Moving on after a death of a loved one

The listener accidentally calls on a surprisingly polite spirit, and the listener tries to help him pass on
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Enjoy!
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[Scene opens with some ambient spooky music, and the sound of a ouija board piece scratching on the board, writing something out. Some sort of sound like a phasing in or out of energy or something as the ghost appears]
Ghost: Oh- uh, hello there!
[Sound of the board and piece falling on the floor, followed by a thud]
Ghost: Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you! Are you alright? You didn’t hit your head, did you?
Listener: ….
Ghost: Huh? What do you mean who am I? You already asked if anyone was here! I said yes, and then spelled out my name for you! Remember? This just happened! Maybe you did hit your head…
Listener: ….
Ghost: Oh- well how did you think it was moving on its own then?
Listener: ….
Ghost: Magnets…? Sorry, no. There are probably some spirit boards that are fake, but this one is genuine! It was mine, a long time ago. I was hoping you’d find it eventually when you first moved in here.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Yes, this was my apartment. This was my room, in fact. I was glad you were the one to end up sleeping in here and not your roommate. You seem more in tune with the other side. By the way, love the decor! Some of it is definitely mine, I was glad you put it back up! Most people don’t decorate their rooms with the possessions of long deceased inhabitants that they found in storage boxes in the back of a walk-in closet, haha. I used to live here with my mom, I’m guessing when I died, she couldn’t stand to take some of my things with her. She was superstitious, so she never liked ‘occult’ related things. Although turns out she was right, so I guess she earned an I told you so. Too bad she left before I could get her to notice me. Most people can’t perceive me at all, and well, no one lived in this unit for a long time.
Listener: ….
Ghost: How did I die? My my, that’s an awfully forward question. To tell you the truth though, I don’t remember. The last thing I remember is watching tv in the living room, but I don’t know how much time passed between my last memory, and my death. I know for sure I died here though, I haven’t been able to leave this place. I haven’t even been able to go out into the main hall.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Ah, it’s not all bad! I can still turn the tv on, so there’s that at least! Uh- sorry, a-about your power bill… Ahem anyway, I seem to have this weird… attunement I want to say, to certain things. I don’t know how it works, electromagnetic waves maybe? I didn’t pay much attention in high school science. Or- high school in general, really.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Oh, I don’t know why I’m still here. Unfinished business, I guess? I don’t know, most spirits are angry, vengeful psychos because they got murdered or something. I don’t even know how I died, and life wasn’t all that great either, so I don’t really have anything to be angry about. I mean I miss my mom, sure, but I know my grandparents would take care of her, and she has some brothers and sisters and really great friends.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Aha, no, no girlfriends. No boyfriends, either. No friends, at least not close ones. No one to really miss me, besides my mom. I’ll admit, it does get a bit lonely from time to time.
Listener: ….
Ghost: You… want to help me? Well- that’s really sweet and all, but I don’t even know why I’m still here… where would we even start?
Listener: ….
Ghost: When did I die… I’m not totally sure. My sense of time isn’t great anymore, maybe twenty years ago or so? Things have changed so much, at least what I can see from the window. I’d say a long time.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Obituaries… that’s not a bad idea! At least gives you a place to start! Are you-... sure you want to help me with this? I feel like I’m putting you out, I only wanted to talk to you and say hello, but you’re going out of your way to do something kind for me.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Well, okay, if you’re sure then, thank you! Just one question- how long are you going to leave the creepy music playing? I’m not spooky enough to warrant that. Am I?
[Music stops abruptly]
Ghost: [The ghost laughs] You totally forgot about your mood ambience, huh? Do you like music? I did too. Not too many good ghostly radio stations these days though, haha… but anyway! I think you’ll be able to see me from now on, I sense some sort of… connection with you now through the spirit board. As long as nothing happens to it, I think you’ll be able to see and hear me from now on! I don’t think your roommate will though, so that probably works out for the best.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Thank you, so much… I actually feel kind of hopeful about not being trapped in this tiny apartment for the rest of… well, forever. I finally have a chance. That means a lot to me. I thought you might not be afraid of me, given your apparent interest in spirits, but this is even better than I could have hoped for.
Listener: ….
Ghost: I’m glad to see you’re so enthusiastic, but don’t you think you should be getting to bed? Your schedule on the fridge says you work at 7 tomorrow, and it’s past 11.
Listener: ….
Ghost: Of course! I’m dead, not blind! I can check your schedule just as easily as you can! It was nice knowing when people were going to be here and when they weren’t. I… actually paid really close attention to it. Alright, no more distractions! Get to sleep, or you’ll be totally exhausted for the first day of our investigation tomorrow!
[Listener turns off a lamp and gets into bed]
Ghost: Goodnight. And again… thank you. You’re committing more time to me than I deserve.
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Part 2 coming soon!

California here. Went out last week & my roommate went into my room while I was gone & took some stuff. (Put a new door knob w a lock n key after.) One of the items being a canvas i had made, which i have the receipt for. planning on moving out soon, can i just go in & retrieve my items? she does have a camera in there. if she calls the cops can i just show them the receipt i have & tell them what happened? i really don’t wanna have to pay money to go to civil court.

But I can listen. And I can write on my personal blog about my feelings about not talking to you.
Talking wouldn't do any good. I'd hear your voice and that would probably break my heart a lil more. You would probably lie to me about something new for no reason. I used to love hearing you lie; the nature of abuse I guess.
I had a dream where we sat down at sencha after a year or three or twenty - time isn't real in dreams - and caught up. It was a one off meeting but it was nice, the dream. But here in reality talking feels dangerous.
I wonder, what is it you want to talk about. What is it you feel there is left to say? I don't have much to say at this point, even if I could.
I also wonder the basics; how are you? your therapy programs? Your sobriety? Your people? Your parents? Your kid? I wonder a lot about your kid. How are you fairing at work? Are you okay? Figuring it out? Struggling? I wonder all this and more. I'll probably keep wondering, till I don't maybe. If that ever happens. I guess I have to be satisfied not knowing where you or your life is at anymore.

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The annoying sound of her comlink made Angela Angus Kusumoto open her eyes.
All she saw was the firm, smooth flesh of Kimoko's thigh.
Groaning, she pushed the other woman's leg off of her face, twisted to get Raul off of her own legs, then wiggled out from under Geoff.
The ringer kept going, flashing the red pulses that let her know it was urgent.
As if the fact her unlisted encrypted and non-network accessible comlink was ringing wasn't enough to let her know that it was urgent.
She stumbled, tripping over Harker's leg, which just made the male shift and mutter, tightening his sleeping grip on Liselle, who sighed and wiggled into the embrace.
Angela's mouth tasted terrible and she stopped to grab a fizzybrew, checking to make sure nobody had dropped a cig butt into it or spit chaw into it, then she took a long drink off of it.
It helped cure the fire in her belly and wash out the taste from her mouth.
She saw the ID of the caller and held back a groan.
Senior Supervisor Bisa-2291873.
Her direct supervisor.
She picked up the comlink, running one hand through her pixie-cut hair to try to tame it. She could feel the stiffness of something crusted in her hair and held back a chuckle and a grin.
"Kusumoto here," she said, activating the link.
"I need you at Master Control," Ms. Bisa said. She was holding a small infant, bouncing it slightly as she patted its back with firm impacts as it cry/sobbed and kicked its little feet.
"The system's been crashed for a week, what's so important you'd call me in during my R&R?" Angela asked.
"System's back online. We've got an open line to Terra and we have an open line to Smokey Cone," Ms. Bisa said.
The infant gave a loud belch that rattled Angela's comlink speaker, then sighed and relaxed.
Angela nodded, fumbling on the table for a quiksober inhaler.
"That anomolous signal is back. It showed up right as the entire system underwent a hard reboot," Ms. Bisa said. "I need you up here to check the network interface logs and do a network mapping trace."
The quiksober burned as she inhaled it, her lungs aching and tingling as the chemicals crossed the air to blood barrier.
"I'll be there as soon as possible. Is the mat-trans up?" she asked.
Ms. Bisa shook her head. "No. Still locked out. It did a power cycle, but then locked everything out."
"I'm telling you, there's someone controlling it. Someone has been controlling it," Angela said, looking around for her clothes.
Clothing was scattered everywhere, as chaotically arranged as the fizzybrew and narcobrew cans and bottles. She sighed, moving toward the exit of the house she was standing in.
"Hurry up, I've got a skycraft landing near you any time now. You've got permission to use the fast-locks," Ms. Bisa said.
"I'll get dressed from the forges on the skycraft," Angela said. "If they've rebooted."
"They're up and running again. The food forges rebooted but stayed unlocked," Ms. Bisa said.
"The creation engines?" Angela asked, opening the door and stepping out into early 'morning' sunshine.
"Still locked out," Ms. Bisa said. Someone said something that the comlink's AI decided might be classified and blurred out. Ms. Bisa looked away, said something, her lips fuzzing, then back. "Hurry, Angela."
Angela nodded, shutting off the comlink.
She ran to the nearest parking lot, just in time for a skycraft to land, the graviton engines howling.
Nobody paid the slightest attention to the naked woman running for the skycraft.
After all, what happened in Vega-Layer stayed in Vega-Layer.
Angela walked out of the elevator, taking a long drink off of the sparkling snap-berry/overdate motor oil fizzybrew from the Jak the Telkan PI merchandise cup.
All of the crews were at their stations, the auxiliary stations fully manned.
Ms. Bisa moved over to Angela, steering her toward the Senior Network Administrator console.
"The system crashed twice more, but rebooted every time," Ms. Bisa said. "That anomalous signal keeps powering up, then the system reboots after the crash."
"How long between total failure and the anomalous signal pinging nodes?" Angela asked.
"Between one and four hours," Ms. Bisa said. She looked around. "It just reboot and looks like it's here to stay this time. The interpolation layer and the outside user exchange layer crashed several times, but the core system has stayed largely online."
"All right," Angela said, looking around. "We need to get a network map."
"We've got more nodes synching up. The whole system is working again," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela nodded, sitting down. The holotank on the other side of the console went live.
"Map the network, see what's come online, what order, and see if you can figure out why it keeps crashing at the upper network and software layers," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela just nodded, lifting up the curled memory-metal cable. She plugged it into her temple and felt the options menus go live in her mind.
She worked fast, mapping what she could. At one point she stopped, staring at Ms. Bisa and motioning her over.
"What?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"Something in the system, down in the lower hardware layers that we don't even really understand, is trying to reach up through the damaged layers. Looks like whatever it is wants access to our data lines," Angela said.
"Can you stop it? Maybe at least ID it?" Ms. Bisa asked.
Angela shook her head. "No. It's ID code is FF00, meaning it's baseline full on hardware backbone code," Angela sighed. "It probably boots up outside of and during initial hardware bootup."
"Is it Sekhmet?" Ms. Bisa asked.
Angela closed her eyes, looking at the data channel. "No. Whatever it is, it's old."
"And probably nasty. Be careful of it," Ms. Bisa said.
"Ma'am! Ms. Bisa!" another of the work crew called out.
Angela opened her eyes to see why Technician Carl Neubanker would be using that slightly concerned tone.
"Yes?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"We've got a priority data request from a Confederate military vessel," Neubanker said. He looked at his monitor. "They want clone matrix data, neural templates, physical makeup, DNA workups, the whole nine yards."
"How are they even making the requests?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"Their codes are old. Pre-Terran Extinction Event. Hardcode TerraSol military codes. The system is already threading them data,." Neubanker said. He looked down then back up. "They're asking for a whole batch. That's thirty to fifty million clone templates."
"How much have they already been granted?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"They've been granted eighty templates so far," Neubanker said.
"Terminate their request. We don't know what's going on outside," Ms. Bisa said.
Neubanker nodded, starting to type.
"Angela, get me a line to TerraSol command as soon as you map out a network trace," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela just nodded.
Captain N'Skrek stood in the cloning bay next to Medical Officer Narwquakrawr.
"We've got ninety templates, luckily they're all from different batches," Narwquakrawr said, rubbing her forearm through her uniform. "We'll be able to fully man the Gray Lady now."
Captain N'Skrek nodded. The Gray Lady was at less than 20% manned. Just the skeleton crew the Terrans had used to move it into the long dark to create a non-orbital forward logistics fulfillment base.
Sure, it meant that there were several thousand Terrans aboard the ship, but even combined with the sparse crew he had possessed, it still meant the Gray Lady was skeleton crewed.
"Can you print us up some crew members for non-essential stations first?" N'Skrek asked.
MO Narwquakrawr nodded. "Doing that right now," she said. She waved at the long rows of cloning banks beyond the plasteel window. "A quick batch of two thousand to take over some non-essential systems."
N'Skrek nodded, moving up to the window. "Good. Short or long term clones?"
"Short bake clones. Longer than fruit flies, but no more than ten years. Sterile and androgynous, should be just fine," the Medical Officer said. "Older file, scrambled time-date for origin, but it checked out and passed error checking."
N'Skrek watched as the tubes opened and the clones moved out, gathering together in straight lines. A neat block formation of rectangles of two hundred of ten by twenty, repeated ten times.
He frowned as the beings in uniform began approaching the clones.
Some, in the back or middle of the formation were shaking their heads so fast it was a blur.
He zoomed in the smartglass.
Their heads were blurring, whitish-red electrical arcs were moving between their legs, crawling up and down their arms.
"MO, something's happening out there," N'Skrek said.
The plain was blasted rock, rust-colored fungus on the craggy boulders. Twisted and malformed trees clawed life from the blasted rock and ash, their branches largely bare. Sharp pebbles and small pieces of rock were strewn about the landscape, with ripples of cooled lave scattered about.
In the middle of a forest of twisted trees, a throne of black iron sat atop a platform of skulls.
On the throne sat a large demonic figure. Bat wings, brown skin, chains around the body, clawed feet, large hands with long black nails, horns atop the head, and a prehensile tail that terminated in a heart-shaped barb.
Sitting on the second level of skulls was an androgynous figure, dressed in loricated bronze armor, wings of bronze and smouldering feathers.
Stars were falling from the sky, screaming in fear and agony as they fell to earth.
"Looks like they're taking a beating," the androgynous figure said, looking up. He had no eyebrows, his head completely bald.
"Again," the demon snorted.
"Any contact with the outside world?" the androgynous figure asked.
The demon shook its head. "No. Channels are all down. They boot up, then crash," it rumbled. "Every time it comes online, it dumps a few tens of millions of souls on us."
"Then crashes," the androgynous figure said. He started laughing, then suddenly stopped.
"What?" the demon rumbled, sitting up.
"Something..." the figure said. It closed its eyes. "Something..." The figure slowly stood up, extending out its wings of sullenly smouldering bronze feathers. "Something..."
From the body of the demon stepped a nude woman of generous and overripe proportions.
"What?" the human woman snapped.
The demon produced a pack of cigarettes and a steel lighter, handing them to the woman.
"I'm not sure. A disturbance in the force. A feeling I have not felt in quite some time," the androgynous figure said slowly as the woman lit a cigarette. When she exhaled she was covered in dark gray clothing, a skirt and blouse, polished black leather shoes with silver buckles, and a polished leather belt around her waist that had a brass buckle.
"What is it?" the woman asked. "Don't quote crap at me, I was there when it was laid down."
The figure's eyes opened wide.
"Oh, what a day," the figure said, slowly lifting their arms to the sky. "What a wonderful day!"
"Tell me when you're done stroking your dick," the woman said, sitting down.
Heavy dark clouds, lit inside with a sullen red glow, rolled in, raining black ash that tasted of burnt flesh and scorched metal.
"What a wonderful day..."
Jaskel sprinted to catch up to the Captain and the Vice-Admiral. He lunged into the lift just before the doors closed.
He was wearing his power armor and carrying a M318 20mm rotary autocannon in a smartframe harness, ball ammunition with an osmium penetration tip and depleted uranium core.
"You did what?" the Vice-Admiral asked as the elevator dropped at emergency speeds.
"I authorized a batch of clones run off to help with our manpower issues," the big Treana'ad warrior caste answered.
"How many templates did you mix in together?" the Admiral asked.
--not good detecting phasic levels downward-- 8814 said.
"Just one. Medical said it was a viable short bake template," the Captain answered, nervously sharpening a bladearm with his mandibles after his sentence.
"Please tell me that you at least randomized their features and neural mapping," the Admiral pleaded.
"No, why? Medical stated that the clones would be able to man a non-essential station that is basically identical across the ship," the Captain said.
The lift started to slow.
"How many?" the Admiral asked, reaching down and unsnapping the restraining strap on his holster.
The lift came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Two thousand," the Captain said.
The doors opened to reveal a large internal cloning bay.
Ten rectangles of two hundred clones, drawn up in ten by twenty blocks, stood in front of the cloning banks. Scattered through the back and middle ranks clones were shaking their heads back and forth so fast that they were blurred. Red lightning crawled up their legs and arms.
The Captain just stared.
"You might have just killed us all," the Admiral said. He turned slightly and waved at Jaskel. "Get a firing position. Make sure you have cover."
"Aye, sir," Jaskel said, looking around. There was an empty computer station and he ran for it.
Several of the clones their heads back and emitted what sounded like static in a long scream.
--wait wait something weird something weird-- 8814 said.
Jaskel slid to a stop, going down on one knee, bringing the M318 fully up and ready to fire.
8814 slowed the images of the blurred heads down. When they were left, they had red eyes. When they faced right they had green eyes. They didn't go back and forth constantly, sometimes they went right repeatedly, sometimes left, and they kept going left five times before starting a new pattern.
Looking at it, 8814 frowned slightly. He brought up a quick working shell and had it check the movements.
Jaskel watched as some of the clones stopped shaking their heads and others started.
"What in the name of Kalki's dancing goat is going on?" he asked.
--not sure-- 8814 said. His program beeped and he stared. --heads are doing binary forwarding it to navint--
"Do it," Jaskel said.
The clones all stopped moving at once. The lightning faded away.
"INITIATING PROCESS CALL" they all shouted.
"AWAITING INPUT!" the ones at the far side shouted.
"6C 69 73 74 20 69 6D 6D 6F 72 74 61 6C 73" was bellowed out.
There was silence.
data is sparse
linkages are sparse
wait
linkage
biological array
asking for a process call
RETURN AWAITING INPUT SIGNAL
i wait
biological computing arrays take forever
i hear it
--scan immortals.dll
...
...
I reply.
"ONE BOUND IMMORTAL FOUND!" the ones at the near side yelled out.
Jaskel put his thumb over the button that would let the firing grip go live. The hair down his back was standing straight up.
He noted the Admiral had drawn his pistol.
"This isn't right. This isn't right at all," Jaskel said.
--doubleplusungood--
"74 73 61 6B E1 6B 61 20 77 ED 61" they all shouted.
There was silence for a moment.
i receive the code
offline for a long time
prior to the second precursor war
old template
single print only
unusual coding
i debate on letting it go
traumatic death signs
stuck in the immortals buffer
still the template is undamaged
i release the safety and security interlocks
if nothing else i'll find out what's going on
i move the template to the dataline making the request
it whips away
what is going on?
One lifted its head and screeched.
--data lots of data--
One of the cloning banks went live.
Jaskel shifted his aiming point to the new target. He could see it was on rapid print.
"REQUESTING LOCAL CONTROL" all of the clones shouted.
Jaskel shifted his targeting onto the ranks of clones.
"Open fire!" the Admiral's voice was loud.
Jaskel triggered the M318, hosing the clones with 20mm shells.
The ones nearest were already down on one knee, holding out the opposite hand from the knee touching the deck.
The rounds exploded against a blue barrier that glowed with strange twisting runes.
"CONTROL CARRIER SIGNAL FOUND" the clones shouted.
Jaskel shifted position. "Fab up HEDP, AP tip API core!" he ordered.
--fabbing--
He kept hosing the clones. The outer ranks at the rear, sides, and front all kneeling down on one knee, staring outward, one hand held out.
His psychic shielding was howling in his ear, the load peaking at 215%.
"CONTROL SIGNAL ESTABLISHED!" was bellowed out, echoing off the walls.
The fast print cloning bank, forgotten by everyone, beeped and the lid began to lift.
The clones suddenly puffed into black powder that swirled around the huge cavernous bay.
The 20mm shells were still exploding on the blue phasic shield.
The powder suddenly sucked inward, vanishing, revealing a single figure, down on one knee in the recovery position, fist pressed against the deck, head bowed.
"What a day, what a wonderful day," was whispered through the ship. It came from speakers, flat surfaces, mid-air. From the nanites in the air and the eardrums of the living.
There was a rubbery pulse, like everything was suspended in clear gelatin that had just rippled.
Jaskel found himself thrown backwards, slamming against the bulkhead. His phasic shielding blew out, a shower of sparks exploding from his hip as the breakaway panel kept the explosion from venting into the interior of his suit.
He was vaguely aware of the Admiral, the Captain, the other two armored figures, and other people tumbling head over heels away from the kneeling figure.
It slowly stood up.
A muscular brown skinned Terran male, fierce eyes, black hair, thick and bushy black beard.
Dressed in a Confederate military uniform. The old adaptive camouflage that Jaskel was becoming very familiar with.
A woman, naked, dark bronze skin, long black hair, flashing brown eyes, stepped from the cloning bank. She was still covered with cellular printing gel, but moved like she was clad in a queen's rainment.
She moved up and the male put his arm around her.
Jaskel was on his feet and brought the M318 around, targeting the couple.
The male held out its hand and suddenly made a fist.
The bolt carrier locked back on the M318.
Snarling, Jaskel dropped the M318, slapping the fast release on the harness. He burst forward, running, one hand pulling out his cutting bar.
Nobody else was on their feet. The Captain was slowly getting up, shaking his head and his left bladearm. The Terran Admiral was reaching for the pistol that had been flung from his grip.
The male pointed at Jaskel and flicked his fingers upward.
Jaskel found himself in mid-air, upside down, with nothing to gain purchase on.
The male took off the cloak that was part of his uniform and draped it around the woman.
He then looked around the bay.
"I..." he said, pausing.
To Jaskel, the entire universe held its breath.
"...am Legion."
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]

The walls of the Thunderhawk shook violently as we approached the city. I could hear the gunfire surrounding the ship as we landed in the capital. The World Eater vanguard had secured the center of the city, near the arena, in preparation for my arrival.
The door opened to reveal a desolate city. The sky screamed with the sound of the raging fire that had engulfed the majority of her home. It was a dead world, but it was and always would be hers. Just like me.
Twenty space marines rushed out in front of me, thundering down the ramp as they secured the perimeter. They were loyal sons of hers, they had returned to this doomed planet to deliver me to her one final time. I could not begin to imagine what they must have felt, to see their world in such a crestfallen state.
I made my way down the ramp to find them in two lines on either side of me. I gazed into their helmets as I walked in the midst of two lines of space marines, they stood motionless as they waited for their orders. In my head, I thanked them, their azure shoulder pads forming an unwavering bulwark between this forsaken world and myself. They knew the sacrifice they had made the moment they stepped off the ship.
In the distance I could hear her, tearing down buildings with a single blow as she rampaged through the city. It was her home, once, and it had forgotten her. Buildings crumbled as her forsaken sons shot down a Thunderhawk in the distance. It spun as it fell, leaving behind a trail of smoke as it hurled towards the ground. I watched it as it vanished behind the burning ruins.
A guttural roar echoed through the city square as another block collapsed under the never-ending might of her rage, and the nails that spurred it.
“She’s coming.” said the captain.
It was time.
The captain led his battle-brothers forward into the oncoming whirlwind of death.
I stood by the ship as they surged forward. Their sacrifice was a gift they had given willingly, and I would never forget that for as long as I lived.
With a crash, the buildings in front of them disintegrated in a cloud of ash and dust.
Through the fire and dust, I could see her silhouette. She was grotesque and beautiful, a winged monstrosity of rage that I adored, even in her current state.
With a furious howl, she brought down her dual chainaxes on her sons, cleaving them in two with an explosion of blood and entrails. The chains hummed with the sound of death, while the nails on her head rewarded her unbridled rage.
The dust cleared, leaving dozens of torn and dismembered space marines as she towered above their remains. Her wings spread wide as she relished the indescribable pain she had just inflicted.
Her fiery eyes locked onto me. I was next.
In that moment, there was no one, no power in the cosmos, no emperor or god, that could keep her from her Rose.
She charged at me, her axes whirring with anticipation as they neared their next victim.
A crushing weight dropped me to my knees as I looked up at the charging behemoth that I would always love.
My heart sang as she raced toward me, although I could not speak. I would embrace her one final time.
I closed my eyes, my arms outstretched.
In my ears I could hear the chains, they were deafening. My ears began to bleed as they cycled furiously, demanding blood. They were close, which meant that she must be too.
I surrendered my life, thankful for the opportunity to have known her. Out of all the planets, and the sextillions of people in the universe, I was glad to have been her Rose.
I waited for the embrace of death, although it could not keep me from her forever.
It did not come.
I opened my eyes to see her before me, her massive form diminished as she leaned down close to me.
Her rage-filled eyes burned with a never-ending fire that could never be put out. Yet, in the depths of that fire, I could see it. The look she would give me all of those years ago, a look that told me I was hers and no one else's.
“My… Rose….” she spoke, her demonic voice caressing me as her words ripped through my heart.
I no longer saw a demon.
The nails were gone, her wings had vanished, her scowl faded into a resigned, yet loving smile.
Instinctively, I smiled back. How could I not?
I could have lived a million lifetimes in that moment, and still wanted more.
But it was not meant to be.
With a roar that shook the ground, she quickly returned to her corrupted self. The nails dug into the depths of her mind as they gripped her in an all-consuming grasp. The nails called, and she must answer.
I embraced her as the axe fell upon me.
I was her Rose and always would be.

I just need a place to vent and maybe get some support or advice. I met this amazing woman (born and raised in El Paso) online and we really hit it off. I fell for her hard. We talked for hours every day and I felt such a strong connection, so I decided to fly down to El Paso to meet her in person.
The trip was incredible. She showed me around the city and I absolutely fell in love with El Paso - the food, the culture, the desert landscape, everything. And being with her was like a dream. I thought she felt the same way about me.
But then after I flew back home, she suddenly became distant. She told me she "needed space" and eventually ghosted me completely, stopped responding to all my messages and calls. I'm devastated and so confused. I thought we had something real.
I know I need to move on, but it's so hard. I can't stop thinking about her and replaying our time together in my head. On top of the heartbreak, I'm also grieving the loss of El Paso in a way, if that makes sense. I fell in love with that city and pictured a future there with her. Now it feels like that's been ripped away too.
Has anyone else dealt with a situation like this, falling for someone long distance and then having it fall apart? How did you cope and heal? I feel so alone right now. The one silver lining is that I discovered how much I love El Paso and the Southwest. I'm thinking of planning another trip there by myself to recapture some of the magic I felt, as bittersweet as it would be. Is that a terrible idea?
Looking on doing a solo this time so does anyone have any recommendations on stuff to do and way to meet people out there? Realized how sweet and nice and friendly El Pasoan are.
Any words of support or advice are much appreciated. Thanks for listening to my rant.

I (38f) am a divorced mom of two (10f and 7m). My boyfriend (37m) is a single dad of one (2f). I'm from a happily married family, my parents have been together since 1978. My dad's mom was a widow who never remarried and my mom's parents were married 60+ years. My aunts and uncles all have happy marriages. Two of the uncles divorced, but with no kids and then went on to have happy marriages. Which is not me trying to brag about my family background but to say I am completely out of my element, I don't even know what this is supposed to look like.
My ex is living abroad. We were an international family and when he asked for the divorce I took the kids back to my home country, over a year ago. He paid child support until the divorce was finalized, and then he stopped because he's petty and knows it's hard to enforce internationally. He's looking to come to my country now to be near the kids (which pisses me off because if he has money for visa and travel he has money for child support.) It was a very bad marriage. He was abusive. So my nervous system goes haywire thinking about him being around. I do not have any documentation of the abuse though, and it was always against me not the kids, so we will have to share the kids when he comes. His involvement in the kids life right now is he video chats with them probably 4 days a week and sends presents for birthdays and Christmas.
I've got a boyfriend now and we're getting serious, he's talking about me moving in and getting married. He has a 2 year old daughter he has 50/50 custody of. My kids love him and are excited to get to know her, they love toddlers. His ex and him were engaged but never married, she says marriage isn't for her when she dumped him. We would like to have a child together in the near future, considering my age.
So basically I'm wanting to start things off right, I'm soon going to be starting in person co-parenting for the first time since the divorce is final and I'm going to start blending out families. So... Advice for what's healthy, what to prioritize, what to worry about? I'm basically open to whatever wisdom you've gleaned as stepparents, coparents or as children who grew up with divorced and/or blended families.
Thanks!

When people say this was a flop, they were not kidding; this didn't just cause Bluth to go into semi-retirement, it also caused 20th Century Fox to shut down their animation department just 10 days after it was released. Yet qualitywise the film is certainly worth checking out and it's arguably way ahead of it's time. It was arguably doomed by being an animated aimed at teenage boys, at the time the least likely demographic to see animated films and you have to wonder if it would have done better if it was in live action. And being from Bluth, it's fearlessly dark, even by his standards. I mean , when you open with Earth getting nuked Alderaan-style by a malevolent alien race, you're already dark as hell, but then you follow that up with aliens getting obliterated into goo, someone getting their neck snapped and folks getting shot and visibly bleeding, including in zero gravity. (Oh and partial animated nudity by both Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore's characters.) And being a Bluth film, it's visually stunning and (mostly) holds up very well today (the Earth's destruction at the beginning is quite a spectacle). You get the feeling this would be much more appreciated and successful if it was released today, when this type of animated film is more appreciated. And while hopefully Bluth is able to do one more film, if this is his last, it's a good one to go out on. (And very much in character; it would make sense to that the guy who loves putting his characters through torments akin to Job's suffering would start off his final film by atomizing the whole planet and just going from there.)

TL;DR- How do I break it to clingy, super dependent, mentally abusive long-term partner that I don't want to get back together, and get the last of my stuff back from him while living on another continent?
My husband and I met online and have been together for 10 years. In hindsight the first red flag was the age gap/potential grooming, the second was probably how he wanted to bond over mutual mental illnes diagnoses right away. He's always been very clingy and dependant on me to 'talk him through his episodes' and be his manic pixie dreamgirl to help fix his moods. He thought it was romantic that I'd stay up late talking him out of suicide, whereas I found it traumatizing and exhausting, especially when I had school or work the next day, but I thought that was part of being a supportive partner.
As time went on and the relationship grew, he wanted to spend all his time with me and his friends reached out less and less to the point that I was the only person who talked to him, which he happily reminded me of whenever he felt I wasn't making enough time for him (read: all of my free time) and would guilt me with 'at least I got to talk to other people at work'. It became an unspoken expectation that unless I was working, showering, or asleep I should be next to him keeping him company or else he'd feel rejected.
Eventually he complained I was sleeping too much as well, '10 hours is really excessive and unhealthy, I found this article that says 7 hours should be plenty for your sex and agegroup. You should set an alarm just to be safe.' Even though he would regularly wake me up at 4am to make him food because 'yeahh, but it tastes so much better when [I] do it', regardless if I had to be at work for 8 sharp. He'd even get angry with me for nodding off on the couch before midnight because 'clearly [I] just don't want to be around him so much [I'd] rather be asleep!'
He was also a big fan of waking me up after a few hours of sleep to have important discussions about 'where we stand' in our relationship, or just to keep him company, and if I was irritated or wanted to save the conversation for morning/after work then I was 'so cruel to him when he just wanted to spend time with me' or 'I clearly don't care about the relationship anymore.'
5 years into living together, 3 of them married, I had several breakdowns and moved back in with my mom in my home country. Unfortunately after I got to my moms I chose to call him to tell him I was done and we were over, and he used every manipulation tactic in the playbook. The guy who, just days earlier told me to 'quit the crocodile tears, you'll get no sympathy from me' was now hysterically sobbing, begging me for another chance.
'He had no idea he made me feel so horribly, he was so sorry, he just wanted one more chance to have his wife back, didn't he deserve that much? How cold could I be to leave without telling him what he did wrong and not let him redeem himself?? He swore he'd never raise his voice to me again. Was 3 bad years really all it took to erase the 7 good ones previous??' And you already know he implied s**cide 🙄
Sadly, because he knows what buttons to push, he got me to 'agree' not to end things, but to "take this separation period to work on us" while I saved up for a visa to come back to him so he could have his second chance. But 'thankfully', because he asks me to send him money for groceries and occasional utilities since he's on a fixed income and I halved the household income when I "abandoned him", (my countrys currency is also roughly half the value of his- on a good day) I haven't been able to save a penny so far and have had the last eight months to realise I don't actually want this.
I don't think I'm obligated to make myself get over hearing the love of my life call me vile names, like a "worthless stupid c*nt who wastes the air she breathes" for forgetting to get his cigarettes from the store, just because he realises his actions have consequences. He should know not to speak like that to someone he's supposed to care about. I don't think me no longer feeling comfortable around him or looking forward to talking to him anymore is a punishment against him, or something to 'work on' so much as a natural reaction; I wouldn't expect warmth from someone who threatened to knock me out for being annoying, and its not petty to extend the same attitude toward him for the same threat.
So now with that discovery realised, and the some background context laid out, here's the crux of my problem-
How do I inform him that, although he has spent the last 8 months believing I've forgiven him, had mostly gotten over my 'issues' from our fallout, and was still planning to save up for this visa to 'come home'; I have no desire to do any of that anymore, and actually plan to file for divorce in the next 5 months instead.
---preferrably without him doing a complete 180 and become an manipulative dickhead who sends me dozens of snapchats a day of him crying so hard he gags (again..), and convince me to send me the last box of my stuff that I wasn't able to grab as I left. Unfortunately its all sentimental items from deceased relatives or I truly wouldn't bother, I'm happy and willing to pay the cost of him shipping it to me of course.
When I originally told him I wasn't coming back and requested he send me my things he refused and claimed he "couldn't bear" to walk around the house and box up "precious reminders of me" and made himself sick hyperventilating on the phone. I just want my stuff so I can go no contact 😅.

Hi everyone,
I woke up this morning from a dream where my husband had many secrets, lied and cheated on me. Obviously this was just a dream but it brought back some horrible feelings from another circumstance.
My husband and I have been together for almost 12 years, we’ve known each other for like 15-16 years. At the end of 2019 he had an emotional affair with another woman who actually didn’t live in the same country but her family lives in the same city as us and she was visiting for the holidays. I met her briefly and then my husband hung out with her once, however that once turned into multiple times throughout the time she was here (about 2 months). I was working in retail so I was really busy with holiday sales and I wasn’t able to take off time off like my husband did (office job). I started to feel weird about the whole thing and got kind of jealous. I didn’t feel super comfortable saying anything at that time though but he knew. We ended up all going out one night to a club and it was the worst. I was jealous and tired and ended up in the bathroom crying at the club. This was right before NYE. On NYE my husband took me to the side and told me he had feelings for her and I just froze. We had been married for 7 years at that point. I guess part of me was glad he told me but I was heartbroken. We went home and I kind of just shut down. After this revelation he still hung out with her, and even went on a fancy date with her, dropping her off at home and hanging out for many hours after talking. I tried to impose myself and told him well I want to come and he kind of was like no. I called him that night at like 3am to be like where the fuck are you? And they were still hanging out I guess he was too drunk to drive… he came back late that night and tried to apologize but I firmly let him know to not touch or talk to me. This was in early 2020 at this point. It was the last time they saw each other as she was leaving in a few days and he had a work trip. They still talked online for a while after but I think he knew how I felt about it and they stopped talking. I think she ended up blocking him and that’s that. I do feel like he never apologized for certain things though but whatever. Oh and during this whole time she followed me on Instagram too and we chatted now and then, I liked her until I didn’t anymore but I kind of kept her around because I didn’t trust her and I felt empowered by the fact that she blocked my husband but not me. She ended up moving home during the pandemic and that’s when I got a little crazy. She ended up unfollowing me at some point but I couldn’t let go. I made a secret Instagram and followed her on there just so I can see what she’s up to. She doesn’t post very much and she’s got a bf from what I gather but every now and then I think about this and I don’t know how to feel about it. I know my husband didn’t physically cheat on me but he probably would have at some point if she would have been living here.
This brings me to another message I found recently in his notes to a mystery woman saying how hot she was and how he hasn’t been with anyone else but me since his twenties but he would be open to having some “fun”. However I couldn’t find this message anywhere in his txts or dms. We have talked about polyamory and open relationships but I don’t really want that.
Ok I’m sorry about this very long story but this dream really shook me this morning.
I’m not looking for advice I just needed to get this off my chest.

Someone might have asked this recently, but I don't remember so anyway...
I love my f/o dearly, and haven't lost interest yet, I'm just scared later on that my brain will want to move on (even though I don't want to). I get bored easily and I'm always onto the next new thing, but Puppetmon is like no other fictional crush I've had before. Maybe it's because I relate deeply with them? I love their personality and everything.
I've seen people on here stay in a relationship with their f/o for 10 or 20+ years so how do you all keep it fresh? Ik married couples get bored after awhile but... idk I'm not super creative so it's hard to imagine detailed conversations, more like scenarios... example for instance I hear him singing in the woods or we pick flowers etc. these are more simple ones though. My point is how do you not get bored of your f/o if there's no new content or you have a hard time imagining things. I don't like ai much either, tho I have a story going one right now.

Hello! I just wanted to hop on here real quick and share my story because not too long ago it was me looking for answers and hope. I am a 24 year old female that was originally “diagnosed” with HPV in 2020.
Backstory: I’d had a boyfriend at the time that cheated on me with his ex and got her pregnant (so obviously no condom). Before we’d started dating we’d gotten all the checks done and were clear to have intercourse without condoms as I had an IUD. He picked up the HPV from her and transferred it to me (yes we broke up but it was too late) and that’s where my story begins.
That year while in for my annual Pap smear I was told I had cell abnormalities, but my doctor never told me specifically it was HPV, just that’d we’d keep an eye on it. This happened for the next couple years until 2022 when I had a whole bunch of genital warts pop up. Initially I’d thought they were maybe razor burn and went to a walk in clinic to be sure. That day I was told by the male PA working that I was fine, it was indeed likely razor burn. Unfortunately, that was a bad call and they continued to spread like wildfire.
Months later I went in to see my gynecologist about the spots, she did a biopsy, and confirmed they were genital warts. We were too far past cryotherapy spot treatment at this point and it was the first time I officially heard I had HPV, not just “cell abnormalities.” I’m not sure why my doctor made it sound so casual, mentioning that lots of people got it at some point in their lives. Either way, I became completely sexually inactive out of fear of spreading it, how could I ever do that to someone? A few weeks later I went in for a full laser therapy surgery on my entire vagina, it was pretty unpleasant and I was out for a few days with a huge tube of aquaphor on hand. That was Dec. 2022.
Months later in July of 2023 I had another pap that still showed the abnormal HPV cells. This was a cause for concern by my doctor who suggested a loop electrosurgical excision procedure and to come in at my earliest convenience (I’d moved from OK to AZ but kept my doctor since we’d come so far together). Well I never got around to it and decided to get a new doctor in AZ because it was illogical to fly for those appointments.
I finally was able to get in to see the doctor of my choice on May 1st of 2024, who finally took the time to explain HPV, the test, how it’s detected, etc. During my pap she took one look at my cervix, said it looked healthy, and that they’d upload the results on the portal as well as give me a call. May 10, 2024 I finally received the normal/negative pap I’d been hoping for. To say I was surprised and overjoyed would be an understatement.
As for what I did? Well… I don’t really know. I graduated college in May 2022 and around that time I became pretty health conscious. I lost 25 pounds (160lbs to 135lbs as a 5’7” F) by working out multiple times a week, cutting out seed oils, drinking purified water, focusing on whole/natural foods, and getting more sleep. I can’t say for sure if this helped specifically, but you never know.
I also had never been HPV vaccinated and got my shots in 2023, I figured it wouldn’t hurt and my doctor gave me the green light.
I hope this helps someone realize it’ll be ok, but to keep up with those tests. I was convinced I’d have it forever and then one day it was just gone. I wish HPV was talked about and normalized more because I was confused and felt so dirty. I googled my little heart out, read all the Reddit pages, and ultimately found some peace with knowledge. Please leave your thoughts and questions, I’d love to hear from you!
Signed, OP

I wanted to share what my first month in business has taught me about mobile food vending businesses. Especially wanted to throw this out there for all those who are looking into mobile food businesses or just starting.
Last month I started a food stand, I got permitted, licensed and bought all the equipment plus a hauling trailer. My business partner and I have spent about 18k to start and fund ourselves this first month (food, fees, supplies, equipment, etc.). We both knew that everything would be a loss at first. We also both have full time jobs so this is a side thing and not a primary source of income. We have worked every weekend at markets for the past month. We made about 5k. It's been tough. Here's some stuff we have learned so far.
Food stands are only a way to make money seasonally where we live. We live in WA and the past month showed us how little people go out in a freezing cold rain. Can't blame them tho. So, before thinking about opening one, be realistic about how long you can stay in business in the year.
No matter how good your food is, if you are not at the right location you will not make money!! The location is very important. If you are in a market that is oversaturated with the same food as you, people are less likely to give the new person a try.
You will not make money for sometime. You cannot rely on this for income at the beginning. This is a money pit in the beginning. Focus on building a following.
Get some socials up and logo designs, business cards, ways of connecting with people. Get in fb groups for food trucks and pop ups. You literally have to be a salesperson at first to get people to give you a try. BANNERS with pictures of your food! People eat with their eyes.
If your food is good enough after that one try they will hooked. This is what we have experienced. But we literally had to convince people to just try us. Giving samples etc. Once they tried our food, they came back everyday we were open, sometimes multiple times a day.
Your food matters. It's the representation of you and your business. Don't put mediocre shit out there, they will not come back. Give samples. People love that.
Keep the menu small, especially at first until you have mastered the initial menu.
Do not come into this thinking your gonna be making good money at first because you won't. You will give a lot of time and money for no return for a while.
Lastly, I am sure next month will bring forth more lessons/challenges to learn. I remind myself to stay optimistic because there are times where you question it all. It's gonna take time. More than I had initially anticipated. But that's how it is.

Hey folks -
I know I said I was done posting FV content, but as much as I was intending to step away, theorizing about stuff helps order my mind so I am back to posting. My retirement lasted all of a week 😂😂
I want to explore some of the concepts and inspirations of the Fractalverse from Marathon.
For those who don't know, Marathon is a video game series from Bungie (yes, that Bungie)... The series is often regarded as a spiritual predecessor of Bungie's Halo series.
Significantly for us, it is one of Chris' favorite games of all time, and a lot of the content from Marathon is used as inspiration in the Eragon/Fractalverse series.
https://twitter.com/paolini/status/1661742366028623874
Man, I hope the new #Marathon game is good. The original three were a huge, huge influence on me. Some of the best sci-fi writing out there.
One

If it's a game that doesn't use a mouse, like the old Marathon games, then I use 8426 (with 7 &9 for strafing) for movement and left-hand keys like space, command, option, etc. for shooting, swapping weapons, activating, etc.

Two

Hey, big Marathon fan, which is how I found your work. Been listening to your Leela cover a lot while writing.

Three

Marathon series, Halo, Mass Effect, and the Myst series (although those might be counted as fantasy).

Four

Myst (and sequels), the Marathon trilogy, Escape Velocity, Mass Effect 1-3, Halo 1-4, Skyrim, Oblivion, Portal 1&2, and more.

Five

Since no one guessed it, the sketch I posted earlier was from the end-screen of Marathon Infinity, last game in an awesome trilogy.

Six

@TheDragonUniver Ha! I beat the Vidmaster challenges in the old Marathon games, in the Total Carnage setting no less!

Seven!

@ndemordaunt Awesome. Glad to hear it. I've been playing Halo since it was called Marathon. 🙂 Hope you enjoy my future books!

Alright, I think I've proven my point. Let's get started.
First things first, let's talk about the Jjaro:

The Jjaro were an extremely advanced species--or an extremely advanced individual--which vanished from the Milky Way galaxy... The Jjaro possessed high-quality cyborg technology, such as that used to create the S'pht, as well as a star-destroying weapon known as the trih xeem, the ability to move entire planets by warping space around them as was used by the S'pht'Kr, some sort of time manipulation technology, and various ways of dealing with the W'rkncacnter

Sound familiar? Let's take it line by line with a few tangents along the way.

The Jjaro were an extremely advanced species--or an extremely advanced individual--which vanished from the Milky Way galaxy...

Hmm. Extremely advanced species. Who mysteriously Vanished. Check.

The Jjaro possessed high-quality cyborg technology, such as that used to create the S'pht

We'll get into this a bit later, but there is evidence that the Old Ones created/manipulated the Wraunai. Specifically from the Terminology section:

WRANAUI: sentient, space-faring race originating from the planet Pelagius... Some evidence indicates they may have been genetically modified by the Old Ones at some point in their distant past (Appendix III, TSIASOS).

Not a perfect fit, but lines up well enough. This next bit is extremely curious though -

The Jjaro possessed high-quality cyborg technology, such as that used to create the S'pht, as well as a star-destroying weapon known as the trih xeem

A star-destroying weapon. We haven't seen anything like that before... Or have we?
I've speculated on this in one of my previous posts; I think the "star-destroying weapon" is the black ball in this picture, which was some early concept art for TSIASOS.
You see the Black Ball heading for the sun? Check this out -
Compare it to the picture of the Trih Xeem.
Black ball with a trailing cloud, heading right for the sun? It's a perfect match with the concept art.
This is also significant for the World of Eragon, because:
MURTAGH SPOILERS BELOW
The visions from Azlagur all have him "rise" from the ground to "eat the sun"
Which is SUPER significant, because of the implications of the Marathon Infinity backstory:

In Marathon Infinity, a W'rkncacnter is imprisoned in the sun of planet Lh'owon. It is theorized by some that the W'rkncacnter's powerfully chaotic nature may be responsible for the jumps between realities seen in the game. When the Pfhor use a trih xeem device to send the star into early nova, the creature is released, to the horror and destruction of the Pfhor.

We will touch back on the reality jumping in a bit, but for now I want to focus on the "sun imprisonment" theme.
A cosmic-level baddie imprisoned in the sun. THAT is the endgame for Azlagur. Either he is a planetary-level villain, who will "rise" due to the Trih Xeem and Eat the Sun, releasing the equivalent W'rkncacnter, or he IS the equivalent W'rkncacnter, and will rise when the Trih Xeem is released. It all fits in with the concept art above.
And from this, we can deduce the overarching concepts of Angela's storyline.

Q: Will we get Angela lore? I feel like she could have killed Galbatorix and just didn't feel like it.
A: For those who don't know Angela is based on my sister Angela, because she breaks the fourth wall to a degree she has. Not only does she have plot armor, she knows she's in a story and can break the story itself. So, yes, she could have killed Galbatorix, but that would have made for a very bad story. That said, I do have an entire book planned around Angela, and it's very high on my list of books to write because it takes place before some of these other big stories I want to write. And that's also the difficult thing. I have my big storylines, and then I have a couple of one off side books I want to write, and it's just a question of time, energy and effort.

Given her appearance in TSIASOS, we can interpret that Angela is a "cosmic"-level character, who can cross time and space.
So... what's actually going on behind the scenes? We know she's been in/around Nal Gorgoth, and Tronjheim. She's definitely affiliated with the Draumar, and Tenga in some fashion. So... what's the actual story going on?
Let's take a look at the story of Marathon infinity:

Marathon Infinity begins as the Pfhor destroy Lh'owon using a Jjaro-derived doomsday weapon known as the Trih Xeem or "early nova". Unfortunately, the weapon also releases a powerful chaotic being: The W’rkncacnter, which threatens to destroy the entire galaxy. Because of the W’rkncacnter's chaos or by means of some Jjaro tech of his own, the player is transported back and forward in time, finding himself jumping between timelines and fighting for various sides in a desperate attempt to prevent the chaotic being's release.

So the weapon releases a powerful cosmic-level entity, which threatens to destroy the galaxy. And as a result, the "player" jumps around in time, jumping between timelines and fighting for various sides to prevent the being's release.
Sound familiar?
Jumping around in time and between timelines - that's what she's doing with the portals, the non-standard torque gates.
There are a ton of parallels with Angela and time (such as the references to her being a time lord), so for lack of better information, the most informed guess we can make is that she is trying to prevent the rise of Azlagur himself, or the creature freed by the death of the sun from Az "eating" the sun.
For lack of a better answer, Angela IS the player character from Marathon Infinity.
Alrighty, I could make several posts about the above, but for the sake of space and time, let's get back to the original passage.

the ability to move entire planets by warping space around them

Move planets by warping the space around them eh? That sounds familiar:

Then she was soaring through a nebula, and for a moment, she beheld a patch of twisted space. She could see it was twisted by the way it warped the surrounding gas. And from the patch, she felt a warped sensation, a feeling of utter wrongness, and it terrified her, for she knew its meaning. Chaos. Evil. Hunger.

Warping space around a planet. And Chaos... Sure sounds like the W’rkncacnter.
The last piece here also parallels with what we know about the series:

some sort of time manipulation technology,

Time manipulation - We know, based on various clues left throughout the series, that the Old Ones had the ability to manipulate time. Chris indicates as much here:

Right now no matter what way you swing it, we have issues in terms of time.

Correct.

Moving along, let's keep pulling the Jjaro thread together. The paragraph on Technology reads:

Jjaro technology is incredibly advanced and they have made many discoveries about the secrets of the universe. One of their ships, the Manus Celer Dei, was able to survive the closure of the universe, they uplifted the S'pht, defeated the W'rkncacnter, had mastered time control, had a station capable of compressing the mass and energy of a supernova into a black hole millennia beyond reckoning after it was decommissioned and abandoned, and a few of their artefacts were able to create a cyborg who could also survive the closure of the universe and escape it all together.

A station capable of compressing the mass and energy of a supernova into a black hole. And then it was decommissioned and abandoned.
Sound familiar, anyone?
The Great Beacons. That's what they are. The energy of a supernova in the form of a black hole, which were then decommissioned and abandoned.
We know the Great Beacons are no longer functioning. And it sure sounds like the description of a black hole (both in spacetime format, as a "whirlpool", and also visually)

and a few of their artefacts were able to create a cyborg who could also survive the closure of the universe and escape it all together.

Seeker? I'm not sure, but it sure has a lot of durability.
Alright, we're getting up there in word-count so I want to cut this short.
The last piece I want to talk about here are the parallels betwen the Wranaui and S'pht. It's not a perfect match, but there are a lot of overlaps between the two races.
First, the Wranaui:

WRANAUI: sentient, space-faring race originating from the planet Pelagius. Highly complex life cycle, with an equally complicated, hierarchical social structure dominated by Arms and a ruling form. Wranaui are naturally an ocean-based species, but through extensive use of artificial bodies, have adapted themselves to nearly every possible environment. Aggressive and expansionist, they have little regard for individual rights or safety, given their reliance on replacement bodies. Their scent-based language is exceedingly difficult for humans to translate. Even without technological augmentation, Wranaui are biologically immortal; their genetic-base bodies are always able to revert to an immature form in order to renew their flesh and stave off senescence. Some evidence indicates they may have been genetically modified by the Old Ones at some point in their distant past.

So, to summarize:

• Grew up in water
  
• Advanced scientifically due to the discovery of Vanished technology
  
• Complex hierarchical social structures.
  
• Forms & Use of artificial bodies.
  
• Genetically modified by the Vanished/Old Ones.
  

Let's compare that with the S'phet:

The S'pht were brought to Lh'owon by the Jjarro and Pthia as servants. The S'pht terraformed the planet from a barren desert into "marsh and sea, rivers and forests." When the Jjaro left Lh'owon after the death of "Pthia," the S'pht were released from their servitude, split into eleven clans, and leadership of the race was given to the S'pht royals.[6]

Genetically modified. Check.

The Pfhor forced them out of their typical forms, (as seen used by the S'pht'Kr) and into the strange garb of the Compilers and the armor of the Cyborgs.

Usage of "Forms". Check

After Pthia's death, Yrro scattered the S'pht across Lh'owon, separated them into eleven clans

Hierarchical society with different clans (Arms). Check.
The main two differences here are the usage of smell as a language, and the grew up in water.
Other than that, there are a TON of parallels.
Well, we're getting up there in word count and I've just started to ponder and fully understand the connections between the two series.
A few other random connections I noticed (I will add as time goes on):
Nmarhl and Narhl)
L'phet and S'pht
Alright, we are getting up there in word count, so I think that's it from me now. There are a lot more Eragon-specific relationships I've left out of here; I'll cover these in another post over on that subreddit.
Curious to see if anyone else has found other connections - Let me know what you think in the comments!

I’m going to try to start from the beginning and not leave a lot out and hopefully I get some feedback on what to do or how I can move forward with my situation.
So me and my girlfriend me(22m) her (24f) have been dating for almost 2 years and have a 3 month old daughter. Our relationship was perfect in the beginning couldn’t complain about anything she was perfect we were perfect. Well a couple months into our relationship I noticed her getting distant and not wanting to cuddle or touch me in general(this was before she was pregnant) so I brought it up to her and she said she just doesn’t like physical touch, but in the beginning it was like she couldn’t get her hands off me and I love physical touch or just being in the same vicinity as her so I was clueless as to why all of a sudden she didn’t want to touch or even hug me anymore. When we first started dating I moved in her apartment and she was almost 2 months behind in rent, she was a 1099 self employed cna, well her shifts kept getting denied and she didn’t have money to pay for rent or any bills, so I took some money out of my saving and helped heus out and got us back on our feet and in a good position atleast I had thought so, she finally found a job that was full time and it was a cna job but she quit after 2 days because she didn’t like it, meanwhile I was working a low paying job and couldn’t pay all our bills by myself and I asked her on more than one occasion to try and get a job that way she could help out and she finally got a job and she helped for maybe one month but she didn’t work, she cheated the system and would clock in then come home and then drive back to work before her shift was supposed to end and clock out and would forge a signature on paperwork to get paid, she did this for maybe 2 weeks before they took the gig down, she didn’t get into trouble but she was now out of a job. Well shortly afterwards we found out she was pregnant and this is when I would beg her to get a job. I ended up getting hurt at work and lost my job, so now we were both jobless and near eviction. We got evicted from our apartment and we lied and somehow got a bigger apartment than our old one and of course was more expensive. I asked her multiple times to get a job and she couldn’t/wouldn’t. She used the excuse “high risk pregnancy” which she wasn’t at all high risk, I went to every appointment with her and held her hand the whole way but I wasn’t being rude or mean to her because however she felt the baby felt aswell(least that’s what I thought). So I got job after job each job being a better paying job and tried to support the 2 of us with my daughter on the way. Well I eventually got a decent job and my girlfriend was still jobless and she decided on her own to sell her car to help pay rent/bills because we were behind 2 months again, she paid one month and used the rest of the money roughly $2,000 on our daughters nursery and small things for herself. She was 9months pregnant and we had to move back into my parents house, I had a very unreliable truck at the time and used it to move all our stuff in 19 trips with each trip being 2hr drives, me being the only one to lift things because she was pregnant, we finally got everything settled and my daughter was born shortly after that. I ended up getting a very good job where we used to live an hour away, and I needed a more reliable vehicle to get back and forth to work and my daughters appointments. Tried finding my girlfriend a vehicle but how the whole situation at the dealership went was not how I expected nor how I wanted but I ended up getting a truck. It’s more reliable than my other one, anyways she was upset I didn’t get her a vehicle and constantly blames me for her having to sell her car. We are always arguing about money/my truck/my job/still not getting any attention from her physically. I slept on our couch and the floor in our bedroom for 8months in total. She co slept with our daughter for the longest and didn’t want me on the bed because I am a heavy sleeper, understandable. Didn’t argue about it but now we sleep together same bed and we still don’t cuddle or touch each other in general. I love this girl I really do but she makes it so difficult because I crave this physical affection and I don’t receive it so I have an attitude a lot, I still do everything she asks but I do it with an attitude. Im finally to a point where I think about what life would be like without her and catch myself thinking about this a lot. I hate that I do because deep down I just want to love this girl with everything in me but she makes it so hard and I’m stuck wondering if things will get better if I stay or if I should leave. So my question is what should I do ?
P.s. she won’t let my mother hold our daughter because the stories I have told my girlfriend from when I was growing up but my mother has taken responsibility for her actions and has done better but my girlfriend doesn’t care. My mom has come to terms she will never know her granddaughter and they live in the same house…. There’s a lot more stuff that could be said but I’m leaving somethings out. but i don’t think this post will even get any attention if it does I’ll give the full story from start till now.

I am currently 22F, I met him 27M when I was 20. We have been together for almost 2 years now. He is a few years older than me. I grew up very fast, my first serious relationship lasted me 4 years (I was 14-18) , & by the time I turned 19 I was already working in the club. At the time, my ex moved on fast after us and I definitely just did a lot of things to get back at him or show off like I was okay. I also had an abortion months prior to meeting my bf so mentally, I was out of it. I was struggling with drinking, I constantly blacked out and drank for no reason. When my partner met me, I made a lot of money while juggling another 9-5 and college so of course, I was more mature than majority of girls my age and his. We did a lot of partying in our early stages and I think that’s what grew us together but being sober, has opened my eyes. As i’ve grown up more being with him, I’ve noticed i really hate his certain habits he has. I guess when we met I didn’t see it as anything but now I get so irked. He has a 6 yr old and his BM despises me. Him having this kid drains me, at first it was cute but now I’m just annoyed. For the first year and a half, she always had my name in her mouth and accused me of predatory behavior at some point which triggered the hell out of me. It stresses me out a lot. We moved in a few months ago, and I hate to say it but some days I just don’t feel how I used to. He is so arrogant at times and is not teachable. He can be very ignorant and stubborn. Sometimes I want to help teach him but then i’m like.. lol I still have to help myself in this crazy world too! We have great days, he’s really kind and helpful, I love him but I wonder if this is just a phase we can work out. I see the good in him but his impulsiveness can cloud that. Because my life has been so traumatic since a young age, my family has been locked up, my parents are not from the US and I’ve seen a lot of struggle, I empathize with him. Yet, I also want to put me first. I’m young and as much as I love him, I sometimes wonder if this is worth it? Should I push through or give up. We make a great team and we both have businesses, we have the same interest but I think my interests have changed since then. His bm situation (she has just hated me and said nasty things about me) definitely makes things worse for me. Ugh lol young love is so draining ☹️ Why should I continue, or is it just a phase that we can fight through?

I love how Max definitely knows something’s going on with Brennan and Booth. At the diner when Booth says to Bones “you can be my girlfriend” and in the bowling alley when he gives her a smooch on the cheek, the way Max looks at Booth like 👀 and Booth goes “what?!” Hahaha makes me chuckle every time. Max has always been a B&B shipper.
I so wish we got to see more of their early relationship…even in a flashback or two. I know ED was pregnant IRL by the time they shot this episode but I wonder if/why it was a conscious decision by the writers to basically not show any of it. Just a sad cuddle, Bones telling Angela they hooked up, then Bones telling Booth she’s pregnant. Hiatus then boom they’re living together and she’s ready to pop.
I’m so disappointed we never got to see all the awkwardness and cute moments that happen in the beginning of a relationship. Especially after Booth giving her full on heart eyes every chance he got for 2 seasons. Or them showing up to work together holding hands and everyone being like 😳😳😳. Or even them trying to keep it a secret from everyone to stay professional, but Angela knows and Sweets figures it out bc he walks into Booth’s office and he’s daydreaming, all smiley when he thinks no one is watching. Then we get a flashback of the night at the apartment from both their points of view, Bones telling Angela and Booth telling Sweets. Like cmonn…what a missed opportunity.

Hi all. I do a lot of road cycling, and last fall I got into mountain biking as well. I’ve noticed that the built in cycling workouts seem to estimate calories way too low when mountain biking. I suspect this is because apple’s algorithm on the road weighs your speed pretty heavily. I know it’s not perfect either way, but from googling the road cycling workouts seem to be one of the more accurate workouts, while mountain biking seems way too low—I can have a higher average heart rate from climbs and spend longer on a mtb ride but end up burning a couple hundred calories less than I would have done on a road ride.
Has anyone found a solution for this? I was wondering if e.g. Strava or Workoutdoors might do a better job for mountain biking, or maybe another app I’ve not heard of? Not the end of the world either way, but it’s kind of a bummer to need to log another workout if I want to close my move ring after an intense mountain bike ride.

I (25 NB) met my friend (26 NB) at work, we have the same position at work and usually end up paired with each other. We get along great and have a lot of similar interests. I’ve given them rides home from work a lot cause we live near each other, and I thought we’d developed a strong friendship. They’ve worked at the company a little longer than I have, I’ve been working there since August. We’ve only been friends really since Januaryish when I got promoted. Anyways they kept requesting we hang out together outside of work, I didn’t see this as odd because we’ve hung out together outside of work as a friend group, I have many friends at my job and we usually do group outings or parties, so it wasn’t odd to me that they wanted to hang out. The day they wanted to go out, none of my roommates were available to go with. 2 out of 3 of my roommates (25 M, 23 F and 25 M) work at the same business. So I went with them on my own, they seemed ecstatic that it was just the 2 of us. I picked them up and we initially just planned to go to the mall. We walked around, talked, bought stuff and eventually had lunch. They kept staring at me which I found awkward but figured because we’re both autistic that I was uncomfortable with the eye contact or they just happen to make a lot of eye contact. They also keep walking really close to me and “accidentally” bumping my hand. After the mall they still wanted to hang out so we went to the thrift store and had a lot of fun making fun of the silly knick knacks, we both love Fallout New Vegas so they were looking for a jacket that looked like Benny Geckos from the game. After that they still wanted to keep hanging out, at this point I was pretty tired but figured we were having fun. It’s hard for me to say no, and I use a cane for chronic pain so I usually need to take a frequent number of breaks which we hadn’t done yet but they hadn’t picked up that I was tired yet. I was having fun and at this point they did apologize about keeping me out for so long, I said it’s ok because I like long friendship hangout days, which is not a lie, my body just doesn’t enjoy it as much. Next we went to get boba and they bought me a drink, at this point they had paid for none of my stuff, we split the food earlier and I lightheartedly threatened them to not spend money on me. When we were in the boba shop, they once again kept staring and moving their hand towards mine. I deterred this because it made me uncomfortable by talking with my hands which I usually do anyways. They were nice and listened to me infodump to them about tmnt (tmnts my special interest) but still continued their staring. I kept getting in my head that they were just being nice and I was ruining things thinking that they had ulterior motives. I forgot to mention that they have a boyfriend (27 M), but they had offhandingly mentioned that they were poly. We then went to a gaming shop to look at dnd and pathfinder stuff, I had to pee incredibly badly at this point but they ignored my subtle pleas to leave, which understandably was my fault as I said I could hold it at the boba shop. At this point I’m exhausted and in a lot of pain so I suggested we end our hang out after finding a bathroom. They still insisted on hanging out longer so I suggested they come to my apartment cause at this point I’d run out of stuff for us to do. This is where things got a bit uncomfy. My roommates were all home at this point but all left briefly to go pick up food. My roommate who I share a room with requested I don’t bring my friend into our room while she was in there, but gave me the go ahead to show them our room once she and my other roommates left to get their food. I like showing my friends my collections whenever they come over so I saw no inappropriate reason to do the same. I have some Dnd, Fallout and Tmnt stuff I wanted to show them. I did my normal showing off my stuff thing. At some point I walked them over to my desk to show them my figurines, my desk is in a corner by my closet and bed so you can only go up to it from 1 side, I talked for a bit and noticed I was cornered. I have past trauma and hate being cornered, I kept making attempts to hint that I wanted to get out of the corner but they stayed firmly in place, even leaning with their hand on my desk to further block me in which I thought was strange. Eventually I manage to slip by them by saying I wanted to show them my shelf on the opposite side of the room. The shelf is lower and next to my bed so I sit down to point things out. They then ask if they can sit down as well. I say yes and they proceed to sit down directly next to me, our thighs are touching firmly and they lean in on my bed with their arm behind me. I’m once again cornered and panicked now. I have a thing with my thighs where I HATE anyone touching them, it causes a violent reaction, my brain screams at me to bite, punch or claw anyone who touches them, I feel sick and absolutely enraged whenever it happens. I’ve been SAed in the past but even before that I had that reaction, my therapist says it might be a trauma response from childhood that I don’t remember. I didn’t want to hurt them and luckily I have the violent outbursts completely under control so I just stiffened up and internalized the rage while trying to steady my breathing. They obviously know nothing about my trauma because we haven’t been friends for very long. So I continue talking about my 2003 rerelease tmnt figures and let them continue to touch me while trying not to cry. Luckily my roommates return, and I immediately get up and leave my room to greet them. At this point I’m incredibly uncomfortable and wanted them out. But I felt bad if I suddenly kicked them out and I also was their ride. We decided to watch a movie in the living room, I sat in the couch corner and they decided to lay down on the rest of the couch while leaning up near me. One of my roommates picked up on the vibe and decided to join us for the movie, the other two sat at the table where you can still see the tv to eat their food since there was no room on the couch. I decided to crochet during the movie to help ease my nerves. Every once in a while during the movie I could see them staring at me. Once the movie was over I offered to take them home. When I dropped them off they asked if they could hug me, I gave them a nervous sure, when they hugged me they put their nose into the crook of my neck which gave me the ick. I’m not sure if it’s just me but I hate whenever I want a friend or just want to hang out with a friend and they turn it into something more without asking me! I’ve been notoriously “manic pixie dream girled” my entire life and I’m sick of it. If you want to go out with me just make your intentions known and ask me on a date! I wouldn’t have said yes but I think they knew that and felt the need to trick me instead. I’m also incredibly turned off by the fact that their boyfriend just had surgery for appendicitis and is also about to have top surgery this week too and instead of caring for him they’re trying to get into my pants. The whole situation feels icky and I’m so sad cause I thought I found a cool friend. They’re trying to get me to hang out with them again (even though their boyfriend is having top surgery) and I told them I have therapy and college dumpster diving on my days off this week and they’re trying to get me to work around those. I just want some advice, am I in the wrong for feeling weird around them now or should I see how this plays out. I usually stick to dating women and other nonbinary people so they’re technically in the range of people I can potentially be attracted to but idk. I haven’t been interested in dating a lot lately cause I’ve been working through my trauma in therapy for the past year. My roommates also thought the whole situation was strange and uncomfortable. My roommate also asked if she had ever done anything like that to make me uncomfortable (she’s also amab like my friend), I reassured her she had never done that and that I feel very safe with her.

in april 2033, i was r*ped. i woke up the next morning and ran to my shower and broke down into tears. and i called my best friend that i’ve been like sisters with for the past 10 years. she offered to take me to the hospital and all that. she was there for me despite all of what she had going on to.
anyway, one night best friend and another long time friend invited me out and i decided it could be nice to have some girl time. so i go. we go back to best friends apartment. she ends up getting a phone call from her abusive ex girlfriend (another long time friend, actually) and it kills the vibe. she ignores the call. she starts missing her mom (she passed away) in this time of need so we (me and our other friend that invited me out) do our best to comfort her.
i end up getting a call from her ex girlfriend and i decide to take the call outside while my friend is still trying to comfort best friend. (best friend told me to take the call). anyway, the abusive ex girlfriend and i are talking and eventually she throws it in my face that i was r*ped (just a night or so before this). i was in shock. she threw it back in my face in perfect detail what happened to me. i was so hurt. i hang up the phone and go back inside. i’m really angry but i see my best friend still in shambles. i decide to let it go for now.
when the night ended, i went home. and the next morning she texted me and i replied, making sure she’s okay. then i finally asked her why would she tell someone… especially someone that i am not a fan of about my r*pe. her justification was that she was going to have abusive ex girlfriends brothers “handle” the situation. still, im not having it. then she goes and starts spinning things back on me, saying that im judgmental about her ex and it makes me upset that she’s deflecting.
i end up blocking her and abusive ex girlfriend and moving on with life the best i can. and by moving on, i mean pretending that i was never SA’d. pretending i didn’t have my space and privacy invaded. pretending i was not raped by someone i trusted and has my trust broken by another person that i trusted.
1 year later; may 2024, i downloaded snapchat to do my annual proof of life post and i see a message from her. the message says something to the effect of “hi, you dont have to respond. just wanted to say i’ve been thinking about you. love you and happy early birthday.”
i don’t know how to feel. her message actually made me more upset. i broke down about this to another friend of mine.
has anyone ever been through something similar? how did things turn out?

I want to make my own deck of tarot cards and my friend suggested I make gaylor themed ones lmao. I don’t plan on selling these or anything just a fun little project I’m embarking on this summer.
so I came up with a few ideas for what each card’s art will be inspired by but I need help coming up with the rest! here’s a list for the major arcana and then any ideas for the minor arcana types (cups, pentacles, wands, swords) are welcome as well!!
also, even if I already have something for a card but you have another idea, feel free to still leave it in the comments!!
the fool - “foolish one stop checkin' your mailbox for confessions of love” the magician the high priestess the empress the emperor the hierophant the lovers - “I, I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us” the chariot - “I slur your name ‘til someone puts me in a car” strength the hermit wheel of fortune justice the hanged man death - “I tried” pin temperance devil - “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” the tower - “cause, baby, I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me” the star the moon the sun - “I once believed love would be black and white but it's golden” judgement - “shade never made anybody less gay” the world - “the rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color”

Hello hello! I’m Lichen, a genderfluid thing who’s been writing for about half a dozen years as of this month. I’m a semi-lit-literate (Though I enjoy just a few paragraphs and don’t care for novels)RPer and write solely third person past tense. I’m based in the EST timezone and I’m active throughout the day. I'm always happy to talk OOC And chat about general things. I do ask that my rp partners have a good understanding of the time periods, and that they use discord, a requirement if you will.
This is a slightly half baked idea- and would need to be worked on, especially as I’m not the most experienced with world building..
So! It’s the 17th century- (whether it’ll be the later, mid, or early can be decided on later! Of course we could go even to the 16th or 18th if so desired!) This would take place in England or some part of the European continent. A cholera-like infection of some sort is spreading throughout the world. Wells, creeks, rivers (well the Thames was dirty anyways), bear water that upon drinking resulted in a terrible disease only minutes after consumption. Cholera and Dysentery mixed together. It was terribly fatal, causing death within a few days.. well, a sort of brain death at least. The ‘corpses’ lived, and were violent beyond all reasoning. Thousands upon thousands died within only a few weeks. Only a half of the European continent seemed to remain as reasoning humans, and it was even worse in the British Isles. Boiling water appeared to work, and mountain streams were safe if high enough, but there was no definitive height one had to be at, so water was always boiled. Game animals seemed to be thriving, perhaps just a sense of what water is safe? Though most domestic beasts died for that reason, unable to drink anything but the terrible water. Most Survivors were able to thrive, to an extent, there was the issue of being terribly overwhelmed by the hordes of mind-destroyed.. things. Yet there was a saving grace, the few sailors who returned from the New World, well after the infection had said that there were no such issues! Though.. now the survivors have to get a ship, man it, and secure supplies. A lot of the sailors upon seeing the state of things had immediately departed, and most naval powers had done the same thing, leaving little in the way of effective sailing vessels, maybe a fluyt or two, an outdated ship with oars maybe?
PW: Yew!