Printable blank face template
A McCARTHYESQUE PAGAN PLATONIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COLDFORGER IN BLOOD MERIDIAN
2024.05.15 12:52 JohnMarshallTanner A McCARTHYESQUE PAGAN PLATONIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COLDFORGER IN BLOOD MERIDIAN
Three main interpretations of BLOOD MERIDIAN have been the Gnostic, the Judeo-Christian and the Pagan Platonic. All three have a dividing line separating the Realm of God, or the Realm of Light from the this dark fallen material world in which the Judge or Devil is Archon. In the case of Plato, the Other Side is the realm or dimension of perfect forms.
Plato said that all things in this material world are imperfect copies of the perfect and eternal things in the realm of forms, and he used the example of the horse in his argument, one reason we might look at ALL THE PRETTY HORSES for this idea.
But let's stick first to the Coldforger in BLOOD MERIDIAN:
This other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men's fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter.
If McCarthy looks at Plato's perfect form realm, or dimension, as the sourse of the imperfect copies of all things including fire (which is where phosphorus comes in) in this material vale, then his metaphor of the Coldforger is the counterfeiter who passes those copies into this flawed world, allied with the Judge. If we look at this in terms of set theory, the master set is on the other side, and the copies slough off into this material world much the way that metaphors sloughed off from the original word, the original language. The Coldforger would then represent the transformer, the joker in the deck, the transfinite zero that shape-shifts copies between the dimensions.
I think that this was McCarthy's idea, though of course not his only idea, and I am not discounting the many other fine interpretations I have read.
Copied from an earlier discussion on this, from a poster whose name has been deleted, there is this on the coldforging of coins, from ALL THE PRETTY HORSES:
In the latter two, they are more involved in fate. In ATPH, Alfonsa talks to John Grady about her father’s theories on coins and fate, that a coin flip is a coin flip, but not everyone’s metaphorical coins are the same. That the metaphysical minter of these coins is perhaps not impartial or perfect and the blanks from which each person’s coin is made from may have irregularities that follow them through life. Grady tells her that the negative things that have come to his life were not his doing, but she doesn’t give that credence. That they happened to him suggests he is a person that these things happen to, perhaps the blank from which the coin of his life was minted from was imperfect in some way.
There are many other interpretations of the Coldforger. What's yours?
submitted by JohnMarshallTanner to cormacmccarthy [link] [comments]
Plato said that all things in this material world are imperfect copies of the perfect and eternal things in the realm of forms, and he used the example of the horse in his argument, one reason we might look at ALL THE PRETTY HORSES for this idea.
But let's stick first to the Coldforger in BLOOD MERIDIAN:
This other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men's fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter.
If McCarthy looks at Plato's perfect form realm, or dimension, as the sourse of the imperfect copies of all things including fire (which is where phosphorus comes in) in this material vale, then his metaphor of the Coldforger is the counterfeiter who passes those copies into this flawed world, allied with the Judge. If we look at this in terms of set theory, the master set is on the other side, and the copies slough off into this material world much the way that metaphors sloughed off from the original word, the original language. The Coldforger would then represent the transformer, the joker in the deck, the transfinite zero that shape-shifts copies between the dimensions.
I think that this was McCarthy's idea, though of course not his only idea, and I am not discounting the many other fine interpretations I have read.
Copied from an earlier discussion on this, from a poster whose name has been deleted, there is this on the coldforging of coins, from ALL THE PRETTY HORSES:
In the latter two, they are more involved in fate. In ATPH, Alfonsa talks to John Grady about her father’s theories on coins and fate, that a coin flip is a coin flip, but not everyone’s metaphorical coins are the same. That the metaphysical minter of these coins is perhaps not impartial or perfect and the blanks from which each person’s coin is made from may have irregularities that follow them through life. Grady tells her that the negative things that have come to his life were not his doing, but she doesn’t give that credence. That they happened to him suggests he is a person that these things happen to, perhaps the blank from which the coin of his life was minted from was imperfect in some way.
There are many other interpretations of the Coldforger. What's yours?
2024.05.15 12:36 GlitteringVersion Contacting Manager Prior to Interview...
I hope this is the right subreddit...
I have been fortunate enough to be invited to an interview for a role that I am extremely excited about. It's a technical role, for which I believe I am well qualified for, and the interview will consist of a face to face interview and a case study test afterwards. I am currently employed, but this is a fantastic opportunity to progress in my career.
I have been given the details for the manager of the team who will be conducting the interview and was wondering if it might be worth contacting them to both confirm my attendance, thank them for the opportunity and also ask if there is anything in particular I need to focus on in term of preparation for the interview? I appreciate that managers tend to be extremely busy, and causing more work for them might not be seen as a positive!
The role is incredibly varied and requires a lot of specific knowledge in a many different areas. I'm a bit anxious that I'll get in there and my mind will go blank. On the other hand, I don't want to come across as someone who needs guidance or is asking for a cheat code! I haven't interviewed in around 7 years, so I think this is adding to my anxiety.
Any tips? Should I just try my best to prepare for anything and turn up? Or is communication prior to an interview a good thing?
Best of luck to anybody here who is searching for a job - this is my first time for a number of years, and I forgot how nerve wracking it can be!
submitted by GlitteringVersion to UKJobs [link] [comments]
I have been fortunate enough to be invited to an interview for a role that I am extremely excited about. It's a technical role, for which I believe I am well qualified for, and the interview will consist of a face to face interview and a case study test afterwards. I am currently employed, but this is a fantastic opportunity to progress in my career.
I have been given the details for the manager of the team who will be conducting the interview and was wondering if it might be worth contacting them to both confirm my attendance, thank them for the opportunity and also ask if there is anything in particular I need to focus on in term of preparation for the interview? I appreciate that managers tend to be extremely busy, and causing more work for them might not be seen as a positive!
The role is incredibly varied and requires a lot of specific knowledge in a many different areas. I'm a bit anxious that I'll get in there and my mind will go blank. On the other hand, I don't want to come across as someone who needs guidance or is asking for a cheat code! I haven't interviewed in around 7 years, so I think this is adding to my anxiety.
Any tips? Should I just try my best to prepare for anything and turn up? Or is communication prior to an interview a good thing?
Best of luck to anybody here who is searching for a job - this is my first time for a number of years, and I forgot how nerve wracking it can be!
2024.05.15 12:34 MizzRatxSalad More fantasy skin colors and make up?
I know Ive posted about it before but! I would like a wider range of fantasy skin tones as well as more make up specifically face paints and contours! We need fantasy color contours bad!! Also my new little character Dollie
Also can we get a Dolly Bop dress template in avacraft? Maybe just one or two? I love the rockabilly goth style but there hasnt been any Halloween additions to Dolly Bop in awhile so it would be nice to be able to utilize my own patterns on some of my favorite dress styles.
submitted by MizzRatxSalad to AvakinOfficial [link] [comments]
Also can we get a Dolly Bop dress template in avacraft? Maybe just one or two? I love the rockabilly goth style but there hasnt been any Halloween additions to Dolly Bop in awhile so it would be nice to be able to utilize my own patterns on some of my favorite dress styles.
2024.05.15 12:26 lawlore Hacked Facebook Account Recovered in 14 days (UK)
What a nightmare.
So, my story and process is very similar to this thread, but I figure it's worth sharing just to give a bit of hope and info on the process.
April 30th, I wake up to find I'm logged out of my Facebook account, and attempts to log back in reveal it's been disabled for inappropriate Instagram content. To appeal, I need to log in to the Instagram account, which is a Vietnamese username I don't recognise. Familiar story to many, I'm sure. This disabled page gives you the option to download some of your Facebook account, and I believe this was key- the access logs show exactly when and where it was hacked.
My own Instagram is not suspended, but has been unlinked from two accounts at the same time- I assume the hacker's IG and my Facebook.
Fruitlessly search Facebook's FAQs, end up here. Email the support addresses that are listed, no reply at all.
Get Meta Verified through IG to communicate with a human, at £9.99/month. Thinking about it, I should cancel that now.
Go through Meta Verified to communicate the Facebook issue. Raised approximately 20 tickets, but actually found that replying to the same one was more effective in getting replies. Each and every time, they send me links to the Facebook pages that do not work. The loop. I cannot upload ID to verify my identity as it wants me to log in, I cannot log in because it's disabled. I also, as stated, cannot appeal through IG by logging in to the hacker's IG. Each and every time, they try to close the ticket. Replying reopens it.
Eventually, I was escalated to a manager. I work in customer service, I know they'll all have scripts to follow and limits to what they can do. At no point am I getting angry or abusive, but I am making it clear that I have repeated the process, and I screenshot everything, showing my attempts to follow their instructions. I ask them for another way to be put through to the appeals team, because their form will not let me. No dice. Dead end after dead end.
So I come here again, and see the EU reporting form:
https://facebook.com/help/contact/837980354337486
You can't access it from the UK, just clicking it gives a page error. You need to use a VPN and put your location in Europe. Thanks, Brexit. I installed the Opera browser, which has a free VPN built in.
THIS WORKED.
I received a ticket from a support agent asking me for:
So I gave it to them. I also gave them some very specific details of the Facebook account- specific photo album names and status updates, information about Events I had previously organised through Facebook, what the banner picture was- anything extra that I thought could sway them to believe I was who I said I was. I underlined how the "permanently disabled after 30 days" part would mean losing all contact with specific people on the account, and I told them I'd travel to Facebook HQ to verify my identity face to face if need be. I didn't know what the hacker may have done with any of those things, but I included anything I thought could be reviewed and proven as true. I again attached the access logs and disabled screenshots.
Within 12 hours I had a reply stating they had secured my account with the new email address and a password reset link. It worked. The EU link through a VPN worked for me.
I appreciate the story probably ends there for most people, but since regaining access, I looked into what had been done by the hacker. They had added someone Vietnamese (themselves?) as a Facebook friend, who I have obviously now reported and blocked. They had not touched my wall, friends, photos or statues.
More importantly, and probably their whole aim, they set up a Facebook Ad Account under my name, and started spamming paid ads for something Vietnamese. They used someone's credit card details to do this, for about US$300- the details were not mine, so I guess someone else got a shock and cancelled the payments when they noticed.
However, my linked PayPal account was listed as a backup payment account, and my home address listed as the business account address. As I did not authorise the payments with PayPal, no funds left the account, and because the payments failed, the ads were suspended- I discovered this from notifications that they had on Facebook.
I am obviously taking steps now to close that Ad Account with Facebook.
And, as far as I can tell, that's it. My Facebook account was a perfectly normal, standard personal account. I'm going to spend today backing up photos on it, because it has made me very aware of just how much I'd have list if I hadn't found a way to resolve this.
submitted by lawlore to facebookdisabledme [link] [comments]
So, my story and process is very similar to this thread, but I figure it's worth sharing just to give a bit of hope and info on the process.
April 30th, I wake up to find I'm logged out of my Facebook account, and attempts to log back in reveal it's been disabled for inappropriate Instagram content. To appeal, I need to log in to the Instagram account, which is a Vietnamese username I don't recognise. Familiar story to many, I'm sure. This disabled page gives you the option to download some of your Facebook account, and I believe this was key- the access logs show exactly when and where it was hacked.
My own Instagram is not suspended, but has been unlinked from two accounts at the same time- I assume the hacker's IG and my Facebook.
Fruitlessly search Facebook's FAQs, end up here. Email the support addresses that are listed, no reply at all.
Get Meta Verified through IG to communicate with a human, at £9.99/month. Thinking about it, I should cancel that now.
Go through Meta Verified to communicate the Facebook issue. Raised approximately 20 tickets, but actually found that replying to the same one was more effective in getting replies. Each and every time, they send me links to the Facebook pages that do not work. The loop. I cannot upload ID to verify my identity as it wants me to log in, I cannot log in because it's disabled. I also, as stated, cannot appeal through IG by logging in to the hacker's IG. Each and every time, they try to close the ticket. Replying reopens it.
Eventually, I was escalated to a manager. I work in customer service, I know they'll all have scripts to follow and limits to what they can do. At no point am I getting angry or abusive, but I am making it clear that I have repeated the process, and I screenshot everything, showing my attempts to follow their instructions. I ask them for another way to be put through to the appeals team, because their form will not let me. No dice. Dead end after dead end.
So I come here again, and see the EU reporting form:
https://facebook.com/help/contact/837980354337486
You can't access it from the UK, just clicking it gives a page error. You need to use a VPN and put your location in Europe. Thanks, Brexit. I installed the Opera browser, which has a free VPN built in.
THIS WORKED.
I received a ticket from a support agent asking me for:
- Username
- Date the account was hacked (attached the access log)
- Current email/phone associated with it
- A new email address, never associated with Facebook
So I gave it to them. I also gave them some very specific details of the Facebook account- specific photo album names and status updates, information about Events I had previously organised through Facebook, what the banner picture was- anything extra that I thought could sway them to believe I was who I said I was. I underlined how the "permanently disabled after 30 days" part would mean losing all contact with specific people on the account, and I told them I'd travel to Facebook HQ to verify my identity face to face if need be. I didn't know what the hacker may have done with any of those things, but I included anything I thought could be reviewed and proven as true. I again attached the access logs and disabled screenshots.
Within 12 hours I had a reply stating they had secured my account with the new email address and a password reset link. It worked. The EU link through a VPN worked for me.
I appreciate the story probably ends there for most people, but since regaining access, I looked into what had been done by the hacker. They had added someone Vietnamese (themselves?) as a Facebook friend, who I have obviously now reported and blocked. They had not touched my wall, friends, photos or statues.
More importantly, and probably their whole aim, they set up a Facebook Ad Account under my name, and started spamming paid ads for something Vietnamese. They used someone's credit card details to do this, for about US$300- the details were not mine, so I guess someone else got a shock and cancelled the payments when they noticed.
However, my linked PayPal account was listed as a backup payment account, and my home address listed as the business account address. As I did not authorise the payments with PayPal, no funds left the account, and because the payments failed, the ads were suspended- I discovered this from notifications that they had on Facebook.
I am obviously taking steps now to close that Ad Account with Facebook.
And, as far as I can tell, that's it. My Facebook account was a perfectly normal, standard personal account. I'm going to spend today backing up photos on it, because it has made me very aware of just how much I'd have list if I hadn't found a way to resolve this.
2024.05.15 11:13 Areces1 Birthday 🎂
May everyone in there life has faced a hard time in there life . Same goes with me . I was born in middle-class family in Nepal .. our family members has a big believe at me . As a only child I got love , care and support from my family members . Let me explain about too. My name is Ritu Shrestha . Talking about my personality I don't talk with many people nor I have many friends . I am a introvert kind of person . Thing incident happened with me . When I use to study at grade 9 .I was quite a brilliant student . Date:Magh 16 . that day was my birthday .. As everyone in the class thought of telling a paranormal story . I was also quite interested in stuff like that .. although I never believe nor saw any ghost at my whole life . After this incident everything changed .. After the school completed I was returning back .. When I went inside my house .. I saw my mom and dad crying .. when I came inside they looked at me in a creepy way .. I also was shocked after seeing them .. boz at this time my parents should be at office .. I didn't asked them a single word and went in my room . But I realised that my parents were still watching me in a creepy way .. I went inside my room and closed the door .. I was scared of their behaviour . As I was going to change my clothes I heard a strange noise outside .. I opened and saw my parents sitting in sofa .. my father told me to make a milk tea .. I hurried and made him the tea as fast as possible .. But when I gave him the tea . He told me to put the tea at the table .. I took my phone which was in charged . As I was moving towards my room .. I saw a call in my phone and pick it up .. There was my mom in the phone .. she told me that they were going to my uncle house .. When I heard that I collapsed .. As I turned my head . I saw my father and mother watching me and smiling in a creepy way .. As I looked at them . My father stood up and looked at me I realised that my father eye has turned black .. As he told me in a creepy sound " Come to your father " .. I was fricked out and hurriedly closed the door .. Both of my parent were banging the door .. And shouting " Open the door sweetie " But as they got louder and louder .. my parents voice turned into a veryyyy loud and creepy voice . I hurried and called my parents .. But I realize I don't have balance to call back .. So I hurried and called the cops .. The lock on the door was also going to broke . Lucky the call was picked by a officer .. he asked me " what happened " ..I didn't have any word to tell .. so I shouted " Help Help me plzz😭😭 .. In a hurry I told him my address .. but before I would complete the full sentence .. The door opened . And my eyes went blank .. After a while I was in my bed .. There were cops . My parents were outside .. As they saw me waking up they came running to me and asked what happened .. I just told them a lie .. that was a theft .. As my parents were talking to the cops .. I saw towards the table and saw a cup .. As I realized .. I saw a shadow towards the hallway .. After that incident I went to my sister house to living . For couple of days. RIGHT now .. I study at grade 12 but that days still Hunt me .. Till now I haven't forgot those creepy sound .. and smile at there face ..
This is me Arces signing off
submitted by Areces1 to shareyourexperi [link] [comments]
This is me Arces signing off
2024.05.15 10:45 JPXTUY-RETRO Now that i think about it, chapter 1 was the best entry to the manga we could've hoped for.
 | -Warning: this is long. Proceed with caution. submitted by JPXTUY-RETRO to ShojoNull [link] [comments] TL;DR: The chapter is extremely well made and is consistent with the rest of the story. It also sets the tone very well and fleshes out the characters and makes them likeable in an instant. Character introductions and their origins and backstories, the comdey, the action, the gore and even the art. It's everything compiled in one chapter, and it's absolutely amazing! The fact that the first page of the chapter is a colored page of Marie saying she will kill all humans followed by an amazing colored doublespread page is the perfect way to grab the reader's interest. The double spread page sets the tone for the chapter, and it was absolutely amazing! Everything from the colors to the angle it's drawn to show. Showing buildings full of color, and looking a little bit too advanced. After the tone is set, the chapter immediately starts diving into the lore (After a mandatory Naked Gijin... I don't know why either) and explains all sorts of things. The time the story takes place in, what Gijin are and how they're treated, and showing a society that's a little bit too advanced for their own good. The story didn't take long to introduce the two main characters and make them likeable. And the art never fails to convey that as well. Marie, as soon as she's introdued, is drawn with a blank expression; Almost emotionless. However, even though she's still being controlled by the bug, she still shows emotions of happiness whenever something pleases her or sadness when something she doesn't like gets mentioned. When asked about what the remaining parts in her hand were, she answers with a sad expression on her face, but When Riaha tells her she should keep her friends' remaining parts, she shows a delighted expression. When Riaha asks her what she wants to do, she goes and tells him she wants to go take a walk. And there she shows, again, emotions of happiness and delight at small things like a funny looking bug, a cat or flowers. This is intentional, as it shows that Gijin are not just mindless robots even when they're controlled by the bug. Prior to this scene, we got a flashback on Riaha and his history with his father and why he sympathized with Gijin. The Gijin were getting controlled mentally and Physically (Advanced Lobotmy, as another person might say). The cruelty of humans is highlighted in this chapter, too. Even some teenagers don't care about the Gijin and basically torture them. And then we figure out of these teenagers is the son of the police man who killed Riaha's father. It's at this point that a fortunate accident happnes. (or unfortunate, depending on the perspective). Marie's head gets carved in by a chainsaw. But how exactly? Of course, at the current time, we know it was sheol's power. So this is already a hint to what was coming in the story. This is brilliant because it makes it feel like the story is well thought out and planned. Then, because of the chainsaw that hit Marie, she then regains her full consciousness. The bug is removed and the Military Gijin is now standing in front of normal humans that torture Gijin. What will she do? Yes, That's right. She'll kill them. The total shift in her personality from obedient and polite to completely unhinged is amazing. She just woke up from a bad dream, and she's not tolerant. She'll kill them all. However, This is where Riaha's character gets fleshed out. Humans killed his father and his Gijin friend, so he's conflicted on whether or not to let Marie kill them. However, when Marie reminds him that Humans kill Gijin all the time and that's why she should too, he realizes she's right and leaves the choice to her. This is consistent with what might possibly happen later on in the story. Riaha is now seeing the history of Gijin (as of chapter 23) and possibly might want to avenge them. Also, can we talk about the art? The art is absolutely amazing in the first chapter! Go look at any first chapter of any manga... Chances are, the art won't be as consistent or defined. But in shojk null, most pages are drawn consistently looking good. There's no extremely tiny panels drawn or filler panels that serve no purpose. The art shows consistency and is of high quality. The colors in the Double spread page is also a good choice, as it fits the tone of the series and is aesthetically pleasing. Well, it is Akima Who's doing the art, after all. The chapter sets the tone very well, and sets up the now ongoing themes in the story. It's very well written, in my opinion, and i feel like we should praise it more for what it did. |
2024.05.15 10:04 perriwinkle_ Ticket Type Field List displayed in ticket
I'm in the process of trying to setup a new enquirie ticket flow in under opportunities in Halo. I'm using the stock ticket type and modifying it to our needs to capture more relevant information. When I use the current qualify button I'm able to capture various bits of information and I've added fields for the data we want to capture.
However when I hit save the I move onto the next step all I have is a blank ticket entry. I gather if I put information in the notes box this will display in the ticket entry, but I'd like the field data I have captured to display in the ticket entry. Anyone know if this is possible.
I think usually this information would display under the additional fields tab, but I don't have that on this ticket type and I'd like the information to be front facing and not have to go look for it elsewhere if possible.
submitted by perriwinkle_ to halopsa [link] [comments]
However when I hit save the I move onto the next step all I have is a blank ticket entry. I gather if I put information in the notes box this will display in the ticket entry, but I'd like the field data I have captured to display in the ticket entry. Anyone know if this is possible.
I think usually this information would display under the additional fields tab, but I don't have that on this ticket type and I'd like the information to be front facing and not have to go look for it elsewhere if possible.
2024.05.15 09:35 Tanvirs007 Alternatives to Hotmart for Selling Online Courses and Products in 2024
The market for online courses and digital products is booming, expected to reach $185.20 billion by 2024. Hotmart is a popular platform in this space, but it has some drawbacks that make users look for alternatives. Let's explore the top 5 Hotmart alternatives for 2024.
EzyCourse is an all-in-one platform with budget-friendly pricing. It offers 20 revenue streams, including courses, memberships, and physical products. It also includes a customizable site builder and a branded mobile app.
Pros:
LearnWorlds is ideal for educators and small businesses. It offers a website builder, mobile app builder (paid add-on), and integrations with email marketing platforms.
Pros:
Kajabi helps create, market, and sell digital content. It offers tools for courses, communities, memberships, and podcasts.
Pros:
Thinkific allows you to create and sell online courses with customizable templates and marketing tools. It offers a white-labeled mobile app and various content types like quizzes and webinars.
Pros:
Podia offers a platform for online courses, memberships, and digital products with a focus on simplicity and affordability.
Pros:
In conclusion, while Hotmart is a strong contender in the online course market, these alternatives—EzyCourse, LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia—offer diverse features and pricing options that might better suit your needs. Explore these platforms to find the one that aligns with your goals. Happy selling!
submitted by Tanvirs007 to EzyCourse [link] [comments]
What is Hotmart?
Hotmart is a platform that helps you create, organize, and sell online courses and digital products. It provides tools for creating your own website and mobile app, pricing your products, and branding them.Pros of Hotmart
- Affiliate Marketplace: Hotmart has a marketplace for affiliates to help increase your sales.
- Pay-as-You-Earn: You only pay a fee when you make a sale.
- User-Friendly: Easy to set up and use.
- Customer Support: Excellent support once you reach a certain revenue level.
- Comprehensive Tools: Everything you need to create and sell your products.
Cons of Hotmart
- High Commission: Charges a 10% commission on sales.
- Limited Marketing Tools: Lacks integrated marketing tools.
- Unauthorized Orders: Some users report unexpected orders.
- Learning Curve: Can be difficult for beginners.
- Refund Issues: Some users face difficulties with refunds.
Why Look for Alternatives?
- High Commission Fees: 10% commission can be too high.
- Limited Engagement Features: Fewer tools to keep students engaged.
- Lack of Mobile Flexibility: Not the best for mobile learning.
- Need for Third-Party Apps: Requires additional apps for full functionality.
- Lack of Integrated Marketing Tools: Limited marketing features.
Benefits of Alternatives
Exploring alternatives can offer better features, more affordable pricing, and specific tools tailored to different needs.Top 5 Hotmart Alternatives
1. EzyCourse
What is EzyCourse?EzyCourse is an all-in-one platform with budget-friendly pricing. It offers 20 revenue streams, including courses, memberships, and physical products. It also includes a customizable site builder and a branded mobile app.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Affordable pricing
- Versatile revenue streams
- Unlimited product options
- Customizable websites
- Branded mobile app
- 24/7 customer support
- No platform is perfect. From the customer reviews we didn't notice any negative feedback. However, the blog editor of EzyCourse has some mobile responsiveness issues.
2. LearnWorlds
What is LearnWorlds?LearnWorlds is ideal for educators and small businesses. It offers a website builder, mobile app builder (paid add-on), and integrations with email marketing platforms.
Pros:
- User-friendly
- No transaction fees
- Affordable pricing
- Useful features like drip courses and email marketing
- Limited features on cheaper plans
- Basic customization options for pages
- Starter: $24/month (annually)
- Pro Trainer: $79/month (annually)
- Learning Center: $249/month (annually)
- Custom pricing for high volume
3. Kajabi
What is Kajabi?Kajabi helps create, market, and sell digital content. It offers tools for courses, communities, memberships, and podcasts.
Pros:
- All-in-one platform
- User-friendly
- Reliable performance
- Comprehensive training resources
- Effective AI tools
- Limited physical product sales
- Less website design flexibility
- Additional costs for advanced features
- Expensive plans
- Basic: $149/month
- Growth: Higher than Basic
- Pro: Higher than Growth
4. Thinkific
What is Thinkific?Thinkific allows you to create and sell online courses with customizable templates and marketing tools. It offers a white-labeled mobile app and various content types like quizzes and webinars.
Pros:
- All-in-one platform
- Subscription pricing
- No transaction fees
- User-friendly
- Extensive support and resources
- High prices for premium plans
- No funnel feature
- No built-in blogging tool
- Poor support (according to some reviews)
- Free Plan
- Basic: $49/month
- Start: $99/month
- Grow: $199/month
- Expand: $499/month
- Plus: Custom pricing
5. Podia
What is Podia?Podia offers a platform for online courses, memberships, and digital products with a focus on simplicity and affordability.
Pros:
- User-friendly
- Comprehensive tracking
- No transaction fees
- Affordable pricing
- No open API
- Limited customization
- Fewer features compared to others
- Cannot create assignments or accept submissions
- Starter: $4/month (annually)
- Mover: $33/month
- Shaker: $59/month
Choosing the Right Platform
Consider your budget, the features you need, and your target audience's preferences. Try out free trials to see which platform works best for you.In conclusion, while Hotmart is a strong contender in the online course market, these alternatives—EzyCourse, LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia—offer diverse features and pricing options that might better suit your needs. Explore these platforms to find the one that aligns with your goals. Happy selling!
2024.05.15 09:27 LieDue2550 A Freelancer’s Toolkit: 9 Must-Have Tools
Freelancing can be an incredibly rewarding career path, offering flexibility, independence, and the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. However, to succeed as a freelancer, you need the right tools to manage your business efficiently. Whether you are a seasoned freelancer or just starting out, having a well-stocked toolkit is essential. In this blog post, we will explore some must-have tools that every freelancer should consider incorporating into their workflow. At the forefront of our list is Feedcoyote, a comprehensive tool designed to streamline and enhance your freelancing experience.
Sign-Up on Feedcoyote - https://feedcoyote.com/
submitted by LieDue2550 to EntrepreneurHQ [link] [comments]
1. Feedcoyote: The Ultimate Freelancing Companion
Feedcoyote is a powerful platform tailored specifically for freelancers. It offers a range of features that help you manage your projects, clients, and finances seamlessly. Here’s why Feedcoyote should be your go-to tool:Sign-Up on Feedcoyote - https://feedcoyote.com/
Project Management
Feedcoyote allows you to keep track of all your projects in one place. You can create project timelines, set milestones, and track progress effortlessly. The intuitive interface makes it easy to manage multiple projects simultaneously without feeling overwhelmed.Client Communication
Effective communication is key to freelancing success. Feedcoyote provides a centralized hub for all your client interactions. You can send messages, share files, and receive feedback directly through the platform, ensuring that nothing gets lost in the shuffle.Invoicing and Payments
One of the most challenging aspects of freelancing is managing invoices and payments. Feedcoyote simplifies this process by allowing you to create and send professional invoices, track payment statuses, and even set up automated reminders for overdue payments. This feature helps you maintain a steady cash flow and reduces the time spent on administrative tasks.Time Tracking
Accurate time tracking is crucial for billing clients and managing your workload. Feedcoyote includes a built-in time tracking tool that lets you log hours spent on each project. This data can be easily integrated into your invoices, ensuring transparency and accuracy.Financial Insights
Feedcoyote provides insightful financial reports that help you understand your earnings, expenses, and overall financial health. This information is invaluable for budgeting, tax preparation, and long-term planning.2. Trello: Visual Project Management
Trello is a popular project management tool that uses a card-based system to help you organize tasks and projects visually. Each project can be broken down into boards, lists, and cards, making it easy to see what needs to be done and when. Trello’s flexibility and user-friendly interface make it a favorite among freelancers for managing both personal and professional tasks.3. Slack: Communication and Collaboration
For freelancers working with remote teams or multiple clients, Slack is an essential communication tool. It allows you to create channels for different projects, teams, or topics, making it easy to keep conversations organized. Slack also integrates with many other tools, such as Google Drive, Trello, and Feedcoyote, streamlining your workflow.4. Grammarly: Writing Assistant
Good communication is crucial for freelancers, whether you’re drafting emails, creating content, or writing reports. Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you improve your writing by checking for grammar, punctuation, and style errors. It also offers suggestions for clarity and conciseness, ensuring that your writing is polished and professional.5. Canva: Design Made Easy
As a freelancer, you often need to create visually appealing content, whether it’s for social media, presentations, or marketing materials. Canva is a versatile design tool that allows you to create stunning graphics with ease. It offers a wide range of templates, images, and fonts, making it accessible even if you have no prior design experience.6. Toggl: Simple Time Tracking
Toggl is a straightforward time tracking tool that helps you monitor how much time you spend on different tasks. It’s perfect for freelancers who need to track billable hours or simply want to understand how they’re spending their time. Toggl’s reports provide valuable insights that can help you optimize your productivity.7. Zoom: Virtual Meetings
Virtual meetings have become a staple of modern freelancing. Zoom is a reliable video conferencing tool that allows you to host meetings, webinars, and virtual events with ease. Its features include screen sharing, recording, and breakout rooms, making it ideal for client consultations and team collaborations.8. Google Workspace: Productivity Suite
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) includes a suite of productivity tools such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These tools are essential for document creation, storage, and collaboration. The seamless integration between these apps enhances your ability to work efficiently and share information with clients and collaborators.9. LastPass: Password Management
As a freelancer, you likely use numerous online tools and services, each requiring a secure password. LastPass is a password manager that stores and encrypts your passwords, allowing you to access them easily and securely. This tool helps you maintain strong, unique passwords for all your accounts, reducing the risk of security breaches.10. Wave: Free Accounting Software
Keeping your finances in order is crucial for freelancing success. Wave offers free accounting software that helps you manage your income, expenses, and invoices. It also provides features for bank reconciliation, receipt scanning, and financial reporting. Wave’s user-friendly interface makes it accessible even if you have limited accounting experience.Conclusion
Equipping yourself with the right tools can make a significant difference in your freelancing journey. Feedcoyote stands out as a comprehensive solution that addresses many of the challenges freelancers face, from project management to invoicing. Alongside other essential tools like Trello, Slack, and Grammarly, Feedcoyote can help you streamline your workflow, improve communication, and enhance your overall productivity. By investing in these tools, you can focus more on what you do best and less on administrative tasks, paving the way for a successful freelancing career.2024.05.15 08:46 TellMeYourSecrets3 Joining the club
Why do guys have to find someone new when they have someone that loves them COMPLETELY as they are?
I will never understand.
A month long vacation together (long distance- seeing one another for about 2 months total this year) was supposed to be magical and adventurous. Everything crammed in to make sweet memories to make up for time spent apart and time about to be apart.
Well, while he was on his side of the distance he chose to defile the trust I had for a man. And was too coward to tell me.
I will be strong and get over this. But I was also supposed to be with this guy for the second leg of this adventure where we go to Europe (hes European, I’m American).
I feel lost. I unfortunately made him my everything. I stayed loyal and true.
My heart is shattered. There were no signs of this coming to happen EVER. I never suspected anything like this could come from him. Sweet and caring and compassionate and endearing.
When we saw each other this time this trip- he wouldn’t touch me. So I suspected something was up. I confronted him and asked point blank if he was cheating or if there was anyone else and he looked in my eyes and told me NO.
She called his phone when I was sat beside him. His face turned white. He was never going to tell me he said.
The man I loved is a coward. And now instead of spending the rest of the month on a romantic trip with the one person ive ever loved the most- I’m stuck couch hopping to get my mind away from the fact I want to not be on earth anymore.
How can I trust someone again.
submitted by TellMeYourSecrets3 to brokenheart [link] [comments]
I will never understand.
A month long vacation together (long distance- seeing one another for about 2 months total this year) was supposed to be magical and adventurous. Everything crammed in to make sweet memories to make up for time spent apart and time about to be apart.
Well, while he was on his side of the distance he chose to defile the trust I had for a man. And was too coward to tell me.
I will be strong and get over this. But I was also supposed to be with this guy for the second leg of this adventure where we go to Europe (hes European, I’m American).
I feel lost. I unfortunately made him my everything. I stayed loyal and true.
My heart is shattered. There were no signs of this coming to happen EVER. I never suspected anything like this could come from him. Sweet and caring and compassionate and endearing.
When we saw each other this time this trip- he wouldn’t touch me. So I suspected something was up. I confronted him and asked point blank if he was cheating or if there was anyone else and he looked in my eyes and told me NO.
She called his phone when I was sat beside him. His face turned white. He was never going to tell me he said.
The man I loved is a coward. And now instead of spending the rest of the month on a romantic trip with the one person ive ever loved the most- I’m stuck couch hopping to get my mind away from the fact I want to not be on earth anymore.
How can I trust someone again.
2024.05.15 08:45 PettyCheeseTraveller It dawned on me
My mother used to always brag (try to compliment me for being compliant as an infant) and tell people "Oh, She was sleeping through the night the first week! I was able to go out and meet friends. It was great for getting back to myself right away, I had no postpartum."
I spoke up finally after 30 something years and asked
"How do you know?"
The whole family went stiff and silent.
Completely unfazed, that blank void stare on her face "I just know." and completely changed the subject.
She isn't human, she's a monster.
submitted by PettyCheeseTraveller to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]
I spoke up finally after 30 something years and asked
"How do you know?"
The whole family went stiff and silent.
Completely unfazed, that blank void stare on her face "I just know." and completely changed the subject.
She isn't human, she's a monster.
2024.05.15 07:52 Flowbb02 I get too shy
I get so shy to talk to the man I like (19m). I’m 21(f) I feel like I got too shy to the point where he asked me questions that were important to him I couldn’t answer truthfully because I would overthink. For example if I was religious. Religion is important to me but all I said was “no not ever since my grandma passed” ( she was the only one who made me pray every night) -No I am currently not going to church but not because I don’t believe there is a god but because as I grew religion was never forced on me…etc Another thing was that I never showed my emotions even if my heart was pounding with excitement my face was always blank. So many other instances I just wanted him to confess he liked me so that I could stop feeling this way. I just miss him a lot and I feel like he thinks he just met a trashy girl who’s uneducated and has no personality. How can I stop being so shy?
submitted by Flowbb02 to dating_advice [link] [comments]
2024.05.15 07:33 Pax62375 On the Design of Human Ships: Retribution
Prev/On the Design of Human Ships/
"Just wait, how lon…" Zantol started to say as a firm click was heard as Pir-4 pressed the button. In the following moment the entire ship shuddered as all power was lost. Moments later a deep drone could be felt.
"That shouldn't have taken so long to start," Dave remarked as all the screens and consoles lit back up, as the drone to fade away. Looking around dozens of new indicator lights and alarms were screaming across the cockpit, "Well that might be it, uhh…" Dave looked to Zanthol who was shocked at what just happened, and Pir-4 now floating stilly above the radio consul, "Zanthol please tell me that this is normal and that Pir is alright"
Zanthol taking moments to understand what happened, what all the new lights are for, and moments wonder what just happened.
“Wha…, what was that."
"Well, uh, that, was the distress call," Pausing for a moment to point at Pir-4 and to mute the alarms, "will he be ok?"
"Probably, but it is impossible to know without looking in his head"
"Why aren't you concerned? I mean, he could have just died."
"Why would I, it's just a machine, and all the data can be recovered."
Taking a deep breath, Dave considered the words that he just heard, "Zanthol? How do you classify a being as sentient?"
"We have a system, how do you classify things as sentient? If I know what you would use, then it would be easier for me to explain."
"I don't necessarily see why this is important, but the way that we had done this is though test, like the Turing test, have a judge have a conversation with a known sentient being and the one being tested. Another is to test the being's creativity, or even just comparing how close to the human brain the being's brain is."
"Those are all good way to determine if a being is sentient, but the reason that Pir was created was to get one step closer to win a galactic history changing prize, and I shouldn't tell you this, but humanity will find out regardless. This prize is from an automated system from nearly a million years ago, it was to autonomously scout and lightly terraform planets for life as it knows, and through, probably a problem with the replication program, it became sapient and though many more years it came to where it is now. Just barely sentient, enough for it to want to be a part of the community, and so the machine tried, until it came to the conclusion that it wasn't sentient enough to fit in," Sighing Zanthol took a deep breath and pointed to Pir-4, "It stopped sharing the planets it has visited, demanding that we make it fully sentient, to the point of the average sentient being, like you and me. To do so it made a prize, bring it a artificial being of synthetic mind that it deems as sentient. it has been almost 43,323 years by your calendar since the start of the competition."
"So you don't consider Pir a sentient being because a machine doesn't. That doesn't make sense, just because it doesn't shouldn't mean that you don't. Humanity has had less time free to think of what makes you, you. Because I think and therefore I am, should suffice for treating other being as sentient…"
Dave was cut off by the radio cracking back to life, "YOU, we do░▓░k▒w what yo░▒id bu░ we will have your he▒▓!" Just as abruptly it started it cut back out.
"They sound mad, as much as I would like to continue to argue, there are more concerning matters at the moment," Dave said as he took hold of the control sticks, with a lurch the ship once again started to move, "Since I don't like the silence I'll explain some things to you, this left stick moves the ship in x,y,z movement, or front, back, up, down, left, and right. The right stick adjusts the rotation," Dave gives both of the sticks a wiggle, causing the whole ship to shudder.
Zanthol, pulled Pir-4's helmet off, he started to check what happened to Pir-4. Looking to Dave again he sees him reach out slips on large gloves over his atmo-suit's gloves, once these are properly around his already gloved hands they constrict around them to now sit tightly around his hands. Then with a simple his the compartment filled with a thin fog, curiously Zanthol asked, "Is something wrong, and what's with the fog?"
"Take a look out the view screen, were getting close to your ship, but its getting hard to tell the distance without looking at the readout. So to get around that this ship uses a suite of holograms that are constructed by little low power lasers, and theses holograms use the cameras and computers to make a three dimensional representation of the environment."
"So why the haze?"
"It's so the lasers can be seen." as Dave talked, holograms of Zanthol's ship the Prospector's Pick, Helum station, and the various pirate vessels, leaving all that can't be seen by the cameras are blank. Reaching out with his gloved hands Dave grabbed the holograms of the Prospector's Pick and Zanthol's ship, strangely his hands didn't just pass through the holograms. Already anticipating the coming question Dave said, "The gloves that I just put on have a pneumatic force feed back system, strong enough to resist my movements, but not so much it can hurt me. If I move my hand though any of them it will respond as if it were an object floating in space that I just smacked. The system will interpret how the I move the holograms and do its best to replicate it in real life," Dave said, as he pushed the Prospector's Pick closer to Zanthol's ship. Zanthol could feel the ship accelerate toward his ship, "So, this makes it more intuitive for a human to operate this ship."
"Ok, so what are you doing now, are you going to get us out of here?"
"Well you said that, one all of Pir's spare parts are on your ship and that you have very classified things on it. Wouldn't it be a good idea to get it all before running?"
*Beep*
Looking at the consul a gauge was flashing.
"What's that?"
"That would be a temperate gauge, and uh it says that the hull is heating up. That shouldn't be happening,"
Thinking back Zanthol remembered how the pirates breached the air-lock realized what was causing the heating, "Dave, I think it maybe the pirates, to cut open the station like that," he points at the air-lock, "to cut through it as quickly as they did, they would have to have a weapons grade laser. We probably have only a minute before it starts cutting through the hull if you can keep them from focusing on the same spot."
"Ok, that shouldn't be too hard to mitigate," with a simple twist of the wrist Dave put the ship into a gentle spin, "That should do for now. Where is a good spot for a tow cable to be put on your ship?"
"I can already feel the rising temperature rising, and it's only getting faster. If you can't do anything about it then we're probably dead."
The gauge, now entering the red, "I hear you, and I'll handle this," Dave replied turning his ship to face the pirates, "Do you know why Tungsten Carbide is such a good marital for machine tools?"
Starting to send the ship into the pirates, "It's because it harder then almost all other mettles, and do you know where the largest single piece of Tungsten Carbide is? Well, its on this ship, initially meant to skewer asteroids, but we'll see how good it is at skewering ships, and it better be, or else," sighing, Dave continued, "We're probably dead."
"That sounds insane, but probably the only thing that we can do, and even then, there are still three other in the fleet."
Suddenly, static filed the coms gradually coming clearer until a human voice could be heard, "Prospector's Pick, hold tight, help is on the way, this is the Barnard's star Battle group B3, ETA 3 minutes. just hold tight, help is on the way."
By this moment Dave's ship was careening toward the pirates, the temperature sky rocketing. The ship struggling to cool it self with the radiators turning a dull red with the heat their absorbing, struggling to dissipate the building heat.
With a, shearing, screeching, screaming, sound the spike tore into the pirate ship.
"Woooooooooooooowoh!! HELL YEAH! That will never get old no mater what the target is." Dave said with a brimming smile. "Now its getting hot in here, so I'll also show you how we cool our ships in emergencies." pressing a combination of buttons on the the consul, a hiss of cool air filled the cockpit. The hologram also showed the radiators unlatch and start floating away from the ship.
"Dave why are you jettisoning the radiators, they're needed to cool the ship."
"Yes, but that's part of the design that someone else made, and was much smarter then I am. Its going to be replaced with spares."
One of the rows of boxes moved to the place that the radiators once were, and proceeded to unfold and turn into new radiators, with this the temperature gauge visibly and quickly dropped back down to it's regular position, and the new radiators already starting to show their thermal saturation. Then the screens flashed a notification…
Incoming warp detected.
~
This started to become more disconnected and scattered toward the end, but I was just having a hard time finding a way to connect it all. I also wanted to make each chapter a bit longer, so that's why this took so long, and in all fairness I don't think I'll be writing them to be so long its just not what I'm good with.
It has almost been half a year since I randomly thought of the idea for this at a new years party, anyways here's a fun fact, I am horrible at coming up with names, so to mitigate this I have turned to use the Periotic table and names of chemicals (and/or overly common names). The most obvious of them are Dave's last name Coper most clearly a slight mis spelling of Copper, Helum Station is just a variation of Helium, (spoiler regarding Pir-4)and Pir is a mis spelled abbreviation of Periotic and 4 corresponds to Beryllium the main component in his computers and meant to reference how hard for the researchers to make a body compatible with a inorganic brain, and to my knowledge Beryllium is wildly deadly and destructive to carbon based organic chemistry.
submitted by Pax62375 to HFY [link] [comments]
"Just wait, how lon…" Zantol started to say as a firm click was heard as Pir-4 pressed the button. In the following moment the entire ship shuddered as all power was lost. Moments later a deep drone could be felt.
"That shouldn't have taken so long to start," Dave remarked as all the screens and consoles lit back up, as the drone to fade away. Looking around dozens of new indicator lights and alarms were screaming across the cockpit, "Well that might be it, uhh…" Dave looked to Zanthol who was shocked at what just happened, and Pir-4 now floating stilly above the radio consul, "Zanthol please tell me that this is normal and that Pir is alright"
Zanthol taking moments to understand what happened, what all the new lights are for, and moments wonder what just happened.
“Wha…, what was that."
"Well, uh, that, was the distress call," Pausing for a moment to point at Pir-4 and to mute the alarms, "will he be ok?"
"Probably, but it is impossible to know without looking in his head"
"Why aren't you concerned? I mean, he could have just died."
"Why would I, it's just a machine, and all the data can be recovered."
Taking a deep breath, Dave considered the words that he just heard, "Zanthol? How do you classify a being as sentient?"
"We have a system, how do you classify things as sentient? If I know what you would use, then it would be easier for me to explain."
"I don't necessarily see why this is important, but the way that we had done this is though test, like the Turing test, have a judge have a conversation with a known sentient being and the one being tested. Another is to test the being's creativity, or even just comparing how close to the human brain the being's brain is."
"Those are all good way to determine if a being is sentient, but the reason that Pir was created was to get one step closer to win a galactic history changing prize, and I shouldn't tell you this, but humanity will find out regardless. This prize is from an automated system from nearly a million years ago, it was to autonomously scout and lightly terraform planets for life as it knows, and through, probably a problem with the replication program, it became sapient and though many more years it came to where it is now. Just barely sentient, enough for it to want to be a part of the community, and so the machine tried, until it came to the conclusion that it wasn't sentient enough to fit in," Sighing Zanthol took a deep breath and pointed to Pir-4, "It stopped sharing the planets it has visited, demanding that we make it fully sentient, to the point of the average sentient being, like you and me. To do so it made a prize, bring it a artificial being of synthetic mind that it deems as sentient. it has been almost 43,323 years by your calendar since the start of the competition."
"So you don't consider Pir a sentient being because a machine doesn't. That doesn't make sense, just because it doesn't shouldn't mean that you don't. Humanity has had less time free to think of what makes you, you. Because I think and therefore I am, should suffice for treating other being as sentient…"
Dave was cut off by the radio cracking back to life, "YOU, we do░▓░k▒w what yo░▒id bu░ we will have your he▒▓!" Just as abruptly it started it cut back out.
"They sound mad, as much as I would like to continue to argue, there are more concerning matters at the moment," Dave said as he took hold of the control sticks, with a lurch the ship once again started to move, "Since I don't like the silence I'll explain some things to you, this left stick moves the ship in x,y,z movement, or front, back, up, down, left, and right. The right stick adjusts the rotation," Dave gives both of the sticks a wiggle, causing the whole ship to shudder.
Zanthol, pulled Pir-4's helmet off, he started to check what happened to Pir-4. Looking to Dave again he sees him reach out slips on large gloves over his atmo-suit's gloves, once these are properly around his already gloved hands they constrict around them to now sit tightly around his hands. Then with a simple his the compartment filled with a thin fog, curiously Zanthol asked, "Is something wrong, and what's with the fog?"
"Take a look out the view screen, were getting close to your ship, but its getting hard to tell the distance without looking at the readout. So to get around that this ship uses a suite of holograms that are constructed by little low power lasers, and theses holograms use the cameras and computers to make a three dimensional representation of the environment."
"So why the haze?"
"It's so the lasers can be seen." as Dave talked, holograms of Zanthol's ship the Prospector's Pick, Helum station, and the various pirate vessels, leaving all that can't be seen by the cameras are blank. Reaching out with his gloved hands Dave grabbed the holograms of the Prospector's Pick and Zanthol's ship, strangely his hands didn't just pass through the holograms. Already anticipating the coming question Dave said, "The gloves that I just put on have a pneumatic force feed back system, strong enough to resist my movements, but not so much it can hurt me. If I move my hand though any of them it will respond as if it were an object floating in space that I just smacked. The system will interpret how the I move the holograms and do its best to replicate it in real life," Dave said, as he pushed the Prospector's Pick closer to Zanthol's ship. Zanthol could feel the ship accelerate toward his ship, "So, this makes it more intuitive for a human to operate this ship."
"Ok, so what are you doing now, are you going to get us out of here?"
"Well you said that, one all of Pir's spare parts are on your ship and that you have very classified things on it. Wouldn't it be a good idea to get it all before running?"
*Beep*
Looking at the consul a gauge was flashing.
"What's that?"
"That would be a temperate gauge, and uh it says that the hull is heating up. That shouldn't be happening,"
Thinking back Zanthol remembered how the pirates breached the air-lock realized what was causing the heating, "Dave, I think it maybe the pirates, to cut open the station like that," he points at the air-lock, "to cut through it as quickly as they did, they would have to have a weapons grade laser. We probably have only a minute before it starts cutting through the hull if you can keep them from focusing on the same spot."
"Ok, that shouldn't be too hard to mitigate," with a simple twist of the wrist Dave put the ship into a gentle spin, "That should do for now. Where is a good spot for a tow cable to be put on your ship?"
"I can already feel the rising temperature rising, and it's only getting faster. If you can't do anything about it then we're probably dead."
The gauge, now entering the red, "I hear you, and I'll handle this," Dave replied turning his ship to face the pirates, "Do you know why Tungsten Carbide is such a good marital for machine tools?"
Starting to send the ship into the pirates, "It's because it harder then almost all other mettles, and do you know where the largest single piece of Tungsten Carbide is? Well, its on this ship, initially meant to skewer asteroids, but we'll see how good it is at skewering ships, and it better be, or else," sighing, Dave continued, "We're probably dead."
"That sounds insane, but probably the only thing that we can do, and even then, there are still three other in the fleet."
Suddenly, static filed the coms gradually coming clearer until a human voice could be heard, "Prospector's Pick, hold tight, help is on the way, this is the Barnard's star Battle group B3, ETA 3 minutes. just hold tight, help is on the way."
By this moment Dave's ship was careening toward the pirates, the temperature sky rocketing. The ship struggling to cool it self with the radiators turning a dull red with the heat their absorbing, struggling to dissipate the building heat.
With a, shearing, screeching, screaming, sound the spike tore into the pirate ship.
"Woooooooooooooowoh!! HELL YEAH! That will never get old no mater what the target is." Dave said with a brimming smile. "Now its getting hot in here, so I'll also show you how we cool our ships in emergencies." pressing a combination of buttons on the the consul, a hiss of cool air filled the cockpit. The hologram also showed the radiators unlatch and start floating away from the ship.
"Dave why are you jettisoning the radiators, they're needed to cool the ship."
"Yes, but that's part of the design that someone else made, and was much smarter then I am. Its going to be replaced with spares."
One of the rows of boxes moved to the place that the radiators once were, and proceeded to unfold and turn into new radiators, with this the temperature gauge visibly and quickly dropped back down to it's regular position, and the new radiators already starting to show their thermal saturation. Then the screens flashed a notification…
Incoming warp detected.
~
This started to become more disconnected and scattered toward the end, but I was just having a hard time finding a way to connect it all. I also wanted to make each chapter a bit longer, so that's why this took so long, and in all fairness I don't think I'll be writing them to be so long its just not what I'm good with.
It has almost been half a year since I randomly thought of the idea for this at a new years party, anyways here's a fun fact, I am horrible at coming up with names, so to mitigate this I have turned to use the Periotic table and names of chemicals (and/or overly common names). The most obvious of them are Dave's last name Coper most clearly a slight mis spelling of Copper, Helum Station is just a variation of Helium, (spoiler regarding Pir-4)and Pir is a mis spelled abbreviation of Periotic and 4 corresponds to Beryllium the main component in his computers and meant to reference how hard for the researchers to make a body compatible with a inorganic brain, and to my knowledge Beryllium is wildly deadly and destructive to carbon based organic chemistry.
2024.05.15 07:01 nobrains- Diary: May 14, 2024
I(F14) have just been sexually harassed by my father(M41). What I thought was an innocent hug, a nice moment between father and daughter, turned out to be another moment that I never want to remember. I knew I shouldn't have hugged him, but for a moment, I believed this time it would be different. Instead, what I received was that my fucking father slapped me in the butt. It's not the act itself that disturbs me it's that this man has raised me as if I were his daughter since I was 6 years old, even though we don't share the same blood. But now I see that he has finally revealed his true intentions.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. I can't believe I was stupid enough to think he had changed, that because he hadn't touched me for a long time, it would never happen again. And it always happens when he's drunk; alcohol turns him into a completely different person, and it scares me. Since then, I fear giving him a simple hug, lest he has other ideas.
But there's something that disturbs me even more. Why did I just stand there when it happened?I should have said something, screamed, or called for help, but instead, I stood there paralyzed, with a blank mind, teary eyes, and my words trapped in the back of my throat. Am I so afraid of this man? No, it's not so much of a fear of him,my fear is what would happen if everyone found out I was sexually abused by my own father, the looks of pity and empty words towards me. I can't stand that, and there is also those who say they understand what I'm going through, only saying it to satisfy something in themselves.
To me, he was always a good father. He provided for the family, and he and my mother always looked very happy together. But since we've been in debt, which is his fault, our family isn't the same. I don't understand how he can do something like this and not feel the slightest remorse. I feel so confused and don't know what to do. I know that if I don't tell anyone about this, it might keep happening. But if I tell my mother, our family will fall apart. I know this because there's no way in a normal family a father would touch his daughter.
Lately, my parents have been very stressed, especially my mother. I wouldn't want her to go through more stress because of me. Work stresses her out a lot, but above all, her main cause of stress is that man. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be in this mess. It's all his fault, and that shameless of a man doesn't want to take responsibility for his actions and face the consequences, so it's up to my mom to clean up his mess.
Just when I thought I had overcome my past traumas, they resurfaced in my mind. I don't know what to do. What did I do wrong to deserve something like this? Is the sin of wanting to be happy so great? I fear tomorrow, where I'll have to greet my dad in the morning and pretend nothing has happened, and of course he’ll also pretend nothing happened, like he didn’t do anything wrong.
submitted by nobrains- to SexualHarassment [link] [comments]
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. I can't believe I was stupid enough to think he had changed, that because he hadn't touched me for a long time, it would never happen again. And it always happens when he's drunk; alcohol turns him into a completely different person, and it scares me. Since then, I fear giving him a simple hug, lest he has other ideas.
But there's something that disturbs me even more. Why did I just stand there when it happened?I should have said something, screamed, or called for help, but instead, I stood there paralyzed, with a blank mind, teary eyes, and my words trapped in the back of my throat. Am I so afraid of this man? No, it's not so much of a fear of him,my fear is what would happen if everyone found out I was sexually abused by my own father, the looks of pity and empty words towards me. I can't stand that, and there is also those who say they understand what I'm going through, only saying it to satisfy something in themselves.
To me, he was always a good father. He provided for the family, and he and my mother always looked very happy together. But since we've been in debt, which is his fault, our family isn't the same. I don't understand how he can do something like this and not feel the slightest remorse. I feel so confused and don't know what to do. I know that if I don't tell anyone about this, it might keep happening. But if I tell my mother, our family will fall apart. I know this because there's no way in a normal family a father would touch his daughter.
Lately, my parents have been very stressed, especially my mother. I wouldn't want her to go through more stress because of me. Work stresses her out a lot, but above all, her main cause of stress is that man. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be in this mess. It's all his fault, and that shameless of a man doesn't want to take responsibility for his actions and face the consequences, so it's up to my mom to clean up his mess.
Just when I thought I had overcome my past traumas, they resurfaced in my mind. I don't know what to do. What did I do wrong to deserve something like this? Is the sin of wanting to be happy so great? I fear tomorrow, where I'll have to greet my dad in the morning and pretend nothing has happened, and of course he’ll also pretend nothing happened, like he didn’t do anything wrong.
2024.05.15 06:15 vren55 [A Fractured Song] - Chapter 217- Fantasy, Isekai (Portal Fantasy), Adventure
Cover Art!
Just because you’re transported to another world, doesn’t mean you’ll escape from your pain.
Abused by her parents, thirteen-year-old Frances only wants to be safe and for her life not to hurt so much. And when she and her class are transported to the magical world of Durannon to fight the monsters invading the human kingdoms and defeat the self-titled Demon King, Frances is presented with a golden opportunity. If she succeeds, Frances will have the home she never had. If she fails, Frances will be summoned back to the home she escaped.
Yet, despite her newfound magic and friends, Frances finds that trauma is not so easily lost. She is dogged by her abuse and its physical and invisible scars. Not only does she have to learn magic, she has to survive the nightmares of her past, and wrestle with her feelings of doubt and self-loathing.
If she can heal from her trauma, though, she might be able to defeat the Demon King and maybe, just maybe, she can find a home for herself.
[The Beginning] [<=Chapter 216] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 218 May 28 or see the next chapter now on Patreon]
The Fractured Song Index
Discord Channel Just let me know when you arrive in the server that you’re a Patreon so you can access your special channel.
Frances and company catch up before the final battle.
***
“Hold on. How would he win this battle if we outnumber him and surround him?” Ginger asked.
“He could target our leadership. Focus on killing Titania, Antigones, you and Martin,” said Ayax.
“Only, he’d have to kill Sebastian and Megara, as well as Edana and you too, Frances, along with a whole list of targets. I’m not sure how he could pull that off,” said Elizabeth.
Ayax grimaced, brow furrowed, but Frances knew the answer to that question.
“Thorgoth doesn’t need to find half the targets he’s after. Myself, mom, Titania, our strongest mages and the rest of the people that will be on his list have leadership positions. Like it or not we’ll be involved in the battle and he just needs to find us on the battlefield. A well-placed spell and he’d snuff any non-magic person out,” Frances said.
“So what do we do then?” Martin asked.
Frances’ heart was pounding, for she knew the answer, but was afraid to give it life. Yet what could she do but tell what she knew was the truth?
“Take the battle to him. Thorgoth will have to operate by himself with maybe just his Royal Guards. We need to hold him and his escort and defeat him before he hurts everybody else.”
“So, all the Otherworlders, our best mages?” Ayax asked.
“Not all of them. But my mother and I, Jessica and Leila, Dwynalina and Jim and Nicole, with a few Otherworlders holding off his guards,” said Frances.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Ayax and I can go after Queen Berengaria. I can’t imagine her going far from her husband.”
“This is assuming we can at least split the attention of the dragons and keep them occupied of course,” said Martin. He touched Ginger’s elbow. “Not that I don’t trust you dear.”
“Oh I know, but it is a consideration.” She swirled the wine in her cup. “That means Martin and I will be directing the battle with Sebastian and Alexander.”
“It’s likely you’ll be the overall commander with Martin. Alexander and Sebastian would then take charge of their own contingents,” said Elizabeth. She bit her lip. “Do you feel up for it?”
Ginger shrugged. “I mean, we have to—”
Elizabeth reached out to pat her friend’s shoulder. “Martin, Ginger, you know we have every faith in both of you, but if you need help, there is no shame in asking for it.”
“Besides I think we’re all scared. I know I am,” Ayax said with a smile. Even so, they could all see how her tail looked like it was trying to twist itself into knots. Frances figured her cousin wasn’t trying to hide her fear, just trying not to alarm or panic them.
Martin sighed. “I think that’s the problem, Liz. Duty compels us. Love binds us. So I know no matter what happens, I know we’ll stand together to face him. Still, we are afraid and while I know I won’t run, I worry that fear may cloud my judgment at a crucial moment.”
Ginger wiped her eyes, but her tears now flowed freely down her cheeks. “How do I know I won’t panic, and make a bad call? How do we know we are all coming back? We can’t. I…I guess we have to accept that, but I don’t want to lose you. Any of you.”
Drawing her friend into a tight hug, Elizabeth gently patted Ginger’s back. “I don’t either. I suppose that for me, I’ve always looked to my faith in God, and in you all. Have we not triumphed in all we’ve faced?””
Frances found herself nodding, her throat unclenching and the tight nervousness in her shoulders and neck fading. What remained was a faint feeling of lightness that lifted her chin.
“You’re right. We should believe in ourselves, and hope. Hope for a future when we win this war. Hope that our good will triumph over Thorgoth’s evil. Hope that in a few days, we’ll be home with our family, and our friends.”
Martin gave Frances a wondering look. “How are you able to hope that?”
Frances smiled. “I think that I have always been good at having hope. I didn’t realize it until now, but even in my darkest moments, I always hoped that I would find a place where I could be me.”
Ayax stood up, raising her glass. “To faith, friendship and hope. May it see us all through our final trial.”
Rising to their feet, the five touched glasses and drank deep. They all were smiling. The pain and fear in their hearts soothed by the hope they held and the determination to see each other once again.
***
“Frances, can I walk with you?”
Frances would never have said no to her best friend, and she could tell that past Elizabeth’s bright smile, her friend was worried. There were just too many small signs learnt from years of friendship. She was scratching behind her ear, and her eyes were narrowed just slightly from the tension in her face.
“Of course,” said Frances, falling in beside the tall Otherworlder. “How are you and Ayax?”
Elizabeth giggled. “We’re great! Fantastic even. She and I are even talking about what we might do after the war. We have so many plans and well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about that.”
Frances waited as Elizabeth continued to walk beside her, lips pursed.
“I know that after the war, I’m choosing to stay here with Ayax, with all of you. I just…” her voice trailed off, and her walk slowed to a crawl.
Taking a slight breath, Frances touched her friend’s hand. “Liz, you know it’s okay for you to doubt that.”
Elizabeth stopped and shook her head. “Oh no, I don’t have any doubts about my decision. At the very least, I’m past the point where my doubts aren’t going to change my decision. I know I’ve changed too much in the past seven years. I’ve come to terms with my sexuality. I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a woman who loves me just as much. I’ve commanded armies, led soldiers into battle and helped to make decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of people. I can’t go back pretending I’m Grade 8 and neither do I want to.” She squeezed Frances’s hand. “My decision is the right one. I know it in my heart and I’ve prayed about it. I can do a lot of good here and me going back? That won’t just hurt the people I love here, but it’ll hurt me and my family at home. I can’t hide who I’ve become and I’m proud of what I’ve grown into.”
Frances closely studied her friend knowing Elizabeth wouldn’t mind her staring.
“So what are you feeling, Liz?”
Closing her eyes, Elizabeth sniffled. “Guilt. It’s stupid. I know I’m making the right choice. I’m sure in my heart that God is encouraging me to make this choice, but I still feel guilty.”
“How could you not? You know your family loves you.”
“And I’m abandoning them. I know I’m doing the right thing but I still feel like I’m doing something wrong,” said the Otherworlder.
Frances hugged her best friend, squeezing her tight, hoping that her warmth and touch could comfort the woman who she’d trusted as much as her own mother.
“Liz, if they are everything you told me, they’re going to be alright. Have faith in them, like your faith in me and your friends.”
Elizabeth let out a sigh, but returned the hug. “Thank you, Frances. If…if the worst comes and you are sent back without me, go to them. Tell them I love them.”
Tears in her eyes, Frances nodded. “I promise. If you are sent back, I will take care of Ayax.”
Elizabeth let out a gurgly hiccup. “Thank you. I know you will.”
***
The historic coronation of King Martin and Queen Ginger would found what would be known as the Congrey dynasty. Con for Conthwaite and Grey for King Jerome’s dynasty.
It was an unusual coronation as King Martin and Queen Ginger were long-betrothed but not married. Yet King Jerome and Queen Forowena’s wills had been clear. Apart from that, the coronation involved as many of Eridale's traditions as possible in light of the circumstances.
Down the parade route attended by all those that could be mustered, King and Queen marched in at the head of an honor guard composed of their closest companions. These included Frances, Elizabeth, and Ayax, who held three poles of a crimson banner that hung over the pair. The fourth corner was held by Martin’s sister Mara, who wore a slightly undignified grin. Yet, nobody could really blame her.
Martin wore a black-white checkered tunic with red-gold trimmings and shoulder epaulets. His trousers were dark gray with again red-gold tassels. Ginger did wear a dress. It was of a dark maroon with silver lacing. A bejeweled gorget studded with emeralds hung from her neck and her ears sparkled with dark blue sapphires.
There was one minor alteration. As the procession marched up to the entrance of the old Goblin Empire palace, on a raised wooden dais dressed with elaborately embroidered carpets stood the attending dignitaries. They included all the other Erisdalian lords and ladies such as Viscountess Katia and Lord Tarquin, dressed in all the finery they could muster. Other notables such as Prince Timur, representing the Kingdom of Alavaria, Grandmaster Edana of the White Order and Alexander and Eloise of Erlenberg stood proudly side by side.
Towards the center of the dais were three figures. King Sebastian and Queen-Consort Megara, and the former Queen Janize. Sebastian and Megara were standing, holding Queen Forowena’s crown, whilst the heavily pregnant Janize sat, holding King Jerome’s crown. Thorgoth may have taken their decorated helmets, but he did not have their ceremonial attire.
Martin and Ginger stepped out from under the awning, giving their bearers a brief nod, before taking the last steps up the dais.
Whistling a spell, Megara touched her throat with her wand. “Who stands before the crowns?”
Martin knelt to one knee. The bearers of the awning followed. “Sir Martin of Conthwaite. A Knight of Erisdale.”
Ginger curtsied low. Frances nearly split her lips as she grinned at her friend’s perfect form. “Ginger. Just Ginger of Erisdale.”
Janize’s expression was unreadable as she rose to her feet. There was a slight archness to her features, and yet that could just be how she lifted her haughty cheeks.
“As witnessed by all, and by the King and Queen of Lapanteria, do you swear to defend Erisdale with all means at your disposal including force of arms?”
“We do.”
“Do you swear to uphold the laws of the land and the rights of Erisdale’s citizens?”
“We do!”
“Do you swear that until your dying breaths, to govern and reign over Erisdale not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the people and for their future generations?”
From her kneeling position, Frances frowned. That wasn’t quite the right oath. The wording was “Do you swear to govern over Erisdale wisely and justly?” She supposed that she might have missed it, or maybe there was a variation.
Yet as she noted her fiance’s face, she noticed his eyes were wide and her mother’s eyebrow was arched.
Not skipping a beat, Martin and Ginger bellowed. “We do!”
“Do you swear that you will do your utmost not to make the same mistakes as your predecessors and do whatever it takes to preserve Erisdale’s peace, even if it may cost you your lives?”
Frances blinked. Janize had gone completely off script. There was no fourth oath.
However, Martin and Ginger only hesitated for a moment as they exchanged a glance and looked up to meet Janize’s gaze.
The blonde woman’s eyes were bright and the hands holding Jerome’s crown were trembling ever so slightly. Frances had wondered why she’d insisted on doing this. Martin and Ginger had wanted to approach her to ask if she was willing, but the enigmatic former queen had surprised them by demanding they allow her to crown them. She now had an idea as to why.
“We do,” said Martin, smiling.
Ginger returned that smile. Blinking back her own tears, she took a breath. “In the name of Queen-consort Forowena and your brother, King Jerome. We solemnly swear.”
Janize closed her eyes, a single tear running down her cheek.
“Then as the last heiress of House Grey, I pass the crown of Erisdale on forever. Long live the Congrey dynasty. Long live Martin the Hero of Erisdale and his queen to be Ginger, whom I dub Erisdale’s Burning Heart.”
Lifting Jerome’s crown high, she set it onto Martin’s head. Swiftly taking Queen Forowena’s crown from Sebastian, she set it on Ginger’s head.
“Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Janize bellowed as Martin and Ginger rose to their feet.
The crowd chanted back, their voices filling the great cavern. “Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger! Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Frances could barely hear her own voice over the crescendo. The call that they all raised. Like the sound carried up into the void, she could feel herself be carried up. It was like she was floating on the power of their united song.
Turning around, Martin and Ginger smiled at Frances. Their eyes were wide, and she could see them clasp each other’s hands tightly.
Frances found herself standing on her feet, the pole to her awning in her hand. Without a second thought, she stabbed the pole’s spike into the ground. As her hand dropped to Alanna, she paused for a moment before her mind caught up with her body, and she nodded as if to herself.
Drawing the estoc, Frances raised her blade high, saluting her two friends.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
Elizabeth was right behind her, hammer raised high. Ayax followed suit with her staff and Mara and the rest were soon drawing their weapons. From the corner of her eye, Frances even spotted Morgan and Hattie raising their wand and staff.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
***
Helias glanced over his shoulder toward the accursed city. Despite the distance, there was a tremble in the air of Kairoun-Aoun itself.
“Helias?” Sara asked.
“Sounds like they crowned Martin and Ginger. They’re going to attack soon,” he said.
Sara nodded, her tense jaw the only sign of the worry that had seized the harpy-orc. As gently as he could manage with his rough, scarred hands, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Sara. We’re going to be fine.”
“You’re lying,” she said with eyes fixed forward.
The general couldn’t help but wince. “Sorry.”
Slowing in her stride, Sara placed a hand over Helias’s. “I still appreciate you trying to comfort me but I would prefer you to tell me the truth. How bad is it?”
Helias looked around. “Thorgoth may pull off a miracle and get himself and Berengaria out. However, a lot of Alavari are going to die.”
“What are you going to do?” Sara asked.
“I’ll have to attend this meeting and see what Thorgoth is planning. We’ll make a plan after that.”
“You and I know it’s not going to change anything,” Sara said, looking up at her husband, who could not meet her gaze. Yet, she didn’t push him away. Instead put her hand around his waist, drawing him closer.
“I know, but I want to be sure,” said Helias in a low tone.
“I understand. See you soon,” said Sara.
***
Helias found himself exchanging side-long glances with Glowron. The pair sat, both leaning forward toward King Thorgoth and a pacing Queen Berengaria, who’d finished explaining tomorrow’s strategy.
“Do you have anything else to add, my good generals?” Thorgoth asked. The king still smiled easily as he swirled a cup of wine in his hands.
Glowron shook his head. His tone was short but he kept this expression neutral. “No sire.”
The goblin general was Helias’s superior in rank and social class. The fact of the matter was that if Glowron had no objections, then there was no way the tauroll could object.
And still, Helias felt bile rise in the back of his throat. He froze, ever so briefly. Closing his eyes, he shook his head. Nothing mattered, except for Sara and Gwendilia.
“No sir. I’ll have my troops ready for tomorrow.”
That should have been that. They would have been dismissed to prepare for tomorrow’s suicide mission, but the king’s whims had other plans.
King Thorgoth put his cup down and leaned forward. “Oh come on my good generals. Surely you have something to improve on this plan.”
Glowron’s expression remained blank, whilst Helias smiled. “Your Majesty, you were the one who taught me everything I know. I can think of nothing I can add to your strategy.”
Queen Berengaria strode toward him. “You’re usually so talkative, Helias. Are you sure you have no other thoughts?”
“I beg your apologies, but I do not have any further additions to your plan, Your Majesty. My lord Glowron?” Helias asked.
“I do not either, my liege—” Glowron fell silent and Helias’s tail stiffened.
Thorgoth and Berengaria were no longer smiling and with a few more steps, the harpy queen had put herself behind the two generals.
“Let me be plain, we are now not asking you about how to improve the plan. We are asking for your thoughts. Give them.”
The Demon King’s remaining dark eye was narrowed. The other was now covered with a black silk eyepatch, the remains of the scar that Queen Forowen had given him, a discoloration scouring a line along the side of his face and right over his ear. In spite of the king’s injury, Helias felt nothing but cold dread dry his mouth.
“Your Majesty, my only thought is that we have no option but to follow your plan. No matter how we got into this situation, the only thing we can do is go forward and try to win this day,” Glowron said.
“And do you blame me, Glowron?”
Helias watched, eyes wide as somehow the much smaller goblin general continued to meet the king’s eyes. “I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t assign some responsibility to you at all, but I believe we ought to have thought of the possibility of such a trap. So the responsibility is mine as well.”
Thorgoth nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, Helias saw the slightest of nods that Berengaria gave to her husband. Alarm shooting his gaze back toward the Demon King, Helias found the full attention of his sovereign and sometimes uncle directed right at him.
“And you, General Helias?”
Lie and he might not be able to make it convincing enough. Tell the truth about what he thought about this war and he was never seeing Sara and Gwendilia again. Thorgoth hadn’t just been hurt, his pride had been wounded and he was now backed into a corner. It would be unwise to anger him, but what to say? What could he say?
All he could think of, and see was his child and her adoring gaze. All he could feel was the touch of Sara’s hand against his. They’d become closer than he could have imagined and were more than just companions with mutual goals now.
If he was to die, then maybe he could tell this truth.
“I am mostly thinking of my wife and my child, my king. The coming battle has me greatly concerned with how dangerous it shall be.”
Thorgoth narrowed his eyes at Helias for a brief moment. The tauroll, staying very still, waited for the presumed reaction by Berengaria.
Whatever Berengaria did made Thorgoth arch an eyebrow.
“I thought you didn’t consider your wife to be worth much,” said the king in a mild tone.
His mind racing, Helias ran with the idea. “She has responded well to the constraints and discipline I’ve enforced on her. She does nothing but facilitate all my needs and has served me well.”
He could feel Berengaria’s eyes narrow, but Thorgoth was already leaning back onto his chair. “Good for you. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, sire,” said Helias, almost unable to hide his sigh of relief.
***
Author’s Note: While I wish I could have spent more quality time with Martin, Elizabeth, Ginger and Ayax, I do love the best-friend/team that I created for Frances. This chapter and the last was my little way of giving each of them a bit of time with Frances before the final battle.
submitted by vren55 to redditserials [link] [comments]
Just because you’re transported to another world, doesn’t mean you’ll escape from your pain.
Abused by her parents, thirteen-year-old Frances only wants to be safe and for her life not to hurt so much. And when she and her class are transported to the magical world of Durannon to fight the monsters invading the human kingdoms and defeat the self-titled Demon King, Frances is presented with a golden opportunity. If she succeeds, Frances will have the home she never had. If she fails, Frances will be summoned back to the home she escaped.
Yet, despite her newfound magic and friends, Frances finds that trauma is not so easily lost. She is dogged by her abuse and its physical and invisible scars. Not only does she have to learn magic, she has to survive the nightmares of her past, and wrestle with her feelings of doubt and self-loathing.
If she can heal from her trauma, though, she might be able to defeat the Demon King and maybe, just maybe, she can find a home for herself.
[The Beginning] [<=Chapter 216] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 218 May 28 or see the next chapter now on Patreon]
The Fractured Song Index
Discord Channel Just let me know when you arrive in the server that you’re a Patreon so you can access your special channel.
Frances and company catch up before the final battle.
***
“Hold on. How would he win this battle if we outnumber him and surround him?” Ginger asked.
“He could target our leadership. Focus on killing Titania, Antigones, you and Martin,” said Ayax.
“Only, he’d have to kill Sebastian and Megara, as well as Edana and you too, Frances, along with a whole list of targets. I’m not sure how he could pull that off,” said Elizabeth.
Ayax grimaced, brow furrowed, but Frances knew the answer to that question.
“Thorgoth doesn’t need to find half the targets he’s after. Myself, mom, Titania, our strongest mages and the rest of the people that will be on his list have leadership positions. Like it or not we’ll be involved in the battle and he just needs to find us on the battlefield. A well-placed spell and he’d snuff any non-magic person out,” Frances said.
“So what do we do then?” Martin asked.
Frances’ heart was pounding, for she knew the answer, but was afraid to give it life. Yet what could she do but tell what she knew was the truth?
“Take the battle to him. Thorgoth will have to operate by himself with maybe just his Royal Guards. We need to hold him and his escort and defeat him before he hurts everybody else.”
“So, all the Otherworlders, our best mages?” Ayax asked.
“Not all of them. But my mother and I, Jessica and Leila, Dwynalina and Jim and Nicole, with a few Otherworlders holding off his guards,” said Frances.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Ayax and I can go after Queen Berengaria. I can’t imagine her going far from her husband.”
“This is assuming we can at least split the attention of the dragons and keep them occupied of course,” said Martin. He touched Ginger’s elbow. “Not that I don’t trust you dear.”
“Oh I know, but it is a consideration.” She swirled the wine in her cup. “That means Martin and I will be directing the battle with Sebastian and Alexander.”
“It’s likely you’ll be the overall commander with Martin. Alexander and Sebastian would then take charge of their own contingents,” said Elizabeth. She bit her lip. “Do you feel up for it?”
Ginger shrugged. “I mean, we have to—”
Elizabeth reached out to pat her friend’s shoulder. “Martin, Ginger, you know we have every faith in both of you, but if you need help, there is no shame in asking for it.”
“Besides I think we’re all scared. I know I am,” Ayax said with a smile. Even so, they could all see how her tail looked like it was trying to twist itself into knots. Frances figured her cousin wasn’t trying to hide her fear, just trying not to alarm or panic them.
Martin sighed. “I think that’s the problem, Liz. Duty compels us. Love binds us. So I know no matter what happens, I know we’ll stand together to face him. Still, we are afraid and while I know I won’t run, I worry that fear may cloud my judgment at a crucial moment.”
Ginger wiped her eyes, but her tears now flowed freely down her cheeks. “How do I know I won’t panic, and make a bad call? How do we know we are all coming back? We can’t. I…I guess we have to accept that, but I don’t want to lose you. Any of you.”
Drawing her friend into a tight hug, Elizabeth gently patted Ginger’s back. “I don’t either. I suppose that for me, I’ve always looked to my faith in God, and in you all. Have we not triumphed in all we’ve faced?””
Frances found herself nodding, her throat unclenching and the tight nervousness in her shoulders and neck fading. What remained was a faint feeling of lightness that lifted her chin.
“You’re right. We should believe in ourselves, and hope. Hope for a future when we win this war. Hope that our good will triumph over Thorgoth’s evil. Hope that in a few days, we’ll be home with our family, and our friends.”
Martin gave Frances a wondering look. “How are you able to hope that?”
Frances smiled. “I think that I have always been good at having hope. I didn’t realize it until now, but even in my darkest moments, I always hoped that I would find a place where I could be me.”
Ayax stood up, raising her glass. “To faith, friendship and hope. May it see us all through our final trial.”
Rising to their feet, the five touched glasses and drank deep. They all were smiling. The pain and fear in their hearts soothed by the hope they held and the determination to see each other once again.
***
“Frances, can I walk with you?”
Frances would never have said no to her best friend, and she could tell that past Elizabeth’s bright smile, her friend was worried. There were just too many small signs learnt from years of friendship. She was scratching behind her ear, and her eyes were narrowed just slightly from the tension in her face.
“Of course,” said Frances, falling in beside the tall Otherworlder. “How are you and Ayax?”
Elizabeth giggled. “We’re great! Fantastic even. She and I are even talking about what we might do after the war. We have so many plans and well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about that.”
Frances waited as Elizabeth continued to walk beside her, lips pursed.
“I know that after the war, I’m choosing to stay here with Ayax, with all of you. I just…” her voice trailed off, and her walk slowed to a crawl.
Taking a slight breath, Frances touched her friend’s hand. “Liz, you know it’s okay for you to doubt that.”
Elizabeth stopped and shook her head. “Oh no, I don’t have any doubts about my decision. At the very least, I’m past the point where my doubts aren’t going to change my decision. I know I’ve changed too much in the past seven years. I’ve come to terms with my sexuality. I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a woman who loves me just as much. I’ve commanded armies, led soldiers into battle and helped to make decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of people. I can’t go back pretending I’m Grade 8 and neither do I want to.” She squeezed Frances’s hand. “My decision is the right one. I know it in my heart and I’ve prayed about it. I can do a lot of good here and me going back? That won’t just hurt the people I love here, but it’ll hurt me and my family at home. I can’t hide who I’ve become and I’m proud of what I’ve grown into.”
Frances closely studied her friend knowing Elizabeth wouldn’t mind her staring.
“So what are you feeling, Liz?”
Closing her eyes, Elizabeth sniffled. “Guilt. It’s stupid. I know I’m making the right choice. I’m sure in my heart that God is encouraging me to make this choice, but I still feel guilty.”
“How could you not? You know your family loves you.”
“And I’m abandoning them. I know I’m doing the right thing but I still feel like I’m doing something wrong,” said the Otherworlder.
Frances hugged her best friend, squeezing her tight, hoping that her warmth and touch could comfort the woman who she’d trusted as much as her own mother.
“Liz, if they are everything you told me, they’re going to be alright. Have faith in them, like your faith in me and your friends.”
Elizabeth let out a sigh, but returned the hug. “Thank you, Frances. If…if the worst comes and you are sent back without me, go to them. Tell them I love them.”
Tears in her eyes, Frances nodded. “I promise. If you are sent back, I will take care of Ayax.”
Elizabeth let out a gurgly hiccup. “Thank you. I know you will.”
***
The historic coronation of King Martin and Queen Ginger would found what would be known as the Congrey dynasty. Con for Conthwaite and Grey for King Jerome’s dynasty.
It was an unusual coronation as King Martin and Queen Ginger were long-betrothed but not married. Yet King Jerome and Queen Forowena’s wills had been clear. Apart from that, the coronation involved as many of Eridale's traditions as possible in light of the circumstances.
Down the parade route attended by all those that could be mustered, King and Queen marched in at the head of an honor guard composed of their closest companions. These included Frances, Elizabeth, and Ayax, who held three poles of a crimson banner that hung over the pair. The fourth corner was held by Martin’s sister Mara, who wore a slightly undignified grin. Yet, nobody could really blame her.
Martin wore a black-white checkered tunic with red-gold trimmings and shoulder epaulets. His trousers were dark gray with again red-gold tassels. Ginger did wear a dress. It was of a dark maroon with silver lacing. A bejeweled gorget studded with emeralds hung from her neck and her ears sparkled with dark blue sapphires.
There was one minor alteration. As the procession marched up to the entrance of the old Goblin Empire palace, on a raised wooden dais dressed with elaborately embroidered carpets stood the attending dignitaries. They included all the other Erisdalian lords and ladies such as Viscountess Katia and Lord Tarquin, dressed in all the finery they could muster. Other notables such as Prince Timur, representing the Kingdom of Alavaria, Grandmaster Edana of the White Order and Alexander and Eloise of Erlenberg stood proudly side by side.
Towards the center of the dais were three figures. King Sebastian and Queen-Consort Megara, and the former Queen Janize. Sebastian and Megara were standing, holding Queen Forowena’s crown, whilst the heavily pregnant Janize sat, holding King Jerome’s crown. Thorgoth may have taken their decorated helmets, but he did not have their ceremonial attire.
Martin and Ginger stepped out from under the awning, giving their bearers a brief nod, before taking the last steps up the dais.
Whistling a spell, Megara touched her throat with her wand. “Who stands before the crowns?”
Martin knelt to one knee. The bearers of the awning followed. “Sir Martin of Conthwaite. A Knight of Erisdale.”
Ginger curtsied low. Frances nearly split her lips as she grinned at her friend’s perfect form. “Ginger. Just Ginger of Erisdale.”
Janize’s expression was unreadable as she rose to her feet. There was a slight archness to her features, and yet that could just be how she lifted her haughty cheeks.
“As witnessed by all, and by the King and Queen of Lapanteria, do you swear to defend Erisdale with all means at your disposal including force of arms?”
“We do.”
“Do you swear to uphold the laws of the land and the rights of Erisdale’s citizens?”
“We do!”
“Do you swear that until your dying breaths, to govern and reign over Erisdale not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the people and for their future generations?”
From her kneeling position, Frances frowned. That wasn’t quite the right oath. The wording was “Do you swear to govern over Erisdale wisely and justly?” She supposed that she might have missed it, or maybe there was a variation.
Yet as she noted her fiance’s face, she noticed his eyes were wide and her mother’s eyebrow was arched.
Not skipping a beat, Martin and Ginger bellowed. “We do!”
“Do you swear that you will do your utmost not to make the same mistakes as your predecessors and do whatever it takes to preserve Erisdale’s peace, even if it may cost you your lives?”
Frances blinked. Janize had gone completely off script. There was no fourth oath.
However, Martin and Ginger only hesitated for a moment as they exchanged a glance and looked up to meet Janize’s gaze.
The blonde woman’s eyes were bright and the hands holding Jerome’s crown were trembling ever so slightly. Frances had wondered why she’d insisted on doing this. Martin and Ginger had wanted to approach her to ask if she was willing, but the enigmatic former queen had surprised them by demanding they allow her to crown them. She now had an idea as to why.
“We do,” said Martin, smiling.
Ginger returned that smile. Blinking back her own tears, she took a breath. “In the name of Queen-consort Forowena and your brother, King Jerome. We solemnly swear.”
Janize closed her eyes, a single tear running down her cheek.
“Then as the last heiress of House Grey, I pass the crown of Erisdale on forever. Long live the Congrey dynasty. Long live Martin the Hero of Erisdale and his queen to be Ginger, whom I dub Erisdale’s Burning Heart.”
Lifting Jerome’s crown high, she set it onto Martin’s head. Swiftly taking Queen Forowena’s crown from Sebastian, she set it on Ginger’s head.
“Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Janize bellowed as Martin and Ginger rose to their feet.
The crowd chanted back, their voices filling the great cavern. “Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger! Hail King Martin and Queen Ginger!” Frances could barely hear her own voice over the crescendo. The call that they all raised. Like the sound carried up into the void, she could feel herself be carried up. It was like she was floating on the power of their united song.
Turning around, Martin and Ginger smiled at Frances. Their eyes were wide, and she could see them clasp each other’s hands tightly.
Frances found herself standing on her feet, the pole to her awning in her hand. Without a second thought, she stabbed the pole’s spike into the ground. As her hand dropped to Alanna, she paused for a moment before her mind caught up with her body, and she nodded as if to herself.
Drawing the estoc, Frances raised her blade high, saluting her two friends.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
Elizabeth was right behind her, hammer raised high. Ayax followed suit with her staff and Mara and the rest were soon drawing their weapons. From the corner of her eye, Frances even spotted Morgan and Hattie raising their wand and staff.
“Long may they reign! Long may they reign!”
***
Helias glanced over his shoulder toward the accursed city. Despite the distance, there was a tremble in the air of Kairoun-Aoun itself.
“Helias?” Sara asked.
“Sounds like they crowned Martin and Ginger. They’re going to attack soon,” he said.
Sara nodded, her tense jaw the only sign of the worry that had seized the harpy-orc. As gently as he could manage with his rough, scarred hands, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Sara. We’re going to be fine.”
“You’re lying,” she said with eyes fixed forward.
The general couldn’t help but wince. “Sorry.”
Slowing in her stride, Sara placed a hand over Helias’s. “I still appreciate you trying to comfort me but I would prefer you to tell me the truth. How bad is it?”
Helias looked around. “Thorgoth may pull off a miracle and get himself and Berengaria out. However, a lot of Alavari are going to die.”
“What are you going to do?” Sara asked.
“I’ll have to attend this meeting and see what Thorgoth is planning. We’ll make a plan after that.”
“You and I know it’s not going to change anything,” Sara said, looking up at her husband, who could not meet her gaze. Yet, she didn’t push him away. Instead put her hand around his waist, drawing him closer.
“I know, but I want to be sure,” said Helias in a low tone.
“I understand. See you soon,” said Sara.
***
Helias found himself exchanging side-long glances with Glowron. The pair sat, both leaning forward toward King Thorgoth and a pacing Queen Berengaria, who’d finished explaining tomorrow’s strategy.
“Do you have anything else to add, my good generals?” Thorgoth asked. The king still smiled easily as he swirled a cup of wine in his hands.
Glowron shook his head. His tone was short but he kept this expression neutral. “No sire.”
The goblin general was Helias’s superior in rank and social class. The fact of the matter was that if Glowron had no objections, then there was no way the tauroll could object.
And still, Helias felt bile rise in the back of his throat. He froze, ever so briefly. Closing his eyes, he shook his head. Nothing mattered, except for Sara and Gwendilia.
“No sir. I’ll have my troops ready for tomorrow.”
That should have been that. They would have been dismissed to prepare for tomorrow’s suicide mission, but the king’s whims had other plans.
King Thorgoth put his cup down and leaned forward. “Oh come on my good generals. Surely you have something to improve on this plan.”
Glowron’s expression remained blank, whilst Helias smiled. “Your Majesty, you were the one who taught me everything I know. I can think of nothing I can add to your strategy.”
Queen Berengaria strode toward him. “You’re usually so talkative, Helias. Are you sure you have no other thoughts?”
“I beg your apologies, but I do not have any further additions to your plan, Your Majesty. My lord Glowron?” Helias asked.
“I do not either, my liege—” Glowron fell silent and Helias’s tail stiffened.
Thorgoth and Berengaria were no longer smiling and with a few more steps, the harpy queen had put herself behind the two generals.
“Let me be plain, we are now not asking you about how to improve the plan. We are asking for your thoughts. Give them.”
The Demon King’s remaining dark eye was narrowed. The other was now covered with a black silk eyepatch, the remains of the scar that Queen Forowen had given him, a discoloration scouring a line along the side of his face and right over his ear. In spite of the king’s injury, Helias felt nothing but cold dread dry his mouth.
“Your Majesty, my only thought is that we have no option but to follow your plan. No matter how we got into this situation, the only thing we can do is go forward and try to win this day,” Glowron said.
“And do you blame me, Glowron?”
Helias watched, eyes wide as somehow the much smaller goblin general continued to meet the king’s eyes. “I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t assign some responsibility to you at all, but I believe we ought to have thought of the possibility of such a trap. So the responsibility is mine as well.”
Thorgoth nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, Helias saw the slightest of nods that Berengaria gave to her husband. Alarm shooting his gaze back toward the Demon King, Helias found the full attention of his sovereign and sometimes uncle directed right at him.
“And you, General Helias?”
Lie and he might not be able to make it convincing enough. Tell the truth about what he thought about this war and he was never seeing Sara and Gwendilia again. Thorgoth hadn’t just been hurt, his pride had been wounded and he was now backed into a corner. It would be unwise to anger him, but what to say? What could he say?
All he could think of, and see was his child and her adoring gaze. All he could feel was the touch of Sara’s hand against his. They’d become closer than he could have imagined and were more than just companions with mutual goals now.
If he was to die, then maybe he could tell this truth.
“I am mostly thinking of my wife and my child, my king. The coming battle has me greatly concerned with how dangerous it shall be.”
Thorgoth narrowed his eyes at Helias for a brief moment. The tauroll, staying very still, waited for the presumed reaction by Berengaria.
Whatever Berengaria did made Thorgoth arch an eyebrow.
“I thought you didn’t consider your wife to be worth much,” said the king in a mild tone.
His mind racing, Helias ran with the idea. “She has responded well to the constraints and discipline I’ve enforced on her. She does nothing but facilitate all my needs and has served me well.”
He could feel Berengaria’s eyes narrow, but Thorgoth was already leaning back onto his chair. “Good for you. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, sire,” said Helias, almost unable to hide his sigh of relief.
***
Author’s Note: While I wish I could have spent more quality time with Martin, Elizabeth, Ginger and Ayax, I do love the best-friend/team that I created for Frances. This chapter and the last was my little way of giving each of them a bit of time with Frances before the final battle.
2024.05.15 06:07 koganproductions77 YEAH BABY, POHATU SWEEP
 | i made this for a specific purpose, but imo, it’s funnier out of context. i included the clear pohatu png i made, and the blank “[X] SWEEP” template i used in the other two images in case people wanted to use them, so go crazy. submitted by koganproductions77 to bioniclememes [link] [comments] |
2024.05.15 06:05 Haru-_-_-_- Update 🥳
 | So ummm yeah I know I just had a bit of a style change but I wanted to change the faces a bit more and now I realize how amazing eye highlights are but Imma just explain some things and yadayada. submitted by Haru-_-_-_- to GachaFnaf [link] [comments] So about the whole eye changes, I’m making a bit of a pattern with them where the younger the character, the lower the highlights are so compare Elizabeth and Michael, but with Elijah (Yes I decided to call C.C that) and William, they have no highlights to represent their sleep patterns and their emotions in general, Elijah usually has sleepless nights and William just has a lack of remorse. If a characters eyes are blank with no highlights and little to no color, it represents that they are either dead or have an unidentified eye color like my Mrs.Afton. Also about the “My Afton Sibilings Rate Yours” post, sorry that I’m not responding to some of yall, it’s just that I don’t have the time to type the responses since they take a few minutes, and I also lost motivation but I might try to make responses on the future. As for the future of my account, I’m determined to learn a few things such as an art style and maybe if I can understand it well enough, tween and animate/edit though I’m not sure yet. But yeah that’s about it, also if you guys have any suggestions for me than please feel free to share! |
2024.05.15 05:35 ivamondal5 Love senior review (mine)
I know its late guyzz but I needed to finish the series and give u my review. Don't hate me for being this late .
And why literally why everyone were into main leads !!? It doesn't make sense at all . And why I felt like their relationship was kinda toxic !!!
submitted by ivamondal5 to yurivisualnovels [link] [comments]
Main leads : 5/10 no hate to them but sometimes I felt like their acting is acting. Sometimes they acted really well but sometimes it just didn't work for me . Maybe because of the directions or something it felt little off Second leads : 8/10 i like especially pwarang . She is my fav in this gl ... how she made angry faces, cute faces , when she was angry on the main lead everything was top notch. I liked her , I want to see her in another gl with the main lead soon . Don't know how many years I need to wait. But yaa her character was matured, understanding, introvert, tall , handsome everything. And the little junior was also cute . Whenever I saw them in the screen I felt like " yes now some pleasure moment for me " ... Whenever warang came to the screen she gave some mature lines which is nice then the main leads who had lack of communication skills. Supportive leads: 6/10 the glasses one who was the friend I liked her as well . Other than her everyone needs to improve their skills . Male actors were pretty nice but still Storytelling: 5/10 wtf !!! Pretty lame ... it's no doubt a good story but too stressful sometimes. How everyone is so into male leads . Everyone wants them to become their gfs ... just too much ... they didn't let me forget the series. " SHOW ME LOVE " how they messed with those characters, Storytelling etc ... they know how to ruin a good show ... it felt like a normal yt show made by normal people... bruhh it's a big show make it I catching and tempting ... but naahh the directors were sleeping maybe Theme : 4/10 ... My question is where are the teachers!??? It's based on university or school maybe ... so where's the teachers? There was not a single teacher in the university dudee ... and the seniors acted like teachers, done everything by themselves etc . No classes at all . And also rarely saw their parents. Even when warang got a accident as well . Also how the main lead forgot all her memory after accident, then the male proposed her , he acted like a boyfriend all were too much for me . Cinemagraphy : 3/10 ... they need to learn from BLANK or maybe from SECRET OF US (trailer was pretty eye catchy) both series has had impressive angles , cinemagraphy and fabulous actress. Atleast BLANK . The show felt like a cheap yt video by normal makers Second leads time: 2/10 ... I am asking where is my fav couples time !? They are Second leads u should respect them as well and give them more time . I rarely see them together!!? Maybe they had like 23min in the whole series . The story only revolves around the main lead being dumb , crying...
And why literally why everyone were into main leads !!? It doesn't make sense at all . And why I felt like their relationship was kinda toxic !!!
Conclusion: I don't hate any gl series or gl related stuffs so I don't hate it either. It's just I don't like it . Plzz tell me 23.5 is better then this because I have high hope for the series and will watch it after it finishes its 12 parts . I want second leads to have thier own series . YES don't hate me for giving little numbers . 🥹
2024.05.15 05:22 featherwinglove I did it again, a new Trimps novelization (more faithful to story messages than the other one) Tightniks Run Zero
[OC Intro: The game is modded to increase basic jobs cost, seasonal events are disabled. Much of the crash details are based on NASA/SP-2008-565 Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report recommendations especially Chapter 3 "Occupant Protection".]
The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries. He has only a few minutes of APU power left, goes over the best clearing he can find, and radars it. It varies by only a few feet from the aerodynamic glideslope there. He spots it out on the cameras and circles to go after that spot. He's only at two hundred feet now. With one hand on the stick, he uses the other to open the pressure equalization valve on the side hatch, then at one hundred feet, gets it undogged. Depending on how much damage he's going to get, it's less likely to be stuck closed and trap him. The dynamic vacuum this pulls in the cockpit rips most of the survival pack data cards from that rack and scatters them across the landscape. Crap, I'm gonna need those! Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, he turns on the radar for the final approach, takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and PFD, he clicks his HANS and shoulder strap locks in; after that, he can barely move, but that now is better than dying in this crash with a broken neck. He's a decent pilot and brings up the flare gently. Bringing up the alpha on this delta-winged ship, he balloons a little, but keeps the nose going up and restores a zero aerodynamic sink rate just above the highest terrain indicated by the radar altimeter. The ship bumps a little in the ground effect, and he can see the radar altitude cycling irregularly up and down about five feet at a time. Rougher than it looked from higher up! The body flap protecting the dead engines hits first, and the nose comes rapidly down. It hits, the screens go blank, and Tightniks is surrounded by airbags, some lifting his feet from the rudder petals and his hand from the control stick. It's blinding, it's disorienting, it's noisy, and, to his relief, it's long! It takes several seconds before the crashing cockpit stops moving. How many times did he flip over? Did he go sideways and roll? Am I rightside up? Are we really stopped on the ground? The airbags deflate, and he can move his arms. He gets his restraints loose and inspects himself. "Uck!" he says out loud (without the 'f'). No broken bones. His pressure suit can take his blood pressure. 116/81, pulse 112, blood oxygen 99 reads off on his left arm, I'll friggin' take it!
The ship is amazingly intact from what he can tell. He can't get any readings. The systems test meter seems to be working, but can't find any voltages anywhere. The ship seems to be completely dead. Behind him, 10 passenger seats are all surrounded by airbags and the back of the cabin ends in some sort of dirt-and-gravel and there's a bit of daylight seeping in around the edges. He was the only one on board, though, so their deployment was mostly academic (they might have stiffened the structure a little during the crash, but that's probably trivial.) Tightniks gets out of his spacesuit. The air on this planet is actually breathable. He gets the hatch open, steps outside and-
"A green shimmer erupts then disappears, and you hit the ground."
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. Where am I? What's my name? I remember nothing. Aren't babies born naked? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Gets up, looks around. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He picks up a small stone from the ground, this also feels heavier than it should. He rises to his feet and holds it out somewhat (he's unable to fully extend his arm) and lets it go. The stone hits the ground near his feet quickly and with remarkable speed. It's the gravity, it's greater than it is on- ...where am I from? This is- ...not my home planet? "Oooh..."
"Ka?" it says.
What is that? It's cute, at least.
It is not tame. He has no hope of catching it on foot. The creature seems to like the berries. Maybe if I gather some of those into one place and set some kind of trap...
33s: First trap.
I got one! The human lumbers up to the trap and gets the catch open. Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to me; I'm so friggin' screwed.
It doesn't. It looks at the human with a sense of wonder, actually. A blink and tilt of the head. Seems almost to be asking, Is it you? My purpose? My savior? Once out of the trap, which is totally wrecked, he has to make a new one from scratch, it follows him around like a imprinted hatchling bird.
Wiry little fella, you are. You're going to need some bulking up to do anything useful. The- ...'trimp', I guess... The trimp seems just barely able to feed itself. The human lets him into the broken ship's intact cabin, and it curls up comfortably in a passenger seat for a nap.
1m03s: Second trap.
"Apparently the Trimps breed if they're not working. Doesn't look pleasant."
What are they doing?
The trimps appear to be androgynous, and these two have paired off in the back of the ship. They're holding something carefully within a few hours, feeding it berries, grass, and- ...corundum.
Corundum?? Whatever that is, it isn't a baby.
1m35s: Third trap.
Only it IS a baby! The third trimp he trapped immediately joined the other two in raising it. They have a strange diet of food the human has found compatible with his own body, but they also eat rocks! They're careful to crush and sort aluminate minerals from silcate ones and only eat aluminate. Actually, they don't eat aluminate, they're only feeding it to the baby.
2m06s: Fourth trap.
All four are raising the same child, who is just starting to toddle. It seems these fellas have alumina or maybe even aluminum bones. The human takes a nap and wakes to find the first child grown up and they're starting to raise a second child, all five of them.
2m46s: Huts.
The human found a working bit of electronics. He calls it a pad, but maybe it's more like a smartphone. It has plans for two residential structures. The first, the smaller one, he can build right away, but the second one needs something called "drywall", and he has to figure out how to make that before he can build it. Huts and houses, apparently.
3m13s: 10 pop, full, first farmer.
The trimp he trained to farm and make paper took an incredible 50 units of food to get bulked up to do the work, and now it's not participating in rearing the child. But less than an hour after the trimp started farming and pulping, the child was out on its own, and the trimps did not start another. The ten seats on the ship were all full. Well, eleven counting the one up front that the human sleeps in. The pilot starts exploring the area.
3m28s: Battle.
Wait, what are you do-
The hostile roars and charges at the human, but one of his trimps jumps in front of him with a stick and they fight. It started right when the human got far enough away from the ship that the hostile non-trimps away from the ship began to regard him as leaving his own territory. After the trimp defeats the first enemy, it continues after other hostiles.
3m53s: Shield I in Z1c5.
The human is easily able to recover the loot in the territory cleared by the fighting trimp. Then he sees something glinting in the- That can't be! What the heck is that? It's a data card that fits his pad. It quite clearly regards trimp combat. He gets it loaded into his pad and studies it. I can do this, it just takes some wood. He returns to the ship to discover that they had already started on a new child before the fighter had even expired in battle. The human concentrates on his research.
4m38s: Mskel in Z1c11 defeated.
The remains of this one seem rather white and shiny. It's titanium! This enemy had titanium bones! He'll store them away. They'll be useful someday, I'm sure.
5m52s: Dagger I in Z1c20.
Where are these data cards coming from? The human wonders as he loads this one into his pad, It's for a weapon it calls a dagger. He blinks. I don't know what a dagger is. I'll take your word for it, data card. Needs metal. He has gathered some, but ore is plentiful. He can just dig and smelt it whenever he wants. For now, I'll continue researching.
6m18s: Arable in Z1c21.
It's an old cave that trimps like to live in. Why weren't they able to live there before? How could these friendly critters be confined to only the exact spot where THAT thing, he looks back where he came from, not remembering that he piloted the wrecked ship to its current resting place, crashed? This is really strange. I'll let them fill up this cave before advancing further. Wait, what about defenses? The hostiles never try to reclaim territory that they've lost, so he stops worrying about that fairly quickly.
8m22s: First hut is 0.3% first ever AP.
The trimps seem fairly easy to please in terms of living quarters. Two move into his first hut and start raising a child. The human has his tent, uniform, and the heater pilfered from his space suit. Not much of a mud fan.
9m59s: Miners in Z1c30.
Oh, what's on this data card? Sl3niw? Oh, I'm holding the pad upside down. Miners. I can teach trimps how to mine ores and smelt met- 200 units of food? Each job is getting more expensive to train a trimp for. He puts his bee nickels to his eyes and spots another data card probably 10 enemies away. "Sc"? Does that means science? I can teach trimps to do science??
13m57s: Scientists in Z1c40.
Due to the expense of training trimps, the human couldn't afford to build them shields until now, he's got Sh1-3 made for the fighter to capture the science training data card. 14m02s: One head went into that turtlimp shell, that of his fighter, but two came out: his fighter still has his head on, and he managed to get the turtlimp's head off. It rushes off after the deadly penguimp in the next cell. The shields are not doing all that much good, actually, but they're better than nothing. The human picks up and loads the science data card and- Holy runny sugar-free fudge crap! 1000 food units, but it'll endow them with the ability to speak. Good. I'm getting bored with no one to talk to.
14m28s: Bloodlust purchased and AutoFight enabled (that delay after getting it is an effect of jacking up the job cost.)
As the human buries this expired little trimp warrior, he comes to the sobering realization that he has more trimp graves in his growing trimp colony than he does live trimps. And yet they seem more hopeful now than before I got to know any of them. They seem to think I'm the solution to all their problems or- Those two look east somberly, then notice that he's watching them and smile back and wave at him. ...one problem that is specific, but very, very huge for them. [The only reason I say 'east' is because that's right on a map, and the game advances right across a row, then up. I might say 'northeast' on occasion for that reason.]
20m47s: Z1c73, Miners taken.
Are you my new mining foreman? The trimp who took to the mining training has dark brown fur that lays flat on its head. It's unusual in not having any bits that stick out from its head, ahoge or whatever. This one is relatively quiet, and while it has assimilated the mining and smelting knowledge, it needs to bulk up to do any mining. Smelting is relatively easy, and getting a strong natural draft going in a furnace is almost trivial with the increased gravity. This trimp builds furnaces like nothing. And likes to nap in holes it digs right on the spot; it's weird that way. [Puchim@s Yukipo, and furnaces are not explicit in Trimps.]
21m58s: Farming in Z1c80.
The resourcing "books" are not data cards but paper scrolls, apparently lost to the trimps. It seems that they were civilized in the recent past and some calamity swept over the planet to reduce them to this. Did I have something to do with it? Amnesia sucks harder than a Dyson- ...what's a Dyson? Whatever, it sucks. This disaster happening just before I crash in the only spot with trimps still alive would be a seriously crazy coincidence! Something is really, really wrong about all this. [The author has not sought or received product placement permission or fee from Dyson Technology Ltd. or any resellers of their stuff, just they literally suck balls and made my favorite vacuum cleaner.]
23m50s: Builder in Z1c90.
They've rescued an, I dunno, gelding trimp? It just started to build a shed around the piled lumber I left to build one. It's really slow compared to me, and just banged its thumb, but it is super cute with that long reddish head fur. That particular trimp is also fascinated with pink ribbons and likes to decorate its head fur with them. Because of its inherent inability to participate in rearing children, it isn't counted in the population. [Puchim@s Io, builder on the basis of Iori seen building in 1x10.]
26m02s: Zone 2, 44 pop, 5.5s RC with Z0/1.
It's some sort of tactical manual - tactical coordination. Coordination! He's starting to sort out some trimpese on the research he has done so far. It needs a lot of metal, so they won't be able to implement it for some time. Hopefully, they're still good one at a time, but these enemies seem to be getting bigger as we go along. Uh oh!
27m33s: Gym in Z2c5.
It's some sort of training dojo or sporting arena. The human examines the ruins, I think I can back-engineer drawings for this, get one built, and see what happens.
29m02s: 1g, 47 pop, 10.8s RC with Z1/2.
The two fighting trimps now with their gym and coordination are dodging and blocking enthusiastically, and making much faster ground against the bad guys then a little while ago when it was just one trimp fighting at a time and unable to avoid the enemy hitting back.
40m46s: Fresh turkimp in Z2c74, 63 pop, 7.9s RC, Sh1-10, Da1-5, Bo1-3, Ma1-3, Hm1-3, 6g.
Oh, wow, the laborers seem really hot after this turkimp. He cooks it up and tries a slice. It's really awesome! I have to work alongside his laboring trimps to share it, but I'm getting used to the gravity now. That scroll we found back in Z2c10 really helped. Trimps' techniques and appliances for handicapped individuals, and I'm really handicapped in this higher gravity. He joins the woodcutters with the turkimp; they're the most numerous resource laborer right now, building more gyms, enough that the block/dodge ability of the fighting trimps is almost caught up to the enemy's ability to cause damage.
43m15s: Zone 3, 63 pop, 7.9s RC with Z1/2.
I'm neglecting my science and trimp scientists are really expensive. Curiously, that grey-haired one can't speak all that well, only says "Tai" and "Shijou", but it can write and draw like nobody's business. It's the only scientist so far. [Puchim@s Takanya: Online references probably still claim that she can utter the first two syllables of any word, but she can actually utter only the first two kana syllables of someone's name, most often the given name of basis human Takane Shijou, who also has that habit. (All the utterances of the puchidoru are based on the speech foibles of their basis humans except maybe Piyopiyo, where I haven't seen anything match up so far.)]
47m32s: Finally, we can make drywall and houses. 59m30s: Z3c77, 94 pop, 7.8s RC.
Oh, those poor things are really struggling up at the front. These trimps are enthusiastic and know no fear, but I still feel like telling them to stop for a while. I don't have the heart to keep them from trying while they're still doing some damage.
1h05m24s: Zone 4, 107 pop, 9.3s RC with Z3/4. 1h15m26s: Zone 5, 120 pop, 8.2s RC with Z3/4.
"What is that?" the human asks. He has three scientists. His first does all the writing, but the other two can actually speak. One of them hops up on a rock spire beside the human to reach his eye level.
At the next ridge line, over the lowest and most passable gap in the terrain, this really mean looking hovering sausage monster.
"I dunno," the scientist trimp shrugs, "But it's making me hungry. Looks like a perfectly cooked frankfurter from here." [John Morell's dubious dirigibles.]
"Oh, yeah," the human nods, "that's a blimp."
"A blimp?" the trimp tilts its head quizzically at the human, "How could you know?"
"I wish I could tell you, little buddy," the human extends his arm braces to descend the pass on the side of the zone boundary in the boss enemy's direction, then grunts, "Let's go kill it."
1h16m11s: Z1c9, 120 pop, 10.3s RC with Z4/5. 1h33m34s: Zone 6, 151 pop, 7.4s RC with Z4/5.
1h33m54s: TP in Z1c3.
"What's this?" the human asks, having picked up the little square document with the curling corners.
"Oh," the hungry scientist looks at it, "It's a garden path, follow me."
"You want to lead me down the garden path?" the human says.
"Yeah," the scientist says.
"Are you kidding?" the human asks.
"No," says the other scientist, "We don't get human humor. Listen, these fighters can't go, let them wear themselves out here, then we'll take the next group through this garden."
"Okay," the human nods, watching two more trimps join the fray as he issues the Z5 coordination orders, "they're doing pretty well after all that block training research we just wrapped up." [That's a common artifact, even in normal games, Z5 Traintacular combines with many gyms, enough population to add several trainers, affording Blockmaster, which is expensive on a run zero, plus a break on Tion Z5, a 40% all-stat increase. I don't think Zach designed it into the game on purpose, it just worked out this way.]
1h34m07s: 151 pop, 10.5s RC with Z5/7. 1h37m44s: Drop from Z6c39, TP for 3.
"Now we have these access map frags we can use to route through the old trimpopoli," the scientist explains, "Atlimpis for food, Morimpa for gems, Everimp for metal, and Impazon for wood."
"What about the garden?" the human asks.
"Well, we got lucky with Tricky Paradise," the scientist says, "but you can randomize the route and maybe get lucky. What's with that look?"
"Somehow, I'm remembering 'frag' as something that blew up with deadly pieces," the human says. [Different video games - ones with better graphics and worse gameplay Ｏ(>▽<)Ｏ]
1h39m59s: Blues back up to the top on series I...
"Tai, Tai!" the first ever trimp scientist stops the human just before he upgrades the mace and dagger to Mk.6 and Mk. 8 respectively. It has a note for him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the human asks, "Do you think that's my name?"
"Shijou, Shijou," it nods as though to indicate, I KNOW it is. Then it proffers its note again. The human takes it and reads, "Don't upgrade the first row equipment right now."
"Why not?" the human asks.
"Shijou," it points at the end of the mapped route, where there's a scroll sticking out of the thistles.
2h24m07s: Zone 8, 224 pop, 12.2s RC with Z7/12.
"Your settlement is getting crowded, there's Trimps in the streets, and you're taking heat. You feel a sudden strong desire to create a map, though you're not quite sure how that would help."
2h49m10s: Zone 9, 357 pop, 9.5s RC with Z8/15.
"You can't shake the feeling that you've been here before. Déjà-vu?"
The trimps really seem to like the new high capacity mansions, and the village has rapidly expanded since they started building them.
"There's something familiar about this," the human says.
"Tai," the grey one that writes clings to his arm and shows him a note that says, "Don't give up now."
"We must persist," says the yellow one has found a foothold it can grab onto and grabs the human's shoulder gently, "If you give up to early, we'll never solve this. You'll be stuck here forever."
The human puts his hand over the trimp's paw on his shoulders, then looks at him, "I can die, too."
"No, you can't," the trimp says quietly, "Please don't test that, tall one."
"Death is just another path..." he remembers.
"Gan," the grey one squeaks. [That's the first two kana syllables of "Gandalf"]
"...one that we all must take," the human continues, "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it-"
"A green mist," the yellow trimp interrupts, "flash of fire, we're all gone and our progress forgotten. The wandering stars return to that day, and you again crash that ship- ...a little better every time."
"Wait," the human looks around, "have I been here before?"
"I-" the yellow trimp tries in futility to share what little it knows, "...or... somebody got just a little coolant into the-"
"Into the what?"
"This side up," the grey one's note says.
"Into the that," the yellow one points at the note, "It really helped. You- ...I don't think we've ever had mansions before."
Well, of course they didn't have mansions before. That was one of my ship's data cards. How did it get way out here? Will anything start to make sense?
3h02m13s: Zone 10, 387 pop, 8.7s RC with Z8/15; '28s: 11.1s RC with Z9/19. 3h16m41s: Tough snimp after food book, L10 rand dept from lo-hi-med 118/25/96, 4 Items.
"That's twice our frags led us to gem-rich Moria," the human says.
"Morimpa," the new red trimp scientist corrects, there now being 5 scientists. [There'd be more if there were more turkimp.]
"The question is how do we use all these gems?" the human looks at the village zoning plans again, "I like those mansions and all, but they use hardly any gems compared to, well-" he gestures at the pile of over two dozen thousand gems they've gathered, "-that! And still a lot of wood and lumber."
"I think there's something," the yellow one sighs, "I wish I knew more."
Quite some time later, after they're done looting that route for equipment plans, the trimps are again advancing through Zone 10, and he hears it.
"Tai?" the grey one wonders.
"Where are you going?" the yellow one asks.
"To the farm," the human answers.
"Whatever for?" the red one seems exasperated.
"Shijou?" the grey one sighs, then looks at the fighting front. It's been around long enough to remember, "Shijou!"
"You guys already get so much to eat this doesn't do you much good," the human explains.
3h32m33s: L11 112/35/78 rand sea, dropped from Z11c6 with disband, 4.
"What's wrong?" the red one asks.
The human comforts one of the wounded. Once trimps start into a zone fight, they have to finish before they bleed out. He's really bothered making them desert in front of that second turkimp. "They had a lot left in them," he sighs, rubbing his eyes, "but we can't keep that much dead turkimp at once, we have to leave it alive to use up all of this one."
"Shijou," the grey one presents a note, "We need this map right away, anyway. Don't worry about it, Tightniks."
"Tightniks?" he looks at the grey one, "Is that me? How do you know?"
"Tai," the grey one points at the top of the human's left breast pocket.
"Ah, crud," the yellow one curls its tail around in front of itself as trimps do when they're embarrassed, "Is that really a name tag?"
The human hadn't even noticed it since the green flash blew up his memory as he was stepping out of the ship.
4h04m22s: Block (sub-8h AP is only 0.3%), taking it, 504 pop, 9.8s RC with Z10/24.
It's a pretty thick book about using shields for block instead of hit points. The pad has the stats analysis. Sh3-1 is only giving us 9% of our hit points. Turning to his trimp scientists, he says, "It seems to me to be worth it."
"Let's," the yellow one nods.
"Shijou," it hands him a note, "It scales badly, but that won't matter for a long time. I think there's a way to undo it before it matters."
"Doing it." The human takes out his pad and starts scanning.
4h29m05s: L14 rand moun 137/26/80 is really good for a lo-hi-med. 4h30m52s: Hotels.
"Ah," the yellow one says, "I knew there was something. That must be it."
5h08m09s: L15 lo-hi-hi rand gard 129/28/82 (just got explorers). 5h09m32s: Picked up Wall.
"Dam," the human says.
"Damn?" the red one chuckles.
"No," the human says, "Earthen wall dam; it's a thing that makes artificial lakes by holding rivers back."
"Lakes?" the yellow one asks, "Rivers?"
"Oh yeah," the human says, "This planet doesn't have enough rain for those..."
5h48m21: Leaving Wall from about c70 to fetch Tion Z15.
"You can't resume the map from the same point if you start another," the human reads the grey one's note.
"We can go back to the same point on that route if we hold there and finish Zone 15, right?" Tightniks asks.
"Shijou!" it seems to be saying yes.
"Yes," the yellow one adds, "but we're out of Series III upgrades, and you need a fresh map route to start up Series IV."
"We should be okay," Tightniks says, "but if we have to start it over, I don't see that being a big deal." As they advance through the rest of Zone 15, Tightniks resumes his usual duties at the research desk instead building and running traps like he was before.
The trimps seem hopeful at this decision.
5h49m10s: Fresh turkimp. 5h50m16s: Zone 16, 1071 pop, 13.4s RC with Z15/75, 13m43s turkimp (skel in c1.)
"Z:16 Seriously? Another Blimp so soon?"
"So," Tightniks lowers his bee nickels and looks at the red one, "is it going to be boss fights at the end of every zone from now on?"
"Hmm," the red trimp looks up past the human at some random rock spire or cloud.
"Well?" the human persists.
"Yup," he says.
"Hmph," Tightniks grabs a Sw3-1 of the rack and advances towards the front, "Before then, we have another Mister Titanium."
"What does he like about skeletimps?" the red one asks the grey one as the human marches off.
"Shijou?" the grey one seems just as confused by that.
"He's not going back to the ship, and he's not getting himself killed," the yellow one smiles, "so I'll take it."
5h58m32s...
"Hey guys, go for the mortar!" the human suggests to his 75 fighting trimps in the Wall's boss fight.
"I can tell from your bedtime stories that you're used to the artillery in that other place," the yellow one gripes, "but fighting works differently here, there's no artillery."
And the human instantly collapses laughing, the scientists a little worried he might have injured himself in the planet's severe gravity. But he's okay, at least physically, "Mortar is the stuff between the bricks, fellas. That's is a brickimp, right?"
5h59m18s: Wall, 1076 pop, 13.3s RC, 1% AP for sub-8h finish, first L16 roll good 156/35/84 moun, 10 for the metal.
Beyond the Wall was a more edenic section of the trimpolis ruins, doubling the production of the lumberjacks. The trimps are actually really happy with the mode of all of the laborers moving between the three big jobs, along with the turkimp, except for the foremen specialized at leading the job. It isn't enough to boost their productivity, but the human goes to them with trays of sandwiches.
6h06m52s: 50 map run 0.3% AP...
6h19m13s: Zone 17, 1141 pop, 16.0s RC with Z16/94, no turkimp.
"Z:17 You climb a large cliff and look out over the new Zone. Red dirt, scorched ground, and devastation. Is that a Dragimp flying around out there?!"
"Hmm," the human surveys the new zone with his bee nickels, "Looks like crap. Any ideas?"
"You're the idea man," the yellow one groans.
"Set the map flag," he puts his bee nickels away, "We'll run a depth for practice and to load up on gems for more hotels."
"Righto," the red one gets to work.
6h44m34s: First DCP. (Draglimp Care Package; I refuse to call it a tribute.)
"Oh," the human says, "It's tame now, so it brings back gems in exchange for food?" He looks at his gaping scientists, "That's what it looks like, huh? Guys? Yo!"
"Tai..." the grey one sighs.
Draglimp, the dragimp imprinted on Tightniks, lands beside the human, drops some gems at his feet, and accepts some scratching behind its horns before diving into the food bowl.
"You tamed a dragimp???" Grey's note says.
"Well," the yellow one huffs, "I guess that happened."
8h18m53s: L20 depth of 154/27/79.
"Mapping up here?" the red one half closes one eye and tilts his head.
"Yeah," the human says while fitting together the depth map fragments, "With the coordination book not right at the end, we have an extra mark of coordination to take advantage of. Let's take our housing up to 2000 or so, shall we?"
"Okay," the yellow one says from a pile of logs, "What's all the wood for?" They had been collecting it for days now.
"The series upgrades follow a rather specific pattern," Tightniks explains, "Just on the other side of this blimp is Zone 21, where we should be able to find the Shield series V, right?"
"Shijou!" the grey one nods.
8h56m17s: 1% AP for 100 map runs, leaving it, 1751 pop, 24.8s RC with Z20/232. 8h56m54s: Zone 21...
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from that."
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes. [Whether it looks like the one in Puchim@s 1x61 is anyone's guess. That one annoyed me as well as Chihya.]
9h02m37s: L21 moun first roll was a decent 160/26/84. 9h21m00s: Starting run 5 of that map...
Tightniks had taken his anger out on some food and wood to build about 8000 traps. Now he's leaning against a rock spire in his increasingly tattered uniform. A nap begins, perhaps unintentionally.
Wild trimps are examining the pile, finding it unwelcoming, and also finding no place in the town, just mill about. It looks like they want to help.
"Ku?" it's a blue trimp, probably a farmer waiting for stuff to grow, climbs up on the rock spire the human is leaning against, starts patting him on the head, "Ku. Ku ku." [Puchim@s Chihya.]
9h23m09s: Still working that lap...
Tightniks wakes up from that nap, and the grey one is standing there. "Shijou," it says with a note of concern, although not much of one. The note it holds says, "It wasn't me."
"Oh, what wasn't you, buddy?" He stretches out a bit, feeling somewhat refreshed. It feels like somebody washed his face and hair while he was sleeping.
The grey one is also holding a small mirror, apparently broken off from a larger mirror and with the sharp edges filed down to make the edges safe.
The human takes it from the grey trimp and holds it in front of his face to discover that somebody has bound up all his hair into about twenty little pigtails. He touches them with his other hand to confirm. "Eh, whatever." He hands the mirror back and goes back to sleep. [Puchim@s Koamimami.]
9h30m08s: The following run...
"He's not throwing stuff every which way yet," the yellow one whispers to the red one, watching the human snoozing with his pad on his knee.
"You remember that, too?" the red one asks.
"'Remember'?" the yellow one turns to face the red one, "I s'pose that's better than imagining it."
"I remember it, too," the grey one says via a playing card sized note.
"If we're stuck in a time loop," the yellow one sighs, "maybe this cycle will be different."
"Tai..." the grey one admires him for a moment. Then thumbs in the direction of the mountain, "Heh, Shijou!" it laughs.
9h35m58s: Run 8, c9 of that map.
The scientists nap and take notes, and meditate and take notes, and draw stuff. The grey one often storyboards for the other nine because it's the best at drawing stuff. They have come up with a list, and most probably "order" (they're debating whether their ranking means "order" (sequence of things happening over the various loops) or "frequency" (what proportion of previous loops they have happened in). But they've come up with this, from first (or perhaps most often) to most recent (or perhaps least often):
- The ship crashes (they're pretty sure that happens every loop) - The human builds huts - The human teaches some of his trimps to speak and do science - The human builds houses - The human makes maps - The human builds mansions - The human blows up and gets himself killed somewhere around Z17 to Z21, often on a dragimp - The human only recently/occasionally builds hotels - The human only recently/rarely tamed a dragimp - The human only recently/rarely maps the Dimension of Anger
They're all agreed that that they have never finished the Dimension of Anger. What they are not all agreed on is that they've never done this conference to figure out whether they're in a time loop or what that might mean. [See also Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" ...which was sort of a time loop but they weren't going back in time. It's very interesting, but its meta makes no sense - no one ever went looking for the Bozeman in 80 years? No one who went looking for the Bozeman also got stuck? No one noticed the passage of time outside the little area of space where the not-quite-a-time-loop was happening? Errr... sci-fi writers, don't be half-assed about your time loops, lmao! Be like Harold Ramis- ...what am I saying?? (That would be Groundhog Day, which grafted a time loop into a romcom; there are no other sci-fi elements. But it was a full-blown time loop and not half-assed like "Cause and Effect".)]
9h54m06s: Dropped from Z21c95...
I think it would be a bad idea to bypass that green area, as much as I'd rather not face it. Both his domesticated trimps, which are breeding up a new group of fighters, and the wild trimps he has decided just now not to open the traps for, stare at him and point in that direction. He shoulders a huge Shield V-3 and grabs an Mace IV-2 as well and announces, "We're doing it." Thus equipped, he marches off into the Dimension of Anger.
10h27m53s: Taking Pi4-2; recently had taken Pa4-2...
The group at the front had expired, and the snimp in DoAc95 glares at the advancing colony of trimps, which had halted only because of it. It refuses to counterattack the vulnerable colony and its human, instead snorting and huffing, waiting for the next bunch of 232 fighting trimps to come in range.
Tightniks runs along the line of traps, releasing the recently tamed trimps, singing a song that he doesn't remember the meaning of, that he doesn't remember was crafted by an ethnically Chinese guy out of an African language, and later mastered by two caucasians over the internet before they ever met in person. "Baba yetu yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu yetu amina..." because it just happened to be stuck in his head. [Because the Doylian author decided on a whim to. Christopher Tin got it into Civilization IV and at the time (2010 July), I made the best video for it on YouTube, which got subsequently blown to shreds when Peter Hollens and Malukah re-recorded the song from scratch in their own voices and instruments in 2014, pity with no English translation, the purpose of my video.]
Noticing the last batch of metal he needs coming out of the furnace, he waves the waiting grey scientist to fire up the forge [to use the term properly and not as the game does], for it was time to wrap up the forging dies for the Spetum IV, Mark 2 pike heads.
"Shijou!" the grey one cheers, setting aside a snack that looks like maybe ramen, and starts jumping up and down on the bellows handle.
It takes a while for the human to chip out the tip in the two halves of the forging die, and then polish it, and then heat it up in the forge, and then quench it, inspect it, and put it into service crafting thousands of new pike heads for the fighting trimps.
But only one second passed on the map frame clock (10h27m54s) four cells behind that snimp, in the case being brooded over by this huge, and if it's honest, rather concerned megablimp.
10h35m45: Portal PB, 45 He, 4.247 He/hr, 1891 pop, 22.7s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' mace heads bounces of it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All ten of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Mace IV, Mark 3 with both hands and gets it over his shoulder, its target obviously this object, anger at the realization he screams at the top of his lungs, "We are stuck in a mutha FAH-king time loop!!" His swing begins. [Tightniks almost never cusses, unlike Snugniks.]
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The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries. He has only a few minutes of APU power left, goes over the best clearing he can find, and radars it. It varies by only a few feet from the aerodynamic glideslope there. He spots it out on the cameras and circles to go after that spot. He's only at two hundred feet now. With one hand on the stick, he uses the other to open the pressure equalization valve on the side hatch, then at one hundred feet, gets it undogged. Depending on how much damage he's going to get, it's less likely to be stuck closed and trap him. The dynamic vacuum this pulls in the cockpit rips most of the survival pack data cards from that rack and scatters them across the landscape. Crap, I'm gonna need those! Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, he turns on the radar for the final approach, takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and PFD, he clicks his HANS and shoulder strap locks in; after that, he can barely move, but that now is better than dying in this crash with a broken neck. He's a decent pilot and brings up the flare gently. Bringing up the alpha on this delta-winged ship, he balloons a little, but keeps the nose going up and restores a zero aerodynamic sink rate just above the highest terrain indicated by the radar altimeter. The ship bumps a little in the ground effect, and he can see the radar altitude cycling irregularly up and down about five feet at a time. Rougher than it looked from higher up! The body flap protecting the dead engines hits first, and the nose comes rapidly down. It hits, the screens go blank, and Tightniks is surrounded by airbags, some lifting his feet from the rudder petals and his hand from the control stick. It's blinding, it's disorienting, it's noisy, and, to his relief, it's long! It takes several seconds before the crashing cockpit stops moving. How many times did he flip over? Did he go sideways and roll? Am I rightside up? Are we really stopped on the ground? The airbags deflate, and he can move his arms. He gets his restraints loose and inspects himself. "Uck!" he says out loud (without the 'f'). No broken bones. His pressure suit can take his blood pressure. 116/81, pulse 112, blood oxygen 99 reads off on his left arm, I'll friggin' take it!
The ship is amazingly intact from what he can tell. He can't get any readings. The systems test meter seems to be working, but can't find any voltages anywhere. The ship seems to be completely dead. Behind him, 10 passenger seats are all surrounded by airbags and the back of the cabin ends in some sort of dirt-and-gravel and there's a bit of daylight seeping in around the edges. He was the only one on board, though, so their deployment was mostly academic (they might have stiffened the structure a little during the crash, but that's probably trivial.) Tightniks gets out of his spacesuit. The air on this planet is actually breathable. He gets the hatch open, steps outside and-
"A green shimmer erupts then disappears, and you hit the ground."
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. Where am I? What's my name? I remember nothing. Aren't babies born naked? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Gets up, looks around. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He picks up a small stone from the ground, this also feels heavier than it should. He rises to his feet and holds it out somewhat (he's unable to fully extend his arm) and lets it go. The stone hits the ground near his feet quickly and with remarkable speed. It's the gravity, it's greater than it is on- ...where am I from? This is- ...not my home planet? "Oooh..."
"Ka?" it says.
What is that? It's cute, at least.
It is not tame. He has no hope of catching it on foot. The creature seems to like the berries. Maybe if I gather some of those into one place and set some kind of trap...
33s: First trap.
I got one! The human lumbers up to the trap and gets the catch open. Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to me; I'm so friggin' screwed.
It doesn't. It looks at the human with a sense of wonder, actually. A blink and tilt of the head. Seems almost to be asking, Is it you? My purpose? My savior? Once out of the trap, which is totally wrecked, he has to make a new one from scratch, it follows him around like a imprinted hatchling bird.
Wiry little fella, you are. You're going to need some bulking up to do anything useful. The- ...'trimp', I guess... The trimp seems just barely able to feed itself. The human lets him into the broken ship's intact cabin, and it curls up comfortably in a passenger seat for a nap.
1m03s: Second trap.
"Apparently the Trimps breed if they're not working. Doesn't look pleasant."
What are they doing?
The trimps appear to be androgynous, and these two have paired off in the back of the ship. They're holding something carefully within a few hours, feeding it berries, grass, and- ...corundum.
Corundum?? Whatever that is, it isn't a baby.
1m35s: Third trap.
Only it IS a baby! The third trimp he trapped immediately joined the other two in raising it. They have a strange diet of food the human has found compatible with his own body, but they also eat rocks! They're careful to crush and sort aluminate minerals from silcate ones and only eat aluminate. Actually, they don't eat aluminate, they're only feeding it to the baby.
2m06s: Fourth trap.
All four are raising the same child, who is just starting to toddle. It seems these fellas have alumina or maybe even aluminum bones. The human takes a nap and wakes to find the first child grown up and they're starting to raise a second child, all five of them.
2m46s: Huts.
The human found a working bit of electronics. He calls it a pad, but maybe it's more like a smartphone. It has plans for two residential structures. The first, the smaller one, he can build right away, but the second one needs something called "drywall", and he has to figure out how to make that before he can build it. Huts and houses, apparently.
3m13s: 10 pop, full, first farmer.
The trimp he trained to farm and make paper took an incredible 50 units of food to get bulked up to do the work, and now it's not participating in rearing the child. But less than an hour after the trimp started farming and pulping, the child was out on its own, and the trimps did not start another. The ten seats on the ship were all full. Well, eleven counting the one up front that the human sleeps in. The pilot starts exploring the area.
3m28s: Battle.
Wait, what are you do-
The hostile roars and charges at the human, but one of his trimps jumps in front of him with a stick and they fight. It started right when the human got far enough away from the ship that the hostile non-trimps away from the ship began to regard him as leaving his own territory. After the trimp defeats the first enemy, it continues after other hostiles.
3m53s: Shield I in Z1c5.
The human is easily able to recover the loot in the territory cleared by the fighting trimp. Then he sees something glinting in the- That can't be! What the heck is that? It's a data card that fits his pad. It quite clearly regards trimp combat. He gets it loaded into his pad and studies it. I can do this, it just takes some wood. He returns to the ship to discover that they had already started on a new child before the fighter had even expired in battle. The human concentrates on his research.
4m38s: Mskel in Z1c11 defeated.
The remains of this one seem rather white and shiny. It's titanium! This enemy had titanium bones! He'll store them away. They'll be useful someday, I'm sure.
5m52s: Dagger I in Z1c20.
Where are these data cards coming from? The human wonders as he loads this one into his pad, It's for a weapon it calls a dagger. He blinks. I don't know what a dagger is. I'll take your word for it, data card. Needs metal. He has gathered some, but ore is plentiful. He can just dig and smelt it whenever he wants. For now, I'll continue researching.
6m18s: Arable in Z1c21.
It's an old cave that trimps like to live in. Why weren't they able to live there before? How could these friendly critters be confined to only the exact spot where THAT thing, he looks back where he came from, not remembering that he piloted the wrecked ship to its current resting place, crashed? This is really strange. I'll let them fill up this cave before advancing further. Wait, what about defenses? The hostiles never try to reclaim territory that they've lost, so he stops worrying about that fairly quickly.
8m22s: First hut is 0.3% first ever AP.
The trimps seem fairly easy to please in terms of living quarters. Two move into his first hut and start raising a child. The human has his tent, uniform, and the heater pilfered from his space suit. Not much of a mud fan.
9m59s: Miners in Z1c30.
Oh, what's on this data card? Sl3niw? Oh, I'm holding the pad upside down. Miners. I can teach trimps how to mine ores and smelt met- 200 units of food? Each job is getting more expensive to train a trimp for. He puts his bee nickels to his eyes and spots another data card probably 10 enemies away. "Sc"? Does that means science? I can teach trimps to do science??
13m57s: Scientists in Z1c40.
Due to the expense of training trimps, the human couldn't afford to build them shields until now, he's got Sh1-3 made for the fighter to capture the science training data card. 14m02s: One head went into that turtlimp shell, that of his fighter, but two came out: his fighter still has his head on, and he managed to get the turtlimp's head off. It rushes off after the deadly penguimp in the next cell. The shields are not doing all that much good, actually, but they're better than nothing. The human picks up and loads the science data card and- Holy runny sugar-free fudge crap! 1000 food units, but it'll endow them with the ability to speak. Good. I'm getting bored with no one to talk to.
14m28s: Bloodlust purchased and AutoFight enabled (that delay after getting it is an effect of jacking up the job cost.)
As the human buries this expired little trimp warrior, he comes to the sobering realization that he has more trimp graves in his growing trimp colony than he does live trimps. And yet they seem more hopeful now than before I got to know any of them. They seem to think I'm the solution to all their problems or- Those two look east somberly, then notice that he's watching them and smile back and wave at him. ...one problem that is specific, but very, very huge for them. [The only reason I say 'east' is because that's right on a map, and the game advances right across a row, then up. I might say 'northeast' on occasion for that reason.]
20m47s: Z1c73, Miners taken.
Are you my new mining foreman? The trimp who took to the mining training has dark brown fur that lays flat on its head. It's unusual in not having any bits that stick out from its head, ahoge or whatever. This one is relatively quiet, and while it has assimilated the mining and smelting knowledge, it needs to bulk up to do any mining. Smelting is relatively easy, and getting a strong natural draft going in a furnace is almost trivial with the increased gravity. This trimp builds furnaces like nothing. And likes to nap in holes it digs right on the spot; it's weird that way. [Puchim@s Yukipo, and furnaces are not explicit in Trimps.]
21m58s: Farming in Z1c80.
The resourcing "books" are not data cards but paper scrolls, apparently lost to the trimps. It seems that they were civilized in the recent past and some calamity swept over the planet to reduce them to this. Did I have something to do with it? Amnesia sucks harder than a Dyson- ...what's a Dyson? Whatever, it sucks. This disaster happening just before I crash in the only spot with trimps still alive would be a seriously crazy coincidence! Something is really, really wrong about all this. [The author has not sought or received product placement permission or fee from Dyson Technology Ltd. or any resellers of their stuff, just they literally suck balls and made my favorite vacuum cleaner.]
23m50s: Builder in Z1c90.
They've rescued an, I dunno, gelding trimp? It just started to build a shed around the piled lumber I left to build one. It's really slow compared to me, and just banged its thumb, but it is super cute with that long reddish head fur. That particular trimp is also fascinated with pink ribbons and likes to decorate its head fur with them. Because of its inherent inability to participate in rearing children, it isn't counted in the population. [Puchim@s Io, builder on the basis of Iori seen building in 1x10.]
26m02s: Zone 2, 44 pop, 5.5s RC with Z0/1.
It's some sort of tactical manual - tactical coordination. Coordination! He's starting to sort out some trimpese on the research he has done so far. It needs a lot of metal, so they won't be able to implement it for some time. Hopefully, they're still good one at a time, but these enemies seem to be getting bigger as we go along. Uh oh!
27m33s: Gym in Z2c5.
It's some sort of training dojo or sporting arena. The human examines the ruins, I think I can back-engineer drawings for this, get one built, and see what happens.
29m02s: 1g, 47 pop, 10.8s RC with Z1/2.
The two fighting trimps now with their gym and coordination are dodging and blocking enthusiastically, and making much faster ground against the bad guys then a little while ago when it was just one trimp fighting at a time and unable to avoid the enemy hitting back.
40m46s: Fresh turkimp in Z2c74, 63 pop, 7.9s RC, Sh1-10, Da1-5, Bo1-3, Ma1-3, Hm1-3, 6g.
Oh, wow, the laborers seem really hot after this turkimp. He cooks it up and tries a slice. It's really awesome! I have to work alongside his laboring trimps to share it, but I'm getting used to the gravity now. That scroll we found back in Z2c10 really helped. Trimps' techniques and appliances for handicapped individuals, and I'm really handicapped in this higher gravity. He joins the woodcutters with the turkimp; they're the most numerous resource laborer right now, building more gyms, enough that the block/dodge ability of the fighting trimps is almost caught up to the enemy's ability to cause damage.
43m15s: Zone 3, 63 pop, 7.9s RC with Z1/2.
I'm neglecting my science and trimp scientists are really expensive. Curiously, that grey-haired one can't speak all that well, only says "Tai" and "Shijou", but it can write and draw like nobody's business. It's the only scientist so far. [Puchim@s Takanya: Online references probably still claim that she can utter the first two syllables of any word, but she can actually utter only the first two kana syllables of someone's name, most often the given name of basis human Takane Shijou, who also has that habit. (All the utterances of the puchidoru are based on the speech foibles of their basis humans except maybe Piyopiyo, where I haven't seen anything match up so far.)]
47m32s: Finally, we can make drywall and houses. 59m30s: Z3c77, 94 pop, 7.8s RC.
Oh, those poor things are really struggling up at the front. These trimps are enthusiastic and know no fear, but I still feel like telling them to stop for a while. I don't have the heart to keep them from trying while they're still doing some damage.
1h05m24s: Zone 4, 107 pop, 9.3s RC with Z3/4. 1h15m26s: Zone 5, 120 pop, 8.2s RC with Z3/4.
"What is that?" the human asks. He has three scientists. His first does all the writing, but the other two can actually speak. One of them hops up on a rock spire beside the human to reach his eye level.
At the next ridge line, over the lowest and most passable gap in the terrain, this really mean looking hovering sausage monster.
"I dunno," the scientist trimp shrugs, "But it's making me hungry. Looks like a perfectly cooked frankfurter from here." [John Morell's dubious dirigibles.]
"Oh, yeah," the human nods, "that's a blimp."
"A blimp?" the trimp tilts its head quizzically at the human, "How could you know?"
"I wish I could tell you, little buddy," the human extends his arm braces to descend the pass on the side of the zone boundary in the boss enemy's direction, then grunts, "Let's go kill it."
1h16m11s: Z1c9, 120 pop, 10.3s RC with Z4/5. 1h33m34s: Zone 6, 151 pop, 7.4s RC with Z4/5.
1h33m54s: TP in Z1c3.
"What's this?" the human asks, having picked up the little square document with the curling corners.
"Oh," the hungry scientist looks at it, "It's a garden path, follow me."
"You want to lead me down the garden path?" the human says.
"Yeah," the scientist says.
"Are you kidding?" the human asks.
"No," says the other scientist, "We don't get human humor. Listen, these fighters can't go, let them wear themselves out here, then we'll take the next group through this garden."
"Okay," the human nods, watching two more trimps join the fray as he issues the Z5 coordination orders, "they're doing pretty well after all that block training research we just wrapped up." [That's a common artifact, even in normal games, Z5 Traintacular combines with many gyms, enough population to add several trainers, affording Blockmaster, which is expensive on a run zero, plus a break on Tion Z5, a 40% all-stat increase. I don't think Zach designed it into the game on purpose, it just worked out this way.]
1h34m07s: 151 pop, 10.5s RC with Z5/7. 1h37m44s: Drop from Z6c39, TP for 3.
"Now we have these access map frags we can use to route through the old trimpopoli," the scientist explains, "Atlimpis for food, Morimpa for gems, Everimp for metal, and Impazon for wood."
"What about the garden?" the human asks.
"Well, we got lucky with Tricky Paradise," the scientist says, "but you can randomize the route and maybe get lucky. What's with that look?"
"Somehow, I'm remembering 'frag' as something that blew up with deadly pieces," the human says. [Different video games - ones with better graphics and worse gameplay Ｏ(>▽<)Ｏ]
1h39m59s: Blues back up to the top on series I...
"Tai, Tai!" the first ever trimp scientist stops the human just before he upgrades the mace and dagger to Mk.6 and Mk. 8 respectively. It has a note for him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the human asks, "Do you think that's my name?"
"Shijou, Shijou," it nods as though to indicate, I KNOW it is. Then it proffers its note again. The human takes it and reads, "Don't upgrade the first row equipment right now."
"Why not?" the human asks.
"Shijou," it points at the end of the mapped route, where there's a scroll sticking out of the thistles.
2h24m07s: Zone 8, 224 pop, 12.2s RC with Z7/12.
"Your settlement is getting crowded, there's Trimps in the streets, and you're taking heat. You feel a sudden strong desire to create a map, though you're not quite sure how that would help."
2h49m10s: Zone 9, 357 pop, 9.5s RC with Z8/15.
"You can't shake the feeling that you've been here before. Déjà-vu?"
The trimps really seem to like the new high capacity mansions, and the village has rapidly expanded since they started building them.
"There's something familiar about this," the human says.
"Tai," the grey one that writes clings to his arm and shows him a note that says, "Don't give up now."
"We must persist," says the yellow one has found a foothold it can grab onto and grabs the human's shoulder gently, "If you give up to early, we'll never solve this. You'll be stuck here forever."
The human puts his hand over the trimp's paw on his shoulders, then looks at him, "I can die, too."
"No, you can't," the trimp says quietly, "Please don't test that, tall one."
"Death is just another path..." he remembers.
"Gan," the grey one squeaks. [That's the first two kana syllables of "Gandalf"]
"...one that we all must take," the human continues, "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it-"
"A green mist," the yellow trimp interrupts, "flash of fire, we're all gone and our progress forgotten. The wandering stars return to that day, and you again crash that ship- ...a little better every time."
"Wait," the human looks around, "have I been here before?"
"I-" the yellow trimp tries in futility to share what little it knows, "...or... somebody got just a little coolant into the-"
"Into the what?"
"This side up," the grey one's note says.
"Into the that," the yellow one points at the note, "It really helped. You- ...I don't think we've ever had mansions before."
Well, of course they didn't have mansions before. That was one of my ship's data cards. How did it get way out here? Will anything start to make sense?
3h02m13s: Zone 10, 387 pop, 8.7s RC with Z8/15; '28s: 11.1s RC with Z9/19. 3h16m41s: Tough snimp after food book, L10 rand dept from lo-hi-med 118/25/96, 4 Items.
"That's twice our frags led us to gem-rich Moria," the human says.
"Morimpa," the new red trimp scientist corrects, there now being 5 scientists. [There'd be more if there were more turkimp.]
"The question is how do we use all these gems?" the human looks at the village zoning plans again, "I like those mansions and all, but they use hardly any gems compared to, well-" he gestures at the pile of over two dozen thousand gems they've gathered, "-that! And still a lot of wood and lumber."
"I think there's something," the yellow one sighs, "I wish I knew more."
Quite some time later, after they're done looting that route for equipment plans, the trimps are again advancing through Zone 10, and he hears it.
"Tai?" the grey one wonders.
"Where are you going?" the yellow one asks.
"To the farm," the human answers.
"Whatever for?" the red one seems exasperated.
"Shijou?" the grey one sighs, then looks at the fighting front. It's been around long enough to remember, "Shijou!"
"You guys already get so much to eat this doesn't do you much good," the human explains.
3h32m33s: L11 112/35/78 rand sea, dropped from Z11c6 with disband, 4.
"What's wrong?" the red one asks.
The human comforts one of the wounded. Once trimps start into a zone fight, they have to finish before they bleed out. He's really bothered making them desert in front of that second turkimp. "They had a lot left in them," he sighs, rubbing his eyes, "but we can't keep that much dead turkimp at once, we have to leave it alive to use up all of this one."
"Shijou," the grey one presents a note, "We need this map right away, anyway. Don't worry about it, Tightniks."
"Tightniks?" he looks at the grey one, "Is that me? How do you know?"
"Tai," the grey one points at the top of the human's left breast pocket.
"Ah, crud," the yellow one curls its tail around in front of itself as trimps do when they're embarrassed, "Is that really a name tag?"
The human hadn't even noticed it since the green flash blew up his memory as he was stepping out of the ship.
4h04m22s: Block (sub-8h AP is only 0.3%), taking it, 504 pop, 9.8s RC with Z10/24.
It's a pretty thick book about using shields for block instead of hit points. The pad has the stats analysis. Sh3-1 is only giving us 9% of our hit points. Turning to his trimp scientists, he says, "It seems to me to be worth it."
"Let's," the yellow one nods.
"Shijou," it hands him a note, "It scales badly, but that won't matter for a long time. I think there's a way to undo it before it matters."
"Doing it." The human takes out his pad and starts scanning.
4h29m05s: L14 rand moun 137/26/80 is really good for a lo-hi-med. 4h30m52s: Hotels.
"Ah," the yellow one says, "I knew there was something. That must be it."
5h08m09s: L15 lo-hi-hi rand gard 129/28/82 (just got explorers). 5h09m32s: Picked up Wall.
"Dam," the human says.
"Damn?" the red one chuckles.
"No," the human says, "Earthen wall dam; it's a thing that makes artificial lakes by holding rivers back."
"Lakes?" the yellow one asks, "Rivers?"
"Oh yeah," the human says, "This planet doesn't have enough rain for those..."
5h48m21: Leaving Wall from about c70 to fetch Tion Z15.
"You can't resume the map from the same point if you start another," the human reads the grey one's note.
"We can go back to the same point on that route if we hold there and finish Zone 15, right?" Tightniks asks.
"Shijou!" it seems to be saying yes.
"Yes," the yellow one adds, "but we're out of Series III upgrades, and you need a fresh map route to start up Series IV."
"We should be okay," Tightniks says, "but if we have to start it over, I don't see that being a big deal." As they advance through the rest of Zone 15, Tightniks resumes his usual duties at the research desk instead building and running traps like he was before.
The trimps seem hopeful at this decision.
5h49m10s: Fresh turkimp. 5h50m16s: Zone 16, 1071 pop, 13.4s RC with Z15/75, 13m43s turkimp (skel in c1.)
"Z:16 Seriously? Another Blimp so soon?"
"So," Tightniks lowers his bee nickels and looks at the red one, "is it going to be boss fights at the end of every zone from now on?"
"Hmm," the red trimp looks up past the human at some random rock spire or cloud.
"Well?" the human persists.
"Yup," he says.
"Hmph," Tightniks grabs a Sw3-1 of the rack and advances towards the front, "Before then, we have another Mister Titanium."
"What does he like about skeletimps?" the red one asks the grey one as the human marches off.
"Shijou?" the grey one seems just as confused by that.
"He's not going back to the ship, and he's not getting himself killed," the yellow one smiles, "so I'll take it."
5h58m32s...
"Hey guys, go for the mortar!" the human suggests to his 75 fighting trimps in the Wall's boss fight.
"I can tell from your bedtime stories that you're used to the artillery in that other place," the yellow one gripes, "but fighting works differently here, there's no artillery."
And the human instantly collapses laughing, the scientists a little worried he might have injured himself in the planet's severe gravity. But he's okay, at least physically, "Mortar is the stuff between the bricks, fellas. That's is a brickimp, right?"
5h59m18s: Wall, 1076 pop, 13.3s RC, 1% AP for sub-8h finish, first L16 roll good 156/35/84 moun, 10 for the metal.
Beyond the Wall was a more edenic section of the trimpolis ruins, doubling the production of the lumberjacks. The trimps are actually really happy with the mode of all of the laborers moving between the three big jobs, along with the turkimp, except for the foremen specialized at leading the job. It isn't enough to boost their productivity, but the human goes to them with trays of sandwiches.
6h06m52s: 50 map run 0.3% AP...
6h19m13s: Zone 17, 1141 pop, 16.0s RC with Z16/94, no turkimp.
"Z:17 You climb a large cliff and look out over the new Zone. Red dirt, scorched ground, and devastation. Is that a Dragimp flying around out there?!"
"Hmm," the human surveys the new zone with his bee nickels, "Looks like crap. Any ideas?"
"You're the idea man," the yellow one groans.
"Set the map flag," he puts his bee nickels away, "We'll run a depth for practice and to load up on gems for more hotels."
"Righto," the red one gets to work.
6h44m34s: First DCP. (Draglimp Care Package; I refuse to call it a tribute.)
"Oh," the human says, "It's tame now, so it brings back gems in exchange for food?" He looks at his gaping scientists, "That's what it looks like, huh? Guys? Yo!"
"Tai..." the grey one sighs.
Draglimp, the dragimp imprinted on Tightniks, lands beside the human, drops some gems at his feet, and accepts some scratching behind its horns before diving into the food bowl.
"You tamed a dragimp???" Grey's note says.
"Well," the yellow one huffs, "I guess that happened."
8h18m53s: L20 depth of 154/27/79.
"Mapping up here?" the red one half closes one eye and tilts his head.
"Yeah," the human says while fitting together the depth map fragments, "With the coordination book not right at the end, we have an extra mark of coordination to take advantage of. Let's take our housing up to 2000 or so, shall we?"
"Okay," the yellow one says from a pile of logs, "What's all the wood for?" They had been collecting it for days now.
"The series upgrades follow a rather specific pattern," Tightniks explains, "Just on the other side of this blimp is Zone 21, where we should be able to find the Shield series V, right?"
"Shijou!" the grey one nods.
8h56m17s: 1% AP for 100 map runs, leaving it, 1751 pop, 24.8s RC with Z20/232. 8h56m54s: Zone 21...
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from that."
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes. [Whether it looks like the one in Puchim@s 1x61 is anyone's guess. That one annoyed me as well as Chihya.]
9h02m37s: L21 moun first roll was a decent 160/26/84. 9h21m00s: Starting run 5 of that map...
Tightniks had taken his anger out on some food and wood to build about 8000 traps. Now he's leaning against a rock spire in his increasingly tattered uniform. A nap begins, perhaps unintentionally.
Wild trimps are examining the pile, finding it unwelcoming, and also finding no place in the town, just mill about. It looks like they want to help.
"Ku?" it's a blue trimp, probably a farmer waiting for stuff to grow, climbs up on the rock spire the human is leaning against, starts patting him on the head, "Ku. Ku ku." [Puchim@s Chihya.]
9h23m09s: Still working that lap...
Tightniks wakes up from that nap, and the grey one is standing there. "Shijou," it says with a note of concern, although not much of one. The note it holds says, "It wasn't me."
"Oh, what wasn't you, buddy?" He stretches out a bit, feeling somewhat refreshed. It feels like somebody washed his face and hair while he was sleeping.
The grey one is also holding a small mirror, apparently broken off from a larger mirror and with the sharp edges filed down to make the edges safe.
The human takes it from the grey trimp and holds it in front of his face to discover that somebody has bound up all his hair into about twenty little pigtails. He touches them with his other hand to confirm. "Eh, whatever." He hands the mirror back and goes back to sleep. [Puchim@s Koamimami.]
9h30m08s: The following run...
"He's not throwing stuff every which way yet," the yellow one whispers to the red one, watching the human snoozing with his pad on his knee.
"You remember that, too?" the red one asks.
"'Remember'?" the yellow one turns to face the red one, "I s'pose that's better than imagining it."
"I remember it, too," the grey one says via a playing card sized note.
"If we're stuck in a time loop," the yellow one sighs, "maybe this cycle will be different."
"Tai..." the grey one admires him for a moment. Then thumbs in the direction of the mountain, "Heh, Shijou!" it laughs.
9h35m58s: Run 8, c9 of that map.
The scientists nap and take notes, and meditate and take notes, and draw stuff. The grey one often storyboards for the other nine because it's the best at drawing stuff. They have come up with a list, and most probably "order" (they're debating whether their ranking means "order" (sequence of things happening over the various loops) or "frequency" (what proportion of previous loops they have happened in). But they've come up with this, from first (or perhaps most often) to most recent (or perhaps least often):
- The ship crashes (they're pretty sure that happens every loop) - The human builds huts - The human teaches some of his trimps to speak and do science - The human builds houses - The human makes maps - The human builds mansions - The human blows up and gets himself killed somewhere around Z17 to Z21, often on a dragimp - The human only recently/occasionally builds hotels - The human only recently/rarely tamed a dragimp - The human only recently/rarely maps the Dimension of Anger
They're all agreed that that they have never finished the Dimension of Anger. What they are not all agreed on is that they've never done this conference to figure out whether they're in a time loop or what that might mean. [See also Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" ...which was sort of a time loop but they weren't going back in time. It's very interesting, but its meta makes no sense - no one ever went looking for the Bozeman in 80 years? No one who went looking for the Bozeman also got stuck? No one noticed the passage of time outside the little area of space where the not-quite-a-time-loop was happening? Errr... sci-fi writers, don't be half-assed about your time loops, lmao! Be like Harold Ramis- ...what am I saying?? (That would be Groundhog Day, which grafted a time loop into a romcom; there are no other sci-fi elements. But it was a full-blown time loop and not half-assed like "Cause and Effect".)]
9h54m06s: Dropped from Z21c95...
I think it would be a bad idea to bypass that green area, as much as I'd rather not face it. Both his domesticated trimps, which are breeding up a new group of fighters, and the wild trimps he has decided just now not to open the traps for, stare at him and point in that direction. He shoulders a huge Shield V-3 and grabs an Mace IV-2 as well and announces, "We're doing it." Thus equipped, he marches off into the Dimension of Anger.
10h27m53s: Taking Pi4-2; recently had taken Pa4-2...
The group at the front had expired, and the snimp in DoAc95 glares at the advancing colony of trimps, which had halted only because of it. It refuses to counterattack the vulnerable colony and its human, instead snorting and huffing, waiting for the next bunch of 232 fighting trimps to come in range.
Tightniks runs along the line of traps, releasing the recently tamed trimps, singing a song that he doesn't remember the meaning of, that he doesn't remember was crafted by an ethnically Chinese guy out of an African language, and later mastered by two caucasians over the internet before they ever met in person. "Baba yetu yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu yetu amina..." because it just happened to be stuck in his head. [Because the Doylian author decided on a whim to. Christopher Tin got it into Civilization IV and at the time (2010 July), I made the best video for it on YouTube, which got subsequently blown to shreds when Peter Hollens and Malukah re-recorded the song from scratch in their own voices and instruments in 2014, pity with no English translation, the purpose of my video.]
Noticing the last batch of metal he needs coming out of the furnace, he waves the waiting grey scientist to fire up the forge [to use the term properly and not as the game does], for it was time to wrap up the forging dies for the Spetum IV, Mark 2 pike heads.
"Shijou!" the grey one cheers, setting aside a snack that looks like maybe ramen, and starts jumping up and down on the bellows handle.
It takes a while for the human to chip out the tip in the two halves of the forging die, and then polish it, and then heat it up in the forge, and then quench it, inspect it, and put it into service crafting thousands of new pike heads for the fighting trimps.
But only one second passed on the map frame clock (10h27m54s) four cells behind that snimp, in the case being brooded over by this huge, and if it's honest, rather concerned megablimp.
10h35m45: Portal PB, 45 He, 4.247 He/hr, 1891 pop, 22.7s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' mace heads bounces of it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All ten of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Mace IV, Mark 3 with both hands and gets it over his shoulder, its target obviously this object, anger at the realization he screams at the top of his lungs, "We are stuck in a mutha FAH-king time loop!!" His swing begins. [Tightniks almost never cusses, unlike Snugniks.]
2024.05.15 05:18 MediteranneanFoodEnj why are linux tools so un-modular, and what's the reasoning around it?
TLDR - I rant about not understanding userspace tools that well and then ask "how can I reason about being efficient at doing linux things and how can I quickly gain insight that answers critical questions - why does this exist? why is this the best approach? how does it work?"
I fully expect that the answer to this is because "because things are harder to manage at the kernel level" but I'm still interested in the details.
I'm a computer science major that used to work on web backend before slowly moving towards systems-level programming. I mostly write C++ now (completely self taught) and have taken up learning linux tools like tmux, vim, sed, awk and also nice community-developed tools like fzf and zoxide to ease my dev workflow.
One thing I find in common between everything linux (or should I say posix) related is that there seems to be a large paradigm shift away from web-oriented languages that drive fast software development. A huge side effect seems to be modularity.
I'm struggling to put into words what I mean here so I'll lead by examples. Rather than being about *why* I should use it, linux-based software seems to be "we exist and if you think you might need us, start reading manpages". There seems to be an implicit trust that the software maintainers have made good decisions that isn't exactly user-facing.
Take tmux for example. I recently tried to implement primeagen's harpoon workflow - which in 1 sentence makes tmux sessions accessible through pre-homerow (and also vim buffers). I mucked around with trying to make sessions sort themselves temporally like :choose-tree does before realizing that choose-tree has its own internal implementation that for whatever reason isn't publicly available. Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that is powerful because of its configurability. Wouldn't it benefit users to control the main display board?
C++ might be another example. The language is massively obfuscated as I'm sure many of you know, and I've spent many nights reading books on move semantics, generics, template argument deduction, you name it (scott meyers and vandervoorde ftw). And yes C++ isn't linux specific but I feel follows very similar systems principles in regards to its development (and is in fact tied very closely with microarch)
The common thing I'm seeing here is the word *why*. I feel that if documentation or discussion around the language started with justification for it being there in the first place, that all reasoning follows.
I also find it hard to believe that learning linux tools isn't the kind of skill that applies to "fear not the man who practices a thousand kicks ones but one kick a thousand times". I see linux tools as just that - tools, an end to a means - and don't see the merit of spending dozens of hours learning the intricacies of some tool when it just needs to do one thing well (core linux principle). Kind of like how the best mathematicians and learners don't memorize proofs but instead make things intuitive to them so that they can rederive them at a whim.
Another aspect that systems-level dev that I think does differently is incorporate many more "paradigms" into their workings. Whereas high-level languages like Java, golang, python have a "shtick" (garbage collection and strong typing, easy scripting language with duck typing, etc) the tree of concepts seems to branch much more heavily. I feel that the latter is much more economical especially when my job is to get a certain thing done, not learn obscure things (thought it is fun)
A final point that I might make is that the linux ecosystem of tools constantly makes me feel like I don't understand what I'm doing. I have a feeling that the right workflow is something like trying new things on a need-to basis but I constantly feel like I don't know what's going on even after reasonably understanding what terminal multiplexers, tiling window managers, shells, temrinal emulators, etc are. I feel that one of the hallmarks of a good engineer is being able to answer the 5 key W's - why, what, how, etc. My answer is mostly "because I don't understand the linux ecosystem to be able to justify why what I am doing is efficient" - and "I find it hard to believe there is something better) is not adequate justification
So, all of this might be a massive skill issue. And I'm sorry if this comes of as demeaning in any way to you guys but time is fleeting and as much as I love tinkering with my config and learning obscure stuff I think it's in my best interest to be learning efficiently so I can be the best engineer possible.
So, I am curious as to two things
submitted by MediteranneanFoodEnj to linuxquestions [link] [comments]
I'm a computer science major that used to work on web backend before slowly moving towards systems-level programming. I mostly write C++ now (completely self taught) and have taken up learning linux tools like tmux, vim, sed, awk and also nice community-developed tools like fzf and zoxide to ease my dev workflow.
One thing I find in common between everything linux (or should I say posix) related is that there seems to be a large paradigm shift away from web-oriented languages that drive fast software development. A huge side effect seems to be modularity.
I'm struggling to put into words what I mean here so I'll lead by examples. Rather than being about *why* I should use it, linux-based software seems to be "we exist and if you think you might need us, start reading manpages". There seems to be an implicit trust that the software maintainers have made good decisions that isn't exactly user-facing.
Take tmux for example. I recently tried to implement primeagen's harpoon workflow - which in 1 sentence makes tmux sessions accessible through pre-homerow (and also vim buffers). I mucked around with trying to make sessions sort themselves temporally like :choose-tree does before realizing that choose-tree has its own internal implementation that for whatever reason isn't publicly available. Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that is powerful because of its configurability. Wouldn't it benefit users to control the main display board?
C++ might be another example. The language is massively obfuscated as I'm sure many of you know, and I've spent many nights reading books on move semantics, generics, template argument deduction, you name it (scott meyers and vandervoorde ftw). And yes C++ isn't linux specific but I feel follows very similar systems principles in regards to its development (and is in fact tied very closely with microarch)
The common thing I'm seeing here is the word *why*. I feel that if documentation or discussion around the language started with justification for it being there in the first place, that all reasoning follows.
I also find it hard to believe that learning linux tools isn't the kind of skill that applies to "fear not the man who practices a thousand kicks ones but one kick a thousand times". I see linux tools as just that - tools, an end to a means - and don't see the merit of spending dozens of hours learning the intricacies of some tool when it just needs to do one thing well (core linux principle). Kind of like how the best mathematicians and learners don't memorize proofs but instead make things intuitive to them so that they can rederive them at a whim.
Another aspect that systems-level dev that I think does differently is incorporate many more "paradigms" into their workings. Whereas high-level languages like Java, golang, python have a "shtick" (garbage collection and strong typing, easy scripting language with duck typing, etc) the tree of concepts seems to branch much more heavily. I feel that the latter is much more economical especially when my job is to get a certain thing done, not learn obscure things (thought it is fun)
A final point that I might make is that the linux ecosystem of tools constantly makes me feel like I don't understand what I'm doing. I have a feeling that the right workflow is something like trying new things on a need-to basis but I constantly feel like I don't know what's going on even after reasonably understanding what terminal multiplexers, tiling window managers, shells, temrinal emulators, etc are. I feel that one of the hallmarks of a good engineer is being able to answer the 5 key W's - why, what, how, etc. My answer is mostly "because I don't understand the linux ecosystem to be able to justify why what I am doing is efficient" - and "I find it hard to believe there is something better) is not adequate justification
So, all of this might be a massive skill issue. And I'm sorry if this comes of as demeaning in any way to you guys but time is fleeting and as much as I love tinkering with my config and learning obscure stuff I think it's in my best interest to be learning efficiently so I can be the best engineer possible.
So, I am curious as to two things
- how do you go about reasoning through doing linux stuff?
- why aren't linux tools more modular, task-motivated, and better documented?
2024.05.15 04:58 numbasafossil14 The Black Dog is a Bearding Symbol
 | This is my first post on the sub and I'm fairly new to Gaylorism (was deep into Gaylor tiktok last year before taking a break and just found this sub within the last month or two!) so full disclosure, I don't in any sense have a comprehensive knowledge of Gaylor lore, nor do I know everything about TayloJoe Alwyn. Nonetheless, I think I found something interesting! (I'm really sorry if this post is too long and I point things out that are obvious; I'm autistic and this is how I communicate when I'm excited and care a lot!!) submitted by numbasafossil14 to GaylorSwift [link] [comments] Inspired by this post on the LWYMMD music video, I decided to rewatch a few other MVs and found something in Blank Space: three black dogs. Dobermans, actually! They appear during 0:48-0:58 and are being walked on leashes by Taylor and her "love interest." There is even a shot JUST of the dogs. I think it's common knowledge that Blank Space is a song about PR relationships and bearding contracts, so seeing these dogs seemed significant. They of course brought to mind the Doberman in the Fortnight MV and "The Black Dog", and I thought, what if all these black dogs are a bearding symbol? https://preview.redd.it/694l9olv6i0d1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=4def19eb0556ca29a641a6ee9e1461febd642228 Before diving into the explanation for that, some context on Dobermans provided by Wikipedia. The breed was created by a tax collector who wanted protection from thieves as he traveled and collected taxes. In other words, Dobermans were created to safeguard the collection of money. They are ranked the 5th most intelligent dog in the category of "obedience command training," are "tenaciously loyal," and are "kept as a guard dog and as a companion animal." More on why those traits tie into this theory later. The appearance of the Dobermans in Blank Space isn't too noteworthy by itself. They can easily be written off as a status symbol, like the mansion and horses and "new money, suit and tie." But in connection with TTPD, they take on a new meaning. In the Fortnight MV, we see a Doberman trot across screen while Taylor is strapped down, being experimented on (2:42). I always thought that was odd but shrugged it off as a casual nod to "The Black Dog" and didn't look for any deeper meaning for why it would be included in that particular scene -- until now. https://preview.redd.it/buc47hx37i0d1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=524478d8b4425bab098d6e787016228f391e65d1 During this scene, we see scientists examining Taylor's head and reading lyrics ("I love you, it's ruining my life") in her brainwaves. This scene screams exploitation even before the electroshock therapy begins. They begin shocking her, sparks are flying, scientists are ducking. At 3:06, we see all this but also the Doberman, standing in one of the doorways. While it takes a few steps forward, the dog is otherwise unaffected by this violence in that it isn't barking, rushing to Taylor's aid, or attacking the scientists who are causing this violence. Yet, its position at the doorway to the lab seems to imply it is a guard dog. It's just not Taylor's guard dog. It's not there to protect her. It's there to protect the experimentation and exploitation process, to ensure this process can continue taking place. It's Post Malone's character who ultimately saves her from it. Coming back to tie this up later. https://preview.redd.it/tk15o8477i0d1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3db983b98490dff491420ecca730eaaced3bcfe Now, "The Black Dog." It may be my favorite song on TTPD and The Anthology. In preparing for this post, I searched the sub to see if my ideas were already shared somewhere, and I found this comment by u/Small-Expert-4020: "To me this is the only song that makes me think of joe- and it sounds way more like a friend breakup then being sad over an ex. The way she says 'i was someone you shared secrets and your location with' sounds so much like a confirmation that shes sad the bearding relationship ended on less than good terms" (Wanted to copy/paste rather than link to help explain my theory) I totally agree with this interpretation that the song is about Joe and the loss of their relationship, not just the PR relationship but whatever personal relationship they may have had, because I don't think you share a PR relationship with someone for that long and not find a single facet of it that's genuine. I don't know if they were in love, but I do believe they were friends, confidants, and I believe Taylor loved him like a brother. I think the lyric "For a cruel fraternity I pledged / And I still mean it" says this directly. She pledged to a fraternity with him by loving him like a brother, and that was the part of them that was real. That's why it's painful and bewildering to lose, because she still loves him like that despite him being gone. This isn't the only time she's referenced a familial love toward Joe. In CIWYW, she writes, "I'm laughin' with my lover, makin' forts under covers / Trust him like a brother, yeah, you know I did one thing right." Laughing with her lover -- maybe they're laughing because he isn't really her lover. Making forts under covers -- seems innocent and not sexual to me; making pillow forts with roof blankets is something friends and siblings do. She trusts him like a brother, and that shows her that she's picked one beard right. This one may be more meaningful than the others. Back to "The Black Dog," I've read the posts about how it could refer to a Black Dog Tavern or a Black Cat Tavern, and it may, but I think the black dog is also Joe himself. Again, the song doesn't feel like losing a lover; it feels like losing a dear friend and confidant. And of course there is the line "'Cause tail between your legs, you're leaving." The subject of the song, Joe, is the dog, leaving with his tail between his legs. Remember the info about Dobermans that they're both guard dogs and loyal companions. Joe could've been, and likely was, a PR relationship that offered Taylor safety as a closeted queer person, which her team enforced so as to assure her financial success, and a person she truly came to trust, love, and share her plans with. Blank Space puts an irreverent spin on bearding, like it's a necessary evil she can at least have some fun with. I think with Joe, it became something meaningful, and I think he was part of her plans to come out in 2019. When her plans were ruined, she was heartbroken, but at least she still had him as a friend and confidant and someone who knew what she was feeling. But maybe he got tired of the bearding after so long, maybe he wanted to live more authentically and she wasn't yet ready to. If you read the lyrics, she's saying: It's hitting me that you're really gone. I don't understand why you left. We were dreaming together. We made those best laid plans. You said you'd be brave and play my man and now that I really need you, you're gone and it kills me. Do you hate me for not coming out? Old habits (closeting) die screaming. I think the loss of Joe has made her feel more bitter than ever about bearding, which could add to why she's being so in-our-faces about the PR relationship with Travis. At least with Blank Space, there seemed to be an aspect of fun about it. But the performance she's giving now just seems painful and sad. Like she's determined to play it up as much as possible because it can't mean anything real to her again. I noted this past weekend (though haven't found a pic of it) one of the visuals during ICDIWABH is a marquee saying The Black Dog (Club?). This reference during that song also supports the idea that losing Joe did break her heart in a way, and now she's bearding with a broken heart by making it so visible and so ridiculous. In conclusion, Taylor has seemed to learn a lesson that the beard/the black dog won't save her in the end. The black dog just perpetuates the pain of closeting. It's Post Malone's character in the Fortnight MV (whom I agree represents queer, closeted Taylor) that saves her from the exploitation of the scientists/her team. And I really, really hope she's going to save herself by coming out. |
2024.05.15 04:47 Jrmed06 LO help
As the title suggests, I need help with my LO. I tend to crash at random intervals and I don't know what's causing it, some help will be greatly appreciated. I'm using the Halls of Ysgramor LO template.
MASTER FILES:
Bug fixes and quality of life:
User interface/camera/HUD/Fonts/menus
Audio:
Interior lighting:
Meshes and textures - armors and weapons:
Meshes and textures - effects:
New followers and named NPCS:
Combat overhaul:
Body meshes and skin textures:
Skeleton frameworks and nemesis output:
Single-area edits:
New quest mods with area edits:
Trees & flora with area edits:
LOD & map mods:
INI (settings) changes:
Bottom of LO required:
submitted by Jrmed06 to SkyrimModsXbox [link] [comments]
MASTER FILES:
- Unofficial Skyrim special edition patch
- Simple Workaround
Bug fixes and quality of life:
- Increased mining resources X3
- Truly absorb Dragon souls
- Ring of increased carry weight
- Optional quick start
- Cheat room
- SMIM PERFORMANCE PLUS
- Swift Kingdom overhaul
- Vanilla Plus v5.1.1
- Relationship dialogue overhaul
- RDO - USSEP PATCH
- Odin - Skyrim magic overhaul
- Arcanum - a new age of magic (Fixed)
- Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
- Ancient dragonborn powers
- Phenderix magic evolved
- Spellforge
- Spellforge - Library - base - Odin
- Spellforge - library - Apocalypse
- Spellforge - library - Odin (For apocalypse)
- Spellforge - Library - arcanum
- Ordinator - perks of Skyrim
- 50 PCT More perk points
- Odin- ordinator compatibility patch
- Apocalypse - ordinator compatibility patch
- Character creation overhaul AIO
- Imperious - races of Skyrim
- Universal imperious patch
- True hybrid - tainted blood of the dragonborn
- Growl - werebeasts of Skyrim
- Sacrosanct - vampires of Skyrim
- Tainted blood & growl compatibility patch
- Unleashed Sacrosanct & growl racial abilities
- Katana crafting
- The heavy Greatsword
- Stonefire set - Mihail weapons, armor and clothes
- Aetherium armor and weapons
- Black knight armor
- Zerofrost's armor AIO
- Cloaks and capes 1K
- Skyrim outfitters AIO
- Kynreeve armor
- Dragon carved Armor AIO
- Expanded jewelry crafting
- Ultimate assortment - jewelry
- Vanity mirror
- Weapons of the third era
- Diverse dragons collection 1k
- Monsters reborn special edition
- Heavy weapons - New weapons SE
- PrivateEye's heavy armory
- Skyrim SE expanded Skyrim weaponry - NPC
- Summeryst - enchantments of skyrim
- Warbird's drastic dragon loot
- STAR triple gold
- Loot overhaul - rarity and abundance
User interface/camera/HUD/Fonts/menus
- Dragon UI
Audio:
- Realistic waterfall sounds
- Skyrim music 2
- Quieter dungeons and caves
- Mythical wonders - a weather and sky bundle
Interior lighting:
- Enhanced lights & FX (SMIM)
- ELFX Fixes AIO
- Skyland AIO
- Enhanced texture detail - No SMIM overlap
Meshes and textures - armors and weapons:
- Leanwolf's better shaped weapons
- Vanilla apparel for pyrokess
- HIMBO vanilla refit - default
Meshes and textures - effects:
- Enhanced blood textures
- Magical forces and fx bundle - lite
- Dynamic impact - slash effects X
- Just blood - blood and dirt lite
- Immersive citizens
- Serena dialogue add-on
- Serena dialogue add-on RDO patch
- Amazing follower tweaks
- GET no more dead followers
New followers and named NPCS:
- Sofia - the funny fully voiced follower
Combat overhaul:
- Serio's enhanced dragons
- BIG: Ultimate kills
- Violens - a killmove mod
Body meshes and skin textures:
- Pyrokess
- Highly improved male body (HIMBO)
- ReaLore young men and women 1K
- Superior lore friendly hair
- Extra vanilla hair WIP
- Skywigs PK1
- HN66 Updated long eyelashes SSE
- Brows [XB1]
- Beards [XB1]
- Eyes of amber
- HD vanilla eyeliner
- Character editor - All in one vanilla customization pack
- Skyrim vanity kit
Skeleton frameworks and nemesis output:
- Realistic weapon placement (cloaks edition)
- Belt-fastened quivers
- XP32 Maximum skeleton special edition extended
- GDB'S elden beast edition
- Comprehensive first person animations
Single-area edits:
- Magical college of winterhold
- Magical college of winterhold (ELFX patch)
- Reinforced ebony armor
New quest mods with area edits:
Trees & flora with area edits:
LOD & map mods:
INI (settings) changes:
Bottom of LO required:
- Pauly's very attractive water & effects (performance mode)
- Ilinalta - realistic water transparency
- Realistic conversations
- No radial blur - performance optimization
- Insignificant object remover