This post is to provide a place for everyone to ask simple questions and chat about anything reasonably on topic. If someone posts something worthy of their own thread, let them know! Like wise, if a thread is personal or answered in the FAQ elsewhere on the subreddit, point them here!

PLEASE READ!	☚☚☚
Got a question?	This is the place! Ask anything you like!
Just wanna get something off your chest?	Have at it!
Looking for resources?	/streetfightewiki/subreddit
Don't like Reddit anymore?	kbin magazine
Want to help?	1. Help other players with their questions
	2. Apply for mod status on any of our projects
	3. Request wiki edit powers! /streetfightewiki

If you didn't get a response in the last thread before the new one was made, feel free to post again!

FAQ:

/STREETFIGHTER FAQ	effort time! create threads with similar subjects please!
Who should I start with?
Where can I find a basic overview of each character?	SF6 Universe Android and iOS, Supercombo.gg
What does _____ mean? Is there a glossary?	The latest glossary thread, iPlayWinner General Glossary, Infil's glossary
Where can I find character combos / bread-n-butters?	https://combotier.com/
How can I stop being bad?	For the new players struggling...
What are footsies?	Footsie handbook, Juicebox's explanation of footsies, RPS footsies in SF6
How can I improve my execution?
What are 'advanced techniques'?	(some of these are old) Option selects, hit confirms, negative edge and input shortcuts, input buffering, tiger knee motion and kara cancel, plinking, pianoing, sliding, double tapping, links and frame data, safe jumps
What controller should I get?	Check out /fightsticks, they're more than just fightsticks
Where is everyone posting Avatar codes to copy?	Check out /SF6Avatars
Where can I find replays of good players?
Where can I find good shows? When are they on?
Where are other fighting game communities?	fgc.network and mstdn.games twitter alternatives
	supercombo.gg wiki-like
	discord list
	reddit list
	Newbie fight club
	Faulty Hands fight club For people with limited motor skills
How can I get critique on my replays?	You can post here, or make your own thread. Up to you!
What is the current version of the game?	The current version is Street Fighter V: Champion Edition Street Fighter 6

New rules starting June 1:

Rule 9, No Duplicates
Multiple posts of links, video or discussions often would be submitted when new game news or a popular event occurs. To avoid duplicates, only one thread is kept and the rest are removed. An exception can be made if a week has passed and the content is still relevant.

Rule 10, Negative posts on other players or their gameplay must remove the username
Removing players name in highlight video is highly recommended. If names are not removed and the nature of the content can be perceived as demeaning, the content will be removed.
* If your post is a celebration of your own achievements then this is not required.
In order to abide by this rule, go to Multi-menu: Options -> Personal Info Display: change relevant settings to “Display Own Only”

Welcome to the Untranslated Visual Novels Thread where people can:

• Ask for help figuring out how to read/translate certain lines in raw visual novels they're reading
• Figuring out good visual novels to read in Japanese, depending on their skill level and/or interests
• Tech help related to hooking visual novels
• General discussion related to raw or untranslated Japanese visual novels
• General discussion related to learning Japanese for visual novels (or just the language in general)

Here are some potential helpful resources:

• Guide to learning Japanese for Visual Novels
• Our Subreddit wiki page on how to text hook visual novels
• Reading Visual Novels in Japanese Recommendation Site
• A Guide to Choosing A First Untranslated VN by NecessaryPool
• Older Potential Starter Visual Novels to read in Japanese
• JP Visual Novel Difficulty List by Word Length and Unique Kanji/Vocab
• A list of visual novels with at least dual language support

We have added a way to add furigana with old reddit. When you use this format:
[無限の剣製]( #fg "あんりみてっどぶれいどわーくす")
It will look like this: 無限の剣製
On old reddit, the furigana will appear above the kanji. On new reddit, you can hover over kanji to see the furigana.
If you you want a flair that shows your relative Japanese skill please see this information and set your flair with WAYRBot. We highly recommend that people who can read in Japanese or are making serious efforts to learn Japanese utilize this flair, and feel free to ask in the thread if you have issues setting it.
If anyone has any feedback for future topics, let me know.

So my company The Cloudors is an Oracle partner and I have tried making ads on meta but it didn't work well we got leads but not Qualified, now in LinkedIn I tried lead form with ad format post but got nothing after 2 weeks
My Question is should I try the msg sponsored ads format and how to try it like best practices for this I'm not that experience d in LinkedIn ads
So would you please support or reply with another advice of how to get b2b leads
Thank you

You've decided to improve your health by going to the gym. That is, you've chosen to focus on your health. Focus is about intention. It's what you're choosing to attend to. It's where decisions are made. You choose something (or some things) to focus on, and exclude others.
Focus can be very high level, like deciding to prioritize your health, but it can also be choosing which body part to focus on on a particular day at the gym.
So this is focus: choosing where to put your attention.
When you get to the gym for the first time, you notice a LOT going on. There's music playing, people everywhere doing all sorts of exercises you've never seen before, and everyone's really fit and attractive. In other words, there's a lot for the senses to take in and it feels overwhelming.
This is where attention comes into play. Attention is the spotlight of the mind. It's what enables your brain to hone in on some stimuli while excluding others. Without attention, we'd be paralyzed due to overstimulation.
So attention is more about the general capability to focus on something. It can be short-term, like watching someone do a specific exercise for a few seconds so you can try it yourself later, or it can be more sustained like when you paid attention to the person giving you the tour of the gym when you arrived.
In truth, you're always paying attention to something at any given moment. Sometimes it's for a second, other times it's for a lot longer. But attention is something we all naturally have.
Attention can be divided into several types, including sustained attention, selective attention, and divided attention. These types reflect how we focus on continuous activities, pick out specific details in a complex environment, or manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
Now you're finally getting set up at the squat rack. You've loaded weights onto the bar and you're about to start your first set. But as you begin the movement, your mind wanders to all the errands you have to do after the gym. In this moment, you've got focus, and you even have attention. But you're lacking something else: concentration.
Concentration is a subset of attention. It's the ability to maintain focused attention on a task or activity over a period of time, resisting distractions and maintaining mental effort.
Fortunately, you notice your mind wandering and you're able to pull it back to the task at hand, only to find yourself at the bottom of a squat, unsure what rep you're on. Your attention was divided, not concentrated.
So you bring your attention back to the exercise, now giving it your full concentration. You are now completely present. Your mind isn't thinking about anything else other than what you're doing right now. You no longer hear the music in the background or see people walking around. There's zero distraction. Instead, you feel into your legs shaking and your heart pumping. You sense your facial muscles straining and can hear the grunting sound as you push through your final rep.
If you think back to the different types of attention, concentration falls under the sustained attention type. Concentration is the most concentrated form of attention. It is the foundational skill to learning, to creativity, to communication.
Sure, you can exercise without concentrating, but to get the most value from your time spent doing so, concentration is critical. It means being fully present and fully engaged in where you are and what you've chosen to focus on. And if you've chosen to be there, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not giving it your full, undivided attention.

Go back to the 3-part David Tennant Unit spin-off Davis established the groundwork for before Ncuti Gatwa took over - the episode Wild Blue Yonder starts with a little skit featuring Isaac Newton in which the Tardis gets stuck in an apple tree while Newton is pondering important thoughts beneath and a bushel of apples falls on his bonce, causing him to have a little chat with the Doctor 10/14 and Donna - during which Newton mishears Donna's rather forced pun about the gravity of the situation, which Newton mishears as mavity....
And thus, from then on, gravity is forever mavity - because that's how Newton termed it because he liked the sound of the word. The Doctor and Donna go far forward in time, and they both use the word without blinking.
It's supposed to be a throwaway gag but we run into the same story mechanic in both Season 14s opening episodes:

• After travelling back to the time of the dinosaurs at the start of Space Babies and setting up the punchline about the butterfly effect inside the Tardis, Ruby steps outside only to enact said temporal problem by stepping on a butterfly and the next thing we find is Ruby is replaced by some form of scaly creature called Rubathon Blue of the 57th Hemisphere Hatchlings who never makes mistakes and is quite prepared to kill you just to prove it...
• The Doctor rectifies the problem by breathing a bit of his life into the crushed insect, which gets better and flutters away - the preservation of its life ensuring Ruby Sunday comes to exist millions of years later.
• In The Devils Chord - overwhelmed with fear and forced to flee back to the Tardis during their encounter with Maestro back in 1963 Ruby believes they're safe, only for the Doctor to return her to the point in time they originally left to find reality a consequence of the Doctor and Ruby failing to defeat Maestro back in 1963 - the world is destroyed, forever in nuclear winter-the same snow falling as they've both encountered in the previous episode (Space Babies) - they have no choice but to return and face Maestro in 1963....

It's the same temporal mechanic being demonstrated - this time, in the later episode, to greater narrative effect: do something or fail to do something in the past, it doesn't create a separate timeline the present updates to accommodate whatever change.
Loki Season 2 used a similar narrative mechanic throughout - it's establishing the groundwork about what's coming and what needs to happen to fix the problem: knowing Davis's penchant for tear-jerking finales it's probably going to centre around Ruby and the Doctor having to leave her to a fate his intervention in which would otherwise cause the death of everyone else - forcing him to do the adult thing rather than pretend he has the luxury of being a giggly kid.
It's a note central to Davis's core concept of his Doctors - they may look happy superficially, but - scratch the surface, and they're carrying the weight of the universe on their shoulders, ground down by the burden of being the last of whatever the fuck he's supposed to be these days...
I'm paraphrasing at the minute, I'll fill in the blanks as the show rolls along.
How are you all finding it, assuming I'm not just chundering away to myself here...?
D

· I am looking to put together an RPG group that would play on Satuday afternoons, from 4 - 8. We play at my place in Colgate, which is right between Menomonee Falls and Germantown. It should be a good 30 minute drive from downtown Milwaukee.
· I have 4 players, looking for the fifth.
· We play every other week. That is because I am always painting miniatures that we will be facing in the coming session, and on top of that I put in a lot of effort into each session. My notes are usually about 5k words, 15 pages in M Word, filled with alternate paths, rumors, exposition and descriptive prose. I put a heavy emphasis on the story I am telling while giving you players the multiple paths to find that story. That takes some effort.
· We will be playing the D&Dlike 13th Age, which was made by the lead designers of 3rd and 4th Edition. Imagine D&D but with mechanics that emphasizes ROLEplaying just as much as ROLLplaying. A quick example is that all skills are replaced by Backgrounds that the players cook up in their heads. Players sell to the DM, "Hey, my backgrounds should give me a bonus to this skill check" and if the DM agrees, the players gets that bonus to the roll.We will be playing in a setting of my own creation, which is 1 part A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, 1 part the Hyborean Age from CONAN THE BARBARIAN, and another part everything I love from the GRECO-ROMAN ERA.
· We will start with doing a bunch of small 4 session long campaigns before we delve into an epic length campaign. This is to make sure that everyone plays well with each other, that you all like my DM style, and that we know that this group will stick.
Those are all the details I can come up with. As you can tell, this is a very story heavy, roleplay encouraged form of D&D. Granted, this is still D&D, and at its core, the game is about combat. I will always make sure there is at least one instance of combat every session, and when you go into dungeons, you can easily expect at least 3 instances of combat, with plenty of traps, strange encounters, mysteries and relics to uncover in between them. If you are interested, send me a DM or reply and I will get in touch with you.
If you are interested, I do not advise looking through my Reddit profile. I shared a mini I am very proud of that is the Big Bad of the first arc of the epic length campaign. That is heavy on the spoilers.
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you soon!

For context, I (42) F, have 4 children; (21) M, (19) M, (16) M and (7) F. My ex-partner (42) M and I ended our relationship after 18 years together. These years were extremely difficult, filled with his wide range of substance abuse, gambling addiction and domestic abuse/violence of EVERY kind. The man has been arrested and charged with assault on a family member and again arrested and charged with domestic violence while I was pregnant with my daughter. My sons and I even moved out once before I was pregnant with my daughter, and he then followed after he had found himself homeless. My 3 sons have severe traumas from the years of instability in our home.
When my daughter was approximately 18 months old, he spent 6 months in prison for violating his bond conditions. I had called the police after coming home from work, as my middle child had called, alerting me that his father was verbally and emotionally abusing my eldest.
After coming out of prison, it took him 1 week to come and see my children, and then came to visit them once a month, on average (we lived 5 mins away from his location).
Wanting for my children and I to start a new chapter in our lives, I had made the decision to move several hours away. This would allow us to depart from the cycle of despair and find a way to repair ourselves. This decision was made after witnessing his lack of interest in making amends ve to my children or make a connection with my daughter. I had received no push back from the decision.
Ex-partner continued to have access to my children anytime he wished. He could visit them, spend time with them or speak to them over the phone, and he did so on occasions.
As time passed, communication decreased. My daughter would ask to speak with him on the phone. He was not always accessible. I was then asked by him to if he was available, prior to simply calling. The reply would at times, take days. When successful at making a phone call, they will generally speak for approximately 15 minutes and then he will want to end the call. He would emotionally blackmail her by suggesting that if she cries everytime he wants to end the call then he will stop calling (although he is never the one initiating contact).
The last time she had asked to speak with him was February, he had never responded. She has not asked if she could call him again.
Approximately 2 weeks later, he contact my children, letting them know he was overseas. At no point in time had he bothered to oet them know he would not be reachable for some time. I was so angry (still am), as a parent, I could never consider leaving the country without informing my children, it just would not happen. The continuous disrespect my children are shown by the person who has the audacity to call themselves their parent astounds me. Not to mention that this person does not pay any form of child support, provide regularly to their children has the funds to travel overseas.
After returning from overseas, he had asked what I was doing for Easter so he could come and spend the day with my daughter and give easter presents as well as the gifts he had brought for my youngest. Not wanting my children to miss out, he was invited for Easter. Knowing that I was going to start considering putting restrictions on coming to my home as his lack of communication with my daughter was starting to really affect her.
Easter came and went without drama, my children were invited to celebrate their grandfather birthday at a lovely restaurant with the rest of their family. After deliberation and confirmation that their father would not be in attendance, my 2 eldest sons chose to attend the festivities. The day before the party, their father informed them that the party was colour themed, and to wear certain colours. My oldest had asked if this meant that he was now going, he confirmed that he would not be going, he was not allowed inside the premises.
My 2nd left shortly after this as he had made plans with friends to go out that night before attending the party the next evening.
The next day, my eldest left early, as it would give him time to shop for appropriate clothing and match the theme.
At around 2pm, he received a message from his father asking (not really asking) if it would be ok with him if he came to the party, as he and my son are his grandfather's only real family coming tonight and wants to celebrate his father's birthday (his father's actual birthday was days before. He lives with him and was not there). He had told my son that he did not have to tell me or my 2nd oldest that he was coming. My son told him that he didn't care and to leave him alone if he was going to be drinking.
My 2nd oldest was already at his grandparents house as my eldest finally arrived.
While at the restaurant, their father arrived (to the shock of my 2nd oldest, who had no idea his father was going to be present), not alone (another big shock, this time to both of my sons who has no idea, and no warned that their father had someone in their lives). My sons, kept collected, went along with the evening, although obviously incredibly uncomfortable, and said nothing, not bringing attention to themselves, to ensure they would not ruin their grandfather's birthday. Although their father was drinking (moderately, that is a miracle) did not harrass during the evening. He did ask for a picture with my sons, their grandparents, himself and gf. Not wanting to cause a scene (they were not confortable doing this), got the picture done.
The rest of the night was quiet, my sons went home with their grandparents. Their grand-mother gossiped to my sons all about their father and gf (information they really didn't want to know about). Letting my sons know she was the reason why he was overseas, to meet her family and her children, who she is trying to bring to the country.
When my youngest son came home from work that evening, I did let him know what happened (I had yet to be informed as to the reason behind the overseas visit) that his father was in fact in attendance at the party, not alone. He told me that he knew that his dad was there as all the pictures from the party was already circulating social media, but had not seen a picture of someone he did not know until he scrolled and daw the picture of my oldest sons, grandparents, father and her. This is something he wished he had not seen, and although we had a discussion about this topic weeks ago (having had my suspicions for quite some time), he was not ready to have this thrown in his face.
We discussed his feelings and what I was thinking of doing after I spoke with my 2 sons the next day. He felt more settled.
After my sons came home, recounted their days snd night, I has told them that their father would no longer be welcome in this home, and considering going absolutely no contact with anyone under 18.
The continuous disrespect shown to my sons, the boundaries created and simply ignored by their father, only considering his own feelings and expectations, the feeling of rejection my daughter has now started feeling at such a young age is not healthy. I worry for my daughter, I know the feeling of being rejected by a parent is worse than simply not knowing them. It hurts less, causes less damage.
So am I the asshole for considering banning the sperm donor from having contact with my children?
P.S: My sons dont like their father, at all. They are aware that he is a terrible human being. My eldest just ignores him, to keep the peace. My youngest son is of the believe that he might aswell get something out of the relationship (I dont begrudge him)
My 2nd oldest, there are no word to truly describe just how much he despises that man, he stays in his room when he visits, for the sake of my daughter (I cry as I write this, for the pain my son feels, as that man broke my once happy son).
I have told my sons that if they wish to have contact with their father, then I will support them. I will encourage them to build boundaries, and communicate them clearly and what the repercussions would be. That their relationship should be on their terms, and that nobody elses feelings or expectations should be put above theirs including my own or other family members who always feel entitled.
My youngest and oldest sons are the only 2 I had spoken about the possibility of their father having someone in their lives, as their father was brought up in discussion after his Easter visit on those 2 occasions. I had not told my 2nd oldest because his father is not a topic of conversation ever brought up with him. So he was completely blind sided by first his presence and then the fact that he had company.

(Thanks to SpacePaladin for creating NOP)
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Memory Transcription Subject: Elder Researcher Slira of the Vyr Exploration Initiative
Date [standardised Vyr time]: Day 102/321, Year 110
I remembered when they drilled to the top of Rime.I had been studying to be a computer engineer at the time, only a single course away from graduating. My home city of Frozen Perch had been chosen for the project, something that no local really paid any mind to. Almost no one believed there was anything to find within Rime’s depths, for she didn’t have any of the gifts her Sisters did. There was no ore or soil like Stone had, no warmth or light like Glow’s magma. Even Abyss held corrupted treasures of Tide’s life which members of her Second and Third Church used with enthusiasm to survive and thrive in places were the very water would crush you to nothing.
We all knew they’d give up after drilling up for a few kilometres and Vyrkind would be content that nothing lay above our heads up Rime’s endless ice, that reality was only so big and that we had explored almost everything that exists besides for some patches within the dark deeps.
I admit, I didn’t have much passion for my career of choice. I’d likely end up as a system admin somewhere, managing networks and improving what we already had, never creating anything new because we already built everything we needed.Born too late to explore the world…
When the engineers working on the drill reported that the ice was thinning, that they were getting faint signals from beyond… curiosity and passion ignited in my soul, in the soul of nearly every vyr that lived and breathed.The drilling project went from a boring little science project only a choice few geologists and industrialists held any hope for to a global event which caught the eye of all vyrkind.
I remember lying in my nest, surrounded by pillows and swaddled in blankets while my eyes were glued to a livestream of drill’s progress. My tail was playing with a tassel of a stuffed toy, which if I remembered rightly was modelled after my first pet, a grumpy but sweet crab named Admiral Cookpot.I remember the smell of burnt squid, because my father had been cooking a meal at the time and got distracted by world events, same as me. The only sound in my room was the tideheater’s propeller whirring softly.
I was too scared to breathe, worried that if I was too loud I’d scare away the most interesting thing that had ever happened in my entire life.And when the drill finally pierced the top layer of Rime I and every Vyr caught our first sight of a world beyond our little planet. The sky a black void so unlike that of Abyss, my eyes filled with the light of thousands, millions of…
Stars.
A luminous field as beautiful as any glittering reef or magma vent, uncountable jewels and embers. I stared at them for over an hour, until the blazing personification of Glow herself arose from beneath the horizon, which I’d later learn… no, discover was our own personal star.
I knew what I’d dedicate my life to then and there. My life’s mission would be to uncover the secrets of this strange new realm beyond Rime, which scientists named and priests baptised as Space.
-][-
It has been many rotations around our star (now named Beacon) since I was a young college student. I got a degree in physics and with my computer simulations I managed to not only chart the movement of celestial bodies, but predict their movements as surely as the currents. I hadn’t intended to become one of the founding mothers of the field of Astrophysics but I was more than happy to lead the charge, to explore this new frontier as thoroughly as possible.
Now I was being invited to a meeting of some of the most important people in my country, perhaps of vyrkind. Sure, I had spoken to some of them before, but only over text or video chat. Only ever about theories and possibilities.
Now it would be in a physical location, all in one big room, still about theories but now much more tangible, life altering things. And I wasn’t going to be an advisor or a consultant. Just as some people were seen as leaders of armies, planners of cities or managing agricultural regions, I was being invited as our foremost expert on… Space.
It was funny and terrifying how one can wake up one morning and suddenly realise you are a world leader, responsible for guiding the fates of every creature you or anyone else had ever met.
As scared and nervous as I was, this was no time for imposter syndrome. I was one of the oldest, most experienced astrophysicists on the planet. Of course I was, I helped invent it dammit! I was still as passionate about Space as the day I started, because it was the first time we realised what a day was. I had worked with members of fields related to mine for so long I was practically an expert at those too, including engineering.There is no one more qualified to do this than I, Elder Researcher Slira! Vyrkind needed me!
…
Great, now I also feel nervous about being too arrogant. Still, I managed to clear some of my self-doubt and packed my bags. I had an elevator to catch.
-][-
Castle Yarshu was absolutely filled with people, busier than I’ve ever seen it before. Normally it’s just a museum, filled with old relics from the time of the last Forge Lords. Technically it’s owned by the Ka’lai Militia though and their leader has made sure to keep it well renovated. It is that very leader, General Taraksus, that has invited us all to the Castle’s massive Roundhall, filled with trophies and spoils of conquests that exist only in memory.The hall’s centre stage was covered in posts, perches and seats for the over one hundred representatives the General had invited, with boxy camera drones jetting here and there to capture the discussion for all to see.Around the hall Vyr crowded and swarmed to get a look at us, even clinging to the pillars and ceiling to see the “action”. The castle and our meeting was open to the public after all, and anyone could enter as long as occupancy allowed and they brought nothing dangerous with them besides their claws and fangs.
From my perch I spy Taraksus sitting atop the old Forge Lord’s throne, on its headrest to be precise, discussing something with a fellow general curled up on the armrest and an aide lying at the foot. The seat itself was filled with a sponge-stuffed dummy dressed to fit any monarch, albeit with a sign around its neck with a slur word written on it in a language few speak anymore.
Taraksus themself wasn’t too impressive a sight, well below the size average for females and decently above it for males. Their only ornamentation was a black stripe painted over his head to create a striking contrast as it went over their eyes, and a chain which held a few dozen metal strips, each with the name of a fallen comrade written on it. Or so I hear.
Taraksus ends his conversation and takes up a spear from a guard, the rear of which he uses to stamp the ground.
“Pipe down you lot! I’m calling this meeting to order!” Their voice pierced through the cacophony with a clarity that surprised me.
“As ridiculous as it feels to say, we’ve been contacted by aliens. You all saw the translation broadcasted live from our friends over at the VEI. Suffice to say the contents of their message to us is… concerning. I’ve already forwarded recommendations to our R&D sectors to start working on designs for military spacecraft. Certainly not something I or most anyone else here thought or hoped would ever be needed. I’m hoping that the consensus we reach here will keep that true. Before any of that however I call upon one of the most prominent members of the aforementioned VEI, Elder Slira, to clue us in on the nature of what we face and go over her team’s conclusions.”
I quickly check the notes on my portable computer which my assistant Neeran had so kindly organised for me before erecting myself on my perch.
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, coupled with the near oppressive silence. I took a steady breath, trying to gather my courage. “You can do it Slira!” echoed a voice from the back of the hall. The chuckles that followed was evidence enough that I hadn’t imagined it, and I felt some of my fears dissipate.
“Greetings, vyr from across the world. I’ll jump right to the meat of the issue and start with an analysis of the ‘Sivkit’ that spoke to us. One of the most startling discoveries we uncovered in our investigation was the incredibly high possibility of them breathing… gas.”
I spotted the ears of more than a few vyr shoot up in shock, including those of the stout administrator of the Vrental Commune’s heartlands, Ireni.
“Gasbreathers? Surely such a thing is not possible?”
“The footage clearly indicates a lack of liquid, and the sivkit’s chest is clearly contracting and expanding in a manner that indicates breathing. We could be wrong, but likely we are looking at an organism that defies our current understanding of how complex life can develop.”
I typed away at my computer, bringing up my second point.
“Next we have their next statement, something about us being Arxur…”
A delegate I do not recognise raises a claw.
“Do we know who these Arxur are? The Sivkit seemed ready to bolt at the idea of them.”
“We currently have no information on the Arxur. All we can extrapolate is that they are another sapient alien species, that we resemble them somewhat except for our eyes and that they represent a clear threat to the Sivkit. Also, for whatever reason, the sivkit mistook us for a prey species because our eyes are on the side of our heads…”
…
“That’s… no, I don't have a way to soften that, that’s stupid as shit.”
“It’s… not scientifically correct, no. But it made them mistake us for fellow kindred among the stars, their captain even going so far to gift us translator technology.”
“Was it a mistake?” Taraksus asks, seemingly in thought. “I mean clearly they mistook us for something we are not, but is it impossible for us to be kindred?”
I understood his question, and sadly had no real answer.
“I don’t know General. The kind of friendship you describe is a two-way street, and if they are not willing then there is nothing we can do. But that does not mean we can’t do anything about it. Diplomat Zhara, your turn.”
A vyr across the stage from me straightens herself. Her body is wrapped in colourful fabrics and her various bits of jewellery show a clear love of ornamentation and precious stones.
“Thank you Elder. The Sivkit Captain promised to return at a time less than [3 weeks] away. Irrelevant of any bigger picture, he seems to care mostly about establishing relations with us and getting access to the deposits on our planetary neighbour Turqo. Whether for personal wealth or aiding his kin, who’s to say. He seems to assume we are part of a larger civilisation, likely unable to sense us underneath all the ice and mistaking our surface city for some kind of local outpost. Whatever the case may be, our diplomatic strategy is simple: lie through our fangs and trade metal.”
An uneasy murmur fills the hall.
“I know, lying may come back to bite us. But we need to be cautious, we know nothing about these aliens and if pretending to be a larger civilisation of peaceful herbivores will put them at ease then so be it. In addition my friends in the industrial sector tell me we don’t have any need for such a vast amount of heavy metals, so mining the deposit and trading the resources to the Sivkit for what they have in abundance seems good business. It will also help further the ‘small mining outpost’ facade and aid us in getting more information about who these ‘meat-eating humans’ are.”
“Excellent! We’re right on time!”
A gasp passes through the crowd. My eyes dart around and my ears swivel every which way, trying to identify the source of the shout. The crowd of onlookers to my left were making way, clearly shocked at… some new arrivals? What under Rime…?
Two vyr had entered the hall.
The first was a small male, their body wiry and covered in scars. Even the tip of their flat tale had a V-shaped chunk cut out of it. A sash of black cloth covered in white pictograms was wrapped around his chest, and attached to the sash was a broad, bladed weapon almost comically large for him. The second was a rather average female, still almost twice the size of the male. Black robes and a hood hid her form, though I noticed a pair of silver reading glasses sitting on her snout and a… by Glow, was that a fucking tome? An actual book, with thick kelp-fibre pages and bound in Nesis bark.
My brain almost refused to recognise the two, but finally sense overruled logic. The male was Krattron, and the female was Kahltrak. The highest authorities of the Second and Third Churches of the Abyss respectively.
Krattron swam up to the stage, eyes brimming with what I could only describe as maniacal glee.
“Greetings, children of Vyrkind! When do we set out to hunt the demons of Void?”
Kahltrak follows shortly behind. I would have been able to hear her sigh from the surface.
“Hello delegates. We’ve come to pledge our aid, and to discuss how we shall be dealing with our enemies.”
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Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie

Hiiiii. My family and I are currently on vacation in another country for my birthday, my parents, brothers and my step mothers older sister who happened to be in town. We are all in two separate rooms, my parents with my siblings, while I share a room with my step-aunt, let’s call her Mary. This is the second time in my life that I have met Mary, I don’t know her well but throughout the trip she has been relatively irritating due to her often complaining and arrogance, but because of her age and the fact she’s my step mothers sister (who I adore) I have tried to give her a good impresssion of my self. But even with that, Mary had always had something to say to belittle me but I took it as my own faults. Last night my step mom and I decided to spend the night together and hang out around the area, I returned back to my hotel around 10 pm and saw Mary asleep, I figured I’d spend some time in the bathroom to not wake her up from my phone. Important notice, a few days ago Mary announced that she doesn’t want me on my phone past 10 pm, because she goes to bed early, to which I complied every night until the day of the story. This night was the last day before my birthday, I was feeling relatively sad due to the coming of age, but when I left the bathroom to go to my bed I got an idea to create a list of the fun things I’ve done over the year, to think about the positives. I put on my headphones and lowered the brightness to zero to avoid waking Mary up before typing away. At 10:36 pm (idk why I remember this exact time) Mary got up to check her phone, the second she saw the time she began aggressively yelling at me for my “egotism”for staying past the time we agreed on, I told her that I was sorry but I really needed to finish something to which she began questioning me and further yelling at me. I understand that my actions next could’ve been different, however I do not tolerate aggression in any form. Mary sat up and began to threaten that she won’t let me sleep until I put down my phone, I ignored this since by this point I was extremely irritated not with the issue itself but how she was treating me. I no longer wanted to listen to her insults of how horrible I was for not listening to her, so I got up to avoid her in the bathroom, before which I said “you’re bothering me”. Moments later she bursted inside the bathroom and physically ripped the phone out my hands as I tried to hold on, after which she pushed me away before running off with my phone and screaming how she’ll break it. Back in the bedroom she began having some sort of episode of maniac yelling and insulting me while hiding my phone beneath herself, during which I just stood confused. I asked for my phone back and began explaining myself and apologizing because I was extremely lost for what to do, to this she began accusing me of being a “good actress” because I was apologizing…..? I told her I’d go to bed and that I truly didn’t mean to interrupt her sleep. She didn’t want to hear a word I said, going on about how could I be so disrespectful and undisciplined and who do I think I am. Her main concern of the night were my nails, I got my nails done for my birthday which were short acrylics. Mary took my wrist and hit my fingers against my phone to imitate the sound, however no offense, I don’t know a single person who types with their nails touching the screen that is including me (even as I type this), but sometimes my thumbs do touch on the screen (which I apologized for but she told me to fuck off). Although I was already in bed to calm down the situation, her next best idea was to threaten to call my biological dad, to which I told her to do it. I will admit I didn’t think she’d actually do it, but moments later she dressed up and bolted out of the room around almost 11 pm. My parents room was in a separate building, yet 10 minutes later my poor step mother came over to try to understand the situation, I knew that she didn’t know half of the story, however she was a lot more reasonable. When she left, Mary kept on huffing and puffing but eventually we both went to bed. Or atleast tried to, I was extremely nausea and shaken up, sadly didn’t pass out until around 2 am. Later on in the morning I tried to cheer myself up by talking with my family while they congratulated me on my birthday. But all was over when Mary came into the room, she said something along the line of “happy birthday, truly. But you know, you’re a big girl now and you have to make decisions that won’t make your parents second hand embarrassed for you”. In that moment I felt my gut drop and my nausea returned, I felt so disrespected I didn’t know what to say. And although I woke up at 8 am, I didn’t leave the room until almost 12 due to not wanting to see her and having to explain to my family what happened. There is a good ending to this story but I’ll type it a little later lol. Anyways, I’m okay now :3

Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie

Course Title: Exploring the Panorama of Poetry
Course Description: This course delves into the rich tapestry of poetic forms, guiding students through the exploration and creation of fifty distinct styles of poetry. From classic sonnets to innovative forms like golden shovel and palindrome poetry, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of poetic expression, learning the nuances of each style and honing their creative skills.
Week 1-2: Introduction to Poetry and Sonnets - Overview of poetry styles - In-depth study of sonnets - Writing Exercise: Crafting a sonnet on personal experiences
Week 3-4: Embracing Haiku and Villanelle - Understanding the elegance of haiku - Exploring the repetitive beauty of villanelles - Writing Exercise: Composing haikus inspired by nature
Week 5-6: Limericks and the Art of Humor - Decoding the humor in limericks - Crafting limericks with wit and wordplay - Writing Exercise: Creating humorous limericks on everyday topics
Week 7-8: Free Verse and Acrostic Poetry - Liberating creativity through free verse - Playing with words in acrostic poems - Writing Exercise: Expressing emotions through free verse
Week 9-10: Ghazal and Tanka Mastery - Unveiling the beauty of ghazals - Crafting tankas with precision - Writing Exercise: Creating a ghazal on themes of love and longing
Week 11-12: Cinquains and Pantoum Prowess - Perfecting the art of cinquains - Embracing the rhythmic challenges of pantoums - Writing Exercise: Developing a pantoum on personal growth
Week 13-14: Sestina and Rondeau Exploration - Mastering the intricacies of sestinas - Crafting rondeaus with musicality - Writing Exercise: Composing a sestina on the theme of time
Week 15-16: Triolets and Kyrielles - Understanding the charm of triolets - Embracing the structure of kyrielles - Writing Exercise: Crafting a triolet on the beauty of simplicity
Week 17-18: Ode to Joyful Ballads - Writing joyful odes - Crafting narrative ballads - Writing Exercise: Creating an ode celebrating personal achievements
Week 19-20: Epic Journeys and Blank Verse - Exploring epic storytelling - Mastering the art of blank verse - Writing Exercise: Composing a blank verse poem reflecting on personal reflections
Week 21-22: Petrarchan Musings and Terza Rima Mastery - Delving into Petrarchan sonnets - Crafting poems using terza rima - Writing Exercise: Writing a Petrarchan sonnet on conflicting emotions
Week 23-24: Renga Collaboration and Prose Poetry - Collaborative renga creation - Experimenting with prose poetry - Writing Exercise: Crafting a prose poem inspired by a vivid memory
Week 25-26: Concrete Poetry and Narrative Art - Creating visual impact with concrete poetry - Mastering the art of narrative poetry - Writing Exercise: Developing a narrative poem based on personal experiences
Week 27-28: Pastoral Elegies and Morning Aubades - Writing pastoral poetry - Crafting mournful elegies - Writing Exercise: Composing an aubade capturing the essence of dawn
Week 29-30: Ekphrastic Marvels and Found Poetry Adventures - Creating poetry inspired by art - Crafting poems through found materials - Writing Exercise: Developing an ekphrastic poem based on a chosen artwork
Week 31-32: Epigrams and Clerihew Laughter - Crafting witty epigrams - Writing humorous clerihews - Writing Exercise: Composing a clerihew about a contemporary figure
Week 33-34: Quatrains and Double Dactyl Delight - Mastering the art of quatrains - Crafting light-hearted double dactyls - Writing Exercise: Creating a quatrain reflecting on the beauty of simplicity
Week 35-36: Terzanelles and Haibun Adventures - Crafting terzanelles with precision - Exploring the combination of prose and haiku in haibun - Writing Exercise: Composing a haibun narrating a meaningful travel experience
Week 37-38: Golden Shovel Challenges and Villancico Celebrations - Creating poems using the golden shovel technique - Crafting festive villancicos - Writing Exercise: Developing a golden shovel poem using a line from a favorite poem
Week 39-40: Tercet Beauty and Sevenling Narratives - Embracing the charm of tercets - Crafting sevenlings with narrative flair - Writing Exercise: Composing a sevenling reflecting on a vivid childhood memory
Week 41-42: Palindrome Reflections and Parallelismus Membrorum Insights - Creating palindrome poetry - Crafting poems using parallelismus membrorum - Writing Exercise: Developing a palindrome poem exploring balance in life
Week 43-44: Rubaiyat Contemplations and Blues Poem Expressions - Exploring Persian poetry with rubaiyats - Crafting poems inspired by the blues - Writing Exercise: Composing a rubaiyat on themes of love or mortality
Week 45-46: Erasure Transformations and Anaphora Intensity - Crafting poetry through erasure - Mastering the use of anaphora - Writing Exercise: Creating an erasure poem using a page from a novel or newspaper
Week 47-48: Tetractys and Sijo Harmonies - Crafting tetractys with specific syllable counts - Exploring traditional Korean poetry with sijo - Writing Exercise: Developing a sijo capturing a moment of beauty or introspection
Week 49-50: Blitz Poem Exploration and Epitaph Conclusions - Crafting blitz poems with rapid expression - Writing poignant epitaphs - Final Project: Compose an original poem using a style of the student's choice, reflecting personal growth throughout the course.
Assessment: - Weekly writing exercises - Participation in collaborative projects - Midterm and final projects showcasing mastery of chosen styles
Materials: - Poetry anthologies - Artworks for ekphrastic exercises - Writing journals - Selected readings for each style
Prerequisites: None. Open to all students with an interest in poetry and creative expression.

Sending Compressed Excel Files: A Primer

Sharing Excel workbooks via email is a common practice in both professional and academic settings, enabling seamless collaboration and data exchange. However, large Excel files can pose significant challenges, including slow transfer speeds, email server restrictions, and data consumption issues. The solution lies in compressing the workbook, which not only reduces the file size but also ensures faster transmission and adherence to email size limits. This approach is particularly beneficial when dealing with extensive datasets, complex formulas, and embedded media that inflate the workbook's size.
Compressing an Excel workbook before emailing it also adds a layer of security and data integrity, as the zipped file is less susceptible to corruption during transit. Furthermore, this method supports batch sending of multiple files, allowing for a more organized and efficient way to distribute related documents. By understanding the steps to effectively zip and email an Excel file, users can improve their workflow, ensuring that recipients receive and can access important data without unnecessary delay or complications.

Command/Software	Description
Excel	Microsoft Excel is used to create spreadsheets that can be compressed into a zip file.
Compression Software	Software like 7-Zip or WinRAR is used to compress the Excel workbook into a smaller, zipped file format.
Email Client	An email client (e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Gmail) is used to attach and send the zipped file.
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)	A programming language used within Excel to automate tasks, including zipping and emailing workbooks.

Enhancing Email Efficiency with Excel Compression

Emailing Excel workbooks is a staple in the realm of digital communication, especially for professionals who rely on the sharing of spreadsheets for collaborative projects, data analysis, and reporting. The act of sending these files in their raw form, however, can be fraught with challenges, primarily due to the size restrictions imposed by many email services. Large files can lead to delivery failures, extended upload times, and can even clog the recipient's inbox, hindering productivity and efficiency. This underscores the necessity of compressing Excel workbooks before they are emailed, a practice that reduces file size without compromising the integrity of the data contained within.
Compressing an Excel file serves multiple benefits beyond just ease of email transmission. It facilitates quicker download times for the recipient, conserves bandwidth, and can even provide a layer of added security against unauthorized access during transmission. When Excel files are zipped, they also allow for the inclusion of additional files in the same archive, making it convenient to send related documents together. This method of preparation and sending of Excel workbooks not only streamlines the process but also ensures that the information arrives intact and is readily accessible by the intended parties, thereby optimizing the workflow and collaboration efforts.

Automating Emailing of Zipped Excel Workbooks Using VBA

VBA in Excel

 Dim ZipFile As String, WorkbookFile As String, MailSubject As String WorkbookFile = ActiveWorkbook.FullName ZipFile = WorkbookFile & ".zip" Call ZipWorkbook(ZipFile, WorkbookFile) MailSubject = "Compressed Excel Workbook" Call EmailWorkbook(ZipFile, MailSubject)   ' Code to compress WorkbookFile into ZipFile   ' Code to email ZipFile with subject MailSubject  

Optimizing Workflow with Excel File Compression and Emailing

Excel's robust platform offers extensive capabilities for data analysis, project management, and financial reporting. However, the convenience of sharing Excel workbooks through email often encounters the obstacle of file size limitations. Compressing Excel files before emailing is a pivotal strategy to mitigate this issue, ensuring that large datasets, complex charts, and extensive calculations are transferred efficiently and effectively. This technique not only aids in overcoming email server restrictions but also facilitates a smoother collaboration process by enabling the quick exchange of information without the need for third-party file-sharing services.
The practice of compressing Excel workbooks before emailing also enhances data security. By zipping the workbook, one can add password protection to the compressed file, offering an additional layer of security during transit. Moreover, this method simplifies the process of sending multiple files by consolidating them into a single, manageable package. This not only saves time but also organizes the data in a way that is easily accessible to the recipient, thereby enhancing the overall communication and project management efficiency within teams.

Frequently Asked Questions About Emailing Zipped Excel Workbooks

1. Question: Why should I compress an Excel file before emailing it?
2. Answer: Compressing reduces the file size, ensuring it meets email size limits, speeds up the sending process, and can provide added security.
3. Question: How do I compress an Excel file?
4. Answer: You can use built-in compression tools in your operating system or third-party software to zip the file.
5. Question: Can compressing an Excel file affect its data?
6. Answer: No, compression reduces file size without altering or losing any data contained within the workbook.
7. Question: Is it possible to password protect a zipped Excel file?
8. Answer: Yes, many compression tools offer the option to add password protection to the zip file for added security.
9. Question: How can I send a zipped Excel file via email?
10. Answer: Attach the zipped file to your email as you would with any other attachment and send it to the recipient.
11. Question: Will the recipient need special software to unzip the file?
12. Answer: Most operating systems have built-in tools to unzip files. However, third-party software may be needed for additional features like password protection.
13. Question: Can I compress multiple Excel files into one zip file?
14. Answer: Yes, you can select multiple files and compress them together into a single zip file for easier management and sending.
15. Question: Does compressing an Excel file reduce its quality?
16. Answer: No, compression only reduces file size, not the quality or integrity of the data within the Excel file.
17. Question: Can I email a zipped Excel file from within Excel itself?
18. Answer: No, you need to first compress the file using a compression tool, then attach it to an email separately.

Wrapping Up the Excel Compression and Emailing Guide

Compressing Excel workbooks before emailing them is an essential practice for anyone looking to share data efficiently and securely. This method addresses the common problem of file size limitations imposed by email servers, ensuring that important information is delivered swiftly and intact. Beyond the practical benefits of reduced file size, such as faster upload and download times and bandwidth conservation, compressing files also offers an added layer of security, particularly when password protection is applied to the zipped file. Moreover, this approach supports the consolidation of multiple files into a single package, streamlining the sharing process. Ultimately, understanding and utilizing file compression for Excel workbooks enhances collaboration, improves productivity, and ensures that data is shared in the most effective manner possible.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/excel/how-to-send-a-compressed-excel-workbook-via-email

Rank and Rent website making $2,000 per month.
This website runs on autopilot.
I didn't touch this website for 3 months and it is making $$$.
Around 30-40 leads per month.
Ranking the main keywords on SERPs and maps.
Here is what we did:

Set up a WordPress website

• We installed the Blocksy theme and Elementor
• Redesigned the website colours to match our logo colours
• Created a high-converting home LP for better conversions
• Created templates for service pages that are similar to the home page but high-converting

Content is the king

• Create a topical map of your services, location pages, and blog posts
• We are using very short parent/child URL slugs, which are easier to understand for G
• Content is in the form of questions and answers and how you can help the customer
• NLP style with entities, don't go crazy with keywords

Set up GMB

• GMB is now a bit tricky, but if you find a good industrial estate near the city or area, it is possible
• Get a local landline from Twilio or from any phone provider
• Get some good business park and set up the GMB there
• Use the local IP address; you can use proxies; or if you are in that location, set your GPS and mobile data on
• Add some photos from stock images, change the contrast, resize, and add your logo watermark
• When G asks you for video verification, just prepare the room or office
• Add some tools for the business in the room, some paperwork, or business cards
• After the verification, spend at least 20 seconds showing your business cards, some paperwork, and tools.
• No need to show the street or outside the building
• When G tells you it is processing the verification, just wait
• Don't touch the GMB at all until it is verified!

GMB-verified

• When you verify your GMB, you can add content, pictures, and optimise
• Fill out everything, set the chat on, more picture, some AI videos, and add services and products

Social media and citations

• Get a Fiverr gig or Legiit gig and get somebody to blast social, web 2.0, and citations with your GMB embed map, content, address, and URL

Iterate the content

• We create around 100 articles for the blog posts with Zimmwriter, upload them to Wordpress, and set up 2-3 blog posts every week
• That's around 8 blog posts per month, so we are covered for the whole year

Internal link building

• We are using Link Whisper and Link Boss to create internal link building every month for new and actual blog posts

PR

• We fired some PRs for $100 just to make the content and company more viral and give some juice of authority
• There are many PR services on the market, or you can use a gig from Legiit

CTR

• Now we are doing CTR a bit on the branded keywords, but only one per day
• Don't go crazy with CTR
• Later, we added CTR to the primary keywords, but again, only one per day

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

• I still think reviews and stuff keywords in the title are the most important in GMB
• Get some legit reviews from your friends or from customers
• Always use the local IP address and the best with GPS and mobile data.
• Stuck the primary keywords and location in the reviews
• Don't buy reviews from India or Pakistan! They get suspended

(You can save this or ask me any question)
Source

My name's Hiroki, and let me tell you, I've got the whole "carefree" thing down to an art form. Life's too short to worry about anything other than enjoying the moment, you know? I spend my days drifting through the streets of Tokyo, soaking up the sights and sounds of the city, without a care in the world.
Sure, my family might give me a hard time for not having a "real" job or settling down like my older brother, but why tie myself down when there's a whole world out there waiting to be explored?
I guess you could say I've always been a bit... unconventional. While my friends were busy studying for exams or climbing the corporate ladder, I was content to march to the beat of my own drum. And you know what? It's worked out pretty well for me so far.
But all that changed one fateful day when I stumbled upon a group of suits lurking in the shadows of an alley. Being the curious soul that I am, I couldn't resist poking my nose where it didn't belong. Turns out, they were from some secret company, one of those shady organizations with more skeletons in their closet than a haunted house.
Long story short, they'd been keeping tabs on me, watching my every move like a bunch of creepy stalkers. And why, you ask? Because apparently, I've got this... gift.
Now, I've always known I was a little different from the average Joe, but this? This was on a whole other level. Turns out, I can give myself and others status effects. Yeah, you heard me right. Like something straight out of a video game.
At first, I didn't know what to make of it. I mean, sure, it's cool being able to give myself a boost of speed or a temporary shield when I need it, but with great power comes great... well, you know the drill.
And it's not just the good stuff either. Turns out, I can dish out some pretty nasty debuffs too. Just ask the poor sap who crossed me in that ramen joint last week. Let's just say he won't be picking fights with strangers anytime soon.
But as tempting as it is to unleash my newfound abilities on the world, I can't shake the feeling that there's something... off about all this. Like I'm just a pawn in someone else's game, being used for their own gain.
So for now, I'll keep flying under the radar, living my carefree life one day at a time. But mark my words, when the time comes to take a stand, I'll be ready. After all, you can take the guy out of Tokyo, but you can't take the Tokyo out of the guy.

1. Sestina:

- *Definition:* A 39-line poem with intricate repetition of end-words in a specific pattern. - *Example:* Write a sestina exploring the challenges and triumphs of personal growth. 

1. Rondeau:

- *Definition:* A 13-line poem with a rhyme scheme and a repeated phrase. - *Example:* Create a rondeau celebrating the joy of creativity. 

1. Triolet:

- *Definition:* An eight-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and repetition. - *Example:* Craft a triolet expressing the beauty found in simple moments. 

1. Kyrielle:

- *Definition:* A form of rhyming poetry with repeating lines and a specific structure. - *Example:* Write a kyrielle exploring the theme of resilience in the face of adversity. 

1. Ode:

- *Definition:* A lyrical poem praising and glorifying a person, event, or thing. - *Example:* Compose an ode celebrating the power of human resilience. 

1. Ballad:

- *Definition:* A narrative poem often with a musical quality, telling a story. - *Example:* Create a ballad recounting a mythical or historical tale of adventure. 

1. Epic:

- *Definition:* A long, narrative poem that tells the story of heroic deeds. - *Example:* Write an epic poem inspired by a contemporary hero or heroine. 

1. Blank Verse:

- *Definition:* Unrhymed poetry with a regular meter, often iambic pentameter. - *Example:* Craft a blank verse poem reflecting on the passage of time. 

1. Petrarchan:

- *Definition:* A sonnet divided into an octave and a sestet, often exploring conflicting emotions. - *Example:* Write a Petrarchan sonnet exploring the duality of love and loss. 

1. Terza Rima:

- *Definition:* A poetic form with interlocking rhymes, often used in longer works. - *Example:* Compose a terza rima poem contemplating the mysteries of the universe. 

That You are interested in, let's hear about it! This place is all about ideas. Words. Learning to get your point across clearly.
Forming paragraphs yeah all that stupid stuff from school except here, you write about something you like or care about.
It's so simple it's boring 🤣🤣
Just don't troll. Those have to stay outside. Don't be mean and everyone keeps the karma flowing...
....ya see!!

"Mastering the Art of Communication: Navigating Context, Clarity, and Connection in Human Interaction"
Communication is the key to human interaction. It is bringing us closer to each other allowing us to exchange our thoughts, show emotions, and develop social connections. Whenever we face various situations in life, we understand that communication is much more than just verbally exchanging words but it’s all about comprehending and being comprehended. In this essay blog, I will discuss what I have witnessed about how incredibly deep and complex the skill of communication is, concerning context, clarity, and connection.

From the start of our lives when we cry for the first time as babies to the day when we grow up and deliver speeches, communication is a skill that we keep on learning and developing. Even though words are very important, the real meaning of communication is in the deeper connections we establish. The connections are made through several techniques and forms. My experiences have been a path of learning and development, a way of discovering how we can communicate more properly and effectively.

The first important thing I learned about communication is the influence of context. The situation of a conversation is the main factor that determines the result of the talk. For example, chatting casually in a café is not the same level as the formal dialogue in a boardroom. The physical space and the environment are the key factors that determine how the message is transmitted and how it is seen or perceived by the others. When we communicate face-to-face, our body language and voice tone also add layers of meaning and emotion that only words could not convey. However, written communication such as emails or messages relies on word choice and punctuation to convey the right feeling.

On the other hand, oral communication is often more successful than written communication in resolving conflicts as well as in showing complex emotions. The speed and gentle tone of a face-to-face conversation enables giving, asking, and thereby fewer misunderstandings. On the other hand, written communication being the one that lasts and the one that is most accurate, is the most preferred in cases where the information should be recorded or when communicating over different time zones.

Listening is another important factor I have realized in my journey. Having effective communication is not only about talking or chatting but also listening carefully. Listening with empathy and attention has the ability to transform our dialogues and makes it more meaningful and productive. It is not only to hear what others are saying but also to understand their feelings and thoughts. This high-level communication builds trust and respect, which are the two key elements of a successful relationship.

The clarity of the message is another essential component in this matter. The ambiguity can be the source of confusion and misinterpretation, which in turn will result in the failure of whole communication. Clarity in the language we used guarantees our messages to be comprehended properly. It is especially important when it comes to work where the level of detail and the clarity can be the deciding factor between success or failure. Here, we realize that visual aids like charts and diagrams can be more instrumental and effective in the transmission of complex information than verbal explanations alone could do.


Thus, the understatement form of non-verbal communication can sometimes be more powerful than the spoken words. Movements, facial expressions, and eye contact are communicative tools that can either contribute to or distract from the spoken word. A smile or a nod may reinforce positive communication, while crossed arms and looking away could imply discomfort or lack of interest. The fact that we are knowledgeable about these non-verbal cues makes it easy for us to send verbal messages more honestly and effectively.

Lastly, in this digital era, the form of communication has greatly changed. Social media, video calls, and instant messaging are the tools that have made the communication faster and easier. However, at the same time, they also bring some problems, for example, the chance of a miscommunication caused by the lack of nonverbal cues and the risk of information overload. A comparison of actual face-to-face talks with current digital communications reveals the role of balance. Besides the advantages that digital tools bring, they can be only seen as the supplements to the human interactions.
Communication is a dynamic skill that requires continuous research and development. Through the reading and the listening skills and the attention to the nonverbal signals, communication is, in fact, a complex art form. It is about searching for the perfect alignment amongst different channels and mechanisms that have a great influence in your social life. With our improved communication skills, relationships, both personal and professional, get stronger and the world becomes richer for us. At the end of the day, the soul of communication is all about its power to break down boundaries, cultivate mutual understanding, and develop strong bonds.