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Paradox, Viciate, and Lorenzo continued on their descent into the castle to the Well of Wisdom. A sacred place bestowed on the Alphaverse since its creation. A well that possess the most valuable wisdom from across the Megaverse. Paradox had his group stop in one of the chambers for he assumed his prisoners will be awaking from the poison soon. He then had his chains wrap around King Alexander, Venessa, Cross, Tray, Selena, Malissa, Lucrest, Leoped, and Phonix. Viciate deployed several drones that aimed their weapons at the chained prisoners with Paradox standing resolute holding the Matrix of Eternity in his hands. The prisoners eventually woke up one by one and were greeted by crude words and jeers directed towards them. The chains that bound them prevented them from utilizing their powers to break their bonds and even if they did, the bullets from the drones will prove extremely lethal to their weakened state. Paradox ordered the prisoners to be placed in a line on their knees as he snapped his fingers which summoned imps and more infernal warriors to act as guards. King Alexander, "You can't restore the Matrix in the Well of Wisdom, it will shred you to pieces." Paradox smugly, "Maybe, but that's why I'll have each of you go in for me and see who can withstand the Well." Malissa, "He's going to sacrifice us! Where is Joan? Did she escape?" Paradox, "Oh I believe Tray knows the answer to that." Everyone turned wondering where Tray could be until he finally spoke, the others were shock at his new appearance for he appeared otherworldly to them. Tray did not lift his eyes towards the group, but rather hung his head low. Paradox's eyes beamed with sadistic delight as he spoke, "I guess one can say your sister is now very OPEN MINDED!" It took a few seconds for this joke to register in the minds of the prisoners, but when it did, all of them violently shook the chains in order to be free. "Go ahead use all your powers to break those chains, it only transfers your power levels into my soul. Lockjaw was right, all of you are complete fools in underestimating these accursed chains!"
He grabbed Phonix as his victim but stopped when what seemed to be an earthquake began to shake the foundations of the castle. The earthquake only intensified the longer it went, Venessa, "Does anyone else hear bass boosted music?" In a spectacular explosion of dazzling lights and rifts across space and time, Diamond's glowing body appeared in a giant hole in one of the castle's walls while blaring Hit Me Baby One More Time. Everyone was left speechless when they saw Diamond, believing it to be a ghost. "PARADOX!!!!!" In terror Paradox began to back away, "Impossible, I scarred you for life! HOW ARE YOU EVEN STRONGER THAN BEFORE?!" "It is not for you to know the circumstances that brought me here before you today. Regardless I am back. AND THIS TIME THERE IS NO POWER IN THE MEGAVERSE OR THE NETHERWORLD THAT IS GOING TO STOP ME!" Paradox ordered Lorenzo, Viciate, and the rest of his minions to dispose of Diamond as he journeys deeper to the Well of Wisdom. Viciate used his powers to generate clones of his allies as he slowly approached Diamond. Observing this, Diamond began to smile, "How about I even those odds." After finishing his sentence, 20 identical clones of Diamond manifested themselves behind him. Unlike other clones or copies, these 20 were able to act independently as a collective hive mind. The original Diamond attacked Viciate head on while the duplicates attacked the other clones and others attempted to free the prisoners. Viciate attempted in drawing his sword to strike Diamond in an exposed position, but Diamond's intense senses was able to prevent Viciate from using his sword. In a matter of seconds, Diamond punched Viciate to a bloody mess before leaving him stuck on one of the walls.
His abilities alerted him of several imps closing on his position, and in a swift motion, Diamond created a new Sword of Light, which was far longer and sharper to simultaneously decapitate all of the imps that circled around him. While watching all of this unfold before her very eyes, Selena could not help but smile at seeing Diamond restored to his former self, "He's back." A clone of Diamond randomly appeared next to her, "Nice to know I'm no longer on house arrest." The clone was able to free Selena from her chains and started to free the rest of the prisoners. After freeing them, he gave the group a new set of orders, "I may not know all of you, but focus your abilities in taking down those devilish warriors over there. I'll handle Paradox." The clone soon vanished alongside the other copies leaving only the original Diamond left. Just when Diamond started to follow Paradox's trail, Lorenzo used his acidic whip to suspend Diamond in place. Lorenzo was successful in his attack and used this advantage to expel fatal toxins into Diamond's lungs. "Ugh. Dude, you got some serious oral hygiene problems. Here take a mint!" Lorenzo's mouth was open due to him being stunned seeing his foe unphased with his lethal toxin. The supposed mint landed on his tongue, which resulted in a strong electrical shock being sent all over his body causing him to black out. "Nice whip though, I'm for real going to take this for my collection." Diamond bent over and collected the whip before resuming on his mission to destroy Paradox. Paradox was nearly at the entrance of the Well, but felt his body frozen in place, no matter how hard he tried to move. He finally realized he was frozen by Diamond's soul manipulation, yet when he made this realization, Diamond was already floating horizontally whispering into Paradox's audio receptor, "I think I am going to show off my newfound abilities."
Paradox tried to slice Diamond with a chain along his back, but Diamond vanished before he could land a hit. He reappeared behind him and with a simple flick, Diamond sent Paradox crashing through the castle's walls and ceilings. Paradox regained his stance as he morphed into Astros as he stopped a punch from Diamond which sent shockwaves, shattering any neighboring glass. Paradox kicked Diamond at his shin before hitting him with brute force across his face. He summersaulted backwards a few yards as he morphed into the Ice King. He then summoned several frozen daggers and sharp projectiles as he sent them flying towards Diamond at light speed. Diamond noticed the projectiles flying towards him as he achieved speeds that made time around him slow down several seconds. It was if things were occurring to him at a quarter speed, so with a wave of his arm, he took control of the projectiles and had them float around him before resuming time and sending them back to Paradox. Paradox moaned loudly as the projectiles lodged themselves in tight crevasses of his body and interfering with some of the vital mechanisms. The two teleported away from the castle into the depths of the grand city where they continued their battle. Paradox changed into Shen the disgraced Shogun as he desperately tried to slice off Diamond's limbs and head. Diamond casually dodged each attack with ease he summoned the Sword of Light which has grown longer and sharper to reflect his reunion with the Light. The two blades collided with each other, but Paradox was no match for Diamond's swordsman skills.
Diamond noticed Paradox's right arm malfunctioning from one of the ice projectiles and taking advantage of this weakness, he punched Paradox repeatedly in the chest before kicking him to the floor. He then created a revolver from his nanites and fired four bullets consecutively into his weak spot. He knew his bullets succeeded in wounding his opponent, for the sound of loose air began to hiss from broken wires and Paradox's arm glitching by morphing into many different appearances before changing back to its default appearance. Diamond smiled smugly as he released that Paradox was truly terrified in that moment, "Where has your self-confidence gone? Are those appearances not making you comfortable in your mechanical body?" "SHUT UP!" Paradox then changed into Mecha-Diamond as he was able to grab Diamond by his throat and threw him into multiple buildings. The two eventually landed on top of a commuter train before Diamond could free himself. Diamond sliced his opponent's arm to free himself and used his thrusters to fly backwards as he observed Paradox's body shifting gears to re-forge the missing arm. While in the form of Mecha-Diamond, Paradox had four mechanical tentacles grow out of him, which resulted in Diamond activating his suit to grow tentacles of his own. The two opponents had their tentacles wrap around each other as they fired their blasters at each other. Diamond tried to create two clones of himself, but Paradox's tentacles grabbed him and tossed him into one of the train carts as the civilians screamed in terror. He gradually regained consciousness as he prepared to find Paradox, but for a long minute, he could not sense Paradox. It was not until a lady screamed of a large spider approaching them from the other end when Diamond released it is Paradox crawling on all fours with great speed. Paradox shifted back to full height in a most grotesque fashion as his body spun in different ways before his head shifted back to its normal size. Diamond yelled at the passengers to run to the other cart as he dealt with Paradox. While the passengers fled, two extra mechanical arms began to form on Paradox's appearance of Mecha-Diamond as all four of arms ignited red plasma blades. "Attack Diamond!" The four arms began to spin in opposite directions of his body in quick movements as he rapidly approached Diamond that it was impossible to strike him above or behind.
Confused on what his next move should be, Diamond noticed parts of Paradox's chest plate were loose as it was glitching in and out. Out of options, Diamond swung at Paradox which he swiftly blocked with the four blades, but Diamond was able to have his nanotech grow on Paradox's arms as he then had the nanites send an electric shock on the foreign host, which granted him an opening in tearing off the chest plate and firing two blasts from his repulsers into Paradox's chest. This stunned Paradox as Diamond charged at him and began to tear all the vital wires, buttons, and controls that operated Paradox's mechanical body. Paradox's voice box became affected as it began to shift into different tones and voices as he tried to speak, "No, I will.....not.....be bested a.....second......time." Paradox was able to gain control of his arms as he threw Diamond out of the train cart out into the city's skyline. Diamond was able to shoot a grapple around Paradox's legs as he pulled both of them out into the air as his body began to glow golden with pure Light. Paradox descended towards him with chains around his body as he prepared to strike fatal blows on Diamond's body. Diamond closed his eyes as he extended his right arm while having his fingers form a finger gun. He whispered silently with firm conviction, "Through the power of Heaven's Light all things are possible......grant me the power to send this foul demon of a man back to the infernal depths where he belongs." Diamond then fired a large blast of pure Light towards Paradox as his enemy screamed in anger, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The power caused from this blast was so strong and hot that it started to melt the metal on Paradox's body and causing any remaining circuits to fry.
Diamond floated towards the ground as he stared at a ball of fire fall towards the ground as it created a large crater. He stepped forward and saw Paradox's mangled body as his soul still held possession of it. Paradox was still able to manipulate his body to change into whoever he chooses, and as a last resort he changed to Diamond's mother. "Trevor.......how could you do this.....to me......your own mother.......after all your father and I have done for you this is how you repay us?" "Quit your bull you pathetic character of a soul. If I had the power to judge you in the afterlife, I would create a separate place for sadistic manipulators such as yourself so all you scoundrels can do nothing more than hurt yourselves for your sins!" Diamond then used his power to lift Paradox in the air and was about to crush his body and seal his soul permanently, but as he did so a blazing portal appeared as a pitch-black arm reached out and snatched Paradox before Diamond had time to react. Dumbfounded, Diamond de-activated his suit and left his Light form in order to process what happened. Realizing there was nothing else to do he traveled back to the castle. When he arrived, he saw how the group of heroes easily defeated all of the devilish creatures and were tossing all the dead bodies into a giant pile. Only one thing concerned him, the fact Lorenzo and Viciate's bodies were both missing from the battle. He reasoned they managed to escape, but with the injuries they sustained, it would be a long while before they would show themselves again. After making this assumption, Diamond's family greeted him with open arms and hugs, yet even Diamond did not recognize Tray's new body. Tray had to explain his entire story again to Diamond so he would understand why he looked like "A living glowstick." Hearing Tray's story about Joan made Diamond sorrowful and offered to help in making sure Joan's body receives a proper burial. King Alexander and Diamond hastily organized the funeral and gave Joan's family time to grieve and remember their youngest member that was stolen from them.
While the mourners were conversing with themselves, the king wanted to lead Diamond through the many rooms and wings of the enchanting castle. He wanted to show Diamond the inner secrets and history of this castle, so he very discretely led him down a flight of stairs into an older section of the castle where even most of the king's court were not allowed to enter. The two stepped through two enormous emerald doors and continued on through the darkness. The king ignited a turquoise flame from his hands and led Diamond to a large wall. King Alexander, "Stare at these murals Diamond. Notice the story they tell." Diamond stared at the murals and paintings on the wall trying to understand the history behind them. He saw what appeared to be angels directing two races. To the right were humans with their leader baring a resemblance to Alexander with folded hands in prayer as their eyes gazed at the Heavenly specters, in addition it appeared that swords and shields were descending towards them. To the left were the ancient race of Enders who also had their gaze towards Heaven, but descending towards their hands were scrolls with quills, signifying their role to write and document. At the front of the line of Enders stood none other than Ranfus, although significantly younger. Diamond continued down the wall as the next scene involved the leaders of the humans and enders being coronated with the two leaders' hands being locked in agreement. The next scene depicted what was either a battle or war where many humans and enders were dead, brough to their demise by rebellious humans. It depicted how after the battle Ranfus took the remaining enders away to a place that could supervise the entire Megaverse free from human interaction. The last scene showed the battle worn king of the humans siting on his throne with a tear in his left eye, while his right side remained stoic. His left arm pointed downwards to a decree while his right arm pointed upwards with a grand castle and city floating in the palm of his hand. "The Enders used to dwell with you?" "Indeed, for you see, the king in those murals is actually my great-grandfather. Time goes by very slowly for us here, not only that but we tend to live for thousands of years. Originally, after the first man and woman were created and fell into sin, we were created in the aftermath of that event. We bear the same weaknesses as other humans after the fall, but we were created to protect the Enders, who would document the shifting tide of Creation across the Megaverse. Our special duty connected us more in tune with the messengers of Heaven and we strived to live up to our mission of acting as the second example for the Megaverse, the Main Omniverse being the first. Yet, a few of the humans of my great-grandfather's time were seduced by the powers of evil for the many fallen angels, now turned demons, preyed upon their fallen status and sparked division between human and ender. Eventually a genocide broke out where rogue humans wanted the power of the Enders to themselves and would slaughter anyone who opposed them. My great-grandfather and Ranfus ultimately triumphed, but the damage had been done for the Enders no longer trusted us and collectively agreed humans everywhere were unpredictable and destructive. Ranfus left this Omniverse with the survivors of his race, thus leaving us as the sole inhabitants of this realm. From the ashes of the old kingdom, my great-grandfather led the creation of a new one as you can see here, but the reason why his left side is sad is the fact he did not kill the leaders of the rebellion. He did not want to take their lives, so instead he banished them to the wildness of the Megaverse. After casting them out of this Omniverse, he placed a ban where no one will be able to enter or leave. Using his divine gifts, he was able to practically make it seem like this Omniverse was erased and could not be discoverable unless him or another king wills its borders to open up once again."
"And what happened to the exiled ones?" "Most of them died across the Megaverse but their main leader, Mek'el continued following the path of evil and grew stronger in the powers of darkness. This granted him an unnatural talent of cheating death, but when an event in Omniverse 63,745 occurred when that Omniverse's Celestial had an offspring with that Omniverse's name for an angel, Mek'el sensed the potential of such an offspring." "Hold on, that's the Omniverse the Megaverse Council and I had named Evangelion. Yeah, those creatures they call angels are definitely not real angels, but you mean to tell me that this Mek'el influenced The Devourer?" "No, Mek'el BECAME The Devourer. He transferred his soul into the newborn soul of the deadly offspring, completely fusing with the new soul. In response to this, my great-grandfather on his deathbed, ordered my grandfather to create a device that could end Mek'el once and for all. That device was the Matrix of Eternity. It was hastily crafted before my grandfather sent it to Omniverse 63,745 hoping it could destroy Mek'el there. Unfortunately, it did not fulfill its original purpose due to Mek'el fully becoming The Devourer and traveled across the Megaverse eating the Core of whatever Omniverse he entered. His travels would take a long time to reach his next destination, but nothing could stop him. The Matrix continued to grow with wisdom in Omniverse 63,745 before an apparition of an Ender ordered a singular person to send the Matrix in the direction of the Main Omniverse. Eventually, the Matrix landed in your Omniverse, but was kept hidden for a long time with only glimpses and rumors of such a treasure of untold power being passed on from dimension to dimension. Finally at last, you found it in 2021 just as The Devourer arrived in your Omniverse. Little did you know, but upon his defeat when you unleashed the power of the Matrix, it sent shockwaves across the Megaverse. Myself along with my people celebrated when we felt the destruction of The Devourer, finally knowing a dark piece of our history has been put to rest." "When I traveled to Omniverse 63,745 last summer, it was promoted that they created the Matrix of Eternity." "Their leaders simply changed the story and wiped our part out of their history books, for the select few who told you it was their ancestors that created it are not at fault. For they too believe this error, this is simply a mistake on their ancestor's part and nothing more. Come along now, let's head back up a few stairs back to where there was an intersection, there is more I need to show you."
The king led Diamond to a room with many floating orbs that had different colors symbolizing a different Omniverse. "I am aware that you and the Megaverse Council have a broad idea to all the soldiers at the disposal of our enemy. But I want to show you some specific souls that are.......unique. The person known as The Ageless managed to recruit several corrupted versions of the strongest beings in your Omniverse's hierarchy. Among them consist of a fallen Omniversal Tribunal, Protectors, Insanity Trio, Bad Time Trio, many alternate timeline versions of you, and other powerful individuals from the Megaverse. The Ageless and Demonic Council calls this elite group the Bad End Friends. King Alexander brings forth an orb that displays the souls of those fallen humans. This reveals the true thoughts of their soul and what their soul really says." Diamond leaned forward to hear the cries of their souls and was surprised to hear their souls cry out in unison. "We just wanted to heal but now our nightmares are real, and we'll never wake up for we're torn apart! We want freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" Diamond could not believe what he heard, for it caused him to step back to avoid their cries. "Secondly, I want to briefly touch on the Ageless' story. Thousands of years ago lived a man born with unnatural gifts, he could enter into violent places and leave with minor bruises. He was able to kill the celestials in his world with his mere hands and crude weapons. Yet, he was not satisfied, he wanted more power and more entities to kill, for he enjoyed the bloodlust. This led to him being sought out by the fallen Seraphim now named Black Hat. He offered him more power and an entire place beyond his imagination to live the rest of his days as a butcher. The man agreed and henceforth became an unwavering servant directly to Black Hat. Eventually, he earned a reputation by parading himself as a savior wearing polished white and gold armor, in order to win the trust of many defenders who protected their native Omniverse. Once he won their complete trust and learned their secrets and fears, it would be too late for that Omniverse. For it would be a matter of time before complete carnage would be unleashed on all the helpless souls in that Omniverse. Thus, he was given the title Harbinger of the End.......a human who is an undisputed champion in gladiator battles with a mind to match his muscles.......a man always youthful, laughing at the hands of time........The Ageless."
"The last thing I want to reveal to you is the location of our enemy's base. The Megaverse Council has discovered it and that is Omniverse 6,666,666. That Omniverse had so many events that ran parallel with your Omniverse it was almost an exact copy. However, before your Omniverse was assaulted by Black Hat's forces in 2021, they won a resounding battle in that Omniverse. Everything that could have gone wrong in that final battle, did indeed go wrong." King Alexander used his powers to generate a vision of that fateful day. The scene pans to a bloodied and defeated Diamond with a shattered Sword of the Omniverse with Black Hat towering over him. The two listened intently when Black Hat spoke, "The Initiative has fallen. Its members......lost. You have been deceived......betrayed.........purged." The vision hovers over countless bodies of Initiative members that had died in the battle with some of their corpses disfigured and mutilated they were unidentifiable. "I can feel you are scared of judgement day. You led millions of souls to their grave. Your lukewarm faith shaken due to your pleas and petitions being ignored. So, I offer you a choice. Join us and postpone the judgement day, have all the pleasures of the world handed back to you, and avoid living the life as a failure!" The defeated Diamond raised his teary eyes and spoke, "I......accept!" The crowd around him chuckled as Black Hat stepped away with Alastor taking his place, "It's a deal!" The defeated Diamond shook his hand and became controlled and a vessel for Alastor until his original body could be restored. After this moment a large echo of thunder echoes across the battlefield with a bright light shining in the distance. The Ageless, "What is that?" Black Hat, "The veil of the Main Omniverse has been lifted. We are no longer kept out! We must seize this opportunity before it's too late." Ageless remain here with Alastor's vessel." "Why?" "If things go sour for me and my forces in the Main Omniverse, I want us to still have a strong foothold here in the Megaverse. This Omniverse will be perfect. I will be taking half of our forces with me." "What of the few people who survived this battle, should I find them and use them as prisoners and entertainment?" Black Hat had a sadistic smile, "There are no survivors!" The vision then played the sounds of screams with Diamond begging Alexander to end the vision. "That's enough! I cannot watch nor listen to this vision anymore! Please end this nightmare!"
Alexander ended the vision as the two were brought back to reality. Alexander spoke with sympathy to Diamond, "I did not show you that vision to torture you. I revealed it, because you need to understand exactly what to expect from our enemy and take deep root in your faith." "Why did the pleas and petitions of that Diamond go unanswered?" "Truthfully, that Diamond did not pray for deliverance, he instead wanted more glory and praise. When he was in public and prayed, it was for show, and he was not sincere in the words he said. Even at the last moment, he received a message from Heaven begging him to repent from his prideful ways and deliverance would come. Yet, in that last moment, he refused with his soul saying no it has to be my way and I do not want to change the life I am living and that's final. It was his fault no Heavenly aid came, now he has no one else to blame other than himself for his misdeeds and wickedness." Diamond's body had a series of goosebumps when King Alexander finished speaking. He always wondered what would have happened in the final battle for his Omniverse if there was no intervention, now he wished for this catastrophic example to leave his mind.
After this event, King Alexander led Diamond to a sacred place called the Veil of the Celestial Plane to speak with his angelic friends. Along the way, King Alexander explained to Diamond the difference between True Balance and Perfection. How True Balance is the perfect imperfect form of Perfection, because as mortal creatures that are finite with flaws no person alive can reach True Perfection. He explained how demons fear True Balance and how the demons only focus on temporal goals not eternal, for all that awaits them in eternity is eternal punishment. (This is a footnote, because at the end of this post in the comment section I will share the entire conversation in greater detail, for some reason the Sub-Reddit automatic rules count it as a rating post no matter how hard I rephrased the dialogue. Very weird that happened because it never happened before, but hopefully I will be able to share that conversation in full under this post, because it took a lot of effort in composing the dialogue.)
Filled with courage and zeal from their conversation, Diamond entered into the Veil and soon found himself in a vast empty white plain where numerous figures of light floated around him before manifesting themselves as angelic beings. He observed how each of the nine choirs of angels were present. "The Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. All present here at this very moment." A Seraphim spoke up, "Why do you wish to commune with us?" "I am here seeking advice from my Heavenly friends in these trying times. I'm sure all of you are very much aware and can sense in the Celestial Cosmic Plane that the forces of evil are growing ever so powerful. I can feel it within my being that soon a final confrontation may happen." Saint Michael the Archangel, "You already possess all that you need. You know the prayers for deliverance and aid. Furthermore, you know how your enemy thinks." "With all due respect, this time it is different. Different than the way it was for the fate of the Main Omnvierse. This....is the fate of the Megaverse....of everything that had exist, currently exists and will exist. Please there must be some advice all of you may be able to bestow upon me." A Virtue floated towards Diamond's soul to speak, "These particular demons feast on fear, chaos, and revenge. They want nothing more than to see the righteous fall, yet their common weakness is the sin of pride." Uriel intervened, "Pride, that ancient sin which was the sole root that led a third of our former brothers and sisters into disobedience. Fully rejecting the True Love of the Father and willingly following the arrogance of the fallen light bearer, who now brings darkness and death to everyone." Azrael quickly followed up with Uriel's statement, "When they fell from grace, they still retained their position and powers. Now with their leaders nearly having their bodies restored before their fall, through the power of The Seed, they are more of a threat to the Natural Order."
Diamond came to a sudden realization, "With Cloaked Shadow having control of the Dark and shadows in general, does that mean he was a Power before he fell?" The choirs nodded as Diamond responded with his hands near his mouth deep in thought. "I see, well if pride is their weakness than surely arrogance is a key factor in their personalities. Perhaps if the Matrix of Eternity is re-loaded with the knowledge accessible from the Alphaverse, it could overwhelm them." A Cherub, "Yes! The knowledge from the Alphaverse can restore the Matrix and used to harm the demons!" Saint Gabriel the Archangel, "Do not be afraid in this next step in your journey, Trevor. Since the fall of man, the Devil and his minions have actively been at war with mankind, searching for ways to snatch souls from Heaven. Yet, in the history of not only the Megaverse, but your own world, you know that God conquers all, even in the darkest times. From the persecution of the early Christians under the rule of the Mad Emperor Nero, deadly heresies, scandals, political and religious wars, the French Revolution, Napoleon Wars, Russian Revolution, Mexican Revolution, World Wars, down to the present. The demons worked through man to not only bring ruin to the face of the Earth, but to attack the Church. However, both the Earth and the Church have endured and will continue to endure until the end of time when God will come in all His splendor and glory and reward the just while punishing the wicked. For they will receive their reward." A Throne, "There is one more thing that will surely turn the tide of the war, but only as a last resort." Diamond, "What is it? Please share." A Seraphim, "The hypothesis of you being able to fuse with your friends Ben Tennyson and Xavier is true. If Xavier is fully in tune with his scarab and enter into his phase known as Sacred and Tennyson into Alien X, you three will become the singular most powerful entity in the entire Megaverse." Saint Michael the Archangel, "Be warned for this should only be used as a complete last resort. For there can be no going back when you three become a singular entity. There might be potential for you three to separate from this final form, but if there is, it will be certain death for no mortal can yield that much power. Arise young warrior, take courage, and have total faith on the Lord, He will hear your prayers. Remember we are at your side and every warrior in the final battle will have their guardian angel with them at all times."
The Heavenly beings once again became balls of bright light, which slowly blinded Diamond before he awoke from his vision back in his own body just before the Veil of the Celestial Plane. King Alexander stared at Diamond before helping him to his feet. Diamond, "I know what I must do. I must re-load the Matrix in the Well of the Megaverse." Alexander, "That's suicide. For you to be exposed to so much power and knowledge, it will vaporize you." "Believe me, it will work. Just help me recover the pieces of the Matrix and I will reforge it with the nanotech from my suit." Diamond sprinted with great haste through all the flights of stairs Alexander had them take, back to where the pieces of the Matrix laid. He had Alexander hold the pieces together in their proper position as the nanotech from his suit crawled around the broken pieces and fused the Matrix back together again. During this time the other heroes caught up to Diamond and Alexander and decided to watch as Diamond would enter the Well of the Megaverse. King Alexander led the group to the entrance of the Well where everyone wished him good luck. Diamond transformed into his Light form and entered the Well. This form allowed him to withstand the pressure around him as he opened the Matrix to collect wisdom from all corners of the Megaverse both the good and bad. When he did this, thousands of images and lifetimes flashed in his mind causing him to scream, in order to avoid his mind from overloading he constantly switched to different forms and phases every 30 seconds. Everyone waited anxiously outside after hearing Diamond's screams and began to fear for the worst, but just when their hope wavered, a silhouette started to walk towards them. From the depths of the Well emerged Diamond holding the restored Matrix of Eternity firmly in his right hand. King Alexander, "Welcome back Diamond!" "Thanks. With the Matrix restored and the new alliance your Omniverse has made with the Megaverse Council, hope for our victory has reached an all-time high." The heroes only stayed for a few more hours at the Alphaverse before returning back to the base of the Megaverse Council. Upon arrival, the Council members were stunned to see the return of their leader, and with swift orders, Diamond once again regained leadership of the Megaverse Council.
Epilogue
In a desolate place with abandoned buildings in Omniverse 3. "Volxi, can you head downstairs into our storage to bring some refreshment to our party?" "You got it sis!" Volxi entered into one of the chambers to find a spare stash of spiked beverages but was startled when she heard a voice echo in the darkness. "Time's running out Vol." She leaned over to view where the voice was coming from until her eyes landed on a glowing dark green warrior. She gasped as she recognized it was her old friend from Omniverse 8. "Cayden what happened to you?" "That name no longer has any meaning for me." "You look so different. Your skin is green and your eyes black. You look like......" "A ghost? Phantom? Condemned Soul?! Truly a miserable fate I have fallen into. Given a body constantly degenerating and repairing itself, allowing me to phase between matter but how painful it is feeling my cells destroy themselves before regenerating and repeating the process all over again." "Is this a dream?" "No." "I thought not, if it was there would be something to replenish my throat." Cayden hands Volxi a bottle. "Thanks mate. I still have a cup on me. Here it's on the house." Cayden took a long sip before speaking. "We haven't seen each other since the destruction of your people's original home. A lot has happened since then. Last year a terrible event plagued the Megaverse and I tried to stop it. I made my own device that enabled me to visit other Omniverses. I could sense something sinister causing many Omniverses to die. I took my weapons and went to who I thought was responsible. That man was so strong and talented, he mortally wounded me without taking our fight seriously. I thought at that moment when I laid dying that I would give anything to get a second chance at life. To see my friends and family again. My requests were answered by a figure in black business attire and a top hat."
Volxi groaned for she knew who he was referring to while Cayden continued on with his speech. "I accepted his offer and became what you see before you. The only part that was positive is in our contract, I managed to still own partial control of my soul. Perhaps it is through this partial ownership that causes me to experience great pains and desperately seek liberation." "And you came back to your friend for aid huh?" "No, I came as a messenger." Volxi stared at him with concern. "You struck a deal with him too, Volxi. A deal before your home, the ninth Omniverse was destroyed, causing you and all the survivors to wander throughout the Megaverse." "I forgot all about that deal. It can't happen this soon, he did not even stay true to his promise." "Is that really a surprise?" "DANG IT! Alright I'll wager my way out of it. I always do." "You can't talk to yourself out of this one!" "How long do I have Cayden?" Cayden stepped close to Volxi where he was only a few inches away from her face. "That name has no meaning for me, I'm The Shameful now. You have only a few hours. He will send his terrible leviathan to drag you, your sister, and this entire Omniverse along with you! Already his army sets their eyes on this world, drawn by ravenous hunger, by the one who bears the crimson scar." The Shameful laid his hand on a piece of Volxi's face that was not covered by cybernetics. "Make peace with your losses and may it only be a swift end and not a contract of servitude. Alas, he always comes to collect what is his." In that moment The Shameful vanished from her sight and without a moment to lose, she started running back upstairs into the settlement screaming for everyone to pack their things and prepare to leave. Her sister, Val stopped her, "Did you fall down the stairs giving you that slash across your face? What's coming after us?" Volxi stared deep into her sister's soul, "We need to run as far as we can and get our people to safety before it's too late." From a few hundred yards away The Ageless stood waiting for the perfect time to strike with Maestro Zorro summoning the nightmarish Leviathan.

Hi there I'm not much of a poster on Reddit so sorry in advance if I do something wrong
To make a very long (over two-decade long) story short, I (25F) ran away from home when I was 16 due to emotional abuse as well as neglect eg. Not being fed enough, not having my personal hygiene looked after, missing loads of school etc etc. My mum was always smoking pot and I believe took harder drugs as well although I don't have proof of that. She has not had a job in 13 or so years and is on disability allegedly. I also have a sister (23F) who experienced this and can back me up as well.
My brother (14M) is 10 years younger than me. He is experiencing much of the same type of treatment, although more insidious and difficult to prove since he is my mother's only boy and the baby of the family. However he tried to run away last night as food is being withheld from him as "punishment for being rude" which could be literally anything knowing my mother.
My question is where do I go for legal advice? Oranga Tamariki and the police have both been useless in the past and in fact when I myself was 14, I was taken from my mum by them and placed with my Nana for 2 weeks for a "cool down". When I went back home they never checked in and the abuse escalated even worse because my mum was mad I had gotten them involved. I don't want that to happen to my brother so I'm very hesitant to get them involved.
I called CAB this morning but they told me to go to Oranga Tamariki.
My plan was to wait for him to turn 16 and then he could come live with me of his own free will (and he is aware of this plan and wants to live with me), but it looks like we may need to accelerate those plans.
What do I do? What don't I do? Is there anyone I can talk to to make sure I'm taking all the right steps? I'm so scared. I practically raised him for the first 6 years of his life (nappies, bottles, reading bedtime storied, cosleeping- I didn't know any better) you name it I did it. I just want him to be safe. And if that means taking custody I'm prepared to do that. But I don't know how. There isn't any information I can find online that isn't about custody between parents. Btw if it's relevant, we have different biological fathers and he has never met his dad.
I've literally just signed a contract for a new full time job making 70k and am living in a 2bdrm apartment with my longterm partner, just to paint a picture of my capacity to take care of my brother.

• When my period starts, I do a week of no touch
  
• After the week of no touch, I do a week of teasing and edging
  
• After that, I follow "Free Play" rules until my period starts again
  

"No Touch week" rules:

• No touching vulva, anus or nips except for hygienic purposes
  
• I can watch whatever porn I want, as much as I want, but for at least 10 mins every day
  
• While watching porn, I'm on all fours with my pussy bare and my legs spread open a little
  

"Teasing & Edging Week" rules:

• I roll 2 die every evening to determine my task for the next day (see Tasks below)
  
• Instead of rolling, I may opt to choose which task to do the next day. Every time I do so, edging week extends with 2 days.
  
• At the end of each day, I roll 2 punishments for each instruction in the task I didn't complete successfully, to be done the next day
  
• I may replace one session per day with x mins of teasing in a bathroom (roll for x)
  
• When taking a shower, I'll keep my feet wide apart so the water trickles down my clit
  
• When taking a shower, I can use the nozzle on low intensity for 30 secs to clean my privates, no more
  

Free play rules:

• I can roll for a teasing/edging session whenever I feel like it
  
• After every session, I roll for as many punishments as I've done edging sessions that day
  
• I can pick one day during free play to goon out however I want, without punishments :3
  

General rules:

• I won't have an orgasm without someone else's permission
  
• I'll have no orgasms whatsoever in JuNO and NOvember
  
• If I come accidentally, I ruin it and roll for a punishment
  
• No touching my vulva at all in LOCKtober! During edging week in LOCKtober I shall do anal training instead
  
• Whenever an instruction tells me to use a plug/dildo/vibe/gag, I'll use a dice to determine which one
  
• If I roll the same punishment twice on one day, I reroll.
  
• If I ever get more than 8 punishments in one day, any number over 8 rolls over to the next day and is doubled
  

Tasks:
1 - Tease 4 mini sessions (x mins in a bathroom) with at least 2 hours between sessions (not rollable)
2 - Tease six sessions, minimum of 2 hours between sessions
3 - Tease 2 sessions. Wear a plug for 20x mins.
4 - Tease 2 sessions: once within an hour of waking up, and once right before bed
5 - Anal training! Fuck your ass with a plug for x mins, then wear the plug for x hours. Vibe your ass for x mins before bed.
6 - Tease 3 sessions, with at least 3 hours between the sessions
7 - Anal training! Fuck your ass with a dildo for 10x mins. Also, no panties all day.
8 - Tease 2 sessions, with at least 3 hours between the sessions. Roll for 1 punishment.
9 - I can play whenever, however, watching whatever I want, but I must be plugged whenever I'm playing.
10 - Tease 1 session within an hour of waking. Roll for 3 punishments.
11 - Edge once as soon as you wake up. Next time you sleep alone, do so with a crotch rope over underwear, legs tied spread apart, listening to cal's curse on repeat.
12 - Roll for 1 punishment. No underwear all day.
Sessions:
To determine what my teasing session will be like, I'll roll for the duration, the method and for what porn I will watch during
Duration:
1 - Edge x times.
2 - Tease 2x minutes.
3 - Tease 2x minutes, edge x times.
4 - Tease 4x minutes, edge once.
5 - Tease 10x minutes, edge twice.
6 - Tease for 5 minutes, roll for 1 punishment.
Method:
2 - Plugged, in underwear, humping stuff
3 - Fully clothed with jeans & shoes, crotch rope over clothing. Using hands, hands stay outside of clothing.
4 - Door ajar, with dildo, eyes closed, noise-cancelling headphones, on the sofa.
5 - Gagged, with dildo, on the floor
6 - Wearing yoga pants (no panties) & crop top, on yoga mat, face down ass up, using a vibrator over yoga pants
7 - With hands, naked, wearing a plug
8 - With hands, naked, gagged, frog-tied, plugged, on my belly
9 - In underwear, with hands, using lube over panties
10 - With toothpaste on nipples, using a dildo
11 - Wearing full lingerie & makeup, in front of mirror, using hands
12 - In bath robe, with a dildo, sitting in front of the living room window with curtains open, feet hooked behind chair legs.
Porn:
2 - Inter
3 - Denial / ruins
4 - BDSM
5 - JOI
6 - Handjob
7 - Old/fat men
8 - Blowjob
9 - Anal
10 - Dom audio
11 - Women orgasm
12 - Cougar
Punishments:
2 Order over 50,- worth of new toys
3 When I go to bed: put new batteries in vibe, go to sleep with vibe turned on in my pussy, tied spread eagled
4 Go jogging in shorts, without panties, wearing a plug
5 Do 5x mins of yoga while naked, wearing a plug, and with a dildo kept in my pussy with a crotch rope
6 Put clothespins on labia and up, with 2x minutes, pull off
7 Tigerbalm to nips every 30 mins for x hours
8 Listen to cal's curse
9 Be fully naked when home alone
10 Wear dildo in pussy for x hours using a crotch rope
11 Wear dildo in ass for x hours using a crotch rope
12 Let fapdeciders play with me this week

So lately I've been struggling to find my person! Either because my anxiety gets in the way or they turn out to not be single lmao.. also I'm really not interested in nsfw stuff? There's other subs on here if that's the only thing you're after.
I'll just put a quick intro of me!
Hi! I'm a curvy , gamer (console) , very alt (shaved hair etc) constantly dying it! Lol. I love art , memes, music and watching random stuff on YouTube. I also crave attention from my future S/O! I'm needy, clingy etc lmao and you could say I have alot of love to give to the right man! Voice notes and calls are a must for me because I can't get to know someone just through a text. Again I'm not interested in a situationship or flirtationship, not for me!
You!
Handsome, confident, friendly and the kind who's willing to give reasurrence! (Hopefully). You game too.. console I hope! Lol. Age wise 25-35 is ideal for me ! Although I'm not opposed to going a little younger or older for the right guy! I prefer slim/fit men (again my preference).. someone who looks after there health and has good hygiene etc. I would like the same time and attention back from you also , I have a ton of free time right now for the right person.
Hopefully my post reaches out to my future boyfriend! (Is it you... 👀?). And please include the 👍 emoji if you made it all the way here!! Yay... 😋😘.

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Java Burn Reviews: Can You Lose Weight with This Coffee Supplement?
~Java Burn is designed with convenience and simplicity in mind.~ Imagine starting your day with your usual cup of coffee, but on this occasion it helps you lose weight. Java Burn delivers on this promise.
This supplement promises to speed up your metabolism, give you more energy, and improve the way your body burns fat.
The best part is that it doesn't change the flavor of your coffee, making it easy to use.
What is Java Burn Coffee?
~Java Burn is a natural weight loss supplement made from professionally sourced and tested ingredients.~ The formula targets the underlying causes of weight gain and a slow and non-habit-forming metabolism.
Objective third-party laboratories test powder to ensure it is free of impurities, including artificial colors, additives, preservatives, gluten and GMOs. Java Burn ensures overall health although weight loss is considered the main benefit.
It improves your energy and mental clarity, while keeping your blood pressure, diabetes, and digestion at healthy levels.
The manufacturer of the dietary supplement states that it is manufactured in an FDA registered facility in the United States under strict, hygienic, GMP certified procedures.
Java Burn is a coffee supplement that comes in a bottle containing 60 easy-to-swallow capsules, enough for a month's supply.

Please don't comment resources as that's not what I'm looking for. I'm still looking into that myself, but I've already extensively looked into a ton and all of them I'm either not qualified for, there is none for me, or I cannot access. And whenever someone directs me to a resource that I yet again can't access and I explain why I can't access it, I get told that I'm making excuses or disregarding everyone's advice and that because of that I'm part of the reason I'm stuck. That is not the case. I geniuenly keep running into dead ends, I have yet to find any resource I can access. But people don't want to believe that because people don't want to believe truly hopeless cases exist, which is why I'm done talking about resources with other people.
I'm 19F. I lost my childhood and adolescence to abuse and constraints of the special education system. I was abused by my mom and maternal grandma for a good chunk of my childhood, then after I was removed by CPS, I lived alone in a hospital room for about 3 weeks and then foster care for about a month or two and a half months before then going to live with my dad. I was in state custody for so long because my dad lived in another state. The children's hospital actually wasn't that bad but in both the foster homes they had bio kids who they poured all their emotional energy leaving the foster kids emotionally neglected. It was more like I was just a guest then their foster kid. Both my childhood abusers died and my abuse stories should've ended there. But it didn't. Because my dad turned out to be abusive too. Albeit he's not nearly as bad as my childhood abusers were, so for a while I hesitated to call what he does to me abuse. But it is. He's a narcissist and I'm the victim of his narcissistic abuse. I have been since shortly after I came back to my birth city to live with him, I still am today. I lost my adolescence to that, but I also lost a lot of normal teenage experiences to being in the special education system. I was first placed into special education in third grade, in another state, under "emotional disturbance" because I lashed out a lot at that age. I lashed out a lot at that age because I was being drugged at home. But the IEP didn't go away when I moved, so I stayed in special education the entire rest of my school days even as my circumstances drastically changed and even once I no longer met the criteria for emotional disturbance. Because of this, I only went to a normal middle school for one year and even during that year I had to have an aid follow me around to every normal class and in my sped class there we literally had a behavioral system that treated us like toddlers: "green zone, yellow zone, red zone" after this school year sent to an RTC by my school district over truancy, then when I got out I spent my last year of middle school and most of my high school years in special education alternative schools, specifically for emotional disturbance special education. I fell truant that year because i was extremely depressed and constantly felt suicidal but was trying to not kill myself because I was only 12/13 and I wanted to experience my teenage years. I couldn't handle school at the moment when all of my energy was going to trying to survive. I never spoke up about that though due to fear of being hospitalized, which I had already been 4 times before, so I know how much psych wards truly suck. Apparently my truancy that one school year was proof enough that I couldn't handle a normal school and so I was never placed in one again. Because I was stuck in sped schools for emotional disturbance, I never got to experience a normal high school or normal high school/teenage experiences. Teachers talked down to us like we were elementary schoolers and we had level behavioral systems again like we were toddlers and it made me feel very set back, especially since I no longer met the criteria for emotional disturbance by this point. I didn't need any of this. None of my high schools had any extracurriculars, clubs, or even school events. I only had one teacher and one classroom most of my high school years like in elementary school. The high school I went to for the longest had a max of 24 students and 2 teachers. I was forced to go to therapy at all these alternative schools and RTC's as well which had no effect on me. Even worse, the school psychologists kept lying to me and telling me if I did good for X amount of time I'd get to go to a normal high school. I worked my ass off to do amazing for X amount of time, and then they went back and said "it's too early to send you to a normal high school yet" and this happened repeadetly until I realized they were lying. And I never went to one. Then when I was 16 I became having health issues with chronic fatigue so severe at times I could barely even walk. This caused me to fall truant in school again. But the doctors ran basic bloodwork tests and basic exams and found nothing wrong, so nobody believed me. I was sent to an RTC again, where I spent my last semester of high school, before turning 18 there and signing myself out as well as dropping out of high school. All my adolescence, lost. Missed out on every typical high school and teenage experience. Now onto my current situation. I still live with my dad. I don't have a job and haven't ever had one yet. Before I completely stopped working with sped, some cool people from the district encouraged me to apply for SSI. I was hesitant to as I didn't think I'd qualify for that, but they insisted and told me that with my IEP and school documents I do qualify under a severe mental disability. So I figured I'd give it a shot. I also had a similar conversation with a therapist when I was 16 or 17, so seeing as they weren't the first people to highly encourage me to apply for it also helped my decision to give it a shot. Well, it's been eight months since I applied and no answer yet. It looks like it'll take closer for a year for them to come to a decision but I don't have that long before I become homeless. Because of this, I've considered withdrawing my application and looking for a job, but I can't as it requires a printer and being able to mail something, 2 things I cannot do. I do not have a printer and am unable to mail anything. I cannot apply for a job with a pending SSI application. Not only will it defeat the whole purpose and essentially kill any potential chance I may have had, but it could potentially be considered fraud since I don't have the means to report it. Because of this situation, I have no income, so I have no money. I also have no means of transportation, as I cannot drive, and since i have no money I cannot afford public transportation, and the only free transportation in my city is for seniors, I'm not a senior. So walking is my only way to get around, but that's getting harder overtime as my unexplained fatigue symptom has been getting worse again lately and I've struggled to walk down the block. My dad HATES me, and he wants to get rid of me, and he will. That's his only end goal, is to get rid of me. To get me out of his life, out of the picture. He recently called the cops on me after me and him and his wife got into another arguement and explained to them that he doesn't want me here. He also lied to them that I was the only one yelling and causing a disturbance, when everybody was yelling. The cops told him that they cannot get me for trespassing because our address is on my ID's, (and other forceful ways to try to kick someone out like changing the locks or packing up/tossing out all their stuff on their behalf is illegal in my state, so he cannot forcefully kick me out st all) so to kick me out he would have to go through the whole court process to evict me. That whole process could take a couple months or so and he doesn't wanna wait that long, he wants me gone asap, so he is also considering just moving out without me, which would just suddenly force me out on the street without any notice at all, unlike an eviction which would have a date I'd know and a notice. I'm not sure which one he's going to do yet, but I know for sure he is going to do one of them as I know for sure his end goal is to get rid of me. I've talked to other family members about this and they're all manipulated by my dad somehow whether they like me or not. My dad uses DARVO so a lot of my family members think I'm the villain and hate me, and blame me and say it's my fault this is happening to me. And even the one family member that still loves me, and actually know me somewhat beyond the lies and distortions he spews about me, she doesn't believe me. When I told her about his plan to kick me out within the next couple months or so, her first response was "he wouldn't do that, he's just saying that out of frustration, he loves you." Yeah, I'm sorry, but no he doesn't. She was there when he pulled a gun on me and had me fearing for my life so I seriously don't know how she could still believe that even after that and many other instances proving the opposite. Even after I confirmed with my dad over text after our last argument has blown over that he is still planning on kicking me out, and screenshotted it and sent it to her to prove to her he really is kicking me out, her response was then "well, it's because you're not doing anything with your life, that's not good, you need to do something with your life." EVERYBODY is finding something to pin the blame on me. EVERYBODY is missing the biggest factor here. The biggest factor here is that my dad hates me and wants me gone. That's it, that's the point of this, no other factor really truly matters here. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, they use the fact I have no income and am waiting on social security since I can't withdraw as some kind of leverage against me like "well if you would get up off your lazy ass and get a job and make money and do something with your life and contribute something maybe your dad would let you stay, he doesn't want you there because all you do is use up all of his resources that he pays for while you contribute nothing." (yes, these are things I have been told before.) Well, first of all, they're missing the bigger picture if they're thinking that's how it is, that is NOT the case, and secondly, THEY'RE MISSING THE POINT. Even if I was working/had a steady income since 15 and paying for all my own food, clothes, hygiene products, and even paying half the rent, THAT WOULD NOT MATTER, that would not be good enough for my dad because I'd still be living here. He's said himself before that all he really wants is for me to move out, no matter what. My income situation has nothing to do with this. And in today's economy + the rich area I live in, even if I had been working already, I still would not yet have enough money to move out. It would take years to save up enough to move out. My dad will not let me stay here for years. He hates me and he wants me gone asap, period. That's all there really is to it. I have nobody I can stay with. I can't stay with any other family or friends. I cannot go to a homeless shelter as I have no means of transportation and no money to afford public transportation. And I cannot buy supplies because no money. I truly have nowhere else to go, so when the day comes that my dad has successfully reached my end goal and kicked me out, I will be on the streets with nothing to help me survive. I don't think I will live for very long like that. Seeing as the court eviction process to evict an adult child takes a couple months or so so if he goes that route I will be homeless on the streets in a couple months or so, and if he decides to go the moving out without me route instead, that might be even sooner if he can find another place for himself, his wife, their baby, and 3 pets even sooner, then I will be homeless on the streets whenever they find a new place, possibly even sooner than a couple months or so. My 20th birthday is six months away. I will not make it to that. I will not have the means to survive for that much longer. A couple months or so is the max time I have left. Maybe another extra month or two if he decides to go the court ordered eviction route and the second eviction deadline by the court is another 30 or 60 days. But that's it. That's still less than six months away. So, my life, gone. My future, gone. Any chances I had at living an adult life, gone. My future and life was completely ripped away from me at 19. I won't survive to my 20th birthday. This is it. It's over. I won't get to experience my 20's either. Every phase of my life was taken away from me. I never had a chance at life.

Edit: based on comments, I am between 3 bags:

• Patagonia Black Hole 32L
• Fjallraven Raven 28L, which I already own but find hard to pack efficiently
• Patagonia Mini MLC

I am traveling to two conferences in northern Norway and south-east Australia back-to-back and am trying to one-bag it. Luckily my field is very casual so I don’t need a suit or dress shoes, but I do need to make a good impression so hygiene is obviously super important. I also will have a lot of time on planes/in airports, so I’d like to be as comfortable as possible.
I have a long flight to Norway, then I’m there for three days (1 full day), followed by a ~35 hour flight (including layovers) to Australia, then I’m in Aus for 5 days (3 full) followed by a ~27 hour flight home. In each location, I’m traveling directly from the airport to a hotel. I will also be doing a hike one day in Australia.
Because I have a lot of connections and I don’t want to lose my stuff, I’d like a bag that I will not be forced to gate check. I am flying Icelandic Air, FinnAir, Qantas, American, and American operated by Qantas.
Currently, I am eyeing the Patagonia Black Hole 32L for my trip. I also own a Fjallraven Raven 28L, but the inflexible organization makes it annoying to pack and unpack imo. I may also pick up the Patagonia MLC Mini for comparison purposes. I was originally considering the Peak Design Travel Pack 3, but after reading reviews it sounds a bit heavy and potentially too big. The Dragonfly also sounds cool, but I don’t think I will be able to get it in time and I’ve heard it’s functionally closer to a 25L bag.
I am also looking into some ways to organize everything. Specifically, I am thinking of buying some two peak design packing cubes (one large and one small) and some Litesmith containers for liquid skincare products (I get bad acne without specific products). I already own a Peak Design toiletry bag so I may put everything in there, though this may not be most efficient. I am also considering picking up a packable daypack to put my laptop in when I go to the conferences, though I might not need to bring it.
I’m also not totally sure what weather to expect, so the Patagonia fleece I currently use may not be warm enough, in which case I would love recommendations on a good travel jacket.
Here is my packing list:
Clothing:

• 6 t-shirts
• 1 dress shirt (edit: 2 per suggestions in the comments)
• 1 undershirt
• 2 pairs lululemon abc pants (edit: 1 per suggestions in comments)
• 1 pair prana Zion pants
• 7 pairs underwear
• 7 pairs socks (I use Uniqlo but may invest in darn tough)
• 1 Patagonia fleece (may have to bring a warmer jacket too)

Toiletries:

• plastic bag for airport security
• peak design toiletry case
• toothbrush (I prefer electric but will bring regular instead)
• toothpaste
• nail clippers
• tweezers
• floss
• contacts case
• contacts solution
• extra pair contacts
• glasses
• retainer
• electric shaver
• shaving gel
• sunscreen
• litesmith containers with decanted skincare products
• travel size deodorant (still haven’t found a good one that is aluminum free, unscented, and <= 1 oz)

Tech:

• laptop w/ case
• laptop charger
• airpods
• donut outlet converter
• anker usb-c to lightning phone charger
• iniu power bank (mine melted a bit somehow so probably need to replace)

Misc:

• small notebook
• pen
• book to read on plane (might take up too much space)
• water bottle
• daypack?

https://preview.redd.it/if3gtvvzek5d1.png?width=1147&format=png&auto=webp&s=36e9bd150db8a2903a726ca0e317c0d23a3e7f2c
This is the routine plan I will be implementing when I return to university in September (after the 4 month summer break). I have run this routine before and it has been extremely effective, however, the nature of the routine being heavily dependent on habit made it vulnerable to collapse if disrupted. Moreover, I did suffer from burnout after following this routine for 2 years, but that may be attributed to other stressors at the time.
My question is, should I be allowing for an additional 3 hrs of sleep before work on Tuesdays and Saturdays to offload the intensity of the routine? OR, should I prioritise the habitual element of completing the same activities at the same time daily?
Any additional advice or comments are appreciated. Thanks.
Key: Dark red - Yoga & meditation Yellow - Meals (prep, eating, cleaning) Green - University Orange - Gym Dark Blue - Walk Purple - Free time Red - Hygiene & self-care Dark green - Commute Light blue - Work Dark blue - Chores Black - Friends

Optimizing Email Dispatch through VBA

Automating email processes through Excel VBA can significantly enhance productivity, especially for those who regularly send out a multitude of emails. This technique allows for a streamlined approach to email distribution, leveraging Excel macros to interact directly with Outlook. The primary convenience lies in automating repetitive tasks, such as sending weekly reports or notifications to a broad audience. However, a common hurdle encountered by many involves customizing the macro to select a specific sending address within Outlook, especially when multiple accounts are configured.
This challenge arises from the need to personalize emails sent from specific accounts to ensure they align with the sender's identity or the email's purpose. The ability to automate the selection of a 'From' email address directly from Excel VBA not only saves time but also adds a layer of professionalism to the communication. Unfortunately, despite numerous tutorials, the integration of this feature often appears elusive, leading many to resort to manually selecting the sending address for each email. Addressing this issue not only optimizes the process but enhances the overall efficiency of email management.

Command	Description
CreateObject("Outlook.Application")	Initializes an instance of Outlook.
.CreateItem(0)	Creates a new email item.
.Attachments.Add	Adds an attachment to the email.
.Display	Displays the email before sending for review.
For Each...Next	Loops through a range of cells.

Enhancing Email Automation with VBA

Automating email tasks using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook offers a powerful way to enhance efficiency and accuracy in email communication. This approach is particularly beneficial for users who need to manage a large volume of emails or send personalized communications to multiple recipients regularly. The core of this automation lies in the ability to programmatically control Outlook from within Excel, enabling the sending of emails based on data contained in an Excel worksheet. This functionality can significantly streamline operations such as weekly newsletters, marketing campaigns, or status reports, by automating what would otherwise be a tedious and error-prone manual process.
The challenge, however, comes in personalizing the 'From' field when sending emails from different accounts configured in Outlook. This is a common requirement for users who manage multiple email identities for various roles or departments. The default behavior of VBA scripts is to use the primary Outlook account, which may not always be appropriate for every email sent. By modifying the VBA script to allow the selection of the 'From' address, users can ensure that each email is sent from the most suitable account, enhancing the email's relevance and credibility. Moreover, this customization can contribute to better organization and segmentation of email communications, leading to improved engagement and efficiency.

Integrating 'From' Email Selection in VBA Macros

Written in Visual Basic for Applications

Dim OutApp As Object Dim OutMail As Object Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") Set OutMail = OutApp.CreateItem(0) With OutMail .SentOnBehalfOfName = "your-email@example.com" .To = "recipient@example.com" .Subject = "Subject Here" .Body = "Email body here" .Display ' or .Send End With 

Advanced Techniques in VBA Email Automation

Mastering email automation through VBA in Excel opens up a world of efficiency and personalization for users who need to send out bulk communications but wish to maintain a personal touch. This is particularly important in scenarios where emails need to be tailored to individual recipients or sent from specific accounts to match the communication context. Advanced scripting in VBA allows users to dynamically select the 'From' email address in Outlook, circumventing the limitations of manual selection and the default account restrictions. This capability is crucial for users managing multiple departments, roles, or identities within their professional landscape.
Moreover, the integration of Excel and Outlook through VBA extends beyond just sending emails. It enables the automation of entire workflows, such as generating personalized email content based on Excel data, scheduling emails, and even handling responses. This level of automation ensures that communication is both consistent and efficient, reducing the potential for human error and freeing up valuable time for more strategic tasks. However, navigating this integration requires a nuanced understanding of both Excel VBA and Outlook's object model, highlighting the need for clear guidance and best practices in implementing these solutions effectively.

FAQs on VBA Email Automation

1. Question: Can I send emails through Excel VBA without Outlook?
2. Answer: While Excel VBA is typically used in conjunction with Outlook for email automation, alternative methods can involve SMTP servers or third-party email services APIs, although these require more complex setups.
3. Question: How do I automate sending emails from different Outlook accounts?
4. Answer: You can specify the 'SentOnBehalfOfName' property in your VBA script to send emails from different accounts configured in Outlook, provided you have the necessary permissions.
5. Question: Can attachments be added dynamically in VBA automated emails?
6. Answer: Yes, the '.Attachments.Add' method can be used within your VBA script to add attachments dynamically based on file paths specified in your Excel sheet.
7. Question: Is it possible to schedule emails using Excel VBA?
8. Answer: Direct scheduling is not supported through VBA, but you can script the creation of calendar appointments in Outlook with reminders to send emails, effectively scheduling them indirectly.
9. Question: How can I ensure my automated emails do not end up in the spam folder?
10. Answer: Ensure your emails are not overly promotional, include a clear unsubscribe link, and maintain a reputable sender score. Sending from recognized accounts and limiting the number of identical emails can also help.

Mastering VBA for Efficient Email Management

As we delve into the intricacies of automating email processes via Excel VBA, it becomes clear that this technology offers a potent tool for enhancing communication efficiency. The ability to customize the 'From' email address directly from Excel not only streamlines the email sending process but also opens up a realm of possibilities for personalization and professionalism in email communication. Despite the initial challenges in script modification and understanding the Outlook object model, the benefits far outweigh the efforts. Through careful implementation and continuous learning, users can significantly reduce manual email management tasks, ensuring that emails are sent timely, from the correct account, and with a personalized touch. This exploration underlines the importance of embracing VBA automation in modern business communications, advocating for its role in optimizing workflows and fostering more meaningful interactions in the digital age.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/vba/customizing-excel-vba-macros-for-outlook-email-selection

Ocean City, Maryland and Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania are both excellent babymoon destinations near Pittsburgh, offering peaceful beach escapes and outdoor adventures. Pittsburgh is home to luxurious spa retreats specifically designed for babymooners, providing relaxation and rejuvenation through spa treatments, prenatal yoga classes, and indulgent dining experiences. Cozy bed and breakfasts and wellness retreat options near Pittsburgh provide tranquil accommodations for babymooners, offering prenatal yoga classes, guided meditation workshops, and nutritious meals. Babymooners can enjoy outdoor adventures at Ohiopyle State Park, including hiking, biking, fishing, guided snorkeling tours, and sunset cruises, while also benefiting from the safety measures in place for worry-free experiences. 

Prenatal Yoga Classes: Our spa offers specialized prenatal yoga classes led by experienced instructors who focus on gentle stretching, breathing techniques, and relaxation exercises tailored specifically for expectant mothers. These classes promote overall well-being and help alleviate common pregnancy discomforts. Couples Spa Packages: Enjoy quality bonding time with your partner as you both indulge in our couples' spa packages. From soothing massages to invigorating facials, our expert therapists will tailor each treatment to cater to your individual needs, ensuring a blissful experience together. Safety Measures: Rest assured that we prioritize your safety and follow strict hygiene protocols. Our spa facilities undergo regular sanitization, and all staff members adhere to proper health guidelines, including wearing masks and practicing social distancing. 

Prenatal Yoga Classes: Joining a prenatal yoga class can help improve flexibility, strength, and balance while also providing a calming environment for expectant mothers. These classes focus on gentle stretches and breathing exercises specifically designed for pregnant women. Mindfulness Exercises: Practicing mindfulness can help you stay present in the moment and reduce anxiety or stress. Try incorporating simple mindfulness exercises into your daily routine, such as deep breathing exercises or guided meditation. Self-Care Activities: Engaging in self-care activities is essential during pregnancy. Take time to pamper yourself with activities such as taking warm baths, getting a massage, or enjoying a soothing prenatal spa treatment. 

Privacy: A cabin tucked away in the mountains offers privacy, allowing you to relax and reconnect as a couple without any disturbances. Peaceful Surroundings: Being surrounded by nature's beauty creates a serene atmosphere that promotes tranquility and relaxation, ideal for expecting parents seeking some quiet time together. Romantic Amenities: Many mountain cabins come equipped with amenities like hot tubs or fireplaces, providing the perfect setting for cozy evenings spent cuddling and enjoying each other's company. 

Prenatal Yoga Classes: Take part in gentle yoga sessions designed specifically for expectant mothers. These classes are led by experienced instructors who understand the unique needs of pregnant women, providing a safe and nurturing environment to practice yoga. Meditation Workshops: Engage in guided meditation sessions that promote relaxation, stress reduction, and emotional well-being. Learn techniques to quiet the mind and connect with your inner self, enhancing your overall sense of calmness and peace. Safety First: Rest assured knowing that our accommodations prioritize safety for expecting couples. From non-slip mats in the bathroom to easy access to emergency services, we have taken every measure to ensure a worry-free stay. 

Serene Spa Getaway: Indulge in luxurious spa treatments designed to melt away stress and tension. From soothing massages to revitalizing facials, this wellness retreat offers a range of services tailored to your specific needs. Immerse yourself in calming environments, surrounded by natural beauty, as expert therapists work their magic. Mindfulness Retreat: Escape the noise of everyday life and immerse yourself in mindfulness practices that promote inner peace and clarity. Engage in guided meditation sessions, gentle yoga classes, and nature walks that awaken your senses. Learn techniques for managing stress and cultivating mindfulness that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Wellness Resort Experience: Stay at a top-notch wellness resort where every detail is designed with your well-being in mind. Enjoy nutritious meals prepared with locally sourced ingredients, participate in fitness classes led by experienced instructors, and take advantage of state-of-the-art facilities such as pools, saunas, and hot tubs. 

Prenatal Yoga Classes: Take advantage of the calming benefits of prenatal yoga classes offered at these nature retreats. Stretch and strengthen your body while also connecting with other expectant parents. The gentle movements and breathing exercises will help alleviate any pregnancy discomfort and promote a sense of inner peace. Babymoon Photography Sessions: Capture the precious moments of your babymoon with professional photography sessions amidst the stunning natural landscapes. These photographers specialize in capturing intimate moments between you and your partner, creating lasting memories to cherish forever. Safety is our Priority: Rest assured that safety is a top priority at these serene nature retreats. From well-maintained trails for leisurely walks to comfortable accommodations that prioritize cleanliness, every aspect is designed to ensure a worry-free babymoon experience. 

I was looking into this day program and it looks amazing because of the activities they run there and the pictures of the building look cool. My developmental educator told me to put in an enquiry which I did- the information they asked for was: My name, my email address, my phone number, if I am an ndis participant, what activities I was interested in, and where I heard about their company.
A woman called me later that day and asked me if there was anything she could help me with and I was kind of confused and didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say much I just said I had to talk to my support coordinator but I was wondering about pricing (I did not say it that eloquently either- she basically had to ask me questions to prompt me to even say stuff because I was quite confused). The woman told me ‘I can tell from just talking to you, you don’t have a significant a disability as the people who come to these programs’. I didn’t know what to say so I just said okay. But it really upset me because I don’t know how she can know how significant my disability is just from me saying like 5 words or so. It didn’t even ask me my disability on the enquiry form. I could have been a quadriplegic for all she knew. I have level 2/3 autism (2 social communication, 3 RRBs), and I have been recommended to go to a day program by two people in my care team and I have been to a day program once before (I just didn’t like this particular program because everyone was way older than me and I didn’t like most of the activities).
And there is nothing on their website that says they are only for people with high support needs. They offer 1:1-1:5 support ratios, and it says they support people with varying ability levels.
Their activities also seem more suited to me- with activities like art activities, life skills classes (about taking care of personal hygiene, friendships and relationships, money and budgeting skills, emotional regulation), cooking which includes shopping for ingredients preparing and making food, social outings, wellbeing activities like bike riding yoga etc, as well as free choices on Fridays like they can watch movies do board games puzzles etc.
Now I’m upset and don’t know if I want to maybe go there because of that lady. My mum says maybe she was just having a bad day and that was why she was mean. I will talk to my OT when I see her because she will probably sort it out for me but I just keep fixating on it and getting upset and it makes me want to cry.

In Honkai Star Rail, you play as Johnkai Starrail, a fully-grown two-week-old cancerous raccoon hobo jointly adopted by three mass murderers, a fraud and a furry all of whom live inside a giant flying gun train that goes around the universe stealing cancer from people.
Johnkai Starrail was born when a femcel NEET gamer with no sense of hygiene fisted an innocent raccoon with portable space cancer while a cockroach watched.
These two of course being the members of the Stellaron Hunters, a rival group of cancer-stealing mass murderers with nothing better to do than listen to a cat meow and knock over boxes and through sheer schizophrenia, decipher it as an MS Word document on the fate of the universe that will grant each and every one of them their deepest wishes.
The Stellaron Hunters consist of:

• Femcel Bronya (she has kidney stones).
• Ms Cockroach (this bug steps on you)
• Shirou Emiya (he wants to kill himself)
• Kamen Rider (she likes genocide and cute plushies)
• Elio (literally just a cat)

Welcome aboard the Astral Express, Trailblazers! Tonight, we rail the stars!
...

Chapter 2: Johnkai Starrail does minimum wage labour in China.

Johnkai Starrail, for his countless crimes, has been sentenced to life in prison. He is to be sent to the penal colony, Penacony, with his accomplices Dong Hung and September 11th.
However, conflict arises as Ms Cockroach suddenly arrives at the Astral Express to fight for custody over Johnkai Starrail. HIMeko, not wanting her lovely deranged trash-eating son to be stressed by this legal battle, loads him into the Express' barrel and fires him to *Space China* to create low price electronics for her while he waits it all out.
However, the sheer density of Dong Hung's massive **** creates a gravitational field and pulls March and Grandpa Fraud along for the ride.
...
At the same time, Shirou Emiya holds up the General of Space China, Mid Yuan, over that one time he and his college D&D group dine-and-dashed. "Of five, three must pay a price." Fortunately, Fraud Yuan was one of the five who footed the bill so he's free to go.
...

Tangent: Man, I love eating literal garbage.

Before we move on with this haphazard story written by Hoyoverse's overworked employees through throwing stones into the air while highly sleep-deprived and trying to mesh the hallucinations spawned from them hitting the writer in the head into a concise plot, I must explain how levelling works in this game.
Called the Trace system, it, unlike its Nasuverse counterpart, operates not by concentrated schizophrenia, but rather, eating literal garbage.
In essence, for say, a Preservation character, you take them to an outhouse, and instead of ordering anything on the menu, you murder all the employees, strip the guards of their clothes, and then your Preservation character gleefully consumes the inedible masses of scrap metal ripped from their carcasses.
This gross violation of all natural laws is so pleasing to this character that it causes their prowess at violence to greatly increase by... 1%.
And now you know how to build your characters!
...
Back to the plot, Johnkai Starrail, March 7th and Grandpa Fraud are held up by Chinese Space Customs for having no passports. Fortunately, they are reduced to blood mist by the hitherto unmentioned immortal omnicidal PTSD plant menace created due to Yaoshi getting just a little too invested in Plants vs Zombies and trying to fuse the two.
The gang meet up with a fox lady named Tingyun. All you need to know about her is that she won the Best Head contest on the Buddy subreddit.
She takes the troupe of Nameless to her boss, Yukong, who's canonically a milf. Yukong tells them to screw off, so Johnkai Starrail demands to speak to the manager of China. She redirects them to Fraud Yuan.
Fraud Yuan realises this plot has been directionless for the past two hours and desperately trying to save this mess of a chapter gets Johnkai and pals to murder Shirou Emiya, because if anyone can fix a mess of a plot it's everyone's favourite sword.
...

Dong Hung does nothing but kill plants for two hours while Welt's boyfriend acts vaguely menacingly.

Dong Hung remembers he's one of the main characters and so banned from being irrelevant. However, being a lazy wad on account of the mere existence of his planet-shattering \*** consuming all his energy, leaving him with atrophied muscles in a medical condition commonly called "Twink*", Dong Hung can't be bothered to actually do anything of import.
Instead, he gets off the train, meets up with Welt's boyfriend and leaves all the plot to him since, like HI3, Otto handles everything.
In fact, Otto didn't die in HI3 because of the two scantily clad teenage girls beating him to death, but rather because his spine simply snapped after having carried the entirety of the plot for the past 15 years.
Suschlong is there too. According to the Honkai community, she has a very large cock.
...

Johnkai Starrail's custody battle comes to a head.

Johnkai Starrail and pals find Ms Cockroach, Johnkai Starrail's mother. Having been unable to convince the judges that she's the better parent to the woman whose coffee is considered worse than IX's gaze, she's decided to break the law and just take her son back through force.
With her incredible skills of Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, she dominates the party, but then a tiny Asian woman appears with a slipper, and as small Asian women are the natural enemy of cockroaches, Kafka is immediately defeated.
They drag her to a giant calculator and she has a delusional rant on how:

• She's a slave of a cat.
  
• Everything is unavoidable.
  
• Johnkai Starrail needs to fistfight God shirtless on a tall tower in the rain one day.
  

Johnkai Starrail now understands how she lost the custody battle.
...

Johnkai hunts endangered wildlife for fun.

Fu Xuan lets the clearly mentally addled old mother go. March 7th then, bored, drives an endangered species of deers extinct.
Oh yeah, wait, this thing had a plot. Yeah. remember those weird plant immortal PTSD things? They originate from smoke apparently. And Johnkai and his friends go ahead to the smoke machines to-
Whoops. Recall Tingyun? The lady who won the "Best Head" contest?
Phantylia, Ravager of Destruction, severely misunderstands what "Best Head" means and snaps her head off.
...

Dong Hung gets penetrated.

Johnkai Starrail, severely traumatized, decides to halt the plot to have a beach episode.
There, he finds Dong Hung and Shirou Emiya aggressively "sword-fighting". However, Dong Hung's prowess with his 'polearm' is nothing compared to Shirou's skill with his 'blade' and Shirou penetrates Dong Hung.
This experience of having another man inside him causes Dong Hung to experience self-realization and transform into a flamboyant, horn-y version of himself surrounded by fluid.
...
Suddenly, Yanqing arrives. Ms Cockroach , Dong Hung and Shirou Emiya all set their differences aside to beat the small child to a pulp. Johnkai Starrail sees this and joins in on the fun, followed by March 7th, Grandpa Fraud, Phantylia, Nanook, IX, Aha, Acheron, Firefly, Screwllum, Gandalf, Roland, Gilgamesh, Doctor Who, Doraemon, Goku and everyone in the Honkaiverse and a few outside.
After atomising Yanqing, everyone has a great celebration and Shirou Emiya and Dong Hung reconcile over their shared love for violence. They put aside the old unpaid bill for McDonald's that caused a rift in their friendship, the High Cloud Quintet (named after how they'd all get together to get absolutely smoked every Sunday) years ago.
...

Johnkai Starrail and friends attack a giant lady's chest till she dies and go home.

Johnkai Starrail, Fraud Yuan, Dong Hung then go to Phantylia because they just remembered she's terminally ill with space cancer.
With Dong Hung's fluids, Johnkai Starrail's lance, Fraud Yuan and Grandpa Fraud doing absolutely nothing, they easily overpower her and steal her cancer, causing her to have to give up her Make-a-Wish gift of being a giant woman and turn back into a ball of fire which Fraud Yuan stuffs into a furnace.
The gang celebrates their victory by all inviting every single fictional character to have ever been to stage the world's largest JJK jumping and eradicate the very concept of Yanqing.
...

Johnkai Starrail gets arrested for tax evasion.

Sometime later, Johnkai Starrail thinks on the abrupt ending and ponders on the matter. Was there a moral to this? Why was Otto here at all? Is it true that Suschlong is in fact larger than Dong Hung?
His questions go unanswered as he is dragged kicking and screaming back to Belobog for tax evasion.
The rest of the gang look on baffled as the entirety of Space China subsequently collapses as while they took over a meth lab and murdered a giant woman, they kind of forgot to deal with the actual problem of the immortal unkillable serial killer plant zombies everywhere.
Yeah, that happens sometimes. Some worlds prosper, other worlds get railed.
Because this truly was our,

Honkai Star Rail!

...

Roll Credits!

...

[<---Previous Part Here!]

First Prev Next Patreon Ko-fi Discord
PRs: u/anakist & u/BroDogIsMyName
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It had been a few weeks since Altier was brought to the run-down shack that his black-scaled companion likely called home, and he could now comfortably say he was accustomed to the…household’s routine. The kobold typically left at the crack of dawn, returned a little after noon, and occasionally left again to forage until nightfall. When the weather was bad or there wasn’t a particular need for something, they half-heartedly chased their rabbit around for a bit, which usually ended with a bout of quiet petting while everyone got ready for the night. It was always amusing to see the energetic side of what he had come to know as a relatively lazy loaf of an animal. As for the routine of the ferrorabbit in question… Well…it was at least more interesting than expected.
Hoppit would begin his own series of activities as soon as his caretaker left—the first of which being a check of every nook and cranny in the shed. He sniffed at anything that caught his interest, varying from morning to morning, but he gave every object or corner its due attention. Once he was satisfied with that, he would eat some of the ragged plants that made up most of his diet, take a drink from his bowl, then jump onto the tro— table and plop himself down, his ears pivoting towards the door. It was hard to say if the lounging spot had been established before Altier’s arrival, but it was somewhat amusing to pretend that the little rabbit was standing guard over his core—if it wasn’t for one particular part of the morning ritual, that is.
Indeed, the ferrorabbit had a habit of licking the obsidian orb that sat in the middle of the room, which thankfully didn’t seem to perturb the system enough to give Altier a headache. He was confused when it first happened, but it was commonplace enough now that he barely acknowledged it. A part of him liked that he was getting attention as a core, even if it was delivered via a strange grooming method. The closest he got to being acknowledged as something other than ‘the dungeon’ was through an unfortunate misunderstanding that he could never properly rectify. He supposed that was hardly worth thinking about now, though; too much time had passed for there to be anyone left to correct. The little oddity of his mornings would have to suffice.
There wasn’t much to comment on as far as the rest of the day’s happenings. Hoppit would end his loafing by shaking his head and ears in a way that filled the silence with soft clacks, give the core a customary tongue bath, then jump off the table to nose his way out of the shed through a hole that was hidden by the storage cart against the wall. Where the rabbit went was anyone’s guess, but he always returned before anyone noticed he was gone, and often did so while covered in small cuts and scratches. Any blood from the lacerations was quickly licked off before it could be seen by the kobold, and in the event that the scaly caretaker happened to return earlier than expected, Hoppit would scurry over to the bundles of blankets to finish the cleanup in secret.
Today looked to be following the usual pattern. The kobold left bright and early with various gardening tools and a wooden pail, and Hoppit had since set off into the great unknown for one reason or another. Hopefully, he returned less injured than usual. It was frustrating to admit that Altier had begun to grow rather fond of the fluffy creature, and seeing the thing come back hurt was bothersome. Was it off looking for food? There wasn’t a whole lot given to it, so that was a possibility, and it could be getting into fights over whatever it found. That still didn’t explain why the animal was so thin, and Altier didn’t have enough to go off of to think of a potential solution. He wanted to help it in some way, like by summoning a creature to act as an escort, or maybe just by manifesting something edible like he once could. No, he could only stare at the ‘Synchronizing…’ that occupied his menu, wishing he had more information to work with.
He never thought he would miss the bombardment of notifications and their lingering presence that filled the edge of his mental vision; at least with that he could surmise enough to hazard some kind of action. Even knowing why the menu was acting the way it did would be a start. Yet, try as he might, there wasn’t a history for him to reference anymore, and he had nothing to work with. He was confident the last message had asked him to ‘accept’ something, then took his befuddled ponderance as an answer, but he was no closer to an explanation for what it wanted, nor why it prompted him in the first place. He just didn’t have another experience to compare against, since nothing like that had ever happened before. Not that he was ever in much of a position to allow it.
The entire purpose of having Altier inhabit a core was for him to become a dungeon of Decay, which entailed all the skeletons, poisons, acids, and whatever else came to mind when one pictured the concept. ‘Living’ creatures were something he only had the chance to experiment with near the beginning of his new existence, though he never dabbled past the first few insects before transitioning to the mindless undead. Having a thinking, feeling, breathing entity touch his core was a rite reserved only for the adventurers and soldiers that bested his trials, and that was usually a painful experience. Now, he had spent what he could only guess was hours being held by a kobold, followed by having a rabbit bump against him, and neither felt like what he came to expect. Instead, both had led to a completely novel reaction from the system. The strange circumstances put him at a bit of a loss as to what it all meant for him.
Sure, he could dismiss the deluge of errors from his companion’s involvement by pointing to the numerous ‘corrupted’ messages before it, and Hoppit was a part of mostly unexplored territory, but the lack of clarity nagged at the back of his mind constantly. Being exposed to activity after potential decades or centuries of unchanging solitude made him despise the informational dead end. If he couldn’t make sense of the rabbit’s circumstances, then he didn’t have much hope of deciphering the reason for why his system was misbehaving so terribly. He also didn't know much about the one who owned the decrepit holdings he was housed inside.
He still wasn’t sure what drove the kobold to take him from the cave. His suspicion of becoming traded goods fell flat after the first week or so, and he hadn’t noticed any cult-like behaviour, which was promising. Granted, a lack of nefarious behaviour didn’t mean there was a lack of nefarious intent, but he didn’t get the impression his companion held that either. The kobold itself didn’t seem quite settled on an opinion of his core, though it was up for debate if the hesitation was due to knowing what he was or not. They seemed to mull something over before bed each night, yet never reached a satisfactory conclusion, staring at the obsidian orb through weary grey eyes until they eventually forced themselves into sleep.
Whatever the underlying reasoning for his abduction was, he had observed enough to know that the kobold didn’t deserve to live in destitution. As beaten as the shed might be, they cared for it as best they could, and did so without a single groan or grimace of complaint. The floors were cleaned with a tattered rag and fresh water, dust was removed regularly, and any stray mess that Hoppit made was dealt with promptly. They even took the time to wipe off his core, which was possibly where the ferrorabbit got the idea to start licking him. The only time Altier had seen discontent from the kobold was when they didn’t find much during their foraging, and thus couldn’t give any treats to the excited and bouncy herbivore.
He wasn’t aware that a creature’s face could make such a painfully broken expression, and he was quick to decide that he never wanted to see it again.
Vexingly, his metaphorical hands were tied; a dungeon could only influence their Domain, and given the state of his system, not even that option was available to him. All he could do was glare at the rotting wooden beams that held up the roof and remember when such an issue didn’t exist. It would have taken a mere flicker of thought and a paltry sum of mana to mend the struts when he was a proper dungeon. He could even outright reinforce the structure by weaving in other materials, leaving the appearance as it was while making everything stronger than iron. Well, he once could. Working with other affinities was something that came to him after absorbing the coloured motes left behind by adventurers, and the accursed stone that stole his mana had taken that ability as well.
An attempt was made anyway, his will ordering the deteriorated wood to absorb any trace metals from the ground, but it was no use. He couldn’t feel the iron or stones beneath the shed like he would have been able to before, all but confirming his suspicion that his connection to the Earth element had slipped away. Nature was much the same; the only way he knew when Hoppit had returned most days was from the subtle noise and the essence of injury. The other attributes—Air, Flame, Luma, Shadow, and so on—were ones he never experimented with to any real extent, so it was less noticeable when he lost his grasp on them. Perhaps they faded early. Either way, all he had left was a waning cognizance of his own alignment, and that wasn’t of much use to him. If he had any appreciable mana income, then perhaps he could do something, but he wasn’t even sure what the upkeep of his current Domain might be. It was entirely possible that he was running on a deficit, which would offer a reason for why his system had been so—
[Do#$@n Ex@#d$%^&d! CRe@#r H-H-H-HoPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP—]
[Errrrrrr—]
[Sy$%^hroni%^$zing…]
[Creeee-tu— Hoppit ha@$ esttttb-hed terrrrrrr-ity f^#% t$e dun@&$n!]
- - - - -
“Well then,” he mumbled to himself, taking in the strange scene behind the shed. For one, he could actually view a small distance beyond the structure now, and two, there was a rather proud-looking Hoppit sitting on his haunches before a pair of significantly less prideful examples of the species. They looked quite a bit bigger than the lazy loaf Altier had come to know, yet they were more cut up and dejected than his furry friend. That answered where the injuries had been coming from, he supposed. Hoppit was probably running off to bash heads with whatever animal population existed here beforehand, and they had only just reached a consensus on who was in charge. Impressive.
One of Hoppit’s ears turned back towards the shed, his head following suit as he gave a lagomorph’s approximation of a ‘Look what I did!’ smile. Altier blanked out mentally, but didn’t have time to question anything before the new leader of the local rabbits imperiously pointed a paw towards the surrounding forest, which was equally surreal to witness. Most surprising of all, the…subordinates? The other ferrorabbits did as commanded, keeping their forms small as they took off into the foliage. Soft clacks came from Hoppit’s pleased shake of his head, then he too left the area with only a slightly lopsided bounce to his stride.
The man-turned-core could only gape at what he saw. Were animals always so…expressive? Had Hoppit heard him? What in the world was happening? Why had Hoppit’s personal conquest led to Altier’s Domain expanding?
He lamented not having fingers, nor temples to rub with them. His system was a garbled mess of errors and inconsistent messages, his residence was falling apart at the seams, his companion was someone who abducted him from the dungeon, yet never did anything past that, and his first real experience with an animal was turning out to be more confusing than he thought possible.
All of this was after an unknown amount of time spent commanding legions of undead to strengthen the very people who he would later learn had lied to and manipulated him, making him into a nightmarish entity just to bolster the power of their forces. He almost missed the days spent gazing out of a mossy window. At least then he knew what to expect.
Nothing made sense anymore.
= = = = =
The soft sound of roots ripping free from soil suddenly stopped, only to be followed by a dull thud of Ceele’s palm slapping against the ground to catch her fall before she landed on her rear. She righted herself with her tail and tossed the stubborn weed into a pile with the others. No matter how many mornings she did this, they always seemed to replace themselves faster than she could remove the pesky things. A sigh slipped from her muzzle as she set about grabbing the next one embedded in the vegetable garden.
Aches and spreading stiffness flared up, but went ignored as she neared the end of her duties, though she was well aware that they would come back with force once she tried to settle down for the day. The impending soreness was an inevitable byproduct of spending so much time working. Still, she knew that if it wasn’t for the kindly old couple that allowed her to call their shed home, she would still be sleeping beneath the stars while making sure nothing tried to get at her Hoppit. Even if it was just a part of the deal, they were owed this much in return, and she would see it done properly.
The sun bore down on her back as she did her usual tasks, which was a departure from the slightly overcast weather as of late. It looked somewhat promising when she checked in the wee hours of the morning, yet as her gardening duties dragged on, so too did the intensity of such a clear sky. A disappointed glance at the empty wooden bucket on the edge of the field was quickly corrected. She hadn’t thought to refill it at the river after watering the crops, and her parched throat was making its protests known, while also reminding her that there wasn’t much water left at home either. One more thing to take care of when she was done.
A gruff cough brought her attention towards the old kobold resting his back against a tree some distance away, safely shaded from the unforgiving rays beaming down. Her displeasure at having yet more to do was hastily wiped away. She was undecided on what to think of the detached audience, but looking so sour while upholding her side of the agreement wouldn’t reflect well on her. Hopefully, he hadn’t seen it. Not that she could tell if he did; he always had the same expression when he watched her work. The elder kobold’s arms were crossed, a finger tapping absently against his bicep, while his tail sat motionless on the grass, the muddy red colour of his scales standing out amongst the greens and browns. ‘Makis,’ was his name, assuming her memory served.
Makis had taken to observing her every so often, usually propping himself against this or that at a distance, the unwavering scowl being as unnerving as it was belying of his age. Somewhat loose skin sagged a bit around his jowls and neck, yet the rest of his face was still taut from how much time he spent examining red-hot metal, and his arms were marred with countless burns and cuts from his profession. He held an oppressive aura, though the crinkles around his eyes and muzzle suggested he smiled as frequently as he glowered, even if Ceele was yet to see the former. There was only the same judgmental expression aimed at her when he was around. She could only hope that he didn’t take offence to some unintended slight, but she didn’t know him well enough to say what might be considered one.
They hadn’t spoken since she took up residence on the outskirts of his land. His wife was the one to introduce them, but it was quickly established that he had no intention of being a chatty individual. He led Ceele to the shed hidden amongst the trees on the edge of the property, then dismissed her with only a grunt coming from the elderly kobold. She supposed that it was for the best. Her experience in socializing was centred around convincing others to employ her, and there hadn’t been much of an opportunity to expand her horizons while living a life on the road. If that had been the end of their interactions, she would have swiftly written the terseness off, but he appeared every few days, taking up residence beneath the shade as he watched her work, never speaking a single word. At least he didn’t openly protest her presence, yet she figured that would be easier to manage. He wouldn’t be such an enigma then.
There wasn’t a whole lot she knew about him besides his penchant for ‘supervision,’ and anything beyond that was what his wife had volunteered during the rare opportunity they had to chat. She was told that Makis worked the smithy out front, and although he had retired from doing so in an official capacity, she could still regularly hear his hammer as she tended to the garden, so she figured he kept himself busy most days. It made her wonder what was so interesting about a vagrant like herself, but when there was so little else to do, she could see how anything could be made worth the attention. It was just him and his wife living in the once bustling home, after all; the couple’s children had long since grown up and made families of their own.
She noticed his gaze shift elsewhere as she tugged yet another stubborn intruder from the soil, his arms falling from across his chest and the perpetually worn displeasure melting to that of curiosity. He wandered off shortly after, and she had to make an effort not to fall onto her tail as the pressure on her shoulders unexpectedly evaporated. Did something happen?
Ceele shook her head free of the distracting thought. It wasn’t her business if he grew bored with watching her work. As long as no one voiced any complaints, she could only assume that she was doing a satisfactory job. Maybe he finally decided that he didn’t need to be so watchful because she was doing well! That could be it, right?
A glance at the somewhat sloppily maintained garden erased the false confidence from her face, but she was just as quick to focus on finishing up, unwilling to allow darker musings to fester. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be anything else that needed her intervention. The weeds were all uprooted, the soil was appropriately dampened, and her check for pesky insects or wildlife turned up nothing to worry about. She was free for the rest of the day!
…Or she would be free—as soon as she finished the last of her tasks, anyway.
The black-scaled kobold got up from her crouch unsteadily, shivering and wincing from the pins and needles in her legs. She would have to remember to stretch more often; it was far too easy to forgo that kind of thing just to make the overall work go slightly faster. Her hand reached out to grab the pile of weeds and put them into the bucket as she ran through what needed to be done before she could properly relax. Hoppit’s food needed to be washed, she needed to bathe, and they were running low on water anyway, so she would have to visit the river. Just the thought of dragging herself into the forest again made her muscles protest, but she wouldn’t have the energy to do it later. She forced the smile that had started to fall and took the first of many steps.
- - - - -
The river wasn’t too far away, only taking a few minutes of traipsing through the dense woodlands until she reached her destination. It was an idyllic little spot. The trees thinned out to allow a grassy bank along the water, and there was an appreciably gentle slope from shallows to depths, making for a convenient place to take care of various needs. She had discovered this place during her travels, and it was where a kind older woman found her.
Ceele was washing off at the time, with Hoppit safely taking shelter from the outside underneath the bundled blankets while he waited. The trickle of the stream brushing against rocks covered the sound of footsteps, so she was rather surprised when an aged voice called out to ask if she was okay. Her first reaction was to distance herself and apologize—the why didn’t matter, but she had learned that most people were more lenient of her presence if she seemed apologetic for it, and she usually was. The elderly kobold just laughed at her scrambling, tacking on an assurance that there was no need for modesty. The woman was blind, apparently, which explained how Ceele’s blackened colours hadn’t deterred her.
Strangely enough, there was a comforting sense of ease around the one who introduced herself as Hira. It was a sort of presence that Ceele could only vaguely remember, and it drew her close enough to speak as she finished bathing. The conversation wasn’t anything profound, of course—they hardly delved deeper than surface-level small talk—but Hira lost her smile as she listened to the younger kobold. By the end of it, the old woman posed a series of questions with a dark inflection to her voice, and Ceele struggled to find an answer.
‘Are you tired of looking for something that only slips away? Are you tired of running? Do you really want to be scared and alone?’
If the silence bothered Hira, then it didn’t show. She had simply held out a hand and offered Ceele a way of life that didn’t involve wondering where she would be spending the night, nor entailed cowering in the brush while fearsome predators roamed freely. It would be a simple existence of few fortunes, but it was safe, and it was honest. All she had to do was say yes.
Ceele denied it at first, partially because she knew most people despised Hoppit's species, and partially because she couldn’t shake the offer being too good to be true. Hira was quick to propose a compromise; Ceele could take residence in the gardening shed that had fallen from use, and to satiate the nagging sense of an unfair deal, she would be put in charge of maintaining the garden itself. All Hira wanted was to ‘see’ her favourite space bloom again, since she couldn’t take care of it anymore. The black-scaled kobold stared longingly at where Hoppit was, his little body shivering from the prolonged cold and fear that he would be hurt if he left the blankets hiding him. It was with a heavy guilt that she accepted Hira’s offer, keeping quiet about her true reason for doing so.
That was in the past, however, though she thought about it every time she stopped by and saw the smooth rocks where she and Hira first met. Eventually, she might gather the courage to admit that she was housing a ‘pest’ and beg for forgiveness. Until then, she would just work her hardest to prove it wasn’t a mistake to give her a home. That her endless efforts weren’t meaningless. That Hoppit deserved to be more than a ‘pest.’
That Ceele was more than something she had no control over being.
She cleared her head a bit and started on the reason she came all this way. Her dress was rather easy to wash in the meandering water, and the trees provided a suitable place for it to dry in the sunlight and light breeze. The weeds were fine with a thorough rinse near in the shallows, but taking care of her own hygiene required her to wade farther in, though it only came up to her chest in the middle of the rill. Still, she could scrub off the soil and grime, which was all she really needed. Perhaps some simple soaps would help rid her of the pervasive black that stained her skin and scales, but that was beyond her meagre means for the time being, as well as being mere wishful thinking.
She worked past the dreary mindset that settled in when she allowed it, focusing on how serene the river was. The soft birdsong from the trees helped make for a peaceful experience, and she could feel the somewhat chilled liquid basically pour into the aches and pains throughout her body, washing away the stiffness from spending so long under the unerring sun. It was nice to escape reality and let thoughts drift while held buoyant by calmer waters.
Yet the bliss was short-lived. Even if winter was gone, spring was still far from warming the waters enough for her to laze about for too long. She dragged herself from the soft current and fetched her dress from the low-lying branch she left it to dry on. It was still a touch damp, but it wasn’t anything a bit of time in front of the fireplace wouldn’t fix.
Ceele was only a short distance away from home when she heard a gravelly male voice, but it was the flicker of sight between the trees that made her drop what was in her arms and lunge into a sprint.
Makis stood just outside the gardening shed, a ferrorabbit held at arm’s length by rusty crimson hands placed on the scruff and haunch, the rabbit’s little ears flattened as fear filled its tiny face. Her eyes widened further when she noticed the small stains of blood in his light brown fur. They found out about him. Ephemeral claws of blackness clutched at her soul, ripping the very fabric she was made of as an unseen beast smiled, eager to take yet one more thing from her. Her Hoppit. Her baby. Her everything.
“Hoppit!” she shrieked, her words all but tearing out of her throat in desperation. Frozen blood coursed through her veins, yet poured into exhausted limbs. She broke through the treeline with no regard for the branches slashing against her flesh, panic making each sting fade before it could be processed. The grizzled glare of the older kobold snapped towards her, his usual scowl picking up an actual air of intensity that she never thought could be absent, the promise of violence lurking in his eyes. She skidded to a stop a few paces away, the lump in her throat threatening to clog her airway. “S-stop hurting him!”
“Didn’t,” he barked back, his tone even yet firm. “Cuts ain’t me. I’d’a done worse if’a had ta mind ta.”
The blatant declaration snapped her from blind panic, although his apparent anger didn’t do her fear any favours. “B-but… Then how…”
“‘Hoppit.’ Named it, did’cha?” he grunted, ignoring her confusion and bobbing the rabbit to get her attention again. His gaze shifted back to the animal, the flames of ire cooling slightly. “I was wonderin’ why yer plots ain’t dead yet. Suppose this critter’s why.”
One of her hands hesitantly reached out until she pulled it back, while the other clutched at her chest to stop her heart from hammering against her ribs. She couldn’t act rashly. Not while her baby was in his arms. “I—”
“Soft thing, ain’t it,” the elder kobold commented curiously, cutting her off.
“Y-yes?” she returned reluctantly, struggling to stop herself from lashing out to reclaim the ferrorabbit in his grasp.
“Like fine silk.” Makis tipped and tilted the animal, inspecting this and that with a deep-seated frown, all while Hoppit silently looked to her for help. The pit in her stomach grew. She needed to get him back, but how?
Ceele swallowed the dense dread as she tried to formulate some sort of plan, stumbling over her words and forced smile. “I-it’s nice! Isn’t it nice?”
His eyes snapped back to burrow into her own with hatred. “Wasn’t a compliment, girly.”
“B-but you—”
He released Hoppit’s lower half to jab a claw at the various spikes around his body, plying them with minimal force. “Look. See this? These’r suppose ta break bone. ‘Specially when he’s stiff like this. Ain’t no way I should be able ta bend ‘em. He’s barely more than a walkin’ carcass—all skin ‘n stick. He’s gonna get picked up by a wandering pecker if he keeps pissin’ about out ‘ere. It’s a wonder he’s still kickin’. What’cha feeding ‘em?” His gaze dropped from her face to the rest of her, disgust curling his muzzle into a snarl. “N’ver mind. I can guess.”
She felt the dampness build at the edges of her vision, unprepared to not only worry for Hoppit's immediate health, but also to face such harsh criticism while she was so vulnerable. “I… I try to make sure he has…”
Makis crouched to release the ferrorabbit onto the ground, Ceele dropping to her knees the moment he did. The terrified lagomorph wasted no time, bolting towards his adoptive mother and leaping into her arms, shaking uncontrollably. The rust-coloured ‘bold stared as she started soothingly stroking the animal’s back.
“Yer given’ em the weeds, aren’t ya?” he stated rather than asked. She gave a teary nod when her voice wouldn’t respond for her. The old kobold drew a breath, letting it go in an exasperated sigh as he stood back up, his expression becoming more impatient than antagonistic. “What else?”
“I— Um…”
“What. Else?”
“W-whatever I c-can find!” she sputtered out. Hoppit tried to hide against her neck, prompting her to tighten her hold. She couldn’t stop herself from shrinking, the guilt and confusion pulling her head down. “R-roots, vegetables, fruits… I give them as often as I can.”
His glare continued unimpeded, his cadence cold. “That it?”
There were a million things Ceele wanted to say. A part of her wanted to beg him not to kick them out of the first safe place she had in longer than she could remember, but she couldn’t find the words. She wanted to deny the judgmental tone that stabbed into her insecurity surrounding how good of a job she was doing with Hoppit, but the deadened void in her chest swallowed her pride whole. She knew he was right to critique her. That she was failing in the only thing that mattered anymore. That the feeling of loss would return.
“I try,” she whispered through the beginnings of a sob. “I try to find more, but he needs someone around, and I have to work the garden, so there’s only so much time I can spend looking. He won’t even eat all of what I bring back…” Tears dripped off her cheeks as she aimed a desolate smile at her furry friend. “He wants to make sure I have some too.”
“Yer killin’ em,” Makis pointed out plainly, crossing his arms. “He’ll be dead ‘fore the summer at this rate.”
“I know!” she shouted, forcing back the memories of insidious murmurs that lurked in the back of her mind, eager to creep into her ears again. The hate-filled stares that followed her, the rumours that arrived in towns before she had the chance to make an impression, and the guilt that loomed over her like an executioner's axe… “I know I am… I just… I don’t know what he needs. I don’t know how to make him happy…but I try. I’m trying…”
“…Yer an idiot, girly.”
She looked up to see the elder kobold walking away without another word. Her eyes fell to Hoppit, the ferrorabbit pressing himself against her as much as he could. He was small, thin, soft, and growing weaker by the day, but he never let it keep him down for long. No, he always showed his best for her, giving her joy that wasn’t provided anywhere else. She saw the thin cuts and dried blood, though she didn’t know where they came from, nor how he got out of the shed in the first place. But that was okay. Hoppit was okay, and she had Hoppit, so everything was okay, right?
…But how much longer would everything stay okay? How much longer until her efforts weren’t enough, and she was left desperately reaching for fading memories of what once was? How much longer until she killed her baby too?
How much longer until she was alone again?
Soft footsteps drew near, pulling her from the spiralling thoughts that threatened to gnaw at her soul. Damp, blurry eyes fell on Makis returning with a small wooden crate, the older kobold stopping a few steps away. He dropped the box, a deep, rattling thud produced as it impacted the ground, making Hoppit flinch in her arms. Ceele blinked as she kept him calm, then blinked again, looking up at the man for answers.
“The name, girly,” he spat in irritation. “Ferrorabbit. Ther’ Earth aligned creatures; they need metals. They don’t care where they get it, but they need lots of it. Iron, copper, tin, lead—raw crystal, if they can find it. You name it, they’ll take a chunk out of it. It's why they bother farmers so much; the best soil’s usually top’a gem deposits, ‘n the little bastards have no issue burrowing deep to get it. Dries up the element’s energy ‘n makes the crops weak.”
Ceele’s mouth opened and closed, each unsuccessful attempt to speak making her feel smaller and smaller. More and more lost. Why was he telling her this? How did he know? What was in the—
He kicked the crate with the side of his foot. “Scraps. Don’t’cha look at me like that. I’m a smith, girly. I might be old and retired, but I still work a forge. Now, this ain’t anything pure—it’s just slag and hunks—but I’m sure the critter won’t mind. Your little gardenin’ project pays off, ‘n I’ll see which of my contacts can get in some better ore.”
She ripped her eyes away from the box and met the perpetual scowl of the old kobold, seeing a warmth behind the hostility that she had never noticed before. “…Why?”
He scoffed in amusement, which looked somewhat menacing on such a hardened expression. “Yer a touch stupid, girly, but the missus adores ya, ‘n yer a good worker.” A shadow of a smile formed on his face. “Hira spent more evenings asking ‘bout how the plots are doin’ than I got time in the day. She’d bite my head off if I noticed a critter like that sufferin’ and didn’t lend a hand. ‘Specially when it’s obvious you ain’t tryin’ ta hurt the thing.”
“B-but the garden… Isn’t he a problem?”
Makis rolled his eyes, turning with a dismissive wave of his hand. “If he was, he’da killed it by now. I’d say he’s been keepin’ the others clear ‘n got scratched up for the trouble. That’s more reason to feed ‘em right in my eyes; pay the poor bastard his dues.” He paused after a few steps, shooting her one last incredulous glance. “‘N the rabbit’s right. You’re not much better off than he is. Eat. Before the missus takes my head, preferably. I ain’t need ta hear her worryin’ over you more than I already do.”
And with that, he walked off back to the house, leaving Ceele to sit stunned on the ground with Hoppit quietly nuzzling into her.
“Hoppit…?”
The ferrorabbit perked an ear and gently licked her collar. Fresh tears ran rivulets down her face, yet they didn’t weigh her down. They felt freeing. She adjusted her hold on the rabbit and held him out, taking in the small cuts and numerous other injuries she had never noticed before. He stared back at her with worried eyes.
“You’ve been busy, huh?” she cooed quietly, doing her best to keep her voice from cracking. He shrunk in her hands. “I told you to stay home, baby. What if something happened to you? I wouldn’t know where you went, and…”
Her protests died out as she saw what was unmistakably guilt on his little face. She brought him back to her chest and cleared her throat.
“It’s alright, Hoppit. If… If you want to help momma, then we can work together, okay? Just…please don’t go off getting hurt… I don’t know what I’d do without you…” The rabbit didn’t reply, and she was pretty sure she had never heard him make any sounds that weren’t his happy little ear clacks, but she chose to interpret the nuzzling as an agreement. “Such a smart boy…”
She took a breath and wiped off the excess moisture from her cheeks, setting Hoppit down on the ground. “Let’s bring Mr. Makis’ gift in, and then I need to go get more water so we can clean you up, okay?”
He bounced his way to the door of their home, waiting patiently for her to lug the surprisingly heavy crate into the shed. He was even still behaving himself by the time she returned from picking up the things she dropped in her haste. There wasn’t a single protest from the ferrorabbit as she washed over his wounds with warm water, nor when she asked him to wait as she cut up a small salad for him using an extra portion of her rationed vegetables. Finally, once everything else was gone, she tentatively sifted through the box until she found a chunk of something that didn’t look so sharp, then offered it to Hoppit skeptically.
As startling as it was to see him bite through metal without issue, she couldn’t help but tear up again at how pleased he looked with the bizarre addition to his diet. He munched through the first piece, then stared at the box while pawing at the air, asking for more. She obliged through wet laughs, feeling lighter than she had since he first gazed at her from his burrow, alone and afraid, just like she was.
Her little baby was happy, and that made it okay.
Next
—
A/N: Thank you to my Patrons, new and returning! No Thanks, Emmanuel, and Megathor join the others who get to read 1 chap ahead!

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Van Halen - Van Halen 2 - $15.00
Weezer - The Black Album (Clear / Black) - $20.00

Hola, ¿qué tal? My name is Jhon Pérez, a native Spanish tutor with over 10 years of experience in Spanish homework. I can help you with any type of Spanish assignments: exams, quizzes, tests, worksheets and essays.
I've done many accounts on VHL Central, McGraw Hill, Blackboard, Canvas, MyLabs, Cengage, Desire2Learn, ELEteca, Edgenuity, Contraseña, WileyPlus and more.
Besides being a native Spanish speaker, I have knowledge of vocabulary, functional grammar and the functions of all levels of Spanish (Beginners A1-A2, Intermediate B1-B2 and Advanced C1-C2.)
I can work with login, TeamViewer and screenshots. If you choose the latter I will make sure to be online at the agreed time to work with you (you send the screenshots and I send the answers.)
This is not an agency. It's just me, the Spanish tutor, so you don't have to pay double fees (one to the agency owner and another to the tutor.)
Unlike other Spanish tutors, I will provide you with safe, untraceable VPN connection to your closest location and follow your instruction(s) to deliver plagiarism-free Spanish papers.
For tight deadlines I can deliver the same day as long as I am contacted at least 4 hours before deadline.
My rates are pocket-friendly and flexible to fit your budget. You can use milestone payments or pay as you go.
Proof and vouches can be seen on my profile.
Send your prompt and get a quote today!
Email: [jperezonline@outlook.com](mailto:jperezonline@outlook.com)
Discord: jperez
¡Nos vemos!

Hola, ¿qué tal? My name is Jhon Pérez, a native Spanish tutor with over 10 years of experience in Spanish homework. I can help you with any type of Spanish assignments: exams, quizzes, tests, worksheets and essays.
I've done many accounts on VHL Central, McGraw Hill, Blackboard, Canvas, MyLabs, Cengage, Desire2Learn, ELEteca, Edgenuity, Contraseña, WileyPlus and more.
Besides being a native Spanish speaker, I have knowledge of vocabulary, functional grammar and the functions of all levels of Spanish (Beginners A1-A2, Intermediate B1-B2 and Advanced C1-C2.)
I can work with login, TeamViewer and screenshots. If you choose the latter I will make sure to be online at the agreed time to work with you (you send the screenshots and I send the answers.)
This is not an agency. It's just me, the Spanish tutor, so you don't have to pay double fees (one to the agency owner and another to the tutor.)
Unlike other Spanish tutors, I will provide you with safe, untraceable VPN connection to your closest location and follow your instruction(s) to deliver plagiarism-free Spanish papers.
For tight deadlines I can deliver the same day as long as I am contacted at least 4 hours before deadline.
My rates are pocket-friendly and flexible to fit your budget. You can use milestone payments or pay as you go.
Proof and vouches can be seen on my profile.
Send your prompt and get a quote today!
Email: [jperezonline@outlook.com](mailto:jperezonline@outlook.com)
Discord: jperez
¡Nos vemos!