Broke straight list

I 27m broke up with my gf of 7 years at the start of 2024 no hard feelings or anything, ever since tho I have been watch gay adult content which has been weird as I before hand never had a thought about anything of that stuff. I started to question it in my work one day as I seen this obviously gay guy with a huge ass. He came up to me and should interest but I said “nah I’m straight” I thought about it more after and I thought, I got turned on by the thought of me fucking him but, got grossed or at the thought of him doing that or kissing me.
I have no idea what is going on but i am sure it turns me on because it’s like the thought of fucking a guy with a fat ass is almost like conquering him and the thought of like it’s wrong to want to fuck a guy that is feminine with an ass is a huge turn on, but a massive turn off if I think of kissing or me being the one that is fucked. Getting head as well but with my eyes closed is hot, usually the content the guys ass has to be shaved as well or I can’t watch. I’m just so confused at this point, cause I could definitely do it, as I find it so incredible hot if it’s a guy that has feminine attributes, but couldn’t see myself doing any of that other stuff at all as the thought of that makes me feel sick. What would this be called and has anyone experienced this?
I’m just so confused as I still find women hot and would go for them more but if given the opportunity I would fuck a feminine guy if they had a nice ass every now and then.
Update: Gave the guy I saw at work this new Reddit I have and he said that him and some of his friends wanted me to rate their asses😂 as they wanted my opinion, which is a massive turn on because I’ve not done anything with a guy and they are random strangers, that are gonna be sending me that soon😂 think they are turned on by the fact that It would be my first time fuckin a guy and I can tell they want it to be one of them. I was in the toilet at the urinal about to take my break and the original guy came in walked up to the side of me and he said “hey you know me and my friend are competing with each other right”
I responded “for what”
He leavened in and said “for your seed, we all want to be the first guy you fill up”
I instantly got hard which he noticed as the pee started hitting the urinal with more force. He looked down grabbing my cock which at this point was throbbing like mad, kept talking and started to give it a few tugs each gettin faster and faster while saying “we will send the photos and you’ll enjoy them but just remember this moment when u see me in the phone with my head down arched back and gaping hole lookin right at u, that this (reference my cock) will be mine and u will empty everything u have in these balls into that tight little hole” He at this point tugged my cock hard and has he then led me by dick into the cubical push me on the seat of the toilet dropped to his knee and start sucking my cock better than my exes did in the past, i inched deeper and deeper into his tight little throat with every Bob of his head and I couldn’t take it anymore I taped his head to pull out but he instead he went balls deep which I didn’t expect as my eyes we’re looking at the ceiling the entire time as the head was unbelievable good, it was the first time that it had happened to me before and I shot the biggest load ever down his tight little throat . He turned around and walked out telling me to look at his ass as the next time I see it will be in those naked photos.
Kinda sounds too good to be true but I ain’t complaining. Can’t wait to receive them photos from a bunch of randoms that I don’t even know. I’ve seen the friends and they are all really feminine and a 3 of them have got a wagon on them the others ain’t as much but still nice. Can’t wait so see the experience how different a guy takes it to the women I’ve been with, cause they three guys alone have bigger asses than 90% of the girls I’ve been with, and I’ve heard the head gay guys give is better-✅the toilet experience ticked that off as true), I am exited to see what happens in the next few weeks. And can’t wait to see how the photos turn out.
The thought of a guy setting up a camera behind over and take a photo to my approval as to if I would empty my seed balls deep inside of them is an amazing,and that I hope it doesn’t end with them. As it is such a turn on to receive booty pics especially from guys with nice big bubble butts like them to get my thoughts or have them told how I want them to take a photo for my pleasure 😇 . I’ll definitely fuck one of those three anyway as they all seem very interested to be the first guy I’ve ever fill up. Things are looking great tho never been more turned on at the thought of a few guys wanting my cock in my life and my opinion on their bubble butts and cute little holes.
EDIT: didn’t expect any messages 😅keep them DM’s coming i guess god damn😜😜😜😜🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

My ex(23M) broke up with me(22F) in December because he just wasn't ready to be together but we still lived together. I'm ngl it felt like we were still together bc nothing had changed but our status. In march I began to come home late and he got mad and decided to move out, even though I begged him to stay. After He moved out but we still kept in touch until he would get mad at me for doing something then ignore me for like a days straight. Well during that time I started seeing someone and we hit it off. We hung out plenty of times and at the beginning of this month (May) I decided to invite the guy over. Well my ex found out and got mad and said that I was wrong for bringing a guy to a place where he used to stay but I don't believe I am wrong because he moved out and during the time of us trying to rekindle things he ignored me for a week.
you can heck out old post to see the history of this relationship

I (29M and Gay) had a very bad breakup from my first ever relationship back in November.
We were only together for 3 months, but our relationship very suddenly went from absolutely perfect (in my eyes anyway) to a sudden end because of my family intervening to ruin it. The way he broke up with me gave me a terrible and unexpected shock.
I already had some signs of Limerence towards him before our breakup (I had his Instagram follower list memorised, he was always in my mind and I was absolutely terrified of losing him).
After the breakup I was very upset, but I thought I would move on after a few weeks. But more than 6 months on I am still thinking about him almost all the time. I have absolutely no interest in any other potential partner.
The thought that I might never see him again crushes me. I had to block him on Instagram for my own mental health because I was obsessively checking his profile. We have absolutely no contact now and he hasn't reached out since November.
I would love to hear from him and would reach out myself if I thought it would work. But I'm too afraid to harm his opinion of me. So I just continue on and on, thinking of him all the time and dwelling in sadness that he's gone. I keep telling myself that he WILL be back eventually.
Does this sound like classic limerence? How can I move on and stop this? I feel like I can't enjoy anything because I'm always thinking about how amazing he is and how I lost him.

I used to hate how judgmental Sarah can be towards the player and their actions. It can feel like she straight up resents you at times, and the prospect of you going on to romance her seems ridiculous and unrealistic. It really broke my immersion.
But then I had the idea of doing some mental role-play, inspired by Han and Leia’s relationship in A New Hope and Empire. To sum it up, instead of seeing Sarah as a humourless killjoy who resents the player, I chose to view her as a Princess Leia type. I chose to see her as someone who is totally dutiful and takes their responsibilities very seriously, but at the same time has a secret soft spot for a loveable rogue. That means that when she grills and criticises the player for performing questionable actions, there’s a hidden element of curiosity and endearment on her part - just like Leia feels towards Han in the original trilogy. It’s a classic love/hate, “will they/wont they” deal.
TLDR: the player is the Han Solo-ish ‘loveable rogue’, and Sarah is the dutiful, responsible general who has a secret soft spot for people like Han.
Hope this makes sense lol

After reading several histories of the group, most recently Mal Evans biography, I've compiled a list of reasons the Beatles broke up. Not definitive, but these seem to be the most significant reasons.

• When they stopped touring, the four headed creature became four separate creatures with different interests and groups of friends. This started the drifting apart.
• The death of Brian Epstein, who may not have been the best manager in the world, but he did hold the boys together and provided guidance for them.
• John losing interest in being the leader of the band and Paul taking the reins. Paul gave energy to the band, but also caused some bad feelings with his manner and approach most significantly with George. Plus John and George didn't like having to play Paul's "fruity songs," like Maxwell's Silver Hammer and O-Bla-Di.
• John bringing Yoko along to everything!! That broke the inner circle of the four members which others at best tolerated but didn't like. Especially when they had a bed in the studio for her so she could still be with John during her pregnancy. John and Yoko doing heroin further eroded the situation with the other three.
• The final straw was Alan Klein. John, George, and Ringo signed with Klein as their manager and tried to force Paul to sign also, giving him ultimatums. Paul, being the smart one in this situation, signed with Linda's relative to be his manager. This was the rift that never healed and caused the group to fall apart.

Yoko Ono alone did not break up the Beatles. She was a big part of it, but there were other forces at work to split the boys apart.

You don't have to read the entire post as I realize it's quite long. You can just answer the question in the title if you want.
I'm asking this because I've seen a lot of people say that ER is the greatest soul game ever made. I'm curious on your guys' opinion. I asked here cause I think I'll get the least biased answers. Also, this includes Sekiro too.
For me ER would be number 4 on my favourite soulsborne games list. 1st is sekiro for the gameplay and an actual narrative for once, 2nd is Bloodborne for the setting, the design and number 3rd is dark souls 3 cause of its tight experience and having my second favourite boss (Nameless king) with 5th being DS2 SotFS and last being DS1 solely cause I lose interest in the second half. If I was just going by the first half it would be number 5.
While I love ER I do have some issues with it (this is all my opinion)
I don't really like the open world. It was great the first time but the second time the open world felt a bit tedious. It was like if you took the world of dark souls and stretched it out so it would take you longer to reach Point A to Point B. This is for subsequent playthroughs btw since souls games are kinda meant to be played again (you'll come back anyways, you always do) Everything past the first playthrough felt like an empty map. And if you like to do fresh playthroughs instead of NG+ you would have to pull out the wiki to see which cave has which upgrade material. It loses it's magic.
I loved the linear experience of Dark souls and Bloodborne where every area felt connected with its shortcuts. It felt like a rougelike in a sense. You knew everything about the map but you could play differently this time in a reasonable amount of time.
The mountaintop was just a straight run to the fire giant.
The legacy dungeons fixed this issue but doesn't help when 70% of the map is open world.
Also, the enemy recycling. Seriously, how many dragons do we need. And those watchdogs, magma wyrms, the erdtree avatar, Beastmen, fucking ulcerated tree spirits I understand open world games need to recycle enemy and to have an enemy drop an important upgrade material (why the rotten lizard?!) but it feels like 50% of the enemies we have are the one's mentioned above.
The Boss scaling was another issue for me. I would say I'm pretty good at souls games but still struggle. I beat Isshin, Nameless King, Midir and Gael in my 3rd, 4th, 2nd and 4th try respectively while Friede, Father, Ludwig, Maria and Orphan took me close to 10, 8, close to 15, close to 5 and around 35 tries respectively. Did Gehrman and Moon presence first try. I have also completed Shura and Divine heir gauntlets.
The point is the bosses in ER have such a weird balance. Where you can solo bosses easily in the other games if you practice or fall into a rhythm, in ER bosses are designed around summons and sometimes summons break the game. I haven't been able to solo Malenia, Radahn (who is basically a raid boss) or Maliketh yet (after close to 50+ to 100 tries each). They feel designed to be beaten with summons while bosses like Margot, Placidusax, Fortisax, Godfrey and Horah Loux (who is Actually my favourite boss) felt so much more fun to play against and felt way more fair. Every death was my mistake and it didn't feel like I jumped from ER into Sekiro all of a sudden.
I know I probably suck with those three bosses and everyone has different experience (I died to the crystal sage nearly 10 times) but you can't deny that they play differently than other bosses.
I love ER and while I appreciate the open world and this experiment I really hope they don't make another open world right after this and instead go back to their tried and true linear formula. I know the DLC will be amazing as FS has a track record of delivering absolutely amazing DLCs.
Also, all of these issues I had were my own personal opinion. Feel free to share your own.

i don't even know what i expect from posting this here, but maybe writing it down will help.
in december of last year i matched with a guy on tinder. we had great conversations from the start and he was super sweet. back then, i was struggling a lot with my mental and physical health, since i suffer from 'generalized anxiety disorder' and dealt with dizziness for 3 months straight. after a few days of texting i opened up to him and complained about my symptoms. he asked a lot of questions about the things i was dealing with, told me how impressed he was by my self awareness and made it seem like he really cared.
after he told me he wasn't doing so well himself i offered to listen if he wanted to talk and he shared his story with me. a few months prior he had an accident while playing soccer. he broke his skull, had internal bleeding in his head and had been dealing with epileptic seizures ever since. i felt horrible after hearing his story, because obviously, he was going through a lot more than me, but i was the one complaining.
we texted for a few more days, talked about meeting up for drinks, but then stopped talking and just responded to eachothers IG stories here and there. 3 months later (march), we started chatting again..
he told me how happy he was, how much better he was doing and apologized for not reaching out. he also told me that he would still love to get to know me and i agreed on meeting up with him. even though he still had a lot going on, he wanted to know how i was doing and listened to my struggles all over again. we had another great conversation and both shared a lot with eachother.
somehow, the conversation stopped. a week later i wished him a happy birthday and a few days after that he responded "pretty girl" to my IG story but that was it. i didn't hear from him for 5 weeks.. i was a little disappointed and wondered why he never reached out, but just told myself that he's probably busy.
fast forward to 2 days ago.. i was about to go to bed and was scrolling through facebook when i saw a weird post of an "anti covid vaccine" profile. it was an article about a young soccer player who recently passed away from cardiac arrest and the description said "i"m not surprised so many young people pass away these days, because of the vaccine". i shook my head and was about to scroll past it, when i realized the guy looked familiar. (it was a picture of him in motion, while playing soccer so it was hard to tell)
after looking at the picture for a few seconds i realized who it was and immediately choked up. my first thought was 'omg i need to tell him that they used his picture for a nonsense article.' but then i started wondering if the article was real. i went to check the IG page of his soccer team but couldn't find anything, so i had hope the article was just a horrible joke. but just to make sure, i googled his name and there they were..
20-30 news paper articles, talking about the young soccer player who died out of nowhere at the beginning of april. he was already gone for 35 days by the time i found out.
i was staring at the ceiling, crying and just couldn't grasp it. 3 weeks before his death we were talking about meeting up and 13 days before, he responded to my IG story one last time.
i never got to meet him but my heart is still broken. i didn't have to talk to him in person to know what a great person he was. i was sure about that the day we started talking..
you may think i'm exaggerating by saying that i'm heart broken by his death, but he's the first person who passed away whom i talked to shortly before that. and the fact that it took me so long to realize he was gone just makes me even more sad. i even remember my dad telling me about a soccer player passing away back in april, but his name was never mentioned so i had no idea.
and now, i just have to live with the fact that he's gone. i don't want to complain too much, because if i'm heart broken by this, i can't even imagine how his family and friends are feeling, but it still hurts.
i guess the moral of this story is: live life to the fullest; reach out to the person you like; go on dates; tell the people around you how much they mean to me and just make the most out of everyday. at least that's what i will do from now on..

This will probably be long winded so apologies in advance. TW: partner relapse
My partner 30m(PA/Love Addict) is in recovery and has been going to meetings for several years and is quite dedicated to his sobriety from what I've (32f) seen but he's also become increasingly controlling in what seems to be every facet of my life he can sink his teeth into and I feel like this weekend it has reached a new level of red flag alert.
Backstory- We've been dating for a little over a year and I knew before our first date that he identified as a SA because I shared upfront that I was a recovering alcoholic w 2y sobriety; I never saw his addiction as a hinderance rather a minor inconvenience and a bit ironic as I had been involved in the world of FSSW for 8y and currently a stripper going on 6y. I'm sure you can smell the toxicity forming from whereever you're reading now..
We had some pretty heated convos and runins with his addiction last year and eventually broke up for several months in late 2023. Took some space and ultimately we decided to give it another shot in Feb 2024. Except he introduced an ultimatum/condition that I somehow became complicit in, despite mentioning it was an absolute no go for me initially. He said it was his "boundary' that he could not progress further in our relationship given my status as a stripper working in the club. We made plans to move in by May and I took into account the months of couples counseling we've been attending, hoping that would help ease the transition and give us time to work out some kinks. So, the ultimatum- he will not move in with me and commit to me long term if I do not stop working in the strip club (I made the decision to stop doing FS several months into our relationship last year so that isn't an issue). When I agreed to this proposal, I was already missing a lot of work due to chronic back pain and nerve damage from dancing for so long/not conditioning well enough, etc and knew I wanted to eventually transition into a more fulfilling and engaging work environment, something more aligned with me and my interests/education. No biggie I thought, just a hopeless romantic trusting in love that became convinced it's normal to meet a partner that can't handle their partner being a dancer as I've seen it so often with my coworkers. Anyhow, the ultimatum became a huge source of contention as I realized I wasn't ready to quit by our May move in date; I had been avoiding work altogether and depleted my emergency savings because he said by me going to work at the strip club is me choosing to engage in my addiction and middle circle- he is adamant I have a sex addiction and pushes on this often. I don't deny I have a dysfunctional relationship to sex and intimacy but I've been in trauma, talk, emdr therapy, etc for over a decade with various providers and have overcome an extensive amount of my trauma that has led to seeking validation via promiscuity. I digress, as an alcoholic that has 7+ cumulative years sober in my adult life, I do understand addiction, which always feels dismissed or discounted. He thinks I'm in denial and it sparks a whole separate issue.
Blah blah blah I could go on and on. Flash forward this weekend... Our first week moving in together. It's been an emotionally taxing few months between me incessantly looking to find a job to no avail, interviewing and submitting applications for hours a day on top of co-parenting my toddler with her bio dad, and feeling like I am constantly having to make myself available to cater to my partners emotional insecurity. Anyway, I flew out of town a few days ago to spend the weekend with my family and first mother's day with my mom and kiddo and he relapses the first night I'm gone. Not some two second middle circle engagement but full on masturbation/completion which is inner circle and something I've only known him to do one other time last year while we were dating. The nature of material and content consumer is what has me infuriated, feeling violated, beyond betrayed, fetishized, and secretly hated. When I tried to express this, he said I was shaming him and taking advantage of the vulnerability and honesty he's shared with me and it was essentially an entire day of screening texts from him that were hurtful and hateful and eventually ended on how he feels isolated and alone and disrespected bc I don't see him as a dad and the list goes on and on and on and on. Seriously I can't remember a day, much less an hour where I wasn't being criticized for saying something, believing something, doing something, feeling something that doesn't resonate with his worldview. He intellectualizes everything and he uses his intelligence to nitpick and debate until I am drained.
So back to the issue at hand- the nature of the material was forums where sex worker johns/tricks were discussing what it's like to be with sw providers and stripper porn vids so I'm like ............. Can you not see how this is completely deranged on some level? The level of control and manipulation to get me out of the club... He even went as far as to tell me how he was thinking about frequenting one of the strip clubs or picking up a destitute worker off the street as I'm out of town. With my daughter, for mother's day, hours before he relapsed. Something more alarming is that he fails to see much of a difference with this than other types of vids, etc even though it is extremely personal now (no this was not his go to before and he disclosed it was a new development as of this month). With this failure to hold himself accountable he just keeps asking me to inform him how it hurts and go into detail after detail so he can understand better. At this point a part of me feels like he enjoys hearing how it affects me so detrimentally as he often gets turned on after I am vulnerable with him.
I just don't know where to go from here. I told him I have made other temporary living accommodations since this transpired so quickly after moving in together. I'm torn bc a part of me wants to continue working on our relationship and build a future together. But another part of me knows that being alone and a little unhappy occasionally is a lot more manageable and desirable than being in a relationship and miserable with someone else that fails to see the very real pressure and angst being applied. The emotional and mental load it's taken has seriously decreased my ability to feel much on any given day aside from resentment, sadness, and fits of anger. I feel very alone and confused as to how to proceed and genuinely want to know how worth it is to other women that have gone through similar experiences, whether on not investing into someone like that pays off or if it's just a dead end with more trauma to overcome for myself eventually. Not to mention he told me I was getting fat on mother's day. For reference, I am 5'7 and 128 lbs currently. I will deflect and joke that my looks are the only thing I'm not self conscious about considering I get paid for them so IDC. Even though this has continually come up for months now that I haven't stuck to my continuous pole regimen, I've been dealing with back spasms, and just trying to exist as a single mom transitioning into a new career, having my own hobbies, etc.
I guess I want to post this to hold accountability for myself and have some of my concerns validated bc I do get wrapped up in the promises and emotional intimacy we share. I know I have a tendency to be codependent and am working on breaking this cycle but I guess that's why I'm also finding myself back at this point of sink or swim and just disappointed I believed in the bigger picture we painted together.

So my daughter is 11 1/2. We just finished Gilmore Girls. (Not really finished, AYITL episode 2 she straight up quit) She’s starting middle school this year but she’s actually like 58 years old🤣.
Parenthood was on my list because it’s great and I know I can get her into it with Lauren Graham. Currently we’re at S2E1. It has been absolutely hilarious to rewatch through her eyes. Here are some quotes so far.
-“Please tell me Jabbar stays like this. He’s the only one that seems sane and normal”
-“I hate watching Adam and Kristina talk. They just talk over each other and it gets loud and confusing. How have they stayed married?”
-“Drew is ok. He needs his own personality though.”
-“Mom, Sarah is a bartender and a single mom like you! Does she also have bad taste in men?” (OUCH🤣)
-“Jasmine and Crosby are the most normal couple. I bet he grows up a lot.”
-“Why does the grandmas hair look like THAT?! Did she forget to do half of it?” (At the art gallery)
-“Hattie is annoying but it’s probably because her parents ignore her over Max.”
-“Ugh I hate Raquel. Why is she such a pick me?”
-“Can you fast forward through Sydney please?”
-“Zeke seems like he’d tell me I couldn’t do ‘boy things’ and ask me to make him a sandwich.”

The past couple of months I’ve been experiencing these really weird moments that sometimes comes in waves, that last up to a couple minutes. The symptoms are usually: Sinking stomach feeling, almost feels like I need to go to the restroom immediately, fast heart beat, sweating, brain fog/can’t focus or think straight, heat flash. Overall, it just feels like sheer panic and really is effecting me physically which I’ve never experienced before with anxiety.
The first time this happened I was out to dinner with my partner, and I thought I needed to use the restroom. Even on the drive home I had the panic feeling, almost felt like I wasn’t going to make it home in time. Once I was home I calmed down and didn’t need to use the washroom.
Since then, it happens every single time I go to my partners parents house. It happened when I was out shopping with my parents. It happened today while I was stuck in traffic with a friend. It usually starts out with some slight panicky feeling, sinking stomach, then leading to me believing that I need to use the washroom. But this always almost happens when there isn’t a readily available place to use the washroom or not a comfortable option. This then leads me to panic even more and then all the symptoms listed above hit me all at once. Overall, the triggering thought seems to be bathroom related (although most times I don’t even need to use it).
Idk it’s really weird and starting to feel debilitating because of how often it’s happening. Everytime I go out it makes me anxious that I’ll start feeling like this.
Has anyone experienced this? How do I make it stop? I don’t want to feel like this everytime I leave the house.

It's been 3 weeks since me (F20) and my ex (M19) broke up and we haven't broken contact yet so that we can ease the impact of the change i guess. At first I was devastated because i was the dumpee, and we still loved each other a lot. However lately, I've been feeling a lot of irritation at times when I talk to him, Ever since the breakup, he's been wallowing in self-pity and expresses it to me every time. While I want to be there for him, I can't keep being his therapist while he doesn't even take my advice. He's lost some friends, and the ones that he talks to the most are are busy/not that close to him to really hang out with him often. This led to him feeling extremely lonely and always calling himself a loser and feeling depressed. I've tried my best to comfort him and give him advice on how to cope with the breakup once we go no contact, but it doesn't seem like he wants to work on himself. This is helping me get over him greatly, but I still care about him as a person.
He started working out, trying to do things to build back his life, but without friends to hang out with, he doesn't want to do any of it. He expects change and self-improvement to happen overnight and then feels discouraged when nothing happens and he still doesn't have friends at the end of the day. He can't see the point in doing "useless" activities. I can't keep giving him the same talk over and over when he doesn't want to listen. It makes me so mad and I honestly just want no contact to start now.
I'm scared that if I tell him my thoughts straight up and then go no contact, he's going to be completely alone and possibly put himself in harm. He doesn't have past history of self-harm, but he's more alone now than ever with no support system except me. I know I need to set boundaries, but he's the type to shut down and become consumed in negativity. We are still going to go no contact once the packages we ordered together arrive. I know his feelings aren't my responsibility anymore now that we aren't together. I guess I just don't know what to do to get him to understand. I've emphasized therapy so many times, but i'm not sure if he's going to actually get help. I care about him, but I'm so tired of it.

I find it interesting that I had never heard of Slowdive until yesterday night and now I bump into so many coincidences.
I am very much into a lot of different music but also a lot of grunge and alternative music (rock and other stuff)
Last night I was high as a kite and bumped into When the Sun hits. It stopped me with I was doing and checked it out deeply. I jumped to Alisson and -as if that was even possible- blew me away even further. They both hit it with me deeply. From then I went to Dagger which gave me personal inspiration in regards to the guitar line. By the way, When the sun hits also straight way gave me another, very fitting direction for my own songs.
Today I heard Machine gun in the car cruising around with the top down through the mountains while being on a solo trip and it fitted the scenery perfectly. No other song could fill in that exact moment (and I know some titans of songs..)
What the hell is it with that sound?
So now the coincidences: After last years festival Rock Werchter's succes I wanted to go again this year. Unfortunately the line up earlier did not seem so great and I crossed it of my list and out of my mind.
Suddenly today while listening to Alice In Chains I thought about wanting to see more concerts and festivals. I re-opened the Rock Werchter book in my mind and checked the line-up by now. What do I see? SLOWDIVE. That is, after I had heard it the night before for the first time, being blown away and thinking to myself: Gosh, I would like to see these guys but this is probably such a type of band that does no longer tour internationally anymore.
So, I'm probably going to Rock Werchter (Belgium) this year.
Now I come to this page and see It is the birthday of one of the band members.
Funny.
I'll definitely check further into these guys!
Great sound!

2024-187 / Zedd MAP: 67.42 / MLZ MAP: 73.84 / Score Gap: 6.42
Wikipedia?wprov=sfti1#) / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection
From IMDb - Adventures of Huck Finn - In Missouri, during the 1840s, young Huck Finn fearful of his drunkard father and yearning for adventure, leaves his foster family and joins with runaway slave Jim in a voyage down the Mississippi River toward slavery free states.
2024-188 / Zedd MAP: 55.68 / MLZ MAP: 40.50 / Score Gap: 15.18
Wikipedia / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection
From IMDB - The Sandlot - In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.
I rolled out of bed, took a few minutes to wipe the sleep out of my eyes, get that cup of coffee every new sunrise offers, and sat down in my trusted armchair - Mrs. Lady Zedd pushed play and The Adventures of Huck Finn hit the screen. I guess we’re doing this now - Morning Movies, well - I can bring the movie on whenever.
MLZ is a woman possessed - she’s been driving the big numbers we’ve been making this month: these two make #30 and #31 for the month ((damn)), we’re moving right along. If I’m being honest, I always associated movie watching with myself but Mrs. Lady Zedd is a cinephile’s cinephile. You’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to actively engage motion pictures like she does. She’s interested in any genre and I can’t even make that claim.
Neither of us had seen this incarnation of Huck Finn and it’s pretty much a pedestrian look at the life and times of a kid from a very different walk of life and time… but aren’t we just the same? That seems to be the message of any movie pushing Americana at its core. Nothing wrong with that (per se) but my “propaganda” button goes off at times like these.
“I don’t know why,” I say, “but this movie feels like *The Sandlot - the way it’s put together, the syrupy dialog and the clarity of the picture.” MLZ hmms and ya, see thats as I’m talking. It’s not about the story but the way the story is being told. Wide-eyed look back - that overwhelming feeling that the good old days were then, not now. Maybe it’s just me but I suggest we watch The Sandlot next and she readily agrees.
It’s while I’m filling in The Sandlot’s particulars that I spy (with my little eye) both films are from 1993. Ain’t that just the way. I’m filling in my form and am halfway through the cast when I wonder when each were in the theater? If I had to guess, I’d say Sandlot is pure early summer - Huck Finn could be fall?? I check: Sandlot is April 1, 1993 / Huck Finn is April 2, 1993. ((Blink-blink)) I just stare off in space… guess we picked well, from a date standpoint.
I pull up 1993 in the MCC because I wonder - there’s another motion picture I’d throw into a “feels like this” pile, and there it is: Matinee. “Huh” I say out loud - MLZ says, “Sounds about right.” and that’s when all hell broke loose.
The doorbell rang (despite all sorts of signs asking delivery drivers not to) and the dogs straight up go berserk. There are scratch marks above the top of the door - these pups are serious where the doorbell is concerned. The delivery? The very last Disney Movie Club order (this time for real). I’ll post pictures.
As we come to the end of the second film, I have to ask myself - how would either of these movies landed on me if I was 8 in 1993 (instead of 1979). I’m not sure - both movies share an insipid “the way we were” element, a fake history that I’ve always had a mild allergic reaction too. The kids in ‘79 were all hopped up on the future - NASA, and men walking on the moon, and Star Wars, and Tron… everyone I knew couldn’t hardly wait for what the future would hold… if I could broadcast a message from now to then, I’d simply say, “Live for the moment, the future is pretty shit.”
I asked Mrs. Lady Zedd what she thought and she said, “I think you get way too philosophical about everything.” A long blank stare later, I say about the movies. She said both were “fine”. Elijah Wood was more that cute as Huck, you can see he was already developing as an actor.
As for The Soundlot she gave me that fake smile she gives when something didn’t sit well with her. “The over the top of the movie narration just popped my movie bubble - every - damn - time.” She said it was so awkwardly done, so poorly written, so defectively slapped in there, it’s a brown patch in an otherwise “meh” apple.
I’m left to scratch my head. Things can change over time and my MAP dropped significantly since our last viewing in 2021. I normally look up past write ups to make sure I’m not just restating what’s already been said but I know for a fact that won’t be the case. I’d developed some nostalgia for the movie based on our neighborhood’s regular July 4th block party. The guy down the street played The Sandlot on his garage door every year before the fireworks got started.
Our neighborhood had changed a great deal since the pandemic. People moved on, new (less friendly) people moved in. I hate to say it but politics have transformed things as well. I think many of you will recognize what I’m saying. No more 4th of July (or any other) block parties.
What’s the opposite of nostalgia? Sad sentiments, I guess. We’ll be gone from here sooner than later, I hope something positive will come of our time in Texas - some hidden cause to smile, later, when I think back.
Movie on.

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Hello we are 2TMC a 21+ community server much like Hermitcraft. We are a SMP with emphasis on being friendly (with a little bit of chaos) with other players, and trying to be a welcoming community to everyone. We are running a Semi-Vanilla server with a few terrain generation mods and additional mods that enhance the vanilla experience (see list below).
We are looking for players who will be active in game on chat and on our Discord voice channels. The server is in NA but we accept players from all around the world. Discord and a mic are required! We love to chat on voice in game but it's definitely not required! We are also youtubestreamer friendly. So if you love to play minecraft and are looking for a friendly environment where you can prank others and do community projects then send us a message! We'd love to chat with you.
Data packs on the server

• afkdisplay
• anti enderman grief
• armored elytra
• better item frames
• blackstone cobblestone
• blaze and cave's advancements pack
• coal to black dye
• charcoal to black dye
• confetti creepers
• coordinates hud
• craftable notch apples
• craftable coral blocks 3x3
• craftable gravel
• craftable bundles rabbit hide
• custom nether portals
• double shulker shells
• dragon drops
• durability ping
• fast leaf decay
• graves
• larger phantoms
• more mob heads
• mountain angels
• name formatting station
• player head drops
• real time clock
• silence mobs
• straight to shapeless
• unlock all recipes
• universal dyeing
• unpackable nether wart
• villager workstation highlights
• wandering trades hermit edition

​
Fabric mods on the server

• armor poser
• audioplayer
• cloth config api
• clumps
• enhanced groups
• fabric per player spawns
• geophilic
• head index
• just an end anchor
• keep head names
• more mob variants
• no chat reports
• player pronouns
• radio
• regrowth
• shulker+
• shulkerboxtooltip
• simple voicechat
• slimyfloor
• status
• stitched snow
• terralith
• towns and towers
• william wythers' overhauled overworld

​
Fabric mods required to join the server

• armor poser
• cloth config api
• just an end anchor
• more mob variants
• no chat reports
• shulker+
• simple voicechat
• status
• xareos minimap
• xareos worldmap

​
Server Rules

1. Be Respectful
2. No griefing, stealing, or cheating
3. Chat is English only
4. Non-Destructive Pranks are allowed (so Hermitcraft style pranks)
5. Spawn area is for a spawn town
6. Bases must be built 250 blocks away from Spawn.
7. No duping except for carpet, rail and tnt.
8. No combat logging, this means mobs as well.
9. Taking items/griefing from active and maintained ruin sites is prohibited.
10. No hacking or hacked clients
11. No using others builds, items, villagers, etc without their permission.

If you are interested in joining please fill out this application

Hello we are 2TMC a 21+ community server much like Hermitcraft. We are a SMP with emphasis on being friendly (with a little bit of chaos) with other players, and trying to be a welcoming community to everyone. We are running a Semi-Vanilla server with a few terrain generation mods and additional mods that enhance the vanilla experience (see list below).
We are looking for players who will be active in game on chat and on our Discord voice channels. The server is in NA but we accept players from all around the world. Discord and a mic are required! We love to chat on voice in game but it's definitely not required! We are also youtubestreamer friendly. So if you love to play minecraft and are looking for a friendly environment where you can prank others and do community projects then send us a message! We'd love to chat with you.
Data packs on the server

• afkdisplay
• anti enderman grief
• armored elytra
• better item frames
• blackstone cobblestone
• blaze and cave's advancements pack
• coal to black dye
• charcoal to black dye
• confetti creepers
• coordinates hud
• craftable notch apples
• craftable coral blocks 3x3
• craftable gravel
• craftable bundles rabbit hide
• custom nether portals
• double shulker shells
• dragon drops
• durability ping
• fast leaf decay
• graves
• larger phantoms
• more mob heads
• mountain angels
• name formatting station
• player head drops
• real time clock
• silence mobs
• straight to shapeless
• unlock all recipes
• universal dyeing
• unpackable nether wart
• villager workstation highlights
• wandering trades hermit edition

​
Fabric mods on the server

• armor poser
• audioplayer
• cloth config api
• clumps
• enhanced groups
• fabric per player spawns
• geophilic
• head index
• just an end anchor
• keep head names
• more mob variants
• no chat reports
• player pronouns
• radio
• regrowth
• shulker+
• shulkerboxtooltip
• simple voicechat
• slimyfloor
• status
• stitched snow
• terralith
• towns and towers
• william wythers' overhauled overworld

​
Fabric mods required to join the server

• armor poser
• cloth config api
• just an end anchor
• more mob variants
• no chat reports
• shulker+
• simple voicechat
• status
• xareos minimap
• xareos worldmap

​
Server Rules

1. Be Respectful
2. No griefing, stealing, or cheating
3. Chat is English only
4. Non-Destructive Pranks are allowed (so Hermitcraft style pranks)
5. Spawn area is for a spawn town
6. Bases must be built 250 blocks away from Spawn.
7. No duping except for carpet, rail and tnt.
8. No combat logging, this means mobs as well.
9. Taking items/griefing from active and maintained ruin sites is prohibited.
10. No hacking or hacked clients
11. No using others builds, items, villagers, etc without their permission.

If you are interested in joining please fill out this application

Need Patterned Polos/Pants for casual work environment
tldr? Need fun patterned polos and new pants for casual work environment.
Me
I am 5'9, early 20s, super skinny, short brown hair (normally buzz cut, 1 inch on top still nice fade), American tradition sleeve on left arm, an array of black earrings (usually ones that look like littles gauges or small black rings). Former drug addict (keep reading lol)
Current Clothing
Only wear:
Shoes - Black Vans (almost non negotiable) This isn't a dress shoes environment.
Pants - Vans Denim (Black) or Volcom Shorts (Black) - I need new pants and shorts for work.

• Stuck in my ways. Black bottoms make me feel comfortable. Don't like skinny bottoms. Can't do chinos. Don't know what materials I like or dislike. I think the ones I hate are cotton blends.
• I really like pockets that face diagonally like those above. Pockets that go straight down make me want to scream.

Shirts - 'Fun' patterned Ben Hogan Polos from fricken Walmart.

• Looking for 'fun' patterns in polos that aren't from walmart. Invest in like 2-3 maybe $50 polos that are SFW. I liked these Bogey Bros ones but the SFW ones are lame and the SFW-ish ones were either still too NSFW or overpriced for what they were. Some of the NSFW ones were fine but....
• I don't like branding. Those Bogey Bros were cool but they had such a prominent billboard listing underneath the buttons that I wouldn't feel comfortable with.
• I like the fun colors and patterns just don't know where to look.
• One guy at my office wears these Primo polos - collarless golf polos - that are cool but I'm not trying to jack someone's style.

All my other clothes are too corpo for the likes of my environment. I only own slacks, button downs, and dress shoes.
Work
I work in a major Texas city. I work in a drug addiction treatment center - extended care stuff not a full on rehab or detox. My office is the first one when you walk into our building. I 95% of the time keep my door open because - I interact with every client constantly (they normally sit in my office to talk), families when they are here, treatment professionals when they are here, and my coworkers constantly.
The 'vibes' here are super casual with a hint of business. I could wear sweats and a Tshirt to work if I wished but I choose not to. I feel like my current style is fine but ultimately doesn't make me super happy.
I want something that is both professional but fun. I don't like plain solid shirts.
Please let me know if y'all have any recommendations or questions.

Day 3 almost in the books.
-we broke a $1 -we came from 0.04 cents. In 3 days. Take a minute let that marinate. -we still have 85% of the float shorted by HEDGIES we are waiting on to hit. -we drove 1 billion in volume 3 days straight. -we will face halts and Wall Street trying to discourage us. -we will prevail. -the higher we climb the more fluctuation we will experience. Remain calm do not panic. -Delist is a non issue as we have until June 25th OR simply stay above $1 for 10 days.
-WE RIDE AT DAWN FOR DAY 4 WHOS FFIE-ING WITH ME!!
-TO THE MOON APES TO THE BLOODY MOON!! 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀📈📈📈
-SHOW ME YOUR DIAMOND HANDS!! 💎💎

Hey, so I had a weird scam buyer experience a few weeks ago and I thought I’d share the story in case it ever happens to anyone else.
I was selling a baby crib on Facebook marketplace and it hadn’t sold for ages, relisted 3 times. On my fourth relist I suddenly got a message from a guy not long after I posted the listing, his name was ‘innocent’. He asks if it’s available to pick up today, I say of course and tell him he will probably need a big car or van because it doesn’t really flat pack etc etc He’s very keen, but the weird thing I noticed straight away is that he never actually asked for my address but said he could ask his mate to drive down today. He then says that he can pay over PayPal. I said cash in hand would be fine seeing as he’s picking it up. Nope he insists on PayPal- second red flag. I give him my email address as I’m thinking at least he’s not asking for my bank details.
I then get an email saying a business account is attempting a transaction and they need to upgrade their Facebook account to buy on marketplace and in order to make the transaction he needs to send me the amount for the crib plus £100. I would then need to send him £100 back. However you won’t notice the payment in your bank account until that £100 is sent back.
He’s like ‘ah yeah this has happened before, I’ll just send you the money and you can send it back” He says he’s sent the money and says that an email will come through to me with a link to send the £100 back. Obviously no email appears and no money was sent to me.
He then worries about the fact that he’s lost over £100. The obvious end game for him is to make me feel sorry for him and send him £100. Obviously I didn’t and messaged him saying I wasn’t comfortable sending any money and he immediately lost interest.
It was such an elaborate scam and when you look up about business accounts on google it does talk about updating them to receive money etc. The fake email was a nice touch too. So yeah just thought I’d flag this for anyone who just casually uses marketplace and may not be so used to scams like myself.

Two weeks ago, my account vanished. When I was on the FB app (iPhone), it started glitching and then logged me out. When I went to log back in, it would send me one text for the two-factor authentication. I would put in the code, and then it would go to another page requesting another code. I never receive the second code. The number that is listed is correct. I did a hard reset on my iPhone and still do not receive the second code. I have tried this multiple times on my phone and laptop. I have logged in before on both devices. Meanwhile, no one can find my account. It has vanished. I never received any warnings that I broke community standards. I downloaded my data, and I cannot find anything there either that I had broken community standards. I literally only post updates from college for my family. I then went through the process of uploading my passport to confirm my identity. My DL has a wavy holographic that causes it not to photograph clearly. I received an email confirming my identity, but the link was broken. I resubmitted my passport again to receive another link, but I am confused. Do I use the telephone number that my account is under, or do I use the email that they sent the link to? Any idea why my account has vanished? If it was hacked, wouldn’t it still be there in some form? I still have Messenger and IG.

Fletch gently pushed open the large and lavishly decorated bronze doors of the university administration building and ambled out into the portico. He set his cup of coffee down on the pedestal of a granite pillar and pulled his cigarette case from the breast pocket of his tan trench coat. The old chief inspector plucked a cigarette from the ornately engraved case with slender fingers and wondered why the Kael let him come at all.
Something felt very off with the whole thing. The more he thought about it, the more he questioned the story he got. Mike Anderson was certainly depressed, but as far as Fletch could tell, he had not displayed any suicidal behavior. And why now? Fletch thought. Things were on the upswing for the kid. His grades were excellent, his family situation was good, and he was out of the house more this term than the last. Fletch scratched his mustache. Why would the seals hide the autopsy and the gun? He brought the cigarette to his lips, snapped the filigreed case shut, and slipped it back into the breast pocket of his coat. Fletch flicked open his lighter and sighed as he lit his cigarette. Murder.
It was a hopeless case. These days, warrants were approved by the seals, and even if they weren't, he doubted that he could get one anyway. His suspicion of foul play was backed by nothing but his instinct.
Fletch watched students hustle and bustle through the plaza in front of him as he puffed away at his cigarette and pondered his theory.
But why kill him now? They could have done it in complete secrecy while he was a POW. And it couldn’t be to keep what happened in Philadelphia under wraps. His death brings more attention to it. And he wasn’t a rebel. So why? Fletch sipped at his coffee as he flicked ash from his cigarette. Vengeance? Did he kill some noble brat during the war?
Fletch scratched at his grey mustache and glanced at his watch. I’ll have to follow that thread. He tossed his half-smoked cigarette into a puddle as he briskly walked down the steps and through the university plaza.
The withered investigator was deep in thought when he entered the parking lot. What do I tell that Enrique chap? He unlocked his car and crawled in. I certainly can’t tell him that his mate’s been clipped with no evidence. Fletch turned the key, and the engine of his little Volvo sputtered to life. It’s no bleeding use. I’ll just tell the lad they weren’t interested in sharing and keep my suspicions to myself.
As he reached for the shifter, Fletch noticed a delightfully thick manilla envelope stuck in the gap between the center console and the passenger seat.
He pulled the envelope from the crack. Gingerly, he opened it and pulled out a small note. It read We’re even now, prick.
Fletch smiled and couldn’t help but mutter, “The game is afoot,” as he flicked through the stack of documents inside.
Isabella poked her head into the large office and saw Professor Dret’la with a ball of dark green yarn on her lap and bone darning needles beset with carvings in her hands.
Isabella was struck with confusion. What? She crochets!?
The professor looked up from her labor, spotted the confused girl outside her door, and called, “Come in.”
Isabella walked into the office and took a seat. She gestured to the yarn in the professor's hands. “What are you making?”
The professor smiled as motherly as one could with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. “It will be a hat for my son. He just received his commission as a junior biologist, so he has to rummage around in freezers to get samples for his whole research team.”
Isabella blinked. This was not characteristic at all for the quick-tempered professor with a penchant for launching chalk across lecture halls at the mildest provocation.
Isabella shook off her shocked expression and gave the tall professor a dimpled cheek smile. “That’s so sweet! I’m sure he’ll love it. One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was a thick wool sweater from my mamma during a training exercise off the coast of Norway.”
The professor, still smiling, sat up straight. “I hope that’s the kind of reception I get.”
The professor’s demeanor hardened as she stowed the yarn and needles in the desk drawer. “Now, let's get down to business.”
Isabella gulped.
“To start, congratulations. You’ve passed our testing and been selected for officer training.”
Isabella asked, “Who else was selected?”
“There are nine others: Robert Rhodes, Elena Pavel, Hal Jellico, Zheng Li, Brooke Halsey, Colow Aden, Magnus Tordenskjold, Bill Lee, and Kazuya Yamamoto.”
Isabella didn’t recognize all the names.
“Should you choose to accept, you will be taking a prep course taught by Colonel Ocidea and I starting next week and lasting all through the summer. If we deem you ready, you’ll ship out for basic training and then off to the Royal Military Academy, where you can earn your commission.” Dr. Dret’la leaned in close to Isabella. “Do you accept?”
Without hesitation, Isabella answered, “Yes.”
“Mike, come over here. You’re going to want to see this.” Calty voiced from her seat in the front of the cockpit.
Mike rolled off the couch and walked into the front of the cockpit as the captain shouted, “Decelerate!” Mike couldn’t help but grab onto the back of Calty’s seat as the FTL drive kicked into gear. The cockpit glass dimmed just before blindingly bright blue jets of fire from the front-facing engines came into view. A bright green circle flickered onto the glass surrounding a marble-sized dot darker than the rest of the now dim screen. The dots and circles expanded at an extreme pace until they took up most of the display. Another dot appeared—minuscule compared to the other—surrounded by a red circle. The growth of the shadowy dots and the circles around them slowed and then stopped entirely as the engines sputtered out.
The HUD faded out of view, and the tint of the glass slowly lightened, revealing a vast planet embraced by blue-green ice with a colossal foundry in its orbit. The planet, a gas giant called Drassus, was orbited by four rings. One was made of containers, and the other three were made up of loose ore gleaming in the nearby star's light. Exhaust chimneys spewing gas and fire sprouted from the otherwise spherical foundry, giving it a sea urchin-like profile, which, together with the weave of pipes bringing fuel from beneath the icy surface of the planet below, made the foundry resemble an old naval mine.
The captain strode up to the front of the cockpit. “One-third ahead and steer 14 degrees left. We’re unloading in bay three.”
Six mech suits and a tug exited a plasma-shielded hanger as the ship came to a halt. The mechs glided to the front of the ship and started dismounting the external cargo bay from the Broken Fin while the tug hitched onto the opposite end of the ten-kilometer-long rack of containers.
A little while later, the tug pulled away with the load of containers, and the comm system blared to life. “Broken Fin, you are cleared to leave. The UO corporation thanks you for your business.”
The captain replied, “Our pleasure. Broken fin out.” as the ship pulled out of the loading bay.
He turned to the navigation officer and said, “Lock in coordinates for jump to Kael Prime.”
The captain went to the central control board and pulled up traffic control. “Tower 1, this is the Broken Fin. We request a jump slot to Kael Prime from Drassus.”
“Broken Fin, request granted. Your departure slot is at 16:33.”
Mike glanced at the top right of the ship's HUD and looked at the time. 16:21.
Better get my stuff together…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship shuddered ever so slightly despite the inertial dampeners as it exited FTL. Mike was lounging on the couch with his bag at his feet. He was ready to get off this tub.
Mike idly watched flames lick at the cockpit window as the ship descended into the atmosphere of Kael Prime. He looked at Dreki, who was sitting on the other couch. His muscles bulged through his clothes despite wearing a white sweater so large it could be mistaken for the sail of an average-sized boat. Mike asked, “Do you know anything about what’ll happen to me now?”
The big Kael shifted in his seat. “Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you anything, but what the hell.” Dreki pulled the collar of his sweater down, revealing an angry white number burnt into his iron-gray skin just below the collarbone. “First, you’ll get branded.” He released his shirt and pointed to a small scar on the side of his head. “Then you’ll get an AR implant.”
“Where will I be getting that?” Mike asked.
“The Imperial Science Academy. We’re going to be staying there for a few days. They’ll run a bunch of tests and get you fitted for equipment there. After that, I’ll drop you off at the spaceport, and you’ll be off to Tlaxcalssus for basic training. After that, I don’t know.”
“Thanks.”
The ship shook as it touched down on the landing pad. “Time to go.” Dreki shouldered his pack and walked out the door. Mike fiddled with the straps of his bag as he followed Dreki down the ramp and to the far side of the ship, away from the rest of the passengers. Mike's nose was immediately assaulted with the acrid smell of sulfur from where the fiery exhausts of engines had melted asphalt. The spaceport was swarming with vehicles and filled with the constant roar of ship engines and a symphony of smaller equipment. Power loaders and mechs loaded and unloaded heavy cargo, shuttles bustled to and fro with passengers, baggage carriers snaked through the crowded landing pads, and vehicles that looked like floating garage doors zipped through the air at ankle height, bringing pilots and crew to their ships. Mike couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the absurdity of it all. Here he was, in the heartland of the enemy, walking through what was essentially a ten-acre parking lot.
Dreki plopped his bags on the ground and yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. “Our skiff will be here in a minute.”
Mike tuned out the beeps and whirrs of the tank-sized forklifts and mechs unloading the ship and gazed out beyond at the horizon. You’re not in Kansas anymore, bub. Mike thought as he studied the skyline of the imperial city basked in the glow of the early evening sun. Some of the buildings wouldn’t look all that out of place on Earth, but the skyline was assaulted with abominations that pissed on the laws of physics as Man understood them. Tusk-shaped skyscrapers defied gravity with their seemingly unsupported curves, and even more absurd were pyramids stacked atop another point-to-point like hourglasses. Any delusion of normalcy that Mike could come up with was shattered.
Dreki picked up his bag and pointed to a slab of black marble speeding towards them at ankle height. “Here’s our skiff.” A railing popped out of the center as the skiff came to a gliding halt. Dreki boarded the skiff and took hold of the rail, and Mike followed suit.
They sped through the spaceport and stopped outside what looked to Mike like a train station. Dreki shouldered his bag and stepped off the skiff. Mike stepped off and quickly fell in pace with Dreki. The big Kael led Mike into a grand station bustling with people. Most were Kael, but there was a smattering of other species. Some stared at Mike, others glanced, but most completely ignored him as he followed Dreki through the hall and onto a platform. Unfamiliar aliens clearly weren’t an uncommon sight here.
The walls of the station were covered with mosaics depicting Kael warriors from the distant past. Dreki noted the human's curiosity and said, “The founders of the clans.” He leveled a massive hand toward an opulent, towering mosaic of a Kael warrior wielding a bronze falx. The imposing figure's body was made of blue gemstones, the eyes rubies, one tusk silver, and the other gold. “That’s the founder of my clan, Drekalla Gold Tusk.”
Mike asked, “How’d he manage that?” As he followed Dreki into a mostly empty train car.
Dreki plopped down on a bench. “He was the war priest of Hroptaug the Conqueror during the unification wars. After the wars were won, Hroptaug granted us the Steam Hills.” Dreki pointed through the train window at the mosaic of another warrior whose body was made of milky white pearls. “That one,” He paused and spat on the floor, “Tiblan the Terror, challenged Drekalla to a duel for most of that land. Drekalla was cutting him to pieces, but the craven poisoned his blade. Just before Drekalla could deliver the final blow, the poison reached his heart, and Drekalla died. The only wound on his body was a cut across his forearm that barely drew blood.” Dreki rolled up his sleeve, showing a scar that reached from his elbow to the middle of his forearm. “Every K’alla is cut the same way to remind us of the blood feud.”
Mike inwardly sighed. Kael and their damned feuds… “How long ago was this.”
“Seven thousand four hundred and fifty-one years ago.”
Mike held back a snort. The absurdity of it all. The first human law codes came about to stop blood feuds, and out here, they have feuds that have lasted longer than Earth's recorded history.
“How’s that feud been going as of late?”
Dreki’s face sagged, “Not good.”
They both grew quiet. Mike shuffled uncomfortably.
Mike glanced at the route display and broke the silence, “What's with the middle city, inner city thing?”
Dreki relaxed slightly. “Oh, so the city used to be a fortification. The inner city is actually a volcanic island. The middle is built over the river, and the outer city was built on the banks.”
“I see.”
The doors closed, and the intercom sounded, “Next stop, the inner city.”
Dale Robert’s wrinkled face was unreadable, and his highly decorated black and blue dress uniform immaculate as he led a horse through the street. He felt the eyes of thousands of onlookers on him, and he hated it. The pure black horse had a black leather saddle on its back. Two tall, glossy black boots were placed backward in silver stirrups, and the elaborate hilt of Mike’s basket-hilted broadsword jutted from the top of a black leather scabbard buckled to the saddle. Roberts followed the horse-drawn caisson bearing the flag-draped coffin of his old commanding officer. Not much farther now, he thought. The sounds of the cartwheels rolling and the horse’s tack jangling were wholly drowned out by boots stamping the ground in unison. Almost all of the 1800 survivors of the 801st regiment were there, resplendent in their dress uniforms, marching behind Mike one more time. The local police and fire departments joined them.
Roberts was unsure about it all. He felt that the poor kid's family would have preferred a smaller service back home in Colorado instead of this damn near royal procession. And Roberts was damn sure that the seals did not give their permission for this, no matter what the police chief said.
A reporter ducked through the police barricade and tried to ask the marching soldiers questions, but they remained stone-faced as the procession marched nearer to the gates of Philadelphia National Cemetery. Roberts handed the reigns of the riderless horse to another man in uniform and joined seven other members of Charlie platoon in pulling the casket from the cassion. They silently began their march to the grave, closely followed by General McCarthy, the man who was Joint Chief of Staff, and the color guard. Bagpipers began to blare, “Going Home.” Roberts heard the sound of gravpulse engines and looked up in dismay as a Kael gunship broke through the low clouds and descended to just barely above the cemetery. A loudspeaker blared, “Disperse at once.”