced people near Goma, DRC were bombed, killing 12+ and injuring 20+. The perpetrators and their motives are unclear.
Rising crime. Drinking water. Closing the Darien Gap. These were the issues propelling Panama’s president-elect to a victory last Sunday. The arrival of rain is also improving conditions on the Drought-choken Panama Canal, expected to return to normal for at least a month or two.
A wave of Chinese espionage, much of it several years old, is sweeping Europe. Of particular concern is a hack of British military personnel information uncovered on Tuesday—which China denies. Similar espionage against the U.S. has reportedly cost the economy hundreds of billions per year.
Kenya’s mission to stabilize Haiti is inching forward slowly. The Pentagon has ordered its 1,000 troops to leave Niger. At least one Saudi villager was killed to make room for The Line, and reports claim Saudi forces have been given the green light to clear other people who get in the way of the development. Germany’s Defence Ministry is seriously considering recommending conscription for its 18-year olds later this summer.
Displacement in Myanmar has spiked over the past six months—and now counts 3M+ people since the February 2021 coup which sparked more open resistance.
Tunisia ejected ~400 migrants into Libya. Kazakhstan is expelling Tajik migrants in far-ranging sweeps. In Lebanon, vigilante attacks against Syrians have become more common. Mauritania is conducting military drills along part of its border with Mali, after reports emerged of Malian soldiers attacking border settlements.
In Sudan, over 200 witnesses corroborated reports of a massacre last June, where RSF insurgents piled up and shot” at least 17 people, most of whom were children. A lengthy report from Human Rights Watch, complete with timelines, testimony, war crimes, and other horrors from Sudan is over 150 pages. I did not have the fortitude to skim much of it.
A Hamas attack on Sunday, which killed 4 Israeli soldiers, reportedly pushed the Rafah invasion ahead of schedule. The IDF took over the Egypt-Gaza border, and is scaling up operations in southern Gaza. In response, the U.S. paused arms transfers to Israel. Any chance of a ceasefire, if there was ever really a credible chance, will have to wait. Diarrhea is soaring in Gaza, due in large part to a critical water shortage, caused by the destruction of wastewater treatment plants, the damage to water infrastructure, and large-scale displacement. A new evacuation order has commanded over 1M people in Gaza to leave before a more comprehensive invasion of Rafah begins.
A day after President Putin was inaugurated for his fifth term, he ordered a wide strike at Ukrainian infrastructure across seven oblasts. Most of the missiles and drones were shot down. And another plot to assassinate Zelenskyy was foiled. Lithuania is considering sending military trainers into Ukraine. Putin announced that Russian forces would target Western soldiers deployed in Ukraine, and begin drills simulating nuclear weapons if Britain’s involvement grows. Already, Belarus conducted a military drill with missiles & planes capable of using nukes.
In addition to extending Ukraine’s mobilization by another 90 days, the government has also allowing some convicts to fight on the battlefield in exchange for reduced sentences. Poland is allegedly considering repatriating thousands of draft-eligible Ukrainian men, and Germany is emphasizing the need for Ukrainian refugees to work.
Japan is boosting investment in a hypersonic missile interceptor project with the United States. A large-scale Russian offensive has begun across the front-lines, particularly around Kharkiv. And Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is beginning talk of a “genocide” in Moldova, which could provide the pretext for another special military operation in Transnistria—and perhaps beyond.
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Things to watch out for next week include:
↠ The IDMC is releasing their 2024 report on Internally Displaced People (IDPs) on Tuesday, with estimates for total figures by nation & region.
Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:
-High temperatures are going to ruin food—and a lot of people’s health. This thread about the contamination of bánh mi in Vietnam sheds some light on the interconnectivity of our problems. Add in some heat wave-induced power outages, loose government regulation, and hospital problems, and you can imagine how this slow-moving disaster can cripple a community.
-“Microforests” may help mitigate some of the effects of ecosystem collapse and desertification—as well as boosting your property value, judging by this thread and its comments.
-One Collapsenik published a free ebook & audiobook satirizing American Collapse—and I’m not just linking because this newsletter was apparently a source of Doom inspiration. If you write an 80,000 word novel about Collapse, featuring some 300 references, I’ll share it too. Maybe one day I’ll have the time to write one…
Got any feedback, questions, comments, complaints, upvotes, movie recommendations, good off-grid land deals, locust broth, etc.? Check out the Last Week in Collapse SubStack if you don’t want to check collapse every Sunday, you can receive this newsletter sent to your (or someone else’s) email inbox every weekend. What did I forget this week?

Every week this thread will feature the Free Black Men Comment of the Week Award.

• The award will go to the Free Black Man with the most thought-provoking insightful facts in any comment or post for that week.
  
• The point of the awards is to highlight the brilliance of Free Black Men to spark more discussion and education amongst one another.
  

If you want to nominate a comment, link to it below.

This week's award goes to DudeEngineer for a comment about political realism in a first-past-the-post 2-party system.

I think assuming people were able to climb in the party because of pure tail tucking is an interesting take. That tends to result in people on the sidelines, not leading.
Rolling back Roe disproportionately affects Black people. Rolling back affirmative action will do the same. Sure it might help white women more because of derper structural problems, but removing it won't drag them down like us. Racists can now accept no Black people regardless of how qualified they are without repercussions.
Kamala isn't Black now? Is Obama also not Black? I get taking issue with her being a cop, but come on...
You said your solution is talking to both sides. Tim Scott is easily the most powerful Black Republican politician. How is that a jab? If you aren't talking to him, who are you supposed to talk to from that side?
Action has to be at the national level to make a real impact. Many cities have had Black mayors preside over their decline for 50+ years. I've spent most of my life in the Atlanta atea, which has been hamstrung by state and national politics.
Toss us aside? For what? For who? Democrats toss a side a quarter of their base and consistently lose to Republicans for the foreseeable future? Make it make sense.
Who said beloved? This has always been a case of choosing the less racist side. No one said, Not racist. LESS racist. This is also the side that has more politicians who are Black and/or who speak like tthey have some sense.

It’s almost a consensus for the community that the damage and offense in this game is too strong. This problem is not inhered from heat system or chip damage but the balance and scaling of the game. The damage problem is everywhere such as Leroy perfect parry, King’s Smash, Law ws4 CH, the damage problem is not tie to specific factor. Chip damage until you one hit away from death. Heat burst being free preasure button with no skill expression.
These are Tekken 8 aspect. And they are what make this is T8 not T7.5 while I am agree with the problem however I oppose when someone say “Just remove chip damage” “remove heat system” and etc. So let fix it, my take will focusing on “Tekken 8” things.
I am not game dev or Evo champion, so these are just player opinion and players discussions.

1. Nerf the overall damage or buff the HP. (Huge Nerf) > 80-100hp combo damage is too common and too easy. You can die from one combo and one Oki. I can rarely see a round that has more than one wall combo in this game. The damage nerf is apply all over from Combo, Heat smash, to knockdown follow up

• Increase durability or decrease damage by around 20%

1. Rage changes. Buff Rage BUT nerf Rage Art > After we nerf enough damage, now we have more room to buff this comeback mechanic, currently the damage boost is just 10%. If you do 80 damage combo currently, during “Rage” the whole combo gets 8 damage more. (understandable given current game damage). Which is barely a “boost”. Also the introduction of chip damage is killing the purpose of Rage as comeback mechanic for losing player. Since they are already so low that few more chip damage can put them in 1 HP. For “Rage Art” deep inhale yes, give something for the leading player to think twice is not a bad idea, but the damage is wayy too high, and the scaling is kind of punishing winning player too much (lower HP, higher damage) by Nerfing RA damage and change how it scaling and buffing Rage damage boost, these changes will greatly increase the opportunity cost of Rage Art.

• Increase damage boost from 10% to 20% (10% more, 80 Damage combo become 96 in Rage)
  
• Reduce Rage Art damage by 20%
  
• Rage state now gain new effect “while in Rage, immune to chip damage”
  
• Rage Art scaling from missing HP change to scaling with how long the player stayed in Rage (Longer in Rage, Higher RA damage)
  

^{This to reward the losing player who can endure through the pressure and play/survive from an inch from death, this change also prevent the dumb use of RA immediately without any game plan. This change also affects the winning side, by putting a pressure of “close the match now, or they will have stronger Rage Art, but if I am reckless I will actually get hit by Rage Art” lead to interesting interactions.}

1. Heat burst adjustment > purpose of Heat burst is to be an defensive tool in the oppressive and highly aggressive game. But the property of the move also give it benefits of using as offensive tool to get free pressure without any skill required. The change should increase the move effectiveness on good Defensive use and reduce it from offensive use.

• Heat burst strength scale with damage taken during the use
  
• Heat burst gain 20% damage reduction
  
• No damage taken (bad/offensive use): -3 on block, 0 on hit, 10 damage
  
• Small damage taken (Jab/Poke) : +1 on block, +2 on hit, 15 damage
  
• Moderate-High damage taken: +5 on block, +7 on hit, 22 damage.
  

These are changes that I personally would like to see, and wish them to lead the game by create healthier interaction using dame special mechanics and reduce overall damage dealt while give Rage state little more privilege to compensate and provide comeback opportunity on more durable game.