Q: Do UFOs exist?

A: Yes. The way humanity interprets the word 'fact' is for the observation to be independently verified by a community which often includes evidence and supporting material. For UFOs, multiple governments, agencies such as NASA and key scientist/astronaut/military personnel have independently affirmed the existence of UFOs. Famously multiple presidents of the US have been quoted to acknowledge them as well.
Note: Be wary, as with enough scrutiny almost any claim can be reduced and dissected to the point where almost any 'fact' can be questioned, UFOs are no different. Using the term 'fact' in a society of subjective sentient beings is a logical slippery slope. But we can certainly say, as far as the word and loose interpretation of the word 'fact' goes, it is a fact that UFO's exist.

Q: Do aliens exist?

A: Almost certainly, the majority of the scientific community agrees it would be astronomically unlikely for terrestrial life to exist in isolation. Despite significant observations of life living in seemingly impossible inhospitable environments on earth, critics rightfully question "if life is abundant, why have we not seen it yet".

Q: Are the UFOs we see due to alien visitation?

A: The strategy to answer questions which don't have scientific consensus is to logically consider it with the information we do have, making the fewest assumptions with the available facts. As with the case of the visitation hypothesis, we can consider many angles and reach a logically sound position.
Most of you know that out of a sample of 100 reported sightings, only a handful are truly anomalous, the vast majority being misreported as known origin. Of the handful left we can say these are anomalous genuine UAPs. Of these, we must first consider the least assumptions and first look to whether they are anomalous in nature, but human in origin.
Before we can do that we need to briefly discuss the credibility of witness testimony. Society places a significant credibility with witness testimony. People's lives can be judged based on the testimony of a witness, such as in the case of a murder trial. Indeed the vast majority of our entire scientific understanding is based on experimental data and whilst such data is often from instruments and computers there is often a human element. Ultimately a human witnesses the experiment and records the measurements and readings. Many things can affect the credibility of a witness testimony and of particular significance are independent witnesses reporting the same observation. As is the case with the scientific methodology and 'reproduced experiments'.
To Ufologists, a large component of lore and supplementary evidence to the existence of UAPs is built on witness testimony. We should consider events such as Rendlesham Forest where a sighting was reported by multiple expert, trained military personnel who are specifically trained in identifying even advanced aircraft and weather phenomena. A report based on multiple trained, sane personnel with consistent observations to the description of a UAP sighting is what we would call a water tight witness testimony. Such a testimony would be ruled true in any court for a petty crime or murder scandal for example.
However, on the topic of "NHI" our sample size of witness testimony is lower than the case for UAPs. The cases of multiple, credible witnesses coming forward with testimony for the case of NHI are less and I struggle to think of a good example. (Please drop any in the comments).
However, in the case of supposed NHI visitations we do have a colourful array of high ranking officials and representatives of military or government who have disclosed personally that they knew of NHI visitations.

• Robert Dean
• Paul Hellyer

In these cases the credibility is more individually focused on the trustworthiness of the person rather than a coherent multiple sighting event. We must consider such testimony carefully for there are many logical explanations for such testimony being false.
For example, David Grusch is a high profile contemporary whistle-blower who has claimed the existence of NHI. Using purely logic and removing any emotional or subjective intuition we can consider at least one likely explanation for his testimony. It's very possible that Grusch is operating as per a larger more convoluted Psy-Ops on behalf of the government. We know he is a very diligent patriot with a pristine record and presents as the perfect soldier to take one for the team and blow his career and personal circumstances to lie under oath and rattle off something he's been asked to say for some greater agenda to serve his country. Such agendas we can only speculate on, but domestic manipulation of the public as well as cold-war game theory plays against adversary countries such as China. Obviously such a hypothesis is fantastical and imaginative. But so is the NHI visitation hypothesis and a global conspiracy. For those versed in the US's history of Psy-ops, particularly in the case of the CIA and NSA - such an operation involving Grusch as a false agent is absolutely consistent with some of their previous endeavours.
Disclaimer: I am not disproving Grusch, my personal opinion is he is likely telling the truth. But I am allowed my personal opinion and my personal opinion is you cannot guarantee his legitimacy without the application of some element of faith. I have always been extremely careful whenever faith is introduced to objective deductions. I hope we all are. I don't operate with beliefs so I can't answer whether I believe in Grusch or not. But I can consider both sides as a matter of consistent statistical likelihood and it's much healthier for me to assume both possibilities going forward rather than feeling the very precarious and human desire to conclude. Again I hope this is something that is common practice amongst my peers.
So answering the question of NHI having operated the UAPs we know to exist is ongoing. So far we have explored the very likely idea that life exists outside the earth. We have also considered witness testimony and found that whilst witness testimony is credible in many scenarios, it's particularly problematic to be relied on in this case. Of course Grusch is not the only one who's claimed NHI visitations but our analysis on him is applicable to others.
There is good hope for the Alien hypothesis, but first more bad news. If we believe Grusch and similar witness testimony (in Grusch's case he's not a direct witness). We must also consider that these same witnesses also claim a US government UAP project. Depending on the witnesses and whistle-blower testimony, we either have a reverse engineering capacity of UAPs to even a downright working production of UAPs ourselves. So when we consider the handful of genuine anomalous sightings for every 100 reports, when we apply further statistical analysis, we now need to account for the likelihood such sighting (especially near air force bases or military facilities) may just be human operating UAP experiments.
Obviously we have a paradox "you can't refute the NHI origin hypothesis by saying they're humans, if humans only have the technology because we reverse engineered it" and that is true so let's be clear. Using statistics and logic we may say that a truly anomalous sighting may be humans operating craft. But we may also say that craft may have been inspired by a NHI origin.
So far the answer is skewed slightly towards the likelihood of the NHI hypothesis to be false. However there is a very compelling element to the facts that critics of the NHI hypothesis struggle with.
We have a very clear and comprehensive record of UAPs in history which predates a reasonable likelihood of us having the technology at that time. Obviously the endeavours of the ancient astronaut hypothesis is colourful, fantastical and well refuted. But amongst the popularly scrutinized theory there are strong elements of logical significance. Almost all religions and teachings of native indigenous people overwhelming talk of people coming from the sky in craft, appearing different in their looks, possessing knowledge and technology and interacting with early humans. Such stories are controversial of course but enough of them exist to merit consideration.
But much more relevant to us in this argument is the existence of the Project Bluebook and the incidents which inspired its necessity. For those that aren't aware it's common knowledge to Ufologists as the allied investigations into apparently very common UAP reports known as foo fighters observed by pilots during the word war.
Our logic tells us that if any global human power at the time had that capability we would have used it. The reason for that is because as soon as we had the atomic bomb capability we used that. It's absurd to assume that a human government was responsible for the UAPs in the bluebook but didn't use them, but would use an atom bomb. It's absurd but we must remember, history is littered with absurd events that did happen. So we don't rule it out, but it more or less provides a significant and compelling argument to the NHI hypothesis for UAPs. In simple terms, they existed before we could have created them. We deduce that, because if we had UAP tech we would have used it before needing to rely on atom bombs.
Ultimately if you want an answer it has two parts; a pragmatic answer and then a severe personal caveat.
Part one: Pragmatism

For any truly anomalous sighting, it very well may be of human origin dabbling in potential NHI tech. It also may be of NHI origin. We don't have clear enough evidence to know. Whilst US military officials claim they don't have the tech or that their adversaries don't, belief of that position requires faith as they do not provide a logical argument for their hypothesis. But if we look back at the sightings throughout history it becomes more and more likely the sightings were of NHI origin.

Part two: Caveat

My personal caveat is that some FAQ's shouldn't have conclusive answers. Our scientific method which underpins our most prestigious and rigorous institution of science in the world; does not always conclude. Sometimes a question has multiple likely answers and it will take more information to reduce those to one answer. I emphatically preach this is an attitude we employ as Ufologists as ultimately we are a community of speculators and researchers. So let's leave faith at the door.

Q: Why can supposed advanced beings master interdimensional/intergalactic space traversal but then crash land on earth like amateurs?

A: This question usually has a very loaded and dangerous assumption which I don't think we can make without careful consideration. The question implies that UFOs crash landing is as problematic to NHI as it would be to us. If a military pilot crashes a plane, they may die and as an asset they are worth hundreds of millions to the government, big loss. Additionally the plane they used is extremely expensive too and may have trade secrets. For us, a pilot crash landing is a huge net loss in life and assets. When we consider the idea of UAP crash landing we are applying our human bias on them.
Firstly, the UAP may be being operated by AI, biological artificial intelligence, pilotless etc. Even if there's a biologic body inside it's very possible the actual sentient pilot was operating the body remotely the same way we operate robots remotely. The biological body left behind may be like a robot we left on the moon which we used remotely to navigate the lunar landscape. Our operators don't die if the robot is broken.
Additionally, the craft itself is likely not a multi billion dollar craft. It's probably extremely cheaply made with the avenue of advanced technology. The 4chan whistle-blower (whether you believe them or not) introduced a logically sound idea that a craft was in the sea making purpose built UAPs all the time and sending them on missions. The "mother craft" just mines the materials it needs from our sea floor and pops out a UAP, it's probably entirely automated.
Little fiction here but it paints a story which is good to consider. Imagine a un manned probe lands in the sea after having identified using photo spectrometry that our planet has certain elements. It lands and the AI finds a spot in the sea away from detention and starts mining for a probe craft. It mines and creates a probe craft. The probe craft goes out and does some recon and then either makes new craft for whatever but eventually instigates a protocol which fires up the organic biological 'pilots' which are either artificial purpose built intelligence or biological vehicles operated by remote consciousness which a sentient life form will operate from afar. Then these guys go and crash whether it's a magnetic anomaly or something else and the NHI doesn't really care and are hardly inconvenienced.
It's possible to encapsulate or hide or lock the main functions of their technology upon crashing in the same way that our advanced technology may self destruct if crash landed in a foreign land. There's also speculation that some secret key is needed to operate them.
That is all fiction, but it paints a compelling alternative to us just projecting our bias on the crash hypothesis.
Remember, to a civilization that in theory has automated its outreach reconnaissance, the most pristine system design for their drones and vehicles isn't to somehow guarantee 100% crash proof technology. But instead it's to assume crashes will happen and make sure they're not damaging nor give away their tech too much.

Q: Can we simulate or 'fake' UFO's in the sky?

A: Yes to an extent. Using lasers we have technology to create lights that can move. However radar is another matter.

Q: Why haven't we had material evidence of UAP's released to the public?

A: Grusch has kind of answered this by saying that destabilisation factors are too great.
For those interested, this post comprehensively considers this angle and attempts to explain in layman terms why disclosure is so complicated for a government and what those reasons mean.

Q: Is there an alternative to official disclosure and catastrophic disclosure?

A: Yes, I believe there's a route forward that a community such as this one can start making progress on. With the introduction to a pragmatic disclosure which has a simple goal; remove the 'valid' reasons that disclosure is being hidden and it will no longer be hidden.

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2008 Ford mustang coupe v6 automatic p0745 Pressure Control Solenoid A and p0733 Incorrect gear 3 ratio seem to pop up everytime vehicle is low/has no coolant? Vanishing coolant. Bought at 50k miles. Old service records state coolant problem and trans issues diagnosed at 45k miles. 2nd owner of car never mentioned the detailed diagnosis. 2nd owner only stated both CEL and OD blinking light were fixed with fluid change. Car checked out in great shape by multiple mechanics. All lights and problems gone for another 40k miles During regular oil changes every 3k miles they noted coolant seemed to be leaking slow but the leak was never found until I hit 85k miles. The check engine light came back on and o/d blinking light, coolant tank was low on coolant and car overheated. Added 2 gallons of coolant and the lights disappeared again after driving around. Weeks later had some slight acceleration issues but still no codes. Brought it in anyway. The certified transmission mechanic fixed the bad coolant leak and told me I would need a rebuild too due to the previous codes.. I also had them put in brand new engine due to the severe overheating. All brand new solenoids.. Hit 110k miles with the Mustang and for third time CEL and OD blink light came on again P0745 and P0733. Took to a local mechanic and they tried changing the trans fluid to see if it could fix the codes. Didnt fix the codes and was told it likely needs a completely new or a used transmission.. Coolant seemed fine and car still drove smooth for the past several months until last night hit 122k miles and White smoke/steam is now coming from engine area. No overheating yet but coolant tank is holding barely any coolant at all. Leaking can be heard near center of under the hood when trying to add coolant. 37k miles on both brand new engine and complete rebuilt transmission with brand new solenoids and parts.
What are the chances the transmission and engine are still fine and the codes are being caused by a coolant/oil pan gasket leak, or a bad radiator? Or even a simple or similar often overlooked issue? I'm having it towed tomorrow to the certified transmission shop that fixed the coolant leak to begin with and rebuilt the transmission but he seems lost on what the issue could be.
Any ideas or similar issues?

Told this joke at an open mic for the first time last night and the premise, setup, and tag were well received, but the punchline wasn't. Please help!
A friend of mine who moved from Dublin to Barcelona told me Barcelona has 300 days of sunshine annually. I wanted to compare that to Dublin so I googled "how many days of sunshine per year Dublin"...and the only answer that popped up was 1400...hours.
It's never a good sign when the answer changes the units.
'How much money do you make per year?' 'I make 1 Million...Colombian Pesos.'
'What's your body count?' 'I've slept with the equivalent of 100...toes...that's 21 boobs!'
The toes part didn't land. Pesos and boobs did. I'm trying to come up with a unit of something women would have multiple of to inflate the number. I could also go in the other direction i.e. "How many women have restraining orders against you?" "The equivalent of 3...basketball teams." OR I could come up with a different punchline altogether! I'm all ears.

In short- My job isn’t hard but my manager is making it difficult.
Firstly, I came from a high-stress high-demand underpaid Finance job, to a workplace where expectations are clearly outlined, people aren’t expected to work late and I am paid more money. Perfect.
We are a team of women (wonderful) but sometimes I feel we make things way more difficult than it should be.
When I started I had a lot of knowledge about our industry and when I shared this knowledge with the team, my manager undermined me and said I was wrong. I also have knowledge about some of our clients and their internal structure- she also said I was wrong about a company I used to work for. I worked in finance then and was part of a huge restructure.
I am used to submitting holiday, and it being rejected or approved. My new manager will talk at the beginning of each meeting about holiday, what she has to move around to get it approved, and wants to chat about what I am doing with my holiday. It feels like we are causing her stress when we submit leave and the discussions go on for weeks sometimes.
We had a team meeting a few weeks ago where the whole team listened to us talk about my holiday and how she was going to move shifts to get it approved. I find it super unprofessional as it’s not up to me to advise her what shifts to move about etc. I’ve noticed she does not do this with my colleagues.
She has mentioned my colleague’s weight loss goals in our 121’s. She told our entire team my partner was going to propose to me in a quarterly teams call (called it out in front of everybody) when I never said he was. I said I he was ‘popping to the shop’ when we were signing off for the day. She assumed ‘pop’ meant ‘pop the question’ since it was near Christmas?
In our 1-2-1’s she always says ‘I don’t want you getting overwhelmed’. I have never said I am overwhelmed and she mentioned last week that she used this wording in relation to me, TO HER MANAGER, which I am upset about. I asked if she has any concerns with my work, and she doesn’t. She has mentioned many times that she is overwhelmed and seems to be projecting this on to me.
I am not responding well to her overly-emotional approach to management at all. I have noticed other people in my team get treated differently because they are closer with their families. For example I worked over Christmas last year and said I would prefer to be off this year. She said ‘x person’ and ‘x person’ needs to see their family. I feel like I’m now I’m competition with my co-workers to make the most compelling case to have time off in December!
I have also realised today that she has lied to me and my colleagues have more access in the system than I do. I asked for access to something and I have been told it’s only available to a certain level of employee, which is not true. I would prefer if she just said ‘you can’t have access’ as I’m not bothered but I would prefer not to be lied to!
We are also alone together 1 day a week and I’ve noticed there will only be a period of 1 hour where she makes herself available. She does give great support when we are touching base but does talk more than necessary and often confuses matters. If I correct her she doesn’t listen and will carry on down the same path. I’ve also noticed she interrupts and won’t stop talking until the other person has stopped.
I have never raised a grievance at work and I don’t feel the above is reason enough to speak to her manager. However, I don’t feel this person is the right person to be representing my best interests to upper management and it is now getting me down. Should I just leave?

Wade took a breath as he picked up his old duffel bag, now loaded with his DD uniform and a few other items from the Ceres mines as he slotted it to his side, with the large band handle around his neck. Having gathered his belongings, he joined Tina, who was waiting near the ship's open bay door as he walked over to her. The couple watched several of the other troopers inside marching out as well, some carrying crates of supplies and items out of the craft as they departed for the base outside. Kelly was one of the last ones still on board, checking on a section of the cargo bay as she did what Wade presumed was some maintenance work.
With the way now clear, Wade and Tina stepped off the transport, glancing at the massive base around them as they touched the roughened pavement. Throughout the large landing port were several more chameleon dropships, their crews disembarking with similar items and loads of rescued drones aboard. Beyond the ships were several hangar bays and fighter craft, mostly A-20s and their space-borne cousins docked in lines going across the pad. And beyond the landing zone, towering over several buildings at the base, were the few cruisers docked to the large clamps holding them in place.
Walking ahead with Tina, Wade observed some of the departing Coalition troops as they neared one of several tents stationed near an inactive group of planes, the military personnel interacting and exchanging the crates with the Coalition officers upon reaching each other. Hearing a low roar of engines from afar, the lover drones looked upward to see the large USN warship that was present at the factory earlier, having followed the transport convoy home and now was beginning to descend for landing. Wade gave a silent gasp as he caught a glimpse of the ship's name and SIC number at the side, remembering it from the ship he and Ron saw while returning to Earth.
"Always a wondrous thing to see, isn't it Wade?" Tina said as she and her boyfriend watched the ship slowly come lower to the unoccupied dockyard clamps below it.
"Sure is, wonder how they built those babies?" Wade replied as the two looked upon the landing starship, the former worker drone smirking as he added, "I could've swore I saw that same exact ship over Henderson when Ron and I came back, before we got mugged earlier."
Tina glanced to Wade with surprise as she spoke up on his claim. "Really? Well, that had to be the one that helped our friends here back at the factory. I think I saw the same name on it too!"
"Wouldn't surprise me, seeing all that's happened today." Wade replied as he chortled a bit, Tina doing the same as the former spoke further. "I wonder, what kind of ship is the... Vickers again? You know?"
"Autumn class, dear. A heavy destroyer variant, not as strong as those enormous Yamato dreadnoughts or Adelaide battlecruisers, but she'll put up a good fight for whatever comes at her." Tina explained as she held back another chuckle, thinking of her education on various USN craft as she teased Wade lightly. "You know, I may just have to grab one of those ship roster tabs when we get in the base. I'd love to show you all they got in their arsenal."
Wade chortled again as he gave his thoughts on the idea. "Well, it wouldn't be bad to have a little more knowledge in ship-story."
Tina almost burst out laughing at his crude pun, Wade smiling at her as F and Nathan jogged over to the two, the latter carrying his own backpack behind him as he spoke. "Well, not a bad place, huh? You guys heading to the clearance station?"
"Oh yes, we were just admiring the ships around us while we walked." Tina said with a stifled laugh, easing herself as she chatted with her new friends. Wade, however, was quickly overcome with panic as he remembered something. Checking his pockets, his fears were confirmed as he failed to find one of his key possessions: his ID card. Wade felt he must have lost it when he was stripped of his old clothing while in the factory.
Oh no, guys? I don't think I can pass through." Wade said with greenish-yellow circles for eyes as Tina and the others looked to him in concern, the drone feeling through his pockets once more before stating his issue. "My ID, they must've taken it off me when they turned me into a disassembly drone!" Wade began to hyperventilate lightly as he grew fearful of the potential outcomes when they reached the security gate ahead. "Oouuugghh, if I don't have my ID, they'll have to keep me lo-"
"Wade, Wade... it's okay. I'll have them make a pass for you, surely we can get them to after getting them to understand what's happened." Tina stated as she put her hand to Wade's chest, who eased his panic as he looked to his girlfriend.
"Yeah, and besides Wade, those people over there went around gathering what ever items the company stole from the drones during their conversion. I'm sure that once they find it, they'll have it sent off to be given back to you!" Nathan said as F nodded in agreement, shunting Wade's panic out of him with their words as he replied to the hopeful responses.
"Right, yeah, they should do that. Sorry." Holding Tina's hand, Wade spoke to her once more. "Lead the way."
Tina nodded to Wade before the two began to walk over to the security gate nearby, several people, drones and humans alike, already in the line as they checked themselves in to the base to relax after the hard-fought battle. Once they reached the line, the four stood together as they waited for the line to slowly go up, more troops and rescued drones coming over to add to the long line. During the wait, a loud, mechanical 'SLAM' erupted through the air, prompting Wade and Tina to glance over to the direction of the noise. The two felt at ease once more as they saw the Vickers finally landed at the base, the loud clang being the docking clamps attaching to the ships hull just moments ago.
As the line moved up further to the gate, Wade and Tina caught sight of a pair of A-20 aircraft passing over them, the two watching as the planes slowed down while descending onto the runway nearby. The four drones' collective viewing of the fighters landing ceased as they caught sight of J, who took flight as she departed the transport nearby before flying over to the tents near the hangar bays.
"Huh, wonder what she's over there for?" Nathan said as he observed J landing onto the ground in front of one of the tents.
"Probably checking on the drones we got back, or meeting up with one of those commanders there." F said as she motioned an arm towards the tents, J walking under one as she made her way to one of the soldiers coming over to her. "Seems like the latter, from the looks of it."
Wade shrugged as he responded to the group's pondering over J's actions. "Well, she'll be here with us if we need her, right? Shouldn't be much to worry about."
Returning their focus to the line ahead, Wade and his team waited as the line moved up over the next few minutes, moving impressively fast as the people in front cleared themselves in one at a time. Eventually, the four of them were up, Tina stepping up to show her ID for clearance. "Hello, it's been a busy day, hasn't it?"
The security agent smirked at Tina's small-talk. "Hah, not too busy here until you all showed up."
As the guard finished scanning Tina's ID, she handed the card back to her as she raised a finger to begin her request. "Oh, um, there's a little issue we need to resolve." Putting a hand to Wade's arm, Tina explained her boyfriend. "This is my dear friend Wade, Wade Carter. We both managed to escape that blasted factory with the help of those Coalition folks there." Wade gave a pleading look as Tina continued. "Unfortunately, Wade was converted into a disassembly drone before he was rescued, and it seems those people at the company took all his belongings he had on him, including his ID. Do you think there's... anyway you could write up something to let him by?"
Stepping forward, F gave her end of the story. "I can vouch for him, Ma'am. Wade and I we're among the teams helping in getting the worker drones out of the factory during the operation." The disassembly drone pulled out a pair of cards as she finished her explanation, one of them being her company-issued Disassembly Service Passcard, which resembled a normal civilian ID in appearance, save for the 'JCJenson (In Spaaace!) Logo on the top left and hazard markings around the rim of the card. As for the other card, it was a well worn, still legitimate ID card, showing F as how she appeared when she was a worker drone. At the side of her picture was a name with an initial. "FELICITY A LEE"
Taking the two cards in her hand, she looked them over and scanned them as Nathan tried to back Wade up as well. "So can I, Ma'am! I helped there too, when he was under the company's control. We all got him out of the factory so we could get him back in order." Pulling out his own ID, Nathan handed it out as the guard returned F's IDs to her.
The guard accepted Nathan's ID as she spoke over what to do with Wade. "Well, normally it takes clearance from higher ranked personnel here to allow someone inside without a legitimate form of identification. We can't just take someone's word on things like this, after all." Tina seemed to frown in disappointment as the guard explained her protocols, Wade looking down at the ground as he felt his worries were about to be proven correct. Going over Nathan's ID further, she gave an intrigued expression at the card before continuing. "Huh, interesting. Got two veteran folks here, I see?" She glanced to Nathan and F as she said that, taking into account their former military background as the former spoke up.
"Three, actually. My pal Kurtis is somewhere back there, I think. He should be heading down here later this evening." The guard glanced back at Nathan's ID as she took in the veteran drone's reply, sighing as she decided to make a slight amendment to the issue put before her and the four friends.
"Well, seeing you two here, I believe I can write something up. The Major won't be happy with me for this, but I think I can trust you with appropriate behavior." Taking a small sticky name-tag, the woman pulled out a pen before starting to write on it. Initially, she glanced to Wade, who stated his name again before she began to write his name on the tag. Once she was finished, the guard gave the tag to Wade, who slapped it onto his jacket before she spoke to him. "You should be fine to enter for the most part, just stick close to your friends and don't cause any trouble. Understood?"
Wade gave a stern salute to the security officer, who held back a chuckle at the honest, yet amusing effort the disassembly drone showed to her. Giving a simple nod and a flick of her hand, she permitted Wade and his friends entrance to the base, the four walking past the walkway barricades as they made their way past the gate.
Wade let out a heavy sigh of relief as he thanked his allies. "I owe you both so much for this, thanks!"
"Don't mention it, Wade." F said warmly as she and Nathan laughed at his joyful face.
"Yeah, just doing what any good friend should." Nathan said as Tina wrapped an arm around Wade, holding him tightly as the two walked together.
Looking to his girlfriend, Wade spoke to Tina about what to do next. "Well, since we're in, you wanna go fi-" He ceased his words as he remembered that there was someone else they needed to find amongst the base. "Oh, I almost forgot about her,"
"Jasmine!" Tina and Wade said aloud together as the former remembered her sister, Wade's words snapping her mind to Jasmine in an instant. "We should look for her, you think she might be here somewhere?"
"Probably. If they got Ron after they captured me, they have to 've picked her up too." Wade stated, Nathan raising a hand as he offered to help.
"I could go looking for her! You know what she looks like?" Readying a holo-projector, he tried to display an image of Jasmine from one of his many memories of her. The picture was, while pixelated and under a blue hue, incredibly well-detailed. And for Nathan, that was all he needed to see to note Jasmine's appearance in his memory. Nodding, he spoke again to his friends. "Got it! I'll see if she's around!" Then, turning to run down one of the paths leading to a nearby base facility, he stopped as he asked one more question. "Oh! One more thing, you got a smartcomm on ya, Wade?"
Readying one from his holo-projector hand, he nodded as he spoke into it. "Seems so, though I don't seem to have all my contacts added in."
Running back over, Nathan pulled out his own smartcomm before putting it up against Wade's hand one, allowing the two devices to exchange information. Upon the devices beeping, Wade and Nathan nodded to each other, the former ignoring a pop-up that stated, "New Contact Added" while the latter spoke once more. "Okay, I'll call you once I spot her!" With that, he began running down the path once more, intent on finding Tina's sister at the base, wherever she could be.
"Fowley! Her last name's Fowley!" Tina said aloud to the departing Nathan, hoping he heard her words before turning away from the miner drone and facing Wade and F again.
As Tina sighed in partial relief, Wade put his own arm around her before asking the question he tried to ask before. "So, uh, with that out of the way for now... You wanna go look for one of those ship tabs?"
Putting a hand to Wade's chest, Tina smiled as she replied. "Oh, certainly." Then, as the three began walking down a different path that Nathan hadn't taken, the pilot drone continued with a chuckle. "I hear they have a place here that sells model kits too!"
...
Jasmine sat in silent sorrow as she took another gulp of her glass of Proxi-Vodka, a tasty, but heavy alcoholic beverage produced at the colony of Proxima 2... and one of Jasmine's preferred drinks to have when she wasn't in a good mood. When she awoke after being stunned by the station guards, she found that she was just recovered by a group that called themselves the 'United Earth Coalition', and that her drone friend, Tina, was unfortunately taken by the JCJenson corporation to be turned into one of their horrid disassembly drones. While the people that saved her offered to help her find Tina, so far there had been no luck in doing so. No successful calls, no response from Wade nor Ron, nothing.
The whole situation widdled at her like scrapes to her form, slowly draining any bit of hope that she had in finding her sister. And once the mission at that factory was over, the ship began heading back to the Nellis Base to escort the recovered drones back to a safe area. Unfortunately for Jasmine, Tina's presence was not given confirmation. Alone, she walked off to one of the bars down at the base, specifically Drexler's Cantina, one of the more popular bars down at the military starport. Thankfully, though she didn't openly exhibit feelings of wanting to be alone in her wallowing, she was glad the place was nearly barren of patrons, with only a few at a couple of tables within the bar.
The stage at the back of the bar also had a few singer drones performing aloud, the lead singer girl reciting the words of a quiet, yet exciting song that, instrumentally, consisted of a strange mix of bass, techno, and a hint of opera. The song itself was one Jasmine had heard a good many times before in her life, known as, 'You Complete My World' by a decades old Earth band by the name of HeartStar. The song, as Jasmine and many others who'd heard it interpreted it, was about someone who described their world like a puzzle, and that the one whom the main singer cared for beyond all was the only thing that could keep their world from shattering into ruin before them.
An oddly fitting tune, given what had just happened on the JCJ Central earlier. For all Jasmine knew, Tina was either alive beyond her knowledge, hopefully searching for her wherever she could, or, the answer Jasmine feared... Dead.
Not wanting to even consider the thought, the human pilot took another swig of the colonial Vodka, relishing in its taste before forcing herself to swallow, almost gagging from the strength of the drink. Easing herself, she glanced out to one of the windows of the bar, taking the faint glimpse of night into her eyes. Then, looking to the clock at the wall ahead of her, she saw the time was about a little over an hour to 10 pm. Jasmine gave a sigh to herself, certain she would be alone for the rest of the night.
Unbeknownst to her, however, Jasmine had been spied upon a little while ago. Nathan, in his search for the woman Tina called Jasmine Fowley, had spotted a woman matching the physical appearance of the target. Knowing Jasmine wouldn't know who he was if he tried to talk to her himself, Nathan immediately went looking for Wade, easing his return to his team by calling the former worker drone and signaling him about his findings.
Deciding to check on the news, Jasmine slowly pulled out her smartcomm, resisting her urge to press the contacts button as she tapped the news app. Looking through it, she spotted a recent story that was posted just over an hour ago, titled, "JCJenson 'Recall' effort sabotaged by joint Government/Militia forces! The Truth Exposed!" Above the article was a video, a play button in front of it teasing Jasmine. Curious over this sudden development, she pressed the button, her attention in complete focus on the video as it began to play.
After the news station's logo appeared on-screen for a short few seconds, the current host for the story, Mrs. Tiffany Joy, appeared at her seat before beginning the story. "Good evening, this is Nevada-78, I'm your host, Tiffany Joy. Tonight, we start with a rapid development for the 'drone recall' incidents propagated by the business conglomerate JCJenson In Space. Throughout the afternoon up to now, several advanced factories under the ownership of the corporation have fallen under violent assault by various militarized forces, ranging from official United Nations operatives to private militia groups with varying goals." The small screen to Joy's left shifted to show the state of Nevada, zooming into it to show a portion of the Mojave desert as Joy continued her story.
"Among these facilities, one such factory based right here in southern Nevada has recently succumbed to the successful efforts of the USN Defense Force and a group by the name of the United Earth Coalition, an alliance consisting of humans and automatons working to create a unified world for both species." The screen shifted again to show the logo for the UEC, which appeared as one half of a human head outline and another of a drone's, along with two arms behind the heads belonging to both beings pictured. "With the attack having concluded just hours ago, we have reporters gathering at the New Nellis Staryards near Henderson City to bring you the aftermath of the conflict. We go to Mr. Jelico, on the scene in five."
The camera shifted after the countdown of five to show Mr. Jelico in front of the camera, the cameraman filming a large tent housing several worker drones being tended to by the base soldiers. "Alright, Jelico here, we're on station at New Nellis. What you're all seeing here are some of the recovered worker drones, many of them were pretty spooked by the events that unfolded in that factory earlier." As the camera panned over the lot of drones, some of them looked to the camera, curious at the news crew filming them as Jelico continued. "A few of them are real glad to be here, Joy. Seems like they feel safe here, as far as I can tell."
As the camera moved to show Jelico again, a plane could be seen taking off as he spoke. "Yeah, these people did them quite a service. The staff here are working to find their original owners and families, it'll probably be a little bit before they can get them all home." The camera switched once again to another view of the base, the lights of various buildings illuminating the night as the news story continued.
At the entrance, Nathan pushed open the door to the bar, the chime failing to catch anyone's attention as he, Wade, F and Tina stepped inside. Carefully pointing at Jasmine, he whispered to Tina, "That's her, from the looks of it. She's been here for a good minute!"
Taking another drink of the Proxi-Vodka, Jasmine listened further to the story. "The authorities didn't just recover a majority of the worker drones taken into the factory, however. A recent update provided by Mrs. Yuka, shows her interviewing a disassembly drone who claims to be among the unfortunate drones the assault force failed to save before their conversion."
"Jasmine!" Tina called out, the voice instantly grabbing the woman's attention as she paused the news story. Swiftly turning her head, her heart began pounding with immense excitement as she saw her drone sister, who grinned upon seeing her face.
"Tina!" Jasmine said aloud, somewhat weakly from her previous wallowing as she tried to run over to her sister, landing on her knees as the two embraced in a flush of emotions. Wade and his friends stood behind the two girls as they hugged each other, clinging onto one another as tightly as they could give. Jasmine seemed to erupt with a pained cough as she allowed some of her sorrow out of her heart, Tina carressing her back in a comforting manner as she held back her own tears. The sisters held the hug for a long moment, not daring to let go of one another for fear of losing each other again. Eventually, however, they did, the two sisters taking heavy breaths as Jasmine spoke up while wiping her face. "I thought I'd lost you."
"Can't say I didn't feel the same way, love." Tina replied as she broke out in light laughter, glancing to Wade before continuing. "But, fortunately, those Coalition boys helped out quite a bit. Though, not as much as my knight in his new armor."
Standing herself up, Jasmine took Tina's helping hand as she looked to the one her sister spoke of. A grateful smile formed on Jasmine's face as she saw Wade, standing in front of her and Tina as he returned the expression. Looking upon her family friend, Jasmine noticed something... different about Wade. He was taller now, his arms were shaped like white cones rather than the silver bendy tubes he and Tina normally had. As for his face, his pure green eyes were replaced with a set of greenish-yellow ones, and above his forehead was a band holding five yellow bulbs that she didn't know the function of.
While the pieces started to click together in her head, Jasmine took Wade's held out hand as she spoke to him. "Wade, I'm so glad to see you! You look different, too. Did something... happen to you?" She already guessed it by this point, but feigned confusion as she opted to hear Wade's take on the matter.
"Yeah, I hope you don't mind your sister dating a vampire from now on." Tina chortled in amusement at Wade's comment at himself, Jasmine raising an eyebrow in confusion at the former worker drone as he returned his expression to a more sincere smile. "The company got me too, and unlike the workers we got out... they managed to turn me into a disassembly drone. From now on, I'm gonna need to take in more oil than I usually did before I was turned. My cooling system's not as good as it should be, from what I've heard." Pulling out his two full canteens, Wade finished his partial explanation. "Don't worry, though. I've got some to keep me down."
Jasmine took in the news with immense surprise, noticing the hazard stripes at the rims of Wade's arms as she replied to her friend. "Oh... Well, if Tina's fine with it, then I see no problem with that, Wade." Admittedly, she was a bit unnerved by the change, concerned for both him and Tina's safety due to this supposed oil coolant issue. Trying to sound as nice as she could on the matter, Jasmine hesitantly asked Wade, "Though... I am a bit concerned with that bad cooling problem you mention. You... don't think you would-"
"Hurt Tina?!" Wade assumed, understanding Jasmine's concern as he gave a horrified glance to the two sisters. Standing with his fists to his hips, he gave his answer to Jasmine's presumed question. "Don't even say such a thing, Jasmine. I'd rather overheat than dare strike her."
Admittedly amused as well as concerned for Wade's selflessness, Tina chuckled at him before speaking up on the matter. "Now now, Wade. It won't be so bad. We'll manage."
Jasmine nodded as she agreed with her sister's optimistic view on the problem. "Indeed we will, we always do." Then, taking notice of the other two drones in the room, Jasmine smiled at them before speaking again. "Ah, I see you brought some friends too."
Wade and Tina glanced over to Nathan and F upon Jasmine's statement, the two friends smiling pleasantly as Wade spoke up. "Oh, yeah. These are some of my work buddies from Ceres, Jasmine. This is Nathan, I first met him when Ron and I came to the mines, showed us around a bit too." Putting a hand on F's shoulder, Wade introduced her too. "And this is Serial Designation F, or, just F. She was one of the guards keeping watch on the place while we worked."
F seemed to blush out of embarrassment as she remembered her and Wade's first meeting. "I... did come off a little rough on them when they first came in, though. Stopped Nathan's touring run too. Just following colony protocol."
Nathan patted F's back as he tried to ease F's guilt. "Oh, it's nothing F. We had to start work in a few minutes anyway. Besides, it's a bit more fun exploring the place yourself without a guide." He winked at the others as he finished his praise. "Trust me, it really is."
Wade, Tina and Jasmine all chuckled at their friend's amusing words, F joining in as she replied to Nathan's encouragement. "Alright, alright."
Walking up to the two, Tina put her hand onto Nathan's as she gave her own praises. "And they may not look like it, dear, but Nathan and F were both formerly in the military, from what Wade's told me."
Jasmine gave a proud smirk at the two as she responded to her sister's claim. "Well, that's quite something. Did she tell you we used to fly for them some years back?"
"Oh, she did, Mrs. Fowley." Nathan replied as he chuckled lightly, F giving a smile of her own as she added her own part to the story.
"Yeah, and given what's happening now, maybe they might call you back for service again. Wade told me you two were excellent pilots."
It was now Jasmine's turn to blush as she chuckled from the compliment, knowing Wade's high praise for her and her sister's flying as she replied. "Well, I can't say that's wrong, Tina saved the day during the flight back here. We ran into an asteroid cluster while in the middle of a jump."
Wade patted Tina on her back as he quietly cheered his love on. "That's what I'm talking about, she's a wonder among the stars, I'm telling you!"
The group fell into an excited fit of laughter at the conversation, a few of the bar patrons taking notice of the bunch as they eventually ceased their joyful moment.
As everyone calmed down, Jasmine spoke up, intending to bring the discussion to another place. "Well, with all that said, it feels great to see you all here. It was such a terrible day after all those company folk showed up." Then, as she scanned the group of friends around her, she noticed someone else missing from this puzzle. "Hey, uh... is Ron here? Did he head off somewhere?"
The mood was quickly put down to a mournful aura as Wade and Tina glanced to the floor in sadness, Nathan and F giving uncomfortable postures as they awaited for someone to speak up on the matter.
Eventually, Wade was the one to open his mouth, breathing steadily as he tried to speak to Jasmine. "Um, Jasmine? Things, uh... really took a nose dive after we got captured. You think we could find a place to sit? It's a lot to talk about."
Looking to the four drones with concern, Jasmine eased her returning fear as she nodded to Wade in agreement. "...Sure, there's plenty of space at the table here." Pointing her arm to the table, which was surrounded by a U-shaped seating bench, Wade and his friends began to move to the table as Tina spoke up.
"I can get us some drinks for the talk, you all want anything?"
"Just some oil, thanks. "Wade answered as F and Nathan gave their own nods to Tina, the drone girl walking over to the bartender near the stage as she went to purchase some beverages.
Sitting down, Jasmine picked up her smartcomm from the table, glancing to it as she spoke up on her half-finished drink. "Heh, and to think I was drowning myself in this drag of a drink before. Probably have to find a different glass."
"Proxi-Vodka? Haven't seen you touch that since we lost Aunt Susan." Wade said solemnly as he examined Jasmine's drink, sighing as he reluctantly continued. "Well, maybe it can go for a few more sips."
Looking to the vodka, Jasmine nodded as she put her smartcomm in her pocket. "I figured, I didn't think this was gonna sound good."
"I wish it did." Wade replied as Tina walked back to the table, a plate of three oil glasses resting on her careful hand as she set it down.
After delivering the drinks, Tina took a seat next to Wade, holding his hand as Jasmine spoke up. "So, where do we start this terrible story?"
Wade gulped a bit as he began to recount the events that transpired today. "Well, it all started when Ron and I came back from the mining colony."

Josh (M,16)
Back in 2011 in the big flood that swept the town (Gympie) we were trapped on the southern side. Because the place is all hills surrounding a river, it turned the town into an almost set of islands.
Our dad worked FIFO and was gone at the time, my older bro (18) had about 4-5 of his mates staying over, the floodwater came up right to our backyard that was usually grazing paddocks.
Home suddenly evolved into a lakeside party house. It was grouse.
We had a tinnie and a couple of canoes so we decided to make the most of the town shutting down and did grog runs and became a little ferry service, bringing friends and family and friends of friends back and forth and what not.
Half the town was submerged, The main street was completely underwater.
It was honestly like a holiday. A mud smelling holiday, but everything shut down and we had an unknown amount of time before things would return back to normal. The town was abuzz with people driving around their little sections seeing where the flood water levels were at now. It was a sight to see.
The cleanups always gross and it's devastating for some townsfolk whose homes and businesses were damaged, but we were young, no responsibilities and no assets lost, so it was fucking awesome for us.
So one night about 4-5 days into the flood, two of my brother's mates and I took the canoe across the ‘lake’ near pengullies bridge which was meters under. There was this weird patch of water that had been bubbling for days, it was around a fossicking field and the town's littered with thousands of abandoned mine shafts, so we speculated it was one of those, or a sewerage line, or a gas vent, but whatever it was the whole time it was flooded the water never stopped it's strange bubbling motion and it was straight up sus.
Now we don't know if that patch of water had anything to do with what we experienced. It could be completely irrelevant, but I wanted to add that in because we were close to that part of the water.
Now, this wasn't just like going through a lake, there were half submerged trees, floating logs/ branches and debris floating around. A time or two before that, logs had seemingly popped up out of nowhere and rammed into us. It was actually pretty dangerous if you weren't careful.
So anyway, it was night time and we were headed across the lake, we were just nearing the weird patch. Our destination was where the water hit the road, where our mates were waiting in their car parked up to the water's edge with a delivery.
So we were about 100 meters offshore when we hit something solid. It jolted us in the boat as we went from fast paddle to stop.
We continued onwards assuming it was just a big branch or something, and we slowly navigated through that area inspecting the depths with our paddles.
Then something between us and the shore thrashed at the surface of the water. Whatever it was, it was big to make that sort of splashing. Our mates in the car turned on their spotties to get a better look as they noticed it too. This in effect blinded us.
The three of us in the canoe stayed dead quiet. The land was so close, yet so far away. The big splash was between here and there.
We very enthusiastically paddled the rest of the way over and had a good laugh with the boys once we got on shore. They said the looks on our faces was priceless, but agreed whatever had jumped had been big and we speculated on what sort of fish it could have been.
We spent an hour or so ‘in town' before we decided to head back. One of my brother's mates bailed saying he was gonna chill this side of the lake and head back over tomorrow. Dog.
So it was Richy and me to brave the floodwater alone after the big splash. The others made sure to bring it up as much as they could to try and freak us out, but they didn't have to. The sort of fear that comes to you on water when you feel uneasy or unsafe is an instinctual primal one. I was honestly terrified but I put on a brave face.
This time we didn't have the headlights pointed over the water so it was darker and the world was turned to shadows, even the house lights on the hilltops were mostly out.
It was so silent, I remember the oars sounded so loud as they splashed through the water and try as you might it's impossible not to get drenched. My discomfort was through the roof to put it mildly.
We passed the weird spot and I began to feel safer. That was the creepy part done, now the other 800 or so meters. Yippee.
We hit another solid thing and did our careful prod and poke method to slowly maneuver away.
My oar touched something and it jolted. I don't know if you've ever felt that feeling before, it's similar to stepping on a fish at the beach. It's happened to me before with big eels during the day but this time I was SHOOK, mostly due to the fact I was in this situation.
I brought my paddle out of the water and began swearing profusely letting Richy know that I touched something and it moved.
We stared around the glass like water around us for a few breaths, then out of nowhere breaking the silence something rammed the canoe… hard. We rocked back and forth and kept it steady somehow. All my wildest nightmares seemed to be playing out.
Richy pleaded frantically for me to paddle. I was honestly just stunned and frozen.
I was reluctant to put my arms anywhere near the water, but staying out here we were sitting ducks.
I joined in Richys paddling, the lights of the varanda were off in the distance, we were getting closer. Then bang, whatever it was collided with the canoe again and it lifted the back of the canoe where I was seated upwards, the hit was hard enough to propel us forward a few metres.
By this point we were shouting out towards the house as we paddled for dear life. One more hit like that and the canoe would capsize and if that happened… It makes me feel sick just thinking about it.
My bro and his mates ran down with torches and were shouting out to us. Communication was intangible at this point. My ears were rushing, I was puffed and felt like I couldn't breath yet all the same I tried to convey that there was ‘a thing.’
On that last leg, nothing else happened except loud scraping and scratching sounds under the canoe, at the time I thought it was ‘the thing’ but later summed that up to the tops of bushes in the shallows. All the same my body clamped up at the sounds and I let out more swear filled wails.
We stood watching the water for a few hours into the night... from a safe distance. After I went to bed, my brother, Richy and another mate said they saw something splash again.
The next morning I still went out on the water, but only in the tinnie. I hate canoes and personally think kayaks are only for the truly reckless.
I was sitting on the veranda the next afternoon when I swear I saw something big bob in the water from very far away, it was probably just a log, but I swear every stick and shadow I came across felt like it was ‘the thing' from that point. I honestly don't even know what it looked like.
Straight up strange. Don't know what it could have been, but I personally think it was a cave monster from one of the old mine shafts and the mysterious bubbling swirl. Richy thinks it was a croc. The ‘Dog’ thinks it was just some sort of fucked up fish, my brother thinks WE were just fucked up. Guess we'll never know.
One thing I do know is… be careful near floodwater. You never know what lies beneath.
.VJ

I have asked this before in the past over the last four years and only now I have learned enough about this to where it is no longer a complete mystery to me, and now that I partially know what it is, I am hoping to figure out a plan and a path to help me with my healing journey and learn how to uplift the veil/buffer that prevents me from feeling anything with my gifts, and to an extent, feeling normal in my heart chakra center.
Long story short, this is what happened that led to this veil be upon me. I had long awaited for my psychic abilities, and in turn my chakras, to fully awaken and begin to experience what life is like as a psychic and feel the world around me. I was unsure of when it would happen until I was told by a guide that they would awaken after I had turned 22 in 2020. After a lot of patience, that came true, and was unexpected to attract an unwarranted amount of spirits around me. They made me confused and anxious while I was just beginning to detect sounds and auras with my abilities coming out. And somehow, after all of this, I had only known a brief glimpse of a white, wispy silhouette of a male spirit walking away from my direction past what looked like a drawer, and then suddenly saw nothing. In short, that time in 2020 was the only time I could decently experience my abilities like I had hoped and could not find an explanation to why I couldn't have my gifts awaken without and interruptions or strange paranormal occurrences. In that year, I had felt rips and tears in my aura that felt a little draining, and as I can surmise, that contributed to my journey to recovery.
What had first started my healing and recovery journey was not only the strange attacks on my aura and the austere confusion that sullied my foretold, patient awakening, yet also a shut-off in my mind that I had later discovered from a reiki healer was in fact an energy blockage in my Third Eye, which he healed and helped me walk the first steps to growth and transformation. I have no certainty of when the veil was first put on me, but throughout the entire time afterwards, I was saddened and disappointed that I could no longer feel the healing energy of my crystals, the auras of spirit being or physical people, hear the voices and thoughts of the spirit beings, and the fact that I could no longer feel like I could daydream, know my dreams, know when I'm in a Zen state when meditating or even get a sense on how to astral project correctly. Every day since the closing of my Third Eye and the end of 2020, I felt soft, faint, numb, unfeeling and unaware of anything that used to make me feel the highs and lows of life and went about my days thinking that I had lost my sense of wonder and excitement in my heart. Scary videos and movies no longer shake or startle me, love feels/felt distant and unstirring, I could not experience bliss and excitement shared with a lover or on my own, and my artistic hobbies lost their spark. All of this simply made me feel more alien to my family and people around me while I was having reiki sessions and looking for ways to feel centered, balanced, grounded, and normal again. Although, this was considering after the fact that I had a spiritual awakening once my DNA activated my dormant psychic abilities.
All throughout this time, sometimes various spirit beings popped up and I could hardly even tell who they were or if they were even of divine love and light at all, so while this was happening, those very beings just made things more difficult to comprehend and allow myself to understand the reasoning of my family's help. Fast forward to this year after a long, austere, and oddly eventful four years since my 22nd birthday, I had in total 6 hospital visits, 2 stays at recovery centers for behavioral rehab, an absurd amount of medical debt, and an embarrassing amount of times I had argued with my family over a simple fantasy game that was a part of this four year-long story that I will not mention the name of; all of which for the same reasons that first manifested from my psychic awakening and circumstances that absolutely no nurse or doctor could even help or pinpoint. The only help I had ever received that gave me any progress was the reiki healings, medium sessions with my guardian angels and spirit guides, the crystals I owned to help with my chakras, and the cathartic realization that I was actually a starseed going through a really odd awakening.
I was sad, I was upset, I was overwhelmed, and I was simply itching for a logical, metaphysical answer that could help me further understand my internal circumstances and walk away from the chaos of trying to figure out how to even re-learn how to meditate, daydream, visualize anything, and even have a substantial certainty that I could have a trustworthy conversation with my true spirit team without any false beings intruding and confusing me. Since this journey started, I have grown a lot and had some progress in this, and in summary, I have finally found a happier ending. Yet was has perplexed me and eluded me was that I could not tell was was still keeping me from re-sensitizing myself to my abilities and feel more aware and connected throughout my body, just so that I could feel more normal within my new sense of self. What helped the most was not any doctor giving me a nasty pill for BPD or Schizophrenia, but talking with my guardian angels and them telling me that they put a veil/buffer on me to keep me safe from overstimulation and unnecessary encounters from low-vibrational beings (although from my personal perspective, it would have been helpful to not have this psychic problem with not even telling the difference between my spirit team and anyone else- thus, the great itch to remove it), and that it is very much possible to fully remove it since that it's temporary. I had even learned the real names of my angels and starseed family, and that I had a large team of angels watching over me. This helped me find progress and some peace in my heart.
And so, in the epilogue era of my life, I am still in search of the same, tangible connection with that spark of wonder and feeling comfortable and grounded within my body, as I have learned from attempting to meditate again is that there is something with my heart and mind that makes me feel so unaware, soft, and faint to the energies around me and feeling anything at all with my own body, most likely in my heart and crown chakras that could hold more answers to fulfilling my wishes. I have completely foregone the need to use a pendulum at all for spiritual communication and is not solely used for crystal energy repair and spell-work, so now I have to really use my senses to channel any information from my spirit team and feel confident enough that I can still try to get the same, transformative results that the more emotionally aware people know when they feel their breath and prana while meditating, getting a healing, and having spiritual journeys like other psychics and starseeds do. I have been feeling quite unconfident and doubtful of myself with reattuning to my senses, body, and emotions again, as now I am having encouragement from my spirit medium and my spirit team that I should endeavor into reiki practice, automatic writing, and do spirit channeling myself. Whatever is going on with my heart and how the veil/buffer affects me, its quite discouraging to even try when I couldn't even tell what's happening in my dreams at night. I do not even write down my dreams anymore ever since the end of 2020 when I had first noticed that they all felt blurry, faint, fuzzy, and distant from my usual experiences, and now, I don't even bother to try to see if I can recall any visitations or conversations with my guides and angels at night.
I am in a better position now than I was back then, yet my journey is not over. I do not know anyone that has felt like this or had known their abilities better than I did, and I would like to ask if there is anyone who knows what a veil/buffer like this is for and how I can prepare myself to be ready enough to fully remove it myself, and my angels said that I could indeed do that, although I could guess that it would have to be through some kind of spiritual journey into the self/subconscious self that I could uplift it from the inside. You can try to imagine what that would be like, with meditation, in turn, feeling as soft, faint, dark, and distant like I said.
I have noticed lately, that I can still feel sadness and joy enough to substantially make me cry a little, and I enjoy that actually, it feels more close to home of how it used to feel before I had the odd spiritual attacks and all of the other said factors of my recovery; yet nowadays, I still do not jump at a thing that would usually scare or startle me (like horror game playthroughs) or even feel a natural laugh coming on when I hear or see something that previously makes me giggle and laugh. So, I try to coax myself to smile and nod at the funny things or even fake at laughing to appear more normal in front of my family or friends. Bliss and pleasure definitely feel soft and faint as well, so I know that intimacy or romantic affection does not rouse me enough anymore. I pretty much have to encourage acting out my emotions and pretend a little, which I would rather restore the excitement and tangibility of instead of feeling low and calm all of the time.
I have no spirit beings affecting me anymore, and my life is now more steady and stable now. Yet, I know that I would still have to find a way to establish a safe and effective method to spiritually visit and talk with my spirit team so that they can help me understand my life, sense of self, and what I can do to learn more about my starseed mission and why I reincarnated into this world.
What else can I do to help further the progress I have made? What kind of modalities should I try out and help heal my heart, mind and body, to heal myself like my spirit team wanted? What kinds of advice and tips can help with a soul like me who feels somewhat "aphantasic" to formerly strong and tangible senses and feelings? What exercises and practices should I take up to help balance myself and feel and know the peace between thoughts during meditation? Perhaps more reiki is needed? Could learning reiki and other types of energy healing help me with healing and opening up my heart (where I think that most of the problem is)?
What can I do to bring more empathic awareness and start to feel normal again?
Happen to know anyone who knows what it's like to have a special veil on one's spiritual senses or had something similar to having a healing journey like this? Maybe a DNA activation or healing may help with this? Whatever it is, I would love what any of you in the spiritual community have to say, as this whole journey and how it started came as one heck of a shock and surprise to me. I never had this happen to me before. I have tried to find out if Qigong or regression hypnosis therapy would help, but if you can figure this, it was definitely not easy to even tell what kind of energy shifts were going on within me or around me, so that couldn't have helped me at the time. Neurotherapy brain scans did nothing for me, in case anyone wonders that. Any feedback on this would be great, as I don't think that it is just this veil/buffer that is the sole cause of my issue. Who else can explain this besides me? Atheist scientists cannot, priests cannot, so who else would know? Please do message me, I yearn to get closer to feeling the love and light of the universe again.
Who knows? Maybe it has something to do with a subconscious thing with my Inner Child that triggered this feeling? My former Reiki healer, Chris, did say that I had "shut off" my powers and that I had regressed inwards, so, let's see if that still holds true?

So the day before Mother's Day, my husband (M34) tells me (F35) we are going to do a day trip with our toddler (age 4) to local city and I am so excited but I realize I am also so behind in house chores due to my stressful job and lack of consistent help from my husband.
So I tell him thank you but no trip and that we need to stay home and clean. He says he needs to leave that morning which I already know means he is going to go get flowers. So I offer to make breakfast because I woke up in a great mood.
He comes home with flowers in okay condition, some are wilted and gives me a sweater that he says I asked him to buy me for Mother's Day which I do love the sweater.
So I make pancakes for the family, pancakes with bananas, peanut butter drizzle and whipped cream and I don't have any due to dieting.
My husband asks me what the plans are today and I said I would love for us to get some things done around the house, he has had the ladder out for a couple days so I asked him to take down the Christmas decorations and pick up and also put ladder away and watch our toddler because I would be upstairs with the power tools dismantling our shelves to add in some different shelving and organizing the closet.
All the while I am talking he is working on a 3d print for his friends birthday in a few days.
I go upstairs and 30 minutes in, my toddler is climbing on me and I wait for my husband to collect him and... nothing
So I figure maybe he sent him because ladder plus toddler is not the best combo so I put the power tool away and just organize clothes and he never comes back up to get him, so I call him and he goes "oh yeah just send him down" and I ask if he can just come and get him and he does.
So two hours pass and I go downstairs to check on them and ask about lunch for them and they are watching TV and nothing is done, no dishes from this morning cleaned, no Xmas decorations taken down and I make my toddler a snack and go back upstairs to calm down before calling my husband and asked him why he hasn't cleaned. He said because he thought we stayed home so I could clean and not him. And alI I am doing is working on a room, we don't even use (It's a walk in closet in our bedroom)
I reminded him I said we and asked him to do several things this morning which he said "Oh, I thought that was something you asked me to do a couple weeks ago"
At this point I am just disappointed with the day and over it.
He does do the dishes, takes down the Xmas decorations and cleaned up and now we have to go see my family for dinner which I do not want to because they are very blunt and will want to know why I am such a sad state.
Luckily the toddler falls asleep in the car, so I have the great idea after we find out he is asleep to just give gifts since we are already hour late for dinner and leave and pick up food for the toddler after.
So I drop off the gifts, we leave to go another place to order food and I asked my husband if he can go in and get food and he says no and I ask him he wants anything and he says "No just go just go " I told him I rather not because it's very rude for him to rush me to leave and he says he was only doing that because he had to sneeze....okay....so I said "Just go home please, we can make something there"
So now he is pissy and accuses me of using him as a taxi driver and I just go off...
"This is supposed to be Mother's Day, the one day you treat me special and loved and show me you appreciate me. You got me some wilted flowers and a sweater. Thank you but it's Day, not two gifts Mother stuff"
Now he is pissed and saying I am ungrateful and he shouldn't have gotten me shit and I am the problem and I don't do shit for him. All day he watched our son and cleaned. He also said he didn't know how to make me feel special.
He normally does not curse at me so I said this not you talking. This your dad talking to your mother. (Not my best moment and I will admit it)
Welp that got him all riled up and we didn't talk the rest of the night or next day.
When I finally said I was still upset about yesterday, he goes "Of course, you are." and walks away.
When we finally do talk, he says that he was offended I would rather stay home then do his idea of a day trip to local city and I said the flowers were wilted and he got me a sweater and he cleaned after I told him too. He also said he felt ignored and like I didn't wanna hang out with him because I was organizing the closet. He said he felt unloved.
So am I the asshole?
Quick Q&A
Married for 12 years and together for 15 years
We have had issues with all holidays but even more since our son was born so couple years ago I gave him a list of my likes, links to things to do for your wife for birthday,and things you can do for free to make your spouse happy (he makes six figures but I think gifts can be acts of service as well) but he still says he doesn't know how
We are currently in couples therapy but he seems to try to manipulate the sessions?
Example, he wanted to go on a trip to buy video games stuff and we had already gone out of town the day before to buy video games stuff so I said Our grass at both houses need to be mowed, I think that needs our attention and if he isn't something he can do the he needs to hire help to which he replied That why can't I help him and I don't do anything to help him ever but to the therapist he goes oh I just didn't wanna do the lawn because it had rain the day before and the grass was wet and it was early. I asked him why he wasn't able to tell me that in the moment or revisit for the whole week and half after because I didn't know that and he was still able to mow later that day but only one house. He said he didn't know why he didn't tell me and it was dumb to argue about the lawn but I said the lawn is just a symptom of the greater issue which is lack of communication on both of our parts
Fathers Day and Birthday I used to go all out but I realized I wasn't getting the same energy so I stopped 1st Father Day I asked him what he wanted to do and he said spend the day together I got him and our son matching shirts, classic car pint glasses, socks with our son's face on them, a photo book of them of the photos during the year of them I had taken and I made this favorite foods all day 2nd Father's Day I asked him what he wanted to do and he was spend the day together but he had to work so when he got home from work, I had his favorite pizza, favorite pop, matching shirts with our son, pizza cutter and pizza pan because he had mentioned we didn't have one and photo album of pictures from the last year of him and our son
When I had another disappointing Mothers Day ( I had asked to have 3 hours alone and sent him a link to some earrings and I got no time alone and no earrings but he did get me beautiful flowers and chocolate covered strawberries. We went to the lunch with my family and I asked him to only pay for us and my mom and he ended up dropping like $275 on my whole family for brunch very nice but we had conversations about how he was able to do that but get me no gifts) I think his heart is the right place because he is a good guy
3rd Father's Day I got him a card, beer and a some jerky and he said he didn't feel loved because it wasn't as nice all the other Father's Days he had in the past and he doesn't know how to make sure I have a nice Mother's Day and I asked him he could use the list I gave him or just mimic what I do and customize it to fit his style. He said he would try and that led us to this Mother's Day.

Prologue

Hello and welcome to my post. I will subdivide this into two large parts. One will cover my thoughts, feelings, my hopes and dreams...While the other will tell you the specifics of how I pass the time, what topics interest me, what passions do I posses. I believe that at the end of this leap into my inner world, you dear reader, will have all the necessary information to judge whether we are compatible or not.

Part I
I am writing this in the hopes of finding something that I lack. Lately I have had this feeling, this tinge of melancholy within the dephts of my being, this yearning to find a kindred spirit, another Soul, much like mine, to form a bond with. Perhaps Loneliness is the right word for what is bothering me, but to use it seems to carry with it a connotation of ungratefulness. Ungratefulness for the people that I do have in my life, although none of them, of course, have the connection to me that I seek here.

I have found it increasingly necessary to seek in this Life a sort of purity of thought. What I mean is, I have began to undestand what ideas and concepts are ultimately compatible with my inner most Self, ergo what guidelines I have to follow to feel the most whole. Naturally I have likewise realised what I cannot add to my Self and what I will henceforth reject with all the power that I posses.

With this new context in mind, I now follow on the path of self improvement. I will now begin to mold my Self into my perfected idea of how the Self should be. This is certainly a significant undertaking, one that will not be easy to follow through on but one that I ultimately have to do. To me such context is essential. It is akin to a Guiding Star shining in the night. I will follow this Star for without it I am lost in the vast Darkness.

Looking back at my life, it was suboptimal, especially if one compares the way it molded me to how I will now mold myself. I suppose I must look on with a hint of regret at all that time which one might consider to be lost. Still... I try to stave off such decisively negative interpretations, after all, I have ultimately came to these conclusions. That means that somewhere along the line I had to have picked up on enough of such ideas for them to become so cemented in my consciousness. Well, either that or I was always like this, but in that case I can at least thank my life up to this point for not being able to supress such manifestations of my inner most Self.

To add to the topic of my life, I must admit that not all the battles have yet been won, not all the Demons vanquished, not every Mountain climbed. I want you to keep such things in mind when deciding whether or not to approach me. Many will shy away, I undestand that much, but the pursuit of true Companionship is just another such battle. Having said all that I do believe that being able to overcome hurdles together carries with it a certain appeal. That is to say, what's the fun in joining once the Game is already over?

I don't shy away from such challenges, perhaps to a fault. Certain troubles that I faced in the past carry with them a long shadow over my current health and well being. Still, I intend to change little in this regard other than the proficiency with which I will clash the current of my Will against the cliffs of Life.
Part II
In this part of my post I will tell you about my interests and hobbies, I will try to be thorough, commonality in this regard is rather important to build a relationship
History. I have had an interest in history for almost a decade now, it started back in school and developed from there. Well, now that I think about it one could argue that it started even earlier in my life as I liked watching the odd historic documentary or film aired on television but it wasn't regular back then, I never actively sought it out. I am mostly interested in European history in the period between the 18th-20th century but I sometimes branch out to other time periods and other parts of the world. I watch various channels related to history and read articles and sometimes books. I have recently got a few books on the German revolution of 1848/1849 and a historical magazine on the Thirty Years' War. Besides that I try to visit museums sometimes.
Literature. Especially old novels. I like to immerse myself in the Worlds of these books, I tend to read them while listening to thematically fitting music and take my time with them. One time you are following a troubled Youth in his quest for spiritual understanding of the world, another you see the aged and decrepit Doctor gambling his very Soul on the promises of abtaining satisfaction in earthy pleasures, then again your olfaction notices the most pleasant scent known to man even as the one eminating it has the appearance of a revolting Frog. These and many other stories open up to you once you decide to set foot into the literary World.
Languages. I know three, with one being a bit rusty. I am currently working intently on strengthening it. I believe that if I continue to apply myself in this regard then I should be able to finally conquer it. What language am I working on? Well, if you were to stack all the major works in it they would be as tall as a house... It is fun to go through different works in multiple languages, the same goes for film, games and such.
Games. I recently played Cyberpunk 2077. Well as recently as I played any major story centric game. Now that the dust has settled and the bugs mostly removed...It's not that bad. The main questline at least. Besides that I tried Fallout 76 (Very average, I'm dissapointed with what they made the "RPG" system) and I might give Deus Ex Manking Divided another spin (since it's somewhat similar to Cyberpunk when it comes to its aesthetics). Dark Souls is one of my favorite series, I still haven't beaten Elden Ring though. When it came out I wasn't in the right mindset to invest a hundred hours into it, with all those bosses and difficult locations. I think I'll only consider playing it if I am streaming it to someone. I am generally interested in either streaming games or having the person I am talking to stream them to me. To be specific I mean streaming to a single person while being on call. Besides that I'm a big fan of Paradox strategy games, especially Europa Universalis IV and Heats of Iron IV, I tend to only play single player since I find multiplayer with many people to be rather stressful but on the other hand I have nothing against a co-op game. I'm not the best player though, despite the ammount of hours I have in them. Another great game I would mention would be Dragon's Dogma. A very underrated RPG. I recently beat it again and it was an atmospheric and interesting experience. It is one of those games that feel like they have an endless ammount of depth and constant new secrets to discover.
Anime and Manga. In recent times my interest in them has waned but I still watch the occasional series here and there. Like Cyberpunk Edgerunners (Which I found to be rather mediocre) and the very good first season from the new arc of Bleach. Some of my favourite series include: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Death Note, Fate;Zero, Psycho Pass, Code Geass and Attack on Titan. I wouldn't mind if you were to introduce me to some new series, maybe based on the ones I mentioned. My favourite Manga is Berserk which I still follow, althought I am still not certain on the direction that the new author is taking. I suppose it really is a matter of contention whether a somewhat (or considerably warped) vision is better than an unfinished work. One could argue that a few novels remain unfinished and possess a macabre appeal to them as such.
Music. Classical music has a very special place in my heart. A few of my favourite pieces would be: Clair de Lune, Nocturne Op. 9 No.2, Devil's Trill Sonata, Danse Macabre, Valse Sentimentale, Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92: II. Alegreto (by Beethoven) and Suite from Swan Lake, Op. 20a: I. Scene. Moderato. There are more but these ones always invoke something in me when I listen to them. Besides Classical I also enjoy listening to Synthwave, old Western pop and J-pop, both modern and from the 20th century.
Esotericism. I am interested in things spiritual, mystical, magical and esoteric. I have read religios texts, magical grimoires, introductions to various schools of thought. It is interesting to me.
Epilogue
Hopefully I was able to cast the spotlight upon my inner World in a clear and unequivocal manner. I feel the need to add to the aforementioned that I am rather introverted, which means that I tend to dislike large social gatherings. I managed to condition myself to be able to endure the presense of large groups of people but it isn't something that I would seek out in most cases. Besides that I am neurodivergent and suffer from certain issues with mental health. I have to take medication to keep myself under control. They work well enough but certain days are harder than others. I respect the struggle that others have with mental health but in the context of a relationship I have my limits, no one with BDP for instance. I am also not looking for anything casual. I understand than one cannot demand depth and meaning from a conversation with an absolute stranger, that is akin to trying to build a sand castle right before the waves strike but I ask at least that you enter with a mindset that this might become something of significance. I also do want to say that I am completely Monogamous. My preference? The sickly, pale, intellectual who watches rain droplets slide down the window in Autumn. Lastly, if I enjoy the company of a person I tend to not want to let them go.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post and have a good day. I ask that you send a DM instead of a chat and that you give your thoughts on my title in the opening of your message.
Goodbye...Or perhaps untill we meet again

It's okay for BINI's music to be listened to, it's okay that people admire the eight girls - but at this point, they should not be the standard of PPOP.

1. In principle, BINI (and BGYO) should not be part of the "PPOP Rise" to begin with. They are from a major network who often overshadows small artists who intended to bring new color and flavor to the industry. It is a straight up manipulation to claim BINI introduce PPOP to general public. The public already knew PPOP, it just took time for them to catch up - and the reason traces back on how mainstream media would portray PPOP as inferior to foreign music, or even to other OPM genres. "PPOP Rise" is a grassroot initiative, it should ultimately lift those groups that are from small/independent companies/management, rescue them from mismanagement, exploitation. Even if we consider how BINI brings visibility of PPOP to the mainstream channel, the manner and nature of visibility should still be interrogated (which are points 2 and 3). Otherwise, it will be just like K-POP/Hallyu that is so glorified, that people would not care about exploited individuals that the system caused (note that PH is not as rich as South Korea, exploitation will be much worse.)
2. BINI's brand of musicality is mediocrity. Their fans would conceal their music as "authentic OPM sound" when in reality, it is just formulaic, repetitive, typical, mediocre sound in the OPM industry. At best, their ppop-ness is a compromised version to appeal the general public - which is often a bad thing because it disincentivize people to look deeper (why should people look deeper, when it is already repackaged to suit their preference. Why give up the comfort of being adjusted to, to be the one adjusting, right?). Realize that a movement would not require everyone (not even majority of people) to subscribe to it, it just needs a level of tolerance and acceptance, that PPOP is not "bad" or "evil", that it should not be a subject of disgust, that it is a "valid" and "good" choice of music too. That the government (!!!) should support it too. Bottomline, the mediocre-sounding PPOP can at best water down the hate [-probably a strong word], but not necessarily facilitating genuine tolerance and acceptance. It offers an "acceptable" version, but leaves the "hated" still hated, or worse.
3. BINI's strategy is to get attention, and not necessarily to build a sustainable community. Their marketing strategy has always been to get attention first and foremost, whether it's negative or positive. The troll machinery often works for them (Side note: it's interesting how the group suddenly blew up when KathNiel broke up.), they would divert narratives whenever necessary, incite fan wars to make sure of the group's visibility to public. Good strategy? Yes. Respectable strategy? No. This cultivates a culture of music appreciation only on the surface level, gain followers that only bandwagon but never really understand the movement in principles. (ehem. "Kakampink" becoming a status symbol than a real social movement).

The PPOP movement is for individuals who were deprived of opportunities to be recognized because of how the elitist entertainment industry (a) gatekeeps, and (b) sets absurd standards to music appreciation. The PPOP movement should offer new sound and themes to its listeners (local or foreign). PPOP should be an extension of [and it should broaden] OPM music, and not mere derivative works. Lastly, in order for PPOP to "rise", it should establish a core community (regardless of its size) that will consistently advocate for fairness and development, not a community that concedes its inferiority to others or that boasts itself to be "best" without any principles.

Last week, BM dropped the “I’m your REAL mom, and she’s your pretend mom” on SD(6) over video chat the same day she told her she had a new baby that no one knew she was expecting (including SD).
Since then, SD has been having a really hard time. She’s always been a very happy kid, but it’s like something in her switched and it’s heartbreaking. She’s angry and sad. Not sleeping well.
The hardest part to navigate is that she’s actively icing me out. She told me last week that she wanted to me go in the room so she could be alone with her dad. My husband addressed that it isn’t how we treat our family, and we talked it out. She repeated that sentiment again today. For the last week, my husband hasn’t been able to speak to me directly without her jumping in and cutting me out of the conversation entirely. She doesn’t want to sit on the couch if I’m on it. It’s heartbreaking.
I’m trying to be patient, hold space for her, and not take it personally, but I’m having a really difficult time. Does anyone have any advice?
.
Background:
I’ve been the only mother figure for my SD since she was 1.5 y/o. BM left DH and took her out of state, and he was supposed to get her over the summers (plus child support and frequent video chat). That went out the window when family members raised very credible concerns of abuse & neglect. We’ve had her full-time since then.
SD started calling me mom during a time when BM was MIA for over a year and we never corrected her. When BM popped back up, we gave her a different variation of “mom.” BM has never visited. Never sent child support. Only video chats every 1-3 months (or longer). She’s never been denied the opportunity she just doesn’t.
Here’s the thing: we’ve never lied to SD. We just haven’t fully answered the question yet. She knew BM & DH were together. She’s seen pictures of them when she was a baby. We were avoiding the painful truth that BM went off and had more kids and has never shown up for her. That’s the first thing she asked about.
I think the phrases “real mom” & “pretend mom” is what got to SD plus the sudden new baby. It doesn’t help that in the same call, BM told SD that the reason she can’t visit is because we moved too far away.
Idk what compelled BM. We’ve never spoken badly about her before. We always just say “plane tickets cost a lot of money” when SD asks why she can’t come visit. We let the child support thing go… she just blew up SD’s worldview for her own ego I guess.
Nonetheless, I’m struggling to find a way to support her and hold space for her feelings without allowing her to treat me poorly while also repairing our relationship… Please help. This is so hard.

Pretty new to Prolific and have never done a two-part study except last week. The study said it was in two parts and I should only do it if I was available today for part 2.
My question is - will I get notified by Prolific that part 2 is available or do I have to sit around refreshing the site all day until I see the part two study? Considering how fast some of these go, do I even have a chance to see it? Would appreciate some input from those who've done this before :) Thanks!
​
EDIT: The study just popped up on my screen (no notification) so I went through part 2, no issues :) Thanks for your help!

It's going to be way easier to get you guys battle reports more consistently!
Today's battle report is the lowest point score I've ever played; a 300 point duel inside an urban setting! Perhaps this is a small part of a larger engagement of sorts?
This game features a unique layout that would be hard to replicate in physical play; a bridge over a deep river. The dark blue of the river counts as Deep Water terrain; furthermore, it's the lowest level of elevation, so the pavement, bridge, and buildings (which are High Ground anyway) all count as High Ground against the river. The centermost control point is the bridge's center, making it a deadly choke point!
Being an ultra low point game, squad composition is absolutely crucial. You have very little to work with, so you need to maximize your forces with what's available.
Principality of Zeon
Yours truly is running the Zeeks again. My strategy is simple; lock down the center lane, and try to buff cannon fodder to punch above their weight class. I've chosen a Zaku I Sniper as my unit to build around; I've upgraded them to an Ace, and made them my Commander. I'm going to give him Grand Strategist and Commando, making him extremely hard to target, able to give my Zaku I's and II's free Focus Actions en masse, and lock down the center lane while on top of a building, trying to cover my advancing forces.

• x1 Zaku I Sniper Ace Commander (Grand Strategist, Commando)
  
• x2 Zaku II (Machine Gun)
  
• x2 Zaku II (Magella Cannon)
  
• x5 Zaku I (OYW Playtest Unit)
  

Earth Federation Forces
Daisucc again is my opponent. He has a smaller team with a diverse set of weapons; three GM Ground Types, and a GM Striker Ace as his Commander. His Ace has Elusive and Close Combat Expert; both very complementary to its strengths. However, that's not what has me worried; it's a close combat Ace with Decimator. This is actually an extremely potent choice, because he could easily use Tear Through The Ranks on a unit with a highly proven track record to swing Momentum in his favor, putting us at a difference of FIVE if successful. We're only starting with three! I will need to play this very, very carefully.

• x1 GM Striker Ace Commander (Close Combat Expert, Elusive, Decimator)
  
• x1 GM Ground Type (Bazooka)
  
• x1 GM Ground Type (Beam Rifle)
  
• x1 GM Ground Type (Machine Gun)
  

Round 1
In a rare turn of events, I win the die roll! I distribute my Focus Actions to my Zaku II’s and a Zaku I. I start off with an artillery barrage, trying to force Daisucc’s hand. He responds by targeting the cover of his assailant directly, blasting down the building and toppling it. Uncool, man!
I push forward with a Zaku II, trying to get pressure on the bridge. He sends out his Machine Gun GM, and puts a few rounds into him. Fortunately, that means my Zaku I Sniper can cleanly…
…not kill the GM? Didn’t roll as well as I’d hoped, because my opponent pops two Momentum to save him. Bleh. Fortunately, my Zaku II survives the Beam Rifler attacking him, and my other Magella Cannon Zaku II finished off the Machine Gunner. His GM Striker vainly fires off his Machine Gun before taking cover behind a… we’ll say an exceptionally large… truck, of sorts, on the bridge. My Zaku I’s take up High Ground positions to conclude the Round.
Round 2
This round was a blur, because it mostly involved a lot of people shooting at each other, missing, and just barely being out of one another’s ranges. Our strategies have us at odds; he needs to advance to cause havoc, but I have the range and numbers advantage, 3-to-1 at this point. I need to hold back until the right time, or the Striker Ace will make victory impossible, using my larger team size against me. He manages to knock out my Zaku II on the bridge, but has to retreat behind cover in order to not get wiped against my many High Ground Zaku I’s with Focus Actions. It’s tense!
Round 3
My opponent wins the die roll. He advances his Bazooka GM out from cover, and knocks out a Zaku I that had crossed the river with Full Throttle last round. However, the other Machine Gun Zaku II on the bridge responds by jumping on the “truck,” using the Accelerate Pilot Skill to get the position, use a Focus Action and High Ground to get four free hits, pluse another three from Rapid Fire…
And rolls a bunch of crits! He has enough movement to hop down to protect himself.
We’re getting somewhere now, but there’s a problem. See, my higher quantity of forces leaves me with the distinct risk of my opponent earning too many Victory Points to win, especially if I can’t nail down the Striker Ace. At this point, my opponent is actually tying the game 2-2… and the Striker could turn this around very fast.
This is emphasized by the Beam Rifle GM popping on the building it’s behind with Accelerate, putting a clean hole in the cockpit of my Zaku II with a Magella Cannon across the bridge with Tactical Advantage, and hopping back down. 3-2. Shit.
I continue to jockey for positions, moving my Zaku I Sniper off its perch with Full Throttle, with a new strategy in mind…
Round 4
I win the die roll, and push my Zaku I Sniper forward JUST ENOUGH to get my opponent at 25.3 inches away. This is a crucial distance for the Zaku I Sniper; just within Sensors Range, just outside of Rapid Fire. This is the ideal kill distance… and also allows me to Target Lock, and shoot through the Striker’s cover…
But it lives! Augh! How?!
I lose another Zaku I. 4-2. Victory is looking poor, unless I get that Striker Ace, which would put us at 2-5… another Zaku I manages to use Rapid Fire and a Focus Action to knock it down. It’s real close to the GM Striker… this could be rough.
But, as my Magella Zaku II pops its Focus Action to get an extra hit on him, the cover of the Striker collapses! This is the crucial thing I needed to clinch the win! Exposed, it rapidly capitulates to Focus Action enhanced Machine Gun barrages, securing the win.
Conclusion
This was a fun, tense game! I feel that this could’ve swung in a different direction entirely if I wasn’t playing really conservatively. If my opponent had brought even one Artillery Cannon on a Ground Type or a Guntank MP, this could’ve been a very different game! Even still, his units were capable of much higher damage than my many, many cannon fodder units, and it was only through careful planning did I prevent my opponent’s lethal strategy from properly going off.
I have another report in the works! Stay tuned!

Please bear in mind that these thoughts really only apply to RetCa Starscythe units, I just can't really explain that in a title!
This is because I think the comparison might be a bit more complicated than most people seem to realise due to the fact Farsight can use 'The Arro'kon Protocol' on his unit every turn, for free. To save you looking it up in case you can't remember;
"Until the end of the [shooting] phase, each time a model in your [battlesuit] unit makes an attack that targets an enemy unit that contains 6 or more models, that attack has the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability. If that attack targets an enemy unit that contains 11 or more models, it has the [SUSTAINED HITS 2] ability instead."
Alright, cool. Weirdly, my first thought wasn't Starscythes but in fact Fireknives because they like firing into big, healthy units and they get rerolls so you're gonna hit a lot of shots pretty reliably. Seemed to make sense but after some pondering I decided that too much of the appeal of Fireknives is their 'mid-strength weapon' versatility. They can play a bit of the resource management efficiency game with the 30" range and rerolls but if the moment calls for it, you can zip up into Bonded Heroes range and lay down some slightly higher than expected damage. Or fire up the Starflare Ignition System and peace out to the backline to cause trouble. To me that sounds a lot more fun and probably actually better than fishing for 6s while Farsight spends his time popping his stratagem repeatedly, waving his sword around a bit and turn by turn, slowly losing his erection.
Ok but Farsight of course enjoys his time amongst the new frontlining Starscythes so the original point of this post was to think about whether a 235pt burst cannon unit pumping out 24 S6AP-2 sus2 +1 to wound, rerolling all the 1s can compare to what the commanders offer. I'll exclude drones because I have to because I'm not that smart.
Assuming S. Suits are helping I think you average about 27 hits and you're gonna be wounding anything up to T5 on 2s, rerolling the 1s. Ok. Seems pretty good to me. Asking kindly for a 10man+leader unit to take 25 AP-2 saves sounds like something I'd enjoy. Good chance they fail 16 and they don't like it. And it's still 15-16 wounds on a 6man T6 unit which at AP-2 will often mean 3 dead chunky 3W models and sometimes 4.
Ok now imagine a (260pts) Coldstar-led team zooming across the battlefield to get within 6", dropping a few mortals on a few heads on the way over. It's nice to think about. I'm just gonna go with flamers because I think the overwatch threat is substantial enough when you're up close to justify them so 9 flamers is gonna be 31ish hits with S5 AP-2. If you're rich enough in observer units to guide with S. Suits you might earn an extra 3 wounds here vs T3/4 but for me part of the appeal of the flamers is that you can put a marker drone on the Shas'vre/Commander and spot during the turns you're usually wishing you didn't have to engage all of your spotters in frantic, sacrificial move blocking.
So with the Coldstar it's roughly 20-23 wounds vs T3/4, 15-17 vs T5 at AP-2 and that's excluding the HOBC completely. Already pretty decent but we must also try to weigh this units high independence, overwatch threat, mobility, and ability to dish out mortal wounds (and no I haven't forgotten about the fabled Farsight tank shock but to be honest I don't have much of an idea about how good it is in actuality this edition so I just sort of feel unable to add this in to the equation. That's on me.).
The damage would be slightly less on an Enforcer but then of course you get to save points and you get his lovely durABILITY. And does it even matter that you can't zoom when you can use the tiny blade to get 3" inside of them? Does anyone else just picture a 3" inch knife when you think of 'The Shortened Blade' because of your inability to not think about the rules for a moment? Because I can't not picture a 3" inch blade and it irritates me because it looks pathetic in my mind's eye. Now is the time to speak up if you share my pain. But anyway the Enforcer just seems very delicious in this type of plan given that we have amazing access to the deep and important areas of the board. You know .. Could it just be that worsening incoming AP on a unit that really needs to be killed is just really fucking good when the nearby enemy infantry can't move a muscle without getting completely cooked? I really would implore anyone who doesn't think this codex is strong or fun to keep reading and stay curious.
If anyone has any insights or thoughts I'd sincerely like to hear them as I feel that a lot of this conversation thus far has come down to more guns is better. Something which is admittedly true for us most of the time. Hopefully no matter what you think you can see this is a pretty good example of nice internal balance. Perhaps Firesight can't match up to the Commanders on the top, top level of the game (but perhaps he can?!) but I think clearly his access to free Arro'kon Protocols make him a real punchy threat on top of what is already a cool looking, versatile-ish, 8W 2+/4++ utility leader.
To the one Shas'O that read the whole thing, thanks, but get back to work. Your boss has noted this is your third extended toilet break of the morning and he is on the brink of offering you unsolicited dietary advice.

I was going to give details without saying that the person I'm speaking of is my husband, but there's just too many things where you (the audience) need to know that he's my (now) husband; and if you think I'm crazy that's fine. I don't give a shit what you think. I already wrestle with myself about my beliefs and my belief in myself. I'm what you call a sensitive. A "Paranormal Sensitive" - I'll leave the link to the article that explains my abilities and what I do at the end. Now before I start, don't take anything I say the wrong way ok? I know my husband isn't the only person who's had a hard life alright? I too have had a rough life starting from my growing up. I'm not stupid....
So let's get started; as I said, my husband hasn't had the easiest life. Ever since he was young, he was made to feel that he was weird or abnormal. He never understood why, but kids, teachers, and even his parents treated him differently than they treated other people. He has an older brother whom is the favorite, for only God knows why. It's not like he'd done anything, from what I know, is unusual. He was a freakin kid!! His parents treated him like he was weird, favorited his older brother, kids picked on him at school, teachers told him and treated him like he was weird and treated him differently than the other students in his classes. So he's been dealing with shit since he was young.
He told me that at eight years old he rejected God and cast Him from his life. I'm assuming and came to the conclusion that he did this at this age because, on top of not having friends, being picked on by not only his peers and other adults, his parents also got divorced. Jumping years later, he's in his late twenties, when he went to prison for - none of your business - and for his safety a few gang members took him under their wing so to speak and he got their name/symbol tattooed on him. Well... the symbol he used to let people know he was protected by them was the star of David. Now you may ask "star of David? Isn't that a good thing?" No. It's not.... I'll put this link below as well, but "The “Star of David” is a seal for the Jewish people. It is not a religious symbol for Judaism, nor should it be. The hexagram has in the west, from biblical times up through the enlightenment, been associated with witchcraft, the occult, and demonology. In most ancient occult usages the hexagram was seen as a portal for dark spirits, energy, or demons. It could only be cast by someone who had given themselves over to darkness/dark forces." And it goes into more detail but this is really all you need to know for my story and what I needed to know to understand.
Another jump to after meeting me and us getting married. For our wedding, we lived in down south, but all of our family was up in northern midwest states. So we rented a mansion on AirBNB and had a few family members and a couple friends stay with us while we were there for a week before our wedding. We wanted to get everything set up and be completely ready before wedding day!! Two nights before the wedding, he, his brother, his sister-in-law, and myself all had drinks and we got a little wasted. Well-deserved with all the work we had been doing to get "wedding ready". So, when he and I were alone, we were out on the balcony and we were talking about "them". He said he wanted to go out to the forest and purge them so he'd be "clean" for the marriage and idk. I honestly don't remember what all he said. He begged me to go with him but it was dark and creepy and I just didn't like the vibe/feeling I was getting from looking out there at the tree-line. So after maybe ten minutes of begging me to go with him and me saying no, he got irritated and went downstairs and I watched as he walked across the land until I couldn't see him anymore, but he wasn't out there for very long, like maybe five minutes, before I saw him walking back. Everything about that night after that is a blur. I don't remember asking him what happened and if I did, I don't remember what he said. I just remember waking up that next morning.
Ironically, I only just learned about the real story behind the star of David for his tattoo a couple nights ago when we were watching a YouTube video and a star popped up and someone thought it was the star of David or a pentagram. We've known each other ten years. It was neither a pentagram nor the star of David, but somehow his tattoo came up in conversation and he started talking about what I'd posted above about the demonology part of it and I had no clue what he was talking about. He looked at me in utter shock and couldn't believe that I didn't know it had a different meaning than what I'd thought; along with most the rest of the world. He tried to tell me, but then started acting weird as he was looking it up to show me what he was talking about. So while I started reading it, he was still talking about how he couldn't believe I still didn't know or how I never knew the story behind it and I kept answering him by saying "how would I?" or "why would I? Why would I know to look it up? I had no reason to" and then he got mad because I wasn't reading it and he's like "I'm trying to tell you!" Now the wedding night also comes up and I try to tell him about when he went into the darkness and tried to get to the treeline to purge them for me; for us. He looked at me and laughed and called me crazy. He doesn't remember this. He told me "I stayed with you on the balcony". When I tried to tell him "no. I literally watched you, anxious and terrified af, walk down and across the lawn to where I couldn't see anymore" and he just kept repeating "I was with you" or "I stayed with you". Now this was just two nights ago.
Also when they come forward (the entities I believe who are possessing him, yes I believe there are more than one; 3 to be exact), his physical features change. Literally! His eyes change and his facial features along with his expressions change. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME!! Tell me how this happens other than the possibility of possession. I know what I see! It's not just one time... it's every time I'm talking to them.
I don't explain things very well so I'm sorry that this is probably all over the place. Just looking for answers and looking for someone that can help me with what I can do next. I'm not finding what I need through the internet.
Links I said I'd post:
https://www.detroitparanormalexpeditions.com/single-post/2018/01/13/being-a-sensitive-in-the-paranormal-world
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Star-of-David-considered-evil

Gday team. I have a note I add to when I learn things about SM. I got sick of seeing the same questions so I every time I answered I added to the note and just pasted a generic reply. I’ve been invited to post it here, so here you are!
Here’s my ever-growing, non-specific copy-paste reply, built from my own notes:

• Remember, followers are only for your ego. If you’re a business, Would you rather have a million followers who never buy anything or 1000 followers who purchase everything? (Read Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true fans article). However, if you’re trying to build an account for a brand or human deals, you need as many as possible. I.e. athletes wanting future deals/contracts, actresses wanting future roles, etc
  
• Dollars are the only score that matters in business. You can sell 1 million $1 items or 1x $1m item, it’s still a million dollars
  
• How do you get your first ten followers/sales? ASK. Start with your friends/family/personal socials. “Hey, I've started this thing; I'd love for you to follow”. Then contact everyone you've ever known (see cold outreach later, but this is warm haha). THEN ask them all for referrals: “who do you know that could use my help?”
  
• Re: cold contacting. Have a framework, but don't automate. Solve their problems. Say something personal (” [mutual person] told me to reach out to you” / “I really like your x” /”congratulations on y”). I noticed that [problem]. Fix their problem. Wish them a nice day. Have an offer in your email signature.
  
• Your profile description should be a hook/tagline / USP and link to your offer. Remember you’re building your house on rented land if you use socials as your client base. Algorithm changes, and they’re gone. Try sending them off socials to your email list, learn storytelling in email marketing (Russell Brunson has good advice), and you will own that contact for life.
  
• Choose a monetisable niche, find the most successful person in that niche, and put your spin on what they’re doing (ask AI)
  
• Make GOOD content that is visually appealing, entertaining, and has hooks (you have 3 seconds to get attention), but most importantly, ADDS VALUE to your target market (ask AI for suggestions - you can even ask AI to create a customer avatar for you and then ask it how to make good, relevant IG posts for that avatar)
  
• Keep your ears and eyes out for trends. Can you throw a trending song over a clip?
  
• Leverage pop culture. Search for what’s trending daily. Can you combine a movie or album release with your product? For example, if you’re in the auto niche, create an image of a car covered in green slime coinciding with the new Ghostbusters movie
  
• Document your process. Humans evolved on stories & we love to feel part of something and/or have front-row tickets to the show. For example, If you post art, film yourself making the art, not just the final product; talk about your decisions along the way. Also, it is easy content for you, and you’re just filming something you’re already doing
  
• Share as many success stories/testimonials as possible, preferably videos. Tag them. Make it easy for users to share themselves.
  
• In a similar vein, and with permission, share your audience questions in your stories (and tag them)
  
• Remember the rule of 100 (you need to do something 100x before you get “good” at it). Have you posted 100x and made changes as you’ve observed what worked and what didn’t?
  
• Every 5th or so post, add a Call To Action
  
• Always have something to invite people to, such as an event (e.g. Facebook live, face-to-face), a giveaway, a new product, etc. Ensure all your social media banners, popups, CTAs & email sig reflect this (read Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port)
  
• Use the right hashtags (be discoverable)
  
• Post at the correct times for your target market (I like 6-630am so when they wake up and scroll, it’s on their feed, their lunch break and a story at 8 pm in the relevant timezone). Steven Bartlett credits the daily 8pm personal thought post the most important part of his success.
  
• Follow the top 100 people in your niche with between 10k & 100k followers. Engage with them daily. Share their posts. Comment on Their work. As always, be sincere and say something meaningful
  
• Comment relevant things on important people pages (Gary Vees $1.80 strategy)
  
• Spend $10 a day on ads of targeted content to targeted people (don’t “but I want to grow organically” - Do you want to be seen or not?). Start ad sets at midnight.
  
• Russell Brunson recommends ads are only for offers; posts that aren't offers aren’t to be paid for ads—two separate things. Ads get your customers into the funnel and upsell makes you a profit. Say you sell a $10 ebook and a $300 course. Spend $10 per click for the ebook, so it’s a break-even cost, and everyone who buys the upsell is pure profit. Ad budget for testing is the price/profit of ONE upsell, so $300 in this example. Then, reassess, test and adjust. If it’s working, keep it going, but also test variations regardless. Brendan Kane suggests 50-100 variations from memory. Again, get AI to help. Start with your headline. Ask for ten variations. Then your pic. Get ten variations. Then your hook. Get ten variations etc.
  
• Pay relevant influencers to share your stuff
  
• Read all of Gary Vees and Brendan Kane’s books
  
• Do these things 30-50x a day (Gary Vees' advice for new accounts, search for his eight tips 2024 YT vid) across all your platforms for months, maybe years, and you’ll grow. Perhaps someone famous will share your stuff, and you’ll go viral. But remember, each platform has its nuances, so you need to rework content for it (again, use AI - create one piece and ask AI to brainstorm how to recreate for each platform - you can start with the longest form, say a YouTube vid or blog post and ask it how to make tweets or IG posts from it) however you can still “push”. For example, you can post native Facebook content, but you can also put your YouTube vids and IG posts there
  
• Make at least three posts a day for a month, that's 90 posts, and report back what you learned, what worked and didn’t for everyone else’s benefit. *I've had some pushback on this: A) I don’t make the rules; this seems to be current best practice; B) 1st post = a BTS post of you developing the post, 2nd post = the post, 3rd post = a story summing up your day. OR make all your content in one day and schedule it to post throughout the week. If you don’t have money, you have time; if you have money, outsource it.
  
• Good luck!
  

I have a few issues with the last phase, Barret has more than enough mitigation for the first two phases, pop a steel skin and learn to perfect block and you're golden, my main issue is the last phase. This is my second playthrough on hard mode, and my only real thing is that barrets MP really kinda screws you over for this fight (I've beaten it both times now don't get me wrong it's not so much a skill issue as just a consistent problem I just struggle with for the 3rd phase). Undying Rage and that other similar one that can stun you SEEMS the most fair (granted rng saves me most of the time if I use barrets maximum whatever it's called for that second attack). The others have a wind up that's really fast so swiftcast + lightning (or whatever you use) is the way to go, but considering how little MP barret has (I get why in terms of his class), it screws you over big time. Even with MP Up you still get screwed. Thankfully at least one of the other attacks is an aoe that you can get out of range for BUT then barrets slow pace screws you over, Speed up helps a little but even then the window is so small you may as well just take the damage, and to mitigate those big hits you'd need to have barrie protect up which makes it even harder on the very little MP barret has.
I think personally maybe 1 or 2 seconds of extra windup wouldve been really useful especially because when Dyne starts his animation, the option to attack that discrete part only appears a bit into the wind up, and even with swift cast barret has has a very high chance of being hit especially because he runs out of MP really easily. Atb isn't really an issue, since you have perfect block and barret in general generates atb pretty fast. So what do you guys think? Again I'm not saying dyne is impossible but I do think some of his attacks needed to be tweaked just a little more to allow an actual reaction, imho dyne is the least fun boss fight in the trilogy so far even though he IS beatable, but ik that's purely subjective.
So in all do you think barret should've been able to have more MP, and do you agree with the 1 to 2 second extra wind up or nah?