Blue cross blue shield hmo coverage for birth control pills

I am not pregnant, I'm still a virgin.
24F, white, 171cm (5'7"), 56kg (124 lbs)
Duration of complaint: 2 weeks?
Location: uterus
Any existing relevant medical issues: not that I know of
Current medications: none; I do take an iron supplement (although the last 2 times I donated blood my hemoglobin levels were 15,6 and 15,8 with a normal range of 12-16, so I've started taking it every 2-3 days) and a multivitamin (for B12 because of vegan diet)
My cycles seem to be getting longer (and weaker).
For about 2 weeks now I've had slight on-and-off stomach pain, it feels like the pain I normally have for maybe a day before my period starts. My last period started 58 days days ago (April 13th to April 15th) and was pretty weak.
I took a birth control pill until 6th of September. Here you can see my 🩸days from then on (cycle duration from 1st day of period in brackets, excluding the ones I think might be spotting due to weakness and proximity to other periods):
🔴11.09.-13.09
(25 days)
🔴06.10.-08.10.
(30 days)
🔴05.11.-10.11.
🔴21.11.-25.11. (spotting?)
(30 days)
🔴05.12.-09.12. (very weak)
🔴19.12.-26.12.(spotting? very weak?)
(43 days?)
🔴17.01.-23.01.
(45 days)
🔴02.03.-04.03.
(42 days)
🔴13.04.-15.04. (weak, barely anything past day 1)
(58 days and counting)
Before I took the pill, my cycles were irregular, lasting 32, 30, 28, 40, 25, 31, and 36 days in 2021.
What I'm wondering is: what could be the reason? The pill shouldn't screw with my cycle 9 months after last taking it, should it? (If I go to a gynecologist about this, will I need to be on the gyn table (no idea what's called, you know what I mean)?)

Always read lots of good posts about the mwz community and how cooperative players tend to be but then that one post about some troll or douche shows up in the feed. Now I finally came across one of these players lol.
The ranked session with the lads comes to end, but I play way into the night when it's the weekend and solo queueing in crimson lobbies is torture if you're not absolutely cracked out of your mind, so I switch to pubs and grind out the obsidian camo for the BAS-B. I try to see which game modes give you crazy amounts of XP and find big modes like ground war and lockdown on warzone offer decent gains and wonder if zombies does the same (1 hour matches while grinding out t2 contracts sounds like crazy amounts of XP on paper at least) and run one. I slap on my Borealis camo and talking waifu battle buddy and load in then straight off into the city. Red zone is saturated as hell so I've got plenty to myself until...
See that living doll skin running around the same area and farming the truck cargo contracts and think buddy is on his own grind and decide I'll leave those to him. I mostly do the safes and bounties back and forth as they spawn, but then see a cargo and outlast near each other. Blue dot on map slowly approaches both and I assume it's the same guy and head towards the outlast. Bro was parachuting in and I was on foot so he gets closer and waits between them for a second. As I make my way towards the outlast he does too and picks it up. Bruh...
Didn't think much of it and go to the cargo as the challenge is weapon XP and will still count. Finish it and switch to a safe contract then notice on the radar a blood burner bike with a blue scheme sitting all by it's lonesome (Not sure if the blue and purple color on radar indicate whether it's a naturally spawned or player spawned) and take it for a spin. Park it outside and do the contract. Didn't realize when it was snatched during the safe and assumed maybe it despawned or something. Storm starts expanding and I check the map and see pretty much whole lobby has left except for one other dude.
Still didn't think much of it and make my way towards the bottom left of the map where I assume the final exfil will land. I periodically check the map for either a vehicle or portal and see the blue dot speed towards a quad. Quad disappears and I assume it likely blew up... Again not thinking much of it at the time,but the blue dot keeps blowing up vehicles around the city. I make my way to the crane and plan to fly over towards the exfil. Hover over the blue dot who's under the highway blowing up an SUV and notice a blood burner near the vicinity. Did he take my blood burner? Now I was a tad bit confused and wondered if maybe there was some weekly challenge to blow up vehicles or something.
Was so distracted on the radar on what bud was up to that I gently landed on the train tracks still quite the distance from final. No big deal still plenty of time and farm some kills along the way. I pull up the map to see where the Storm is at and see blue dot headed towards the top right of the map and wonder if bro thinks it ends there (the storm was in a weird spot where it was a bit difficult to determine whether it was gonna end on top or bottom but having played a decent amount of DMZ I could give quick eyeball test and figure where it ended) I was planning to type in chat but blue dot quickly turns around and heads to the bottom.This is where the suspicion starts to kick in...
He's driving along the tracks and I'm slowly making my way along them too killing whatever zombie I see close or far, then he rams into me and pushes me a slight distance to the left. Likely not on purpose and probably wasn't paying attention... THEN HE COMES BACK DOING A FULL ROTATION AND RAMS ME AGAIN WITH THE SAME RESULTS... A slight push to the side.
BLOOD DOES IT AGAIN FOR THE THIRD TIME AND I COME TO THE REALIZATION! HE'S OFFERING ME A RIDE DUHHH!
As he approaches I hope on and we're making our way towards the exfil. Haha, what a cool dude...
He drives past the exfil and is headed towards the end of the map. Bro what?!? Buddy jumps off and the bike approaches the denied area. I was actually surprised I reacted fast enough to switch seats and bring it to a slow. I check the map and see blue dot's arrow facing my direction. He then takes off running opposite of the final exfil and headed towards a buy station.
You try to kill me bruh? I've seen this before on DMZ where players pull some out of bounds tactics on dead players bodies. Now let's get something straight.We all hate a certain type of player. Riot shield user. Corner camper with shotty. Quick scoping sniper. Wannabe CDL pro sweating his absolute nuts off in pubs. Whatever if it's in the game then I suppose fair play...But someone who uses an exploit or glitch to his advantage! Nah your a bitch for that.
I cruise my way to the final exfil and see him make his way there too a few secs later. Pfff bruh starts placing sentry guns and mortars all over the place. Lol you want all the kills to yourself headed ass. Okay buddy sure you do you and I'll do me on this lil ole hill and take some shots for xp. BRO THEN GETS THE BLOOD BURNER NEARBY I LEFT AND PLACES IT INFRONT OF THE HELI RAMP.
WOW DUDE YOU ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO PREVENT ME FROM EXILING LOL.
Buddy starts trying to block one of the other entrances with a sentry gun...
Dude...
You know I can hop the wings of the chopper right pal?
WOW the effort you put into this punk ass tactic lol you need some dirt In your eye.
As I plan to approach the heli and hop the wings the best idea pops into my head. I gotta do a nose job(Thanks Phixate!) on the heli and let him know he's buns at trolling. See a red tower close by slowly get consumed by the storm but see it still be doable. Head there without much struggle surprisingly and parachute off. Land it relatively well and I'm there crouched staring at him in the heli. LOL buddy is blocking the other entrance then realizes where I'm a at. He stares at me with his fists and I start crouching while shooting at him to let him know I figured your lame ass plan bruh it's not clever.
BEST THING THEN HAPPENS!
BLOOD TURNS ON HIS MIC AND STARTS TALKING SMACK HAHA!!!
At first I thought it was gonna be some 12 year old going through his edgy phase, but nah it was some GROWN ASS ADULT... Dude really at your age you should be better than this...
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST TAKE THE NORMAL EXFIL YOU FUCKING (RACIAL SLUR)BOY"
With the final 70 second timer counting down we go back and forth talking tripe and it turns out I had been ruining some of his camo challenges throughout the game
Bruh...
One clarification I'd like to make is that as someone who mostly plays COD for unlocking camos and grinded Orion,Borealis, interstellar, DMZ serpintine, Ranked iridescent camos, Seasonal Nuke camos, weeklys, and event camos, I have the utmost respect for anyone on the grind and will happily help out if kindly asked like legit if buddy simply said in chat
"Yo man I'm trying to finish this 5 kills without releasing the trigger 20 times challenge can you not kill the zombies"
Sheesh! Bruh say no more I'll build the trains and play bait if you want no issue brother!
BUT NO... Instead you chose to be an ass and now I sincerely hope I was truly a nuisance to your camo grind.
As my first reddit post didn't mean to write a damn novel, but the experience this tool gave me on such a chill game mode made me wanna post about it. Thank you for reading and please if your a descent player who actively goes to res players, drop high value loot for randoms, and help the inexperienced with the aether rifts keep doing what your doing, y'all the GOATS. DON'T BE THIS JACKASS OF A PLAYER

My hands are trembling to the point where I've had to restart this several times. I'm a guy who doesn't scare easily, but this encounter has me shaking like a hit dog. I'm still sitting in my work truck, trying to work up the courage to step outside again. Worse, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to tell my boss what happened. I was already on thin ice with him, and this shit might cause me to break through to the freezing water below.
But fuck it, because this was weird.
I install cable for a living. I didn't have dreams of stringing cable when I was a little kid, but my previous life choices left me with few options. In high school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. It started with skipping school, sneaking alcohol at weekend parties, and some petty theft, but it didn't stay that way for long. Soon, I dropped out and dedicated my life to committing robberies to pay for my pill addiction. I wasn't living as much as I was running on a treadmill. I did whatever I could to stay on my feet but constantly felt myself slipping.
My bottom came when I was jumped by two guys who sold me pills. I had bought from them before and trusted them, but the feeling was not mutual. Someone had dimed a buddy of theirs out to the police, and he was looking at real jail time. They assumed it was me and beat me senseless.
I was greeted at the door with a punch to the jaw that sent me reeling. My brain, already addled and slowed by Oxi, was in the middle of putting together what was happening when the next punch caught me in the temple. I collapsed to the ground and covered my neck and face as best as I could. The next few minutes were a flurry of punches, kicks, and stomps. When it was all over, I had a broken jaw, a shattered wrist, several wounds that required fifty total stitches, and a concussion.
That's how I kicked my painkiller addiction.
I can joke now, but the next six months were the hardest in my life. The withdrawals I had were the worst thing I've ever experienced. Having them while I was recuperating from my injuries was a circle of hell I didn't think existed. I wanted to die most days and felt lost in the darkness. But sobriety was the beacon on the horizon. Even during my darkest moments, I could still see the fuzzy spark of white light off in the distance. It kept me going. Six months from my beat-down day, I came out the other side healthier but weaker.
I needed a job but had limited skills. Thankfully, I had a former pill buddy who managed to keep steady employment with the cable company. We always got along, and he called in a few favors and hooked me up. I got hired, but it was a struggle. Not the work, which was easy to learn, but dealing with the public without telling them to fuck off. Worse, was trying to avoid the flood of illegal substances that are around you at all times. Customers will offer you weed or pills for all the channels, or bored co-workers will have something to "make the day pass by." It's a lot to dodge, especially if you're in recovery. Whenever I felt the itch again, I'd feel the scar tissue from my wrist surgery, and the itch would pass.
The last week has been one of those "Shit, is it Friday yet?" weeks that seem to be growing in frequency these days. I don't want to bore you with the details, but needless to say, most nights, I needed to reach out to my sponsor and have them talk me off the ledge. We recently had a turnover at the executive level, and my new boss Rory was a tremendous cock. A rager at levels science hasn't ever seen before. Just the worst dude imaginable.
Part of Rory's new crusade was coming in and firing a bunch of guys. The company called it "checking for redundancies in the labor force," but we all knew what it was. He was picking off two classes of people: high earners and guys with spotty pasts. I was in the latter group and imagined it was just a matter of time before my number got pulled. I was on pins and needles all week. I made sure I was the greatest cable installer you'd ever meet. So far, I was getting high marks but the forced joviality was wearing thin.
It's safe to say my joy had left on a one-way ticket. I have no clue when—or if—she'd return.
Back to this shit. I had just finished up my last job of the day when my work phone started buzzing. I cursed and thought about not answering, but the threat of unemployment loomed too large for me to do that. I picked up and knew from the jump my day was far from over. Denise from dispatch asked if I could cover a job left hanging because of "scheduling conflicts" (see: the original installer had been let go). It was near where I was and was a simple install.
I gritted my teeth and agreed. I liked Denise and knew she was worried about the hammer falling on her, too. She thanked me profusely, and promised to bring me cookies tomorrow. Since she's a hellcat in the kitchen and getting close to a dispatcher never hurts, I said no worries. I hung up, balled up my jacket, and screamed into it. I felt better after that.
981 Maple Street was about five minutes away, but it felt like a world away. Maple Street was at the end of the neighborhood where large swaths of grass fields faded into a thicket of woods. The woods rose up into the foothills until they graduated to mountains. To borrow a phrase from Shel Silverstein, the house resided where the sidewalk ends.
The house, an off-white birdhouse ranch type, was a little run-down but no worse than any of the others that populated this neighborhood. This place had been hit hard by economic times, and property values had plummeted. It was slowly recovering. In five years, this would be a place most current residents wouldn’t be able to afford. The front yard had a large oak tree that looked amazing but had killed the grass under its canopy. The rest of the yard looked well cared for.
I knocked and heard a few voices talking on the other side of the door. It opened, and a man in his late 40s stood there with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand. He was tall and thin, save for a middle-aged paunch. His face was starting to crinkle at the edges, but he was southern California middle-aged, which meant he was holding up pretty well. He did look tired, though—the bags under his eyes were full-on steamer trunks.
"You with the cable company?" he asked, knowing I was.
I nodded. "You requested an install, right?"
"Yes, I did. Please, come in."
He opened the door wide, and I walked in. The house was pretty bare with a bachelor pad aesthetic. That didn't make much sense since I heard a female voice talking to him. I assumed it was his wife. I believe in a lot of wild shit, but to think that a wife would be fine with their house decorated like a 23-year-old bachelor lived there was a bridge too far.
"I'm Tom," the guy said, extending his hand. I shook it. "What did you need from my end?"
"Do you know if there was a previous hookup here?"
"Ugh, yeah. There is one in this room and another in the back bedroom."
"Okay. I should put the modem in a spot that'll hit the whole house. The signal can get wonky if it's in a room behind a wall or bricks or anything."
"This room is probably the best spot then," he said.
"Perfect. I have to get under the house, check the old connections, and replace some parts. Where's your hatch to get under the house?"
"Oh, it's around back. You can exit out this side door and walk through the backyard. It's on the eastern side. You might need a screwdriver to remove the grate. Do you need one?"
I pulled a screwdriver from my pocket and showed him. "I should be good. Thank you, though."
"I should've guessed you'd have one."
"I appreciate your concern. Is there anything in the backyard I should be worried about? Dogs? Kids? Wild dogs? Wild kids?"
It was standard banter, and it always got a chuckle out of people. Same thing happened here. "Nothing to worry about," he said. "You should be good."
"Alright. I'll get started so you can get online as soon as possible."
"Great! If you need anything, I'll be doing some work in the back bedroom."
I nodded and headed for the side door. The dining room door led to the pie wedge-shaped backyard, which was larger in the back than the front made it look. The grass was as cooked as its kin in the front, but islands of green weeds seemed to be thriving. In the corner of the lot, an old metal shed stood, rusted to the point where I assumed divine intervention kept it standing. It seemed to have been there since the house had been built – or maybe several decades before.
When I turned the corner of the house, I spotted a woman and child staring into the corner of the yard, their backs facing me. The Woman wore a faded blue dress that fit her well. Tom had, it seemed, out-kicked his coverage with her. I didn't want to startle them, so I offered a friendly "hello" to the pair. The kid started to turn, but the mother placed a hand on their shoulder and kept their heads facing away from me. I squinted along the treeline, trying to see what they were concentrating on, but I didn't see anything unusual.
Just wanting to be done with the job, I let them be and moved on. I turned another corner to the house's short side and spotted the grate leading to the crawlspace. The grate looked as old as the shed, and I wasn't sure I would even need the screwdriver to open it. Hell, I was sure the thing would disintegrate in my hands as soon as I touched it.
I crouched and was about to pull it off when I heard something rustling near me. I glanced back to where I had seen the mom and kid, but they were gone. I assumed I had heard them leaving. I pulled the grate off – I was right, no screwdriver necessary – and as I set it aside, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
It was the kid. A boy around eight or so. But they weren't staring at me exactly. They were looking away from me, staring up at the roof line. I found it odd. Clearly, the kid wanted to talk to me but had turned their back on me. I coughed to let them know that I knew they were there, but they didn't respond.
"Hey man, what's up there?" I said.
"Nothing nice," he said, still keeping their gaze away from me.
"Oh," I said, "Not going to hurt me, is it?"
"Maybe," he said.
Not the answer I was expecting. "What is it?"
"They told me you'd know soon enough."
As he said that, I felt something crawling across my hand. I pulled my hand away from the house and shook it. I saw a spider land in a pile of leaves and scurry away. I let out a nervous laugh. I'm not scared of spiders or anything, but the shock of being told some unseen thing was watching me and didn't look pleased, coupled with the sensation of something on my skin, was enough to justify a quickened heartbeat.
I looked back at where the kid had been standing, but he was gone. I chalked it up to kids being little weirdos and went back to work. The faster I could get this installation done, the quicker I could go home and smoke a bowl. I let Kush be my guide. I put up my hood, turned on my small flashlight, and shimmied through the opening under the house.
I know guys who've worked for the company for years and still dread going into a crawl space. Granted, it's not my favorite thing to do, but I don't mind either. The bugs can be a nuisance but if you don't bother them, they tend to not bother you. Same with rats and mice. Raccoons, though? I crawl out and call animal control. Those little dudes are cute but nasty as all get out. My path today was nothing but cobwebs, so I was okay.
I flashed my light around and saw where the cable line went up into the living room floor. My job here was to ensure the coaxial line's integrity was still good. If it had been chewed on or anything, I'd replace it. Sometimes, I just replaced it anyway—saving myself a potential job later down the line.
I crawled over to where the line came in from the pedestal and started my once-over. I not only looked for any damage but also ran the line through my hands to make sure my eyes didn't miss anything. I was under the dining room area when I heard that side door close.
I stopped. Tom said something, but it was muffled. I wanted to be nosy, so I waited a beat to hear if anyone spoke back to him. Someone did. It was soft and quiet – I assumed it was the Boy – and I didn't make out what they asked, but I did hear Tom's response. In a firm voice, he said, "No, not right now. Run along."
There were footsteps over me that faded into another section of the home. Tom said, "He always wants to jump the gun. How many times do I have to tell him?"
I suppressed a laugh at the last line. It's the official father's lament. I kept moving my hand down the line and didn't feel nicks along the cable. In fact, on closer inspection, the line looked almost new. I was planning to change it, but this looked like it had been installed last week.
I could hear someone walk into the living room as I reached the spot where the line went through the house. Another pair of footsteps followed the first, and I heard a breathy but detached woman's voice ask, "Can we show our faces now?"
"I just told the boy 'no.' What makes you any different?" Tom said, an edge to his voice.
A chill raced through my body. I knew those words, but this conversation made me feel like I spoke another language. Can we show our faces? Why would you not?
"Do you think he'll see us?"
"If I have my way," he said, not finishing that thought. "Leave me be. I must try to get some things done before he leaves, and you two keep bothering me."
What did Tom mean to get some things done before I left? What did he have in mind? While trying to process all this, I heard something shuffle in the darkness just beyond my flashlight beam. I moved it around, trying to see the telltale glowing eyes of varmints, but nothing flashed back at me.
I heard something shuffling again, this time down by my feet. I cocked my head as best as I could and shone the flashlight into that corner of the house but, again, there wasn't anything else down here but me and a thousand spiders. I sighed and finished my inspection of the wire.
As I turned to crawl back out from under the house, I heard somebody sneaking around on the floor above me. The wood groaned as the person moved slowly. I wasn't sure what they were doing, but they wanted to keep it a secret. A shadow fell over the pinprick of light from where the cable went into the house. Someone was standing over it.
"Can you hear them down there? Moving in the dark?" It was the Boy. “They like the dark.”
"What are you saying?"
"The little shadows," he said, "They live down there. Do you hear them?"
This kid was creepy as hell. "I, ugh, I can't hear you, dude," I said, inching my body away from the wire, "We can talk inside."
"They're going to get you, but that's okay," he said, "It only hurts for a little bit, and then you're fine."
Fuck. That. I had no desire to respond to that nightmare of a statement. I hastened my inch-worming, heading back towards the open hatch. As I did, I heard more movement in the darkness around me. I tried to ignore it, but it was a fool's gambit. It was impossible to ignore.
I was getting closer to the opening when I saw a pair of tiny legs walk in front of the hatch. It was the Boy. How did he get there so quickly and without me hearing him run on the floor? I didn't have time to run through the scientific method because the Boy leaned down and placed the metal grate back over the hatch.
"Hey! Hey!" I yelled. "I'm still under here!"
The Boy didn't stop. Instead, he placed a trashcan in front of the grate, enshrouding the entire crawlspace in darkness and trapping me inside.
"Hey! I need you to move that!" I screamed. No response. I raised my fist as high as possible and punched the floor above me to hopefully get Tom’s attention. That was a mistake, as I managed to punch straight into an old nail. I felt it puncture in between my knuckles. The pain was instant, and I let out a howl.
I shook my hand and swore a blue streak. I reached up with my other hand, felt the tip of the nail I had managed to punch, and found a flat spot next to it. I banged hard on the floor and yelled again for some help. Nobody responded. Not at first.
Then I heard someone chuckle under the house.
I couldn't locate where it had come from because it sounded like it was all around me. I swung my light around as best as I could but didn't see anything. No glowing eyes, nothing. I inched forward a bit, and someone laughed again – this time, it was to my right. I turned my light in that direction and saw a sudden flood of light fill the space under the house.
"What the hell?" I said, my desire to leave overtaken by a desire to know what was unfolding next to me.
A pair of kid legs dropped down from the hole in the floor. I realized then that the hole must be an interior crawlspace. The kid had blocked off the metal grate and opened this hatch for some reason. While he dropped his legs down, he didn't move any further.
"Hey, you have to open that metal grate," I yelled. "I don't want to be trapped down here."
"They told me they needed you," he said, followed by a slight chuckle.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I said, not caring that I was talking to a child. "Open the goddamn grate!"
"The shadows are approaching," he said, pulling himself back into the house. He placed the lid back on the hole, and I was trapped in the dark again. I cursed to myself and started pounding on the floor again.
"Hey! Someone come help me!"
That's when I felt something run across my legs. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It didn't feel like the tiny claws of a passing rat. It was cold to the touch, but as it hit my skin, I felt a burn in my bones. It's hard to explain, but I felt both extremes simultaneously. Whatever it was skittered off into the darkness of the other side of the crawl space.
The kid started laughing again, which brought me back to reality. I army crawled as fast as I could to the grate. I balled up my fist and punched in the middle of the metal. The blow knocked the old nails out of the wall, and the grate broke up. I was about to push away the garbage can when it suddenly wheeled out of the way.
I saw Tom's legs standing there.
"You okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.
I got out from under the house so fast that I left a me-sized dirt cloud in my place. Once out, I shook my body loose as if I had things crawling all over me. Tom watched but didn't say anything at first. We finally locked eyes, and he could see the rage, fear, and confusion on my face. He wisely waited until I spoke first.
"What the hell is wrong with your kid? He blocked me under there and taunted me from the indoor crawlspace."
"What are you talking about?"
"He told me the shadow people or something were watching, and then he blocked me under the house!"
Tom's face twisted up into confusion. "I...I don't understand."
"I can't make it any simpler, Tom!" I screamed, letting unprofessionalism take root.
"I don't have a kid."
It hit me like an Ali right cross. My vision got dizzy, and I struggled to catch my breath. I stared at his face, looking for the sign of a lie or a joke, but he was as stone-faced as an Easter Island statue. After a beat, I found my sense again. "I heard you talking to him in the living room when I was under the house."
"One, I was on a phone call. Two, are you spying on me? What the hell, man?"
"I wasn't spying, and you weren't on the phone," I said. I also heard you talking to your wife. She asked you if she could show her face or something."
"I don't have a wife either."
I shook my head. "I fucking saw them in the backyard! They were staring at the fence!"
Tom paused and cocked his head to the side. When he spoke, it was softly, trying to calm me down. "Are you...did you have a few drinks before the appointment? Or a pill or something? No judging – I know pill heads. I won't report you or anything, but I understand if you need to come back tomorrow with a clearer head."
"I'm sober," I said, gritting my teeth. "But I know what I saw. What I heard."
"As the tree said to the lumberjack, I'm stumped," Tom said. "You look a little flush. You want a bottle of water or something? I can show you I'm here all alone."
My adrenaline had seeped out of my body, and I was starting to feel like myself again. I nodded at Tom, and he smiled. "I'll go grab you one. Do you want to come into the AC?"
"No, I'm okay. I need to double-check the connection to the pedestal."
"Sure. Be bright back," Tom said as he walked off.
But I had no intention of checking the connections. I was going to check on Tom. I didn't believe him at all. Something weird was going on, and I needed to know what. As soon as he turned the corner around the house, I broke out my flashlight and headed back to the crawlspace.
I dropped to the ground and shone my beam into the darkness. Something had crawled on me, and I wanted to see what it was. I moved my light into every section of the crawlspace but saw no eyes glowing back at me.
"If you're under there, call back."
There was nothing. I was starting to feel like a paranoid idiot. I called out once again just to be sure, but again, nothing called back. I shut off my light and sighed. I started pushing myself back to my feet when I heard a faint woman's voice call out, "Can we show our faces now?"
"Not yet," someone hissed from the trees above me. I snapped my head up, expecting to see someone hanging on a branch over my head, but I just saw green leaves.
"Can we show our faces now?" It was the Boy. It sounded like he was on the roof. I shielded my eyes and glanced at the roof but didn't see him.
"No. He's not ready yet," someone whispered in my ear. I snapped around, throwing a punch as I did, only to slam my fist into the fence. I felt one of my knuckles crack as it hit the wood, and the pain shot up my arm like lightning. Within seconds, my hand started to puff up, and blood dripped out the wounds.
The Boy chuckled again. It came from under the house. I looked down at the grate and saw his legs disappear into the darkness.
"Hey!" I called and dropped to the ground. I pulled out my flashlight and shone into the darkness again. I was confident I'd see him, but he wasn't there. Nobody was.
I sat up and felt goosebumps turn my arms into braille. I glanced over to the corner of the house and was surprised to see the disappearing hemline of the faded blue dress. I rushed over to the corner and didn't see the Woman. I saw Tom with a bottle of water.
"You okay?"
"Where did that woman go?" I asked, my voice panicking. "She was just here."
"Sir, do you need me to call your boss for you? You're starting to scare me."
"What's up with this house? Is it haunted?"
Tom started laughing. "I hope not. I just moved in. I'd hate to have roommates again, especially ones who leave ectoplasm all over the place."
As I stared at him, I saw the Woman and the Boy emerge from the other corner of the house. They looked up on the roof, their faces obscured by their hands and the sun. I pointed a finger at them and screamed, "They're right there!"
Tom spun around and looked, but there wasn't anything there. He turned back to me, not sure what to say. Instead, he handed me the bottle of water. "I gotta be honest. I didn't see anything. Drink the water...you might have heat stroke."
I threw the bottle on the ground. "I don't have fucking heat stroke. I have a man that's lying about these things." I got close to him. "What did you have planned for me? Why do they keep asking to show their faces?"
"I don't," he said, but I didn't stay to hear him finish his thought. I walked right past him and turned the corner of the house. As I did, I saw the blue hem disappear through the door that led to the kitchen. I followed right behind her.
I walked into the house, which was as silent as a corpse. The Woman and Boy were nowhere to be seen. "Hello?" I called out. "I just saw you guys walk in here. Where are you?"
The door behind me opened up. Tom walked in, his face reddening with anger. "You can't just walk into my house."
"I saw them walk in. Where are they?"
"I keep telling you, it's just me and you here. Now, if you want to finish your work…."
I walked away from him and headed toward the bedroom where I had seen the Boy standing. I wanted to check that crawl space. The room was empty, not even a moving box in there, so finding the hatch that led under the house was easy. I went into the closet and pried the hatch open.
Tom entered the room behind me, more confused now than angry. "I don't want a line run through here."
"The Boy was standing in this spot. I saw his legs. I spoke to him. He told me the shadows needed me for something." I glared down into the darkness under the house. Despite Tom's feigned declarations that there wasn't another person in the house, I knew he wasn't being honest.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure you're back on pills and in the middle of a delusion," he said.
"How did you know I had a pill addiction?"
"The way you're acting, it wasn't a hard guess."
"I'm sober, but I did have a problem with pills. I never told you. I don't tell anyone."
Tom stood there, confused about how to answer. I stood up and stared him down. He looked away, but I didn't move my gaze. "Who are you? Who put you up to this? Was it Rory? He trying to get me fired?"
Tom's shoulders sagged. "You got me," he said. "Rory hired me to get you in trouble. I'm... I'm sorry. He offered me free cable for a year and assured me you were a bad guy and, well…. I'm weak."
"That's really fuc…," I stopped. "You're lying. Right now. You're lying. Why?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something dash past the open crawlspace hatch. I turned to the hatch opening and then back to Tom.
"Are you trying to stop me from looking in there?"
He didn't respond.
"What's under there?"
"He is," he said. "The Boy. He hides under there all the time. He has...friends down there."
"The shadow people?"
Tom shrugged, "What he calls them. I call them a menace. Impossible to get my work done with them causing a racket."
"What work?"
"Things you'd never understand in a million years," he said, "Things beyond your brain's capacity to imagine. Things that will help usher in a new world. Your kind's time is coming to a close. My work represents the new order."
I stared at him. I wasn't sure if I should run away or punch his lights out. Instead, I just spat out, "Bro, what the fuck?"
"Can we show our faces now?" the Boy called out from under the house.
I looked down at the hatch and then back at Tom. He nodded toward the opening. "Do you want to see your future?"
"Fuck it," I said. I got down, grabbed the sides of the opening, and lowered my head under the house.
I kept my eyes closed for a second, assuming I'd either see something horrifying or something would hit me in the face. When nothing struck me, I opened my eyes. It was dark, and I couldn't make out anything.
"There's nothing under here," I said.
"Can we show our faces now?" said the Boy from somewhere under the house.
"Show him," Tom said.
I sat back up, grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and flipped it on. I looked at Tom, "If you try anything, so help me, God."
Tom just smiled. I looked back down at the hatch and sighed. I was suddenly hit with a bolt of common sense. What was I doing? My internal alarms were going off and I was ignoring them. Curiosity had gotten me this far, but my fight instincts were starting to lose to my flight. No job was worth this.
"Man, fuck this," I said, reversing course and standing. I turned to confront Tom, but he was gone. I hadn't heard him leave, but there wasn't a trace of him there. "Tom? Where the hell are you?"
He didn't respond, and I decided that I had hit my "weird shit" quota for the day. I closed the closet door and headed back into the living room to grab my gear. I'd call dispatch and tell them someone else had to come out and finish the….
The wood floor cracked, splintered, and gave way when I put my weight on it. I fell through the floor and landed with a thud on the dirt in the crawl space. On the way down, I hit my ribs on a crossbeam and heard them crack and knock the wind out of me. As I lay on the dirt, writhing in pain, my lungs did their damnedest to find a breath. It couldn't, and my vision started to blur at the edges. For a fleeting few seconds, I envisioned my death on a dirty crawlspace floor. It wasn’t comforting.
I rolled onto my back and finally took in a massive gulp of life-saving air. The blurring vision subsided, and all that remained was the aching pain of a busted rib. My muscles around my rib cage spasmed and pulled tight against my lungs. After the initial big breath, I could only take shallow gulps because the pain was searing.
I lay there for a few seconds, collecting my thoughts, when I felt something skitter across my legs again. I kicked out of instinct but didn't hit anything. Instead, I heard the chuckling again. My flashlight had fallen out of my hand. I found it and turned it on.
This time, I did see something. Pairs of eyes—dozens of them—watched me from the darkness that surrounded me. These weren't possums or rats. I never hoped to find a raccoon under the house more than I did at that moment. I knew whatever these things were, they weren't natural and they wanted to harm me.
"Still want to know what they plan to do to you?" the Boy asked from behind me.
I turned around and shone the light where I heard the voice. The Boy was lying on his stomach, his face looking down at the ground. All I could see at the moment was the top of his head.
"Wha-what's going on?" I said, the light bouncing from my trembling hand.
"I can show you my face now," he said. He raised his head and….
The Boy didn't have a face.
He had the space for a face, but there were no features whatsoever—nothing but pale pink skin pulled tight across the front of his head. At that moment, the image of a wooden art figure came to me.
“What the ever-loving fuck?"
"Want to see something really scary?" the Boy said, his lack of a mouth not stopping him from speaking. He raised himself onto the tips of his fingers and toes and started skittering toward me, laughing as he did.
I clambered out of the crawlspace as fast as my battered body could carry me. I got out of the hole and onto my feet and let out an ear-splitting scream.
The Woman in the blue dress was standing next to the hole in the floor. Like the Boy, she didn't have a face either. But I could feel her eyes on me. Looking into my mind. Into my soul. She stepped toward me, and I bolted for the front door.
I whipped it open and was greeted by Tom standing there, blocking me. He grinned. "Leaving so soon?"
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, checking behind me to see if the Woman was still coming toward me. She was, and she was gaining quickly.
"Can we show our faces now?" he asked with a laugh.
I turned back to Tom and nearly had a heart attack. His face was gone. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. My legs were jelly, but I kept myself propped up. The human desire to survive can perform miracles.
Tom reached out and pointed at a spot on the far side of the living room wall. I turned and saw three skinned human faces hanging from old nails: a man, a woman, and a boy.
"You're turn to join us," Tom whispered. But the voice wasn't said out loud. It came from inside my own head. "We can always use another body around here."
My brain clicked into action and sent an all-points bulletin to my limbs. The message was simple and actionable – "Get the fuck going, you dope."
I felt my hand ball into a fist and spun. It landed where Tom's nose would've been. It should've knocked him back, causing him to stumble and giving me time to run. But that didn't happen. Instead, his face pulled apart, letting my fist slide right through. It closed on my arm, trapping me.
I yanked and yanked, but my arm would not dislodge from his face. I glanced back and saw the Woman nearly next to me. The Boy was climbing out of the hole, moving like a cockroach. I looked back at the wall and saw Tom's hanging face silently laughing.
Something about those silent laughs cut me to my core. They were laughing because Tom thought he had outsmarted me. He had beat me. That my face would soon be hanging on the wall next to theirs. I wasn't going to let that happen.
I saw a loose brick on the walkway, and a plan flashed in my mind. I yanked hard, sending Tom stuttering forward enough for me to wrap my finger around the brick. I brought it up and sent it towards his face. As expected, the face parted again, and the brick flew through easily.
But as soon as the face curtains pulled aside, I yanked my arm free. With my limb free, I took off in a mad sprint for my truck. I got inside and fumbled my keys as I tried to start the engine. Tom, the Woman, and the Boy stood together at the front door and watched as I got the van going and rocketed down the street.
I drove like a madman for ten minutes, trying to put as much space between me and the house as possible. I finally stopped at a gas station to collect my thoughts. I was jittery, and my mind was swimming, but I was also relieved. I had gotten out.
I collected myself and called Denise to tell her I couldn't finish the installation at 981 Maple Street. I was going to suggest we cancel the order and not send another installer there. That's when the conversation took a turn I wasn't expecting.
"Where have you been? You were supposed to be off an hour ago," Denise said when I called her.
"I was trying to finish the install at 981 Maple, the one you sent me to."
"I didn't send you anywhere," she said. "With how insane Rory is being about overtime hours, I'm trying to keep everyone below the threshold."
"What are you talking about? You called and asked me. You don't remember," I said, a bad feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.
She gave me a nervous chuckle, "I swear I didn't. Are you feeling okay? You gotta come back. People are waiting for the van."
"I can prove it. I have a record of you calling me on my phone," I said. I opened my call log, and my jaw dropped. There was no call from Denise. She was telling me the truth. But if she didn't call me, who did?
"Rory wants to talk to you when you get in. I wouldn't mess around, he seems pissed" she said before hanging up.
I haven't moved since. I wanted to write this down because I felt like it needed to be recorded. Something supremely fucked up is happening at 981 Maple Street. It nearly got me. It still might. To think, on any other typical day, a surprise conversation with my boss would be the scariest thing that could happen to me. Funny how seeing a faceless ghoul can prioritize your problems. If you're hired to do work there, turn it down. Trust me, it's not worth it.
"Can we show our faces now?" they asked. "Fuck no," should be the only response.

I made an appointment for my daughter to get birth control pills and wonder if there are going to be complications because of her T1 diagnosis. Will the ob/gyn as for approval or coordination with her endocrinologist?
She was originally prescribed in April 2023, but wouldn't take them. She's since changed her mind, so I'm hoping it's a simple thing.

So i try to make a small "retro gaming station" on top of my multimedia server mini-PC. It works alright, except for a controller. I use a replica of Dualshock 4 from DataFrog. Under Windows it works as basic controller, and works perfectly fine with DS4Windows installed.
On Linux, i'm facing some difficulties.
At first i installed a XFCE Arch-based distro. It failed to pair with a controller. I googled a lot, and found some threads that suggests downgrading Bluez to 5.68. It worked...to some degree.
I switched distros (mainly to test different flavours) to KDE-based release. And sadly it fails to connect even with Bluez 5.68. Like at all - i'm stuck at "Configuring Wireless Controller" when i try to pair, and it fails after some time.
I returned to XFCE-based distro, it works with BlueZ downgraded to 5.68.
I found out that...

1. Strangely, "default" bluetooth GUIs fails to connect on Budgie, KDE and so on. Meanwhile, blueman manages to pair with all "DS4" functional - touch panel works, LEDs turns dark blue (white\light blue "normally"). The problem is - blueman will only connect to gamepad when it's in pairing mode, and thus it can't reconnect. So if i disable Bluetooth and enable it back- i gotta turn gamepad to pairing mode, AND i have ot "pair" it manually in blueman. It works, but i just can't have it that way, as i won't be the only one to use it, as i would have to keep a mouse next to my TV just to connect gamepad. No couch experience.
2. When trying to pair it with Bluetoothctl i get a authorization failed in btmon. It paires in Bluetoothctl, but disconnects right after that. The gamepad is either disables LEDs and does a silent "pop" sound (it has some sound functions, mainly to connect a wired headphones and use them over BT), or turns LED to white\light blue, same silent "pop", and it disconnects. It can be paired and\or trusted- no difference. When i pair it with blueman - it pairs alright and sends a whole bunch of information.

I've used the same controller in EmuELEC, and it had a kinda simillar problem (it needed to be paired every time, but worked fine after that). But i do remember finding a solution on EmuELEC's github that worked, and it managed to run 2 of this gamepads with full feature set (1 with blue LED coloring, 1 with red blue coloring, both connecting in discovery mode, not pairing mode). iirc- that was the fix i applied for EmuELEC: raw.githubusercontent.com/EmuELEC/EmuELEC/v4.6/packages/sx05re/emuelec/bin/batocera/emuelec-bluetooth , but i don't really know how to apply it to basic Linux.
If any logs needed- i' m willing to provide it, really want this stuff to work.

Raised and born a JW, baptized on April 4, 1984, expelled (spiritually murdered) on November 24, 2004 for speaking out about JW Alliance with United Nations spiritual Adultery. So, now that I have been out for now going on 20 years, I have retested the old teachings and after a careful renewed examination of the scriptures and the JW TEACHINGS I can confidently say that:
1919 and the Lords inspection of the temple that year of the GB - IS FALSE
THE BLOOD issue that is in ACTS, about obstaining from blood - IS FALSE
THE BEARD ISSUE should not be an issue, if indeed Jehovah had an issue with beards he would have never created man with facial hair. Prophets and disciples and apostles had them. From the days of Russell Going into Rutherfords days should never have been an issue and should never have been restriction. The flawed thoughts of men is what that was, not Gods thoughts on the matter.
THE SHIRT AND TIE AND DRESS ISSUE - if they are truly worshiping the TRUE GOD, we should always offer up our best in dressing before the Creator. Especially if we have the means to do it (not to show off), if we don’t then, the creator does not look at the man who can only afford blue jeans as someone low, vs the one who can afford a suit. The thought process was that they both offered up their best. No judgment. The woman with her dress pants? I believe it should be a dress. Why? As the woman gets upset, thinking perhaps she has just as much of a right to wear pants like a man. Then let the man wear a DRESS, but you better not judge him.
The FDS Doctrine? - Is a false doctrine about a group of men that are so in charge that they alone hold control in every way over millions, even over thought. But Jehovah allows the people to error until it is time to shed light on the truth.
EXPULSIONS - is a FALSE DOCTRINE that is abused by the self titled men known as the FDS. It is a demonic act. Even Jesus was against it. HIS WORDS, “they will expel you from the synagogue and think they did a holy thing.”
1914 - ah yes the foundation of which every JW puts their faith on. - it is a FALSE TEACHING. CT RUSSELL may not have been a Mason or high degree mason. But he did say he had associates in Freemasonry. These of which KNOW the secrets of events to come. No doubt someone gave him inside information. Knowing that 1914 would present a shift in governance and finance for the entire world. This First World War began. The federal reserve was established in 1913. And that 1914 would be the beginning of the building blocks to the New World Order. And why in the hell did JWs use the term New World Order so boldly during the 1940’s going forward??? Charles Russell put a few scriptures together and made it all miraculously fit the 1914 doctrine (2500 years). The cornerstone of all JW FALSE DOCTRINES. But then there is something that contradicts that. Jesus words, “NO ONE WOULD HAVE JURISDICTION OVER THE SEASONS AND TIMES. Only the Father would. Not Russell.”
FREEDOM - God says he made man to be free. Not only physically but mentally as well. Even a persons OPINION on a matter, even scriptural matter. Today, you present and opinion to an elder and your EXPELLED as an apostate. The JWs are the Catholics of the days of the Queen Elizabeth days. When people were hunted down for committing heresy and killed for their opinions about God. But today is different, they murder you in the worse way possible, they strip you from spirit, family and friends. Many of which have committed SUICIDE.
Yes people need to REASON WITH THE SCRIPTURES AGAIN, and see how wrong the JWS are on so many issues.

Synopsis: Markus is summoned from Earth by evil beings looking for a 'weak and primitive' creature to use as sacrificial entertainment. What they got instead was a human. Immediately after arriving, Markus awakens to an ability so rare, so powerful that it makes every god on Firellia desperate to recruit him as their new champion.
Learning to control his innate mastery over mana, Markus will devour the very essence of any monster, demon, or god that dares get in his way, determined to never lose his freedom again.
——
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Markus felt the air slicing right past his shoulder, but the blade never made contact. With an explosion of pain and power, he forced the goblins away with intangible, spiritual force, a white-blue energy emanating from him as he clutched his axe hard, fresh blood leaking onto the handle.
[Mana Capacity at 366%. Overcharge, E Grade is in effect. Growth increased. All physical stats temporarily increased by 75. Physical damage resistance increased.]
[Mana Poisoning II is in effect.]
He stared out at the five targets before him, all of them frozen, inert, watching to see what he’d do next. The injured sword user still stared dead at him, but it wasn’t just hatred in his eyes, no. Not anymore.
There was another feeling in there, one that grew with each passing moment as Markus began to close the distance between them. Now it was his turn to advance, theirs to shy away, to back up, to brandish their weapons wildly in an attempt to deter his hellmarch.
Markus had started off limping, but he soon managed to stand tall. His injuries barely affected him in this state. They still hurt, they still throbbed, they still itched and burned beneath his skin, but the pleasant, stimulating, thrumming warmth of mana flowed through him at full tilt, guiding his motions and giving him clarity of vision, confidence in his gait.
His heavy, deliberate steps crushed the sand below. He was no larger than life, yet a monster of gargantuan proportions in the face of these pitiable beasts.
They swung and stabbed forth with such forlorn intensity, such maddening whines. They sensed the danger, backing up continually even as they continued to try and keep Markus at bay, huddling in a tenuous attempt at a battle formation.
None of this deterred Markus. He could see their attacks for what they were now. Untrained. They’d used their weapons far more than he ever had, yes, but they were still clumsy. Slower than he’d been with the glaive. Moving aside to dodge a sword swing or the poke of a spear was rudimentary at this point. Almost effortless.
Still, dealing at four weapons thrusting in his direction at once was still difficult. When another rock sailed past his head, this one just barely missing due to a split-second reaction, he instinctively responded, chucking the hand axe straight at the far off goblin with the slingshot.
His weapon travelled about ten feet before embedding itself directly in the creature’s chest.
He fell in an instant. There would be no survival, no miraculous return to his feet. One strike was all it took.
He’d given up his weapon. It didn’t matter. Markus had a thousand other ways to make the remainders’ defenses crack.
Shield user was heading up the middle of their formation, which made the most sense, the two polearm users standing at either side a small distance behind and continually thrusting with their spears. The four of them were stood in something almost akin to a V formation, the leader pressing his right arm into the chest of the goblin beside him and encouraging them to keep backing up.
Markus attempted to draw out the Flame Mana within his body. He was still clumsy, still having difficulty with selecting specific mana types to use, and when he attempted to focus his Flame Mana on a point and ignite one of the specific goblins, he found that having a point in Pyromancy didn’t just give him the power to spontaneously combust things.
Well, at least not yet.
So Markus settled for a different method. He attempted to use Manifest for the first time, drawing the Spirit Mana out of his body and attempting to form it into a shape, something long and sharp, resembling a blade or a stick or a poker, an instrument he could use to break up their formation, to make himself an opening. He continued to visualise as he walked, imagining his desired extension of Spirit as best he possibly could and attempting to bring it into the waiting world.
When the object first began to form within his hand, he found it to lack a handle, a shape, a curve, any delineating feature that might mark it as a distinct object, that might give it purpose. As it stood, the object looked something akin to a plain blue quarterstaff, its shape uniform as it lengthened, its colour a consistent, shimmering blue all the way along, complete with white rings that circled its length over and over as it continued to grow in length.
Markus shifted his focus over to Empower. He gave the makeshift weapon a test swing as he began to coat the surface of the ethereal staff in an orange glow, markings both spreading and radiating in each direction of the conjured weapon and warming Markus’ hands. It felt light in his hands, lighter than a baseball bat. Lighter than his glaive. Attunement didn’t apply here. This weapon was an extension of him. He understood how it moved.
There was a collective ‘what the fuck’ on the face of the goblins. They stood their ground, weapons stilled, ready to deflect his strikes as in the background, the announcer went through his latest bout of losing his damn mind at the spectacle unfolding before him.
The crowd seemed to have changed their tune. The cheers and cries of excitement from above were overwhelming—Markus put them out of mind. Stored them for later. Removed them from his focus.
All that mattered now was advancing. Surviving. Winning while he still had mana to spend.
Markus swung forwards with all of his might. Sparks and licks of flame alike danced through the stifling air, roaring upwards as his weapon collided with the middle goblin’s shield, staggering him and shaking all four of them in turn.
He could feel the reverberation coursing through him, but he stayed the course, retracting the weapon and reengaging with a lunging thrust, one leg extended, power and momentum coalescing even as he focussed the tip of his conjured staff into a red-hot tip.
The sparks that flew as the staff collided served as ample kindling, the wooden shield on the goblin’s arm catching flame. He waved his arm madly as he struggled to detach the large slab of wood from his arm, disrupting his comrades as Markus swung forth again, smacking the same goblin again in his sword arm and causing him to drop his weapon, staggering backwards and howling as the flames along the shield continued to spread, threatening to melt his flesh any moment as still he fought to detach it with no arms to do so.
Markus stared at the spreading flame, feeling intention rising within his body as he focussed the same energy he could feel dissipating from the staff after his second strike, retaining the feeling while he still recognised it and aiming it directly at his last point of impact.
The rate of the spreading flames doubled, a roar erupting from the shield as the wood split and frayed, the goblin screaming and throwing himself to the sand below, desperately attempting to douse his shield.
Markus ran forwards the moment their formation was broken. He focussed the leftmost goblin first, this one with a poleaxe, smashing the long staff into its side and then uppercuting the goblin’s chin with the staff’s backend, closing the gap between them in moments and sending the monster flying.
Markus felt a spear strike him in the right arm once more, and immediately felt the weapon he held in his hands dissipate.
Earlier, he might’ve panicked. Now, he grabbed the wooden pole sticking out of his arm before it could be retracted and snapped it in half.
A speartip embedded in his right arm, at least three other stab wounds littering his body, various cuts and scrapes and bruises forming even as he continued to defiantly march forwards, the glowing aura still pulsating and bleeding through his pores even as he bled into the sand, Markus must’ve looked like a fucking nightmare.
He felt like one. He didn’t take pleasure in the suffering of the goblins, but he almost wanted the fuckers to get back up. He wanted to show what came of taking him so lightly.
What he did to every goblin here today, the lengths he’d go to in order to win this, he wanted that to echo through the minds of every sick, terrible creature that thought to torture or torment him, a reminder that while so many might dwarf his power, while so many might make him look weak and helpless now, he would only grow stronger, and he would only get better.
And while Markus survived each horrific encounter he was thrust into, while he learned from his mistakes and devoured his enemies and consolidated his strength, he’d remember the ones who put him here…
And they’d be lucky if they weren’t [Devoured] next.
Markus punched the goblin to his right, swinging a left in a narrow arc. He heard a crunch, watching the goblin hit the floor as Markus adopted a boxing stance, left foot behind him.
He felt weird strange unorthodox, but even with the regeneration and pain reduction flowing through him from Overcharge, he’d still been stabbed in his right arm twice. He couldn’t rely on it for power now, so he was a southpaw until further notice.
That was fine. There was such power even behind his lefts right now that he floored these creatures with almost every strike. Overcharge was no fucking joke.
Not only that, but as Markus swung for shield goblin, who’d finally sprang to his feet and charged him, left arm looking slightly mangled, he realised that his fluidity of movement was only increasing the more time he spent on throwing these punches. He was improving as he went, adjusting to the change in his agility, tanking yet another grazing slash against his torso before kneeing the offending goblin in the face, sending the creature flying back to the dirt.
Pain exploded from his right leg as soon as he did so, and he had to fight to remain balance. He took a couple more slashes as once again he focussed power into his punches and concentrated on trying to take the creatures down, but the more he attempted to repeat the process, the more they kept getting back up, and the more Markus began to wonder what would wear down first at this rate, the four enemies he was fighting or his mana reserves?
He could take more punishment, but he needed to be able to give some back out. A good thrust from one of these goblins could still be lethal, and even if they were a lot slower than him, it was difficult to dodge multiple attacks at once when stood around sand.
Markus decided to change his approach, attempting to coat his knuckles in mana. Manifest created small protrusions at the end of his knuckles as he poured focus into the prospect. They weren’t spikes, he apparently couldn’t be so exact yet, but they at the very least seemed solid.
When he punched with them, he’d expected it to hurt pretty badly, but if anything, it cushioned the blow against what were surely broken knuckles by now. More than that, however, was the effect, a concussive blow that seemed to knock the first goblin he struck silly, allowing for an easy follow-up, and then allowed Markus to take the second one out with a single punch to the chin.
Two down, looking they wouldn’t get up for a minute, Markus singled out a third, the goblin with the burnt, broken shield, charing him and piledriving him to the ground.
He ignored the uncomfortable crunch below him as he drove his fingers into the goblin’s neck, choking and stabbing his fingers into his flesh simultaneously as the creature latched on and attempted to throttle him in turn, claws scratching in final, fitful jolts as the life was forced from his eyes.
Markus managed to drain a little from him and activate [Devour] before he returned to his feet, having only spent moments executing the creature.
As the new power flowed into him, Markus felt a stick smash against the back of his neck. He gasped, sucking air through his teeth as he turned to find the sorry culprit.
It was the goblin whose spear he broke earlier, the one whose metal tip was still embedded in his arm. Markus stared at him. Raised a finger at him, as if he were about to reprimand a child.
Then Markus punched him. The creature once again went flying backwards as Markus continued to rub his pained neck.
It was almost laughable, but this one minor injury hurt more than any of the others. Maybe it was because he hadn’t expected it. Maybe because he’d discounted that goblin from the fight already, disarmed and seemingly out cold.
The other two were still rising to their feet. One the leader, still injured, the other the poleaxe user, using his weapon to help raise himself to his unsteady feet.
He thought Overcharge would make this fight easy. He thought this fight was meant to be easy in general. A showcase of power. More like a showcase of struggle. Overcharge might’ve turned the fight in his favour, but each second of this battle was grueling, even with many of the enemies dead or out of commission.
And these things were pretty relentless. He almost respected the drive these things had to keep going, to stand up over and over no matter how many times he put them down. They must’ve been hoping they could wear him out eventually. He wasn’t gonna let that happen, though. Not while he still had a say in things. All he needed to do was single another one of them out and—
Poleaxe swung past his face, almost giving him a triple-close shave. This weapon looked sharper and shinier than the other gear the goblins boasted, and he didn’t wanna get nicked by the blade, so Markus attempted to once again yank the weapon away from the offending goblin, placing both hands on the pole, but the creature pulled back with such force that it threw itself back to the floor, causing the weapon to slip from Markus’ grip and cut both of his palms on the way out.
The goblin barreled back with his momentum, rolling, but before he could find his feet again, Markus was behind him. A kick to its head pushed it back into the sand, and two more kicks followed by a single stamp solidified the goblin’s defeat.
As Markus turned to face the leader, the goblin kicked sand in his face.
He was immediately blinded, unable to defend himself as the goblin stabbed him directly in the thigh with his short sword and immediately barreled into him, driving him to the ground and pounding his head against the floor beneath repeatedly, biting a chunk of flesh from his cheek as it dug its fingers into his neck, intent on crushing the life out of him once and for all.
This was fucked. He was going to die. He’d made one fucking slip-up and he was going to die! Markus kicked and thrashed with all of his might, but it was all too soon ebbing, and with the size of the creature and its pressure on his chest his legs couldn’t find any purchase. He attempted to move his arms up, to find a spot to drain the goblin from, but he wasn’t going to be able to drain the thing faster than it choked him out.
Markus attempted to wrap his arms around its back, to simply crush it with his enhanced strength, but even when he squeezed with all of the death-defying strength he could conjure, he could barely do more than force a strangled crunch! from the goblin’s ribs.
He needed to break its grip. His thoughts were slowly fading. He needed to break its…
He bit the creature right back, right on its chin, causing it to flinch back just long enough that he could snake his right arm from where it was pinned and grab its left with both his slippery, bleeding hands. He attempted to prize its hands apart, but its focus was too great, its determination too single-minded to give up its endeavour even as he pulled it from his neck with all of its might…
He barely got seconds of breath, only able to break its hold for moments at a time, his neck raw, his gasps pained, laboured, and above all infrequent.
If he couldn’t stop it from grabbing him again every time he pushed its arm away…
Then he’d have to take its arm.
Markus focussed as much of his mana as he still could into his bleeding hands, seeking a means to pierce the goblin’s arm. His world slowed as he desperately attempted to coat his hands in energy, to bolster his grip, to pinpoint an area around the elbow that would allow him to pull at full force without slipping, without allowing the strength to fade from him entirely…
Markus closed his eyes. He was playing tug of war for his life, heart, and soul. Everything he’d ever known and cared about were on the line. Dreams, thoughts, wishes, emotions, all of them drifted by in the miasma of intangible nothingness that gently beckoned him past the epoch, that told him to let go, that told him he didn’t need to worry and fight anymore, that he’d bled enough, that this next breath could be his last…
Markus pulled. He pulled with the scream spilling out from his soul, for his lungs couldn’t carry it, with a bellow that shook the foundations of peace, for even in strangled silence, his spirit was unfathomably loud.
And the world trembled. Heaven’s gates closed. He tugged with all of his might, and above him, Markus heard a sickening snap.
His body flung back into the sand the moment the goblin’s arm dislodged. It stared at him in abject horror, attempting to move its dangling appendage, but seeing an opportunity, Markus moved faster, took advantage of its distraction, forcing the goblin off of his chest and smashing it into the floor.
It attempted to swing for him, but he beat it with more intensity than it could muster, his heart a war drum, lungs igniting with sulfuric heat as he gasped and panted for breath, his very existence a testament to the will of man.
He beat and smashed the goblin with his fists, even through the pain of his broken knuckles, but when the fucker still wouldn’t die despite his many concurrent blows, when it still attempted to claw and bite at him with every spasmic motion of its beaten body, Markus ripped the flailing arm from its side and drove the appendage into his face, able to use his full strength now that his body wasn’t the conduit, smashing the goblin with its own arm over and over in a fervent expression of vitriolic irony, for they’d sent him here unarmed, and now he was very much armed indeed.
The death gasps of the goblin leader were punctuated by bludgeoning strikes from its own broken, mangled, severed arm. Markus leant over him, body littered in wounds, looking as if he might die or ascend to Valhalla at any moment, as the crowd clapped and cheered and roared in satisfaction.
“Yeah?” Markus coughed the word out. He could barely speak. His voice was only scarcely being held together by the tendrils of overwhelming mana. “You like that, you sick fucks?!”
He raised himself to a sitting position, bathed in crimson, looking over the battlefield, staring out at what he’d done.
There was a chance he’d die to these injuries. Even Regeneration surely had its limits. He stuck his fingers to the throat of the dead goblin beneath him, attempting to drain some residual mana from his body, poisoning be damned. He hoped he could at least get something to stem the tide of his many wounds. He [Devoured] the creature’s core, too, just to be thorough.
His focus was broken by the sound of the final goblin scurrying up beside him. It was the one whose spear he’d broken. The one he simply punched away earlier.
It stood holding a short sword, one he must’ve picked up from one of his dead comrades.
He looked at Markus. He poised his body, as if he were ready to strike.
Markus simply stared at him, raising the dead goblin’s arm as he did so.
The little goblin held that position for roughly three seconds, not moving even a single inch, Markus doing the exact same.
It dropped the sword, then ran as far as it could in the opposite direction, crouching and covering its head with its hands as the crowd laughed and jeered.
Markus sighed a laboured breath as the announcer took over, his complete victory having been finally declared for all the rabid, screaming onlookers above.
Good thing he looked so terrifying right now. He was pretty sure one good hit would’ve been all he needed to do him in for good.
Hell, even a bad hit probably would’ve done the trick at this point.
He saw a digital image of himself projected up high, though he could barely make it out through the blurring of his eyes.
He looked as if someone had painted half his body red. He felt as if he’d been ran through a woodchipper.
If I survive my injuries, I’d better get a fucking good reward for this.
Markus would survive his injuries. And he would get a fucking good reward.
//
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A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed, and that you enjoy what comes next! What do you think Markus needs most in his situation, besides a way home? I'm curious!
If you wanna help support me and this story, or you just can't wait for the next chapter, the next eight chapters of this story are available right now on my Patreon!

So I take relationships and especially physical stuff very seriously. There's a guy, a colleague of mine at the time, that kissed me a year ago after we'd both been drinking a bit and I still can't get him off my mind. It was one of the best kisses I've ever had - and I never felt like he was messing with me or my feelings, and he had been treating me like he really cared (held my hand, kissed my hair, stuff like that.) A kiss is a big deal to me, and this guy knew that. He has issues with commitment and has this whole fuckboy kind of act going on but beneath that, he's actually quite sensitive and is actually very sweet, genuine and honest. I didn't feel led on at all and I kind of knew how it was going to be. He doesn't really like to use phones so we haven't spoken in around ten months. For context, my role was the lowest responsibility and *I* was working 16-hour days sometimes.
The day after we kissed, he left to go to a different location working for the same company at the highest level of responsibility - so this guy was BUSY. We did have a conversation after we kissed and I told him how I felt and how much of a big deal it was for me, but also that I didn't want him to feel pressured. He listened, he was very sweet and understanding. He said that he did like me and that I was a good kisser (which was nice to hear as he was only the third person I'd kissed) and that if we lived in the same place, maybe we could have given it a go. We agreed it wasn't the right time and place, but that if our paths ever crossed again, we wouldn't rule it out. Now, I'm going back to the same company to work this summer and I don't know if he is but it's not impossible that we might end up working together again. I don't know if our paths will cross again but I've always been more of a 'make it happen' kind of girl. He didn't promise to keep in touch, only said he'd try but he did hate texting. We texted regularly for a little while but once work got really busy, he stopped responding. I did keep trying for a little while but he wasn't even seeing my messages so after a bit, I did stop.
After a year, I have had another relationship that didn't work out and honestly, I still think about this guy and that kiss. I don't think I've felt anything as powerful since. I still wonder about this guy, if I'll ever see him again, if anything could ever happen... and since getting out of my last relationship, I find myself thinking about this guy more and more. I am in a better place now than I was then - I was coming off antidepressants, not eating right, and about to go on my year abroad so I would be a bit all over the place geographically. Now, I'm back in the country (and it's not a big country) and I've really grown over the year, learnt how easy it actually is to travel... I'm back, and I've learnt a lot more about what it is that I want. And honestly, thinking back to the way I felt when I was with this guy, I still have feelings and I would really love to reconnect. I don't want to be stupid and naïve, but there really was something very genuine about him and he didn't judge me. I mentioned to a friend (who I used to date so he knows what I'm like in a relationship) that I don't want to come across weird and intense but he pointed out that I _am_ weird and intense which is a fair point.
Now this is my conundrum: after ten months, do I get back in touch with the guy I kissed one time a year ago? It may be a little out of the blue for him, but I'm seriously considering sending him a message and my friend says I have nothing to lose, I clearly want to and a guy is only going to be flattered by learning that I still think about him.

Does anyone have blue cross blue shield and have got covered for an RA Fischer machine? Or does anyone know if any machines are covered with insurance?

I am not a teenager but this is my very first experience on birth control. I am only taking it to try to lessen or fingers crossed, get rid of my endometriosis/adenomyosis symptoms. I know it takes 6 months for the body to adjust. 98% of the time I take it at exactly the same time, to the minute. I have taken it within the 3 hour timeframe on a few days. I hear Opill thickens the cervical mucous? I read lots of little quips about how bc works but I don’t quite understand how exactly it stops some peoples periods, or reduces cramps for some, or thins period blood. I know bc is for preventing conception but the period side effects are so prevalent I’m trying it out to stop my very painful periods. I can’t seem to find a resource that explains exactly an estrogen free pill does that. I desperately want to stop mine. How do I get that side effect?

• really need to stop my period

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/GG6d683
Send it Sunday Part Tres: Trying to get rid of stuff and free up some cash.
All prices are negotiable. Trades I am looking for are P365XL/XMacro slide parts (slide, barrel, recoil assembly), Glock 19/PSA Dagger slide parts (slide, barrel, recoil assembly, P320 AXG grip module, or Holosun red dot for P365.
Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless Copper: Mild salt on fabric surfaces (cleaned recently, alcantara doesn't clean the best), all other parts function and sound as new. Very mild issue with headband where the internal foam will peek out of the plastic end caps, but it's super easy to fix, and has been an issue since I got them (I can take pictures to demonstrate issue for interested parties). Comes with original carrying case, 3.5mm cable, and charging cable. These were originally purchased in early 2021 and used seldom since as I moved on to wired options. Price: $350
Mild Salt Kore Esstac Double Pistol/Single Rifle with malice clips: $28 Super Salty Smith and Wesson M9 Bayonet with sleeve: $50 FiveStar Chiappa Rhino Range Block for .357/.38 special: $15 Light Salt Cards Against Humanity Mega Bundle (Base, Nerd, Absurd, Everything packs), nothing is organized so it all goes as one: $40 New Roland DP-10 Pedal for Roland Digital Pianos: $15 Mild Salt Xbox One Controllers: $20 each
Dice are mildly salty, but finish on all is great, and all are metal, either aluminum, zinc alloy, or steel. Willing to do deals for buying more than one set. Dice Sets: Red Zinc - $10 Green Zinc - $10 Gunmetal Zinc, Red Numbers - $15 Gunmetal Zinc, Blue Numbers - $15 Burnished Aluminum, Red Numbers - $15 Burnished Aluminum, Blue Numbers - $18 (includes D4 set on the bottom) Burnished Brass, Zinc Alloy - $10 Burnished Grey, Zinc Alloy - $10 Gunmetal Zinc, Black and White - $20
All prices are negotiable, PM for offers, shipping is included, more than willing to do deals for people buying more than 2-3 items.

Skip to end for TLDR, if you wish.
I want to love you, Albany, but you make it hard.
I was riding my bike yesterday afternoon (around 4:00pm) on the Empire State Trail. I have been doing this regularly, about 3-4 times a week, since the weather warmed up. I am aware of the unsolved homicide that occurred back in April on the bike trail, so I try to remain alert. No issues at all until yesterday.
I was riding southbound on the stretch of trail approaching the I-90 overpass. Maybe ~100 yards ahead, I see three men standing in the middle of the trail, and I see there is another cyclist riding around them on the grass to avoid them. They seemed maybe like they were talking to/heckling the cyclist, but it was hard to tell what was going on. Thought this was a bit odd.
I get closer. Cyclist passes me heading in the opposite direction. He gives me a sort of pained expression, but doesn’t say anything. Also odd.
I am probably ~40 yards away from the three men now. They are now standing sort of awkardly at the side of the trail…like they are pretending that they’re just casually hanging out, but it is clear that they are watching me. At this point, my gut instinct is screaming “bad situation”. I really should have just turned around. Maybe I stubbornly didn’t want to let some hooligans fuck up my bike ride on a sunny day. Idk, it was stupid on my part.
About 20 yards away from them now. They suddenly “take position” by standing shoulder to shoulder, clearly and intentionally blocking my access to the trail ahead. They have their arms crossed and are trying to posture in an intimidating manner. I slow down a bit and look over my shoulder briefly. Other cyclist is no longer in sight. No other people around. Yay.
The guy in the middle takes a step forward and puts his hand up, like the “halt” hand gesture. He says something like “Hey man, hey man, can you stop for us? Why don’t you stop for us.”
I am still moving forward toward them. I intentionally drift to the left; they shuffle to the left to match me, still blocking the trail. Then I start pedaling my ass off and cut it hard to the right, sort of juking around them onto the grass. I have thin road tires and clip-in shoes so I am lucky I didn’t eat shit.
At this point it’s sort of a blur because I’m just pedaling as hard as I can, trying to put distance between me and them. I heard them shout a few things as I rode away; no idea what they were saying. I just kept riding hard until I was near that boat lunch (under the overpasses) and there were finally other people around.
So, that leaves me with some questions…

1. What the hell, man? Who the fuck does that? Why can’t I just ride my bike in peace? What good reason could you possibly have for trying to stop me by force on a goddamn bike trail?
   
2. Am I overthinking this? Am I actually just an over-paranoid softie and this was just some sort of weird prank? Every instinct in my body was telling me they wanted to rob me at best, and fuck my shit up for fun, at worst. I have no evidence for this, it was simply “the vibe”. Am I wrong for assuming this?
   
3. I don’t think anything that happened actually rises to the level of a crime. It’s just one of those situations where I can confidently say “if I played that differently, there is a strong chance that something very bad would have happened”. Can I even do anything? Is it worth reporting?
   
4. As a community…why can’t we have nice things? Why don’t I ever see police patrolling this bike trail knowing that there was a recent, broad daylight, still-unsolved homicide on said bike trail? Why don’t we collectively expect more of Albany? We can’t even have a goddamn bike trail that families and residents can assume is safe?
   

Thank you for listening to my rant. Just an awful experience and by far the most unsafe I have felt in my ~three years of living in the Albany/Troy area. I currently live in Troy so I am unfazed by general urban sketchiness. This was different than that.
TLDR: Three guys suddenly tried to block me from continuing on the bike trail; they asked me to stop. Felt like an ambush situation, but that is somewhat speculation on my part. Very bad vibes. They did not seem happy that I wouldn’t stop for them.
Exercise caution if you plan on using the Empire State Trail in the Albany/Menands area.
Description of the trail-blockers: three Black men, late teens/early twenties, wearing long clothing (clothes were mostly black with some other shades, maybe some red and blue; don’t remember exactly)
TU article covering recent bike trail homicide. Same general area where I had this experience.
UPDATE: Sorry, forgot to mention that I did coincidentally run into an Albany PD officer like 5 mins after it happened. I gave him the story; not sure how seriously he took it. I just called their non-emergency line a few minutes ago and gave the story again, so I feel I’ve done my part in terms of reporting.

It had been yet another day on Lantica beach for the Crimson Paragons, not too long after the hard fought victory in the unexpected alien invasion. But something just kept nagging at Talios... A strange emotion that just wouldn't leave. A... Yearning. For something. For... Someone. Someone had been at the back of his mind ever since he had returned from that trip. When that Lamia had hugged him, tail and all, Talios felt strange. He felt something he had never felt before. A new emotion... And unbeknownst to him, this emotion would spark something even he'd think unfathomable. All it'd take... Is one, relatively innocent question. When everyone was chowing down on some delicious food Nhak had made at the beach party, and Kyouko, one of Max's comrades had showed up. A Jorõgumo. A yokai with a ravenous appetite, essentially.
Kyouko showed up, by... Crawling down a banana tree. There were no longer any bananas in that tree. Not even peels...
"A large fish skewer? Sounds nice."
Talios gives a simple response, not entirely paying attention. Something else is bugging him.
"Hi Kyouko."
Nhak, on the other hand, gives her a proper response.
"Yes Kyouko, a whole fish, just for you! Made with love! Aoi Helped!”
But just then... Talios gets a brilliant idea. And... He can finally try and get her out of his head.
"Say... Kyouko. Do you... Know where Nagisa is?"
Nagisa. Another of Max's crew, practically a daughter to him. A rather bubbly Lamia, though her words can pack quite the venom when she's teasing someone. Talios, unfortunately. Is not aware of this yet.
"Nagisa should be in the lodge still. Rachnia is helping her fix her swimsuit."
Damn it. He was hoping for her to be alone, so they could speak in private. Looks like I'll have to abort, Talios thinks to himself...
But he's practically wearing his heart on his sleeve. Everybody can tell what's happening, he's a... Terrible liar.
"Ah, I see. Alright then."
Talios gives another simple response, hoping for the topic to just be dropped. But everybody else can tell how... Unusual, he's acting after mentioning Nagisa's name.
"Something up, boss man?"
Ember. A small dragon, ethereal in nature... Most of the time. In this instance, it appears she's in fact, solid. It's a part of Ejders soul network going on in his body. Talios had completely forgotten Ember was on his shoulder...
"...What are you talking about Ember. I'm fine."
Talios... Is a really bad liar. It is quickly becoming apparent just how bad he is.
"I doubt that. You're just randomly asking about the tail meatbag? For no reason?"
Then Aoi the Oni speaks up.
"Talios yer startin' ta sound like Max askin where Rachnia is. Ya doin alright?"
"I am... Perfectly fine. Just wanted to make sure everybody is accounted for. Bounty hunter instincts, can't help it."
A slightly better lie. Still obvious. But a slightly better lie.
"Come on! I'm your second in command! You can tell me these things!"
It's impossible to tell how Ember got the notion of being second in command.
Now it's Sarah who speaks up, yet another comrade of Max. A cyclops.
"if ya had a face I'd tell ya your pokerface blows. But uh... Yer pokerhelmet blows."
"I do have a face."
Talios takes off his helmet. His pokerface does, in fact blow. He looks... Ever so slightly flustered, even. In expression, more than anything. He can't blush, since he has no blood.
"Your pokerface is even worse than your pokerhelmet."
This time it's Safi, a dragon of the stars. Although, currently, they're in a human form.
Talios: "I could kick all of your asses at poker."
Ejder: "Remove the last two words, and I could believe it."
Sarah: "Did that Lamia hug from yesterday awaken somethin in ya? Awww."
Talios: "The tight and scaly Lamia hug awoke absolutely nothing in me."
Safi: "I've never heard a more blatant lie than that."
Talios: "Yes you have. Because it isn't a lie."
Sarah: "Talios. I have to deal with Max tryin to bluff his way through shit. Your pokerface ain't cuttin it."
Talios: "I am the best liar to ever live across the damn centuries. You're all simply fools who mistake complete truth for mere lies."
Suddenly, Nhak appears to phase behind Talios. He places a ghostly hand on his shoulder.
"From one armored giant to another..."
"Your pokerhelm really is terrible."
And Nhak lets out a laugh, Talios feeling more defeated by the second.
"Oh not you too Nhak..."
"Talios do I reaaaaaally have to use my strings to make ya tell the truth?"
This voice came from Rachnia, Max's Fiancé. She came out of the water, having been taking a walk...
Talios jumps at Rachnia's presence.
"WHERE IN THE BLAZING blue hells did you come from."
His voice changes from loud to quiet on a dime, oddly enough. And it was at this moment...
That a devilish look came across Ember's face.
"Hey, Talios, since you wanted to make sure everyone's accounted for, why don't you go check in on the Tail-Meatbag personally?"
"...I- Well... You see..."
Talios falls silent, having been defeated at his own game by Ember. Finally though, Kyouko asks the question that had been plaguing Talios since Rachnia's arrival.
"weren't you helping Nagisa with her swimsuit, Rachnia?"
"got that done earlier. She's helping Cerne tie her swimsuit now."
Perfect! Talios had his out, with Rachnia confirming that they can account for Nagisa.
"Ah. See, she's with Cerne! Rachnia can account for it. No need to go looking. No reason... At all..."
And Talios thought he was safe... Until the sight of Cerne casually strolling along the beach enters his view.
Talios: "...Wait why are you here Cerne?"
Rachnia: "Hey, Cerne, I thought Nagisa was with you!"
"Guess she might be in the lodge with Lala or Eliza."
Ember: "C'mon, Boss Man! Everyone has given a different response as to where Snake is! You gotta figure out which one is true!"
Talios: "...Surely Cerne is right."
She was not, as Lala happens to walk out of the water with perfect timing. One by one, each of Max's companions says another is with Nagisa... And every time, the companion mentioned shows up... Until there are no more companions to show up.
Meaning, Nagisa is in fact. Unaccounted for. Talios lets out a defeated sigh, picking Ember off of his shoulder and placing her down.
"I... Will go make sure Nagisa is accounted for..."
Feeling utterly defeated, Talios trudges to the lodges in search of Nagisa. Seph, a multiversal god, and known as the Paragon of Freedom... Only has a few words to say.
”Godspeed, funny chaos man.”
Eventually, Talios reaches the fifth lodge. Each one before, held no answer. He expected nothing different from this one. Three firm knocks on the door...
"Yeees? Who is it?"
Ah shit. So Nagisa was here... Talios was kind of hoping she wasn't so he wouldn't have to go through this.
"Damn..."
"AHEM. Uh. I was told to make sure everybody was accounted for. So... Yeah. You weren't at the beach, so I came to check the lodges."
A few moments of awkward silence.
"WELL! Since you're here, I can return to the group and inform them of you being accounted for."
Talios immediately turns and starts walking away, satisfied with his totally foolproof lie.
It was... Absolutely terrible. Obviously.
But before he could leave. A behemoth of a man stands in his way. Gonkgar. He himself is walking to the lodges.
"Where Nagisa?"
"Talios... you're not just here to check on me, are you? You lie terribly."
Nagisa's voice is... Frankly, beautiful to Talios's ears. But damn it... Why did Gonkgar have to intercept him...
"I don't even need to see your face to know. Come on in, the door's unlocked."
Gonkgar pushes Talios toward the door and turns around.
"...Shit."
"Alright fine..."
Talios pops open the door a crack, peeking in. He hits his helmet on the door frame.
"hey, no need to be shy!"
"...I am never shy. A bounty hunter is not shy."
He has not moved from his peeking position in the door. Nagisa giggles in response to Talios's very, very poor lies.
"Actions speak louder than words ever could. Now head inside before I have to pull you inside myself."
"I- ...Okay. Fine."
Talios, begrudgingly, enters the lodge. He's... Fidgeting. He has his hands hidden behind his back, but it's obvious just from the movement of his arms in general.
Not even Talios is sure what he's feeling... Or how.
Gonkgar stands nearby Nagisa’s lodge with his arms crossed, defending his bro’s chance at makin’ a move.
"Oooh you don't even have to tell me. someone's in loooove?"
"Did Max send you to me for advice?"
Talios seems... Genuinely startled by Nagisa's question.
"...Love? I... Am not sure... I don't think Chaos gave me such capabilities... Nor was I sent by Max specifically..."
"Then why are you fidgeting like a schoolgirl about to confess?"
Ouch. There's the venomous teasing Talios was unaware about. And it certainly stings a tad.
"Body language says alot. Maybe Chaos did give you those capabilities already."
"...But why would she... Ugh... No, I could see it."
Gonkgar is still standing stock-still like a statue, arms crossed and giving dagger eyes to anything that comes near, even animals. A rat looks mortified and leaves.
"So... You want to know how to deal with what you're feeling, or... Don't tell me, you have a crush on lil ol me?"
It is immediately obvious that Nagisa hit the bullseye with that one. Talios falls silent for... A solid half a minute, at least.
"...I suppose I should get going for the uh. The feast. Yeah. Man, I'm hungry..."
Okay, now he's just getting desperate with subject changes like that.
"Man, you're terrible at this. Want some advice on how to properly confess?"
"...I feel like... Getting help on this matter, from you... Would be nigh insulting. But fine. I guess..?"
Talios is apprehensive. He still isn't fully processing these emotions he's having... But. Well. He finds it hard to say no to Nagisa.
"So lets start at the basics. When you look at me, what do you feel?"
"Perfectly fi-"
Talios stops himself.
"...Very. Very strange. Like... Fuzzy, I think it would be described."
"Strange and fuzzy inside. Alright. So, when you look at me, what do you want to do? Do you think of someone or something else?"
She's fishing for a particular answer it seems. But Talios, oh poor Talios... Is so, so very dense. Perhaps, denser than a neutron star.
Talios seems to stumble over his words, trying to find the necessary ones to articulate what he wants.
"I... Do not want to do anything to you. Obviously."
Easily a lie.
"Uh... When I look at you, I suppose I think about... You. When I look at most people I'm thinking of them."
Dense motherfucker...
"Aww, I thought those guts of yours would carry over into social skills. What a pity.
"Now, when you look at Max and Rachnia together, do you think of me?"
The verbal jab seems to strike a nerve with Talios for a moment... But yet again, it also seems you've hit the bullseye.
"Well... Yes... Kind of. Occasionally."
"Awww. How sweet. They're joined at the hip. Do you want that too?
Talios feels her tail slowly coiling around his legs.
And it was at this moment, that Maximillian, who had delivered nachos to the beach party felt something very wrong...
Max: "I feel like something is going... Wrong."
Ember: "What? What do ya mean, lucky man?"
Max starts checking his revolver, to make sure it's locked and loaded.
"No real idea... Just... feeling like I'll need to be prepared soon."
Nhak: "On the contrary, I feel like something is going right..."
Safi: "What do you mean, Max?"
Max: "Call it... Parental instinct."
Gonkgar knows what Talios wants, even if Talios doesn’t. It seems Nagisa does too.
Gonkgar begins to think about all the times he and Talios hung out together, his true bro. All the times they fought for fun, and destroyed wizard tarrasques together. He thinks of the time Gonkgar wanted to ask that one girl out to the prom, and Talios totally encouraged him to press his luck. When Gonkgar’s mom was sick in the hospital, Talios made sure to take care of his dogs. If Gonkgar can be here for his bro now, that is precisely what he’ll do.
90% of that might not have ever happened in the real world, but Gonkgar likes to think it did… Somewhere.
Safi: "Do you feel that parental instinct because Talios went to see Nagisa?"
Max: "He did?!"
Safi: "It was pretty obvious he had a crush on her."
Max: "Wait he has a crush on her?!"
Nhak: "Well, someone brought up Nagisa... And he went melon."
Rachnia pulls a quick purple string and hooks it onto Max. Just one command is spoken. "Give him a chance."
He holsters his pistol.
"Fine."
Back in Nagisa's lodge... Talios is stiller than a statue as the Lamia's tail grows closer to his leg. He feels a chill down his non-existant spine... It's probably just a draft... But wait. He doesn't feel cold, generally. Or any temperature. How strange...
"Well... Isn't there like... A process..."
Talios is getting more and more flustered by the minute, something not even HE thought was possible! He's been getting an awful lot of new emotions lately...
"Well there's nothing wrong with a big hug, is there? I'm not easily impressed, so you'll have to do your best."
Talios seems to... Loosen up, slightly?
"Oh. Yes. Hug. Of course. Uh... Sure..."
she taps Talios' nose with the tip of her tail.
"I'll be waiting for a black knight on a noble steed. Impress me."
Aha. Talios understands perfectly now... Is what he thought. But he doesn't. He's so, unbelievably dense... And perhaps, takes thing a little too literally.
”He cooked.”
Gonkgar says to the rat. How foolish he was... Talios was fumbling hard.
"I guess... That's my cue to leave... Ha."
Talios is getting ready to leave... But why?
"Are you sure running away now is very knightly? Wouldn't want to run with your tail between your legs when it matters most."
she's just brushing her hair again, her eyes closed, back turned to Talios.
”Man, she not make it easy for bro. It like bro just discover pools exist, and get thrown in deep end right away.”
Gonkgar says to the rat.
Talios freezes. The sharp words of Nagisa shock him to his very core... Because he thought she wanted a horse.
"But. I was going to go get a horse... You said I needed a noble steed... And all..."
Max is looking at the lodges, arms on his hips.
He sees Gonkgar standing guard. Gonkgar gives a slow nod.
“Let he cook.” He mouths at Max.
Max: "I have to give THIS a chance?"
He's tapped into the security footage.
"He can't even pick up on the noble steed hint! How can you fumble THIS hard?!"
She chuckles.
"I don't need an actual horse. We already have Cerne."
Ah. Now Talios gets it. At least, he thinks he does.
"Oooh! ...Why would I need to get Cerne? Can she help with this?"
"I gotta say, at least you're funny... You know what? I'll give you a few dates. See where it leads... If you can convince Max."
Gonkgar silently launches 30 feet in the air and fist bumps before landing in front of the door again.
"A black knight against a white knight, just like the fairytales. If nothing else, it'll be a fairytale made true."
Gonkgar is silent screaming in front of the door.
”Let GOOOOOOOO!”
Max: "Alright then, hon. If that's the criteria ya want, I'll oblige."
He starts loading his revolver with explosive rounds.
Talios, on the other hand, seems to immediately lighten up. He seems... Happy?
"Really? Wow. Uh... Thank you, Nagisa. I promise to not disappoint. And uh... Maybe... Grow less dense. I guess. Ha."
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I have a feeling that you're going to have a much tougher time convincing Max, than convincing me."
Talios's entire mood shifts on a dime. Grim.
"Ah. Yes. Maximillian... Oh dear."
Talios walks out of the lodge, immediately greeted by Gonkgar's back.
"...I won, Gonkgar. I won."
Gonkgar turns around and immediately gives him a giant bear hug. It is pretty tight, but Talios can take it.
"TALIOS WIN."
"Thank you, Gonkgar... For stopping me from leaving that door."
”Gonkgar know what it like. Me have experience with ladies.” He fist bumps Talios’s shoulder. “Okay, you hide now?”
"...Hide? I know Maximillian needs convincing, but... It can't be that bad. Right?"
Talios walks past Gonkgar to the rest of the group once more, unaware of his possibly impending doom.
"He have weapon out. Take Gonkgar second favorite weapon, it maybe help."
Gonkgar holds out a strange... Fish... Spear? To Talios.
"I'll be fine. Although I appreciate the thought, Gonkgar."
And Talios continues walking back to the beach party. And he arrives with a pep in his step never seen before...
"Hello, everybody. Nagisa is perfectly accounted for."
Talios gives a big thumbs up as he delivers the message.
Max: "Yeah. We know. Sooooo. dating sweet little Nagisa, huh."
He's seated, ominously tapping the blue and silver alchemy revolver on his leg.
"Uh... I'm not sure if it's... Considered offically dating. Yet. Just uh... Testing the waters, one may say...You know, I'll admit I'm pretty dense but uh. You seem a tad angry, Maximillian."
"I'm not mad... Just protective."
"Uh... Yeaaah..."
Ahem.
"I think I'll go talk with... Nagisa a bit more. Let you... Cool off."
This. Was a very... VERY poor choice of words.
Maximillian shoots the floor behind Talios, where he would have stepped if he were to walk to the lodges. Talios turns stone cold and still as a statue.
Talios: "Got it."
Max: "We're havin a chat. Ain't nice to walk out during that."
Max: "I'll be honest with ya, Talios. Had it not been you, I'd have put you in the dirt already. Nagisa gave ya a chance, and said if you can beat me, she'll give you a few dates.... so..."
He slowly walks up to Talios.
"When's the duel, friend?"
"Ha... Saturday. High noon. And let it be known..."
"I won't lose, Maximillian Ironstout. That is a promise."
"...Just like I promised Nagisa I'll impress her on those dates."
Now he's trying to egg Max on.
"Ironstout, huh. Didn't even know you knew that raggedy old name of mine. Alright then. We'll see if you're worthy enough to be a son in law, shall we, Chaos Spawn?"
He laughs, no longer being able to keep up the charade.
"Man I suck at intimidation. Hope ya don't mind the hard time, Talios."
"Meh. If it was anyone else, it could've worked. But you've seen how I am, ha! Thinking I could take on Seph."
So he IS self conscious somewhat.
"The hard time only makes things more fun."
And so, it had been decided. Talios now has to fight... For love? Something Talios thought impossible. Strange how things work out like that.
And unbeknownst to all... Chaos is deeply amused by this turn of events.

Hello reddit, am not here to often as i like, but i have to have a opinion made from a nutrual part.
sorry for any spelling errors, i have dyelexia and english is not my first language.
we have 6 kids in total and 3 are with me.
So to begin this story of my 9 year relationship we have had our ups and down like everyone else, my wife has for instant been Captured taking pictures of her self naked to other men 6 times, and i forgave her everytime due to it just was a picture and she never touch the guy. so my jealousy was really bad as we never workt on that trust really, we just went on with our relationship and i was clingy and did not really like her going out to much as we had small kids and they have neurodevelopmental disorders like ahd autisum. as soon as she got a job again she would cheat after 3 months in that job. we had financial problems to loosing jobs getting them back and going in debt due over it.
but the last 3 months i found out that she was talking to someone from my gutfeeling and checkt it out, and i was right, the guy she was talking to she had sent pictures and more to before, they talkt about how much they mean to each other and that they love each other, and sent nudes to. that was her breaking point, i told her what do we do as i stod there and cryed to her why ? and she said i dont know, then all out of the blue she explained she had feeling for the guy, and she is never allowed to go out and drink with friends or hang out with her guy friends as i was jealous, she said give me space and let me see if the feeling disapers, i call the guys wife and let her know what happend and we talkt for about 2h about this and cry to each other, she still tryes to get with the guy and the guy says he wants to be with my ex wife, but then the other wife said that she is pregnant and he came running back to her, i was ready to leave by then, but my wife insist we should just give it time and space to se if the feelings get back to her.
enter friend girlfriend O to my ex wife and me. She told me she would spy on ex wife even tho i said no dont.
so enter our friend K is a 40+ year old friend of both of us, more to the wife tho. K and my ex wife start talking about the situation.
K and my ex still made me jealous as it was a fresh wound and we really did not talk about it.
now my ex wife has to go to her sisters to watch her kids as she is going to a party, and while she is there we talk alot over snapchat and she sends really hot pictures of her to me, and i tell her what i would like to do with her, after that day she comes home and we have sex and try to work on it, but after the sex she is cold as ice after and only hangs with K. she tells me my friends want me to go on a event in the city with live music and drinks, this is a test if ur jealousy is ok if not i will leave she said. i was in terapi about my jealousy by now.
so that day rolls around she goes out with her girlfriend O and have fun and during the night i still talk to her on snap. she says she lost her friend O and lookt for 20mins to find them, and was really sad as the girlfriend O just wanted her to hook up with others and she said no, they went to a pub and drank and girlfriend O wanted to take a taxi home but my ex wife said no and walkt home, i greet her at the door with a hug and say did you have fun and did you get home safe with someone ? as i dont really like her to walk where we live alone. this was my ex wifes story.
she said no we walkt to this pub and took a few drinks and my girlfriend wanted me to hook up with people so i just walkt home alone and called my mom. this is really late at night to.
so que next day after she sleept the rush of, i get a text from the girlfriend O that she was faithfull and she took a taxi home and i had my eyes on her all the time and we did not run in to K at all,
my ex wife then tells me we did run in to K, but i only said hi and we walkt away, and i confront the Girlfriend O how she could lie about taking a taxi and leaving my ex wife to walk alone, and she swears my ex wife took the taxi home with them, i really just wanted her to be safe around these events. later after i push Girlfriend O harder my ex wife tells me she walkt with K home as she did not want to go in a taxi after feeling abit sick,
i tell her why did you just not tell me that right away ? then you would be jealous she said and act angry, i told her no am glad K took you home safe just dont lie about it.
i then later that night text K thanks for taking my ex wife home safe. means alot ur a good guy, and K start going on about the night, how they meet in the crowd and went on rides and did not find Girlfriend O and they went to the pub and had a drink and then Girlfriend O called her and askt where ex wife was, so they meet up in the pub and then we walkt home to you, K lives like 300m away from us so nothing wierd if they walk right ?, i was like ok thanks for taking care of her and next time she might just go with you as she clearly had more fun with you K. and then he dropt a bomb on me, are you guys devorcing or are you still trying ? and i say still trying. and he finds it wierd as he said "because sometimes we talk and type" and "sometimes you and her talk and type" and i call him right away and ask him to be upfront about it, he said he will call in 2h ok fine i think, but my wife is typing like crazy on her phone then, and locks the screen as i get close, another red flag, i call him and ask him to clearfy that statment, and he said no we just talking like about you guys and then sometimes i see you type to her some cute message or stuff, witch i do.
this makes my wife devorce me, and i beg and plead to let us give it a chance again and this time be honest with each other. after alot of work we still devorce but as we have kids we still count as married for 6 months, and we both agreed we would use that time to se if we can find back, as she cant keep the apartment due to debt as we had to get my dad to co sign it. i was ready to move and take me my dad off the contract, making her homeless with 6 kids, witch i did not want to, but as i had debt to and my father wanted to support me and could not stay on 2 contracts he said he will help me.
i think fine but still the feeling of K and my ex wife never leaves, so i rig a webcam at my pc to spy on her as i go out to buy a mothersday gift, she finds the webcam and start to scream and become balistic on me that i never trust her and that i was dissgusting for invading her privacy she permanently deleted the file with Shift Delete. i feel so bad i called my therapist and admitted what i did and she help me formulate a good apology and i go and tell her am really sorry in a really good way and explain why i did it and that it still was not ok, she just gave me the cold shoulder and said she dont feel safe here anymore at all, all i wanted was proof if she was really sending Pictures to K to. ex wife now uses all her free time with K and dont care at all about the kids, i work like 11h weekends shifts as am in health care for disabled kids/adults, so i cant leave they need me, and her 15 year old calls me and tells me she is out with the dog and talking to K and has been out there for 30 mins and the kids are screaming, i call her angry and tell her to get back inside and take care of the kids, and she just tells me atleast am walking the dog. well its her dog so i really dont care to much about animals like that so.
friday that night she walks home to K to drink, K has problems with alchole, i just got off a 11h shift, my youngest kids is sick and keeps waking up so i have to go up and put him to sleep again and again, and i have another 11h tomorrow i have to do, so i call her and tell her to get home, i give my kids some medicin and go wait for my ex wife witch takes about 2h to get home, remember its about a 300m walk. she really just did not want to go home i guess. she talk about how they where drinking and talking to his parents and planing a trip 2h away to K's parents to see if she would miss me she said, i tell her no why ? why cant you just stay at ur moms or other girlfriends ? and she said i already told them i would be going so i kinda have to. week go by and i keep trying to make pysical contact with her in hugs or massaging her feet after work as her feet get really swollen, i cook for her and make time to watch some tv shows that week, and saturday comes around
she is now giving me the cold shoulder again and we get in a fight about her leaving with K, i tell her i will write my name off the contract and leav so u can be with K i dont care, and she starts crying and tells me to wait abit and walks the dog, i look inside her backpack she packed for the trip and find a sexy night gown i bought for her in there, i confront her about that to, and she just says she has nothing else to wear while going to sleep. i give her my t-shirt and toss that night gown away and tell her use this. and i got so angry i started kissing her and hugging her, she leaves, and i type to her that am sorry for kissing you and stuff as we both feelt we needed time to get there the week where we had fun. she tells me it was nice and we should do it more often. she stays the night there at his parents place she calls me and tells me they arrived and everything so i feel good about this as we just kissed, i have been bending my back so hard to clean, work on my self, have the meals ready and stuff, i work almost only weekends so i take care of it as she works on weeks.
but sunday she comes home and we talk about about what she did and if she had fun, she did tell me she really missed me during that time and that gave me hope again, but still the feeling of K did not leave.
she was cold almost 3 days and said she still dont know... mind you this is now 1.5 months in and i have done everything i can to make us work i still sleept in a diffrent room as she was not really that comfortable after the whole webcam insedent. when she got back home i told her to stay with her sister and work this out if she still want to. as she is there i can see her search history and she is looking for bracelets for boyfriends and a bottle of capten morgan witch u can make ur own lable on it that is K's favorit, i call her and ask wtf are you doing, and she said his birthday is comming up and i want to get him something nice, and i tell her but you search for BOYFRIEND, not like Braclets for guys, and she said otherwise just some girly stuff comes up, and i told her no ur looking for Braclet for Boyfriends with ingravings...so i took matters in to my own hands and snaped her and askt right out is there anything betwin you and K and she said yes i have feelings for him, and i think to my self what the **** and she said i have not told him anything at all and u cant do that, so i confront K and ask him if anything happend, he said no and i tell him she has feelings for u, how do u want to do this ? want me to move out so u can be with her ? and K said no, i dont want to get in betwin you guys, i see her as a friend and then i told him then can u back off for a while and dont text snap or call her ? and he said sure... and K wanted to know how we meet, so i told him it was rough, i told him about how when we started the realationship i got a std, a minor one u can just take a pill (Clamydia) and its gone, that her Ex gave her before the brake up. and that sent my wife bannanas, K twisted this story too and told ex that she still has it, and never treated it, so in order now to have contact with her about the kids and not go throu soical services or i had to apolgyse to K about it and say i lied, witch i did, but still the damages was done she is now really done with me i guess as she blocked me on facebook and snapchat and will not awnser any calls or text. she also added back the friends she cheated on me with (just pics no touching) and still staying with friends and have the kids there now. was i in the wrong here to confront him ?
also is there a way to find back even tho she said never even if i got 1m on my bank accoun ?

I’ve been having this issue of ED for about almost 4 weeks now, it happened in the middle of my gf and me having sex where my dick just went flat. Had sex a few days later and it’s just been super tough trying to get hard. I’ve watched porn since I was in the 4th grade. I’m 24 almost 25 M. My dick just doesn’t work anymore, I’ve been taking these blue chews pills just so I can TRY and get it hard for when I want to have sex but sometimes just being horny and hard requires so much energy when I’m having sex and I don’t know what else to do anymore. I’m stressing myself out that my dick isn’t going back to normal.
Any advice, tips. Whatever you guys got because this ED is driving me crazy

My normal posts are 2-5 paragraphs. This is long because it's a starter.
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The sloping ground around the Kiaurk family mesa had been sculpted into shelves or terraces, and it was on one of those upper terraces that Kiaurk Nshurr now lounged beneath a pergola anchored to the striated stone face behind her. The mesa rose at her back: an enormous, looming, almost sheer outcrop that her family's dwellings had been carved into the face of. Wide, shallow steps cut into the artificial (but entirely convincing) sandstone wound their way up between landings and porticos leading inward, between tiny balconies shaded by bright solid-colored canopies, between rooms with flat walls and rounded corners that came jutting out to shadow the steps below. Rriigkhans rarely used glass as window barriers; smooth-edged holes had been cut through the rock in varying shapes and sizes. It could be difficult to tell which apertures were windows and which were entryways. A physical barrier that kept out the elements was obsolete in all but the crudest dwellings, though some of these larger holes were curtained with braided string or strips of cloth that served a purely decorative purpose.
From her high vantage point Nshurr could see the shelves stretching out below her as the base of the mesa leveled out to flattish terrain that was a wonderland of vegetation in muted rainbow colors: mustard yellows, clay reds, earthy browns and the occasional dash of sage or dusty blue. This scrubland lay like a blanket around everything below that was not part of the village between the mesas. Down there, adobe compounds never taller than two or three storeys seemed so squat compared to the mesas that Nshurr could see towering in the distance, many of those family mesas only a few hours walk from her own if she traveled by foot. The village sprawled, with tile parkways winding in serpentine fashion between the various buildings, courtyards, parks, and ponds. There were no property lines, no clear division of the land into neat little plots owned by the individuals who lived and worked in these places. It all seemed to be part of a whole, with a single unifying aesthetic. The village housed those rriigkhans of the lower castes, the kharratah and chelhautah, and the humans which were a caste all their own, haukagh-ar, except for a small number who lived with their masters in the caverns of the mesas or up on the plateau.
This planet, Sgarrl, terraformed over three hundred years ago, was home to more human servants than any other Ssaarian world – aside from Earth, of course, discovered eighty years ago. The fact that humans shared so much in common with rriigkhans made them the perfect species to incorporate into the rriigkhan caste structure as servants. They breathed the same mix of gases and required similar gravities, and their nimble little fingers were very useful for all sorts of work.
The rriigkhan language was not necessarily too complex for humans, but it was wholly unfamiliar – too many phonemes that did not fit comfortably in human mouths, from grunts to huffs, to rolling trills that might by voiced or not, sometimes rumbling out like a purr. To a human, Nshurr's name was a sigh and a trill, and yet she was accustomed to humans vocalizing her name in their heavy, slurring way: Na-Shuurr! Nasher! Sometimes simply: ɽ͡r! which she recognized more easily as her name, or at least part of it, and not some random sounds.
Still, despite the weird pidgin humans had made of her language and their English, she liked the little creatures. She had come to live with her Grandmother on Sgarrl only days ago, and had never encountered them before. The males only stood as tall as her collar. The females were shorter still, much like the males of her own species.
To human eyes Nshurr was felinoid, with a muscular swimmer's body and the broad muzzle of a big cat, with watchful, forward-facing predator's eyes that seemed unexpectedly expressive, because rriikghans had almost as many muscles around their eyes as humans did around their mouths to convey the nuances of emotion. Despite being larger than even many Earth men, she was considered sleek by rriigkhan standards. She made up for that with her broader crest.
The rriigkhan crest was something like the crest of Utahceratops – a keratinized plate growing up out of the skull, except divided into three lobes instead of two, with scalloped edges along the outer rim. Unlike depictions of Utahceratops, the rriigkhan crest was not covered by skin. At least, not on the top. Thick ropy veins squiggled under velvet fur on the underside, closer to the neck. (A thick, arching neck muscular enough to support the weight of that crest meant that Rriigkhans walked with a stoop that made them seem hunchbacked, to humans.) The surface of the plate on top was often rough, even bumpy or corrugated like deer antlers in some areas, smooth in others. Every female crest had four tines jutting from the front – a pair several inches above the eyes, and another pair further up. Directly above the lowest set of tines were twin holes, the howrf channels, just big enough for a human to insert a finger. These holes were very much like nostrils – much deeper, but damp inside, and lined with short, fine hairs to protect the sensitive mucous membrane from debris. The organs housed within these channels were the heart of rriigkhan culture, the foundation of all relationships, of sex.
Male rriigkhans, of course, had only their neotonous crests: diminutive, mostly smooth with rounded edges, without tines or howrf channels. Cute.
Nshurr's crest was wider than average, her upper tines spaced further apart, and combined with a compact face this made her look top-heavy. (A human might say that she was more snow leopard than lion.) Most female crests did not interfere with the movement of the ears – highly mobile, highly expressive paddle shaped things – but the edges of Nshurr's crest did jut out enough to almost shield them.
That her crest was weighty, that it was inconvenient, that she was often aware of it – this was Nshurr's pride. Her long tail curled in pleasure when she caught males looking at it. Humans seemed to be intimidated by it sometimes, as if she might decide to gore them with her “horns.” She considered herself a confident person; not a braggart, but self-assured, and to carry her jhekaah so visibly pleased her to no end.
Her fur was an almost peachy off-white, but a mask of pale peach shaded each seafoam green eye. The mask blended into the white further up her forehead until fur gave way to bone-tan crest, and was split between her eyes by the white of her nose. Oblong spots in that same peachy color, each blending from dark to light, streaked down her sides.
These weren't the natural colors of her distant ancestors. It was unheard of to see a rriigkhan who was not gene-modified in some way, even if those modded genes had been part of rriigkhan life for so long that no one thought of them as mods any longer. She also thought nothing of the subtitles her augmented reality implant displayed whenever a human spoke, AI translated to help her decipher the pidgin. AR was simply a part of her, had been since she was a kit.
Reclining as she was on a padded lounger in front of an iron brazier, full of cold ashes from last night's fire, Nshurr was dressed in a pale coral shift only a few shades darker than the peach of her fur. Medallions trailing fringes of cloth had been sewn onto the front bottom half of the knee-length garment. A row of those ornate medallions defined a plunging neckline that bared much of her chest, muscular and broad, possibly even masculine to a human. Her breasts were lower on her body and similar in appearance to a mare's udders: long nipples on a pudge of fat nestled close together on the pelvis, just above the place where her thighs joined her body. They were only small lumps beneath the shift when Nshurr stretched out her legs so that the thin fabric fell across them. It was the roundness of her hips and buttocks that marked her female to the human eye. (As if her crest didn't make that obvious!)
She was listening to the sound of two younger female cousins wrestling on a nearby terrace, and although from her vantage point Nshurr could not see them, she could imagine the scene from what she heard: Fherou and Lahk growling while they grappled with their arms, the crack of crest hitting crest and then the scrape of tine sliding against tine. Each was fighting to control the other's head, each trying to bite the other. It wasn't easy when each had a shaggy ruff to protect her neck, and any attempt to bite the other's face would be thwarted by an interposing crest. Rriigkhan hands were less dexterous than human hands, more pawlike with stubby fingers, but capable of delivering hard blows, and once or twice Nshurr heard a cousin snarl in response to a strike against her body.
The competitive pheromones her cousins exuded from their unextended howrfs, quite unconsciously, were beginning to make Nshurr's own heart beat faster. The end of her long tail, where it hung down from the reclining chair, lashed in agitation. She was beginning to imagine sinking her teeth into someone's skin herself, and if her cousins had not been so much younger and smaller than herself she might have gone down to their terrace to show them a thing or two. It was putting her off the human flute music she'd been listening to, fed directly into her own brain through her implant for her private enjoyment. (Certain aspects of human culture were very popular here on Sgarrl; she'd been curious about it.)
She did not feel like going inside to escape the pheromones; Nshurr craved the warmth of the sun on her fur, not the cool stone and artificial light of those warrens. Most of her male cousins had gone into the village for boating today. Well, perhaps she would go down and join them after all.
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OOC Information:
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For this prompt I imagine you'd play a human servant, probably a new arrival to Sgarrl but maybe someone who was born there. Even though I've set up a situation where my character would have a lot of power and yours very little, I want to clarify that I'm not interested in abusing your character I am looking for a slow burn interspecies romance that develops naturally. This story may deal with power imbalances and even speciesism, but I'd like to explore those topics realistically.
I want to explore all aspects of loving relationship... Flirting, cuddling, kissing, lots of romantic scenes and character growth. My “type” that I'm most attracted to are men with average bodies in the 40-60 age range, with realistic personality flaws. I am more than willing to tailor my character's personality and physical attributes to suit your tastes, within reason. I appreciate partners willing to do the same.
I prefer to reply more than once a day. 2-3 replies per day would be ideal, but I understand life gets in the way. I usually write 2-5 paragraphs, or 150-450 words per post. This starter is much longer than my typical post length, but my lengths vary according to need. If I'm introducing a new character or setting a scene, my post might go up to 1,000 words.
Please send a writing sample if you have none in your post history. No need to custom write anything for me, old samples are fine. Click here to PM me!