White bumps in same spot around mouth
The only true racism is racism against wh*tes.
2018.07.26 18:06 PraiseBeToScience The only true racism is racism against wh*tes.
A subreddit for mocking reddit's large, vocal, and hypocritical fragile white population. We are a satirical /TopMindsOfReddit style meta sub where a mocking tone is highly encouraged. Courtesy warning, this is not a safe space (in the proper sense) for those who'd simply rather avoid bigots and not have to argue for their own dignity and right to exist. Many of us sometimes prefer to take the piss out of the pigs. We completely respect your right not to participate.
2015.10.11 00:10 ConspirOC In Real Life Easter Eggs
Remember the thrill of stumbling upon hidden gems in games or movies? Now, imagine that wonder translated into real life. Welcome to IRLEasterEggs, a community where we celebrate the art of uncovering peculiar, unnoticed secrets that creators left for the observant few. From a forgotten sculpture in a secluded forest to a captivating mural tucked away in a city's nook, here's where you can share the enchanting treasures you find in the world around us.
2010.03.05 18:55 bobcat Random Thoughts
Unbeckoned, they pop into your head.
2024.06.09 16:03 Right-Rutabaga5941 Brown spots withering / pale light leaves seedlings in kratky
 | also anyone know whats causing this, it seems to happen to the true leaves, cotyledons were fine. almost all the first few true leaves of al the plants in this batch has withered away like this (brown spots). ph is within 6-7, ec is 1-1.5, ambient temp is 88F, full sunlight (prob around 2k ppfd) with 65% shade net, setup is kratky. submitted by Right-Rutabaga5941 to hydro [link] [comments] The seedlings are bokchoy and i have another veg sharing the same kratky container too n they rnt suffering from those iwthering brown spots (tho they are quite pale). Got the same bokchoy seedlings but in soil mix in similar conditions (temp/light/etc) n they are doing fine. Not a single brown spot/withering and much greener. https://preview.redd.it/vmahc930zj5d1.jpg?width=429&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4b1c372645d91dd7639853eba1ba69d983921f2 |
2024.06.09 16:00 pepemustachios F**King magnolia
This seems to have divided friends and family so looking to gauge opinions.
I bought a house last year in an estate. Like the majority of houses built in the early to mid 2000s, they were all painted the same colour, magnolia.
A few still have the original paint, and could do with at least touch up at this stage and a few have repainted their houses but stuck with or very close to the original colour.
My problem is, I absolutely hate magnolia and want to paint it white with light grey around the windows but obviously this will stand out like a sore thumb in the sea of magnolia and sand colour windows.
submitted by pepemustachios to CasualIreland [link] [comments]
I bought a house last year in an estate. Like the majority of houses built in the early to mid 2000s, they were all painted the same colour, magnolia.
A few still have the original paint, and could do with at least touch up at this stage and a few have repainted their houses but stuck with or very close to the original colour.
My problem is, I absolutely hate magnolia and want to paint it white with light grey around the windows but obviously this will stand out like a sore thumb in the sea of magnolia and sand colour windows.
2024.06.09 16:00 BrodogIsMyName Frontier Fantasy - Chap 42
[First] [Previous] [Next]
WaveOfWire Edits :D
- - - - -
Harrison’s vision was still foggy from waking up, several blinks failing to clear the tears from his drawn-out yawn. He just escaped the encompassing embrace of his four-armed guardian, leaving their shared bed for the bathroom, where he would have to say goodbye to his beard. If he was going to travel out of the settlement, a proper seal on his gas mask was a must.
It was a shame. The slow buildup of the hair over the last month or so was a representation of his growth in a way, building up alongside his experiences in this hellhole, be they life-threatening or informative. It was almost like wiping the slate clean, even if cutting some chin scruff didn’t really change anything at all—he’d never be able to forget anything he had seen here for as long as he lived.
And there was no telling how long that’d be.
The engineer sighed, splashing the lukewarm barracks water into his face from one of the many wall-attached sinks, allowing him to fully open his eyes and size up the damage done to his favorite black blood-and-sweat-stained t-shirt. It always stayed in good condition with washing and fabricator repairs, but somehow Shar’s talons always found a way to make small holes in it. She wasn’t trying to, but with the way she fully wrapped her arms around him, the tips of her sharp fingers sometimes ended up poking into the fabric and causing some cuts.
It was such a small issue that he never considered bringing it up to her. Plus, she’d probably do her whole guilty talon-tapping thing with puppy eyes and all… He shook his head, letting the stray beads of water on his face drip into the sink.
His palm ran across his beard while his other hand reached for the razor. There wasn’t any shaving cream or the like, but he’d make do. At least he had one of the proper tools for the job. He went into the task, the blade driving through his scruff, slopping off wide areas of his hair from jaw to chin for a few seconds before it was interrupted.
A short ‘woosh’ of the entrance caught his attention.
“Aww, you’re shavin’ it off?” Tracy commented dejectedly through a yawn, the lazy drawl reinforcing the fact that she just woke up. “Th’ beard was sorta growin’ on me.”
He eyed her through the mirror, his voice coming out in a dull tone. “Yeah. I feel the same.”
She squinted under the bright bathroom lights, rubbing an eye with her wrist as she walked up to the sink beside him and started her own morning routine. “Mmm… Womp womp. Why though?”
“Need it to get a gas mask seal,” he stated flatly, focusing on the task at hand.
The technician stopped momentarily, the gears turning in her head before she gave him a downcast frown. “You’re still set on going for the vehicle bay? You know we can just send some long-range drones out there, right?”
His short exhale echoed throughout the tiled room. The engineer closed his eyes, already mentally withdrawn from the conversation. They've had this discussion twice now. “It’s to be better prepared for any chemical, biological, or radiological surprises that might come up—not just for the excursion. Even more importantly, there’s no guarantee the module is in perfect shape. If I’m there in person, I’ll have the means to get through anything for those blueprints. Plus, it should only be four days, so the only issues we have are my beard and finding a way to protect the Malkrin from the radiation while we’re out.”
Tracy looked like she wanted to say something back, but bit her lip and cast her eyes down at the sink in front of her, twisting the knob before mumbling a quiet response. “I don’t think you need to protect them from radiation at all…”
“Hmm?”
She stared at him meekly, his dismissal of her worries having clearly dampened her mood. Guilt tugged at the back of his mind before her words further caught his interest. “I think they’re immune… or resistant or something. Radiation immunity is the whole reason they were sent here. You’ve added up the pieces together too, right?”
He stared down at her, running a hand through his hair with tired exasperation depressing his voice. “Tracy, I’ve been trying my hardest to just make it another day on this God-forsaken planet, not dig into their religion. So, no. I have not spent the time to add up the pieces. Enlighten me, please.”
“…S-Sorry. I just, you know, get a lot of time to think when working on drones, and Cera has been drawing all kinds of representations of these things.” Tracy paused, gesturing toward the engineer. “Okay, so you remember the whole backstory for why the Malkrin are on the mainland in the first place?”
“Pseudo-eugenics?” he commented dryly.
“Yeah.” She nodded, a sense of excitement leaking into her voice. “And what were the parameters of banishing someone?”
“Not getting sick from a rock.”
She eyed him feverishly, brows raised with a sudden zeal. “Aaaaand that rock represented the Sky Goddess’ wrath, which did what?”
“Uhhh…” He looked upward in thought, recalling his conversation with the paladin. “I think Shar mentioned nausea, vomiting, blisters, skin melting… off…” He froze, the pieces forming. “Wait, you don’t think…”
“I do. Those symptoms could mean a lot of things, but the anomaly field was the real kicker. You know that Shar just straight up didn’t have any lingering radiation effects or anything while you were nearly put… six feet under…” Her voice quieted momentarily, the speed of her speech outpacing her train of thought. “Sorry. Um… so, I was gonna say that she, uh, I mean the scanner mentioned she had damage from ‘alpha particles’ on her skin, but nothing else happened to her organs or anything.”
Harrison squinted at her for a moment, mouth slightly opened and prepared to give some alternative reasoning besides ‘immunity.’ Maybe her armor protected her from it? No… she didn’t even have full protection, radiation would have certainly gotten around her eyes or snout. What about her height? What if… No.
He didn’t just want to believe that somehow the Malkrin could just evade a force of nature, but he didn’t have any way of proving or disproving it on hand… Well, no humane way of testing it.
“I… guess?” the engineer grumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Even then, they still need armor and gas masks. The worst part of the radiation isn’t even the ionizing part. It’s the trace elements that get into your lungs and decay there. So it doesn’t hurt to use some CBRN filters.”
“Fair… but it’s interesting, isn’t it?” Tracy beamed. “Like, what kind of evolutionary factors lead to radiation immunity? Why do only some of the Malkrin have it and others don’t?”
The only real cause of radiation he could think of would be a massive nuclear proliferation of some sort. Maybe the anomalies? He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the lingering thoughts away. “I wouldn’t know. You could always ask Sebas to bring up some papers about it or generate some theories when you get the chance.”
“I probably will at some point… Maybe while I’m working.” She poked him in the bicep. “You’re still helping me with the mule, right?”
He bobbed his head, loose beard hairs itching up his chin. “Sure am. Gimme a bit to shave and test the fifty-cal ammo, then I’ll be free to assist.”
“Kay Kay.” The tradeswoman smiled and returned to the sink, washing her face.
- - - - -
“What the hell did you do to your shield?” a stunned Harrison asked the paladin, his face scrunching up in concern… and confusion.
Sharky proudly held up her once grungy orange shield with a smile, looking at its new… paint job? “Artificer Tracy has s—n to imbue my bulwark with the crest of the Sky Goddess herself! Observe the b—utiful wings that cover it!”
The engineer had just got back from setting up and overseeing the automated mule’s first excursion to the mine and back. It was a grueling task, requiring him to reset its pathing several times before it was able to make a round trip without input. Now, the maroon-skinned Malkrin in front of him had apparently gotten her massive aegis laser imprinted with crossing wings in the two hours or so he’d been gone. The areas between the black feather decals were colored with white and blue paints, contrasting with the new dark gray background.
A small weight was placed on his shoulder, Tracy’s forearm suddenly appearing atop it despite her being nearly a foot shorter than him. She beamed, staring up at him with all-too-proud eyes. “The scout regiment symbol looks good on it, right? Cera helped me with the laser engraving.”
“I…” His brows raised in perplexity. “The scout regiment?”
She shrugged, watching the paladin observe her shield from all sorts of different angles underneath the workshop’s light fixtures. “From an anime I used to watch. Men and women who were sent out to battle against massive titans for the greater good of the last settlement of humanity. Somewhat fitting, and fuckin’ awesome on her big-ass shield! Matches the bird’s wings on her armor too.”
He loudly sighed. “You wasted materials on imprinting wings on Shar’s shield? Really?”
“Hey!” Her brows furrowed into faux-annoyance, a smug grin betraying it. “It’s not a waste if you were never gonna use the paint we had on hand. Plus, we’ve got energy to spare with all the wind turbines and power cells you’ve been printing out.”
“Those paints probably could have been used for important designations… or something…” he grumbled.
“Doesn’t matter.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Anyway, want me to put some scary teeth or something on that big ‘ol fist-sized muzzle break on your shotgun?”
“No?” he took an incredulous step away from her, letting her arm fall off his shoulder and to her side.
“It’s okay to admit you’re jealous of Shar’s awesome decals, bro,” Tracy teased, her smugness growing tenfold. “No need to get defensive.”
He groaned, figuring there wasn’t a point in staying to bicker with the tradeswoman, leaving the two vanity-focused females to their devices. He still had to figure out how to fabricate armor and gas masks for the Malkrin and himself.
“Hey! Where ya goin?” the technician called out, clearly disappointed that he hadn’t indulged in her taunts.
“Work.”
Short taps against the hard floor sounded out as she caught up to him. She leaned forward and curiously looked up at him as she walked, holding her hands behind the small of her back. “What kind? Can I help?”
“Just need to take some measurements and compare options. Right… Speaking of which.” He turned around and cupped his palms around his mouth. “Hey Shar! Get over here, I need your help!”
The addressed Malkrin perked up, snapping out of the small haze of admiring her new shield and happily making her way toward him. She stood at attention, her tail oscillating side to side. “What n—d do you have of me?”
“Just a quick task,” he briefed her, grabbing some measuring tape from his desk… that Tracy had decided was her new chair. He sighed and turned his attention back to the paladin. “Can I bother you to lean down for a few seconds while I take some measurements?”
“Of course. Pl—se, take your time.” She stepped forward and kneeled, her head brought down to his height. Her face wore that simple content look he was growing all too accustomed to by now—slightly vibrating frills, a little curl upward of her lips, and warmly glowing eyes.
He wasted no time getting to work, noting down the various distances around her jaws, snout, eyes, and ears, already piecing together how he could cobble together some gas mask designs to fit the dimensions. She sat there quietly, sometimes leaning into the accidental head scratches adorably. It contrasted heavily with the cold-sweat-inducing layers of razor-sharp teeth within her muzzle as he measured the angle her maw opened at, bringing an idle curiosity prodded his mind.
“Say, Shar, do your teeth grow back if they fall out?” he poked, absently observing the dozens of triangular bone protrusions in her mouth as he held the underside of her jaw.
“They do,” she confirmed, the way she was able to speak despite not moving her mouth still messing with his head. “Do y—rs not?”
“Nope. Only once.”
She attempted to tilt her head, but quickly returned it when it left the embrace of his palm. “Only once?”
He nodded. “Yeah, sometime a few years after birth. They’re replaced with the teeth I have now. Don’t get any new ones, so we gotta take care of ‘em.”
“Birth?” The Malkrin’s eyes widened. “You were not cr—ted as you are now?”
A shock of stress poured down his spine like a bucket of ice water, raising the hairs on his back. Fuck. How did he let that slip? He was supposed to have just appeared from the sky to her, right…? He was doing so well for so long in keeping that in. God, had he really gotten so comfortable with the paladin that he simply forgot what he was to her? His teeth clenched, a huff of air escaping his nostrils as he lightly shook his head. It was a bit too late to backtrack. It could be explained vaguely and brushed off, right?
“Yeah. I was born,” he affirmed flatly. His hand dropped away from Shar’s muzzle, her head falling an inch or two before she registered that she couldn’t keep leaning into his touch. “That’s it for measurements, so you’re free to leave.”
A frown carved through her small smile. “I… See… F—give me if I have brought up someth—g improper.”
His exhalation burned through his frustration at himself, his hand running through his hair to wash away the spike of anxiety. “You’re fine. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Th-Then I shall take my leave,” the massive alien stated softly.
He nodded, feeling a little regretful for pushing the kindhearted Malkrin away as he shuffled back to his desk. Tracy was still sitting atop it, giving him a disappointed reaction with low brows, forcing a pointed reaction from him. “What?”
The technician took a long inhale before shrugging. “Nothin’.”
“…Alright.”
The rolling chair squeaked lightly as he rested himself, his hands already going through the motions of opening the computer and the blueprint folders. There were plenty of tabs open of sensors and motor assemblies he hadn’t closed from the previous night. That wasn’t even mentioning the pile of notes he had on proper radio-protective methods, their corners bent from his frequent flipping through them.
“Soooo…” The short black-haired woman leaned forward from her perch atop the only clear part of his desk. “Can I help you with your ‘comparing options’ work, mister busyman?”
“Sure…” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, raising a brow. “How much do you know about armor?”
- - - - -
“No way. The back support is a must, so you can have extra plating over your shoulders and chest.” Tracy pointed out from her seat beside Harrison’s, all but forcing him to pause his Malkrin gas mask designing to give her argument his full attention.
He calmly took his hands off the mouse and keyboard. “A back support needs leg assistants, which means I’ll need to have at least a fifteen pound battery pack somewhere. Those kinds of exosuits are either all in or not at all. You can go full armor and engine, or lightweight protection and simple limb support.”
“So you’re just gonna go out there with normal armor? Just run-of-the-mill plates and gear? Those fucking things would go through that shit like butter! I know we can’t make synthetic muscle yet, but at least consider wearing something a bit more. Please. Even Sharky has heavy armor!”
Harrison pinched the bridge of his nose, his brows furrowed. “Do I look like a several-hundred kilogram monster of pure muscle to you? I’m more than willing to put on a few extra kilos for protection, but I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of putting on more armor rather than more equipment. I’d rather fifty pounds of magazines and ammo than fifty pounds of armor. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah yeah… You and your storage space…” she mumbled, swiping through a few more images on her data pad when a familiar Mars-pattern suit showed up, catching his eye.
“Hey, wait, pull that one up…”
She rotated the tablet for him to see a little better—despite already being shoulder-to-shoulder with him. “This one? What’s so special about it?”
He analyzed the few pieces of equipment on screen, noting the rusty-orange and tan color scheme, the old Martian-American flag attached to its breastplate, and the iconic quad-nod integrated helmet. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “That’s… We have that in our blueprints?”
She raised a brow, clearly confused. “Whaddya mean?”
“That’s an Orbital Drop Ranger’s standard kit,” he stated slowly, a simmering sense of awe bubbling up—why the hell was it in their blueprints folder? “It was used during the Sino-Venusian incursion of southern Mars. It still has the Old Earth American flag embedded into it, so you know it’s pre twenty-two-hundred C.E.”
“Oh shit… Pre-St.Loual’s construction? This is ancient, then, huh? Would it be any good?” She leaned in closer to him, eying the tablet further.
“Does it have the assembly view of the armored pieces?”
“Mmhmm.” She tapped a few icons, showing an isometric, exploded view of all the parts and their individual components.
It was a piece of history alright. The armor was produced just about the time when Mars was connecting their orbital stations and ground colonies to work in tandem, allowing for specialized forces to be trained in space and launched anywhere across the planet from drop pods in mere minutes, leading to common nickname of ‘Minutemen’ given to the troopers. The suits were expertly designed to withstand the harsh environments of Mars and give the soldiers the ability to engage with enemy combatants for several days before extraction, though the adept units usually completed their objectives within twenty-four hours of their landing.
The helmet was very angular and blended in with the expected rocky terrain of Mars, each component taking on a sloped frontal design with rectangular prisms flowing behind—radio, breathing apparatus, and vision modules all sharing a sleek, yet bulky look in their own right. It reminded him of some in-atmosphere ships, with the overhanging visor above the quad-nod viewport being the only non-aerodynamic pieces.
The chest and legs were a bit different, following the design of late twenty-second-century operators with tan lightweight rigs, and ammunition pouches alongside armored plates that ran from the shoulders to wrists in segments. There was a rusty-orange undersuit beneath it all for the purpose of keeping air in, which required some sturdy polymer structures to ensure it didn’t rip. Then, of course, there were the classic shock-absorbing leg supports. They weren’t too far off what Tracy was asking about earlier, but these ones didn’t provide any assistance in moving with any motors—just straight-up structural reinforcements.
Hell, the blueprints on screen even had the mag-grip gloves used to scale domes, buildings, and satellites alike. There was no doubt that the Orbital Drop Rangers had some of the coolest equipment on Mars, especially considering that it was the last to keep the ‘operator’ look… It was such a shame the government decided the orb-like helmets and rounded bubble armors were more effective.
“Hey, you know what?” he asked the technician, a shot of excitement in his voice. “This might actually work out as a suitable armor replacement.”
She perked up, her brows raised. “Oh? Actually?”
He shrugged, trying to play off the smirk plastered on his face. “Wouldn’t need a horrible amount of changes to work for our purposes. Just need to remove the oxygen converter on the back and put a gas mask replacement in the front portion of the helmet. Plus, we could probably get rid of the airtight aspect and just keep the undersuit for scratch protection. And, most importantly, it’s radio-protective.”
“Meets all your criteria, then?” She tapped through some UI interfaces, sending the armor assembly to Harrison’s monitor, which he accepted quickly.
“Sure does.” He readily clicked through the different parts and systems to differentiate what needed to be kept. “We have the resources for it, and all it needs is a layer of cadmium plus a few replacements. Definitely doesn’t need the heads-up display since there’s nothing for it to interact with either, so that’ll save on print time and materials too. Shame I cut up the beard… the Orbital Drop Rangers were allowed to have some cool ones.”
The tradeswoman scooted in even closer, practically resting her chin on his shoulder and watching him sift through the working parts. “Yeah, rest in peace, beard. Still, your armor situation is solved. What about the Malkrin?”
“I’ll be working on their gas masks, then I was thinking I’d use another one of your modeled armors for their protection since they’ve helped Shar a hell of a lot. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Mmmmm…” She looked up in thought, a smile forming along her cheeks. “You know, until we can make them any real power armor, I was thinking just some regular phobos-pattern armor. Could color ‘em based on their skin too.”
“Phobos-pattern armor?” he hummed to himself, clicking through the folder to find it. It was just as bulky as Shar’s armor, except it appeared a good bit smoother, with more rounded edges compared to her horns-and-spike-lined gauntlets and pauldrons. The blue suit Tracy was proposing didn’t have the four-armed protection compared to the chaos version, but it certainly had the same thickness of its metal plates. “Looks like it’d work pretty well. Does it have any electric components or anything?”
“No…” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Not so good with designing that stuff in the modeling program I did the WarHarberd stuff in. Could add in more sophisticated leg support or whatever if you gave me time, but for now it’s just maneuverable slabs of alloy.”
“I think that’s all we need for the time being.” He shrugged. “I just don’t want the others to be vulnerable to getting cut up by the little spider-crab grunts.”
“As long as it works for what we need, then.” Her elbow poked into his arm. “Here, how about I take care of that armor stuff while you finish up the gas masks? They need the extra arm slots too, yeah?”
“I’d actually appreciate that a lot.” He offered her a back-palm fist bump, to which she eagerly took, taking on a grin that he mirrored. “Thanks, Trace.”
“Don’t mention it. I wish work was always just doing my hobbies like this.”
\= = = = =
A grand pylon of metal construction taller than the mightiest female’s frills stood atop the beach. Blue-scaled surfaces extended near the foot of the tower, gathering the power of the sun itself. The lattice layering upon their sides hid the weaving wires and Goddess-blessed machinery. A staff the same as Shar’khee’s peeked from its top, the glass eye on its side given a wide view of the sandy environment it resided on, the defense it now provided becoming absolute. The aura it exuded as a creature of pure metal was awe-inspiring, its mere presence a showing of Harrison’s might and domain.
No abhorrent would dare step foot upon the meadow’s rolling hills, for such a mistake would ensure their immediate execution for encroaching upon his settlement—the ‘fifty-cal-e-bur’ bullet is not one to rend any beast with only simple injuries, especially with three hundred of them available at once.
The maroon-skinned paladin treaded up the hill, having completed her task of setting up the last turret. The craftsman, the juvenile, and the lumberjack had also assisted with its setup, pulling their weight in both mind and muscles to piece the components together. They completed a few others around the modules already, but this one was done without the star-sents’ oversight. The four Malkrin had practiced and learned enough to be entrusted with such.
The idea of Harrison having enough confidence in them sparked much conviction in the group, each of them more than eager to prove him right—none more so than Shar’khee herself, of course.
She finally returned to the workshop, the sun’s last rays pressing into the back of her head and frills as she crouched beneath the doorway, a small gnawing hunger for dinner digging within her stomach. The cacophony of machines soon reached her ears, the sounds of their efforts almost working in tandem with the strange melodic music playing from an unseen source above her.
Tracy was in her corner, working on new beings of metal as always. The bright lights above were turned off in favor of smaller, warmer emplacements atop her surrounding circle of desks. A hard worker, that star-sent was, though both of them were like that, the paladin supposed. Their kind was certainly intent on keeping their hands busy.
Shar’khee passed through the snakes of machines, finding her way to Harrison’s desk with an increasingly strong sway in her tail. He was working with a black object with light gray accents. It appeared to be partially flexible, yet firm in other places—notably, a large glass fixture on one side of it. There was very little she could make out about its purpose, but with the delicate touches he applied, it appeared to be quite important.
Her tongue clicked twice, garnering the attention of the Creator. He paused his work, swiveling his chair to face her and revealing a long blue-leaf jutting from his mouth. Her male appeared quite tired, but his voice did not show it.
“Oh, Shar, what’s up? Did y’all need any help with the last turret?”
She shook her head. “We do not n—d such, for it is completed. Would you care to join me for din—r? The rest of the settlem—t is enjoying their meals as of now. ”
He raised his brows before looking back at the myriad of notes, tools, and materials atop his cluttered desk. “Well, I’m kinda busy, but…” His jaw rolled around in contemplation. “Here. Let’s just test this thing real quick.”
Her head tilted. “What sh—l we be testing?”
“Your gas mask… er, well, a Malkrin gas mask. Kneel down real quick, I’ll run ya through putting it on.” He stepped off his chair and grabbed the equipment, uncomfortably rotating his shoulders. How long was he sitting on that chair? The male approached her and she did as requested. “I had the sewist help me with some of the design. Never considered you guys would ever wear hats.”
She nodded. “It is unh—lthy for one to have their frills touched by the sun for so long. Adequate shade is a must, and trees are not so p—valent along farm land.”
“Mmhmm. Shame this is just a mask… Alright, this might be a bit uncomfortable, but it’ll do the job.”
He stepped forward and slipped the black apparel onto her snout, pushing it over her face until it pressed against the sides of her head. A cool material rubbed against her skin, locking her into its embrace. It was encapsulating, surrounding her wholly.
Her breaths strengthened as she allowed the mask to cover her, a short shock of nervousness riding down her spine. She was only now registering how vulnerable she was, allowing him to possibly suffocate her… but she stayed put, keeping her four palms rested within her lap as he continued to apply the straps around her ears. She would allow it. She trusted him with her life. She would not falter.
The cords around the back of her head were tight, a few of which went along both sides of her frills, pushing up against their sides. He kept going, ensuring a ‘seal,’ but it was getting much too—
Pop.
A lightning bolt of pain rolled throughout the top of her head, sending her reeling. It stung for the briefest of moments, but its effects rebounded through her entire body, short sparks pulsing from its origin. She felt nothing but its agonizing hold for several more moments as the rest of her body caught up.
When her eyes opened once more, she found herself on the floor and staring at the ceiling. The star-sent rushed to her side, appearing to ask many questions while looking over her head, but all she heard was a piercing ring and the gruff vocalization he made whenever he shared his intent. No words reached her mind, only the now faint phantom pains from where her frills met her skull. It put everything in a haze, her eyes barely settling on her dearest’s, despite how nauseous she had become.
His deft hands quickly worked to loosen the straps, practically ripping them off until his voice suddenly reached her, like breaching the surface of the water. His voice was deep, attempting to be calculating, yet despite his calmly created stoic demeanor… she could feel his panic, his sheer worry almost flooding her senses through practiced medical queries. She slowly sat up on the floor, holding herself with two arms while the other pair quelled the kneeling male, assuring him that she was alright with their weight resting atop his shoulders.
“I am well, dearest Harrison. Do not fret for me. The straps were simply too tight.”
His anxious breaths barely slowed, narrowly allowing for his exclamation. “Too tight? Shar, you practically blacked out!”
“Too tight upon my frills, I mean. There was a pain there for a few moments, but it has passed,” she returned calmly, softly kneading his stiff shoulders with the joints of her digits.
He exhaled sharply, matching her gaze with regret in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Shar. I should’ve known. I was just trying to see how…” He paused, resting his palm atop her forearm. “Nevermind. I just… Are you alright? Should I get you to the med bay for a quick scan?”
“I do not believe that to be necessary, no.”
His guard finally fell. “If… If you say so. Guess I have to redo the straps then. Definitely gotta make sure they’re not pressing on your frills like that.”
She smiled, appreciating his dedication. “Would you like my assistance?”
“As long as you don’t have anything else to do.” He shrugged, his shoulders barely moving upward against her massaging hands.
“There is no greater wish of mine than to be by your side,” she stated warmly.
He was frozen, the soft ministrations of his digits along her arm slowly stopping in contrast to the red flush growing from his cheeks to his ears. The crack of a smirk on his face finally with a short, heart-warming chuckle brought the statue back to life after a few moments. “You know… that’s probably the sweetest thing I’ve heard for years.”
Her brows raised in subtle surprise at his response. “It… was not intended to be such… However… you are more than welcome. You must understand by now that I am speaking only the truth.”
The two of them sat there in relative silence amongst the desks and machines; her half laying on the ground with her hands on his shoulder, and him on his knees by her side, a singular hand running up and down her comparatively large forearm. She felt… weak, in a way. A vibrating sensation rummaged through her stomach, attempting to pull her muscles and nerves astray.
It was warm, just like his palm, each motion of his hand sending lightning through her skin. The upward curl of her lips into her cheeks was suddenly an insurmountable force, incapable of being put down by a thousand females. There was a tear within her to either look away or… close the distance, and she suddenly found looking anywhere but his curious green eyes to be a waste of her time.
Her talons wrapped further around his shoulders and his back, ever so slightly bringing him into her embrace—
“A-HEM.” A voice cut the moment down to its knees. “The fuck happened here?” Tracy’s swift interjection caused the paladin to flinch backwards, allowing her to see that Harrison’s other hand had been hovering right beneath her snout. The female star-sent wore a furrowed brow and crossed arms, looking down at them. “I heard a crash and came over. Are you two alright?”
Harrison cleared his throat, ever-so-subtly scooting away from the paladin. “Uh, yeah. Shar fell because, um, I tied the gas mask a lil’ too tight.”
The artificer wore an expression that told of her disbelief. “She fell because of the gas mask?”
“It was something with her frills.” The male returned with a shrug, picking himself off the floor before offering the paladin a hand up.
She took it, despite not requiring it, and wiped off some loose dust from her pants. The three of them quickly returned to work soon after, with both her and the black-haired star-sent joining Harrison in his quest to produce the gas mask. She was much less… What did the Creator call it? Bubbly? Yes, that was it. She was much less bubbly than usual, sometimes sending a cold yet emotionless glare toward Shar’khee… Nevertheless, the two females offered input on the design and applied help where they could, eventually creating the final piece of equipment.
Tracy commented on its looks, apparently drawing inspiration from the Leviathan itself, as she believed it to be like that of a ‘Sea Dragon’s.’ The maw-covering portion held two cylindrical canisters on the adjacent sides, the bottom portion being capable of distention, so that the user’s mouth may open somewhat. Its motion created what the female star-sent believed to be ‘the coolest teeth design on a mask’ she’d ever seen with how the separation formed alternating triangles.
The monster-like appearance was furthered by her own frills and horns that peeked out from behind the mask. That was not even mentioning the see-through visor that formed a malicious glare of sharp brows. The paladin looked through a hand-held mirror, finding it difficult to disagree with the look. She could imagine the horror on a fisherwoman’s face as such a terrifying creature approached from the depths.
And yet, despite its nightmarish visage, it was apparel designed to save lives, not take them—much unlike the unassuming metal rods that spewed fire with a mere flick of a lever. Curious indeed. The star-sents were seemingly never out of surprises. They even spoke of grand robots and firearms larger than Shar’khee herself as possible future projects.
Only time could tell what machinations of alloy would be birthed from their hands.
- - - - -
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Next time on Total Drama Anomaly Island - Under The Milky Way
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WaveOfWire Edits :D
- - - - -
Harrison’s vision was still foggy from waking up, several blinks failing to clear the tears from his drawn-out yawn. He just escaped the encompassing embrace of his four-armed guardian, leaving their shared bed for the bathroom, where he would have to say goodbye to his beard. If he was going to travel out of the settlement, a proper seal on his gas mask was a must.
It was a shame. The slow buildup of the hair over the last month or so was a representation of his growth in a way, building up alongside his experiences in this hellhole, be they life-threatening or informative. It was almost like wiping the slate clean, even if cutting some chin scruff didn’t really change anything at all—he’d never be able to forget anything he had seen here for as long as he lived.
And there was no telling how long that’d be.
The engineer sighed, splashing the lukewarm barracks water into his face from one of the many wall-attached sinks, allowing him to fully open his eyes and size up the damage done to his favorite black blood-and-sweat-stained t-shirt. It always stayed in good condition with washing and fabricator repairs, but somehow Shar’s talons always found a way to make small holes in it. She wasn’t trying to, but with the way she fully wrapped her arms around him, the tips of her sharp fingers sometimes ended up poking into the fabric and causing some cuts.
It was such a small issue that he never considered bringing it up to her. Plus, she’d probably do her whole guilty talon-tapping thing with puppy eyes and all… He shook his head, letting the stray beads of water on his face drip into the sink.
His palm ran across his beard while his other hand reached for the razor. There wasn’t any shaving cream or the like, but he’d make do. At least he had one of the proper tools for the job. He went into the task, the blade driving through his scruff, slopping off wide areas of his hair from jaw to chin for a few seconds before it was interrupted.
A short ‘woosh’ of the entrance caught his attention.
“Aww, you’re shavin’ it off?” Tracy commented dejectedly through a yawn, the lazy drawl reinforcing the fact that she just woke up. “Th’ beard was sorta growin’ on me.”
He eyed her through the mirror, his voice coming out in a dull tone. “Yeah. I feel the same.”
She squinted under the bright bathroom lights, rubbing an eye with her wrist as she walked up to the sink beside him and started her own morning routine. “Mmm… Womp womp. Why though?”
“Need it to get a gas mask seal,” he stated flatly, focusing on the task at hand.
The technician stopped momentarily, the gears turning in her head before she gave him a downcast frown. “You’re still set on going for the vehicle bay? You know we can just send some long-range drones out there, right?”
His short exhale echoed throughout the tiled room. The engineer closed his eyes, already mentally withdrawn from the conversation. They've had this discussion twice now. “It’s to be better prepared for any chemical, biological, or radiological surprises that might come up—not just for the excursion. Even more importantly, there’s no guarantee the module is in perfect shape. If I’m there in person, I’ll have the means to get through anything for those blueprints. Plus, it should only be four days, so the only issues we have are my beard and finding a way to protect the Malkrin from the radiation while we’re out.”
Tracy looked like she wanted to say something back, but bit her lip and cast her eyes down at the sink in front of her, twisting the knob before mumbling a quiet response. “I don’t think you need to protect them from radiation at all…”
“Hmm?”
She stared at him meekly, his dismissal of her worries having clearly dampened her mood. Guilt tugged at the back of his mind before her words further caught his interest. “I think they’re immune… or resistant or something. Radiation immunity is the whole reason they were sent here. You’ve added up the pieces together too, right?”
He stared down at her, running a hand through his hair with tired exasperation depressing his voice. “Tracy, I’ve been trying my hardest to just make it another day on this God-forsaken planet, not dig into their religion. So, no. I have not spent the time to add up the pieces. Enlighten me, please.”
“…S-Sorry. I just, you know, get a lot of time to think when working on drones, and Cera has been drawing all kinds of representations of these things.” Tracy paused, gesturing toward the engineer. “Okay, so you remember the whole backstory for why the Malkrin are on the mainland in the first place?”
“Pseudo-eugenics?” he commented dryly.
“Yeah.” She nodded, a sense of excitement leaking into her voice. “And what were the parameters of banishing someone?”
“Not getting sick from a rock.”
She eyed him feverishly, brows raised with a sudden zeal. “Aaaaand that rock represented the Sky Goddess’ wrath, which did what?”
“Uhhh…” He looked upward in thought, recalling his conversation with the paladin. “I think Shar mentioned nausea, vomiting, blisters, skin melting… off…” He froze, the pieces forming. “Wait, you don’t think…”
“I do. Those symptoms could mean a lot of things, but the anomaly field was the real kicker. You know that Shar just straight up didn’t have any lingering radiation effects or anything while you were nearly put… six feet under…” Her voice quieted momentarily, the speed of her speech outpacing her train of thought. “Sorry. Um… so, I was gonna say that she, uh, I mean the scanner mentioned she had damage from ‘alpha particles’ on her skin, but nothing else happened to her organs or anything.”
Harrison squinted at her for a moment, mouth slightly opened and prepared to give some alternative reasoning besides ‘immunity.’ Maybe her armor protected her from it? No… she didn’t even have full protection, radiation would have certainly gotten around her eyes or snout. What about her height? What if… No.
He didn’t just want to believe that somehow the Malkrin could just evade a force of nature, but he didn’t have any way of proving or disproving it on hand… Well, no humane way of testing it.
“I… guess?” the engineer grumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Even then, they still need armor and gas masks. The worst part of the radiation isn’t even the ionizing part. It’s the trace elements that get into your lungs and decay there. So it doesn’t hurt to use some CBRN filters.”
“Fair… but it’s interesting, isn’t it?” Tracy beamed. “Like, what kind of evolutionary factors lead to radiation immunity? Why do only some of the Malkrin have it and others don’t?”
The only real cause of radiation he could think of would be a massive nuclear proliferation of some sort. Maybe the anomalies? He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the lingering thoughts away. “I wouldn’t know. You could always ask Sebas to bring up some papers about it or generate some theories when you get the chance.”
“I probably will at some point… Maybe while I’m working.” She poked him in the bicep. “You’re still helping me with the mule, right?”
He bobbed his head, loose beard hairs itching up his chin. “Sure am. Gimme a bit to shave and test the fifty-cal ammo, then I’ll be free to assist.”
“Kay Kay.” The tradeswoman smiled and returned to the sink, washing her face.
- - - - -
“What the hell did you do to your shield?” a stunned Harrison asked the paladin, his face scrunching up in concern… and confusion.
Sharky proudly held up her once grungy orange shield with a smile, looking at its new… paint job? “Artificer Tracy has s—n to imbue my bulwark with the crest of the Sky Goddess herself! Observe the b—utiful wings that cover it!”
The engineer had just got back from setting up and overseeing the automated mule’s first excursion to the mine and back. It was a grueling task, requiring him to reset its pathing several times before it was able to make a round trip without input. Now, the maroon-skinned Malkrin in front of him had apparently gotten her massive aegis laser imprinted with crossing wings in the two hours or so he’d been gone. The areas between the black feather decals were colored with white and blue paints, contrasting with the new dark gray background.
A small weight was placed on his shoulder, Tracy’s forearm suddenly appearing atop it despite her being nearly a foot shorter than him. She beamed, staring up at him with all-too-proud eyes. “The scout regiment symbol looks good on it, right? Cera helped me with the laser engraving.”
“I…” His brows raised in perplexity. “The scout regiment?”
She shrugged, watching the paladin observe her shield from all sorts of different angles underneath the workshop’s light fixtures. “From an anime I used to watch. Men and women who were sent out to battle against massive titans for the greater good of the last settlement of humanity. Somewhat fitting, and fuckin’ awesome on her big-ass shield! Matches the bird’s wings on her armor too.”
He loudly sighed. “You wasted materials on imprinting wings on Shar’s shield? Really?”
“Hey!” Her brows furrowed into faux-annoyance, a smug grin betraying it. “It’s not a waste if you were never gonna use the paint we had on hand. Plus, we’ve got energy to spare with all the wind turbines and power cells you’ve been printing out.”
“Those paints probably could have been used for important designations… or something…” he grumbled.
“Doesn’t matter.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Anyway, want me to put some scary teeth or something on that big ‘ol fist-sized muzzle break on your shotgun?”
“No?” he took an incredulous step away from her, letting her arm fall off his shoulder and to her side.
“It’s okay to admit you’re jealous of Shar’s awesome decals, bro,” Tracy teased, her smugness growing tenfold. “No need to get defensive.”
He groaned, figuring there wasn’t a point in staying to bicker with the tradeswoman, leaving the two vanity-focused females to their devices. He still had to figure out how to fabricate armor and gas masks for the Malkrin and himself.
“Hey! Where ya goin?” the technician called out, clearly disappointed that he hadn’t indulged in her taunts.
“Work.”
Short taps against the hard floor sounded out as she caught up to him. She leaned forward and curiously looked up at him as she walked, holding her hands behind the small of her back. “What kind? Can I help?”
“Just need to take some measurements and compare options. Right… Speaking of which.” He turned around and cupped his palms around his mouth. “Hey Shar! Get over here, I need your help!”
The addressed Malkrin perked up, snapping out of the small haze of admiring her new shield and happily making her way toward him. She stood at attention, her tail oscillating side to side. “What n—d do you have of me?”
“Just a quick task,” he briefed her, grabbing some measuring tape from his desk… that Tracy had decided was her new chair. He sighed and turned his attention back to the paladin. “Can I bother you to lean down for a few seconds while I take some measurements?”
“Of course. Pl—se, take your time.” She stepped forward and kneeled, her head brought down to his height. Her face wore that simple content look he was growing all too accustomed to by now—slightly vibrating frills, a little curl upward of her lips, and warmly glowing eyes.
He wasted no time getting to work, noting down the various distances around her jaws, snout, eyes, and ears, already piecing together how he could cobble together some gas mask designs to fit the dimensions. She sat there quietly, sometimes leaning into the accidental head scratches adorably. It contrasted heavily with the cold-sweat-inducing layers of razor-sharp teeth within her muzzle as he measured the angle her maw opened at, bringing an idle curiosity prodded his mind.
“Say, Shar, do your teeth grow back if they fall out?” he poked, absently observing the dozens of triangular bone protrusions in her mouth as he held the underside of her jaw.
“They do,” she confirmed, the way she was able to speak despite not moving her mouth still messing with his head. “Do y—rs not?”
“Nope. Only once.”
She attempted to tilt her head, but quickly returned it when it left the embrace of his palm. “Only once?”
He nodded. “Yeah, sometime a few years after birth. They’re replaced with the teeth I have now. Don’t get any new ones, so we gotta take care of ‘em.”
“Birth?” The Malkrin’s eyes widened. “You were not cr—ted as you are now?”
A shock of stress poured down his spine like a bucket of ice water, raising the hairs on his back. Fuck. How did he let that slip? He was supposed to have just appeared from the sky to her, right…? He was doing so well for so long in keeping that in. God, had he really gotten so comfortable with the paladin that he simply forgot what he was to her? His teeth clenched, a huff of air escaping his nostrils as he lightly shook his head. It was a bit too late to backtrack. It could be explained vaguely and brushed off, right?
“Yeah. I was born,” he affirmed flatly. His hand dropped away from Shar’s muzzle, her head falling an inch or two before she registered that she couldn’t keep leaning into his touch. “That’s it for measurements, so you’re free to leave.”
A frown carved through her small smile. “I… See… F—give me if I have brought up someth—g improper.”
His exhalation burned through his frustration at himself, his hand running through his hair to wash away the spike of anxiety. “You’re fine. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Th-Then I shall take my leave,” the massive alien stated softly.
He nodded, feeling a little regretful for pushing the kindhearted Malkrin away as he shuffled back to his desk. Tracy was still sitting atop it, giving him a disappointed reaction with low brows, forcing a pointed reaction from him. “What?”
The technician took a long inhale before shrugging. “Nothin’.”
“…Alright.”
The rolling chair squeaked lightly as he rested himself, his hands already going through the motions of opening the computer and the blueprint folders. There were plenty of tabs open of sensors and motor assemblies he hadn’t closed from the previous night. That wasn’t even mentioning the pile of notes he had on proper radio-protective methods, their corners bent from his frequent flipping through them.
“Soooo…” The short black-haired woman leaned forward from her perch atop the only clear part of his desk. “Can I help you with your ‘comparing options’ work, mister busyman?”
“Sure…” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, raising a brow. “How much do you know about armor?”
- - - - -
“No way. The back support is a must, so you can have extra plating over your shoulders and chest.” Tracy pointed out from her seat beside Harrison’s, all but forcing him to pause his Malkrin gas mask designing to give her argument his full attention.
He calmly took his hands off the mouse and keyboard. “A back support needs leg assistants, which means I’ll need to have at least a fifteen pound battery pack somewhere. Those kinds of exosuits are either all in or not at all. You can go full armor and engine, or lightweight protection and simple limb support.”
“So you’re just gonna go out there with normal armor? Just run-of-the-mill plates and gear? Those fucking things would go through that shit like butter! I know we can’t make synthetic muscle yet, but at least consider wearing something a bit more. Please. Even Sharky has heavy armor!”
Harrison pinched the bridge of his nose, his brows furrowed. “Do I look like a several-hundred kilogram monster of pure muscle to you? I’m more than willing to put on a few extra kilos for protection, but I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of putting on more armor rather than more equipment. I’d rather fifty pounds of magazines and ammo than fifty pounds of armor. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah yeah… You and your storage space…” she mumbled, swiping through a few more images on her data pad when a familiar Mars-pattern suit showed up, catching his eye.
“Hey, wait, pull that one up…”
She rotated the tablet for him to see a little better—despite already being shoulder-to-shoulder with him. “This one? What’s so special about it?”
He analyzed the few pieces of equipment on screen, noting the rusty-orange and tan color scheme, the old Martian-American flag attached to its breastplate, and the iconic quad-nod integrated helmet. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “That’s… We have that in our blueprints?”
She raised a brow, clearly confused. “Whaddya mean?”
“That’s an Orbital Drop Ranger’s standard kit,” he stated slowly, a simmering sense of awe bubbling up—why the hell was it in their blueprints folder? “It was used during the Sino-Venusian incursion of southern Mars. It still has the Old Earth American flag embedded into it, so you know it’s pre twenty-two-hundred C.E.”
“Oh shit… Pre-St.Loual’s construction? This is ancient, then, huh? Would it be any good?” She leaned in closer to him, eying the tablet further.
“Does it have the assembly view of the armored pieces?”
“Mmhmm.” She tapped a few icons, showing an isometric, exploded view of all the parts and their individual components.
It was a piece of history alright. The armor was produced just about the time when Mars was connecting their orbital stations and ground colonies to work in tandem, allowing for specialized forces to be trained in space and launched anywhere across the planet from drop pods in mere minutes, leading to common nickname of ‘Minutemen’ given to the troopers. The suits were expertly designed to withstand the harsh environments of Mars and give the soldiers the ability to engage with enemy combatants for several days before extraction, though the adept units usually completed their objectives within twenty-four hours of their landing.
The helmet was very angular and blended in with the expected rocky terrain of Mars, each component taking on a sloped frontal design with rectangular prisms flowing behind—radio, breathing apparatus, and vision modules all sharing a sleek, yet bulky look in their own right. It reminded him of some in-atmosphere ships, with the overhanging visor above the quad-nod viewport being the only non-aerodynamic pieces.
The chest and legs were a bit different, following the design of late twenty-second-century operators with tan lightweight rigs, and ammunition pouches alongside armored plates that ran from the shoulders to wrists in segments. There was a rusty-orange undersuit beneath it all for the purpose of keeping air in, which required some sturdy polymer structures to ensure it didn’t rip. Then, of course, there were the classic shock-absorbing leg supports. They weren’t too far off what Tracy was asking about earlier, but these ones didn’t provide any assistance in moving with any motors—just straight-up structural reinforcements.
Hell, the blueprints on screen even had the mag-grip gloves used to scale domes, buildings, and satellites alike. There was no doubt that the Orbital Drop Rangers had some of the coolest equipment on Mars, especially considering that it was the last to keep the ‘operator’ look… It was such a shame the government decided the orb-like helmets and rounded bubble armors were more effective.
“Hey, you know what?” he asked the technician, a shot of excitement in his voice. “This might actually work out as a suitable armor replacement.”
She perked up, her brows raised. “Oh? Actually?”
He shrugged, trying to play off the smirk plastered on his face. “Wouldn’t need a horrible amount of changes to work for our purposes. Just need to remove the oxygen converter on the back and put a gas mask replacement in the front portion of the helmet. Plus, we could probably get rid of the airtight aspect and just keep the undersuit for scratch protection. And, most importantly, it’s radio-protective.”
“Meets all your criteria, then?” She tapped through some UI interfaces, sending the armor assembly to Harrison’s monitor, which he accepted quickly.
“Sure does.” He readily clicked through the different parts and systems to differentiate what needed to be kept. “We have the resources for it, and all it needs is a layer of cadmium plus a few replacements. Definitely doesn’t need the heads-up display since there’s nothing for it to interact with either, so that’ll save on print time and materials too. Shame I cut up the beard… the Orbital Drop Rangers were allowed to have some cool ones.”
The tradeswoman scooted in even closer, practically resting her chin on his shoulder and watching him sift through the working parts. “Yeah, rest in peace, beard. Still, your armor situation is solved. What about the Malkrin?”
“I’ll be working on their gas masks, then I was thinking I’d use another one of your modeled armors for their protection since they’ve helped Shar a hell of a lot. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Mmmmm…” She looked up in thought, a smile forming along her cheeks. “You know, until we can make them any real power armor, I was thinking just some regular phobos-pattern armor. Could color ‘em based on their skin too.”
“Phobos-pattern armor?” he hummed to himself, clicking through the folder to find it. It was just as bulky as Shar’s armor, except it appeared a good bit smoother, with more rounded edges compared to her horns-and-spike-lined gauntlets and pauldrons. The blue suit Tracy was proposing didn’t have the four-armed protection compared to the chaos version, but it certainly had the same thickness of its metal plates. “Looks like it’d work pretty well. Does it have any electric components or anything?”
“No…” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Not so good with designing that stuff in the modeling program I did the WarHarberd stuff in. Could add in more sophisticated leg support or whatever if you gave me time, but for now it’s just maneuverable slabs of alloy.”
“I think that’s all we need for the time being.” He shrugged. “I just don’t want the others to be vulnerable to getting cut up by the little spider-crab grunts.”
“As long as it works for what we need, then.” Her elbow poked into his arm. “Here, how about I take care of that armor stuff while you finish up the gas masks? They need the extra arm slots too, yeah?”
“I’d actually appreciate that a lot.” He offered her a back-palm fist bump, to which she eagerly took, taking on a grin that he mirrored. “Thanks, Trace.”
“Don’t mention it. I wish work was always just doing my hobbies like this.”
\= = = = =
A grand pylon of metal construction taller than the mightiest female’s frills stood atop the beach. Blue-scaled surfaces extended near the foot of the tower, gathering the power of the sun itself. The lattice layering upon their sides hid the weaving wires and Goddess-blessed machinery. A staff the same as Shar’khee’s peeked from its top, the glass eye on its side given a wide view of the sandy environment it resided on, the defense it now provided becoming absolute. The aura it exuded as a creature of pure metal was awe-inspiring, its mere presence a showing of Harrison’s might and domain.
No abhorrent would dare step foot upon the meadow’s rolling hills, for such a mistake would ensure their immediate execution for encroaching upon his settlement—the ‘fifty-cal-e-bur’ bullet is not one to rend any beast with only simple injuries, especially with three hundred of them available at once.
The maroon-skinned paladin treaded up the hill, having completed her task of setting up the last turret. The craftsman, the juvenile, and the lumberjack had also assisted with its setup, pulling their weight in both mind and muscles to piece the components together. They completed a few others around the modules already, but this one was done without the star-sents’ oversight. The four Malkrin had practiced and learned enough to be entrusted with such.
The idea of Harrison having enough confidence in them sparked much conviction in the group, each of them more than eager to prove him right—none more so than Shar’khee herself, of course.
She finally returned to the workshop, the sun’s last rays pressing into the back of her head and frills as she crouched beneath the doorway, a small gnawing hunger for dinner digging within her stomach. The cacophony of machines soon reached her ears, the sounds of their efforts almost working in tandem with the strange melodic music playing from an unseen source above her.
Tracy was in her corner, working on new beings of metal as always. The bright lights above were turned off in favor of smaller, warmer emplacements atop her surrounding circle of desks. A hard worker, that star-sent was, though both of them were like that, the paladin supposed. Their kind was certainly intent on keeping their hands busy.
Shar’khee passed through the snakes of machines, finding her way to Harrison’s desk with an increasingly strong sway in her tail. He was working with a black object with light gray accents. It appeared to be partially flexible, yet firm in other places—notably, a large glass fixture on one side of it. There was very little she could make out about its purpose, but with the delicate touches he applied, it appeared to be quite important.
Her tongue clicked twice, garnering the attention of the Creator. He paused his work, swiveling his chair to face her and revealing a long blue-leaf jutting from his mouth. Her male appeared quite tired, but his voice did not show it.
“Oh, Shar, what’s up? Did y’all need any help with the last turret?”
She shook her head. “We do not n—d such, for it is completed. Would you care to join me for din—r? The rest of the settlem—t is enjoying their meals as of now. ”
He raised his brows before looking back at the myriad of notes, tools, and materials atop his cluttered desk. “Well, I’m kinda busy, but…” His jaw rolled around in contemplation. “Here. Let’s just test this thing real quick.”
Her head tilted. “What sh—l we be testing?”
“Your gas mask… er, well, a Malkrin gas mask. Kneel down real quick, I’ll run ya through putting it on.” He stepped off his chair and grabbed the equipment, uncomfortably rotating his shoulders. How long was he sitting on that chair? The male approached her and she did as requested. “I had the sewist help me with some of the design. Never considered you guys would ever wear hats.”
She nodded. “It is unh—lthy for one to have their frills touched by the sun for so long. Adequate shade is a must, and trees are not so p—valent along farm land.”
“Mmhmm. Shame this is just a mask… Alright, this might be a bit uncomfortable, but it’ll do the job.”
He stepped forward and slipped the black apparel onto her snout, pushing it over her face until it pressed against the sides of her head. A cool material rubbed against her skin, locking her into its embrace. It was encapsulating, surrounding her wholly.
Her breaths strengthened as she allowed the mask to cover her, a short shock of nervousness riding down her spine. She was only now registering how vulnerable she was, allowing him to possibly suffocate her… but she stayed put, keeping her four palms rested within her lap as he continued to apply the straps around her ears. She would allow it. She trusted him with her life. She would not falter.
The cords around the back of her head were tight, a few of which went along both sides of her frills, pushing up against their sides. He kept going, ensuring a ‘seal,’ but it was getting much too—
Pop.
A lightning bolt of pain rolled throughout the top of her head, sending her reeling. It stung for the briefest of moments, but its effects rebounded through her entire body, short sparks pulsing from its origin. She felt nothing but its agonizing hold for several more moments as the rest of her body caught up.
When her eyes opened once more, she found herself on the floor and staring at the ceiling. The star-sent rushed to her side, appearing to ask many questions while looking over her head, but all she heard was a piercing ring and the gruff vocalization he made whenever he shared his intent. No words reached her mind, only the now faint phantom pains from where her frills met her skull. It put everything in a haze, her eyes barely settling on her dearest’s, despite how nauseous she had become.
His deft hands quickly worked to loosen the straps, practically ripping them off until his voice suddenly reached her, like breaching the surface of the water. His voice was deep, attempting to be calculating, yet despite his calmly created stoic demeanor… she could feel his panic, his sheer worry almost flooding her senses through practiced medical queries. She slowly sat up on the floor, holding herself with two arms while the other pair quelled the kneeling male, assuring him that she was alright with their weight resting atop his shoulders.
“I am well, dearest Harrison. Do not fret for me. The straps were simply too tight.”
His anxious breaths barely slowed, narrowly allowing for his exclamation. “Too tight? Shar, you practically blacked out!”
“Too tight upon my frills, I mean. There was a pain there for a few moments, but it has passed,” she returned calmly, softly kneading his stiff shoulders with the joints of her digits.
He exhaled sharply, matching her gaze with regret in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Shar. I should’ve known. I was just trying to see how…” He paused, resting his palm atop her forearm. “Nevermind. I just… Are you alright? Should I get you to the med bay for a quick scan?”
“I do not believe that to be necessary, no.”
His guard finally fell. “If… If you say so. Guess I have to redo the straps then. Definitely gotta make sure they’re not pressing on your frills like that.”
She smiled, appreciating his dedication. “Would you like my assistance?”
“As long as you don’t have anything else to do.” He shrugged, his shoulders barely moving upward against her massaging hands.
“There is no greater wish of mine than to be by your side,” she stated warmly.
He was frozen, the soft ministrations of his digits along her arm slowly stopping in contrast to the red flush growing from his cheeks to his ears. The crack of a smirk on his face finally with a short, heart-warming chuckle brought the statue back to life after a few moments. “You know… that’s probably the sweetest thing I’ve heard for years.”
Her brows raised in subtle surprise at his response. “It… was not intended to be such… However… you are more than welcome. You must understand by now that I am speaking only the truth.”
The two of them sat there in relative silence amongst the desks and machines; her half laying on the ground with her hands on his shoulder, and him on his knees by her side, a singular hand running up and down her comparatively large forearm. She felt… weak, in a way. A vibrating sensation rummaged through her stomach, attempting to pull her muscles and nerves astray.
It was warm, just like his palm, each motion of his hand sending lightning through her skin. The upward curl of her lips into her cheeks was suddenly an insurmountable force, incapable of being put down by a thousand females. There was a tear within her to either look away or… close the distance, and she suddenly found looking anywhere but his curious green eyes to be a waste of her time.
Her talons wrapped further around his shoulders and his back, ever so slightly bringing him into her embrace—
“A-HEM.” A voice cut the moment down to its knees. “The fuck happened here?” Tracy’s swift interjection caused the paladin to flinch backwards, allowing her to see that Harrison’s other hand had been hovering right beneath her snout. The female star-sent wore a furrowed brow and crossed arms, looking down at them. “I heard a crash and came over. Are you two alright?”
Harrison cleared his throat, ever-so-subtly scooting away from the paladin. “Uh, yeah. Shar fell because, um, I tied the gas mask a lil’ too tight.”
The artificer wore an expression that told of her disbelief. “She fell because of the gas mask?”
“It was something with her frills.” The male returned with a shrug, picking himself off the floor before offering the paladin a hand up.
She took it, despite not requiring it, and wiped off some loose dust from her pants. The three of them quickly returned to work soon after, with both her and the black-haired star-sent joining Harrison in his quest to produce the gas mask. She was much less… What did the Creator call it? Bubbly? Yes, that was it. She was much less bubbly than usual, sometimes sending a cold yet emotionless glare toward Shar’khee… Nevertheless, the two females offered input on the design and applied help where they could, eventually creating the final piece of equipment.
Tracy commented on its looks, apparently drawing inspiration from the Leviathan itself, as she believed it to be like that of a ‘Sea Dragon’s.’ The maw-covering portion held two cylindrical canisters on the adjacent sides, the bottom portion being capable of distention, so that the user’s mouth may open somewhat. Its motion created what the female star-sent believed to be ‘the coolest teeth design on a mask’ she’d ever seen with how the separation formed alternating triangles.
The monster-like appearance was furthered by her own frills and horns that peeked out from behind the mask. That was not even mentioning the see-through visor that formed a malicious glare of sharp brows. The paladin looked through a hand-held mirror, finding it difficult to disagree with the look. She could imagine the horror on a fisherwoman’s face as such a terrifying creature approached from the depths.
And yet, despite its nightmarish visage, it was apparel designed to save lives, not take them—much unlike the unassuming metal rods that spewed fire with a mere flick of a lever. Curious indeed. The star-sents were seemingly never out of surprises. They even spoke of grand robots and firearms larger than Shar’khee herself as possible future projects.
Only time could tell what machinations of alloy would be birthed from their hands.
- - - - -
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Next time on Total Drama Anomaly Island - Under The Milky Way
2024.06.09 15:59 Alone-Abrocoma3560 Is this an infection or something I can take care of at home
I’m 6 days post op. My left side looks like it’s gone back to normal (no swelling and no redness, just the white blood clot) but my lower right has been irritating me. I only have a very dull pain in my left that only bothers me when I don’t take the pain meds, with pain meds it goes away, but the right hurts nearly as bad as it did the third day and the inside of my cheek is so swollen my mom says it looks like I’m chewing on the inside of my mouth (from what I know, I’m most likely not, probably because it’s just really swollen) it’s really red in one area next to my gums. There’s also some kind of string that was kinda white now is turning yellow and when I use the monojection thing to clean around there it hurts really bad, I did eat string cheese two days ago so I’m hoping it’s not that but I don’t want to touch it in case it is stitches. In the picture I have to pull back on my cheek to expose everything. When I was doing that I also realized that I can pull the gum off my back tooth 🫠. I forgot to mention, yeah the yellow on my tongue won’t go away I keep scraping at it with a tongue scraper it’s not working. I was also not able to open my mouth too much until literally just a few hours ago. I still cant open it alllll the way. Another thing I forgot. Bad taste in my mouth. Just did a breath check and idk smells like normal breath to me(idk what my breath usually smells like tho). Also accidentally smelt my finger after it was in my mouth and I gagged Sorry for the bad hygiene, I’m bad at brushing my teeth in general plus I have not been able to brush back there for six days.
submitted by Alone-Abrocoma3560 to wisdomteeth [link] [comments]
2024.06.09 15:58 Right-Rutabaga5941 Brown spots withering / pale light leaves seedlings in kratky
 | also anyone know whats causing this, it seems to happen to the true leaves, cotyledons were fine. almost all the first few true leaves of al the plants in this batch has withered away like this (brown spots). ph is within 6-7, ec is 1-1.5, ambient temp is 88F, full sunlight (prob around 2k ppfd) with 65% shade net, setup is kratky. submitted by Right-Rutabaga5941 to Hydroponics [link] [comments] The seedlings are bokchoy and i have another veg sharing the same kratky container too n they rnt suffering from those iwthering brown spots (tho they are quite pale). Got the same bokchoy seedlings but in soil mix in similar conditions (temp/light/etc) n they are doing fine. Not a single brown spot/withering and much greener. https://preview.redd.it/wewxcmnwxj5d1.jpg?width=429&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9858994e807e593dd58c88dbf98e18b27e4fab7 |
2024.06.09 15:56 ExtroverTom The Best Debut I Have Ever Seen : In Four Acts
Before I start, I have to semi-dox myself and say that I am Indonesian. I have to do that because it would add so much more context to this story.
Prologue : The Antlers
https://preview.redd.it/ih54st9rji5d1.png?width=1732&format=png&auto=webp&s=22f3fcd319a0a621b918c5ba1cf11ff19d3ad818
I bought the latest Football Manager few months ago while the price was discounted. I was so excited to finally have J-League licensed because playing in Asia have been my lifelong FM dream but without J-League which is arguably the biggest and most competitive league in Asia, it just felt wrong.
I embarked on this year's journey the same way I have always started, to pick one of the top half teams in the league that I wanted to play, so that I get accustomed not only by the league rules but more importantly by the latest features and wrinkles of the game. I usually would play it for a season before moving on to the real long-term save.
This year, the lucky organization is Kashima Antlers. To cut the story short about this club background, you can imagine them like Japanese Manchester United with even less successful history. They have gone years without lifting a trophy but is able to consistently stay on the contention. Now that I said that, I guess they are the less horribly managed Japanese Manchester United.
My one and only mission : bring the J1-League trophy back to the Island of Antlers. Although, whatever it was that I wanted to do, I have to do it within the limitation of only 5 foreign players as per J1 rules and the lack wingers within the club. After hours of thinking and tinkering I came up with a tactic that I believe would work.
https://preview.redd.it/rzfx9sn3mi5d1.png?width=645&format=png&auto=webp&s=7eb7296ced348ee3f4414c474111ee54e643f0e2
The asymmetric 4-3-3 which emphasized the quality of Target Man Kai Chinen and homegrown talent Yuma Suzuki as well as 'hiding' the lack of winger but still be able to offer some width in the field. Saying that, it was still necessary for me to find a better winger for the formation than Yuta Matsumura, which was decent, but not good nor was he well-suited enough with the way I want to play.
Kai Chinen: Our main striker and one of our best player
The stats of Yuta Matsumura which was actually decent relative to the league quality, but not good enough. Also the only wingers other than him were some promising yet raw young talents.
**1******st Act : The Reds
J1-League transfer window would be closed on 31 March. By the start of the month I have brought into the team some quality players: Roberto Soriano and Ismael for free and bring creativity in that midfield, and an uzbek guy called Hojiakbar Alijonov, a mature physical attacking right back which will provide those crosses from the right winger-less side of our formation.
I have not found my guy to be put in that left side though, until a young right-footed brazilian had a semi-fallout with his club and get transfer-listed. SC Internacional, his club, asked for two millions euros for whoever wanted to bring him out from Brazil. Having only spent so little, and in nearly desperate need for a winger, I jumped into the chance, and built a 2 millions worth of a deal based on so many installments and bonuses. Finally after some contract negotiation, my long-awaited inside forward has finally arrived on 06 March 2023.
His name is Joao Gabriel Martins Peglow, a 21-years-old who modeled his game after his idol Cristiano Ronaldo. He has good technique as well as physical attributes perfected by almost world class amount of flair. With him running with the ball down our left side, I believe we can outrun and outscore anybody in the league.
Peglow: Our main winger, and he had not even reached his ceiling
and I was not making it up when I say he idolized CR7.
**2******nd Act : The Braces
You are forgiven for thinking that this story is about Peglow's debut. But it's not. His debut is mediocre at best. Playing against Urawa Red Diamonds in the J-League Cup (Japanese equivalent of Carabao Cup), he did not offer much. Only attempted 15 passes, produced 6.6 match rating, before I had to take him off in the one-hour mark of the game. In the game where the opponent produced nearly as many XGs from half as many shots, we ended up winning thanks to heroic performance of our first-choice goalkeeper, Tomoki Hayakawa.
https://preview.redd.it/ajp90s8gui5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5776948e9747bc51adb265861cb339e39c7f297b
Debuts are expected to be rough though. The real glimpse of what Peglow could bring to the team came almost two weeks after his debut. After another stinker which saw him produced 6.4 match rating in the league match that we otherwise dominated, I trusted and started him again in the match against one of the big boys: Yokohama Marinos. He paid that with an impressive return. I had to wait for a while though.
From the get-go, Yokohama's midfield which operate weirdly with two mezzalas in front of the single pivot, clearly got overrun by our midfield led by Roberto Soriano and spearheaded by Peglow. But it was our free agent signing, Ismael and our homegrown striker Yuki Kakita who gave us 2-0 lead before the halftime. In the 2nd half though, it's all Peglow's world and we were just living on it. He scored two goals in the span of 3 minutes before assisting another one in the closing stage of the match to close the game 5 goals to none. What a performance from him and surely, surely from then on, he would be the one leading this club to the promised land right?
Right?
https://preview.redd.it/3kj05obw4j5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=94252890ec6063fd5dcac12f0bd6cb02b4f7f3dd
**3******rd Act : The South-Easterners
All good things must come to an end. Some before it even begun.
I rested Peglow in the following match against lower division club in hope that he would be in peak condition for our next league match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Then the news struck.
It was 31 March, maybe around 10 am. Just one day before the league match mentioned before. Peglow was dribbling the ball in training when suddenly he turned sharply and fell. He scream in agony while the emergency radiology found out that he twisted his ankle and out for at least a month. It was far from being a career-ender, but if you pay close attention, it was 31 March. Not only was it just one day before the match, it was also THE transfer deadline. I only had hours to find Peglow's replacement. I had to.
https://preview.redd.it/f8soyhr1ij5d1.png?width=1629&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c00e1de090710e603a26e1dec0a83dbab606d81
I panicked and scrambled around scouting reports and player search columns. It was extra difficult knowing I had filled my foreigner quotas, so I could not add another foreigner anymore, but the japanese winger available just did not cut it. And there, at that moment, we came back full circle to me talking about the wrinkles of the league.
J-League has this unique registration rules where we could only field maximum of five foreign players, but with a little bit of curveball added. Due to some real life agreements, players from South East Asia countries is treated as non-foreign players. So I could buy and field whatever amount of players from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and my real life home country Indonesia, together with other smaller South East Asia countries that I wanted. It did not help me instantly though as there are next to none SEA players that good enough for the top division of japanese league, let alone to be the replacement of Peglow.
That's until just 8 hours before the deadline is closed, a message come to my inbox. Agent recommendation. Candra Firmansyah, an Indonesian agent, notified me about one of his clients. A left winger, just as young as Peglow, does not get the playing time he needed in his club ADO Den Haag and after just 3 appearance in the first team, he thought it was the right time to be loaned out. ADO agreed and he became loan listed. His name? Rafael Struick.
Rafael Struick : Every Indonesian knows who this man is. For you who do not know, oh you will soon do.
I took a glimpse. And I sit there in front of my laptop trying to process it. Not only does the boy good enough for the J1-League, he almost as good as Peglow. I could even argue his technical ability is superior and his physical attributes are comparable. For a moment I got "kicked out" back to real life and thinking not as Hiruzen Hiragana the Japanese manager of Kashima Antlers my alter ego, but as me myself, and thinking "It must be nice to manage my countryman in the biggest competition in the continent."
I might overpaid for him. Giving ADO 200k just for a loan fee seems a bit much and my board felt that way too. But, I need a winger, the deadline was just 4 hours away, I did not have many choices. So I pulled the trigger. The administration team moved fast enough to conclude the deal just in time. In the midnight Kashima Antlers welcoming the promising Indonesian youngster and hopes that he is fit for the match, tomorrow.
Final Act : The Mismatches
Bad news and good news. The bad news is Peglow's injury was not a nightmare nor an SI april mop at all. The good news, Struick was in peak condition to play against Hiroshima. I did not know how he took flight from den Haag to Kashima without took a nosedive in terms of his fitness, but there he is, just hours after signing the contract, wearing red shirt and white shorts, ready for his debut.
Hiroshima was not an easy opponent to play let alone for the first time. They finished in the 3rd place the season before. The attack was dangerously led by brazilian target man, Vieira and the defence was solid under the command of Kansai University alumni Hayato Araki. The road gets steeper due to the fact that heroic Hayakawa got injured, so Karl Jakob-Hein, another emergency loanee, deputized him between the sticks. But, ready or not, it's game on.
From the very first minute, I can see that Struick got cold feet. Maybe from the jet lag, maybe because he was not familiar with the exotic asymmetric system. Whatever it was, he did not look good. My hopes for Peglow to miraculously be healed and playing that day peaked when in just the 4th minute mark, Struick has the ball in the left side on the field and tried to make a field-switching pass to Ismael on the center of the field, but his wobbly legs did not generate enough power and the ball was stolen by Hiroshima's midfielder, Matsumoto.
https://preview.redd.it/f0qgltr0pj5d1.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b8f915baec7d2a2fc3c717e7a6826595ec736b4
Who brings the ball upfield, did a 1-2 pass combination into our penalty box, before swiftly pushing the ball in the path of their forward, Kashiwa who then struck the ball behind our net. Kashima 0, Hiroshima 1. In the 4th minute mark.
https://preview.redd.it/rklaitj3pj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff4daac7aab6eeb0674f2b5d8a36bd3d42877376
I encouraged the team, told them that there are still 86 minutes to play. I saw Kai Chinen came over to Struick, maybe to help him calm his nerve. I did not know what Chinen said, but whatever it was, it worked. Just a couple of minutes after did that horrendous pass, Struick again found himself in the left side of the field. This time though, he had more confidence in his heart, and brought the ball way up front.
https://preview.redd.it/o5p6amkppj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=45adbf9db54129f483d7516c3b7b51bda89beb3e
He then passed to Chinen who quickly gave the ball to Suzuki in the right side. It was Suzuki's show right after. He dribbled past two defenders before hit the ball so hard, Hiroshima's keeper, Osako could barely even react. It's 1-1 and there are still 84 minutes left.
https://preview.redd.it/zfigchc2qj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=f73efe7eb1fac54fe898192f8f6c876ed3984677
This match is destined to be an end-to-end affair, when after Ismael Silva stopped Hiroshima's passing in the centre of the field, he found Alijonov running full speed on the right side. And running he does. Alijonov picked the ball just inside our side of the field and quickly run near the byline, bringing the ball up ahead.
https://preview.redd.it/bg4pg50qqj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60443eb9cfc6a5025e03088d8693472dcec36af9
Without any pressure whatsoever, Alijonov bent a cross into penalty area where all of our forwards are ready to head it home. Some of you might notice that Struick had pretty impressive jumping reach. But I did not notice that until Struick leapt above the right back who man-marked him. And when I say leap, i mean it almost looked like that Ronaldo's header against Sampdoria. Struick headed it home, his first goal, just 10 minute into his debut. It's 2-1 for Kashima Antlers.
https://preview.redd.it/y1lrcz9krj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bf583e3529d0bd32432354c24f89d30572e85ff
https://preview.redd.it/9kmsb5qprj5d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e62a53c7032d23c8680f8e7f6e61cb055d2c09f9
That goal gave Struick and the team massive confidence boost. At the same time, Hiroshima looked trembled. Few seconds later, they misplaced a pass and let Chinen stole the ball and slot it home. It's 3-1 after 11 minute.
https://preview.redd.it/vqdileo5sj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9569da28b3b7701c33817dd86540ee17f1b2d38a
The game calms down a little bit until in the 35th minute, again Alijonov found space in the right side and bent another cross almost finding Struick. But this time Hayato Araki won the duel and headed the ball for a throw-in. A few simple pass from throw in then ended in Struick's feet who stood just inside the penalty box.
With a few neat moves, Struick found the ball in his right feet and rocketed the ball deep into the low left side of the goal. It's a brace in his debut and it's 4-1 for Kashima Antlers.
https://preview.redd.it/1u3p2dj1tj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=209ff631dbef8c4c38bdd9345de33935375fb1a9
After that, I instructed my team to lower the tempo a bit, to conserve energy and retain possession. It resulted in the match gone calm for a bit. After Kashiwa sent an amazing cross to Vieira who headed it past Jakob Hein and Chinen slotted home a penalty kick to make it all 5-2, Matsumura who came in for Suzuki had the ball inside Hiroshima's penalty area before he's getting tackled. Referee pointed out to the spot for the second time. Chinen, the original taker, took the ball and give it to Struick, to let him complete this magnificent night both for him and the team. Struick shot it as hard as he could, it did not fool the goalkeeper, but it blew past him. It's a hattrick in his debut, and it's a dominating 6-2 win for the team.
https://preview.redd.it/3dagt73juj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60c16cc4aa06335339ae74834238d1e2b19778c7
He ended the night with 3 goals, 1 key pass, won 7 aerial duels, attempted 5 tackles and won all of them, covered 13.1 kilometres the most compared to every other player in the field, and fielded a match rating of 9.9. It was a dream debut for Rafael Struick.
Epilogue : The Reasons
Now some of you might say, "meh, I once have a debutant scored 5 goals and assisted 5 more." And I would not object that. That's why the title is the best debut I have ever seen, not YOU have ever seen. Because from FM standpoint it is "just" a good showing, not a spectacular one.
But this is so personal to me. This is my first save after months of hiatus, and just the pure hype of this game, the roller coaster of emotion just based on finding the right inside forward, it's just beautiful. This story, especially this match, makes me love FM all over again.
submitted by ExtroverTom to TheOldZealand [link] [comments]
Prologue : The Antlers
https://preview.redd.it/ih54st9rji5d1.png?width=1732&format=png&auto=webp&s=22f3fcd319a0a621b918c5ba1cf11ff19d3ad818
I bought the latest Football Manager few months ago while the price was discounted. I was so excited to finally have J-League licensed because playing in Asia have been my lifelong FM dream but without J-League which is arguably the biggest and most competitive league in Asia, it just felt wrong.
I embarked on this year's journey the same way I have always started, to pick one of the top half teams in the league that I wanted to play, so that I get accustomed not only by the league rules but more importantly by the latest features and wrinkles of the game. I usually would play it for a season before moving on to the real long-term save.
This year, the lucky organization is Kashima Antlers. To cut the story short about this club background, you can imagine them like Japanese Manchester United with even less successful history. They have gone years without lifting a trophy but is able to consistently stay on the contention. Now that I said that, I guess they are the less horribly managed Japanese Manchester United.
My one and only mission : bring the J1-League trophy back to the Island of Antlers. Although, whatever it was that I wanted to do, I have to do it within the limitation of only 5 foreign players as per J1 rules and the lack wingers within the club. After hours of thinking and tinkering I came up with a tactic that I believe would work.
https://preview.redd.it/rzfx9sn3mi5d1.png?width=645&format=png&auto=webp&s=7eb7296ced348ee3f4414c474111ee54e643f0e2
The asymmetric 4-3-3 which emphasized the quality of Target Man Kai Chinen and homegrown talent Yuma Suzuki as well as 'hiding' the lack of winger but still be able to offer some width in the field. Saying that, it was still necessary for me to find a better winger for the formation than Yuta Matsumura, which was decent, but not good nor was he well-suited enough with the way I want to play.
Kai Chinen: Our main striker and one of our best player
The stats of Yuta Matsumura which was actually decent relative to the league quality, but not good enough. Also the only wingers other than him were some promising yet raw young talents.
**1******st Act : The Reds
J1-League transfer window would be closed on 31 March. By the start of the month I have brought into the team some quality players: Roberto Soriano and Ismael for free and bring creativity in that midfield, and an uzbek guy called Hojiakbar Alijonov, a mature physical attacking right back which will provide those crosses from the right winger-less side of our formation.
I have not found my guy to be put in that left side though, until a young right-footed brazilian had a semi-fallout with his club and get transfer-listed. SC Internacional, his club, asked for two millions euros for whoever wanted to bring him out from Brazil. Having only spent so little, and in nearly desperate need for a winger, I jumped into the chance, and built a 2 millions worth of a deal based on so many installments and bonuses. Finally after some contract negotiation, my long-awaited inside forward has finally arrived on 06 March 2023.
His name is Joao Gabriel Martins Peglow, a 21-years-old who modeled his game after his idol Cristiano Ronaldo. He has good technique as well as physical attributes perfected by almost world class amount of flair. With him running with the ball down our left side, I believe we can outrun and outscore anybody in the league.
Peglow: Our main winger, and he had not even reached his ceiling
and I was not making it up when I say he idolized CR7.
**2******nd Act : The Braces
You are forgiven for thinking that this story is about Peglow's debut. But it's not. His debut is mediocre at best. Playing against Urawa Red Diamonds in the J-League Cup (Japanese equivalent of Carabao Cup), he did not offer much. Only attempted 15 passes, produced 6.6 match rating, before I had to take him off in the one-hour mark of the game. In the game where the opponent produced nearly as many XGs from half as many shots, we ended up winning thanks to heroic performance of our first-choice goalkeeper, Tomoki Hayakawa.
https://preview.redd.it/ajp90s8gui5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5776948e9747bc51adb265861cb339e39c7f297b
Debuts are expected to be rough though. The real glimpse of what Peglow could bring to the team came almost two weeks after his debut. After another stinker which saw him produced 6.4 match rating in the league match that we otherwise dominated, I trusted and started him again in the match against one of the big boys: Yokohama Marinos. He paid that with an impressive return. I had to wait for a while though.
From the get-go, Yokohama's midfield which operate weirdly with two mezzalas in front of the single pivot, clearly got overrun by our midfield led by Roberto Soriano and spearheaded by Peglow. But it was our free agent signing, Ismael and our homegrown striker Yuki Kakita who gave us 2-0 lead before the halftime. In the 2nd half though, it's all Peglow's world and we were just living on it. He scored two goals in the span of 3 minutes before assisting another one in the closing stage of the match to close the game 5 goals to none. What a performance from him and surely, surely from then on, he would be the one leading this club to the promised land right?
Right?
https://preview.redd.it/3kj05obw4j5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=94252890ec6063fd5dcac12f0bd6cb02b4f7f3dd
**3******rd Act : The South-Easterners
All good things must come to an end. Some before it even begun.
I rested Peglow in the following match against lower division club in hope that he would be in peak condition for our next league match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Then the news struck.
It was 31 March, maybe around 10 am. Just one day before the league match mentioned before. Peglow was dribbling the ball in training when suddenly he turned sharply and fell. He scream in agony while the emergency radiology found out that he twisted his ankle and out for at least a month. It was far from being a career-ender, but if you pay close attention, it was 31 March. Not only was it just one day before the match, it was also THE transfer deadline. I only had hours to find Peglow's replacement. I had to.
https://preview.redd.it/f8soyhr1ij5d1.png?width=1629&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c00e1de090710e603a26e1dec0a83dbab606d81
I panicked and scrambled around scouting reports and player search columns. It was extra difficult knowing I had filled my foreigner quotas, so I could not add another foreigner anymore, but the japanese winger available just did not cut it. And there, at that moment, we came back full circle to me talking about the wrinkles of the league.
J-League has this unique registration rules where we could only field maximum of five foreign players, but with a little bit of curveball added. Due to some real life agreements, players from South East Asia countries is treated as non-foreign players. So I could buy and field whatever amount of players from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and my real life home country Indonesia, together with other smaller South East Asia countries that I wanted. It did not help me instantly though as there are next to none SEA players that good enough for the top division of japanese league, let alone to be the replacement of Peglow.
That's until just 8 hours before the deadline is closed, a message come to my inbox. Agent recommendation. Candra Firmansyah, an Indonesian agent, notified me about one of his clients. A left winger, just as young as Peglow, does not get the playing time he needed in his club ADO Den Haag and after just 3 appearance in the first team, he thought it was the right time to be loaned out. ADO agreed and he became loan listed. His name? Rafael Struick.
Rafael Struick : Every Indonesian knows who this man is. For you who do not know, oh you will soon do.
I took a glimpse. And I sit there in front of my laptop trying to process it. Not only does the boy good enough for the J1-League, he almost as good as Peglow. I could even argue his technical ability is superior and his physical attributes are comparable. For a moment I got "kicked out" back to real life and thinking not as Hiruzen Hiragana the Japanese manager of Kashima Antlers my alter ego, but as me myself, and thinking "It must be nice to manage my countryman in the biggest competition in the continent."
I might overpaid for him. Giving ADO 200k just for a loan fee seems a bit much and my board felt that way too. But, I need a winger, the deadline was just 4 hours away, I did not have many choices. So I pulled the trigger. The administration team moved fast enough to conclude the deal just in time. In the midnight Kashima Antlers welcoming the promising Indonesian youngster and hopes that he is fit for the match, tomorrow.
Final Act : The Mismatches
Bad news and good news. The bad news is Peglow's injury was not a nightmare nor an SI april mop at all. The good news, Struick was in peak condition to play against Hiroshima. I did not know how he took flight from den Haag to Kashima without took a nosedive in terms of his fitness, but there he is, just hours after signing the contract, wearing red shirt and white shorts, ready for his debut.
Hiroshima was not an easy opponent to play let alone for the first time. They finished in the 3rd place the season before. The attack was dangerously led by brazilian target man, Vieira and the defence was solid under the command of Kansai University alumni Hayato Araki. The road gets steeper due to the fact that heroic Hayakawa got injured, so Karl Jakob-Hein, another emergency loanee, deputized him between the sticks. But, ready or not, it's game on.
From the very first minute, I can see that Struick got cold feet. Maybe from the jet lag, maybe because he was not familiar with the exotic asymmetric system. Whatever it was, he did not look good. My hopes for Peglow to miraculously be healed and playing that day peaked when in just the 4th minute mark, Struick has the ball in the left side on the field and tried to make a field-switching pass to Ismael on the center of the field, but his wobbly legs did not generate enough power and the ball was stolen by Hiroshima's midfielder, Matsumoto.
https://preview.redd.it/f0qgltr0pj5d1.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b8f915baec7d2a2fc3c717e7a6826595ec736b4
Who brings the ball upfield, did a 1-2 pass combination into our penalty box, before swiftly pushing the ball in the path of their forward, Kashiwa who then struck the ball behind our net. Kashima 0, Hiroshima 1. In the 4th minute mark.
https://preview.redd.it/rklaitj3pj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff4daac7aab6eeb0674f2b5d8a36bd3d42877376
I encouraged the team, told them that there are still 86 minutes to play. I saw Kai Chinen came over to Struick, maybe to help him calm his nerve. I did not know what Chinen said, but whatever it was, it worked. Just a couple of minutes after did that horrendous pass, Struick again found himself in the left side of the field. This time though, he had more confidence in his heart, and brought the ball way up front.
https://preview.redd.it/o5p6amkppj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=45adbf9db54129f483d7516c3b7b51bda89beb3e
He then passed to Chinen who quickly gave the ball to Suzuki in the right side. It was Suzuki's show right after. He dribbled past two defenders before hit the ball so hard, Hiroshima's keeper, Osako could barely even react. It's 1-1 and there are still 84 minutes left.
https://preview.redd.it/zfigchc2qj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=f73efe7eb1fac54fe898192f8f6c876ed3984677
This match is destined to be an end-to-end affair, when after Ismael Silva stopped Hiroshima's passing in the centre of the field, he found Alijonov running full speed on the right side. And running he does. Alijonov picked the ball just inside our side of the field and quickly run near the byline, bringing the ball up ahead.
https://preview.redd.it/bg4pg50qqj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60443eb9cfc6a5025e03088d8693472dcec36af9
Without any pressure whatsoever, Alijonov bent a cross into penalty area where all of our forwards are ready to head it home. Some of you might notice that Struick had pretty impressive jumping reach. But I did not notice that until Struick leapt above the right back who man-marked him. And when I say leap, i mean it almost looked like that Ronaldo's header against Sampdoria. Struick headed it home, his first goal, just 10 minute into his debut. It's 2-1 for Kashima Antlers.
https://preview.redd.it/y1lrcz9krj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bf583e3529d0bd32432354c24f89d30572e85ff
https://preview.redd.it/9kmsb5qprj5d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e62a53c7032d23c8680f8e7f6e61cb055d2c09f9
That goal gave Struick and the team massive confidence boost. At the same time, Hiroshima looked trembled. Few seconds later, they misplaced a pass and let Chinen stole the ball and slot it home. It's 3-1 after 11 minute.
https://preview.redd.it/vqdileo5sj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9569da28b3b7701c33817dd86540ee17f1b2d38a
The game calms down a little bit until in the 35th minute, again Alijonov found space in the right side and bent another cross almost finding Struick. But this time Hayato Araki won the duel and headed the ball for a throw-in. A few simple pass from throw in then ended in Struick's feet who stood just inside the penalty box.
With a few neat moves, Struick found the ball in his right feet and rocketed the ball deep into the low left side of the goal. It's a brace in his debut and it's 4-1 for Kashima Antlers.
https://preview.redd.it/1u3p2dj1tj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=209ff631dbef8c4c38bdd9345de33935375fb1a9
After that, I instructed my team to lower the tempo a bit, to conserve energy and retain possession. It resulted in the match gone calm for a bit. After Kashiwa sent an amazing cross to Vieira who headed it past Jakob Hein and Chinen slotted home a penalty kick to make it all 5-2, Matsumura who came in for Suzuki had the ball inside Hiroshima's penalty area before he's getting tackled. Referee pointed out to the spot for the second time. Chinen, the original taker, took the ball and give it to Struick, to let him complete this magnificent night both for him and the team. Struick shot it as hard as he could, it did not fool the goalkeeper, but it blew past him. It's a hattrick in his debut, and it's a dominating 6-2 win for the team.
https://preview.redd.it/3dagt73juj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60c16cc4aa06335339ae74834238d1e2b19778c7
He ended the night with 3 goals, 1 key pass, won 7 aerial duels, attempted 5 tackles and won all of them, covered 13.1 kilometres the most compared to every other player in the field, and fielded a match rating of 9.9. It was a dream debut for Rafael Struick.
Epilogue : The Reasons
Now some of you might say, "meh, I once have a debutant scored 5 goals and assisted 5 more." And I would not object that. That's why the title is the best debut I have ever seen, not YOU have ever seen. Because from FM standpoint it is "just" a good showing, not a spectacular one.
But this is so personal to me. This is my first save after months of hiatus, and just the pure hype of this game, the roller coaster of emotion just based on finding the right inside forward, it's just beautiful. This story, especially this match, makes me love FM all over again.
2024.06.09 15:46 Meadryl Blender to unity = strange texture/uv
 | Hi everyone, when I export my model in Unity from blender, I get a very strange result. This is the first time I get this problem and I need help for understand why I get this. submitted by Meadryl to Unity3D [link] [comments] (Sorry for the photo, I can't use Reddit on my PC) Like you see on photo 2 my texture come with many square. First, all my tiny light spot(just a white point) become a big white square on unity. After that the UV map is probably not the same. But I don't know why. Thanks for you help |
2024.06.09 15:45 Quasar_123 Rail Replacement Service
September 2nd - 07:00 Service to London
The morning commute always felt too early for Simon. Now autumn was rolling in, and the night ate further into the morning, he could barely keep his eyes open. So when he saw it standing across the platform, he was happy to blink and rub his eyes until it was gone.
September 9th - 07:00 Service to London
The same platform, the same spot, shivering. Why had he been this stupid not to bring a jacket? Oxford station was as nondescript as you could get, for a city so beautiful and ancient, it stood out like a big grey concrete thumb. He stood under the canopy sheltering from the rain, sadly it wasn't doing much in the way of protection. Every gust of wind brought icy shards of rain scratching at his face. Looks like he wasn't the only one suffering.
Across from him stood a man. Drenched to the bone, his white shirt clung to him, a tie stained blood red cutting through his torso. With every gust he stood still. Not flinching. Not moving. His eyes locked on Simon. Simon scanned him from head to toe, like a mirror the man responded, tracing his every move. Feeling the rush of a train approaching, Simon took a step back and like a child discovering their legs for the first time, the man stumbled forwards.
Feeling anxious warmth flooded his face, Simon scrambled onto the train. He was safe here. He was safe.
September 16th - 07:00 Service to London
He approached the platform with caution today, yes last week was weird, but it was early and he was tired. When he looked up at the departures the bad mood started. 20 minutes delayed. It was as grey as usual this morning, not raining though, that was a bonus he thought. He stood endlessly scrolling through social media, head locked down. Then he heard it, a high-pitched whistle. His head shot up, and then across from him, there he stood. The same white and red clothed man staring. Simon could feel his heart beating in his throat, his stomach turning in knots. Dark cold eyes were tied to his from across the void of the platform, sucking the warmth from his body. Simon knew he couldn't move, he couldn't bear to watch the man copy him. Breathing heavily he dragged his eyes to the departures, not daring to move a single limb. 3 minutes. He had to hold out for three minutes. He was alone out there, the platform was a lonely headland out at sea, it was just him and the man.
They stayed eyes locked, standing stock still. Simon didn't dare to breathe too heavily. Time was moving, he knew that, but every second was an eternity. Out the corner of his eye he could see a faint light growing brighter and brighter. The train was coming. He would be safe. Then in a split second the man broke his gaze. He was running. His body moved in perfect symmetry flying along the platform, getting closer and closer to the passenger bridge. He can get me. He can get me! Simon's mind was screaming. Alarm bells ringing. The man was getting closer. There was a hollow thud of thunder as the man's feet stormed across the bridge.
The train was pulling in now, its brakes hissing as it glided to a stop. Simon slammed his hand against the button frantically waiting for the doors to slide open, and they did. Inviting him into the warm comfort of the carriage. The man arrived at the bottom of the steps, fixed his gaze on Simon and ran. Gaining on him, 10 metres, 5 metres, 1 metre. The doors slid shut. And the man slammed against them. Simon’s stomach clamped in on itself; he could feel the sour taste of vomit flood his throat and mouth, pouring out onto the floor. His eyes stayed fixed on the glass of the train door. He was looking at his reflection. But this was no trick of the light. The man had his face and he was smiling.
September 16th - 16:34 Service to Worcester
Simon spent his entire day scanning faces. Anyone who crossed his path was a potential threat. He made it through the work day, he would get home, call the police and get answers. Boarding the train with hundreds of other passengers he was shielded, nothing could get him. Every station they passed he checked every face twice. But his mind and body grew tired, he’d spent the day on high alert and he was feeling the effects. His breathing was slowing down, every thought came at half speed and his eyes drooped and drooped until he slipped into a dark dreamless sleep.
The thud of closing doors ripped him from his sleep. He was awake, alert, heart pounding. He could see a station by the window. Charlbury. He'd gone too far, three stations too far. He got up and looked around the cabin and not a single face turned to meet him. He was alone. It’s fine, he thought. He'd get off at the next station and turn around. He'll be home in no time. He sat there pushing every bad thought from his mind, humming a tune he didn't even recognise for comfort. Then in a matter of minutes they were pulling into a station. Standing at the door he surveyed the platform as they slowed. Empty. Completely empty. Then from the corner of his eye he saw it, a flash of white then red, and finally that face. His face. Shit. Shit. Shit. He had to hide. He ran back into the carriage and fell to the floor between two seats, making sure no part of him could be seen above the window. He heard the door hiss shut, and they were moving. He didn't dare to move. Was he alone? He sat still, not allowing a single muscle fibre to twitch. Then like rolling thunder the sound of heavy boots progressed down the carriage. Slow and methodical, they stopped at every row before moving to the next. Fuck it was coming. They were just inches from him. He craned his head up to look.
The eyes staring down at him were pure black. Obsidian marbles studded in the face he saw every day. He tried to scream but his throat clenched shut. A smile stretched across that familiar face. It was no smile he'd ever given. His breath felt like it was coming out in chunks. He couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't move. Then out of its pocket something glinted in the light. He saw his own cowering reflection in the blade. Tears streamed down his face. He knew the pain about to follow would be the last thing he'd ever feel.
submitted by Quasar_123 to scarystories [link] [comments]
The morning commute always felt too early for Simon. Now autumn was rolling in, and the night ate further into the morning, he could barely keep his eyes open. So when he saw it standing across the platform, he was happy to blink and rub his eyes until it was gone.
September 9th - 07:00 Service to London
The same platform, the same spot, shivering. Why had he been this stupid not to bring a jacket? Oxford station was as nondescript as you could get, for a city so beautiful and ancient, it stood out like a big grey concrete thumb. He stood under the canopy sheltering from the rain, sadly it wasn't doing much in the way of protection. Every gust of wind brought icy shards of rain scratching at his face. Looks like he wasn't the only one suffering.
Across from him stood a man. Drenched to the bone, his white shirt clung to him, a tie stained blood red cutting through his torso. With every gust he stood still. Not flinching. Not moving. His eyes locked on Simon. Simon scanned him from head to toe, like a mirror the man responded, tracing his every move. Feeling the rush of a train approaching, Simon took a step back and like a child discovering their legs for the first time, the man stumbled forwards.
Feeling anxious warmth flooded his face, Simon scrambled onto the train. He was safe here. He was safe.
September 16th - 07:00 Service to London
He approached the platform with caution today, yes last week was weird, but it was early and he was tired. When he looked up at the departures the bad mood started. 20 minutes delayed. It was as grey as usual this morning, not raining though, that was a bonus he thought. He stood endlessly scrolling through social media, head locked down. Then he heard it, a high-pitched whistle. His head shot up, and then across from him, there he stood. The same white and red clothed man staring. Simon could feel his heart beating in his throat, his stomach turning in knots. Dark cold eyes were tied to his from across the void of the platform, sucking the warmth from his body. Simon knew he couldn't move, he couldn't bear to watch the man copy him. Breathing heavily he dragged his eyes to the departures, not daring to move a single limb. 3 minutes. He had to hold out for three minutes. He was alone out there, the platform was a lonely headland out at sea, it was just him and the man.
They stayed eyes locked, standing stock still. Simon didn't dare to breathe too heavily. Time was moving, he knew that, but every second was an eternity. Out the corner of his eye he could see a faint light growing brighter and brighter. The train was coming. He would be safe. Then in a split second the man broke his gaze. He was running. His body moved in perfect symmetry flying along the platform, getting closer and closer to the passenger bridge. He can get me. He can get me! Simon's mind was screaming. Alarm bells ringing. The man was getting closer. There was a hollow thud of thunder as the man's feet stormed across the bridge.
The train was pulling in now, its brakes hissing as it glided to a stop. Simon slammed his hand against the button frantically waiting for the doors to slide open, and they did. Inviting him into the warm comfort of the carriage. The man arrived at the bottom of the steps, fixed his gaze on Simon and ran. Gaining on him, 10 metres, 5 metres, 1 metre. The doors slid shut. And the man slammed against them. Simon’s stomach clamped in on itself; he could feel the sour taste of vomit flood his throat and mouth, pouring out onto the floor. His eyes stayed fixed on the glass of the train door. He was looking at his reflection. But this was no trick of the light. The man had his face and he was smiling.
September 16th - 16:34 Service to Worcester
Simon spent his entire day scanning faces. Anyone who crossed his path was a potential threat. He made it through the work day, he would get home, call the police and get answers. Boarding the train with hundreds of other passengers he was shielded, nothing could get him. Every station they passed he checked every face twice. But his mind and body grew tired, he’d spent the day on high alert and he was feeling the effects. His breathing was slowing down, every thought came at half speed and his eyes drooped and drooped until he slipped into a dark dreamless sleep.
The thud of closing doors ripped him from his sleep. He was awake, alert, heart pounding. He could see a station by the window. Charlbury. He'd gone too far, three stations too far. He got up and looked around the cabin and not a single face turned to meet him. He was alone. It’s fine, he thought. He'd get off at the next station and turn around. He'll be home in no time. He sat there pushing every bad thought from his mind, humming a tune he didn't even recognise for comfort. Then in a matter of minutes they were pulling into a station. Standing at the door he surveyed the platform as they slowed. Empty. Completely empty. Then from the corner of his eye he saw it, a flash of white then red, and finally that face. His face. Shit. Shit. Shit. He had to hide. He ran back into the carriage and fell to the floor between two seats, making sure no part of him could be seen above the window. He heard the door hiss shut, and they were moving. He didn't dare to move. Was he alone? He sat still, not allowing a single muscle fibre to twitch. Then like rolling thunder the sound of heavy boots progressed down the carriage. Slow and methodical, they stopped at every row before moving to the next. Fuck it was coming. They were just inches from him. He craned his head up to look.
The eyes staring down at him were pure black. Obsidian marbles studded in the face he saw every day. He tried to scream but his throat clenched shut. A smile stretched across that familiar face. It was no smile he'd ever given. His breath felt like it was coming out in chunks. He couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't move. Then out of its pocket something glinted in the light. He saw his own cowering reflection in the blade. Tears streamed down his face. He knew the pain about to follow would be the last thing he'd ever feel.
2024.06.09 15:44 ExtroverTom The Best Debut I Have Ever Seen : In Four Acts
 | Before I start, I have to semi-dox myself and say that I am Indonesian. I have to do that because it would add so much more context to this story. submitted by ExtroverTom to footballmanagergames [link] [comments] Prologue : The Antlers https://preview.redd.it/ih54st9rji5d1.png?width=1732&format=png&auto=webp&s=22f3fcd319a0a621b918c5ba1cf11ff19d3ad818 I bought the latest Football Manager few months ago while the price was discounted. I was so excited to finally have J-League licensed because playing in Asia have been my lifelong FM dream but without J-League which is arguably the biggest and most competitive league in Asia, it just felt wrong. I embarked on this year's journey the same way I have always started, to pick one of the top half teams in the league that I wanted to play, so that I get accustomed not only by the league rules but more importantly by the latest features and wrinkles of the game. I usually would play it for a season before moving on to the real long-term save. This year, the lucky organization is Kashima Antlers. To cut the story short about this club background, you can imagine them like Japanese Manchester United with even less successful history. They have gone years without lifting a trophy but is able to consistently stay on the contention. Now that I said that, I guess they are the less horribly managed Japanese Manchester United. My one and only mission : bring the J1-League trophy back to the Island of Antlers. Although, whatever it was that I wanted to do, I have to do it within the limitation of only 5 foreign players as per J1 rules and the lack wingers within the club. After hours of thinking and tinkering I came up with a tactic that I believe would work. https://preview.redd.it/rzfx9sn3mi5d1.png?width=645&format=png&auto=webp&s=7eb7296ced348ee3f4414c474111ee54e643f0e2 The asymmetric 4-3-3 which emphasized the quality of Target Man Kai Chinen and homegrown talent Yuma Suzuki as well as 'hiding' the lack of winger but still be able to offer some width in the field. Saying that, it was still necessary for me to find a better winger for the formation than Yuta Matsumura, which was decent, but not good nor was he well-suited enough with the way I want to play. Kai Chinen: Our main striker and one of our best player The stats of Yuta Matsumura which was actually decent relative to the league quality, but not good enough. Also the only wingers other than him were some promising yet raw young talents. 1***\**st* Act : The Reds J1-League transfer window would be closed on 31 March. By the start of the month I have brought into the team some quality players: Roberto Soriano and Ismael for free and bring creativity in that midfield, and an uzbek guy called Hojiakbar Alijonov, a mature physical attacking right back which will provide those crosses from the right winger-less side of our formation. I have not found my guy to be put in that left side though, until a young right-footed brazilian had a semi-fallout with his club and get transfer-listed. SC Internacional, his club, asked for two millions euros for whoever wanted to bring him out from Brazil. Having only spent so little, and in nearly desperate need for a winger, I jumped into the chance, and built a 2 millions worth of a deal based on so many installments and bonuses. Finally after some contract negotiation, my long-awaited inside forward has finally arrived on 06 March 2023. His name is Joao Gabriel Martins Peglow, a 21-years-old who modeled his game after his idol Cristiano Ronaldo. He has good technique as well as physical attributes perfected by almost world class amount of flair. With him running with the ball down our left side, I believe we can outrun and outscore anybody in the league. Peglow: Our main winger, and he had not even reached his ceiling and I was not making it up when I say he idolized CR7. 2***\**nd* Act : The Braces You are forgiven for thinking that this story is about Peglow's debut. But it's not. His debut is mediocre at best. Playing against Urawa Red Diamonds in the J-League Cup (Japanese equivalent of Carabao Cup), he did not offer much. Only attempted 15 passes, produced 6.6 match rating, before I had to take him off in the one-hour mark of the game. In the game where the opponent produced nearly as many XGs from half as many shots, we ended up winning thanks to heroic performance of our first-choice goalkeeper, Tomoki Hayakawa. https://preview.redd.it/ajp90s8gui5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5776948e9747bc51adb265861cb339e39c7f297b Debuts are expected to be rough though. The real glimpse of what Peglow could bring to the team came almost two weeks after his debut. After another stinker which saw him produced 6.4 match rating in the league match that we otherwise dominated, I trusted and started him again in the match against one of the big boys: Yokohama Marinos. He paid that with an impressive return. I had to wait for a while though. From the get-go, Yokohama's midfield which operate weirdly with two mezzalas in front of the single pivot, clearly got overrun by our midfield led by Roberto Soriano and spearheaded by Peglow. But it was our free agent signing, Ismael and our homegrown striker Yuki Kakita who gave us 2-0 lead before the halftime. In the 2nd half though, it's all Peglow's world and we were just living on it. He scored two goals in the span of 3 minutes before assisting another one in the closing stage of the match to close the game 5 goals to none. What a performance from him and surely, surely from then on, he would be the one leading this club to the promised land right? Right? https://preview.redd.it/3kj05obw4j5d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=94252890ec6063fd5dcac12f0bd6cb02b4f7f3dd 3***\**rd* Act : The South-Easterners All good things must come to an end. Some before it even begun. I rested Peglow in the following match against lower division club in hope that he would be in peak condition for our next league match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Then the news struck. It was 31 March, maybe around 10 am. Just one day before the league match mentioned before. Peglow was dribbling the ball in training when suddenly he turned sharply and fell. He scream in agony while the emergency radiology found out that he twisted his ankle and out for at least a month. It was far from being a career-ender, but if you pay close attention, it was 31 March. Not only was it just one day before the match, it was also THE transfer deadline. I only had hours to find Peglow's replacement. I had to. https://preview.redd.it/f8soyhr1ij5d1.png?width=1629&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c00e1de090710e603a26e1dec0a83dbab606d81 I panicked and scrambled around scouting reports and player search columns. It was extra difficult knowing I had filled my foreigner quotas, so I could not add another foreigner anymore, but the japanese winger available just did not cut it. And there, at that moment, we came back full circle to me talking about the wrinkles of the league. J-League has this unique registration rules where we could only field maximum of five foreign players, but with a little bit of curveball added. Due to some real life agreements, players from South East Asia countries is treated as non-foreign players. So I could buy and field whatever amount of players from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and my real life home country Indonesia, together with other smaller South East Asia countries that I wanted. It did not help me instantly though as there are next to none SEA players that good enough for the top division of japanese league, let alone to be the replacement of Peglow. That's until just 8 hours before the deadline is closed, a message come to my inbox. Agent recommendation. Candra Firmansyah, an Indonesian agent, notified me about one of his clients. A left winger, just as young as Peglow, does not get the playing time he needed in his club ADO Den Haag and after just 3 appearance in the first team, he thought it was the right time to be loaned out. ADO agreed and he became loan listed. His name? Rafael Struick. Rafael Struick : Every Indonesian knows who this man is. For you who do not know, oh you will soon do. I took a glimpse. And I sit there in front of my laptop trying to process it. Not only does the boy good enough for the J1-League, he almost as good as Peglow. I could even argue his technical ability is superior and his physical attributes are comparable. For a moment I got "kicked out" back to real life and thinking not as Hiruzen Hiragana the Japanese manager of Kashima Antlers my alter ego, but as me myself, and thinking "It must be nice to manage my countryman in the biggest competition in the continent." I might overpaid for him. Giving ADO 200k just for a loan fee seems a bit much and my board felt that way too. But, I need a winger, the deadline was just 4 hours away, I did not have many choices. So I pulled the trigger. The administration team moved fast enough to conclude the deal just in time. In the midnight Kashima Antlers welcoming the promising Indonesian youngster and hopes that he is fit for the match, tomorrow. Final Act : The Mismatches Bad news and good news. The bad news is Peglow's injury was not a nightmare nor an SI april mop at all. The good news, Struick was in peak condition to play against Hiroshima. I did not know how he took flight from den Haag to Kashima without took a nosedive in terms of his fitness, but there he is, just hours after signing the contract, wearing red shirt and white shorts, ready for his debut. Hiroshima was not an easy opponent to play let alone for the first time. They finished in the 3rd place the season before. The attack was dangerously led by brazilian target man, Vieira and the defence was solid under the command of Kansai University alumni Hayato Araki. The road gets steeper due to the fact that heroic Hayakawa got injured, so Karl Jakob-Hein, another emergency loanee, deputized him between the sticks. But, ready or not, it's game on. From the very first minute, I can see that Struick got cold feet. Maybe from the jet lag, maybe because he was not familiar with the exotic asymmetric system. Whatever it was, he did not look good. My hopes for Peglow to miraculously be healed and playing that day peaked when in just the 4th minute mark, Struick has the ball in the left side on the field and tried to make a field-switching pass to Ismael on the center of the field, but his wobbly legs did not generate enough power and the ball was stolen by Hiroshima's midfielder, Matsumoto. https://preview.redd.it/f0qgltr0pj5d1.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b8f915baec7d2a2fc3c717e7a6826595ec736b4 Who brings the ball upfield, did a 1-2 pass combination into our penalty box, before swiftly pushing the ball in the path of their forward, Kashiwa who then struck the ball behind our net. Kashima 0, Hiroshima 1. In the 4th minute mark. https://preview.redd.it/rklaitj3pj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff4daac7aab6eeb0674f2b5d8a36bd3d42877376 I encouraged the team, told them that there are still 86 minutes to play. I saw Kai Chinen came over to Struick, maybe to help him calm his nerve. I did not know what Chinen said, but whatever it was, it worked. Just a couple of minutes after did that horrendous pass, Struick again found himself in the left side of the field. This time though, he had more confidence in his heart, and brought the ball way up front. https://preview.redd.it/o5p6amkppj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=45adbf9db54129f483d7516c3b7b51bda89beb3e He then passed to Chinen who quickly gave the ball to Suzuki in the right side. It was Suzuki's show right after. He dribbled past two defenders before hit the ball so hard, Hiroshima's keeper, Osako could barely even react. It's 1-1 and there are still 84 minutes left. https://preview.redd.it/zfigchc2qj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=f73efe7eb1fac54fe898192f8f6c876ed3984677 This match is destined to be an end-to-end affair, when after Ismael Silva stopped Hiroshima's passing in the centre of the field, he found Alijonov running full speed on the right side. And running he does. Alijonov picked the ball just inside our side of the field and quickly run near the byline, bringing the ball up ahead. https://preview.redd.it/bg4pg50qqj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60443eb9cfc6a5025e03088d8693472dcec36af9 Without any pressure whatsoever, Alijonov bent a cross into penalty area where all of our forwards are ready to head it home. Some of you might notice that Struick had pretty impressive jumping reach. But I did not notice that until Struick leapt above the right back who man-marked him. And when I say leap, i mean it almost looked like that Ronaldo's header against Sampdoria. Struick headed it home, his first goal, just 10 minute into his debut. It's 2-1 for Kashima Antlers. https://preview.redd.it/y1lrcz9krj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bf583e3529d0bd32432354c24f89d30572e85ff https://preview.redd.it/9kmsb5qprj5d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e62a53c7032d23c8680f8e7f6e61cb055d2c09f9 That goal gave Struick and the team massive confidence boost. At the same time, Hiroshima looked trembled. Few seconds later, they misplaced a pass and let Chinen stole the ball and slot it home. It's 3-1 after 11 minute. https://preview.redd.it/vqdileo5sj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9569da28b3b7701c33817dd86540ee17f1b2d38a The game calms down a little bit until in the 35th minute, again Alijonov found space in the right side and bent another cross almost finding Struick. But this time Hayato Araki won the duel and headed the ball for a throw-in. A few simple pass from throw in then ended in Struick's feet who stood just inside the penalty box. With a few neat moves, Struick found the ball in his right feet and rocketed the ball deep into the low left side of the goal. It's a brace in his debut and it's 4-1 for Kashima Antlers. https://preview.redd.it/1u3p2dj1tj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=209ff631dbef8c4c38bdd9345de33935375fb1a9 After that, I instructed my team to lower the tempo a bit, to conserve energy and retain possession. It resulted in the match gone calm for a bit. After Kashiwa sent an amazing cross to Vieira who headed it past Jakob Hein and Chinen slotted home a penalty kick to make it all 5-2, Matsumura who came in for Suzuki had the ball inside Hiroshima's penalty area before he's getting tackled. Referee pointed out to the spot for the second time. Chinen, the original taker, took the ball and give it to Struick, to let him complete this magnificent night both for him and the team. Struick shot it as hard as he could, it did not fool the goalkeeper, but it blew past him. It's a hattrick in his debut, and it's a dominating 6-2 win for the team. https://preview.redd.it/3dagt73juj5d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=60c16cc4aa06335339ae74834238d1e2b19778c7 He ended the night with 3 goals, 1 key pass, won 7 aerial duels, attempted 5 tackles and won all of them, covered 13.1 kilometres the most compared to every other player in the field, and fielded a match rating of 9.9. It was a dream debut for Rafael Struick. Epilogue : The Reasons Now some of you might say, "meh, I once have a debutant scored 5 goals and assisted 5 more." And I would not object that. That's why the title is the best debut I have ever seen, not YOU have ever seen. Because from FM standpoint it is "just" a good showing, not a spectacular one. But this is so personal to me. This is my first save after months of hiatus, and just the pure hype of this game, the roller coaster of emotion just based on finding the right inside forward, it's just beautiful. This story, especially this match, makes me love FM all over again. |
2024.06.09 15:31 Rusted-1 ARK 8 Chapter 23-Unlucky
 | To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless. What is it to kill for religion? - Unknown submitted by Rusted-1 to NatureofPredators [link] [comments] This fanfic is based on the fanfic The Isolationists, by Seeyouon_otherside, and a continuation of the stronger_together series. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Time Since First Contact: Y:0 M:1 W:0 D:3 Memory Transcript Subject: Private Brolien “Lucky” Tiwond of the enforcers. “Wait, the humans call you that? Why?” My buddy Rohan asked me as we patrolled the streets of the capital city of Finalshape under the night sky. You could actually see one of the aliens' ships flying overhead, which was fantastic. I felt like a kid watching them, just in awe at the technological marvels. Our power armor was clanking and clunking as we went about our day, heavy auto rifles in hand, a good breakfast this morning, kissed the kids and misses goodbye for today, promising little ones I’ll bring them back a souvenir of some kind. We walked through the snow that had to yet be cleared by the snow plows, and I just enjoyed the forever-green grass and trees. Just admiring the city that we lived in “Yeah, I was on the plane next to the human ARK ship when I went down.” “Wait, that was you?!” Rohan practically yelled, getting the attention of many people around us. “How come you’re still not in the Air Force anymore?” “That crash rattled me pretty bad, So I stepped down for that position and took up a job as a trooper,” I respond casually. “It was fun for a while being in the Air Force, but now, with seven kids and a wife, I can’t take that risk anymore. I’d rather do something more laid-back to have a higher chance of survival. So I can spend more time with my beloved and see my little ones grow up.” I said. Then I revealed my trap card. “I also got a spot on the Land Tank. “Yeah, I get that-YOU WHAT!?” He yelled. I let out a hearty laugh as he began to freak out. “Yep! I will be one of the lead anti-air and anti-space gunnery commanders. The pay is fantastic. I’m going to spoil my family rotten.” He made an odd noise and launched himself at me. “HOLLY SHIT DUDE! YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED A JOB ON THAT HUNK OF HISTORY! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!” He patted me on the back a few times and then let go. “But I get what you mean by anti-air, but what do you mean by anti-space?” I sighed and looked around before switching to helmet-to-helmet communication so no one could hear us. "You're aware that Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral doesn't fully trust the aliens, right?” Rohan nodded. I couldn’t see his expression under the heavy metal helmet, but we had known each other since we were kids, so I could tell he was somber. “Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of that. But that doesn't mean I don't understand it. The aliens are fun, lovely, adorable, and huggable. I can say a hundred other nice things about them, but I won't because I don't want to bore you to death. They are still a massive unknown; they've been sharing more and more information with us, and I know the one, Captain Leo, is preparing to hold some… not ceremony, what do you call it…I want to say it's a seminar about how they got here and their history. I'm going to it, but I don't know when it will be.” I nodded in agreement. “ I am with you on every single one of those points. As amazing as they are, there are so many unknowns about them… which is why Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral has started a program meant to counteract the aliens' most powerful tools: their droids and ships.” Rohan looked at me. I could tell from underneath his helmet he looked surprised. “Wait, weapons?” It was my turn to be somber. “She says it's to prepare for if they turn on us. She made it very apparent that she hoped she would never have to use these weapons, but she wanted to be prepared.” “Does Commander Fango Feral know about this?” I scoffed at that thought. “Well, yeah, this project would have never gotten the green light anyway. Plus, we're talking about Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral here. Going behind her uncle's back is the last thing she would do." Rohan nodded. "What do you know about the project?" He asked "What little I know about the project is that I will be operating an ASRFC, an anti-space rapid-fire cannon. It’s designed to do what it sounds like: it shoots or, rather, assists in launching incredibly fast-moving projectiles, similar to missiles but different somehow. They should be coated in the specialized electricity designed to short out alien systems. She's also been developing handheld weapons to short out their droids.” Rohan was silent. Then spoke. “Geez. That's… a lot. I'm just hoping the aliens don't find out.” My shoulder sagged as I hated the thought of operating a weapon like that against two species that have been nothing but kind to us. “Same, we all share the same sentiment at the Land Tank. We are on our hands and knees, praying to the great protector that we never have to use these guns. Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral is probably the person who is hoping the most. However, I get the odd feeling that they would understand why we would make these weapons. I think they'd be mad, but they wouldn't be upset. They'd be understanding.” I looked over at my childhood best friend. “Honestly, considering your Borderline addiction to anything alien right now, I'm surprised you're taking this as well as you are.” He shook his head. “I'm not really… it's hard making guns and weapons to kill a person who has been nothing but kind to you simply because you don't fully trust them. But I understand and support the logic behind it. However, it is comforting to know that everyone working on this project hopes and prays that they don't have to use them. Not much, but a bit.” Rohan sighed, and we walked in silence for a while. He perked up, his posture became slightly straighter, and he pointed to my chest. “What is that anyway on your chest? I’ve never seen a dialect or a plant like that,” he asked. I looked down and laughed. “Yeah, that’s human dialect. I want to say it’s the one called English, but it could also be the one called Japanese or Russian. I really have no idea. It says, “Lucky, the falling star.” The symbol is of what they called a four-leaf clover, a type of plant back on the human homeworld that was considered lucky, surrounded by a star, and there are trails to the side of it, or to make it look like it’s falling.” Rohan stopped for a minute, got the joke, and nearly busted a gut laughing. When he finally calmed down, he looked at me. “How the hell did Humans and Zeyzell convince you to get that painted on your armor!?” he asked through laughs. “Well, I was at a drink stop, a bar as most of you normals call it, forget which one, when out of the blue, a bunch of humans popped up, and they recognized me as a pilot. I don’t know how, but they did.” I answered, “Ask me all sorts of questions like how I survived. How was I doing? Generally, they were good questions and warmed my heart that they were worried about me. It was nice, anywho, they were going on about this plant on the human home world called the four-leaf clover, and this represents luck or something. They asked if they could paint my armor with it. I had just gotten my shiny new power armor, so I was like, sure, go ahead and paint it. Then, they whipped out a bunch of little pups, or kids and kits, as the humans call them. As in little humans who are ADORIBLE, and they started painting my armor as I started talking to the adults. Two hours later, bam, you got this masterpiece painted all over my armor. I swear they took the little ones out of their pockets if I didn’t know better. After all that, I wanted it back to camp, and the paint had dried. I tried getting off, even though it was a nice gesture. I was kind of sad about it, but I don’t know what the void they used is. This stuff is not coming off. I scrubbed for a good hour, and it didn’t come off. So when I had to fall in with everyone at Camp and with everyone with their new hand-me-down E-10 power armor. I stood out like a sore thumb.” “And you had petty officer Gotrom, didn’t you?” Rohana teasingly said. I shook my head in pain, causing him to laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes.” “Yep, I had him, the man of the petty ones. The moment he laid eyes on me. His eyes did the whole bleeding thing. I hate it when he does that and starts screaming at me. I mean, this dude is slightly above me in rank, but he takes his job too seriously. So, after five minutes of chewing me out, I thought he would pass out with the amount of hot air he was spewing. He asked me what my excuse was.” “What do you say to him?” Rohan asks. I laughed. “It was like the great protector had whispered exactly what I should say into my ear. “Interacting with the new locals, sir. Just letting them know that we are their friends, not their wardens.” And you won’t freaking believe this, he took it.” “He what?! he took it as a valid answer?!” Rohan asked. “I myself was still surprised that he took that as a valid answer, but yes, he did. Then he immediately brought me to the front of all three hundred troops and started to yell at them, tearing them a new one by telling them how I was the only one here who had made any attempt to meet with the alien. Even though we all know that’s not true, they found me. He patted me on the back, congratulated me, and sent me off to get some extra food.” “By the old void, that guy gets stranger and stranger every time.” I shrugged. “I honestly have no clue, and I think he was telling everyone to step up the game in greeting the aliens, but other than that, I have no idea. The Humans are super nice, and I often find them chatting with someone or petting someone. Void, I’ve even seen an entire group of humans swarm a giant and start petting it. It was cute to watch. The Zeyzell seem far more reserved than the humans, but you can have interesting conversations with them.” We continued to patrol the streets in silence for a while after that, making a bit of small talk to break it, but nothing much, just observing people going about their business. That’s when we saw an out-of-breath Tiwond with a human gently helping him drink a bottle of water. A Zeyzell clung to the human's back, laughing his lungs out. “Everything all right over here?” I asked. “Yeah,” the person said as he got up, swishing his tail as he did, “tried to beat my buddy here in a race after hearing about humans' high stamina. I lost by a large margin while he carried his fluffy ass on his back. The man said as he pointed to the Human and the Zeyzell. The Zeyzell just laughed while still clinging to the human's back. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” The Zeyzell said as the three laughed. “All right, you three, stay safe. Bye now.” The group of three said their goodbyes, and I looked at the human. He just seemed so happy. It was such a pure and authentic expression that it warmed my hearts. “It’s so nice that we met the humans; everyone just seems happier.” Rohan nodded. “Yeah, it’s like the mood has shifted, from the low to the high, it's nice. With the war, the terror that came after it, and the animals evolving and changing. Things were looking bleak. That’s not even mentioning all the giant refugees we've been getting, and well…him and them.” I looked at Rohan. “Who and what?” Rohan looked at me, confused. “You know? Viggo Scythelock?” I nodded. The mention of his name made me slightly mad. “Oh, him…you think they will catch the guy?” I asked. “Honestly, I hope so. He has caused so much pain to so many. The man is a psychopath, a monster. He used the war as an opportunity to harm so many.” Rohan looked down. “But honestly, it’s been over three years. I’m not sure if they will ever find him.” “Yeah…I hope they find him and take him out. Also, who are "Them" you are talking about?” Rohan looked at me, surprised. “You haven't heard?” he asked. He switched to helmet-to-helmet communications instead of talking out loud. This must be bad.” “I’m almost afraid to ask…but no, I have not heard about them,” I responded also with helmet-to-helmet communication. “Who are you talking about?” “The Cult of the Old God? You haven't heard what they have been up to?” “You mean them assassinating high-ranking individuals, stealing supplies, their entire operation multiplying tenfold ever since the alien's arrival?” I could tell he was surprised, and I could also understand that he was blinking and surprised underneath the helmet. That's how well we know each other. “How did you know?” “It's common knowledge, and the higher-ups sent this documentation earlier this morning. Did you not read it? They're very transparent, and you know that I don't get all your conspiracies at everything, which is a conspiracy.” “Oh, come on! The Aliens! Their rival was too perfect; just when we were getting worried that we were the only living creatures in the universe, pop! They show up. That can't be a coincidence!” I rolled my eyes underneath my helmet. “You need help.” “Not with my mental state, but definitely with my taxes.” I shake my head We continued on our way. When we crossed one of the streets and took a left toward one of the shopping districts, we saw two dudes sitting in the snow, huddled around something. We approached to make sure everything was alright. “Everything alright?” I asked. The guys looked up at me and made the shhh motion with their fingers. Then they parted their bodies a little, and I saw a female human sleeping between them. “We don’t want to wake her up,” the first said. I nodded my head and continued on. Both of us then turned a corner into a more populated part of the district. We saw a human and what looked like a construction worker chatting there. “Thank you so much for taking us in. I think I can speak for my entire species when I say you have made us so happy.” The construction worker raised an eyebrow and took another bite of the sandwich she was eating. “Anyone would’ve done it; it's just the right thing to do if they had a soul, at least.” The human started to laugh a bit, and then it quickly stopped as a human just shook her head. “Guess the federation has no soul then, huh?” The construction worker took another bite out of her sandwich. “Doesn’t sound like it.” The human leaned into the construction worker. “Eay, don’t worry. If those Federation things ever come here, they’ll get a big face full of Big Jim.” She then pulled out a massive [monkey wrench.] I smiled at that, knowing that so many were willing to protect the humans. I believe that made them feel more at home. We wandered past them on our patrol and continued deeper into the district. “Hey, you know what I’ve noticed?” Rohan said. “Hm?” I asked in return. “I haven’t seen all that many little humans, you know, their pups, kids, children, whatever they call them.” I was about to argue that I had seen quite a few children, but when I really thought about it. The only significant group of human children I had seen was when a bunch of them confronted me and painted the four-leaf clover and star onto my chest plate. Other than that, I’ve only seen a few. “Now that you mention it, you’re right. I’ve hardly seen any. Why do you think that is?” Rohan thought for a minute. Then, he snapped his secondary jaw in realization or remembered something. “I remember a bit of talk about a lot of young ones being on a second ARK ship. I don’t know much about it. All I know is that most of their young population, as in newborns to tweens, was supposedly on an ARK ship called ARK Twelve. Other than that, I don’t know much.” “Where did you hear that from?” I asked. “One of my buddies works in intelligence gathering. We like humans, but the intelligence bureau doesn’t fully trust them like Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral doesn't. I can’t blame them. Again, Humans are still a big unknown, even though they are one of the cutest things I have ever seen.” “Agreed.” “He was pretty drunk when I asked him, but it was his reaction when he said out loud that really disturbed me. Normally he’s a pretty big drinker because you see some bad shit in intelligence gathering. I mean, there are some terrible people out there. But the second he mentioned ARK twelve, he got really really sad. And he didn’t even finish his drink, which was a first. He mumbled something about going home to spend time with the human he was taking care of. I don’t know what it was about the response, but I got a sense of pure dread from it.” I nodded my head, and we continued. I felt like asking the next human I saw about ARK twelve, but I sensed it would be a bad idea. We saw a commotion in front of what looked like a jewelry store. Wandering over, there was a female tiwond Who seemed distressed. As we approached, she continuously asked strangers if they had seen someone. A lot of other people are starting to be concerned, too, for some reason. We approach to attempt to calm the situation. “Enforcers, what’s going on here?” Rohan asked. The woman turned around rather quickly. She was short and had that typical camo pattern fur that the people of the woodland area have, so she was most likely not a local. Then again, you can never be too confident in the city. “I lost them! I can't find them! I don’t know where they are!” She almost yelled in what looked like fear and worry. “Whoa, calm down, ma’am. What’s the problem?” I gently told her to try to get him to calm down. “Take four large breaths and clear all four of your lungs. Trust me, it helps.” She took some deep breaths, seemingly calmed down just a little, and then spoke again. “I am in charge of two humans under my care for the exchange program. I had brought her and her kid here to the shopping district to see if they wanted anything before moving back to the Woodland cities. However, they vanished. I don’t know where they went. I am terrified of all the unknowns around here that might hurt them.” “Thank you. Do you know where you last saw them?” I asked. I made a hand motion to Rohan to signal in an incident report and some backup. Rohan stepped away from the conversation and radioed a command using his helmet. “This is Rohan. I'm reporting a case of a missing person. Yeah, two humans went missing. I’m currently with Brolien, and we’re patrolling the shopping district… Green Wyvern. Can you send a few more patrols down here to help? We can’t have two aliens going missing in the city. That's bad, AR. Also, and yes, I want to see them safe. I am not an AR asshole.” "This is HQ, sending down an additional squad. Keep us updated." "Yes sir." Rhoan responded “Do you know which store you were in when you saw them last?” I asked. “The jewelry store, the one just over there. About [10 minutes] ago. Their names are Jasper and Melinda.” She pointed to one of the higher-end jewelry stores, and I motioned to Rohan to follow me. I noticed a few Street cops coming over to see what the situation was about. “What’s going on here?” one of the cops asked. I recognize this one, a retired Detective, I think. “Missing persons, two humans last seen over there. We’re going to investigate now,” I quickly informed him. “Keep an eye on her, will you?” He nodded and walked over to the lady, with two others in tow. Rohan and I walked over to the building to inspect the area around it. “If a human is missing here… I’m worried about who might’ve taken them. I know it’s pretty rare for kidnappings, but still.” Rohan said as he opened a dumpster and took a peek inside. “I mean, the humans are so frail. A good-sized hail storm will kill them.” Rohan said. “Yeah, apparently it can. I’ve heard rumors that back on their home planet, it’s possible to die from things like that.” I responded. “Unbelievable,” Rohan replied in disbelief, shaking his head. We started to search the area, calling out their names. We wandered past an ally—“Oh, protector, what is this?” I looked over to see Rohan had stepped in Something. I walked over and looked at it. “Is that blood?” I asked him. “No way too light to be blood. Look at how red it is. It’s not even a black color like ours. I bet you another copper wire melted. I can tell by the scent.” he replied as he shook the stuff off his boot. I took a closer look, put my hand in it, and brought it up to my face. It looked like blood. It flowed like blood. I used the scanning equipment in my helmet and… …Oh shit. “Rohan, this is human blood,” I said. I got up and turned the safety off my gun. Rohan follows suit, and we both enter the alleyway, guns drawn. There was a little more blood on the walls and a bit on the ground. “This is enforcer Rohan calling enforcer HQ, and we have possible contact with an unknown that has seemingly taken two humans, one child, and one mother. Send backup, sending location.” Rohan called in as we quietly walked along the side of the alleyway. We are doing our best to make no noise. I’m so happy that we are wearing the newer power armor. They are so silent. “Roger that Rohan, this is enforcer HQ. Reinforcements are inbound in two minutes.” The coms operator said [Chanting] “Do you hear that? Sounds like chanting?” Rohan whispered. I strained my ears to listen and turned up the sensitivity on my power armor audio receptors. Chanting, I wonder… “Do you think it could be…?” I trailed off, and he immediately knew what I was talking about. “Cult of the old God? This far north? Hm… shoot to kill.” Rohan sternly replied. “This is Enforcer Rohan, possible contact with the Cult of the old god. I am requesting time for the arrival of reinforcements.” “Reinforcements inbound in one minute.” We both quickened the pace and turned the corner-“FUCK!” I yelled out loud. There were Six cultists in total. Two cultus whipped around to face me. One drew a pistol, and another a plasma pistol. “CONTACT CONTACT! LIGHT THEM UP!” Rohan yelled, and we both started blasting into them. We popped bullet bullets into each of their heads and two hearts, taking them down instantly. “Cultus! Here! This far north! What the fuck?!” Rohan yelled. The three others drew their guns and aimed and opened fire at us as we took cover behind some old barrels. We were bullet and plasma-proof in our power armor, but I would rather not risk it. Rohan tossed a flash bang, and It blew up a second later. I heard screams a second later, and we got up and opened fire, our visors blocking out the flash. We both nailed the same bastard as his buddies dove behind cover. They would fire at us every few seconds, keeping our heads down. I looked at Rohan and made the hand single to get the shield. He reached behind himself and took out the heavy-duty shield. I had the battering ram, so I was not that useful. He got up first as I threw another flash, confusing and disorienting the cultists as it went off. We both advanced as Rohan swapped out his heavy rifle for an SMG; I took out the full-auto shotgun as we got closer. Rohan shield-bashed the first one and then blasted him with the SMG. I took out the second one with my shotgun. A bullet deflected off of the shield, and a small spread of bullets that Rohan could deflect with his shield came at us. Then they stopped, and we rushed to cover, Rohan still holding the shield. I peeked out from behind the cover. “Were did..” I started when I heard a yell from behind us. Whipping around, the cultist had appeared and was now wrestling with me for my shotgun. In a split second, I shoved the shotgun into him as he pulled, disorienting him and knocking the wind out of him. I then grabbed the battering ram, which had already been turned on and was at full power, and bashed it into his chest. He immediately exploded from the pressure, and I was coated in his blood. Looking around, all the cultists were down just as reinforcements flooded the area. Looking at the cultus robes, I noticed the same color of blood on them that I had looked at earlier. “Shit, I think these guys got the humans!” I told Rohan. The human female was lying on what looked like a makeshift altar made of scrap metal, an old luxurious chair, and wood. Her entire chest and lower body had been torn open. Most of her major organs were removed, and her heart was speared with multiple little needles and placed on top of the altar. “This is bad. This is bad. If there is this far north, they have gotten bold.” Rohan spoke as he walked over to the human female and inspected her. “She died only a minute ago. It looks like she was in pain the entire time, too. Damn. FUCKING FANTIC SHITS!” “Radio this in,” I ordered Rohan, and he immediately did that. I walked over to the human adult female's corpse and looked at it as a medic was handling her. Why didn’t she scream? Oh, that’s why. They sewed her mouth shut. Damn. I look at the cultists again and look at their golden medallions decorated with a skull. “Wait, Rohan. Weren’t there two?” We looked at each other and immediately split up in different directions to find the kid. It didn't take long for me to see him. “Aw…kid.” I gently bent down to inspect the little body. His lower jaw was gone entirely. His left arm seems to have been sawed off and taken. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. I looked up and noticed footprints taking off into the distance. A seventh cultist, it looks like we missed one. I cradled his head in my hand and took a pulse. Nothing… “Shit.” “Oh, void.” ‘Oh, my young one…I am sorry.” the other enforcers said as we gathered around the child's corpse. One of the enforcers punched a wall out of anger as another just sat on an old couch, shaking her head. “Looks like there was a seventh we missed. If I get my hands on that-.” Another one started. *GACK!* “OH SHIT! ROHAN HE'S STILL ALIVE!” I screamed. Rohan immediately ran over and looked. As did the medic. “By the protector he is!” The medic yelled as she began to administer human-friendly meds. “There is an ambulance outside. MOVE!” She yelled. I picked up the kid and held him in my arms, carrying him as the medic did her work. “You’ll be OK, you’ll be OK,” I told him to comfort him, although I felt it was more for my own sake. “JASPER!” I looked behind me to see the female running to me and followed beside me. "MISS IS MUST INSIST YOU MOVE-" The medic begins to yell. "I'M HIS CARE TAKER!" she yelled back. "Shhhh, I’m here now.” Jasper reached up with a blood-soaked hand and began to grab at her fur like he was trying to hold onto life. She held him to her and then took something out of her bag. “I can use this to get the blood out of his lungs!” “Do it!” the medic told her. She stuck the tube into the kid's chest, and blood came out, and he immediately began to breathe easier. He then latched himself to her chest and passed out. “Don’t worry. I promised your mom I would take care of you if anything happened to her. I will take care of you.” She quietly told the sleeping child as she rocked back and forth, crying, holding the child as the ambulance came around the corner with more enforcers. They loaded both of them into the ambulance and took them away. I walked out and sat down on a bench in front of the alleyway. I just needed time to think. I sat there as the world around me continued. Just lost in thought. What if we got there sooner..? I was broken out of the trance by Rohan. “You alright?” I looked down. “No, we were supposed to protect them…” “Yeah,” Rohan said. We just sat there. It was helping a little to have my buddy there. But…still A human was…dead. “And yet…we saved a human child.” He told me. I nodded, looking up at the Alien space station that was now in orbit around our planet. “Yeah…we did.” We remained silent before he put an arm around me and hugged me. "I hope he survives." "Me too, me too." First/Previous/Next |
2024.06.09 15:27 TheFinalPancake One of my players is cheating and it is literally impossible to do anything about it.
So I'll keep it breif, but I need some advice.
Essentially I run an online game, where everyone can roll how they want. I have suggested we use roll 20s online roller in the past, but I personally have decided it will be a pretty lacks game (read: I am absolutely unable to put my foot down ever) and have given up insisting. Some players lie about wanting to roll their fancy, expensive, physical dice so that they can make up the result they need. This is clear to anyone who thinks about it even a little bit. The problem comes in with Lucy (fake name), who seems to always roll NATTY TWENTIES. She does fail a roll here or there, but its always on something insignificant. But when the roll is important, the stakes are high, I can almost gurantee that she will not fail to seduce the BBEG. Whenever she's rolling a save on one of her bad stats, she magically gets a 20 and turns the spell back on her opponent. I told her this isn't how it works, but it's a pretty lacks game so I decided to let it slide. Her attack mod is good (higher level) but even still, I don't think she has rolled less than a 19 on the dice once in the past few months. At first I thought she was just lucky, but I genuienly feel for the last 10 or so sessions her luck as just been... impossibely good.
I'd maybe just gently insist everyone use the online roller again, but I already have and feel she'll pick it up as a passive accusation. Passively accusing her would definitely be a bad thing because I am absolutely unable to engage in any form of confrontation. I would rather stew about this problem on reddit. I know as a mature adult, I should just talk to her one on one, but its awkward, and I'm not really sure how to approach it. I've already let it go on so long. Furhter, she could just deny it (it's not exactly like I have concrete proof), then we're back in the same spot, plus the awkward tension.
The game is becoming frustrating to play due to it. I spend time making fun, balanced encounters, only for her to land every hit, make every save, and make my boss baddy look like a wet noodle. I either cheat myself and bump the monsters hp/ give him some new ability, or I let her 'power-gamed to oblivion' character seduce him in three rounds, while all my other players just... watch. It doesn't cross my mind that none of this would be necessary if I just told the players to all use the online roller.
I'm begining to feel like a bad DM. I'm either cheating and feeling quite player adverse. Or making painfully unbalanced fights. If I up the stakes too much, im wiping the floor with the other players who play honestly.
I am genuinely at an impass, she is my friend outside of this and I don't want to damage our friendship for a game, but it's sucking the fun out of the game for me. There clearly isnt a solution to this outside of never speaking to her again.
Any advice will be ignored in favour of doing nothing.
Thanks.
submitted by TheFinalPancake to DnDcirclejerk [link] [comments]
Essentially I run an online game, where everyone can roll how they want. I have suggested we use roll 20s online roller in the past, but I personally have decided it will be a pretty lacks game (read: I am absolutely unable to put my foot down ever) and have given up insisting. Some players lie about wanting to roll their fancy, expensive, physical dice so that they can make up the result they need. This is clear to anyone who thinks about it even a little bit. The problem comes in with Lucy (fake name), who seems to always roll NATTY TWENTIES. She does fail a roll here or there, but its always on something insignificant. But when the roll is important, the stakes are high, I can almost gurantee that she will not fail to seduce the BBEG. Whenever she's rolling a save on one of her bad stats, she magically gets a 20 and turns the spell back on her opponent. I told her this isn't how it works, but it's a pretty lacks game so I decided to let it slide. Her attack mod is good (higher level) but even still, I don't think she has rolled less than a 19 on the dice once in the past few months. At first I thought she was just lucky, but I genuienly feel for the last 10 or so sessions her luck as just been... impossibely good.
I'd maybe just gently insist everyone use the online roller again, but I already have and feel she'll pick it up as a passive accusation. Passively accusing her would definitely be a bad thing because I am absolutely unable to engage in any form of confrontation. I would rather stew about this problem on reddit. I know as a mature adult, I should just talk to her one on one, but its awkward, and I'm not really sure how to approach it. I've already let it go on so long. Furhter, she could just deny it (it's not exactly like I have concrete proof), then we're back in the same spot, plus the awkward tension.
The game is becoming frustrating to play due to it. I spend time making fun, balanced encounters, only for her to land every hit, make every save, and make my boss baddy look like a wet noodle. I either cheat myself and bump the monsters hp/ give him some new ability, or I let her 'power-gamed to oblivion' character seduce him in three rounds, while all my other players just... watch. It doesn't cross my mind that none of this would be necessary if I just told the players to all use the online roller.
I'm begining to feel like a bad DM. I'm either cheating and feeling quite player adverse. Or making painfully unbalanced fights. If I up the stakes too much, im wiping the floor with the other players who play honestly.
I am genuinely at an impass, she is my friend outside of this and I don't want to damage our friendship for a game, but it's sucking the fun out of the game for me. There clearly isnt a solution to this outside of never speaking to her again.
Any advice will be ignored in favour of doing nothing.
Thanks.
2024.06.09 15:22 No_Funny3533 Scam Artist mingmei1344 (Yomi) and her accounts at: Aiu_Agency, asiahug.com, datesteady.com, cudate.com, Jpndate.com, sayhiup.com, Rose, Miyuki Miyamoto, SW Entertainment and more
 | My name is Mark Faraday. I was just looking for love back around January 20th, 2024 but I don’t want to see anyone else get scammed. I had a human profile picture when I was using these website, and was honest. I ran into a whole lying network run by a Woman, her friends, and a man. I will update this story if I have more to say in the future. Her nickname is Yomi, she told me her name was Miyuki Miyamoto and she was from Japan. Her real name is Jeong Nahyeon and she is from South Korea. She also has fake Chinese accounts like: submitted by No_Funny3533 to Romance_Scamer [link] [comments] Mingmei1344: https://www.instagram.com/mingmei1344/ Mingmeichan: https://www.instagram.com/mingmeichan/ mingmei1344 Mingmei Liu My Story is long but it is worth reading. From January to June as the writing of this post. I labeled each part so it easy to jump around to the parts you want to read.
Account 1: (Kawaii, Silly girl fake account) https://www.instagram.com/yuyu_only5/ yuyu_only5 Account 2: https://www.instagram.com/_yuyu_only5?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== _yuyu_only5 Yomi Newest Account: Chloee_asuna https://www.instagram.com/chloeee_asuna/p/C7kNkmzSIEi/?img_index=1 chloeee_asuna Jeong Nahyeon Lover or Friend 🙁(Scam Artist Man) 🙁 https://www.instagram.com/_xijii_/ _xijii_ Jpndate.com the site where I met Yomi (Jeong Nahyeon) original, closed on May 1st 2024. Never came back as the writing of this post. However, their sister site DateSteady.com is still very active. https://www.datesteady.com/ datesteady.com Another Scam website they own: https://www.asiahug.com/ asiahug.com
There is this dangerous woman who I am mad in love with (same person) running many fake Chinese/Japanese/Korean Romance scam websites, fake Instagram pages, tik tok, We chats, and many Chinese porn sites. It is the same person, she uses her looks with pictures and videos to steal money from men. She has many names she goes by, probably even more than I found. She also uses bots to get fake likes and weird Anime filters to try to look like an idol. She has scam artist female friends also I found. She the leader. I know a lot of scammers steal from other people's identities but that is not the case here. This is the same person as the scammer. My story will explain it. As well as this person has pictures of the same person you can’t find anywhere else on the Internet. Even if you do a Reverse Face image search. They said information that match to an unbelievable level. The person who Scammed me: Has Many names (Such As) And a talent for speaking many languages
yomi__na
la.nnnn930
hanhanhuwe
gracegracemei Email: [miyukilovee@outlook.com](mailto:miyukilovee@outlook.com) (Something about BlessCeline Lovee) Skype ID: live:.cid.737fb9ac2ad5655c
(Make Sense) u/mingmei1344 https://www.instagram.com/mingmei1344/ https://www.facebook.com/liuliu.meimingmei (Owner of aiu_agency since 2015) u/aiu_agency https://www.instagram.com/aiu_agency/
Google Drive (AI_U Agency) Hotel Connected: SHILLA STAY Gwanghwamun Her Scam Artist friends who work for both Ai_U Agency and JPNDATE CUDATE (That I found) (Some of these might also be her, not sure) Vynnie_nat : https://www.instagram.com/vynnie_nat/# (I think this Yomi friend and the next 2 images may also be that person 1 of 3)vynnie_natjiejierui_ngc: https://www.instagram.com/jiejierui_ngc/ (2 of 3)jiejierui_ngcVeravera_zhangg: https://www.instagram.com/veravera_zhangg/ (3 of 3)veravera_zhanggElle_owo_elle : https://www.instagram.com/elle_owo_elle/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)elle_owo_elleQiqi_shenglim : https://www.instagram.com/qiqi_shenglim/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)qiqi_shenglimMyemye_owo_ : https://www.instagram.com/myemye_owo_/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)myemye_owo_Her Friends are connected somehow but not sure how yet. They appear everywhere with the fake accounts or it just her also. Riyandiwilliam : https://www.instagram.com/riyandiwilliam/ (Either her lover, friend, or work with her) 🙁Summary: January to March 2024Jpndate.com / Datesteady.com / Cudate.com / Sayhiup.com are dangerous Romance scams. All the women are paid actors for the website from Korea/China. They will try to get into a relationship with you very fast, don’t fall for it. They are milking you for money like if you're a cow. They will threaten to kill you or your family if you call out their scam. They might also say they will sue you. If you stop paying them, they will text you very little. They will never video call you face-to-face. Jpndate.com has a sister scam website from the same people called sayhiup.com. When you buy something on Jpndate the payment goes to Cudate Limited, so that site must be part of the scam also.There also Datesteady with the same layout. There is a company in China doing all type of illegal and immoral practices. Their name is Zhengzhou Zhongzhiqi Technology Co., Ltd. / 郑州市中之祺科技有限公司 . They have their main technology business but they also run a list of many scam websites stealing money from American men, Asian, and European men. Such as Cudate, JPNDate, DateSteady.com, SayhiUp. These are romance scam sites where all the women work for the company. If you make a female account it will pend forever. Only men get approved. They claimed before to be an American-owned company then I exposed them now they claim to be Dutch. Their servers are all in China. They never filed paperwork with any foreign country. They are none of these the Chinese pretending to run many dating sites when in fact it’s all fake. They claim to be in nations their not. They have fake terms of service. I used PayPal before I didn't know it was a scam. I paid in dollars, but they refused to refund me till I told PayPal. PayPal made them pay me back. Then they refused to pay me the total amount they wanted to pay me on yuan when I paid dollars. I reported them to FTC. They also try to hack my laptop for me telling the government the truth about them. They probably get funds from the Communist Party government or SW Entertainment in South Korea. They are very very bad people. Please look into it or forward this message somewhere where it can be looked into. Pretends to be a legit dating site but feels more like a pay-to-use website for fake love. All women here are paid actors for the site. The same few women have multiple profiles pretending to be different people. The funny part is anytime you call out JPNDate bs they change their terms of service. Screenshot everything people. They have a fake page saying they're trying to stop scammers, it all bs they are the scammers. Host of JPNDate Servers: As the writing of this post: IP: 47.242.112.134 - Server: nginx IPv4 GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN) Host of DateSteady Servers: As the writing of this post: IP: 47.242.47.54 - Server: nginx IPv4 GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN) Host of Cudate Servers: As the writing of this post: IP: 47.52.110.73 - Server: nginx IPv4 GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN) Host of AsiaHug Servers: IP: 47.242.112.134 - Server: nginx IPv4 GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN) My Story: January to March 2024 My Story: January to March 2024 (Update): I know it is the same person, They told me in a text message by accident. They also replied with different accounts knowing info about me I only told the other account. Do you like Asian women? Real Asian women? These ones are real! I know who they are. Hi! This is Mark Faraday talking to you. This is my story of how a website named JPNDate Dancing Idol scammed me out of 4080 American dollars. From the time period of January to March 2024. First, I was on Japan Cupid, a dating site. On Japan Cupid, no one can chat unless one of you has a membership. I bought a 1-week membership. Within 5 minutes to 10 minutes, a woman nicknamed Yomi from Japan messaged me; this should have been a red flag for me. We talked for a while. She said she was interested in me. She asked me if I could move over to the dating site JPNDate because she paid for membership there and not Japan Cupid. She also promised to delete her account on Japan Cupid after we changed sites. She does delete her account off Japan Cupid. Japan Cupid is sus also. I don’t think it is the same company but it is still very sus. However, these women used that site to find men like me. That is a story for a different day. Unlike a normal scam artist, who may only have 1 or 2 photos, she has several photos on her profile. My trust in her grows a bit seeing that. She then privately messaged me several more photos of her. She asked me for some photos, which I sent. She then sends back happy and heartfelt emojis. She told me she doesn’t date Asian men anymore because they were violent to her in the past and her last boyfriend cheated on her. She talked about how she didn’t want to fight with me. She also said we could talk about any topic. She would compliment me often, as I did for her. Of course, on my profile page, I try to post my best pictures. Throughout my life, I have had many different hairstyles. She even mentioned this and got very happy and asked if I was a hairstylist. The spam of talking on JPNDate.com between us was from January 20th, 2024, to March 24th, 2024. On JPNDate, there is an upgrade system. You need Blue Diamond to chat with others. Crown to send videos. Blue Diamond is 20 dollars per month, and Crown is 80 dollars per month. I got the Blue Diamond membership at first. It showed her with it too. After a day or two, she asked me to upgrade like she did to the Crown membership so she could send me a video. I upgraded it, and she did actually send me a video. All pictures and the video match the same person and the same face. Some pictures were in different locations, and some were like three different pictures in the same place. We then later buy a 6-month Crown membership for each other because it is cheaper than 1 month at a time. I bought it for her, and she bought it for me. At this point, I start to believe. This person was giving me all their time. They reply very often, and their texting time was the same as Japan timezones every single day. They spoke not only English but also Japanese almost fluently. However, they did let me know that they're still learning English and sometimes use a translator. She let me know that this website has something called a mall. This should have been red flag number 2. You pay 1 American dollar for each gold point. Paypal is the only thing that works. When we started dating, she said it was normal for couples in Japan to send each other gifts. It was a symbol of forever love in Japan, she claimed. As an American, I didn’t know if this was true. I googled it and couldn’t get a clear answer. She said whatever I bought her, she would buy me as well. She asked if I liked necklaces or charms. I said anything was fine. She wanted me to pick up a necklace. At first, she picked up a $1,000 necklace from the site mall and asked me. I said no; that's way too much money for that. She said how about a 300-dollar Jade Romance charm. She told me to get her white one; she would get me the green one. I questioned if she was legit. She started crying. She somehow convinced me at the time that she was legit again. I did buy it. A few weeks later, I did receive the overpriced Green Jade Romance love charm to my address from her. I never told her which day exactly my tracking information said it would come to my house, but I asked her, and her tracking date was the same week as mine. By the way something almost the same as this necklace is 12 dollars on Amazon. It also broke when I got it in the mail. Probably cost them 2 cent to make. For the next few days, we had a wonderful, happy conversation. It is late January, and I know Valentine's Day is coming. I offered to get her flowers. I got her flowers and chocolate at a very high price of multiple hundred dollars. She then gets so happy. She told me many times how she wanted to go to America and find me. We talked about many topics for several more days. She told me she worked in an office in Tokyo. Yomi told me her real name was Miyuki Miyamoto. Which is very funny because I told her before I was a Nintendo fan, and this is the same last name as Mario and Zelda Creator. She also said she had her apartment to herself, which is true; she does own an apartment. She talked about how life is stressful right now in Japan. She claimed to have grown up in the Japanese town of Nagano, Japan. She also said she had gone to a university in Tokyo with a major in computer science. She wanted to visit America in July for 15 days when she had her time off. July is a normal time for people to get off in Japan for vacation, so I thought nothing of it. I told her that I was from a smaller town in California, but I lived not far from San Francisco. I told her how my town is quiet and how I could see mountains outside my house. She said she wanted a peaceful life and that life in Tokyo is too fast. And she always had great things to say about every picture I sent. We also talk about going on dates. I asked most of the questions, but she did ask me questions as well. I started to ask her a lot of questions about Japan. Like if she visited Himeji Castle, she said no. However, she did say yes to visiting Mount Fuji. I should have asked for a photo of this, but I didn’t. She was very happy; she told me very many topics about Japan. We even briefly talked about anime. She told me she liked Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Detective Conan. This information is important later. We also talked about how both of us were big Disney fans growing up. She told me she wanted to go to Disney Land when she came to California to visit me. One day she told me, how work was busy today. I told her it was okay and we didn’t need to talk today. She did, however, still text me a little bit that day. This was the only day during our whole time talking when she was super busy. There is nothing wrong with this; all humans get busy. I decided to spend my evening drawing a picture of me and Yomi on a date to surprise her. When I sent it to her, she did not react. This was a red flag for me. I tried to convince myself that she just didn’t like drawings that much. I know I sound really dumb right here, but whoever I was talking to is very smart and knows a lot of things. I was in deep love. We started talking a few days later about the idea of meeting and going on dates together. I know that the yen is weak against the American dollar right now. I told them I would pay for anything they wanted when they were in America because I was in love. This was a big, big, big mistake. They then asked if I could give them 1500 dollars to buy a plane ticket. Never give money to people you never meet in real life, folks. Don’t be dumb like me. Turns out the ticket was actually 2100, so they asked for another 500 dollars the next day, claiming their friend let them borrow the money, and they paid the difference. They did show me a picture of a plane ticket. With the name Yomi and the correct airports in Tokyo and San Francisco. This gave me more trust in them; I got a lot of photos, videos, and even a picture of a plane ticket. At some point, I talked to them about social media. They claim to only have Skype and Line. I found it very hard to believe a woman in her 20s wasn’t on Instagram or Tik Tok. I went on Instagram and typed Yomi, and I found a Yomi who looked just like her. This made me think: why did she lie? What confused me is that all the pictures on her Instagram were different from the ones she sent me, other than one image that was the same. Meaning that the images were not clearly stolen from there. I looked up JPNDate online; there isn’t much info on this website (Right Now), other than one reddit forum from 1 year ago. Someone said something about being scammed by an IDOL on this site. They also said the website wasn’t in Japan but in China. I was wondering why I never saw new females joining the website; it was the same 23 pages worth of them. I wanted to test the website to see if it was legit. I made another account, a fake male account with AI artwork. It was approved in one second. I then made a fake female account; it said pending approval. It has now been 2 weeks since I made that account, and it still says pending approval. This means all the women on this website have to be fake actors. There is also a setting on JPNDate to see who has been online last or which accounts are the oldest. When I asked weeks before, Yomi claimed she had been on this website only for a short time. Her oldest picture was dated October 20, 2023. Yet she has the sixth-oldest account on JPNDate, according to the website. The Reddit forum I talked about before was over a year old. When I was on this website for a month, at least 10 other women tried to text me. There was this one profile of a woman from Taiwan, age 20. She texted me three times in one month. When I joined, her age was listed as 20, and at some point, she changed her age to 25 on her profile. I ignored all these women. This proves again that all these women are fake. I do know these are women based on how they type, but they are not truthful like they act like they are. As I write this, I just realized this is Yomi's friend or sister; it matches the other Yomi account's sister tag. They are part of the same dance agency Aiu_Agency on Instagram from SW Entertainment in South Korea. I knew this website wasn’t telling the truth. I found the JPNDate IP address and tracked it to a server in Hong Kong, China, hosted by Alibaba cloud servers. Reddit was right; the website is Chinese. However, Yomi is Korean which I learned later. I took pictures of the website code just in case. I asked Yomi if she knew Alibaba. Then she asked if I’m going to China—a very strange follow-up question. At this point, I was confused. Who is Yomi? I couldn’t find anything about Miyuki Miyamoto, only Yomi. On Yomi’s Instagram, she speaks Korean, not Japanese. I started to think there are no Japanese women on this website like they claim to be. She does speak Japanese, though. I started using more than 10 different software programs to track who Yomi was since she kept asking me for money. I found like 1000 pictures of an idol, WeChat model, singer, dancer, person on endless Chinese dating sites, and a valiant professional gamer part of the AI’U agency for over 8 years. I found two other Instagram accounts with Yomi's face. Another account in Chinese with an idol name other than Yomi also had a Facebook page. The Chinese account has a post about her going to Australia in early 2024, where she is typing in English words. It was a fake trip. I also found an account where she speaks only Korean on Instagram. I also found a tik-tok where someone dances and looks 100% the same as Yomi, to whom I’m talking. The part that is crazy is that none of the images are 100% the same, but the person is the same in all of them. This shocked me; I follow all the accounts. I saw the stories daily to see who this person was. Her Yomi account is just her normal pictures and atm company or something. Her Korean account is about traveling to Singapore, Spain, and South Korea. She also posts a lot about Disney toys here. When I talked to the scammer about Disney, I had no idea about this. At this point, I knew that many men had been scammed out of money for fake love, not just me. These women are real women. However, there are actors pretending to be in love. They will crush your heart and call you names after a few weeks if you don’t buy their stuff. It has to be from JPNdate Mall only, nowhere else. JPNdate Mall prices are crazy high. I am not sure if the point of the website is just for money or if it is actually for women to study English or what. Chinese women, pretending to be Japanese (most of them), that have connections to Korean music, dancing, and gaming on professional teams. Man, what a hell of a story this is. This sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it's real, or at least partly. At this point, everything I say seems to be true based on what I know. They are connected deeply with SW Entertainment. Yomi told me early on that she had one older sister and one younger brother. It seems like she is actually a twin, and she is the younger sister. Or it’s her friend she calls a sister from the dance Aiu Agency. Yomi claims to be 25, but I think she is closer to 27 or 28 based on finding a listing of her work in 2015 at Twitch Gaming. You have to be 18 or older to work at Twitch gaming, unless your parents sign things. Unless this job is fake, I don’t know. When I showed the pictures I found to Yomi on JPNdate, she played the victim card on me. Saying she thinks I’m a liar and she wants to break up. Then she gave me her Skype account to try to prove it was legit, and all the other images and accounts were stolen and fake. Her Skype name is Rose, with a One Piece picture. She sent me many voice clips, crying, trying to convince me that she was real. I put them in software, and the voice was 30% human, 70% AI. Clearly, a woman is changing her Chinese or Korean voice to sound Japanese. A PC gamer would know how to do this; they do it all the time to troll. Yomi told me she didn’t play video games anymore, but I found a picture that wasn’t that old of a woman who looked the same as her; she had a Nintendo Switch with a white OLED in it. Btw it’s a known fact that Yomi uses software to cheat in the Pc FPS games. We talk for a few more weeks on Skype. I can’t let Yomi, her sister, whoever the man is (I think her lover), and her idol dance friends scam men for their time and money. Yomi Chiense's name is Vera Yuanxin (维拉). Her twin sister goes by veravera_zhangg. Yomi “deleted her profile” when I exposed her. But One Yomi is still there with no pictures. Two they clearly have other accounts with people who look like she just changed hairstyle, talking and trying to scam other men. Remember when I said the anime part was important? On Yomi's Korean account, she has a friend with whom she talks about Digimon. She gave him a Disney toy. She told me she wanted to cosplay a fox; his profile is a fox. There is just so much proof that these are the same people. Later someone hit me up on Reddit from the Phillippines and told me how the same person Yomi scammed them. How for months Yomi promise them so many things. Then when they said it came to going on the plane to visit him they said they were sick or dying or something. Yomi also made a fake Instagram pretending to be Joe Biden and sent me a friend invite. I messaged and it was so funny how bad it was on their part. I said “Yomi are you trolling me?” then they deleted their account. This was on April 6th, 2024. Yomi tries so hard but use a lot of cheap things that are clearly fake like ai artwork, bots for like at ai_u agency, and fake profiles where she comments herself and attacks anyone who calls her out fairly. After exposing Jpndate they Ip ban my address lol. Then on social media joke about attacking me. If you call out their BS they threaten your family and yourself. Just stay away from all these sites if you're going to date online use well-known legit sites. I contacted Paypal and me and JPNDate.com had many emails back and forth. They pretended to do an investigation on Yomi real identity and said she was really Miyuki Miyamoto. It was so bullshit. I told them I would sue them if they were lying, The site no longer exists. The scam does, however. What happened After JPNDATE? April-June 2024 In April many fake Instagram accounts started following me each day. They are romance scams I never got them like this before. I didn’t fall for any of them. All or most were likely Yomi and her friends. Paypal did get me 4000 of 4080 dollars back but it took 6 weeks and multiple emails. JPNDate tells me they will be closing soon after PayPal went after them hard. Like I said I just wanted to find love. I made some stupid decisions along the way. However, I want to find out the truth and make sure other men don’t get scammed by them. I keep messaging Yomi's skype during this period, they never block me. They unfriended me but I could still send messages I wasn’t blocked. They even responded 2 times out of the 50 times I did this in the multiple-week span. I contacted the Aiu_Agency on Instagram (It is the same people as JPNDate) they pretended to be different people. I told them about Jpndate. They called me a hero, they said they loved me, and they thanked me for sending them all the pictures that Yomi sent me on Jpndate and Skype. They follow me on Instagram for 2 days. Then they unfollowed me randomly for no reason. They said their agency would do a police report and kill the scammer. I knew this was so bullshit. I told them how the scammers were making new profiles of them on Japan Cupid. Which is true. The leader Mingmei1344 (Which is Yomi Chinese account) claimed I was the scammer setting them up. She plays the victim card on me. I showed her all the messages and how I got the pictures, I didn’t steal anything. She told me her and her friends are okay if I hacked them, because I’m from the CIA. I am not from the CIA. It was a joke I made a few days before when she pretended to be a mob boss in Korea. I told her I am not a hacker. Right after that she and her friends all ban me other then Mingmei1344 account. Mingmei1344 Message me 1 more day, then block me. However, Mingmei1344 and the Aiu_Agency keep posting things on topics I told them days or weeks before. I checked their old post they never talked about any of this before that. I told these to Yomi on JPNDate and skype not Mingmei1344 again proving it is the same person. They look the same as well. Like the blue feather concept in love mythology, Gundams, Nintendo, Persona, and many many other topics. Yomi claimed to not know anything about videogames before I talked about it with her. I think this is partly a lie. This confuses me so I make fake Instagram accounts to message Mingmei1344 and Aiu_agency. She replies to my messages and Mingmei1344 even does a ask me a question thing on Instagram and replies to all of them. She clearly knows these accounts are from me Mark however she replies anyway. The replies were nice and positive things. Then later she bans them all again. Often Aiu-Agency Women (Yomi and her friends, Mostly Yomi) pretend to go to countries they are not actually in the picture, it’s all greenscreen effects. They also use Ai for Music covers Artwork. For music covers they pretend to sell millions of copies of but there is nowhere to buy such a music cover CD they claim to sell. Their music covers are claimed to be from popular songs kpop songs. I looked, at least not right now such CDs aren’t real. Of course, the songs are real but not their covers. Yomi is most of the women in the pictures but not all. They will post Ai cover artwork, multiple pictures of them using the greenscreen effect, then put a high-quality image of a famous Korean male singer. They never took these pictures of these Korean male singers. They download them and edit them. They pretend to perform with them but it is all fake. Mingmei1344 started always putting her with all the famous Mark’s in Korea. Only her not her staff with Mark’s. I think it’s a reference to me. She didn’t do this before meeting me I looked at her old post. Again Mingmei1344 is Yomi who is Jeong Nahyeon, who pretends to be Miyuki Miyamoto. She still references me sometimes in other ways and I send them messages to see what will happen next. One time I wrote about loving her to see what she would say. I do love Yomi, however I don’t want anyone to get scammed. I told her we could travel across the world together. She wrote in her next post on Aiu_agency on Instagram she liked this future with her future husband. It was a direct reply to what I asked the day before. I joined DateSteady after being contacted by a woman on Japan cupid. She is very interested in me and Yomi so I tell her everything. |
2024.06.09 15:20 Live-Needleworker-60 The Deer and the Dragon by Piper CJ rant review
I'm gonna be real: I hated this. There were interesting concepts, and had they been utilized differently and written by literally anyone else, it could've been an actual good book.
writing. The writing in The Deer and the Dragon is miles better than in The Night and its Moon. It's still not good, but it's better if that tells you anything. The first-person POV mixed with modern-day speak works so much better for Piper's capabilities. It was much easier to get through, but it was still a huge slog for me. Honestly, what are the editors at Bloom even doing? There were still way too many typos and sentences with missing words. Piper still misuses the word dredges after using it in THREE(+?) BOOKS. HOW DO YOU STILL NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DREDGES AND DREGS? Dregs are the sediment of a liquid, so what's at the bottom of your coffee cup. Dredge is when they scoop up mud from the bottom of a river. TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. The word broach is also misused in this book TWELVE times, and it's PART OF THE CENTRAL PLOT OF THE BOOK. You mean to use BROOCH, PIPER. They're pronounced the same, but they mean two different things. Again, what the hell are the editors at Bloom doing?
characters Really, the only character I can talk about is Marlow because this book is just about Marlow and how amazing, special, perfect, and genius Marlow is. I fucking hate Marlow. If I ever met Marlow in real life, I would beat her up. Marlow is the most unlikable person ever. The story opens up with her on a date with a guy she's not interested in and can't remember his name; when she gets it wrong, and he corrects her, she continues to call him the wrong name all the way to the end of the book. She mentally berates him for mixing wasabi and soy sauce and cannot let it go. She’s also an AWFUL friend. It seems like her friend's only real purpose is to support her and tell her how amazing she is. She never bothers to make plans with them or inform them about anything that’s happening in her life. When she goes missing for a good chunk of the book, and they're blowing up her phone worried about her, she doesn't even bother to call them to calm them down. She doesn't think about them at all. She's far more concerned with herself and finding her imaginary boyfriend, who she only just decided was real. Her editor tells her she's at risk of losing her job if Marlow doesn't deliver her work or update her on what's happening, and Marlow just...doesn't care. She's like, 'No excuse I can give will be enough, so I'm just not going to say anything at all because I'm afraid of confrontation'. Grow the fuck up?? Her friend Nia only became her friend because she obsessively messaged her on social media until Marlow 'gave in', and now they're family? Somehow? Yet Marlow doesn't think about Nia once or bothers to comfort her when Nia has to call Marlow's abusive mom to ensure Marlow isn't dead. Kirby has allegedly been Marlow's friend since childhood, but does Kirby know anything about Caliban at all? Does Nia? Does Marlow tell her friends anything? If they know about the abuse her mom put her through, do they know how that abuse started? When Fauna shows up and freaks out over liking Kirby’s name so much, Marlow takes it upon herself to tell Fauna the story of Kirby’s name, scornfully informing Fauna that Kirby isn’t their real name the second Fauna expresses interest in it. (Like what, are you jealous that Fauna likes Kirby’s name, you fucking insecure freak??) The story revolves solely around something traumatic that happened to Marlow and how she and Kirby sat and played Super Smash Bros. Kirby liked their character so much that they adopted the name. Which…okay, choosing the name because you liked a video game character, okay, fine. But the whole story preceding this was so unnecessary and just made Marlow come off as suuuuch a whiny baby. “Oh, you want to know about my friend’s name? Well, first, let me preface it with this long woe-is-me story all about ME before I tell you how they chose their name because basically everything revolves around me.”
The way Marlow talks about rejection is so juvenile. You're in your thirties girls, get over it. Life is full of rejections. Someone telling you they didn't to play with you when you were eight years old isn't something you should form your whole life around. Like Marlow doesn't want kids because she doesn't want them to face rejection. Oh my god, Marlow. I also can't empathize with her trauma with her mom at all because I feel like I didn't really see much of it. I'm sure some of the things she says might hit with other people, but I wanted an actual flashback of a super intense fight or conversation instead of an overview of what happened.
plot. It took a while to get to the actual plot. About 100 pages in before things start really happening. I would’ve liked a little more exposition on Marlow’s relationship with Caliban at the beginning of the book. I get that some of the reveals needed to come more towards the end, but I kind of wish that maybe the fox had spoken to Marlow, too, which would’ve helped with why she’s so sure she’s insane. Foxes don’t talk! In all honesty, I wish this story had been restructured entirely. I think it would've been substantially better if we'd started out in Marlow's childhood. We can see how her day to day life was before Caliban ever appeared, how things were with her mom, who can also see through the veil. Maybe she notices some strange things about her mom that she just brushes off, which she later sees in herself and understands why her mom responded that way. Then something actually traumatic happens instead of some little kids not letting Marlow play with them, instigating her starting to see Caliban. I also would've liked to see flashbacks to Marlow's previous lives. While she's busy trying to convince herself Caliban isn't real, those flashbacks would add to her thinking she's losing her grip on reality. Maybe she'll be doing something innocent, like washing the dishes, and then suddenly, she sees herself standing in the middle of a raging battle, wearing long, elaborate robes. Do you see what I'm saying? This could've been cool! Instead, I had to read about Marlow jerking off about herself for 600 pages.
At some point, Caliban shows up to Marlow looking like a human. She's a teenager at this point, but they eventually start sleeping together, and like...idk something about that feels icky to me. It feels like grooming. Because he's clearly thousands of years old, he probably stays the same age while she's a teenager. What age did he wait for her to turn before their relationship turned sexual? Also, she doesn't even think he's real, and he does nothing to convince her that he is. Yeah....just no thanks. I'm good. Marlow tells Caliban when she's 21, she doesn’t want to see him anymore, so she literally physically cannot see him, but she can hear and feel him, and he still shows up, and like they keep having sex. So she’s just having sex with her imaginary demon friend for like five years before she’s finally like, all right, this is weird; maybe we should stop. And then she immediately regrets that when he stops showing up and then the rest of the book finally happens.
We also get flashbacks to when Marlow first starts escorting, and tbh, I hated this depiction of sex work. I keep hoping since Piper claims to be an advocate for sex work and is a former SWer that, we might get some actual depth to this plot. Maybe learn how Marlow was able to mold herself into the person she needed to be for each client, how she’s able to play people, etc. But no. She meets some random girl in a foreign country where she’s teaching English to children, and the girl is like, OMG, you’re too pretty to BE A TEACHER. COME HANG OUT ON MY YACHT. Now, I’m going to be so real. I feel like any woman with a speck of intelligence in their brain would have red flags going off right about now. If a random woman I met in a foreign country invited me to her yacht five minutes after meeting me, I’d immediately assume this woman was about to try and murder me or kidnap me or traffick me or something. But not Marlow. She is like fuck it, why not. She flies on over to wherever this yacht is(literally, she has to get on a plane and fly there) and makes some new besties who introduce her to the wonderfully glamorous non-dangerous life of escorting, where they hand her clients and set up the appointments for her and blah blah blah(also, wanna point out that Marlow even tries to say that she built this sex work empire herself. bitch no you didn't. it was all handed to you). I don’t feel like I really need to go further about why this is a really poor, dangerous rose-colored glasses-type depiction of sex work. It’s just not the reality.
Flash forward five years later, and Marlow is now a top-selling author writing about South African folklore as a white woman, trying to date other men, still having sex with her imaginary friend, calling her nonbinary friend a horse girl, the usual. Her escort pals are nowhere to be seen, and we have no clue what happened to them. We never hear from them again; they just vanish once Marlow gets what she wants from them, just like Nia and Kirby vanish once Marlow finds Fauna and Azrames. One day, Marlow’s at a book signing and sees the ONE bad client she had(because in all the years/months fucking strange men you meet in a foreign country, only one time does it go bad. okay, sure) He somehow finds where she lives, breaks into her home, and tries to murder her. An angel shows up and murders him instead, and then Caliban finally reveals his face and explains to Marlow that he has marked everyone who’s ever wronged her. (Wronged her in what way, tho. Like if someone accidentally shoulder-checked her on the street, are they now marked for death?) I thought it was kind of weird that she’s not like…focused on the fact that her hallucinations have extended to two people and another person dying. She’s still convinced Caliban is a figment of her imagination even after she sees this happen, and Caliban explains to her that he couldn’t save her because there’s some type of contract with her that forbids him from doing anything under her roof without her permission. But she still gets mad and banishes him, and now he can’t come back, and now she’s like, but wait, no, I didn’t mean it. Thus begins the search for Caliban.
Now, I could sit here and outline the rest of the book, but I won't because it's so boring, and nothing of substance really happens. So, to summarize. Marlow searches for Caliban fruitlessly for months and finally makes some progress when she decides to go to the house of the guy who tried to kill her and finds a parasitic entity that she continuously calls a Cheshire Cat. then Silas, the angel, shows up to save her again. Silas maybe wants to fuck Marlow, I can't tell. He waffles between abandoning Marlow to die and stalking her and her mom to force Marlow to bond with him for no seeming reason at all. Everyone and their mom wants Marlow to join their religion, and I don't know what the fuck makes her so special. Marlow is such a popular author that everyone recognizes her name, reveres her, fawns over her, and has multiple copies of her two books in their offices. She's so good that she inspired millions to switch religions. This book was so exhausting to read because it was just about how amazing Marlow is LMFAO. I'm pretty sure they even try to say she's the reincarnation of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. Like....wow.
Marlow goes to Hell with Fauna to escape bonding with Silas, where they meet a literal stolen character design. this guy
(my original review has these images but I am an idiot and don't know how to post them so instead I'll share the links)
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860981i/35597445._SY540_.jpg
Don't believe me? here's the commissioned character art.
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860929i/35597423._SY540_.jpg
Anyway, his name is Azrames and he and Fauna are long time lovers and they go and bone while Marlow is in the next room and Marlow fucking masturbates to the sounds of them boning. So...I was forced to read about that, and I hated it. And then, at the end of the book, five chapters before it's over, we learn the bad guy who's been holding Caliban captive the entire time is a fertility goddess. Just out of nowhere. No mention of it previously. So, no one tells Marlow the actual plan, and instead, they send her into this fertility clinic the goddess is working out of and have her pretend to want to get pregnant. So the goddess drugs her without her consent and puts her in a room full of half-naked men, hot stereotypes from every ethnicity, while she's SUPER horny. One of the doctors tells her that 'mixed babies are all the rage right now'. The men all tell her how hot and amazing she is and how lucky they are for the chance to get to fuck her. Then after she chooses one of them, she grinds all over him while he just stands there, then they take him out and bring Caliban in and decide he'll fuck her instead. I just wanna point out that this, all of this, would be rape. Marlow didn't consent to being drugged, and if she didn't know who Caliban was, they basically just took the guy she "agreed" to have sex with away and brought in one she didn't agree to for no reason whatsoever. It doesn't matter that she's saying yes to it; she is drugged. She can't consent. Anyway, Caliban sticks his dick in Marlow and just leaves it there, unmoving, and then makes out with the fertility goddess before stabbing her in the heart and cutting off her head, even though five chapters earlier, they said it's super hard to kill a god. I'm just...wow.
Marlow gets taken back to Fauna's apartment by Silas while Caliban and Azrames are stuck fighting more Cheshire Cat demon children that I imagine look like the spider baby from Toy Story. Marlow is still high, so she's putting the moves on Fauna. She's kissing her throat, rubbing her thigh, trying to suck on her fingers. Let me tell you rn, if one of my friends showed up at my place high af doing this shit to me, I'd be livid. Because I guarantee you, Marlow will not apologize for doing any of this to Fauna.
Fauna tells Marlow that they can be sunflowers. The book ends.
I will read the next one because I like to suffer, but...I hated this. I give it 2 stars because the writing is better than TNAIM, but it was not a hit for me at all.
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writing. The writing in The Deer and the Dragon is miles better than in The Night and its Moon. It's still not good, but it's better if that tells you anything. The first-person POV mixed with modern-day speak works so much better for Piper's capabilities. It was much easier to get through, but it was still a huge slog for me. Honestly, what are the editors at Bloom even doing? There were still way too many typos and sentences with missing words. Piper still misuses the word dredges after using it in THREE(+?) BOOKS. HOW DO YOU STILL NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DREDGES AND DREGS? Dregs are the sediment of a liquid, so what's at the bottom of your coffee cup. Dredge is when they scoop up mud from the bottom of a river. TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. The word broach is also misused in this book TWELVE times, and it's PART OF THE CENTRAL PLOT OF THE BOOK. You mean to use BROOCH, PIPER. They're pronounced the same, but they mean two different things. Again, what the hell are the editors at Bloom doing?
characters Really, the only character I can talk about is Marlow because this book is just about Marlow and how amazing, special, perfect, and genius Marlow is. I fucking hate Marlow. If I ever met Marlow in real life, I would beat her up. Marlow is the most unlikable person ever. The story opens up with her on a date with a guy she's not interested in and can't remember his name; when she gets it wrong, and he corrects her, she continues to call him the wrong name all the way to the end of the book. She mentally berates him for mixing wasabi and soy sauce and cannot let it go. She’s also an AWFUL friend. It seems like her friend's only real purpose is to support her and tell her how amazing she is. She never bothers to make plans with them or inform them about anything that’s happening in her life. When she goes missing for a good chunk of the book, and they're blowing up her phone worried about her, she doesn't even bother to call them to calm them down. She doesn't think about them at all. She's far more concerned with herself and finding her imaginary boyfriend, who she only just decided was real. Her editor tells her she's at risk of losing her job if Marlow doesn't deliver her work or update her on what's happening, and Marlow just...doesn't care. She's like, 'No excuse I can give will be enough, so I'm just not going to say anything at all because I'm afraid of confrontation'. Grow the fuck up?? Her friend Nia only became her friend because she obsessively messaged her on social media until Marlow 'gave in', and now they're family? Somehow? Yet Marlow doesn't think about Nia once or bothers to comfort her when Nia has to call Marlow's abusive mom to ensure Marlow isn't dead. Kirby has allegedly been Marlow's friend since childhood, but does Kirby know anything about Caliban at all? Does Nia? Does Marlow tell her friends anything? If they know about the abuse her mom put her through, do they know how that abuse started? When Fauna shows up and freaks out over liking Kirby’s name so much, Marlow takes it upon herself to tell Fauna the story of Kirby’s name, scornfully informing Fauna that Kirby isn’t their real name the second Fauna expresses interest in it. (Like what, are you jealous that Fauna likes Kirby’s name, you fucking insecure freak??) The story revolves solely around something traumatic that happened to Marlow and how she and Kirby sat and played Super Smash Bros. Kirby liked their character so much that they adopted the name. Which…okay, choosing the name because you liked a video game character, okay, fine. But the whole story preceding this was so unnecessary and just made Marlow come off as suuuuch a whiny baby. “Oh, you want to know about my friend’s name? Well, first, let me preface it with this long woe-is-me story all about ME before I tell you how they chose their name because basically everything revolves around me.”
The way Marlow talks about rejection is so juvenile. You're in your thirties girls, get over it. Life is full of rejections. Someone telling you they didn't to play with you when you were eight years old isn't something you should form your whole life around. Like Marlow doesn't want kids because she doesn't want them to face rejection. Oh my god, Marlow. I also can't empathize with her trauma with her mom at all because I feel like I didn't really see much of it. I'm sure some of the things she says might hit with other people, but I wanted an actual flashback of a super intense fight or conversation instead of an overview of what happened.
plot. It took a while to get to the actual plot. About 100 pages in before things start really happening. I would’ve liked a little more exposition on Marlow’s relationship with Caliban at the beginning of the book. I get that some of the reveals needed to come more towards the end, but I kind of wish that maybe the fox had spoken to Marlow, too, which would’ve helped with why she’s so sure she’s insane. Foxes don’t talk! In all honesty, I wish this story had been restructured entirely. I think it would've been substantially better if we'd started out in Marlow's childhood. We can see how her day to day life was before Caliban ever appeared, how things were with her mom, who can also see through the veil. Maybe she notices some strange things about her mom that she just brushes off, which she later sees in herself and understands why her mom responded that way. Then something actually traumatic happens instead of some little kids not letting Marlow play with them, instigating her starting to see Caliban. I also would've liked to see flashbacks to Marlow's previous lives. While she's busy trying to convince herself Caliban isn't real, those flashbacks would add to her thinking she's losing her grip on reality. Maybe she'll be doing something innocent, like washing the dishes, and then suddenly, she sees herself standing in the middle of a raging battle, wearing long, elaborate robes. Do you see what I'm saying? This could've been cool! Instead, I had to read about Marlow jerking off about herself for 600 pages.
At some point, Caliban shows up to Marlow looking like a human. She's a teenager at this point, but they eventually start sleeping together, and like...idk something about that feels icky to me. It feels like grooming. Because he's clearly thousands of years old, he probably stays the same age while she's a teenager. What age did he wait for her to turn before their relationship turned sexual? Also, she doesn't even think he's real, and he does nothing to convince her that he is. Yeah....just no thanks. I'm good. Marlow tells Caliban when she's 21, she doesn’t want to see him anymore, so she literally physically cannot see him, but she can hear and feel him, and he still shows up, and like they keep having sex. So she’s just having sex with her imaginary demon friend for like five years before she’s finally like, all right, this is weird; maybe we should stop. And then she immediately regrets that when he stops showing up and then the rest of the book finally happens.
We also get flashbacks to when Marlow first starts escorting, and tbh, I hated this depiction of sex work. I keep hoping since Piper claims to be an advocate for sex work and is a former SWer that, we might get some actual depth to this plot. Maybe learn how Marlow was able to mold herself into the person she needed to be for each client, how she’s able to play people, etc. But no. She meets some random girl in a foreign country where she’s teaching English to children, and the girl is like, OMG, you’re too pretty to BE A TEACHER. COME HANG OUT ON MY YACHT. Now, I’m going to be so real. I feel like any woman with a speck of intelligence in their brain would have red flags going off right about now. If a random woman I met in a foreign country invited me to her yacht five minutes after meeting me, I’d immediately assume this woman was about to try and murder me or kidnap me or traffick me or something. But not Marlow. She is like fuck it, why not. She flies on over to wherever this yacht is(literally, she has to get on a plane and fly there) and makes some new besties who introduce her to the wonderfully glamorous non-dangerous life of escorting, where they hand her clients and set up the appointments for her and blah blah blah(also, wanna point out that Marlow even tries to say that she built this sex work empire herself. bitch no you didn't. it was all handed to you). I don’t feel like I really need to go further about why this is a really poor, dangerous rose-colored glasses-type depiction of sex work. It’s just not the reality.
Flash forward five years later, and Marlow is now a top-selling author writing about South African folklore as a white woman, trying to date other men, still having sex with her imaginary friend, calling her nonbinary friend a horse girl, the usual. Her escort pals are nowhere to be seen, and we have no clue what happened to them. We never hear from them again; they just vanish once Marlow gets what she wants from them, just like Nia and Kirby vanish once Marlow finds Fauna and Azrames. One day, Marlow’s at a book signing and sees the ONE bad client she had(because in all the years/months fucking strange men you meet in a foreign country, only one time does it go bad. okay, sure) He somehow finds where she lives, breaks into her home, and tries to murder her. An angel shows up and murders him instead, and then Caliban finally reveals his face and explains to Marlow that he has marked everyone who’s ever wronged her. (Wronged her in what way, tho. Like if someone accidentally shoulder-checked her on the street, are they now marked for death?) I thought it was kind of weird that she’s not like…focused on the fact that her hallucinations have extended to two people and another person dying. She’s still convinced Caliban is a figment of her imagination even after she sees this happen, and Caliban explains to her that he couldn’t save her because there’s some type of contract with her that forbids him from doing anything under her roof without her permission. But she still gets mad and banishes him, and now he can’t come back, and now she’s like, but wait, no, I didn’t mean it. Thus begins the search for Caliban.
Now, I could sit here and outline the rest of the book, but I won't because it's so boring, and nothing of substance really happens. So, to summarize. Marlow searches for Caliban fruitlessly for months and finally makes some progress when she decides to go to the house of the guy who tried to kill her and finds a parasitic entity that she continuously calls a Cheshire Cat. then Silas, the angel, shows up to save her again. Silas maybe wants to fuck Marlow, I can't tell. He waffles between abandoning Marlow to die and stalking her and her mom to force Marlow to bond with him for no seeming reason at all. Everyone and their mom wants Marlow to join their religion, and I don't know what the fuck makes her so special. Marlow is such a popular author that everyone recognizes her name, reveres her, fawns over her, and has multiple copies of her two books in their offices. She's so good that she inspired millions to switch religions. This book was so exhausting to read because it was just about how amazing Marlow is LMFAO. I'm pretty sure they even try to say she's the reincarnation of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. Like....wow.
Marlow goes to Hell with Fauna to escape bonding with Silas, where they meet a literal stolen character design. this guy
(my original review has these images but I am an idiot and don't know how to post them so instead I'll share the links)
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860981i/35597445._SY540_.jpg
Don't believe me? here's the commissioned character art.
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860929i/35597423._SY540_.jpg
Anyway, his name is Azrames and he and Fauna are long time lovers and they go and bone while Marlow is in the next room and Marlow fucking masturbates to the sounds of them boning. So...I was forced to read about that, and I hated it. And then, at the end of the book, five chapters before it's over, we learn the bad guy who's been holding Caliban captive the entire time is a fertility goddess. Just out of nowhere. No mention of it previously. So, no one tells Marlow the actual plan, and instead, they send her into this fertility clinic the goddess is working out of and have her pretend to want to get pregnant. So the goddess drugs her without her consent and puts her in a room full of half-naked men, hot stereotypes from every ethnicity, while she's SUPER horny. One of the doctors tells her that 'mixed babies are all the rage right now'. The men all tell her how hot and amazing she is and how lucky they are for the chance to get to fuck her. Then after she chooses one of them, she grinds all over him while he just stands there, then they take him out and bring Caliban in and decide he'll fuck her instead. I just wanna point out that this, all of this, would be rape. Marlow didn't consent to being drugged, and if she didn't know who Caliban was, they basically just took the guy she "agreed" to have sex with away and brought in one she didn't agree to for no reason whatsoever. It doesn't matter that she's saying yes to it; she is drugged. She can't consent. Anyway, Caliban sticks his dick in Marlow and just leaves it there, unmoving, and then makes out with the fertility goddess before stabbing her in the heart and cutting off her head, even though five chapters earlier, they said it's super hard to kill a god. I'm just...wow.
Marlow gets taken back to Fauna's apartment by Silas while Caliban and Azrames are stuck fighting more Cheshire Cat demon children that I imagine look like the spider baby from Toy Story. Marlow is still high, so she's putting the moves on Fauna. She's kissing her throat, rubbing her thigh, trying to suck on her fingers. Let me tell you rn, if one of my friends showed up at my place high af doing this shit to me, I'd be livid. Because I guarantee you, Marlow will not apologize for doing any of this to Fauna.
Fauna tells Marlow that they can be sunflowers. The book ends.
I will read the next one because I like to suffer, but...I hated this. I give it 2 stars because the writing is better than TNAIM, but it was not a hit for me at all.
2024.06.09 15:19 Myahtah Cat not eating and smacking her lips when she smells food after throwing up
Yesterday morning, I fed my cat a wet food she typically doesn’t like but will eat some of it if I also add on some of her favorite toppers. She ate a couple of the toppers and small bites of the wet food and walked away. It seemed a little unusual but sometimes she will only eat a little bit and then finishes it later on.
Later on she starts howling and followed by that she threw up white foamy liquid. a good amount of it too. After that, she kept howling but didn’t throw up. She rarely ever throws up like that unless she accidentally eats the end of a toy.
After all that, she won’t eat and all we feed her is wet food so she doesn’t really drink water. I plan on taking her to the emergency vet this afternoon if it continues.
She smacks her lips whenever I bring this basic baby food near her or any other food. She seemed perfectly fine yesterday morning until she threw up.
We checked her mouth but couldn’t find anything obvious stuck in there. Could she have had an empty stomach which caused her to throw up and now has been nauseous since then?
TLDR: Cat didn’t eat much of her breakfast yesterday, threw up mostly clear foamy liquid, and hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink since. She also smacks her lips around food.
submitted by Myahtah to CATHELP [link] [comments]
Later on she starts howling and followed by that she threw up white foamy liquid. a good amount of it too. After that, she kept howling but didn’t throw up. She rarely ever throws up like that unless she accidentally eats the end of a toy.
After all that, she won’t eat and all we feed her is wet food so she doesn’t really drink water. I plan on taking her to the emergency vet this afternoon if it continues.
She smacks her lips whenever I bring this basic baby food near her or any other food. She seemed perfectly fine yesterday morning until she threw up.
We checked her mouth but couldn’t find anything obvious stuck in there. Could she have had an empty stomach which caused her to throw up and now has been nauseous since then?
TLDR: Cat didn’t eat much of her breakfast yesterday, threw up mostly clear foamy liquid, and hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink since. She also smacks her lips around food.
2024.06.09 15:17 ImM3llow 26 [M4F] USA / Anywhere / Online. Free Golden Retriever energy BF, let me love you❤️
Edit: DO NOT message me a simple hi or hello, with no information about you, Put some effort in to your message like i have, come on. Day+Attempt#205
Hello everyone, Thank you for taking the time to read, I know its long, I know - I know. But its worth the read, Trust me. I appreciate you immensely.
Here's a bit about me,
My name is Jay, I live on the East coast of the US. I'm looking for love - like everyone else on here.., but you may not believe or even be doubtful that I've never had a GF before with me being 26, but its true. I'm simply just not willing to "be with" just anyone and I'm very picky. I want us to be a match, more than just have similar things in common.
One thing I have always been told is that I'm a "Real Catch, I'd be extremely lucky to have someone like you" - WELL THEN TAKE ME. I'M FREE. LOL.
About me:
Physically -
~I'm a semi-tall guy, around 5'10.
~I'm thin but muscular.
~I have dirty blonde/ brown hair.
~Changing colored eyes.
~A voice nice enough to melt all your safeguards and get right into your heart and weak spots.
~I do not have any tattoos or piercings. Though I would like to get some eventually.
If you'd like to see a picture of me just ask and I'll show you - IF I may see you as well, I simply just don't want a picture of me out there for anyone to see.
-If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask.
Otherwise -
~I do have 3 pet bunnies I would be more than happy to show you, they are extremely cute.
~I'm a very honest and down to earth guy.
~I'm very patient and easy going.
~I'm very curious and inquisitive. I will try to ask everything I can to learn all about you haha.
~I'm Very VERY Kind & Caring, I will probably ask how you are feeling a bajillion times a day, simply out of care for you.
~I can get pretty clingy, and will always want your attention and to be talking with you. If i have someone im interested in i wont want to talk to anyone else🤷♂️
~I'm very trustworthy - you can confide in me, and entrust your deepest secrets and I wont tell a soul.
~I'm a HUGE hopeless romantic, im old fashioned and will always try to impress you.
- I'm, a BIG softie even though I may look a smol bit intimidating, but I'd do just about anything to see you smile or laugh. And yes.., I do mean anything.
~I'm a big goof - I will get up to some silly shenanigans ALL the time, I will crack dumb jokes and send you memes and tik toks just to make you happy, even if its from across the room I'd wait to see your reaction lol.
~I'm extremely loyal, and would never even think of cheating.
~I will cook for you, and clean up too, even around the house, I'm very self productive and don't ask for much. Just don't forget to kiss the cook.
~I'd also love to just cuddle up and watch a movie or read a book together, anything to get us closer. Id try to take you out on dates whenever possible haha. I have a million SUPER romantic date ideas I have but have never had anyone interested enough in me to take out. Here's your chance ;)
~I will always want to share stuff I find interesting with you, and try to share every moment of every day with you. I'm not looking for someone who can only talk for a small amount of time, I want someone who's willing to put in all the effort I put into them back into me, it goes both ways. If I'm "with" someone you are my TOP priority nobody and nothing else would be. You would be the only person I'd truly want to talk to, so rest assured I would NEVER cheat, even more so because no one is interested in me - Hence why I'm here hahaha.
I'm sure there is more to me than this snippet but I cant think of more at the moment haha, so get to know me and find out more about me.
Some of my interests are: Engineering- I'm a nerd. I admit it. I love being technical and hands on, I love building things. All kinds of things, from furniture, machinery, and reverse engineering anything I find. I love learning how things work and trying to improve things.
Music - I prefer music with a very fast pace, or with some very meaningful lyrics I can relate to. I love to sing along to music and songs that have a deep meaning behind it I can sympathize with makes it all the better. Some bands I like are: Bad Omens, Beartooth, Demon Hunter, MIW, I9K - The list goes on. I'm a bit of a metalhead unfortunately.
TV Shows & Movies - I love watching shows, and I'd love to stream some shows and have some E-dates with you, to get to know you, or if you are close to me, maybe we could do it in person. Some shows I like or more of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Comedy, Action, stuff like: National Treasure, Halo, BattleBots, Rick and Morty, AHS, Anything Marvel or DC, The Witcher, Wednesday, The Sandman, The Magicians, The Umbrella Academy, ETC.
Gaming - Yes yes I know, Basic guy likes basic stuff. But gaming has been a thing for me since forever. I know most of you wont care or want to hear that, but I'll leave out the specifics on this part unless you are interested in that, MEGA Bonus points if you are.
Here's a lists of Cons to dating me-
~I'm not Ryan Reynolds. Disappointing, I know.
~I will fight you on what goes on pizza lol.
~I'm not rich.., Yet.
~I can't pronounce Worcestershire.
~I'm slightly forgetful, but with good reasoning.
~(Not really a con but- some might disagree) I still have ALL of my firsts, Do with that what you will c:
~I've got an endless pile of love and affection and no one to give it to! What a dilemma! Help me fix it?
Other than that I'll save the rest for a bit more of getting to know each other.
Here's a bit of what I'm looking in you:
~Preferably someone with lots of free time, and loves to chit chat. I'm seriously not interested in getting 1 message a day. Though I understand people get busy, I personally am not willing to try to learn about you and form something with 7 responses a week. Effort gets reciprocated and I appreciate the time you put in me.
~Physically: -I’m not personally attracted to anyone who’s “curvy/ chubby”, I apologize. Not a shallow thing, I just dont have the attraction chemical in my brain for that, I’m sorry. -If you’re shorter than me, thats a plus to me. -I love dimples, if you have those when you smile, bonus points 😊 - I’m not sure what else to put.., but as for nsfw wise find out😂
~I'm a sucker for a different accent other than American, and if you have an Posh English accent you have already won my heart.
~I'm also only really looking for someone within the ages of 18-35. I don't want anyone old enough to be my mom lol.
~I'd prefer (But not a must) people NOT on the other side of the world, as other time zones SUCK. I don't expect to find anyone who also has never had a boyfriend either, but that would be a real plus. I also don't mind a LDR, but I don't want that forever. But it gives us time to get to know each other.
But as for attributes I'm looking for in you:
~Someone who is above all else very very Loyal and would never cheat.
~Someone who is Honest, and will tell me the truth over a little white lie.
~Someone who is Kind & Caring, who'd constantly check on me, and accept me for who I am & help me improve day to day.
~Someone who is trustworthy, and I can count on to keep my secrets safe, or even just help me remember things.., I do tend to be somewhat forgetful.
~Someone who is very Patient and wants to see me succeed and will help me do so, just like I would help you. Even if its small day to day things, I would appreciate your company ANY time.
~I want a partner who is Affectionate, can reciprocate, and loves to snuggle and talk about their day, and what their interests are, and what makes them happy.
~Someone who can admit they get clingy or overprotective is a bonus.
~A partner with good communication is key, if something wrong we have to be able to talk about it.
~A partner who likes to game with me or at least watch me play would be a plus but not a requirement.
~Someone with a good sense of humor and like to joke around, I am a big goof after all and I love to joke around. Sending memes is always appreciated and good to cheer people up too!
~I'd prefer someone with the same music taste, but not a requirement, Plus if you wouldn't mind if I send you love songs occasionally that's a bonus, or sending me some back haha.
~Being willing to voice call is a must, Texting forever is not the way to go. I have to know what your voice is like haha, later on we can video call if you are comfortable with that. I prefer chatting on Discord because Reddit messages of any kind I'm sure you know are unreliable and sucky in general. So please send me your discord if you have one :)
~I would LOVE to see picture of your pets if you have any. Bonus points if it includes your beautiful self haha.
I'm sure there is more I'm looking for but I cant think of it right now haha, I will have to edit this when I think of it.
Please tell me about you as an opener! I told you a good bit about me, now its your turn haha.
Tell me some things like -
~What's your name?
~Where are you from?
~How old are you?
~What are your hobbies / interests?
~What about my post interested you?
~Where is my TV Remote?!
~Selfie? Pet pics?
~Hit me with your best joke or meme :)
~What's your favorite candy?
I'd LOVE to get to know you, and see where things go.
But yeah, I know it was long I'm sorry haha. Send me a message and lets get to know each other! :)
submitted by ImM3llow to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]
Hello everyone, Thank you for taking the time to read, I know its long, I know - I know. But its worth the read, Trust me. I appreciate you immensely.
Here's a bit about me,
My name is Jay, I live on the East coast of the US. I'm looking for love - like everyone else on here.., but you may not believe or even be doubtful that I've never had a GF before with me being 26, but its true. I'm simply just not willing to "be with" just anyone and I'm very picky. I want us to be a match, more than just have similar things in common.
One thing I have always been told is that I'm a "Real Catch, I'd be extremely lucky to have someone like you" - WELL THEN TAKE ME. I'M FREE. LOL.
About me:
Physically -
~I'm a semi-tall guy, around 5'10.
~I'm thin but muscular.
~I have dirty blonde/ brown hair.
~Changing colored eyes.
~A voice nice enough to melt all your safeguards and get right into your heart and weak spots.
~I do not have any tattoos or piercings. Though I would like to get some eventually.
If you'd like to see a picture of me just ask and I'll show you - IF I may see you as well, I simply just don't want a picture of me out there for anyone to see.
-If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask.
Otherwise -
~I do have 3 pet bunnies I would be more than happy to show you, they are extremely cute.
~I'm a very honest and down to earth guy.
~I'm very patient and easy going.
~I'm very curious and inquisitive. I will try to ask everything I can to learn all about you haha.
~I'm Very VERY Kind & Caring, I will probably ask how you are feeling a bajillion times a day, simply out of care for you.
~I can get pretty clingy, and will always want your attention and to be talking with you. If i have someone im interested in i wont want to talk to anyone else🤷♂️
~I'm very trustworthy - you can confide in me, and entrust your deepest secrets and I wont tell a soul.
~I'm a HUGE hopeless romantic, im old fashioned and will always try to impress you.
- I'm, a BIG softie even though I may look a smol bit intimidating, but I'd do just about anything to see you smile or laugh. And yes.., I do mean anything.
~I'm a big goof - I will get up to some silly shenanigans ALL the time, I will crack dumb jokes and send you memes and tik toks just to make you happy, even if its from across the room I'd wait to see your reaction lol.
~I'm extremely loyal, and would never even think of cheating.
~I will cook for you, and clean up too, even around the house, I'm very self productive and don't ask for much. Just don't forget to kiss the cook.
~I'd also love to just cuddle up and watch a movie or read a book together, anything to get us closer. Id try to take you out on dates whenever possible haha. I have a million SUPER romantic date ideas I have but have never had anyone interested enough in me to take out. Here's your chance ;)
~I will always want to share stuff I find interesting with you, and try to share every moment of every day with you. I'm not looking for someone who can only talk for a small amount of time, I want someone who's willing to put in all the effort I put into them back into me, it goes both ways. If I'm "with" someone you are my TOP priority nobody and nothing else would be. You would be the only person I'd truly want to talk to, so rest assured I would NEVER cheat, even more so because no one is interested in me - Hence why I'm here hahaha.
I'm sure there is more to me than this snippet but I cant think of more at the moment haha, so get to know me and find out more about me.
Some of my interests are: Engineering- I'm a nerd. I admit it. I love being technical and hands on, I love building things. All kinds of things, from furniture, machinery, and reverse engineering anything I find. I love learning how things work and trying to improve things.
Music - I prefer music with a very fast pace, or with some very meaningful lyrics I can relate to. I love to sing along to music and songs that have a deep meaning behind it I can sympathize with makes it all the better. Some bands I like are: Bad Omens, Beartooth, Demon Hunter, MIW, I9K - The list goes on. I'm a bit of a metalhead unfortunately.
TV Shows & Movies - I love watching shows, and I'd love to stream some shows and have some E-dates with you, to get to know you, or if you are close to me, maybe we could do it in person. Some shows I like or more of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Comedy, Action, stuff like: National Treasure, Halo, BattleBots, Rick and Morty, AHS, Anything Marvel or DC, The Witcher, Wednesday, The Sandman, The Magicians, The Umbrella Academy, ETC.
Gaming - Yes yes I know, Basic guy likes basic stuff. But gaming has been a thing for me since forever. I know most of you wont care or want to hear that, but I'll leave out the specifics on this part unless you are interested in that, MEGA Bonus points if you are.
Here's a lists of Cons to dating me-
~I'm not Ryan Reynolds. Disappointing, I know.
~I will fight you on what goes on pizza lol.
~I'm not rich.., Yet.
~I can't pronounce Worcestershire.
~I'm slightly forgetful, but with good reasoning.
~(Not really a con but- some might disagree) I still have ALL of my firsts, Do with that what you will c:
~I've got an endless pile of love and affection and no one to give it to! What a dilemma! Help me fix it?
Other than that I'll save the rest for a bit more of getting to know each other.
Here's a bit of what I'm looking in you:
~Preferably someone with lots of free time, and loves to chit chat. I'm seriously not interested in getting 1 message a day. Though I understand people get busy, I personally am not willing to try to learn about you and form something with 7 responses a week. Effort gets reciprocated and I appreciate the time you put in me.
~Physically: -I’m not personally attracted to anyone who’s “curvy/ chubby”, I apologize. Not a shallow thing, I just dont have the attraction chemical in my brain for that, I’m sorry. -If you’re shorter than me, thats a plus to me. -I love dimples, if you have those when you smile, bonus points 😊 - I’m not sure what else to put.., but as for nsfw wise find out😂
~I'm a sucker for a different accent other than American, and if you have an Posh English accent you have already won my heart.
~I'm also only really looking for someone within the ages of 18-35. I don't want anyone old enough to be my mom lol.
~I'd prefer (But not a must) people NOT on the other side of the world, as other time zones SUCK. I don't expect to find anyone who also has never had a boyfriend either, but that would be a real plus. I also don't mind a LDR, but I don't want that forever. But it gives us time to get to know each other.
But as for attributes I'm looking for in you:
~Someone who is above all else very very Loyal and would never cheat.
~Someone who is Honest, and will tell me the truth over a little white lie.
~Someone who is Kind & Caring, who'd constantly check on me, and accept me for who I am & help me improve day to day.
~Someone who is trustworthy, and I can count on to keep my secrets safe, or even just help me remember things.., I do tend to be somewhat forgetful.
~Someone who is very Patient and wants to see me succeed and will help me do so, just like I would help you. Even if its small day to day things, I would appreciate your company ANY time.
~I want a partner who is Affectionate, can reciprocate, and loves to snuggle and talk about their day, and what their interests are, and what makes them happy.
~Someone who can admit they get clingy or overprotective is a bonus.
~A partner with good communication is key, if something wrong we have to be able to talk about it.
~A partner who likes to game with me or at least watch me play would be a plus but not a requirement.
~Someone with a good sense of humor and like to joke around, I am a big goof after all and I love to joke around. Sending memes is always appreciated and good to cheer people up too!
~I'd prefer someone with the same music taste, but not a requirement, Plus if you wouldn't mind if I send you love songs occasionally that's a bonus, or sending me some back haha.
~Being willing to voice call is a must, Texting forever is not the way to go. I have to know what your voice is like haha, later on we can video call if you are comfortable with that. I prefer chatting on Discord because Reddit messages of any kind I'm sure you know are unreliable and sucky in general. So please send me your discord if you have one :)
~I would LOVE to see picture of your pets if you have any. Bonus points if it includes your beautiful self haha.
I'm sure there is more I'm looking for but I cant think of it right now haha, I will have to edit this when I think of it.
Please tell me about you as an opener! I told you a good bit about me, now its your turn haha.
Tell me some things like -
~What's your name?
~Where are you from?
~How old are you?
~What are your hobbies / interests?
~What about my post interested you?
~Where is my TV Remote?!
~Selfie? Pet pics?
~Hit me with your best joke or meme :)
~What's your favorite candy?
I'd LOVE to get to know you, and see where things go.
But yeah, I know it was long I'm sorry haha. Send me a message and lets get to know each other! :)
2024.06.09 15:16 LonelyTechnician-27 26/M UK/Europe - Cuddly nerd looking for a long term thing with someone cool!
Hey!
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
submitted by LonelyTechnician-27 to MeetNewPeopleHere [link] [comments]
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
- Preferably someone in the UK (especially down in the South East), I can drive so basically anywhere in the country is fairly easy to get to.
- I don't mind if you're from abroad, but please speak good English, and preferably be from somewhere with not too big of a time zone difference, unless you're awake at odd hours of course!
- Physically I don't really have a "type". Anything from normal up to thicc with 5 c's is fine by me. I'm totally not bothered by height, even if somehow you're taller than me. I would say I have a thing for more "alt" types though so if that's you then you should definitely message! (Although you totally should even if you're not).
- Overall I'm just looking for someone kind, caring, and non-judgemental who actually wants to talk to and spend time with me as much as I want to talk to and spend time with them.
2024.06.09 15:16 LonelyTechnician-27 26 [M4F] UK/Europe - Cuddly nerd looking for a long term thing with someone cool!
Hey!
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
submitted by LonelyTechnician-27 to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
- Preferably someone in the UK (especially down in the South East), I can drive so basically anywhere in the country is fairly easy to get to.
- I don't mind if you're from abroad, but please speak good English, and preferably be from somewhere with not too big of a time zone difference, unless you're awake at odd hours of course!
- Physically I don't really have a "type". Anything from normal up to thicc with 5 c's is fine by me. I'm totally not bothered by height, even if somehow you're taller than me. I would say I have a thing for more "alt" types though so if that's you then you should definitely message! (Although you totally should even if you're not).
- Overall I'm just looking for someone kind, caring, and non-judgemental who actually wants to talk to and spend time with me as much as I want to talk to and spend time with them.
2024.06.09 15:16 LonelyTechnician-27 26 [M4F] UK/Europe - Cuddly nerd looking for a long term thing with someone cool!
Hey!
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
submitted by LonelyTechnician-27 to r4r [link] [comments]
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;
- Preferably someone in the UK (especially down in the South East), I can drive so basically anywhere in the country is fairly easy to get to.
- I don't mind if you're from abroad, but please speak good English, and preferably be from somewhere with not too big of a time zone difference, unless you're awake at odd hours of course!
- Physically I don't really have a "type". Anything from normal up to thicc with 5 c's is fine by me. I'm totally not bothered by height, even if somehow you're taller than me. I would say I have a thing for more "alt" types though so if that's you then you should definitely message! (Although you totally should even if you're not).
- Overall I'm just looking for someone kind, caring, and non-judgemental who actually wants to talk to and spend time with me as much as I want to talk to and spend time with them.
2024.06.09 15:12 Jolima0725 Unpopular opinion: Reena lives on as a Hero
I have my own annoyances with the show (pacing and excessive focus on fake/ insignificant/ exaggerated characters), but at the core, the show IS about Reena. The fact that there can be so much discussion about the case, including on this sub, proves that Reena did not die in vain.
I’m the same age as Reena, and relatively from the same region (Pacific Northwest), but had never heard of this case until the Hulu show. I was bullied as well, and I can see so many ways in which Reena was like me in terms of wanting to fit in despite being a darker (i.e. not white) skin colo from a different background….BUT the difference is that she tried to directly fight back.
Reena’s legacy and memory lives on because she stood up to those c•nts, versus the “normal” advice we (the bullied recipients) get to “just wait until [we] are older and ‘karma’ comes around, sweetie” (irony is ‘karma’ also came around for them). It seems that her attempt to fight back was the catalyst for them to squash those attempts, and in turn be the POS’s that put everything in motion to show their true character in real life TO THIS DAY.
In other words, it could have been a swept-under-the-rug situation of late 90’s bullying, but instead those b*tches will FOREVER be known as the monsters they are, and have highlighted bullying culture because of Reena’s bravery in standing up against them.
submitted by Jolima0725 to UnderTheBridge [link] [comments]
I’m the same age as Reena, and relatively from the same region (Pacific Northwest), but had never heard of this case until the Hulu show. I was bullied as well, and I can see so many ways in which Reena was like me in terms of wanting to fit in despite being a darker (i.e. not white) skin colo from a different background….BUT the difference is that she tried to directly fight back.
Reena’s legacy and memory lives on because she stood up to those c•nts, versus the “normal” advice we (the bullied recipients) get to “just wait until [we] are older and ‘karma’ comes around, sweetie” (irony is ‘karma’ also came around for them). It seems that her attempt to fight back was the catalyst for them to squash those attempts, and in turn be the POS’s that put everything in motion to show their true character in real life TO THIS DAY.
In other words, it could have been a swept-under-the-rug situation of late 90’s bullying, but instead those b*tches will FOREVER be known as the monsters they are, and have highlighted bullying culture because of Reena’s bravery in standing up against them.
2024.06.09 15:11 SlotsAndStocks Hpv or hsv?
Hi,
I'm sharing this story in hopes someone might share some insight.
I've had some wart like clusters on the left side of my penis for some years now. They have never fully gone away. Sometimes this spot itches, and I scratch it intensely. Afterwards my skin breaks a bit and a slightly moist sore develops. This sore dries out within 1 day and heals fully in about 2-3 days. The little wart like things persist.
When the itching happens, i can see no liquid in the spots. Its the skin around it that creates the moist after scratching. I also have no flu like symptoms when this happens. The itching and sore forming always appears in the same spot.
Ive been to my doctor, who says it is most likely genital warts. I have a fear of it being hsv2.
Based on the above situation, does anyone have some insights on what it could be.
Ive added a link to show how the spot currently looks like. https://ibb.co/r6FCghD
submitted by SlotsAndStocks to STD [link] [comments]
I'm sharing this story in hopes someone might share some insight.
I've had some wart like clusters on the left side of my penis for some years now. They have never fully gone away. Sometimes this spot itches, and I scratch it intensely. Afterwards my skin breaks a bit and a slightly moist sore develops. This sore dries out within 1 day and heals fully in about 2-3 days. The little wart like things persist.
When the itching happens, i can see no liquid in the spots. Its the skin around it that creates the moist after scratching. I also have no flu like symptoms when this happens. The itching and sore forming always appears in the same spot.
Ive been to my doctor, who says it is most likely genital warts. I have a fear of it being hsv2.
Based on the above situation, does anyone have some insights on what it could be.
Ive added a link to show how the spot currently looks like. https://ibb.co/r6FCghD
2024.06.09 15:02 Smooth-Housing1979 Aitah?
(Before I began. Lot of comments say negative stuff, i want to say no stories are mine, they are sent to me and i post. I forget to say that. I wont be saying that on every story, it is in my biography, thank you, please be positive this is not my story, thank you)
AITAH for celebrating pride with a woman when I am a gay man?
I M32 have been dating my boyfriend Chris M30 for seven years, we both live together in a loft apartment with a cat named Bobby and a new addition to our family, our dog, Bella.
Every pride Chris and I like to go to the festival then go clubbing after. I've never been a fan of the festival or the clubbing as its never been the type for me.
I've gotten a lot of mean stuff said to me about not wanting to participate. Saying how I should appreciate I get to have pride and to be there for mu community. Chris really takes it seriously, even putting up lgbt flags in our home, pride stickers on our car and such. He treats it like its Christmas but for the month. I dont mind it as much as I know it makes him happy.
This year Chris wanted to take a different approach to Pride. After meeting some new friends Danny, Sam and Kabir, he was really influenced by them. The three of them are in what you'd call a poly relationship where the three of them date each other. I have nothing against that I'm just not interested in it to the point I wouldn't like to be in a poly relationship. Chris however has been so Influenced by them he's brought it up to me a couple times. I wouldn't even call myself jealous, I'd just see it as cheating.
Chris said for the club that we both act single and have fun. We've been with each other in each other's company for so long that I understand he wants to branch out and have fun, I just don't understand why he needs to act single for it.
Chris and I are planning on getting married in the future. There hasn't been any proposals yet- but it's been seven years now and we'd like to continue. So I understand that he wants to have some freedom before but I still dont get it completely.
I agreed on his idea to act single, knowing I'd probably just hang out with some friends for the night. Boy how things changed.
At the club, Chris wasn't the man I was with, he was like another person. Chris is like a very feminine man, wears only women clothes, makeup, heels, the whole show. Tonight, he wore skinny jeans and a white tee. It was a shock to the system, nevertheless I shrugged it off.
I can't lie when I say it was heartbreaking seeing him flirt with other men, Kissing them, hugging...it was too much. I decided to get some fresh air and head to the smoking area. There were a couple people smoking cigarettes and a few just standing around. That's when I started talking to this girl, she was a bit taller than me, which was cool as there's not many girls who are taller.
Her name was Jennifer but she insisted I call her Jenny. She showed me all her tattoos, the ones she did herself and the ones she got professionally done. I guess I could already tell but still, they were pretty dope.
As some time went on, she bought me a drink and asked if I was single. I was about to reply no when I had seen Chris with a man on his lap and another Kissing blow his chin. I replied yes, as did she. I had no intention of getting on Chris's level if that's what you'd think. Chris wanted this. I ended up making out with the girl, even going back to her place that night. After being with a man for so long it was a complete other feeling which I had forgotten.
I gave Chris a text before sleeping that night just to tell him I'd be home in the early morning. Which turned out to be wrong. I guess I was expecting Jenny to be already gone in the morning, yet i could smell the bacon and eggs in the kitchen. We had some breakfast then headed off to the town to get a smoothie.
After some time we said our goodbyes and I headed home. Chris wasn't awake yet when I had gotten in, must of had a lot to drink last night. I hurried into the kitchen and began to make some breakfast for him and our two pets.
When Chris woke up, I could tell he was having a hangover yet he stumbled into the kitchen with an angry look. He asked where I had been. Who I had gone with and all that. I simply replied that I went back to a woman's house. He seemed shocked and out of reality. I fixed him a cup of coffee, two sugars and no mixing- just as he likes it. He didn't even take a sip before he threw the cup at me, smashing it into peices.
"Thats your expensive turtle spotted mug Chris" I whispered as I began to pick up the peices. I've never seem him this angry. I quoted him on his ask for us to act single last night. He started to calm down after some time but was super angry that it was a woman. I guess he never knew I was bisexual, he seen it as a threat that I could leave him for a woman.
Aitah?
submitted by Smooth-Housing1979 to AITAH [link] [comments]
AITAH for celebrating pride with a woman when I am a gay man?
I M32 have been dating my boyfriend Chris M30 for seven years, we both live together in a loft apartment with a cat named Bobby and a new addition to our family, our dog, Bella.
Every pride Chris and I like to go to the festival then go clubbing after. I've never been a fan of the festival or the clubbing as its never been the type for me.
I've gotten a lot of mean stuff said to me about not wanting to participate. Saying how I should appreciate I get to have pride and to be there for mu community. Chris really takes it seriously, even putting up lgbt flags in our home, pride stickers on our car and such. He treats it like its Christmas but for the month. I dont mind it as much as I know it makes him happy.
This year Chris wanted to take a different approach to Pride. After meeting some new friends Danny, Sam and Kabir, he was really influenced by them. The three of them are in what you'd call a poly relationship where the three of them date each other. I have nothing against that I'm just not interested in it to the point I wouldn't like to be in a poly relationship. Chris however has been so Influenced by them he's brought it up to me a couple times. I wouldn't even call myself jealous, I'd just see it as cheating.
Chris said for the club that we both act single and have fun. We've been with each other in each other's company for so long that I understand he wants to branch out and have fun, I just don't understand why he needs to act single for it.
Chris and I are planning on getting married in the future. There hasn't been any proposals yet- but it's been seven years now and we'd like to continue. So I understand that he wants to have some freedom before but I still dont get it completely.
I agreed on his idea to act single, knowing I'd probably just hang out with some friends for the night. Boy how things changed.
At the club, Chris wasn't the man I was with, he was like another person. Chris is like a very feminine man, wears only women clothes, makeup, heels, the whole show. Tonight, he wore skinny jeans and a white tee. It was a shock to the system, nevertheless I shrugged it off.
I can't lie when I say it was heartbreaking seeing him flirt with other men, Kissing them, hugging...it was too much. I decided to get some fresh air and head to the smoking area. There were a couple people smoking cigarettes and a few just standing around. That's when I started talking to this girl, she was a bit taller than me, which was cool as there's not many girls who are taller.
Her name was Jennifer but she insisted I call her Jenny. She showed me all her tattoos, the ones she did herself and the ones she got professionally done. I guess I could already tell but still, they were pretty dope.
As some time went on, she bought me a drink and asked if I was single. I was about to reply no when I had seen Chris with a man on his lap and another Kissing blow his chin. I replied yes, as did she. I had no intention of getting on Chris's level if that's what you'd think. Chris wanted this. I ended up making out with the girl, even going back to her place that night. After being with a man for so long it was a complete other feeling which I had forgotten.
I gave Chris a text before sleeping that night just to tell him I'd be home in the early morning. Which turned out to be wrong. I guess I was expecting Jenny to be already gone in the morning, yet i could smell the bacon and eggs in the kitchen. We had some breakfast then headed off to the town to get a smoothie.
After some time we said our goodbyes and I headed home. Chris wasn't awake yet when I had gotten in, must of had a lot to drink last night. I hurried into the kitchen and began to make some breakfast for him and our two pets.
When Chris woke up, I could tell he was having a hangover yet he stumbled into the kitchen with an angry look. He asked where I had been. Who I had gone with and all that. I simply replied that I went back to a woman's house. He seemed shocked and out of reality. I fixed him a cup of coffee, two sugars and no mixing- just as he likes it. He didn't even take a sip before he threw the cup at me, smashing it into peices.
"Thats your expensive turtle spotted mug Chris" I whispered as I began to pick up the peices. I've never seem him this angry. I quoted him on his ask for us to act single last night. He started to calm down after some time but was super angry that it was a woman. I guess he never knew I was bisexual, he seen it as a threat that I could leave him for a woman.
Aitah?
2024.06.09 15:01 ibid-11962 Worldbuilding and Touring [Post Murtagh Christopher Paolini Q&A Wrap Up #10]
As discussed in the first post, this is my ongoing compilation of the remaining questions Christopher has answered online between August 1st 2023 and April 30th 2024 which I've not already covered in other compilations.
As always, questions are sorted by topic, and each Q&A is annotated with a bracketed source number. Links to every source used and to the other parts of this compilation will be provided in a comment below.
The previous post focused specifically on inspirations and other media. This installment will focus on Worldbuilding and Touring, how Christopher constructs his worlds, and how he goes about promoting them on tours. The topics aren't actually linked, but they both fill up around half a post and so are being joined here. The next and final post will focus on miscellaneous questions about the real world.
submitted by ibid-11962 to Eragon [link] [comments]
As always, questions are sorted by topic, and each Q&A is annotated with a bracketed source number. Links to every source used and to the other parts of this compilation will be provided in a comment below.
The previous post focused specifically on inspirations and other media. This installment will focus on Worldbuilding and Touring, how Christopher constructs his worlds, and how he goes about promoting them on tours. The topics aren't actually linked, but they both fill up around half a post and so are being joined here. The next and final post will focus on miscellaneous questions about the real world.
Worldbuilding
Creating Magic SystemsDid you have a research process when you were writing the Inheritance Cycle? I put a fair bit of thought into the story itself of the Inheritance Cycle, and then some general stuff as to the society and just kind of where things were in the world before writing it. I put a medium amount of thought into the magic system before I started writing, and then as I wrote the implications of it became much more apparent to me, and I really sort of dove deep into it. In retrospect, were I to create a fantasy world from scratch now, I would really put a lot of attention into that magic system and the society beforehand, just to have a good feel for that before I even start chapter one. I would put more restrictions on the magic too. I think the more restrictions, the more interesting, even the more realistic in some ways. [3]Creating Religions
If I were designing a magic system from scratch nowadays I would put way more restrictions on it because I find that the limitations are useful, I don't want the characters getting overpowered, but also just from a storytelling standpoint, incantations, rituals, spells, prayers, potions, all of those mechanical things are just kind of interesting and of course they give lots of opportunities for things to go wrong if you don't follow the correct steps. So I think if I were designing magic from scratch right now I'd put a lot of restrictions and rituals associated with it. So costs, more costs. [25]
What kind of hacks do you have to developing a magic system? Once I have a general idea of the setting, whether science fiction or fantasy, the first question I ask myself is how does it diverge from physics as we know it? Because that is a fundamental question that's going to determine what is possible in this world. It might determine what's possible with warfare, with politics, with industry, manufacturing, travel times, it could affect everything depending on what type of divergence you have. In the World of Eragon, the divergence is that living creatures have the ability to directly manipulate energy using their minds. The reason for that is kind of handwavy, although I have an explanation for it, but that is the divergence and then I tried to be as consistent and physically possible with it at every step of the way past that. When people play games you always get people who are looking how to exploit it. "What's the most I can get out of this game? What's the most I can do?" That's basic human nature. Science is a speedrunning nature I think. So the same sort of thing. You assume that if magic existed there's going to be someone sitting in their basement who's absolutely obsessive about it and is going to figure out every single advantage that that divergence gives them. And you have to be realistic and work that into your world and say "Well people aren't stupid. They are going to figure this out and use it in this way, and what are the implications, socially, physically, and everything else?" Once I have that then you can think about society and culture and everything else, but that basic physical difference from our reality is just to me fundamentally important to understand before I even begin to write. [25]
With standalones you're not dealing with continuity or what rule did you break or things like that. That's interesting, because I would say that writing a sequel for me is faster than writing a standalone. At least for me, the more I know the characters and the world, the faster, like I don't have to do the groundwork of creating a magic system, creating a society, creating the gods and the history. All that's done for me, so I can just slip into it like slipping on an old glove. [33]
A socio-political religion in your world helps drive characters or stories or die-hard fanatic characters forward. How do you go about developing those? Have the courage to let your characters actually believe the things that they are supposed to believe. If you look back historically people really did truly believe these different religions and different systems. Too often I think with modern stories we have people only giving lip service to the supposed belief and instead having very modern attitudes toward it which perhaps doesn't always work. That's understandable if you want a character to be relatable to a modern reader, but there are so many examples of interesting belief systems throughout the world. To me that's something fascinating to write about. But the main thing is just accept that when people truly believe something they're genuine about it and then you can follow that from a logical and storytelling standpoint. What I'd also say is, if you're writing about something that is very different from your own belief system, assuming it's not like completely evil, to try to approach it with a sense of charity. With the understanding that everyone is searching for meaning and understanding. I've always had a soft spot for the old television show Babylon 5, because although I don't believe that the creator J. Michael Straczynski is religious, he writes all of his characters with great sympathy and understanding, he's never cynical about it, and he's not putting up straw man arguments or criticizing any of the characters. He's like "They're searching for meaning. They're struggling with the great questions as we all do, and each one is trying to solve those questions in their own way." And I always really appreciated that he wasn't being cynical about it or really shallow. [25]Creating Languages
Did you think of the ancient language, not just as a mechanic, but also as a parable of our own language? I was thinking about how language itself feels like magic to me. You can write a story, you can convey information. Language in many ways is our greatest tool and makes us human along with, I would argue, our hands, our ability to manipulate objects and use actual tools. But one without the other wouldn't really work and wouldn't allow us to be a technological species. We could have language with no ability to handle tools, and then we wouldn't be what we are now. But I find language fascinating and I find the function of language incredibly interesting. And there is this idea in the real world going back to the beginning of time, that to name something is to understand it, and gives you a certain amount of power over it, whether that's a person or a physical object. And the ancient language is just taking that idea seriously. And I'm not the first author or tradition to do that, but is it a parallel? Is it a metaphor? I don't know if I'd go that far, but it definitely ties into the use of language and my ideas about it. What's crazy to me is there is a theoretical arrangement of words right now that would give us a massive breakthrough in science and physics. There's a theoretical arrangement of words that were I to write it or anyone else would influence how people think about the next presidential election to such a degree that it might actually changed the election. These are all theoretically possible and you can think of many many other things that you could do with language. We just lack the knowledge of what those arrangement of words are, and so we're constantly clawing our way toward new knowledge and new uses of language. [19]Creating Maps
The languages that you were playing around with in The Inheritance cycle, they were Germanic, Anglo Saxon based? The ancient language, the magical language, is based very strongly on Old Norse, which of course is Germanic or related to Old High German. The Dwarven language was invented pretty much from scratch although it is an agglutinative language like German is. And then the other languages have not appeared very much in the series. They're just little scraps here and there. To be clear, I am not a linguist, and I have not devoted the time and energy to developing these in a formal or rigorous way, the way that Tolkien did. Tolken was a linguist and that was his forte. I got far enough down that path while working on the Inheritance Cycle that I really began to appreciate how every word has a history and that history is inexorably tied to the history of the land. It's often said that Tolkien created Middle-earth just to explain his languages, as a setting for the languages. Which isn't entirely true, but there is truth to that. That's what I was encountering and I was realizing that I could spend 20 years, 10 years, just working on the languages and building this out. It might have been a worthwhile venture, but the tradeoff would have been no more books published during that time. I want to tell a story. [28]
What I would do these days, or what I did with other languages, is come up with a couple of words that sort of had a general feel that I liked and then extrapolating from those invented words, figuring out what consonants and vowels and clusters thereof that I wanted. Come up with some more sample words based off that and then start working out some grammar. Grammar is probably my weakest spot since at the time I wasn't really aware of non-English grammar systems and I've put some more attention in that since then. [34]
The language and culture that you describe in the books seem very real. How do you start inventing a language? You shamelessly steal from Germanic mythology and Scandinavian mythology, just like Tolkien did. But I'm no linguist, I did my best, I have a copy of the Nibelungen up on my shelf along with the Eddas, and I based one of my languages on Old Norse, which gave it a nice sound and feel. So the main thing is picking things that make sense for your world and then trying to be internally consistent. [2]
At what point in your writing process do you start creating the map? I've created the maps at different times in different books. At first I thought I didn't need a map because I thought that a good book should be perfectly understandable without a map. You shouldn't need to rely on anything outside of the text in order to enjoy it. And I still think that's generally true, but a map can add a lot. So for Eragon, I did it partway through the book. If I were to do a stand-alone fantasy novel, I would definitely want to work out the maps and stuff before writing it. [12]Creating Dragons
The map for Eragon, the original black and white map, I did about halfway or a third of the way into Eragon. My idea was, and I still kind of believe this, that a well-written book shouldn't need a map in order to understand the story. You should be able to keep your bearings just based off the text. What I ran into though was that I was getting lost in the world myself with the amount of places and things after a certain point. And so I drew a map. [34]
For me I think if you're creating something in the real world obviously that gives you certain constraints and certain advantages but if you're starting with something from scratch, I find creating a map right up front is really helpful because your story is not going to visit every square inch on your map so by filling in those other details on the map you're going to get more story ideas and also ideas for potential conflicts, travel distances. It all feeds into the realism of the story as well as potentially future stories. It's fun stuff. The downside is you could spend your whole life worldbuilding. There's a there's a book from World War Two called Islandia, and the guy just spent his whole life creating this island and its culture to the point of working out the actual layers of geography of stone in the island. I've never actually read the book, I don't know if it's any good, but I know it was fairly popular when it came out. [25]
What hacks do you have for for creating geography and points of interest within your world? When I was creating the map for Alagaësia I actually used a old National Geographic Atlas and traced over various coastlines and then distorted them and pasted on top of each other in order to get sort of a natural feeling coastline. Please don't compare the island of Vroengard to the outline of Greece. Please don't do that. And then you have Robin Hobb who just turned Alaska upside down for her map which I always love because I've lived in Alaska twice. I think she told me that she never actually expected the book to get published, but then she got stuck with that because everything was tied to the geography that she started with. [25]
I think that a good map ought to have lots of points of interest, and the tricky bit is, without getting so detailed that it becomes cluttered. You see that sometimes with real world maps, like atlases and stuff, where there's a ton of place names, city names, river names, road names. All of which are useful and necessary, but it can actually visually get in the way of the art, perhaps the artistic effect that you would want a fantasy map to have in a book or a movie or even a game. [12]
There are world generators that you can just click through. It's really easy nowadays with technology to build worlds just by snapping your fingers. Even with those tools, if you have the time and inclination, I think there is some benefit to redrawing or painting the maps in your own style. I don't know about you, I love seeing when the maps are from the author themselves. I remember Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams. Tad did all the maps himself, and I love that. Even if it's imperfect or a little amateurish it just gives it a really nice feel. I love Tolkien's original art for the same reason. [25]
You are the creator of your own world. Do you feel that you have follow certain canons of fantasy worlds, for example, dragons have four legs and wyverns have two? Or do you feel that you can practically do whatever you want because it's fantasy and you create everything? Yes and no. No because I have already established rules and traditions and precedence in The World of Eragon, so I have to be consistent with that. But if I were writing a new fantasy, I would not feel beholden to any tradition. If I wanted to write a world where the dragons have three legs or feathers or something like that then I would feel free to do that. That's the great thing about speculative fiction is it gives you the freedom to write and create whatever you want to. The thing is when you have a genre where anything is possible it actually reveals the limitations of your imagination. And there are very few authors, myself included, who really make full use of that. But at the same time, limitations can make your fiction more interesting. I think it's important to pick some limitations and that will help actually improve the quality of your work. [7]
Why did you decide to have your dragons have a saddle? I was around horses growing up. And the thought of actually physically being on a creature with very hard scales was rather terrifying if thought about in a practical sense. And so it just seemed to me that there had to be some protection. [33]
When you're writing fantasy and you include dragons, especially a dragon rider fantasy, depending on how many there are there, it's actually quite a difficult thing to not solve all your problems with dragons. I think the solution to that is you focus on the problems that dragons present, which balances out the advantages. And of course people are smart, whether we're talking about humans or elves or dwarves or any other invented species. If dragons were real, you'd come up with counters to them, whether it's a bunch of giant ballistae on your walls, or building domed fortresses, or building underground. You would come up with solutions and it would negate those advantages. And that's always my issue with writing fiction with dragons in the real world. If it's a slightly more modern, then you have to ask, well, why isn't everything different in history? Like if dragons were a constant part of our world, architecture would be different, warfare would be different, politics would be different. Well, no, politics would be the same. What am I saying? [30]
I'm sure all of us have seen the fantasy paintings of like a knight in armor with a lance on a horse facing off against a dragon. Now, to be fair, a lance moving at a decent speed at a horse galloping will have enough kinetic energy behind it to punch through just about anything. It could do a lot of damage. But any decent sized dragon would move so fast and be so strong, you wouldn't have a chance with a lance. You'd need a giant crossbow. That'd be your only choice. The size of a dragon, intelligence of a dragon. Until you get to projectile weapons, you have no chance. [30]
We all know what any creature gets when they bond with a dragon. They get a dragon. But why would a dragon create that bond? Why would they do it? Is it the bond, is it their nature? I think for me, having other species bond with the dragons was essentially a way to keep the dragons from getting wiped out. Because dragons are such a huge threat. If you imagine in the real world, we don't suffer giant predators to be constantly predating and disrupting our world. We remove that threat. Especially if there's magic involved, the ability to remove that threat gets even bigger. So in a way I viewed the bond between rider and dragon as essentially self preservation for the dragons, if not the other species as well. Without some sort of symbiotic relationship, coexistence becomes very, very difficult. That, or the dragons have to be smart enough to just essentially remove themselves from the world and live off in the far off places. But that gets really difficult when you start considering how much they need to eat. I remember reading the Live Ship Trader series and I remember the end of that spoiler alert where it's become clear that true dragons have returned now. And it really was kind of an oh crap moment because you start thinking about what that actually means for there to be dragons in the world again. It's kind of like Reign of Fire. [30]
Promoting The Books
Touring HazardsHow did you do on your book tour? It was a lot. It was a lot. I did 50 days of touring last year between Fractal Noise and Murtagh. Obviously the majority of that was for Murtagh. And of course I had a couple other trips in there as well. I went to New York Comic Con. I had one or two personal trips. So there was a lot of travel last year. My goal is to not have as much travel this year. In general, the book tours were awesome, great crowds for the Fractalverse, enormous crowds for World of Eragon/Murtagh. I don't normally talk about this stuff, but since we're past it, it doesn't matter. I started touring for Murtagh November 6th and then got home for good on December 16th. But there's always a risk of getting sick while you're traveling. And I did pretty well in the US leg of things. And then over in Europe between the jet lag and not sleeping- I had a really amazing dinner, one of my publishers took me out to a three star Michelin restaurant. The problem was the dinner started at 8pm and didn't finish till midnight. And there were two or three desserts, and the last dessert was full of coffee, and I didn't realize it. Absolutely full of coffee. And I did not get to sleep until like four in the morning. And I only had three hours of sleep that night. So I think I got sick the day after as a result. I got so sick on the European tour that at one of my stops I had to call paramedics to my hotel room at 2 a.m. because I couldn't breathe. Ended up with bronchitis for the first time in my life. But I'll have you know, I did every event. I didn't miss a single event. I managed to do all my presentations and made it through in one piece. I've never, never backed down from doing an event, even while bleeding. Can you tell us a little bit about the time that you were bleeding in an event? Well, I was in Europe. I was touring for Inheritance, I'd already toured North America, and then I started in Europe, went to UK, and then I went to Australia and New Zealand. But first country was Germany, and I think I did Munich and Cologne, and then I ended in Berlin. And in Berlin, they had me in this wonderful theater that's like over 100 years old, which is very rare in the city, considering all the bombing during the war. And I'm backstage, which meant down in the basement of this theater. And there's like 500 people out waiting for me to make an appearance and there's someone introducing me and they say my name and everyone starts clapping. And of course you want to get on stage before the applause dies down. And the way you got onto stage in this theater was through a set of stairs. And it really wasn't even steps. It was almost like a ladder and it was wood. And the steps were so old that they were basically hollowed out from all the people that have gone up and down it over the years. So I'm scrambling up this and about halfway up, my right foot slipped off the edge of one of the steps because it was hollowed out and full speed, full strength, full weight, I slammed my shin into the edge of one of the steps, stumbled forward two more steps and did it a second time. But momentum, adrenaline, I keep going, I get up on stage, I waved to everyone. And fortunately for me, because I was speaking to a foreign audience, they had me sitting at a table with a translator and a presenter. So I got to sit down and the table kind of hit everything from view. And I start the presentation, start the event. And after about, I don't know, five minutes, I'm thinking to myself, okay, I've banged my shin before. We've all banged our shins before, but this really bleepin' hurt. So I looked under the table and the whole front of my jean leg on my shin is soaked with blood. There is blood dripping onto the floor and my sock is soaked with blood. So I poked my translator, the presenter next to me that I was doing a couple of events with, and I said, "Hey, look at this". And he glances under and his face just goes white. And I'm colorblind and I saw his face go white. And he said, "Do we need to call an ambulance?" And I'm like, "No, no, we're going to do this." So I did an hour-long presentation. And then I got up and managed to quickly limp over to a signing table. And no one really noticed that I wasn't feeling so hot. And I got behind the signing table, and I signed books for 400 or 500 people. And the funny thing is, I was traveling with this foreign rights agent publicist for Random House named Jocelyn, who was just an absolute beast of a woman. I love her to death. You have to understand, she did a European book tour with me while eight months pregnant. The woman was and is just very impressive. But she grew up on a farm. German family in the US, grew up on a farm. So I showed her my leg when I was sitting down to sign and she just looked at me and she said, "You need to go to the hospital?" I said, "Nope". She said, "I knew you were country. Good man." Slapped me on the back. So I finished signing and then I went back to the hotel and I had to get into a tub of water to soak my jeans off because the blood had dried and glued them to my shin. And the problem was I had a dent all the way down to the bone. And I really should have gone to a hospital because, sorry for the gory details, but what happens is when you get a dent like that, you lose the fat under the skin between the skin and the bone and it doesn't come back unless you get an injection to help it puff out and heal. And I didn't do that because I was on tour, there was no time. So the next day I had to fly to pretty sure it was Barcelona for the St. George Book Festival, which is a walking festival. So you have to walk from bookstore to bookstore in the city and do signings. But that was a bit rough. That actually took over a year to heal properly. I still have that dent. Stuff happens. I've heard some crazy stories with other authors. I'd rather it's my blood, not the fan's blood. [32]Touring Difficulties
We've got blood and sweat, any tears from tour? On occasion. The biggest one is just being away from home. And if anything is a bit off for whatever reason, you can't just pop home and hold someone or do this or do that. It's just difficult to be that far away from home for so long. [32]Meeting Fans around the World
If you're not familiar with book tours, the way it often works is that you fly to a city, you get to your hotel room, you have a little bit of time to freshen up, maybe get some food and then you go to the bookstore and you do your event. And it has to be after people get off from work, so it tends to be a later evening event. If you have a large number of people show up, that means that that time spent talking and signing pushes fairly late in the evening. You go back, you get dinner, and if you're a semi-introvert like so many authors tend to be, you need some time to decompress, which means you probably stay up a little too late reading or writing. And then in the morning, you got to go get another airplane flight and go to the new city. All of which is fine, but going to the airport, doing those flights, with the time it takes to go through an airport these days, it means that the schedule has very little time in it. When I toured for Fractal Noise, the publisher one of the days had me fly from Tampa to Portland and I still had to do an event that day. Which I agreed to. It was my own fault because they had everything on the East Coast and I said, "Well, what about the West Coast? You know, I have readers on the West Coast. They need to get a chance to get a signed book." It was my own fault. But that can get rough when you're doing it for weeks on end at a certain point. You just can't recover. A day off? What's that? But it's a good problem to have. That people want to see you and want to read your books. It's an awesome career to have. [1]
I'm also a big fan of coffee naps. So I will drink a cup of coffee, usually my second cup of coffee, and then I'll go take a nap, and I will nap for about 30 minutes, because after 30 minutes the coffee wakes me up. And I find that 15 to 30 minutes is the perfect length of a nap for me, and if I go past that, I need to sleep for about three hours, because otherwise I get into the middle of a REM cycle, and if I wake up in the middle of a REM cycle, I'm just like groggy and drugged, and I feel worse than if I hadn't napped at all. And then of course, if you're on book tour, the way I have been for a while, you gain the ability to just close your eyes at any point and take a 10 minute nap 15 minute nap anywhere, and it at least helps you stay upright. [19]
You just got back from the U.S. leg of your book tour — who’s making up the crowd? The readership is broad and probably older than it was back in the day. There are still a lot of 8-year-olds, but now there are grandparents, too. I’ve even met some kids who’ve been named after the characters, which is pretty amazing. Because people have been reading the series for so long, I tend to get a mix of incredibly detailed, hyper-focused, deep-dive questions about some of the lore, but also some more general ones about Eragon’s name. [16]Appearance
I'm sure you hear personal stories all the time especially at your readings and your your appearances. It must be lovely, and I guess overwhelming to connect with your fans. That's a good way of putting it: lovely and overwhelming. Everyone has their own personal history with these books. I have people showing up who named their children after the characters, or who've gotten tattoos. Oh my goodness, what's the one you get? Multiple Saphiras, Aryas, Rorans, a couple of Eragons. As a writer, you want people to read your stories, enjoy them, be affected by them. If they're affected so strongly they name their children after your characters, you feel pretty good about it. [28]
Are your European fans different from your American fans? I actually haven't met any children here who are named after characters from my books. That seems to be an American phenomenon. The language barrier sometimes makes it a little more difficult to talk to European fans. But the love for Eragon is just as strong in Europe as it is in the US. This is not your first time on tour in Europe. Is there something you're missing here? I actually noticed that hotels in Europe usually don't have ironing boards or irons. This is standard equipment in America. [24]
My great-grandmother was from Sicily and then my grandfather was from Bologna. I just found out recently that my grandfather as a child was tutored by Fellini's wife. [7]
My grandfather was the stereotype of an elderly Italian gentleman. He had a mustache, he cooked spaghetti and he made the most amazing red sauce for the spaghetti. He used too much profanity. He was quite the character. [35]
Amsterdam is a beautiful city, but if I had grown up here I would probably still have written fantasy, but it would probably have influenced the type of fantasy I write. [23]
I was just in Stockholm on book tour for my latest book. And I've sold a really large number of books, proportionally in Sweden, and I'd never been there before. And I was kind of curious what their thoughts and feelings were on it, given the fact that I have shamelessly pillaged, Anglo-Saxon Scandinavian mythology for my own work. And they said native Swedish authors don't write using their own mythology, they go into the more literary veins and they import and translate other authors who are writing about Scandinavian mythology and they enjoy it immensely, but it doesn't seem to be a homegrown thing for them, which is rather odd, I think. [30]
Old Norse is not so far from German, do you speak a little bit of German? I understand a fair bit. When I've done presentations in Germany, I've had children ask me questions in German, and I can sometimes understand the entire question without translation, but I only speak a few words. [Host 2]: Let's try it. Can you ask the next question in German? Of course. Oh dear. [speaking quickly] Herr Paolini, wie viel von ihrer Vision für die ganze Serie hat sich mit der Zeit verändert? Hat es sich überhaupt verändert? Denn wenn man sich die frühen Werke anguckt, erkennt man, dass sehr viele Sachen aus den frühen Werken in den späteren wieder auftauchen. So dass es eigentlich unmöglich sein kann, dass sie das nicht von Anfang an komplett geplant haben? Translation please. That was not fair. But funny. Yeah, I was just asking, when you started writing the book, and it became not just one book, it became a whole world, it became a series, and I don't want to spoil anything, but if you read the first books and you read the later books, stuff comes up again, and it seems like you actually knew where it was going when you started writing, which is again insane because you were 15. Is that something you just got lucky, or did you really plan for a whole series when you started writing the first one? I planned because I tried writing some stories before Eragon, and I never got past the first five or ten pages because I didn't have a story. I would only have an inciting incident, like a young man finds a dragon egg in the forest. Well, fun, awesome, but that's not a story. So Eragon and the series as it was, was a writing exercise for myself to see if I could outline, plot, and then write at least the first book of a series. So yes, if you read the first book, Eragon, there's actually a scene, a dream sequence in the first book. And it is the very last scene of the last book. And I did that specifically so that I could point to it and say to my readers, "See, I knew what I was doing." But of course, it isn't the last book now. [2]
Before he finished signing them all he asked if I read Fractal Noise, I said yes. He then asked how I liked it. I said I liked To Sleep far more. And to be fair I did. But I could've been a little more less brunt about it. All in all I'm sorry Paolini. I hope you see this. Dude -- No need to apologize! I was the one who put you on the spot. I was just curious about Fractal Noise as it's pretty different from what I normally write. That said, I'm a big boy, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest if someone prefers one book over another. [R]
Have you been on TikTok? How do you find it? I have an account that my assistants post content on for me because I don't have the time and I don't want it on my phone, but it has been a really useful way to connect with readers, and I had a lot of people who came up during my book tour end of last year, who said that they found out about the events I was doing from the posts on TikTok. [33]
Outside of the tour, did you do anything to personally celebrate the release of Murtagh? No. Not to sound blase, but this isn't my first book I've released. Going on the tour is the celebration. Getting to meet the fans. It's an enormous expenditure of energy, time, effort, and it's very joyous and touching and meaningful for me. And I think for a lot of the readers. So that's the celebration. My team and I, we all kind of take a moment to pat ourselves on the back every time a book comes out and then it's back to the grind a bit. Also, I got to celebrate my 40th birthday while on book tour, and I got to celebrate it with my editor, my publicist, my former publicist who's been with me since the beginning. So that was really nice. [32]
Being an author is like the best kind of semi-celebrity, because nine times out of ten, no one knows who you are, you can live a nice quiet life, and then you get to go out and meet people who like your work. And that's a real treat. I grew the beard partly to keep people from recognizing me. But then I've had it for so long that it doesn't work anymore. And I got tired of shaving. But the problem is the beard takes so much time and effort to take care of it, it doesn't save me any time. [1]Signing Books
Did your hat end up getting fixed post-tour? Yup. Fixed it myself with a rivet. [T]
Any advice on how to wear a pirate's hat without it being weird? It's very simple. There's one ingredient. You wear it with confidence. That's all. [36]
People people don't maybe don't realize what an endurance race it is, especially when when books are this big and successful. Like the amount. I once did 9,280 books in an afternoon and a half at a warehouse. I had nine people helping. I stood. I find that if I stand, I don't use my wrist. I can isolate the arm. And I just had someone shove it under me, someone pull it out for me, and everyone else was boxing, unboxing and flapping. But it hurt. It really hurt. I dropped my first name this past year. For the first time in a 20 year career, I finally dropped my first name. Did you feel defeated? Yes. But I have kids now and I just could not afford the time and the strain on my body. I actually got two typewriters. I got really bad inflammation in my right thumb from all the signing and I find that typewriters alleviated that. Also heavier like mechanical keyboards seem to help. So I know like Robin Hobb has suffered some severe problems with her hands with the amount of typing she's done over the years. So yeah, it is an occupational hazard. [33]
I have to say, signing 30,000 sheets is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than mining or placing 30k blocks in #Minecraft. Lol. [T]
Do you have a PO Box or something? I’d pay shipping both ways to have you sign my books. P.O. box is listed on paolini.net. Just include return shipping, please. :D Alternatively, you can arrange signed copies through Conley's Books & Music in Livingston, MT. [R]
If I send a book to a P.O. Box and pay for shipping there and back, would you sign it? Yup. Address is on paolini.net [T]