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2020.10.10 16:34 1aleynatilki Short haircuts for women
short haircuts for women (pictures and videos). Must-Try Short Hairstyles and Haircuts in 2023. Medium Bob With Wispy Bangs. Apple Cut. Chin-Length Bob. Pixie Cut With Side Bangs. C-Curl Bob With Curtain Bangs. Curly Bob. Curly Pixie Cut. Wolf Cut. Asymmetrical Bob. Choppy Bob With See-Through Bangs. Pixie Cut With Undercut. Bob With Side Part. Bob With Layered Bangs. Medium Bob With Side-Swept Bangs. Short Blunt Bob With Blunt Bangs. A-Line Bob. Blunt Wavy Bob With Bangs. Scrunched Bob.
2024.05.19 01:45 TheFalseViddaric The New Data Drug
I messed up. I messed up bad.
“Never get high on your own supply”. The human who sold me this data told me it was a saying from his world. But I had to be sure it was the real deal. After all, data drugs that worked on people without a brain interface installed? It was unheard of. But here I am [30 hours] later, and I no longer doubt. I feel utterly exhausted despite having barely moved. My every neuron feels fried. All 6 grasping appendages are sore from the repetitive motions, and my eyes are dry and unfocused from the long strain I have put them through. I feel intense pangs of hunger and thirst, as I haven’t eaten or drank since I started this test.
I still want more. But with a great effort of will I force myself away from the screen of my computing terminal and stumble to my pantry so I may attend to my body’s needs. As I gulp down nutrient drinks and chew some dried fruit, I reflect on the trance I’ve somehow barely managed to pull myself out of.
Simulations. A useful tool for engineers, scientists, and military strategists. We had never thought to teach storytellers or artists to use them. Humans had. And what they created was both miraculous and monstrous.
Humans decided to use simulation technology to create art and craft stories. It seemed that there was a human simulation… no, hundreds of human simulations, designed to invoke whatever feeling or emotion you could imagine. And possibly some you couldn’t.
I had started simple. A basic test of spatial reasoning, and later quick thinking, expressed through the medium of stacking colored blocks formed into geometric shapes. While comparable at first to a children's toy, as the speed and challenge increased I became increasingly hypnotized. The feeling of lining up and clearing four rows at once with the all too rare straight piece was intensely satisfying. Making a mistake, leaving a gap caused frustration and incompleteness like I had never felt before, and eventually fixing it gave a feeling of relief, of rightness. As the game sped up, I found myself more and more frantic to try and find places for every piece. The rush of success and agony of failure only increased as I prided and chided myself on my quick decisions.
Eventually, I could keep up no longer, leaving me only with a number. A score.
Could I push that score higher?
[4 hours] went by, and I barely noticed.
I should have stopped. I knew that what I had was genuine. But I wanted to know what else this data was capable of.
I navigated a colorful landscape, defying gravity with every action and finding joy in exploration and collection.
I slaughtered demons with a chaingun, turning the fear of being devoured into a rising sense of conquest and bloodlust.
I failed a single test of dexterity, sending me tumbling down a hole and erasing hours of progress, and I nearly knocked myself out from the shock of frustration.
I defeated a hulking warrior with a team of other adventurers, and the triumph of it was only amplified by the sting of failing several times before.
Freedom and entrapment.
Horror and domination.
Elation and sorrow.
Every new experience was an emotional high of a kind I’d never had before, and my hearts were racing with the myriad of feelings rushing through my mind. My imagination was going wild with the possibilities of all these new worlds of data and programming.
My self-reflection comes to a grinding halt. I need to stop. If I’m not careful I’ll get addicted and end up like one of those mindjackers, burning their brains out on data drugs. Supposedly these simulations can’t do that, but I wouldn’t have put it past the seller to lie about that kind of thing.
Well, one way or another, I’m gonna make a [alien animal that shares many traits with both giant squids and magpies]’s hoard selling these. Time to call my best clients…
[Time skip: approximately 25 solar years]
The Rise of the Galactic Game Industry: Fluke of the Black Market, or Human Marketing Genius? You Decide!
Dr’k-Nam, Head Investigative Critic for the Arts and Culture section of Twin Suns Newsgroup
Simulation games, also known as “video games”, have taken the galaxy by storm ever since their controversial introduction and subsequent series of bannings and legalizations across the galaxy. Simulation technology is nothing new of course, but galactic newcomers from the Sol system, Humans, used it in an extremely novel way: art and entertainment. According to their historical records, a significant amount of their entertainment industry is based around simulation games, and that portion has grown even further with their introduction to the galaxy at large.
At first, however, no one was interested. A simulation with little or no practical application, designed only to entertain? Most people preferred to stick with the entertainment they knew, or seek new experiences outside of sims. So what changed?
Simple: some anonymous human decided to sell them as data drugs instead of simulation games; data drugs usable by simply interacting with a computer program, rather than having to inject the data directly in through a neural interface. With this small, but completely false new branding, video games were ready to start spreading across virtual black markets like spoilers for the latest episode of Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah on the galnet (side note: please have some courtesy to others and tag your spoilers).
Human governance and society at large had been reportedly as surprised to see a lack of simulation games from other species as they were that humans had them. But they were even more surprised when they started getting accused of pushing the latest data drug. This was an especially confusing accusation because neural interface technology was not widely adopted by humanity at the time, and only a fraction of a percent of their population even knew of the existence of data drugs in the first place. The revelation that most humans had video games of some sort on their PPDDs (personal portable data devices) threatened to cause an uproar in the galaxy, as paranoia around data drugs was at an all time high among many species.
After trying and failing to ignore the problem for long enough for it to go away, human governance, as well as human corporations producing video games, were forced to release statements, acknowledging that:
Rumors that the data drug sales pitch was a deliberate ploy by the human game industry (to drum up intergalactic sales) or by human governance (to spread human culture and influence) are still under investigation, but solid evidence for either has yet to emerge.
Edit: anyone posting untagged Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah spoilers in the comments section of this article will receive an immediate, no-warning permaban.
submitted by TheFalseViddaric to HFY [link] [comments]
“Never get high on your own supply”. The human who sold me this data told me it was a saying from his world. But I had to be sure it was the real deal. After all, data drugs that worked on people without a brain interface installed? It was unheard of. But here I am [30 hours] later, and I no longer doubt. I feel utterly exhausted despite having barely moved. My every neuron feels fried. All 6 grasping appendages are sore from the repetitive motions, and my eyes are dry and unfocused from the long strain I have put them through. I feel intense pangs of hunger and thirst, as I haven’t eaten or drank since I started this test.
I still want more. But with a great effort of will I force myself away from the screen of my computing terminal and stumble to my pantry so I may attend to my body’s needs. As I gulp down nutrient drinks and chew some dried fruit, I reflect on the trance I’ve somehow barely managed to pull myself out of.
Simulations. A useful tool for engineers, scientists, and military strategists. We had never thought to teach storytellers or artists to use them. Humans had. And what they created was both miraculous and monstrous.
Humans decided to use simulation technology to create art and craft stories. It seemed that there was a human simulation… no, hundreds of human simulations, designed to invoke whatever feeling or emotion you could imagine. And possibly some you couldn’t.
I had started simple. A basic test of spatial reasoning, and later quick thinking, expressed through the medium of stacking colored blocks formed into geometric shapes. While comparable at first to a children's toy, as the speed and challenge increased I became increasingly hypnotized. The feeling of lining up and clearing four rows at once with the all too rare straight piece was intensely satisfying. Making a mistake, leaving a gap caused frustration and incompleteness like I had never felt before, and eventually fixing it gave a feeling of relief, of rightness. As the game sped up, I found myself more and more frantic to try and find places for every piece. The rush of success and agony of failure only increased as I prided and chided myself on my quick decisions.
Eventually, I could keep up no longer, leaving me only with a number. A score.
Could I push that score higher?
[4 hours] went by, and I barely noticed.
I should have stopped. I knew that what I had was genuine. But I wanted to know what else this data was capable of.
I navigated a colorful landscape, defying gravity with every action and finding joy in exploration and collection.
I slaughtered demons with a chaingun, turning the fear of being devoured into a rising sense of conquest and bloodlust.
I failed a single test of dexterity, sending me tumbling down a hole and erasing hours of progress, and I nearly knocked myself out from the shock of frustration.
I defeated a hulking warrior with a team of other adventurers, and the triumph of it was only amplified by the sting of failing several times before.
Freedom and entrapment.
Horror and domination.
Elation and sorrow.
Every new experience was an emotional high of a kind I’d never had before, and my hearts were racing with the myriad of feelings rushing through my mind. My imagination was going wild with the possibilities of all these new worlds of data and programming.
My self-reflection comes to a grinding halt. I need to stop. If I’m not careful I’ll get addicted and end up like one of those mindjackers, burning their brains out on data drugs. Supposedly these simulations can’t do that, but I wouldn’t have put it past the seller to lie about that kind of thing.
Well, one way or another, I’m gonna make a [alien animal that shares many traits with both giant squids and magpies]’s hoard selling these. Time to call my best clients…
[Time skip: approximately 25 solar years]
The Rise of the Galactic Game Industry: Fluke of the Black Market, or Human Marketing Genius? You Decide!
Dr’k-Nam, Head Investigative Critic for the Arts and Culture section of Twin Suns Newsgroup
Simulation games, also known as “video games”, have taken the galaxy by storm ever since their controversial introduction and subsequent series of bannings and legalizations across the galaxy. Simulation technology is nothing new of course, but galactic newcomers from the Sol system, Humans, used it in an extremely novel way: art and entertainment. According to their historical records, a significant amount of their entertainment industry is based around simulation games, and that portion has grown even further with their introduction to the galaxy at large.
At first, however, no one was interested. A simulation with little or no practical application, designed only to entertain? Most people preferred to stick with the entertainment they knew, or seek new experiences outside of sims. So what changed?
Simple: some anonymous human decided to sell them as data drugs instead of simulation games; data drugs usable by simply interacting with a computer program, rather than having to inject the data directly in through a neural interface. With this small, but completely false new branding, video games were ready to start spreading across virtual black markets like spoilers for the latest episode of Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah on the galnet (side note: please have some courtesy to others and tag your spoilers).
Human governance and society at large had been reportedly as surprised to see a lack of simulation games from other species as they were that humans had them. But they were even more surprised when they started getting accused of pushing the latest data drug. This was an especially confusing accusation because neural interface technology was not widely adopted by humanity at the time, and only a fraction of a percent of their population even knew of the existence of data drugs in the first place. The revelation that most humans had video games of some sort on their PPDDs (personal portable data devices) threatened to cause an uproar in the galaxy, as paranoia around data drugs was at an all time high among many species.
After trying and failing to ignore the problem for long enough for it to go away, human governance, as well as human corporations producing video games, were forced to release statements, acknowledging that:
- Yes, video games were human productions.
- Yes, they could be addictive in the same way that any other pleasure-seeking activity could be addictive.
- Yes, there are games that even humans ban. Adult subject matter is restricted from youths, but additionally, games could be made manipulatively to exploit or develop gambling addictions, which is banned outright. Technically this ban isn’t even for games specifically, but instead falls under the purview of their laws against taking advantage of the mentally unstable.
- No, they did not “hack your brain” to cause neural impulses, unless you’re a a Syns-nah, who only partially exist in our dimension and are not used to any 3-dimensional sensory inputs, to the point where eating an unflavored [grain product resembling a cracker] can cause them vivid hallucinations.
- If other races want to ban them, go ahead, but humans can’t really stop data from spreading (their government has tried, believe me), and they’re not going to stop making or distributing them where it’s legal.
Rumors that the data drug sales pitch was a deliberate ploy by the human game industry (to drum up intergalactic sales) or by human governance (to spread human culture and influence) are still under investigation, but solid evidence for either has yet to emerge.
Edit: anyone posting untagged Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah spoilers in the comments section of this article will receive an immediate, no-warning permaban.
2024.05.19 01:43 nicski924 Bellroy Venture 26L Advice
Hi everyone, I own a Topo Designs 40L Global Travel bag that I use for 1 week or more trips. But I’m in the market for a smaller bag for overnight to 3-5 day trips. I’ve fallen a little in love with the look of the Bellroy Venture Ready 26L and they have the 1st gen on sale in Navy for $155 (2nd gen is $259 and the only difference is a luggage pass through that I won’t use and an AirTag hidden pocket. I found no other discernible differences in structure size or function).
For context, I do tend to overpack a bit (but I’m working on it, lol) and mainly only travel to warm weather places.
A sample of what my current 3-5 day list looks like:
Wear on plane: Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Tee, Public Rec Flex shorts, Bombas No Show merino socks, Adidas Climacool mesh boxers, Adidas tank undershirt, Ridge Merino Solstice sun hoodie, Kizik Athens, Mission baseball cap.
Need to pack:
2 Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily tees, 2 Public Rec Go To tee, 1 Public Rec Elevate tee, 1 Public Rec Go To polo shirt.
1 Public Rec Flex shorts, 1 Patagonia Stretch Wavefarer shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo 2.0 pants, 1 Arctic Cool mesh shorts. The Flex and Wavefarer shorts double as swimsuits, and the mesh shorts would just be pajama/lounge shorts.
Fairly certain I can get the tops and bottoms in my 11x11 compression packing cube.
5 Adidas Climacool mesh boxer briefs, 3 Adidas tank undershirts, 3 Bombas No Show merino socks, 2 Mission baseball caps. I always wear a hat and these pack rather easily as they’re unstructured. Also, I wear mesh boxers as a liner while swimming in hybrid shorts so I take more than the number of days.
The underwear, socks and hats should all fit in my 11x7.5 compression packing cubes.
So those two cubes stacked on top of one another are 18.5” in height and 11” in width. The Bellroy is 19.6” tall and 13” wide, so should be good there.
Other things I need to fit in the main bucket compartment would be my Olukai Ohana’s (size 11th pack pretty thin), Matador Refraction Packable Sling (2.5x7x2” would probably go in the clamshell slash pocket), and my 10x7x3” hanging toiletry kit (which may fit in the larger mesh pocket on the clamshell).
My iPad Air 11” would go in the laptop pocket in its keyboard case and my Kindle would go in the tablet pocket.
I would use the top outside tech pocket for my 3-in-1 MagSafe charger, AirPod Pro 2’s, 2 USB-C cables, dual plug brick, and my Nitecore 10k battery pack.
The hidden side stash pocket is where my clear liquids bag would go. And then a 21oz Hydroflask in the water bottle pocket.
I would attach my Matador speed stash for my iPhone and sunglasses.
https://bellroy.com/products/venture-ready-pack?color=nightsky&material=baida_ripstop&size=26l
So two questions…do you think this is all possible to fit in the Bellroy and do any of you own one who can give me an actual unpaid for review?
Thanks for any help, advice, opinions or sarcastic comments!
submitted by nicski924 to onebag [link] [comments]
For context, I do tend to overpack a bit (but I’m working on it, lol) and mainly only travel to warm weather places.
A sample of what my current 3-5 day list looks like:
Wear on plane: Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Tee, Public Rec Flex shorts, Bombas No Show merino socks, Adidas Climacool mesh boxers, Adidas tank undershirt, Ridge Merino Solstice sun hoodie, Kizik Athens, Mission baseball cap.
Need to pack:
2 Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily tees, 2 Public Rec Go To tee, 1 Public Rec Elevate tee, 1 Public Rec Go To polo shirt.
1 Public Rec Flex shorts, 1 Patagonia Stretch Wavefarer shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo 2.0 pants, 1 Arctic Cool mesh shorts. The Flex and Wavefarer shorts double as swimsuits, and the mesh shorts would just be pajama/lounge shorts.
Fairly certain I can get the tops and bottoms in my 11x11 compression packing cube.
5 Adidas Climacool mesh boxer briefs, 3 Adidas tank undershirts, 3 Bombas No Show merino socks, 2 Mission baseball caps. I always wear a hat and these pack rather easily as they’re unstructured. Also, I wear mesh boxers as a liner while swimming in hybrid shorts so I take more than the number of days.
The underwear, socks and hats should all fit in my 11x7.5 compression packing cubes.
So those two cubes stacked on top of one another are 18.5” in height and 11” in width. The Bellroy is 19.6” tall and 13” wide, so should be good there.
Other things I need to fit in the main bucket compartment would be my Olukai Ohana’s (size 11th pack pretty thin), Matador Refraction Packable Sling (2.5x7x2” would probably go in the clamshell slash pocket), and my 10x7x3” hanging toiletry kit (which may fit in the larger mesh pocket on the clamshell).
My iPad Air 11” would go in the laptop pocket in its keyboard case and my Kindle would go in the tablet pocket.
I would use the top outside tech pocket for my 3-in-1 MagSafe charger, AirPod Pro 2’s, 2 USB-C cables, dual plug brick, and my Nitecore 10k battery pack.
The hidden side stash pocket is where my clear liquids bag would go. And then a 21oz Hydroflask in the water bottle pocket.
I would attach my Matador speed stash for my iPhone and sunglasses.
https://bellroy.com/products/venture-ready-pack?color=nightsky&material=baida_ripstop&size=26l
So two questions…do you think this is all possible to fit in the Bellroy and do any of you own one who can give me an actual unpaid for review?
Thanks for any help, advice, opinions or sarcastic comments!
2024.05.19 01:34 383-stroker 17 min benchy, not horrible
 | ... but also not great haha. .6mm nozzle .28 layer height. The stack on top was too hot and gooey while printing for sure submitted by 383-stroker to Ender3V3SE [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 01:01 ElegiacDreich I hate my curly hair.
I've always hated it. It's so hard to take care of and I can't even style it properly when it gets long. I have to always go with the same short haircut with a fade, I can't grow it long because then it just looks like I have a birds nest on my head and looks dry. I just wish I had straight hair like all the other hot guys, it's so much easier to manage and be able to style it. Sorry about the rant but I just had to get this out.
submitted by ElegiacDreich to teenagers [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 00:39 Voltality [US-NJ] [H] Bubble75, MonsGeek M1 CNY 2022, Gerald65, GMK Polybius, NicePBT Noel, CannonCaps 407, NicePBT Beach Day, Lots of Switches, Freebies [W] PayPal
Timestamp
Timestamp is dated for yesterday, I was hoping to have this post made then but time got the better of me.
Good evening rMM! Did some spring cleaning a while back and found way too many things I'm not using, so here's a cleaning out sale!
CONUS Only. PM's only, please comment before doing so! Discounts provided for bundles, as always.
submitted by Voltality to mechmarket [link] [comments]
Timestamp is dated for yesterday, I was hoping to have this post made then but time got the better of me.
Good evening rMM! Did some spring cleaning a while back and found way too many things I'm not using, so here's a cleaning out sale!
CONUS Only. PM's only, please comment before doing so! Discounts provided for bundles, as always.
| Keyboards | Pricing | Extras | Description/Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bubble75 (Black, Alu Weight) | $170 Shipped OBO | POM plate, all included foams, extra daughterboard cable. | This board is in fair condition. There's a scuff and a bit of anodization chipping on the top of the board from a fall off a broken shelf. See timestamp album for picture of scuff. Ships unbuilt with a PC Plate and includes lubed Durock V2 stabilizers, with an epsi-modded spacebar. |
| MonsGeek M1 (Red, Lunar New Year) | $65 Shipped OBO | PC plate, all included foams and tape, stock silicone gaskets. | This board is in very good condition, and has been modified to be stack mounted (similarly to how it's done on mode boards). Keyboard is built with stock strawberry bubble gum linear switches on an aluminum plate, with lubed/epsi-modded Durock V2 stabilizers. No keycaps are included. |
| Gerald65 (Frosted) | $65 Shipped OBO | Unbuilt wrist rest, acrylic plate, foams and extra gaskets. | This board is in very good condition, and is currently gasket mounted with a POM plate. This board is currently built with stock YUNZII/Outemu crystal white linear switches, with lubed/epsi-modded Durock V2 stabilizers. No keycaps are included. |
| Keycap Sets | Pricing | Description/Condition |
|---|---|---|
| GMK Polybius (Base Kit) | $70 Shipped OBO | Shined, moderately used. Scuff on F8 key, scratches on backspace key. Discounted accordingly, see timestamp album for pictures of issues. Ships in bag. Set is complete. |
| NicePBT Noel (R1) | $20 Shipped OBO | Shined, heavily used. Ships in bag. Set is complete. |
| CannonCaps 407 | $20 Shipped OBO | Shined, heavily used. 6.25u spacebar has loose tolerances and noico installed. Ships in bag. Set is complete. |
| NicePBT Beach Day | $35 Shipped OBO | BNIB, only opened for pictures, although the caps are out of order from shipping and storage. Can ship in bag for discount. |
| Bundle for NicePBT/CannonCaps sets | $55 Shipped OBO | This is a bundle offer for NicePBT Noel, CannonCaps 407, and NicePBT Beach Day. |
| Switches | Pricing | Quantity | Description/Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gateron Yellows | $15 Shipped OBO | 62 | 58 Black Tops, 4 Clear Tops. 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed |
| Akko CS Lavender Purple | $15 Shipped OBO | 88 | 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing (stem legs lightly lubed), 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed |
| KTT HaluHalo | $18 Shipped OBO | 65 | 205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed |
| FFFF Tactiles | $20 Shipped OBO | 71 | Stock |
| 89 | 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 51004 on Stock Springs | ||
| 64 | 205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 51004 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed | ||
| Tecsee Purple Pandas (w/Gazzew LT Stems) | $30 Shipped OBO | 73 | I spring swapped this switch to Gazzew LT stems, making these linear switches. Lubed with 205g0 on stem only, 51004 on aftermarket (unbranded) 67g short springs. Unfilmed. Total travel distance is 3.5mm. |
| Owlab Neon | $30 Shipped OBO | 64 | 205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs |
| NovelKeys Cream Clickies | $40 Shipped OBO | 70 | Stock |
| C3 Kiwi (w/Tecsee Purple Panda Stems) | $40 Shipped OBO | 79 | These are a tactile frankenswitch I made a long time ago. 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing (stem legs lightly lubed) on 63.5g double stage springs lubed with 105, filmed with Deskeys. Total travel distance is 2.8mm. |
| Holy T1s | $45 Shipped OBO | 84 | 3204 Stem Only (legs untouched), 51004 on aftermarket (unbranded) 60g Short Springs, filmed with Kelowna. Total travel distance is 4.0mm. |
| 83 | 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, filmed with Deskeys. Total travel distance is 3.9mm. |
| Freebies (any of the following items are free if bundled, just ask!) | Quantity | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Drop Skylight Series Keycaps (Black) | TKL Kit | This set is mostly unused, but I replaced the spacebar for a closely matching dye-sub one I had lying around as the original was damaged. |
| Cherry MX Retooled Blacks | 38 | I've had these since 2020, and have never used them. They're completely stock. |
| These stems are factory polished and high quality. | ||
| Invyr UHMWPE Stems (Batch 2, Version 1) | 100+ | I tried giving these out a long time ago and they went unclaimed. These stems aren't good and are part of a defective batch. |
| MX Switch Opener | 1 | Just a random MX switch opener I got years ago that was painted white. It works okay. |
| Outemu Blues | 120+ | Two different kinds of outemu blues in this batch, ones with dustproof stems, ones with traditional stems. These are stock and I salvaged them a long time ago. |
| This contains a bunch of random switch housings and lineatactile stems I've had over time, and I can't really make anything out of these leftover parts. |
2024.05.19 00:29 PuzzleheadedSink4103 How do you guys suggest styling my hair?
 | My hair right now is pretty long so I wanna get a haircut, but I'm not sure if I should keep my current style (side-part) or if I should try something new. Only issue is I've got pretty thin hair and so you can see the scalp if it's short. I'm growing out the beard, so don't worry about that. submitted by PuzzleheadedSink4103 to malehairadvice [link] [comments] Current hair This is how I use to style my hair for a long time. But I've lost a lot of hair and it's pretty thin so it's harder to keep this up. Also barbers often can't figure out how to cut it so it's different every time. Style 1 - Spikey This is how I currently style my hair, with a side-part. It's just easier to maintain, and it hides my scalp. I admit it probably doesn't look as good though. Style 2 - side part And this is just how my hair looks if I cut it really short. Style 3 - Just short I'm open to new ideas/suggestions. Doesn't have to be one of my previous styles. What do you think looks best for my hair type (thin, straight). |
2024.05.19 00:12 cagden NGD Solo ii Special p90
Hi all. Last month I post about this guitar, collected my budget and bought it one week ago. It’s a really really good guitar. V90 pickups are not stacked, true single coils, has great dynamics and they may give the most beautiful sounds. Grovers are nice to use. No tuning issues. Nut width is 42 mm and neck is regular C shaped which is comfortable. As a neck shape fetishist, there is no complaint. Two things; it sustains really good but it gets little shorter on some after the thirteenth fret on B and E. Fourteenth B string vibro bends goes like 7 seconds on high gain but fifteenth goes about half of it which is weird after one fret. I raised the action but that didn’t fix the problem I just hope it is a levelling issue because I like the noodling on high frets. The second one is the bridge saddles are not cut well where the strings sit, -which I also added in the photos. It doesn’t bother me but I think they should not be like that. I don’t have files so I’ll take it to luthier. Long story short, it is a really nice guitar. Pickups are great, fat, articulate but not harsh. They tastes just right. For the who wants a p90 guitar, you should definitely try it. Thanks.
submitted by cagden to SchecterGuitars [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 00:09 squashedfrog92 Gents of the U.K., what would be the most helpful thing someone could give if you found out you were seriously ill?
Long story short, our friends partner has been diagnosed with MS this week, type currently unknown.
We don’t know him that well personally, beyond liking formula 1/cars, fitness and comics as basic interests of that adds anything.
We would like to send some sort of care package that would be of use, even if just to momentarily cheer him up and show we’re here for the long run support wise.
He’s lost the use of his dominant arm and is currently unable to work as a result which is obviously massively stressful and costly.
Would we be best getting them a meal plan thing/deliveroo vouchers? A cleaning service? Gifty type things don’t seem appropriate but we just want to take a layer of stress off for them both.
All advice from those who’ve been there would be most appreciated!
submitted by squashedfrog92 to AskUK [link] [comments]
We don’t know him that well personally, beyond liking formula 1/cars, fitness and comics as basic interests of that adds anything.
We would like to send some sort of care package that would be of use, even if just to momentarily cheer him up and show we’re here for the long run support wise.
He’s lost the use of his dominant arm and is currently unable to work as a result which is obviously massively stressful and costly.
Would we be best getting them a meal plan thing/deliveroo vouchers? A cleaning service? Gifty type things don’t seem appropriate but we just want to take a layer of stress off for them both.
All advice from those who’ve been there would be most appreciated!
2024.05.19 00:07 RegularCouple2209 concerned & insanely frustrated
hello, first time posting to this community. I’m in desperate need of advice on this situation. My corgi (F 5) is staying with my mom over the weekend. Today, my mother took her in for a groom. I had no idea she was even taking her in for an appointment. I have a local and trusted groomer who I only take her to but today that was not the case. My mom decided to take her into petco (absolutely nothing wrong getting your doggos hair groomed there) and my mom ended up getting my girls haircut insanely short almost to the point of being shaved. I am so mad, concerned and annoyed at my mom & the groomer. WHO CUTS A CORGIS HAIR THAT SHORT??? I’ve told my mom 100 times it’s never okay to cut her hair, strictly only a brush and bath is all she will ever need. Of course I let my mom know how upset I was about this whole mess. I know it’s not the groomers fault but I do want to call and ask why a haircut was even agreed on in the first place. I’m just scared how this will affect my pup and her coat health. it’s summer and her coat is extremely important and helps keep her body temp cool. I’m just worried how this will affect her in the long run. My heart hurts right now, any advice?
submitted by RegularCouple2209 to corgi [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 00:01 pete_22 What's the name of this mistake?
The mistake is to assume that naming a problem is enough to solve it. I’ve come to think of this as the “Rumpelstiltskin fallacy” — or I also think of a famous Arthur C. Clarke short story, which I won’t spoil by naming it. But clearly I’m not the first person to use these metaphors, and if I google “Rumpelstiltskin principle” (or “effect” or “fallacy”) then I get all kinds of interesting usages… some of which overlap with what I’m talking about, none of which are quite the same thing.
So I’m just calling it a “mistake” here, because it doesn’t seem to reduce to a single logical fallacy or cognitive bias, and it may be more of a compound or second-order heuristic. I’ll give a few examples in different domains, and I’m hoping that someone can either point to where the umbrella concept has been better defined and discussed, or explain why I’m off base in thinking of it as a single mechanism.
But am I right that there’s some other overarching mechanism they all share? Sort of a convergence on this same pattern of magical thinking, derailing from practical subjects into theory that doesn’t ramify the way we want it to? Or am I just overthinking it?
submitted by pete_22 to slatestarcodex [link] [comments]
So I’m just calling it a “mistake” here, because it doesn’t seem to reduce to a single logical fallacy or cognitive bias, and it may be more of a compound or second-order heuristic. I’ll give a few examples in different domains, and I’m hoping that someone can either point to where the umbrella concept has been better defined and discussed, or explain why I’m off base in thinking of it as a single mechanism.
- Politics: whenever one side gets overly attached to some concept or framing, with demands that the other side either use or renounce specific terms. In the US, one obvious two-way example today is “critical race theory,” but another was “Islamic fundamentalism” in the post-9/11 period.
- Psychology / self-help: on the one hand you’ve got Tumblr style therapy culture, with these increasingly specific taxonomies of identity, neurodivergence, trauma, etc. On the other end of that cultural axis, you’ve got pop Stoicism and other repackaged virtue ethics, which can be just as reductivist in practice.
- Social science: the blank slate and the rational actor seem like parallel left-ish and right-ish examples. You might say they were each initially useful as a simplifying assumption (e.g. let’s zero out what we “know” about innate male/female differences, to see how much of it is really socially constructed) but they became reified to the point that whole new “contrarian” subfields formed just to question them, like behavioral econ or evo psych.
- Culture: just the rise of fan culture and the increasing “meta-ness” of taste — the idea that explaining or contextualizing music/film/books is the point of consuming them, or that it’s somehow prior to consumption. So we could talk about right-coded objections to diverse Marvel movies, or left-coded objections to Young Adult plots... but one of the earliest signs for me was when new TV shows started to be promoted with interviews with the cast, before even telling you what the show was about.
But am I right that there’s some other overarching mechanism they all share? Sort of a convergence on this same pattern of magical thinking, derailing from practical subjects into theory that doesn’t ramify the way we want it to? Or am I just overthinking it?
2024.05.18 23:58 IndigoStevie [PC][UK/EU] THE SERVANTS OF LIGHT - We are celebrating 5 years of TSOL, join us for the next 5?
Greetings Guardians (and potential future TSOLites)!
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
submitted by IndigoStevie to Destiny2Clans [link] [comments]
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
The Essentials
System: PC - All platforms are welcome thanks to crossplay. But please make sure you have a way to chat with us over discord as that's how we arrange everything.Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
Who Are The Servants Of Light?
About Us: So, The Servants Of Light (or TSOL [tee-sol] for short) started out as another Destiny 2 clan made to give a few people a way to earn some extra rewards and group up easier. Over the past 5 years we have grown and evolved into so much more. Destiny is, of course, a big part of what we do and who we are, but I think that what makes TSOL special is everything else we get up to. From just talking to each other in the general chat, debating silly things like what counts as a sandwich all the way to all our events. We have fortnightly Game Nights, Movie Nights and a special raid night known as Raid Roulette. We also like to do bigger events throughout the year, the biggest of which is our end of year BONANZA! A huge gameshow style event where we like to dress up all fancy, announce the winners of our community voted awards and challenge you to various themed rounds with a prize on offer. We even have a yearly meetup for those so inclined towards in-person interaction.As for our general focuses for within Destiny, we do a little bit of everything. I would probably say we are a much more PvE leaning clan, we have teams going for clears on contest mode (and may have a space or two open for the next one if you are into that kind of thing and get along with us), we do GM’s and raids every season and aren’t scared off by legend difficulty activities. PvP wise, we have a few guardians who jump into things like trials regularly but for most of us PvP is an ‘as and when’ kind of activity, stacking 6 in iron banner is always fun though.No activity is mandatory and we really just want to play the game we love with people we like, in whatever form that takes. (NOTICE: If Gambit is your favourite gamemode then you will be judged for it but not penalised)The Testimonials
Not something you see much of in your average recruitment post but I asked some of our current members as well as some friends of the clan to give a little insight into what people really think of the clan named TSOL.NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to get involved
Requirements: The only real requirements we have for joining the clan are 1) to use Discord, which is how we communicate with everyone and arrange all our activities. It's also where you can chat to your clanmates and have fun. 2) follow the rules. The full rules list is in our server for you to read through.How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
2024.05.18 23:57 IndigoStevie [PC][UK/EU] THE SERVANTS OF LIGHT - We are celebrating 5 years of TSOL, join us for the next 5?
Greetings Guardians (and potential future TSOLites)!
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
submitted by IndigoStevie to DestinyClanFinder [link] [comments]
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
The Essentials
System: PC - All platforms are welcome thanks to crossplay. But please make sure you have a way to chat with us over discord as that's how we arrange everything.Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
Who Are The Servants Of Light?
About Us: So, The Servants Of Light (or TSOL [tee-sol] for short) started out as another Destiny 2 clan made to give a few people a way to earn some extra rewards and group up easier. Over the past 5 years we have grown and evolved into so much more. Destiny is, of course, a big part of what we do and who we are, but I think that what makes TSOL special is everything else we get up to. From just talking to each other in the general chat, debating silly things like what counts as a sandwich all the way to all our events. We have fortnightly Game Nights, Movie Nights and a special raid night known as Raid Roulette. We also like to do bigger events throughout the year, the biggest of which is our end of year BONANZA! A huge gameshow style event where we like to dress up all fancy, announce the winners of our community voted awards and challenge you to various themed rounds with a prize on offer. We even have a yearly meetup for those so inclined towards in-person interaction.As for our general focuses for within Destiny, we do a little bit of everything. I would probably say we are a much more PvE leaning clan, we have teams going for clears on contest mode (and may have a space or two open for the next one if you are into that kind of thing and get along with us), we do GM’s and raids every season and aren’t scared off by legend difficulty activities. PvP wise, we have a few guardians who jump into things like trials regularly but for most of us PvP is an ‘as and when’ kind of activity, stacking 6 in iron banner is always fun though.No activity is mandatory and we really just want to play the game we love with people we like, in whatever form that takes. (NOTICE: If Gambit is your favourite gamemode then you will be judged for it but not penalised)The Testimonials
Not something you see much of in your average recruitment post but I asked some of our current members as well as some friends of the clan to give a little insight into what people really think of the clan named TSOL.NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to get involved
Requirements: The only real requirements we have for joining the clan are 1) to use Discord, which is how we communicate with everyone and arrange all our activities. It's also where you can chat to your clanmates and have fun. 2) follow the rules. The full rules list is in our server for you to read through.How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
2024.05.18 23:51 CDown01 Eagles Peak Pt.4
Previous Part
Morning eventually came, banishing the eyes that seemed to peer at me through the night. It was strange how suddenly the feeling left me, making me think that someone really was watching me. The whole thing was really doing wonders for my paranoia. Despite the rough morning and sleepless night, I still found myself waiting outside Bianca’s house bright and early that morning. The air was cool but not chilly, one of those perfect days that’s cold enough you’ll never start sweating unless you really try, but warm enough that a T-shirt will get you through without too much trouble.
I only had to knock once before Bianca threw open the door.
“Where you just waiting there for me?”
I asked, cracking a smile and raising an eyebrow.
“You’ll never know” she added playfully, “Are we ready to go then?”
Bianca had made some preparations for the trip, she didn’t have a backpack ready to go but she definitely made an effort to dress the part… sort of. She was wearing an old grey combat jacket that I imagine she pulled out of Stein’s closet. The jacket was way to big for her but she made it work. Her combat boots matched the jacket, looking old and well worn. What didn’t match was the bright red yoga pants she was wearing, but I wasn’t about to complain. Besides, I had packed each of us a spare set of clothes just in case.
“Oh! So I had an idea, its a long walk, not crazy but I’d rather not just walk the whole way if we can help it. Frank and Stein used to have some bicycles when we first came here so I asked them about it and well.”
Bianca chirped, as she led me around the back of the house and pulled a tarp off two abysmal looking bicycles. The bikes were both red at one point but that was a long time ago. Now they were covered in a layer of rust and I could barely make out the branding that may have once read, “Shwinn”.
“Um… Bianca I think I might get tetanus if I sit on that thing.”
“Oh come on! Aren’t you tired of walking everywhere? Lets just give the bikes a shot, if they crumble to dust we can leave them.”
“And get me a tetanus shot.”
I added quickly
“Fine, and get you a tetanus shot.”
Bianca shot back, she feigned annoyance but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face.
Laughing to ourselves, we got on the bikes and took off North, out of town and onto a dirt path leading to the woods. Bianca didn’t say much on the way out but I could tell she was having a good time. This may have been her first time out of the house for something other than supervising Frank and Stein. She tried to hide it by riding fast and staying out in front of me, but I could still catch her eyes literally glowing with happiness every now and then. I thought back to what Frank had said about her eyes glowing when she experiences strong emotion. I hoped that was the case and she wasn’t just trying really hard to influence me, which he had also said would make her eyes glow.
As we neared the end of the path, the forest’s edge came into view. we let the bikes roll to a stop then got off and let them fall over onto the dirt. I half expected them to explode into a puff of rusty brown dust the second they touched the ground but to my surprise, neither bike did. I could’ve swore I heard Bianca sniffle almost like she’d been crying. I opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it, if she wanted to tell me what was going on she would. Well, that or she’d just manipulate me away from the question. Wait, was she doing that now? It’s hard to tell, maybe that’s how everyone around her feels. The more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it must be for her just to have friends or form relationships with people at all. If she told them the truth they’d never know if what they were feeling around her at any given moment was real. All they’d have to go on would be her word, could they really trust that, could I? If she kept her secret she’d know that at any moment she could just change how they felt about her, manipulate them into anything she wanted. Could she resist that kind of power over them and still look someone in the eyes and say she was their friend. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep that secret over years of knowing someone.
“So Keith, were exactly are we headed? You do have some Idea where this mine you’re looking for is right?”
Bianca asked skeptically, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well about that…. I just know its out here in the forest somewhere. That’s pretty much all I have to go on from Frank, Stein, and that massive bartender in town.”
I told her sheepishly.
“Well that explains why you over-packed so much then. Seriously? How long do you think we we’re going to be out here, you’re packed like some kind of survivalist.”
She mocked, picking through the pack I’d made for her. After she finished rooting through the pack I made for her like some kind of giant squirrel and, chastised me yet again for not doing more research on the mine, we set off.
The forest felt imposing as we walked into the woods through a manicured patch of trees. Someone had gone to great lengths to braid a few trees over this little path before the forest turned back into its natural wild state. It gave off the feeling that civilization ended with this path and something else entirely began. As we got off the path our light faded quickly, chocked out by the limbs of massive pine trees. All this cover meant there was very little foliage on the ground which was covered in a blanket of needles. The though occurred to me that we were looking for a mine in a valley. That’s weird because what exactly would be in a valley that warranted the creation of a mine? Usually you’ll find them in mountains so what exactly was one doing out here.
“Bianca I just had a thought, Why would they build a mine out here? I mean what’s the point, is there even anything valuable out here to mine?”
“Yeah, come to think of it your right. What other reason would there be to have a mine out here?”
“Unless they were just mining from a cave but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they were…”
Bianca cut me off
“What was that first thing you said?”
“Um… mining from a cave?”
A lightbulb went off over her head as she exclaimed,
“That’s it! There’s caves under the town, I’ve heard Frank talk about them before! Maybe they didn’t have a real mine so they were just mining something out of the caves.”
“Not to burst your bubble Bianca, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to these caves or mines or whatever it is.”
I responded cautiously, trying not to sound to critical of her revelation.
“Well not exactly, Frank said they were in the East of the forest somewhere so all we have to do is head East till we run into them.”
Bianca said, full of confidence. Then something occurred to me, we had no real way of getting back to the bikes other than retracing our steps. Now that was easy enough now, if we went deeper into the woods we would get lost pretty quickly.
“One more thing Bianca, Maybe we should come up with a way to find our way out? I really don’t want to end up lost out here.”
I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands.
“Way ahead of you on that one, I left my phone back by the bikes. Here give me yours and I’ll put my number in so you can track it and find our way back.”
She said, taking my phone, putting her number into it, and turning it to me to show she’d tracked her own phones location with it, giving us a path back to the bikes.
As we turned East and headed even deeper into the forest the terrain started to change. Instead of the pine needle coating we started to see rocks and the ground was more rugged. Here and there we’d even pass a boulder or two. I decided to break the silence of our search.
“So are you ever going to tell me how you met Frank and Stein?”
Bianca sighed before responding.
“I suppose you deserve to know if your sticking around. You probably guessed I wasn’t always living with them. Lets just say before that I was with someone who I though meant the world to me but I never meant the same to him. It was all a game to him and eventually I noticed that. Then, a little while afterwards I realized I wasn’t exactly powerless anymore and I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of to survive on my own.”
I could tell talking about this hurt her but I needed more.
“That’s not exactly telling me a whole lot Bianca.”
I pressed, maybe a little to hard.
“I found out I had powers and I used them ok! I got myself out of a situation where I was pulled so many way I didn’t know which direction was up! The second I found out I could do the same thing to people myself, I did! You’re the first person to actually seem to give a shit that wasn’t some crazy doctor that tolerates my existence or someone I just manipulated into caring! Maybe I even did that with you! I JUST DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!”
Bianca screamed at me, getting in my face with tears beginning to run down her own. Her eyes were glowing electric blue again and I knew I’d crossed a line.
“Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I… I didn’t know.”
“No.. you didn’t but I guess you should”
Bianca sniffled out, trying desperately to pull herself back together and keep up the act the everything was ok. Bianca went silent for a while as we kept walking along, crying to herself before she finally took a deep breath and said,
“You know, this is the first time someone’s asked me to come along and do something outside the house in years. I spend so much time cooped up in there just helping with experiments and looking after Rocco. It’s actually nice to get out and talk for once.”
Her voice still a lifts hoarse from screaming at me before.
“Look if you want to talk about it we’ve got nothing but time out here. I’d like to know a bit more about you anyways.”
I said taking her hand and trying to sound comforting.
“Yeah maybe I should get some of it off my chest. Here it goes I guess.”
Bianca said, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on my hand. Her eyes still glowed faintly as she told me her story as we ventured deeper into the forest.
I’ll give you the shorter version of it here, mostly cause I’m not sure how she’d feel about me spoiling all her secrets.. She ran away from her family and her college education for a guy, his name was Brooke. Brooke was from money and had a job lined up by his family at a law firm so Bianca thought she was set for life with him. Bianca was madly in love with him at the time but as days grew into months and years, Brooke became a monster. He cheated on her and told her she wasn’t enough, that her shortcomings drove him to do it over and over again and somehow it was all her fault every time. He became abusive not long after the cheating started, flying into fits of hysteric apology afterwards only further convincing Bianca she was somehow at fault. After three years of this she eventually got up the courage to leave and never looked back. On the road she discovered her powers of manipulation, letting her play with people’s emotions and she only got better at it with time. Unfortunately her abilities got her into a very specific form of getting money out of people, prostitution. One day she tried to solicit Stein and he saw straight through her. Stein took her with him to the hotel he and Frank were staying at and they took her in on the spot. The trio traveled together ever since, Bianca becoming a kind of daughter to them.
I was in shock once she finished her story, it sounded like she’d really been through the ringer.“I don’t know what to say, that’s awful, all of it.”
“It was, I lived it. But I made it through, doesn’t matter how at the end of the day. I’ve got Frank and Stein and that’s enough, they let me into their home and I recovered in my own way, I’m still here so I’ll take what I can get right?”
Bianca stated with a cold loom of determination on her face. It was painfully obvious to me that despite the masquerade of being fine she was barley holding it together underneath. Like just talking about it with me was driving a finger into old wounds.
“At least you’ll never have to go through something like that again. With your abilities you never have to get pushed around like that.”
I said with completely no tact whatsoever. Bianca stopped suddenly as I said this and whirled around to face me. The fire I’d seen in her eyes earlier reigniting in seconds.
“Do you really think that’s all this is?! I’m no better than him, even you don’t know what you really think when you look at me! Admit ti!”
Bianca growled at me, hysterical once again.
“No, Bianca I…”
“Look I know your trying to help but just leave it, ok? I’m done talking about this”
She cut me off, pulling herself back together and signaling very clearly we were done with that particular conversation.
“Besides look over there, That hole in the rock see it? That might be what we’re looking for.”
Bianca said, gesturing to the stone wall that now jutted out of the ground beside us.
The rock wall she pointed out was chipped near the middle in a way that couldn’t have been natural. Straight lines don’t really exist in nature and this hole was cut squarely into this rock wall. As we got closer I could see that it wasn’t just an entrance either. The hole opened into the rock wall but then suddenly dropped, like whoever carved it had hit a point where the ground just fell out from under them. From where Bianca and I were looking into the hole we couldn’t quite see the bottom.
“Well we found what we were looking for, is this bringing back any memories from those dreams you had?”
Bianca asked, sounding a little short tempered still as I searched through my bag.
“What are you looking for in there?”
“Rope, I’ve got to see what’s in there and I’m hoping I brought enough to climb down there.”
I replied hurriedly, still tearing apart my bag to get to the rope I had packed underneath everything else.
“Rope? you’re not seriously going to climb down that pit are you? I can barely see down there.”
Bianca complained, sounding exasperated.
“Here, this should help you see down there.”
I said, tossing her one of the two head mounted flashlights I brought along.
“ME? I never said we were going down there!”
Bianca panicked momentarily.
“Look, you can stay up here and wait for me if you really don’t want to go down there. But I would appreciate having you to watch my back.”
I added trying to soften her up. Bianca opened her mouth like she was going to say something but stopped, instead dropping her own pack to the ground and searching through it.
“Look if I’m going down there I’m going to need something better than yoga pants on and…. You actually packed a change of clothes in here. Geez you really did think of everything.”
As Bianca took the jeans I packed and went off to find somewhere to change I finally found the rope. It was about 50 feet of strong climbing rope that I kept for an occasion just like this. Now that’s not to say I was a professional climber by any means but a 20 or 30 foot rappel I should be able to do. I was hoping that the descent wasn’t much further than that. I anchored the rope to a tree a little ways away from the hole in the rock face and tossed the rope down the hole. It hit the bottom with a satisfying thud just as Bianca got back from changing. The jeans I had packed were a little big on her but she’d manage. She looked like a mess in her ancient combat boot and jacket, all of which were too big for her. I tried to open my mouth to tell her she looked nice, I swear I really did but what came out was hyena-like laughter at her appearance.
“I…. Oh god I’m…. It’s just”
I struggled to get out, laughing all the while.
“Well I’m glad you like it at least, ok seriously come on, stop laughing.”
Bianca scolded as she began giggling herself. Soon enough we were both laughing, Bianca’s earlier storminess cleared up by the absurdity of the situation.
Here we were, a succubus and a guy with a strange mark out in the woods getting ready to rappel into a hole in the ground that apparently didn’t exist. All this was almost starting to feel… I’m not really sure how to put it, not normal but not so strange. Honestly I finally felt like I’d found some kind of purpose again out here. As weird as it all was I was starting to enjoy… this, this whole odd situation I’d found myself in. Bianca and I finally got ahold of the laughter and stood back up from our place on the ground.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She asked
“I’ve never heard you complain about your looks before. But no, with those jeans on you look like maybe, just maybe you prepared a little bit for coming out here.”
I teased, getting a little wry grin out of her.
“Come on, lets get going. Hopefully we can be in and out of there pretty quickly.”
I said, handing Bianca her pack and shouldering my own.
Rappelling in wasn’t actually all that hard, really dangerous without safety equipment sure, but neither of us had any trouble descending the maybe 20 foot drop. At the bottom I saw something that shocked me, this place wasn’t abandoned. I saw lighting set up, not on but very clearly set up recently. Bits of old mining equipment were scattered around the… cave? Mine? Im not really sure what to call it anymore. What concerned me more than anything was the light I saw at the far end of the cave (I’m settling on calling it a cave). The light came from a massive bonfire and I could just make out the shadows of several people sitting around it. I have no idea how we didn’t see the smoke on our way in. It wasn’t filling the cave but it also wasn’t coming out from anywhere I saw on the way here.
“Bianca get down!”
I whisper shouted at her, turning off my headlamp and falling flat to the ground myself. Bianca dropped to the ground as she heard me with unexpected grace. I didn’t know if those figures by the fire had seen us but I certainly wasn’t taking chances.
“Ok, I’m going to creep up and see if I can hear them talking or something. Can you just stay here and watch my back? I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to.”
I instructed Bianca who answered with a quick nod and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew a jeweled golden dagger from it.
“I sorry, what’s this now?”
I asked, confused and thrown off guard by the weapon. It was a really beautiful blade, the hilt was silver with several purple gems inlaid in it. The blade was golden save for the razor sharp edge which was some kind of strange blue material that was roughly the same color Blanca’s eyes glowed.
“I had a life before this you know.”
Bianca responded.
“Yeah we talked about it but you didn’t really tell me much about this part apparently. Doesn’t matter I guess just surprised you have Jeff Bezos’s butter knife in your jacket pocket.”
I whispered, pointing at the dagger in her hand.
“Well we can talk more about how I ended up with this later, not really the time now. Just be careful ok.”
I got up as she said this, realizing she was right. Now really wasn’t the time to be asking about strange daggers, I had more pressing issues.
I crouched down and started creeping towards the figures by the bonfire, careful to avoid the rusty machinery bits scattered across the ground. As I got closer I saw a passage I had missed in the dark. I dared to turn my headlamp on for just a second, trying to block out most of the light with my hand. What I saw through the dim light and shadows of my finger left me awestruck. Inside the passage a coliseum had been constructed, with seats carved into the stone. The structure itself was made up of the rusted metal pieces that littered the room, collected and smelted together to form the walls of the structure. What frightened me the most was the symbol clearly and meticulously drawn on the dirt floor, the same symbol that adorned my back, the symbol of the thunderbird. Moving on, more shaken than ever I crept closer still to the roaring bonfire. I could just about make out the words the figures were saying. When I got close enough to make out the word “tests” the fire suddenly went out with a gust of wind.The room temperature must have dropped 10 degrees immediately and I could swear I heard the sounds of heavy rain above us. But the sudden lack of light isn’t what rooted me in place, cowering on the cave floor. What did that was the two illuminated grey eyes that pierced through the darkness like lightning in a storm, eyes I would never forget, the eyes of the woman from Imalone.
This time I clearly heard the voices of the figures from around the bonfire as they all dropped to their knees.
“Shaoni! We weren’t expecting you till later, Stormcaller.”
The figures all said some variation of in unison. Their tone sounding almost as though they were begging for forgiveness. In a voice that hissed like rain on pavement the woman apparently named Shaoni spoke.
“I’ve come to oversee the start of the trials, is everything prepared?”
In one bone chilling moment her eyes locked on mine and she said the one thing I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“You didn’t tell me we had guests.”
The moment the words left her lips I turned back to where Bianca was waiting, her now glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the cave. Giving up any form of subtly, I bolted for the rope behind Bianca. I just wanted to be out of this cave, whatever I might learn from searching around was far outweighed by the fact that Shaoni was here. I’d seen the kind of destruction she’d left in her wake in Imalone and I had no desire to see it happen again here. I banged my ankle on several of the little bits of rusty metal on the floor as I ran, sending sparks of pain up my leg. I didn’t hear anything behind me at all which was almost more unnerving than the footsteps I expected to hear. I closed in on Bianca and saw she hadn’t moved at all, her eyes fixed on something behind me. I dared to take a quick glance back over my shoulder and saw Shaoni taking her first step away from the extinguished bonfire. Lightning crackled around her like one of those novelty plasma globes. In the flashes of light I could see her face. There was no smile or frown, no emotion at all. She simply stared straight ahead towards me and took slow calm steps, inching ever closer.
“Bianca we’ve got to go… NOW!”
I shouted, snapping her to attention. She nodded and turned on her heels, back toward the rope we’d thrown in earlier. Only, when we got to the rope and gave it a tug, it came falling back toward us.
“There’s no way. I…I anchored it to that tree, it should’ve held!”
I cried in disbelief. Bianca and I starred up at the now stormy sky through the hole we would’ve escaped from. Two men walked into view on either side of the hole, glowering down at us. I notice a marking on one of the men’s hands in a flash of lightning from the storm. I could only assume if I was able to make it out I would’ve seen a marking just like the one on my back. Just as soon as the men had appeared a shape flew in from the left with a low growl, taking both men along with it.
“Ok, new plan! There’s something else up there and I really don’t want to get involved with… whatever that was either. I didn’t see any footprints near the entrance so I’m assuming those guys we saw by the bonfire got in another way. We’re just going to have to find where that was and get out that way.”
I instructed Bianca, gesturing to the men in toe with Shaoni and trying not to sound as afraid as I was.
“Ok, I’m with you but lets get moving, I don’t want to any closer to her than I have to be.”
Bianca answered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt a wave of calm rush over me and for the second time I was grateful for Bianca’s ability to simply turn off my fear response.
Shaoni now stood about 50 feet from us with four men following behind her. In the light she gave off I could see the men were all dressed like normal people. I kind of figured they would be more of those canvas wrapped weirdos from Imalone but no. There stood four men in jeans and flannels standing there. Shaoni looked like she could’ve stepped right out of a painting of Pocahontas. She wore an animal hide dress with frills along the bottom and arms. Her head was adorned with a leather band containing several hawk feathers. In short she looked like she’d stepped out of a different time. But I had no time to look over the finer details of her clothing as Bianca and I rushed towards her. Once we got within striking distance I pulled Bianca to the left, towards the passage I had seen earlier. Shaoni never made a move towards us, she just simply looked at me, the ghost of a smile briefly crossing her lips. One of the men with her grabbed at Bianca though, pulling her out of my grasp momentarily. That was a mistake because she was on him immediately with the ornate dagger I’d seen before. As the man grabbed her Bianca lashed out with the dagger, sticking him in the gut with the blade. He screamed in anguish and let go of her but Bianca wasn’t done yet. She followed up by stabbing the man in the back of the neck as he bent over, grabbing at the hole in his abdomen. The other three men were so taken aback by the sudden ferocity she displayed that they didn’t come any closer. As time stood still for a second the men all looked toward Shaoni, awaiting instructions but hesitant to get any closer to Bianca. Using the brief moment of disbelief Bianca had caused, we ran down the side passage towards the coliseum.
“What was that?”
I asked, still shocked by how suddenly Bianca had acted.
“He tried to grab me, I don’t like when they try to grab me”
Bianca responded, distant and… scared? I got the sense she was still in shock at what she had done too. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, we still had to get out of here. Luckily the men didn’t seem to be following us. Wether Shaoni called them off or they stopped to care for their friend I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t care.
Rushing through the rusty coliseum was haunting. I expected something to jump out of every shadow in the imposing structure. As we slowed to a jog in the middle of the coliseum, right where that eagle symbol was, we stopped to look around. We had come into this arena through an open arch but the only other exit I could see was a similar but barred archway. The coliseum was huge for something constructed in a cave, probably 400 feet across. I had no idea how this thing could’ve been made without anybody finding out.
“Bianca are you seeing anyway out of here? Bianca!”
I asked, then shouted as I turned to see her standing still as a statue in the middle of the Eagle symbol. She was staring at the dagger she had stabbed that man with. Blood still stained the blade and dripped from it intermittently.
“Bianca are you alright?”
I questioned as I walked over to her. She still had this look in her eyes, like she was miles away.
“Bianca? Come on talk to me. Look, you did what you had to do back there, sure it wasn’t exactly pretty but it had to be done.”
I tried to comfort her with my words but the truth is, my heart just wasn’t in it. I was a little scared of what I saw from her in those few moments. She just lashed out and attacked him, not that he didn’t deserve it but going back for more was too much. But what would’ve happened if she didn’t act? It’s not something I could really dwell on now and I’m not sure it really mattered. I just wasn’t feeling all that great about the fact we may have killed someone.
“I don’t like it when they grab me.”
Bianca finally repeated, still appearing catatonic. I leaned down to her level, putting my face right in-front of her’s and putting her head in between my hands.
“Bianca I know enough to know that whole situation may have dug up some memories for you but nows really not the time. We have to keep moving, we have to find a way out of here, and I can’t do that without you right now.”
Bianca tensed up as I spoke to her, but I could feel her relax as I finished. A single tear fell from her eye as she gave me a nod and followed behind me as I walked toward the barred off archway.
Before I made it to the archway there was a massive crash as something tore the rusty bars from their mountings and fell into the room.
“Tuck?!”
I exclaimed, recognizing his colossal figure on the floor immediately. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds though, Like he’d flexed too hard and burst out of his clothes. Bianca and I rushed over to check on him but apparently he was fine. Before we even started walking towards him he was already back up on his feet and lumbering towards us.
“Tuck what are you doing here? Actually never mind, are you ok?”
I asked, concern in my voice.
“It’s going to take more than this to stop me son. I figured you might go looking for that old mine I mentioned the other night so I came to find you. I feel real bad about ya run’in off the way ya did and I got to thinking. Maybe I could make it up to ya if I told ya about the mine. So I came out here and found some shady look’in fellas poking around and figured maybe ya needed help, looks like I was right.”
Tuck explained, dusting himself off and brushing away some of the tattered remains of his shirt. I didn’t buy his story for a second but I wasn’t going to argue with this bear of a man.
“So how did you get in anyway?”
“Used the old entrance from back when this place was still run’in, come on I’ll lead ya out.”
Tuck answered, already turning and walking back the way he came.
The walk out was long and none of us talked much so I just looked around. The further we walked down this little tunnel the more I noticed crushed equipment. The walls looked like they were made up of bits and pieces of crumbled rock that may have once been the ceiling of a much bigger tunnel here.
“There was a collapse, just like the report said only, whatever caused it wasn’t any fault of ours. It was that damn thunderbird waking up.”
Tuck piped up, answering one question and making me ask another.
“Wait you knew about her?!”
“All the miners did, some decided to follow her after she woke up and brought the walls down on us. Others wanted revenge for the brothers we lost, I’m one of the former. You see son, the reason I stayed around this town so long was because of that bird. I want a chance to return the favor.”
“But what about Robert? If you hate the thunderbird so much why’d you let him in? You had to see that tattoo on his hand.”
“I know he thinks that damned bird will “save” him or something but I don’t blame him. Everyone deals with things in their own way and it’s not my place to judge folk for it.”
Tuck lectured, as we made our way further down the passage. His words made sense to me but I didn’t understand how he could be so understanding. From what I understood the thunderbird had a part to play in the original mine’s collapse and the death of the workers there. Only for some of the survivors to revere this creature. If I were in Tuck’s shoes I don’t think I could forgive and forget.
Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. We emerged into the whispers of what I’m sure was a monster of a storm. But that’s not what drew my attention, what did were the boulders scattered around the hole we just came out of. It looked like they had been moved, and recently. The suspicious red stain just barley peaking out from the bottom of one of them only served to convince me further. Tuck’s story didn’t quite make sense and this entrance seemed like it should’ve been blocked up until very recently. I wasn’t about to question the guy who saved us though, so I let the issue rest.
Bianca’s idea of tracking her phone to find our way to the bikes worked like a charm. We followed the directions my phone spit at us and eventually found our way back to the bikes. Tuck’s old Ford Bronco sat behind our bikes leaving me to question if he followed us on our way here.
“Well do you kids want a ride back to town?”
Tuck asked, his voice bellowing across the forest. Seriously it was like the guy swallowed a loudspeaker at some point and just spoke through it now.
“No we’ll find our own way back.”
“Alrighty then, stay safe son.”
Tuck called back to me as he got into his truck and drove off. Bianca and I stood up our bikes and got ready to head back to town.
“Hey Keith?”
“Yeah what is it Bianca?”
“Next time you offer to bring me along somewhere can you warn me about the damn thunderbird that seems to just show up around you.”
I laughed at this, it was nice to see Bianca joking around again. After what happened in the caves she seemed like someone else, none of her usual cheeriness was there. Not that I knew if that was what she wanted me to see from her or how she actually presented herself but still. I trusted her enough at this point to assume she wasn’t using her abilities to mess with my head.
When we got back to Bianca’s house the sun was just beginning to set, washing the town in shades of purple, orange, and red. We walked the bikes around to their place behind the house and I walked Bianca back to the front door.
“Thanks for today Keith,I don’t… get out very much anymore and it was… nice… to do something other than sit around the house for once. You know, despite everything that happened it was actually fun.”
I was taken aback by her words at first. If it was me I’d immediately want nothing to do with this person who just put me in danger.
“You had fun? The thunderbird showed up again and we may have killed a guy and you had fun?”
I asked, raising and eyebrow suspiciously.
“Can we not talk about that right now? Anyways I don’t exactly have a high bar for what is and isn’t fun at this point. I’ll see you later Keith.”
Bianca said, cracking a smile and walking into her house.
I was about halfway back to my own house when I realized she never gave me my backpack back. Well, looks like I’d be seeing her again then because I need that stuff back. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d seen today. If the thunderbird was in those mines years ago why did she end up in Wisconsin? There was also a very real possibility some people in this town worshipped her so I’d have to keep an eye out for that. The really interesting thing to me was the Shaoni never seemed to want to hurt me in the cave today. She was terrifying as all hell sure, but I didn’t get the sense that she wanted to cause me any sort of harm. If she wanted to do that my gut told me she would’ve done it quickly and efficiently.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside, interrupting my train of thought. As I stood up to see what time it was a knock came from the front door. I froze, who exactly could it be? I doubt Bianca would come over, I don’t think she even knows where I live but maybe she came by to drop off the backpack she absconded with? The knock came again, more forcefully this time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
I shouted, as I jogged to the door. My heart dropped as soon as I opened it, On the other side of the door stood Shaoni. She was dressed normally for once, wearing a long flowing white nightgown. Shaoni stepped into my house as she cooed in her usual misty voice.
“Good evening. Keith was it? We have much to discuss.”
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Morning eventually came, banishing the eyes that seemed to peer at me through the night. It was strange how suddenly the feeling left me, making me think that someone really was watching me. The whole thing was really doing wonders for my paranoia. Despite the rough morning and sleepless night, I still found myself waiting outside Bianca’s house bright and early that morning. The air was cool but not chilly, one of those perfect days that’s cold enough you’ll never start sweating unless you really try, but warm enough that a T-shirt will get you through without too much trouble.
I only had to knock once before Bianca threw open the door.
“Where you just waiting there for me?”
I asked, cracking a smile and raising an eyebrow.
“You’ll never know” she added playfully, “Are we ready to go then?”
Bianca had made some preparations for the trip, she didn’t have a backpack ready to go but she definitely made an effort to dress the part… sort of. She was wearing an old grey combat jacket that I imagine she pulled out of Stein’s closet. The jacket was way to big for her but she made it work. Her combat boots matched the jacket, looking old and well worn. What didn’t match was the bright red yoga pants she was wearing, but I wasn’t about to complain. Besides, I had packed each of us a spare set of clothes just in case.
“Oh! So I had an idea, its a long walk, not crazy but I’d rather not just walk the whole way if we can help it. Frank and Stein used to have some bicycles when we first came here so I asked them about it and well.”
Bianca chirped, as she led me around the back of the house and pulled a tarp off two abysmal looking bicycles. The bikes were both red at one point but that was a long time ago. Now they were covered in a layer of rust and I could barely make out the branding that may have once read, “Shwinn”.
“Um… Bianca I think I might get tetanus if I sit on that thing.”
“Oh come on! Aren’t you tired of walking everywhere? Lets just give the bikes a shot, if they crumble to dust we can leave them.”
“And get me a tetanus shot.”
I added quickly
“Fine, and get you a tetanus shot.”
Bianca shot back, she feigned annoyance but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face.
Laughing to ourselves, we got on the bikes and took off North, out of town and onto a dirt path leading to the woods. Bianca didn’t say much on the way out but I could tell she was having a good time. This may have been her first time out of the house for something other than supervising Frank and Stein. She tried to hide it by riding fast and staying out in front of me, but I could still catch her eyes literally glowing with happiness every now and then. I thought back to what Frank had said about her eyes glowing when she experiences strong emotion. I hoped that was the case and she wasn’t just trying really hard to influence me, which he had also said would make her eyes glow.
As we neared the end of the path, the forest’s edge came into view. we let the bikes roll to a stop then got off and let them fall over onto the dirt. I half expected them to explode into a puff of rusty brown dust the second they touched the ground but to my surprise, neither bike did. I could’ve swore I heard Bianca sniffle almost like she’d been crying. I opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it, if she wanted to tell me what was going on she would. Well, that or she’d just manipulate me away from the question. Wait, was she doing that now? It’s hard to tell, maybe that’s how everyone around her feels. The more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it must be for her just to have friends or form relationships with people at all. If she told them the truth they’d never know if what they were feeling around her at any given moment was real. All they’d have to go on would be her word, could they really trust that, could I? If she kept her secret she’d know that at any moment she could just change how they felt about her, manipulate them into anything she wanted. Could she resist that kind of power over them and still look someone in the eyes and say she was their friend. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep that secret over years of knowing someone.
“So Keith, were exactly are we headed? You do have some Idea where this mine you’re looking for is right?”
Bianca asked skeptically, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well about that…. I just know its out here in the forest somewhere. That’s pretty much all I have to go on from Frank, Stein, and that massive bartender in town.”
I told her sheepishly.
“Well that explains why you over-packed so much then. Seriously? How long do you think we we’re going to be out here, you’re packed like some kind of survivalist.”
She mocked, picking through the pack I’d made for her. After she finished rooting through the pack I made for her like some kind of giant squirrel and, chastised me yet again for not doing more research on the mine, we set off.
The forest felt imposing as we walked into the woods through a manicured patch of trees. Someone had gone to great lengths to braid a few trees over this little path before the forest turned back into its natural wild state. It gave off the feeling that civilization ended with this path and something else entirely began. As we got off the path our light faded quickly, chocked out by the limbs of massive pine trees. All this cover meant there was very little foliage on the ground which was covered in a blanket of needles. The though occurred to me that we were looking for a mine in a valley. That’s weird because what exactly would be in a valley that warranted the creation of a mine? Usually you’ll find them in mountains so what exactly was one doing out here.
“Bianca I just had a thought, Why would they build a mine out here? I mean what’s the point, is there even anything valuable out here to mine?”
“Yeah, come to think of it your right. What other reason would there be to have a mine out here?”
“Unless they were just mining from a cave but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they were…”
Bianca cut me off
“What was that first thing you said?”
“Um… mining from a cave?”
A lightbulb went off over her head as she exclaimed,
“That’s it! There’s caves under the town, I’ve heard Frank talk about them before! Maybe they didn’t have a real mine so they were just mining something out of the caves.”
“Not to burst your bubble Bianca, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to these caves or mines or whatever it is.”
I responded cautiously, trying not to sound to critical of her revelation.
“Well not exactly, Frank said they were in the East of the forest somewhere so all we have to do is head East till we run into them.”
Bianca said, full of confidence. Then something occurred to me, we had no real way of getting back to the bikes other than retracing our steps. Now that was easy enough now, if we went deeper into the woods we would get lost pretty quickly.
“One more thing Bianca, Maybe we should come up with a way to find our way out? I really don’t want to end up lost out here.”
I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands.
“Way ahead of you on that one, I left my phone back by the bikes. Here give me yours and I’ll put my number in so you can track it and find our way back.”
She said, taking my phone, putting her number into it, and turning it to me to show she’d tracked her own phones location with it, giving us a path back to the bikes.
As we turned East and headed even deeper into the forest the terrain started to change. Instead of the pine needle coating we started to see rocks and the ground was more rugged. Here and there we’d even pass a boulder or two. I decided to break the silence of our search.
“So are you ever going to tell me how you met Frank and Stein?”
Bianca sighed before responding.
“I suppose you deserve to know if your sticking around. You probably guessed I wasn’t always living with them. Lets just say before that I was with someone who I though meant the world to me but I never meant the same to him. It was all a game to him and eventually I noticed that. Then, a little while afterwards I realized I wasn’t exactly powerless anymore and I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of to survive on my own.”
I could tell talking about this hurt her but I needed more.
“That’s not exactly telling me a whole lot Bianca.”
I pressed, maybe a little to hard.
“I found out I had powers and I used them ok! I got myself out of a situation where I was pulled so many way I didn’t know which direction was up! The second I found out I could do the same thing to people myself, I did! You’re the first person to actually seem to give a shit that wasn’t some crazy doctor that tolerates my existence or someone I just manipulated into caring! Maybe I even did that with you! I JUST DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!”
Bianca screamed at me, getting in my face with tears beginning to run down her own. Her eyes were glowing electric blue again and I knew I’d crossed a line.
“Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I… I didn’t know.”
“No.. you didn’t but I guess you should”
Bianca sniffled out, trying desperately to pull herself back together and keep up the act the everything was ok. Bianca went silent for a while as we kept walking along, crying to herself before she finally took a deep breath and said,
“You know, this is the first time someone’s asked me to come along and do something outside the house in years. I spend so much time cooped up in there just helping with experiments and looking after Rocco. It’s actually nice to get out and talk for once.”
Her voice still a lifts hoarse from screaming at me before.
“Look if you want to talk about it we’ve got nothing but time out here. I’d like to know a bit more about you anyways.”
I said taking her hand and trying to sound comforting.
“Yeah maybe I should get some of it off my chest. Here it goes I guess.”
Bianca said, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on my hand. Her eyes still glowed faintly as she told me her story as we ventured deeper into the forest.
I’ll give you the shorter version of it here, mostly cause I’m not sure how she’d feel about me spoiling all her secrets.. She ran away from her family and her college education for a guy, his name was Brooke. Brooke was from money and had a job lined up by his family at a law firm so Bianca thought she was set for life with him. Bianca was madly in love with him at the time but as days grew into months and years, Brooke became a monster. He cheated on her and told her she wasn’t enough, that her shortcomings drove him to do it over and over again and somehow it was all her fault every time. He became abusive not long after the cheating started, flying into fits of hysteric apology afterwards only further convincing Bianca she was somehow at fault. After three years of this she eventually got up the courage to leave and never looked back. On the road she discovered her powers of manipulation, letting her play with people’s emotions and she only got better at it with time. Unfortunately her abilities got her into a very specific form of getting money out of people, prostitution. One day she tried to solicit Stein and he saw straight through her. Stein took her with him to the hotel he and Frank were staying at and they took her in on the spot. The trio traveled together ever since, Bianca becoming a kind of daughter to them.
I was in shock once she finished her story, it sounded like she’d really been through the ringer.“I don’t know what to say, that’s awful, all of it.”
“It was, I lived it. But I made it through, doesn’t matter how at the end of the day. I’ve got Frank and Stein and that’s enough, they let me into their home and I recovered in my own way, I’m still here so I’ll take what I can get right?”
Bianca stated with a cold loom of determination on her face. It was painfully obvious to me that despite the masquerade of being fine she was barley holding it together underneath. Like just talking about it with me was driving a finger into old wounds.
“At least you’ll never have to go through something like that again. With your abilities you never have to get pushed around like that.”
I said with completely no tact whatsoever. Bianca stopped suddenly as I said this and whirled around to face me. The fire I’d seen in her eyes earlier reigniting in seconds.
“Do you really think that’s all this is?! I’m no better than him, even you don’t know what you really think when you look at me! Admit ti!”
Bianca growled at me, hysterical once again.
“No, Bianca I…”
“Look I know your trying to help but just leave it, ok? I’m done talking about this”
She cut me off, pulling herself back together and signaling very clearly we were done with that particular conversation.
“Besides look over there, That hole in the rock see it? That might be what we’re looking for.”
Bianca said, gesturing to the stone wall that now jutted out of the ground beside us.
The rock wall she pointed out was chipped near the middle in a way that couldn’t have been natural. Straight lines don’t really exist in nature and this hole was cut squarely into this rock wall. As we got closer I could see that it wasn’t just an entrance either. The hole opened into the rock wall but then suddenly dropped, like whoever carved it had hit a point where the ground just fell out from under them. From where Bianca and I were looking into the hole we couldn’t quite see the bottom.
“Well we found what we were looking for, is this bringing back any memories from those dreams you had?”
Bianca asked, sounding a little short tempered still as I searched through my bag.
“What are you looking for in there?”
“Rope, I’ve got to see what’s in there and I’m hoping I brought enough to climb down there.”
I replied hurriedly, still tearing apart my bag to get to the rope I had packed underneath everything else.
“Rope? you’re not seriously going to climb down that pit are you? I can barely see down there.”
Bianca complained, sounding exasperated.
“Here, this should help you see down there.”
I said, tossing her one of the two head mounted flashlights I brought along.
“ME? I never said we were going down there!”
Bianca panicked momentarily.
“Look, you can stay up here and wait for me if you really don’t want to go down there. But I would appreciate having you to watch my back.”
I added trying to soften her up. Bianca opened her mouth like she was going to say something but stopped, instead dropping her own pack to the ground and searching through it.
“Look if I’m going down there I’m going to need something better than yoga pants on and…. You actually packed a change of clothes in here. Geez you really did think of everything.”
As Bianca took the jeans I packed and went off to find somewhere to change I finally found the rope. It was about 50 feet of strong climbing rope that I kept for an occasion just like this. Now that’s not to say I was a professional climber by any means but a 20 or 30 foot rappel I should be able to do. I was hoping that the descent wasn’t much further than that. I anchored the rope to a tree a little ways away from the hole in the rock face and tossed the rope down the hole. It hit the bottom with a satisfying thud just as Bianca got back from changing. The jeans I had packed were a little big on her but she’d manage. She looked like a mess in her ancient combat boot and jacket, all of which were too big for her. I tried to open my mouth to tell her she looked nice, I swear I really did but what came out was hyena-like laughter at her appearance.
“I…. Oh god I’m…. It’s just”
I struggled to get out, laughing all the while.
“Well I’m glad you like it at least, ok seriously come on, stop laughing.”
Bianca scolded as she began giggling herself. Soon enough we were both laughing, Bianca’s earlier storminess cleared up by the absurdity of the situation.
Here we were, a succubus and a guy with a strange mark out in the woods getting ready to rappel into a hole in the ground that apparently didn’t exist. All this was almost starting to feel… I’m not really sure how to put it, not normal but not so strange. Honestly I finally felt like I’d found some kind of purpose again out here. As weird as it all was I was starting to enjoy… this, this whole odd situation I’d found myself in. Bianca and I finally got ahold of the laughter and stood back up from our place on the ground.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She asked
“I’ve never heard you complain about your looks before. But no, with those jeans on you look like maybe, just maybe you prepared a little bit for coming out here.”
I teased, getting a little wry grin out of her.
“Come on, lets get going. Hopefully we can be in and out of there pretty quickly.”
I said, handing Bianca her pack and shouldering my own.
Rappelling in wasn’t actually all that hard, really dangerous without safety equipment sure, but neither of us had any trouble descending the maybe 20 foot drop. At the bottom I saw something that shocked me, this place wasn’t abandoned. I saw lighting set up, not on but very clearly set up recently. Bits of old mining equipment were scattered around the… cave? Mine? Im not really sure what to call it anymore. What concerned me more than anything was the light I saw at the far end of the cave (I’m settling on calling it a cave). The light came from a massive bonfire and I could just make out the shadows of several people sitting around it. I have no idea how we didn’t see the smoke on our way in. It wasn’t filling the cave but it also wasn’t coming out from anywhere I saw on the way here.
“Bianca get down!”
I whisper shouted at her, turning off my headlamp and falling flat to the ground myself. Bianca dropped to the ground as she heard me with unexpected grace. I didn’t know if those figures by the fire had seen us but I certainly wasn’t taking chances.
“Ok, I’m going to creep up and see if I can hear them talking or something. Can you just stay here and watch my back? I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to.”
I instructed Bianca who answered with a quick nod and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew a jeweled golden dagger from it.
“I sorry, what’s this now?”
I asked, confused and thrown off guard by the weapon. It was a really beautiful blade, the hilt was silver with several purple gems inlaid in it. The blade was golden save for the razor sharp edge which was some kind of strange blue material that was roughly the same color Blanca’s eyes glowed.
“I had a life before this you know.”
Bianca responded.
“Yeah we talked about it but you didn’t really tell me much about this part apparently. Doesn’t matter I guess just surprised you have Jeff Bezos’s butter knife in your jacket pocket.”
I whispered, pointing at the dagger in her hand.
“Well we can talk more about how I ended up with this later, not really the time now. Just be careful ok.”
I got up as she said this, realizing she was right. Now really wasn’t the time to be asking about strange daggers, I had more pressing issues.
I crouched down and started creeping towards the figures by the bonfire, careful to avoid the rusty machinery bits scattered across the ground. As I got closer I saw a passage I had missed in the dark. I dared to turn my headlamp on for just a second, trying to block out most of the light with my hand. What I saw through the dim light and shadows of my finger left me awestruck. Inside the passage a coliseum had been constructed, with seats carved into the stone. The structure itself was made up of the rusted metal pieces that littered the room, collected and smelted together to form the walls of the structure. What frightened me the most was the symbol clearly and meticulously drawn on the dirt floor, the same symbol that adorned my back, the symbol of the thunderbird. Moving on, more shaken than ever I crept closer still to the roaring bonfire. I could just about make out the words the figures were saying. When I got close enough to make out the word “tests” the fire suddenly went out with a gust of wind.The room temperature must have dropped 10 degrees immediately and I could swear I heard the sounds of heavy rain above us. But the sudden lack of light isn’t what rooted me in place, cowering on the cave floor. What did that was the two illuminated grey eyes that pierced through the darkness like lightning in a storm, eyes I would never forget, the eyes of the woman from Imalone.
This time I clearly heard the voices of the figures from around the bonfire as they all dropped to their knees.
“Shaoni! We weren’t expecting you till later, Stormcaller.”
The figures all said some variation of in unison. Their tone sounding almost as though they were begging for forgiveness. In a voice that hissed like rain on pavement the woman apparently named Shaoni spoke.
“I’ve come to oversee the start of the trials, is everything prepared?”
In one bone chilling moment her eyes locked on mine and she said the one thing I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“You didn’t tell me we had guests.”
The moment the words left her lips I turned back to where Bianca was waiting, her now glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the cave. Giving up any form of subtly, I bolted for the rope behind Bianca. I just wanted to be out of this cave, whatever I might learn from searching around was far outweighed by the fact that Shaoni was here. I’d seen the kind of destruction she’d left in her wake in Imalone and I had no desire to see it happen again here. I banged my ankle on several of the little bits of rusty metal on the floor as I ran, sending sparks of pain up my leg. I didn’t hear anything behind me at all which was almost more unnerving than the footsteps I expected to hear. I closed in on Bianca and saw she hadn’t moved at all, her eyes fixed on something behind me. I dared to take a quick glance back over my shoulder and saw Shaoni taking her first step away from the extinguished bonfire. Lightning crackled around her like one of those novelty plasma globes. In the flashes of light I could see her face. There was no smile or frown, no emotion at all. She simply stared straight ahead towards me and took slow calm steps, inching ever closer.
“Bianca we’ve got to go… NOW!”
I shouted, snapping her to attention. She nodded and turned on her heels, back toward the rope we’d thrown in earlier. Only, when we got to the rope and gave it a tug, it came falling back toward us.
“There’s no way. I…I anchored it to that tree, it should’ve held!”
I cried in disbelief. Bianca and I starred up at the now stormy sky through the hole we would’ve escaped from. Two men walked into view on either side of the hole, glowering down at us. I notice a marking on one of the men’s hands in a flash of lightning from the storm. I could only assume if I was able to make it out I would’ve seen a marking just like the one on my back. Just as soon as the men had appeared a shape flew in from the left with a low growl, taking both men along with it.
“Ok, new plan! There’s something else up there and I really don’t want to get involved with… whatever that was either. I didn’t see any footprints near the entrance so I’m assuming those guys we saw by the bonfire got in another way. We’re just going to have to find where that was and get out that way.”
I instructed Bianca, gesturing to the men in toe with Shaoni and trying not to sound as afraid as I was.
“Ok, I’m with you but lets get moving, I don’t want to any closer to her than I have to be.”
Bianca answered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt a wave of calm rush over me and for the second time I was grateful for Bianca’s ability to simply turn off my fear response.
Shaoni now stood about 50 feet from us with four men following behind her. In the light she gave off I could see the men were all dressed like normal people. I kind of figured they would be more of those canvas wrapped weirdos from Imalone but no. There stood four men in jeans and flannels standing there. Shaoni looked like she could’ve stepped right out of a painting of Pocahontas. She wore an animal hide dress with frills along the bottom and arms. Her head was adorned with a leather band containing several hawk feathers. In short she looked like she’d stepped out of a different time. But I had no time to look over the finer details of her clothing as Bianca and I rushed towards her. Once we got within striking distance I pulled Bianca to the left, towards the passage I had seen earlier. Shaoni never made a move towards us, she just simply looked at me, the ghost of a smile briefly crossing her lips. One of the men with her grabbed at Bianca though, pulling her out of my grasp momentarily. That was a mistake because she was on him immediately with the ornate dagger I’d seen before. As the man grabbed her Bianca lashed out with the dagger, sticking him in the gut with the blade. He screamed in anguish and let go of her but Bianca wasn’t done yet. She followed up by stabbing the man in the back of the neck as he bent over, grabbing at the hole in his abdomen. The other three men were so taken aback by the sudden ferocity she displayed that they didn’t come any closer. As time stood still for a second the men all looked toward Shaoni, awaiting instructions but hesitant to get any closer to Bianca. Using the brief moment of disbelief Bianca had caused, we ran down the side passage towards the coliseum.
“What was that?”
I asked, still shocked by how suddenly Bianca had acted.
“He tried to grab me, I don’t like when they try to grab me”
Bianca responded, distant and… scared? I got the sense she was still in shock at what she had done too. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, we still had to get out of here. Luckily the men didn’t seem to be following us. Wether Shaoni called them off or they stopped to care for their friend I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t care.
Rushing through the rusty coliseum was haunting. I expected something to jump out of every shadow in the imposing structure. As we slowed to a jog in the middle of the coliseum, right where that eagle symbol was, we stopped to look around. We had come into this arena through an open arch but the only other exit I could see was a similar but barred archway. The coliseum was huge for something constructed in a cave, probably 400 feet across. I had no idea how this thing could’ve been made without anybody finding out.
“Bianca are you seeing anyway out of here? Bianca!”
I asked, then shouted as I turned to see her standing still as a statue in the middle of the Eagle symbol. She was staring at the dagger she had stabbed that man with. Blood still stained the blade and dripped from it intermittently.
“Bianca are you alright?”
I questioned as I walked over to her. She still had this look in her eyes, like she was miles away.
“Bianca? Come on talk to me. Look, you did what you had to do back there, sure it wasn’t exactly pretty but it had to be done.”
I tried to comfort her with my words but the truth is, my heart just wasn’t in it. I was a little scared of what I saw from her in those few moments. She just lashed out and attacked him, not that he didn’t deserve it but going back for more was too much. But what would’ve happened if she didn’t act? It’s not something I could really dwell on now and I’m not sure it really mattered. I just wasn’t feeling all that great about the fact we may have killed someone.
“I don’t like it when they grab me.”
Bianca finally repeated, still appearing catatonic. I leaned down to her level, putting my face right in-front of her’s and putting her head in between my hands.
“Bianca I know enough to know that whole situation may have dug up some memories for you but nows really not the time. We have to keep moving, we have to find a way out of here, and I can’t do that without you right now.”
Bianca tensed up as I spoke to her, but I could feel her relax as I finished. A single tear fell from her eye as she gave me a nod and followed behind me as I walked toward the barred off archway.
Before I made it to the archway there was a massive crash as something tore the rusty bars from their mountings and fell into the room.
“Tuck?!”
I exclaimed, recognizing his colossal figure on the floor immediately. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds though, Like he’d flexed too hard and burst out of his clothes. Bianca and I rushed over to check on him but apparently he was fine. Before we even started walking towards him he was already back up on his feet and lumbering towards us.
“Tuck what are you doing here? Actually never mind, are you ok?”
I asked, concern in my voice.
“It’s going to take more than this to stop me son. I figured you might go looking for that old mine I mentioned the other night so I came to find you. I feel real bad about ya run’in off the way ya did and I got to thinking. Maybe I could make it up to ya if I told ya about the mine. So I came out here and found some shady look’in fellas poking around and figured maybe ya needed help, looks like I was right.”
Tuck explained, dusting himself off and brushing away some of the tattered remains of his shirt. I didn’t buy his story for a second but I wasn’t going to argue with this bear of a man.
“So how did you get in anyway?”
“Used the old entrance from back when this place was still run’in, come on I’ll lead ya out.”
Tuck answered, already turning and walking back the way he came.
The walk out was long and none of us talked much so I just looked around. The further we walked down this little tunnel the more I noticed crushed equipment. The walls looked like they were made up of bits and pieces of crumbled rock that may have once been the ceiling of a much bigger tunnel here.
“There was a collapse, just like the report said only, whatever caused it wasn’t any fault of ours. It was that damn thunderbird waking up.”
Tuck piped up, answering one question and making me ask another.
“Wait you knew about her?!”
“All the miners did, some decided to follow her after she woke up and brought the walls down on us. Others wanted revenge for the brothers we lost, I’m one of the former. You see son, the reason I stayed around this town so long was because of that bird. I want a chance to return the favor.”
“But what about Robert? If you hate the thunderbird so much why’d you let him in? You had to see that tattoo on his hand.”
“I know he thinks that damned bird will “save” him or something but I don’t blame him. Everyone deals with things in their own way and it’s not my place to judge folk for it.”
Tuck lectured, as we made our way further down the passage. His words made sense to me but I didn’t understand how he could be so understanding. From what I understood the thunderbird had a part to play in the original mine’s collapse and the death of the workers there. Only for some of the survivors to revere this creature. If I were in Tuck’s shoes I don’t think I could forgive and forget.
Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. We emerged into the whispers of what I’m sure was a monster of a storm. But that’s not what drew my attention, what did were the boulders scattered around the hole we just came out of. It looked like they had been moved, and recently. The suspicious red stain just barley peaking out from the bottom of one of them only served to convince me further. Tuck’s story didn’t quite make sense and this entrance seemed like it should’ve been blocked up until very recently. I wasn’t about to question the guy who saved us though, so I let the issue rest.
Bianca’s idea of tracking her phone to find our way to the bikes worked like a charm. We followed the directions my phone spit at us and eventually found our way back to the bikes. Tuck’s old Ford Bronco sat behind our bikes leaving me to question if he followed us on our way here.
“Well do you kids want a ride back to town?”
Tuck asked, his voice bellowing across the forest. Seriously it was like the guy swallowed a loudspeaker at some point and just spoke through it now.
“No we’ll find our own way back.”
“Alrighty then, stay safe son.”
Tuck called back to me as he got into his truck and drove off. Bianca and I stood up our bikes and got ready to head back to town.
“Hey Keith?”
“Yeah what is it Bianca?”
“Next time you offer to bring me along somewhere can you warn me about the damn thunderbird that seems to just show up around you.”
I laughed at this, it was nice to see Bianca joking around again. After what happened in the caves she seemed like someone else, none of her usual cheeriness was there. Not that I knew if that was what she wanted me to see from her or how she actually presented herself but still. I trusted her enough at this point to assume she wasn’t using her abilities to mess with my head.
When we got back to Bianca’s house the sun was just beginning to set, washing the town in shades of purple, orange, and red. We walked the bikes around to their place behind the house and I walked Bianca back to the front door.
“Thanks for today Keith,I don’t… get out very much anymore and it was… nice… to do something other than sit around the house for once. You know, despite everything that happened it was actually fun.”
I was taken aback by her words at first. If it was me I’d immediately want nothing to do with this person who just put me in danger.
“You had fun? The thunderbird showed up again and we may have killed a guy and you had fun?”
I asked, raising and eyebrow suspiciously.
“Can we not talk about that right now? Anyways I don’t exactly have a high bar for what is and isn’t fun at this point. I’ll see you later Keith.”
Bianca said, cracking a smile and walking into her house.
I was about halfway back to my own house when I realized she never gave me my backpack back. Well, looks like I’d be seeing her again then because I need that stuff back. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d seen today. If the thunderbird was in those mines years ago why did she end up in Wisconsin? There was also a very real possibility some people in this town worshipped her so I’d have to keep an eye out for that. The really interesting thing to me was the Shaoni never seemed to want to hurt me in the cave today. She was terrifying as all hell sure, but I didn’t get the sense that she wanted to cause me any sort of harm. If she wanted to do that my gut told me she would’ve done it quickly and efficiently.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside, interrupting my train of thought. As I stood up to see what time it was a knock came from the front door. I froze, who exactly could it be? I doubt Bianca would come over, I don’t think she even knows where I live but maybe she came by to drop off the backpack she absconded with? The knock came again, more forcefully this time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
I shouted, as I jogged to the door. My heart dropped as soon as I opened it, On the other side of the door stood Shaoni. She was dressed normally for once, wearing a long flowing white nightgown. Shaoni stepped into my house as she cooed in her usual misty voice.
“Good evening. Keith was it? We have much to discuss.”
2024.05.18 23:50 ArtChocolateTravel Packing list: 4 weeks N. Italy/Paris May/June
 | https://preview.redd.it/eeffz45da91d1.png?width=1592&format=png&auto=webp&s=aeb3a8b3171535e2a73e3e43e54f1ba6c69da76b submitted by ArtChocolateTravel to HerOneBag [link] [comments] Here is my packing list:
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2024.05.18 23:48 FreqRL [Build Guide] Arcane-Holy Paladin
![[Build Guide] Arcane-Holy Paladin](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/7K9j57SUaTmfUnPrdgwK6kt6A_mzoD9DGlnkZvxDG4M.jpg "[Build Guide] Arcane-Holy Paladin") | This build was requested by u/Thick-Geologist23. If you also have characters or skills you'd like to see a build for, leave a comment! submitted by FreqRL to SoulstoneSurvivors [link] [comments] The Buildhttps://preview.redd.it/jrrkhoxhv81d1.png?width=701&format=png&auto=webp&s=2c400aaebe2d821546cdb4fc0911ed61c875ddb1Use 3 fast swing skills to stack buffs, using the Synergetic rune for maximum effect. Use Light Beam and Arcane beam to rapidly wear down bosses. Core mechanicsThe main skill for this build is Arcane Beam, which is easily one of the best skills in the game. It has built in scaling that becomes more powerful the harder you push it, creating somewhat of a double payout. Throw some extra damage debuffs and tons of crit into the mix for insane output.This build is especially great because it only uses skills that come from the Paladin's own kit, meaning you can select both material collection runes for easy material farming. BreakdownSkill SelectionLike previously mentioned, this build is mostly about Arcane Beam, and the Brittle debuff it applies. Brittle stacks on enemies increases the damage of future hits by a flat value. This means that you're better off using a skill that does a ton of small hits, instead of using slow but heavy-hitting skills. Arcane Beam itself is a skill that does a ton of small hits, which means it both applies a lot of Brittle, and take great advantage of those stacks. Further more, as you get higher level and start casting Arcane Beam more often, you'll both apply more Brittle and hit more often, which makes Arcane Beam particularly powerful. Its worth noting that the added damage of Brittle stacks is multiplied by any skill's (and your base) damage multiplier, including when you crit. Having 200% increased damage thus means your Brittle is also 200% more effective. https://preview.redd.it/ejshd7bzw81d1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=1edbc4827e432c260bf9a22625db957b4b95028b The second "main" skill is Light Beam. Like Arcane Beam, Light Beam does a bunch of small hits over a duration, meaning Light Beam also gets a lot of benefit from the Brittle stacks. Light Beam also applies the Exposed debuff, which increases direct (so non-damage-over-time) damage taken, by up to 800%. As you get higher level, you'll easily hit that upper limit, making Light Beam an effective x8 damage multiplier. https://preview.redd.it/iu2q03jlx81d1.png?width=419&format=png&auto=webp&s=83ab4697fc15698fd9c4ef4b63d6b60bc19920ec We also take Lightning Surge as a buff skill, to easily max out our effective critical strike chance. Lightning Surge makes all your hits apply the Dazed debuff. With the combined number of hits of Light Beam and Arcane Beam, you're almost instantly capped on daze-stacks. https://preview.redd.it/l0ircg0cy81d1.png?width=423&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf578aeff4ac8ecdd3e248b24f5d4522258a9af3 All 3 skills mentioned so far have a pretty long cooldown. For Lightning Surge, which is a buff, that doesn't matter much, as we'll easily get 100% uptime even with just a basic investment in general cast frequency. To get the most out of both Light Beam and Arcane Beam, we round the build off with 3 quick swing skills. Our skills of choice are Blades of Light, Heartrending Strike and Double Slash. These 3 skills together will provide use with the Prowess (damage), Finesse (multicast) and Bulwark (block) buffs, as wel as applying Fragility (increased damage taken) and Debilitated (reduced damage dealt by enemies). If you don't have Heartrending Strike (because it is a seasonal reward), you can swap it for Magic Missiles without any need to change the build further. Mechanics Skill-chains As always, skillchaining is the main way to scale the build, as it allows you to bypass the long cooldowns on Light Beam and Arcane Beam. Most important is Swing-to-Arcane, followed by Swing-to-Holy, or even Holy-to-Arcane. Getting high amounts on Swing-to-Arcane in particular will make your build wreck bosses. If you encounter a Holy-to-Swing chain, that is also good for getting more buffs, but Arcane-to-Swing is not worth it. Synergies Because we get 3 different types of buffs (prowess, finesse and bulwark) from our skills, we can use those to get the synergy skills to also get other buffs. Look out for Aptitude, which increases Critical Damage, and Resillience, which increases block. I highly recommend using the Synergetic rune to get more of these rewards and also to make them more powerful. Don't scale Lightning Surge Lightning Surge is one of the few buffs that is 100% fine exactly how you get it. Increased Potency only raises the movespeed component, which isn't anything special. With the amount of cast frequency you're going to get for other skills anyway, you'll easily hit 100% uptime, making duration and lightning surge specific cast frequency worthless. Banish everything Crit chance? We got Dazed stacks to get that. Crit Damage? Hardly worth it once you get some Aptitude synergies going. Multicast? Maybe some, but Finesse stacks will take care of 80% of that. Damage? Well, we got Prowess stacks which will take over for the most part. Block? Nope, Bulwark stacks. Armor? We probably get enough from Resillience synergies. The result of all this is that you can basically scale primarily cast frequency, mostly health, experience and really just the rare skill-type combo's like "more damage on non-swing skills for each swing skill you have". Still, I don't recommend banishing everything listed above right as you get started, because you will need some base stats to get the build rolling smoothly. Paladin mechanic? The paladin's mechanic with the holy orbs is powerful, but risky. You either have to time it really well or stand still, which can pretty dangerous. Without some serious investment, the gold orbs that remain after you missed the timing on a zone hardly fill the Divine bar, and you'll not sustain your holy mode for very long. It can be powerful if you've got the skill to manage it, but it's not really necesary. Healing It's nothing major, but worth mentioning that this build has quite a bit of healing. The Purity stacks you get from Blades of Light aren't much at first, but combined with the high block and high armor this build has, can provide quite some decent sustain and makes aggresive play much more forgiving. Don't be too afraid to get close and personal with bosses to quickly take them out, though be careful not to overdo it in higher cycles. https://preview.redd.it/fnsvrhyj891d1.png?width=262&format=png&auto=webp&s=faafb024c8945fd38538bd2b47244f85e0079ba1 Rune choicehttps://preview.redd.it/hk0mgo3z191d1.png?width=369&format=png&auto=webp&s=715782b21586f32ee96692b403e893a89c67b753Versatility Runes: The real upside of this build is that it really needs very little to get going, which means we won't be doing a ton of rerolling. We also don't need any non-paladin skills. This means just Endless Refill is enough to sustain our reroll and lock pools, and we can use both Material Harvest and Efficient Extraction for maximum material farming. Tenacity Runes: The most important one by far is the Divine Legacy rune, which is (in my opinion) easily the best rune in the game. By cleverly saving and using your locks only at every 25th level, you can get 3 legendary passives every 25 levels, which is just crazy. This is probably true for almost every build, so you'll see this section in a lot of my builds. Synergetic is super important for really getting the most out of the buffs you get from your swing skills, as is the case for any build that focuses heavily on buff or damaging debuffs. The final 3 points aren't super important, and you can kind-of take whatever. Since the build has 3 very fast skills and a ton of skillchain, I chose Battle Proficiency to easily build up more Prowess, and Multicast Mastery because it was the best remaining fit. Stat prioritiesThese are the priorities for "basic" stats. Skill chain, type-synergies ( like "more damage per ice skill for non-ice skills", and legendary rewards are almost always better.Prioritize in order: Cast Frequency You need relatively high amounts of cast frequency to get all 3 of your swing skills at 0.5s cooldown or lower. You can also get skill-specific cast speed to enhance them even further. Blades of Light can be pushed as far as a 0.2s with significant investment, but since we really don't need many other stats, this is quite doable in a full run. Rest It's kind of weird that this build really only needs cast frequency, but that's really just it. As previously mentioned in the Mechanics section, many attributes can be banished (eventually), which doesn't leave you much to choose from to begin with. Legendary PrioritiesSince this build is so basic, I though I might give some more attention to the Legendary rewards. Most of them are pretty self explanatory, but there's two that are actually pretty bad and potentially even worth bannishing if you find you run out of rerolls a lot: Increased Physical Damage and Anything-to-Lightning chains.Increased Physical Damage effects 4 of your skills, so it might seem good, but those 4 skills really don't matter in terms of damage or potency. None of them will amount to much more than 1% of your total damage, and Lightning Surge's dazed stacks don't scale at all. On the other hand, Multicast for Physical Skills is great, because it greatly increases the number of buffs you get. Anything-to-Lightning doesn't matter because your only Lightning skill is Lightning Surge. With the amounts of Cast Frequency this build needs, you'll easily get 100% uptime. Since Lightning Surge is a buff, recasting the skill only refreshes the duration, but doesn't add a second layer like it would for Arcane Beam or Light Beam. That's the build!The Arcane-Holy Paladin has been really strong since forever, and its easy execution makes the Paladin one of the best characters in the game if you ask me. This build has high defenses, high damage, and a bunch of healing, all while being super easy to build and play, and with big material farming potential. There's also a number of variation possible, like using Smite, Might and Arcane Power instead of the swing-skills and going for Holy-to-Arcane chaining exclusively. A more advanced version uses the Extra Repertory rune and Skill Mastery Ice rune to also add Glacial Affinity and Disarray into the mix for even more damage, although with a much rougher build-path.Let me know what you guys think of the build, if you have any suggestions or if I missed anything, any questions, etc :) If you haven't seen it, take a look at my previous build, the Ice-Shadow Assassin. |
2024.05.18 23:48 IndigoStevie [PC][UK/EU] THE SERVANTS OF LIGHT - We are celebrating 5 years of TSOL, join us for the next 5?
Greetings Guardians (and potential future TSOLites)!
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
submitted by IndigoStevie to Fireteams [link] [comments]
I’m Stevie and I’m an admin here at The Servants Of Light. We are a broad group of gamers and friends who like to hang out, chat and play games, sometimes even Destiny. Take a moment to read through our little recruitment post here and see if you think that our little corner of the internet is somewhere you would like to call home.
The Essentials
System: PC - All platforms are welcome thanks to crossplay. But please make sure you have a way to chat with us over discord as that's how we arrange everything.Region: We are primarily based in the UK. We have a fair few EU members and even 1 or 2 on other timezones. We don't really recommend signing up if you are US based as you will likely miss out on alot of our events and fun things due to the time difference. (sorry)
Active Times: You will usually find us active from late afternoon/early evening and sticking around toward midnight.
Rules Summary: Our rules boil down to not being an idiot or a bigot. We love to joke around with each other but we do not tolerate hate. No homophobia, sexism, racism or any kind of gender or religious attacks. We are a welcoming place for all people but if you harbour distaste for anyone for just existing as their true self, you don't belong with us.
Who Are The Servants Of Light?
About Us: So, The Servants Of Light (or TSOL [tee-sol] for short) started out as another Destiny 2 clan made to give a few people a way to earn some extra rewards and group up easier. Over the past 5 years we have grown and evolved into so much more. Destiny is, of course, a big part of what we do and who we are, but I think that what makes TSOL special is everything else we get up to. From just talking to each other in the general chat, debating silly things like what counts as a sandwich all the way to all our events. We have fortnightly Game Nights, Movie Nights and a special raid night known as Raid Roulette. We also like to do bigger events throughout the year, the biggest of which is our end of year BONANZA! A huge gameshow style event where we like to dress up all fancy, announce the winners of our community voted awards and challenge you to various themed rounds with a prize on offer. We even have a yearly meetup for those so inclined towards in-person interaction. As for our general focuses for within Destiny, we do a little bit of everything. I would probably say we are a much more PvE leaning clan, we have teams going for clears on contest mode (and may have a space or two open for the next one if you are into that kind of thing and get along with us), we do GM’s and raids every season and aren’t scared off by legend difficulty activities. PvP wise, we have a few guardians who jump into things like trials regularly but for most of us PvP is an ‘as and when’ kind of activity, stacking 6 in iron banner is always fun though. No activity is mandatory and we really just want to play the game we love with people we like, in whatever form that takes. (NOTICE: If Gambit is your favourite gamemode then you will be judged for it but not penalised)The Testimonials
Not something you see much of in your average recruitment post but I asked some of our current members as well as some friends of the clan to give a little insight into what people really think of the clan named TSOL.NebulaAndi (our clan leader): "TSOL was created as a place for people to come together and hang out, not just play destiny. It has blossomed into something I'm incredibly proud of, and has fostered some amazing friendships and memories. I've watched many of our longer-standing members grow, and everyone continues to welcome new people with open arms. We've got so many things going on - day one raids, movie nights, and we even had our second irl meetup last year which was incredible. I love these guys with all my heart, and despite them forcing me at gunpoint to write this, I know they'll welcome you too."
Lucasacul (one of our mods): “If you are looking for the funniest, kindest and most helpful clan in Destiny 2 then join us here at The Servants of Light. This is not a cult”
Weiland: "very welcoming group of people, almost always down to run stuff/help people out."
Rapideagle147: "It's a clan full of muppets"
Havelock: "TSOL is a really welcoming, friendly and diverse clan and absolutely not a cult. Brilliantly social not just playing Destiny but having DnD, Minecraft, games/film nights and solid definitely not cultist chat."
Kenny: “A clan so good, you’ll kill your old clan just for the chance with them”
DT: "I used to hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, now I hate destiny 2 the video game with a passion, but with friends."
Evey: "TSOL - A Haiku Sherpa'd my first raid, Then soon became dearest friends: This weird clan is great!"
Sheep: “TSOL is a fantasic clan, who really go out of their way to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone that joins. Destiny with them is always fun and there's a great community where anyone will try to help with whatever you want which just makes destiny, even when it's not fun, just that little bit more enjoyable”
Nuggets: "excited monkey noises"
Athena: "Found TSOL about a year ago and the people here are nothing short of being the weirdest and loveliest folk that I've ever met. There's always something going on in the server, even during the quiet periods of Destiny."
yapX: "TSOL allows you to actually enjoy Destiny 2, a remarkable achievement that Bungie haven't been able to replicate"
How to get involved
Requirements: The only real requirements we have for joining the clan are 1) to use Discord, which is how we communicate with everyone and arrange all our activities. It's also where you can chat to your clanmates and have fun. 2) follow the rules. The full rules list is in our server for you to read through.How to: So, if you somehow made it through all that and still think that this is a clan you would like to check out, add or shoot me a DM over on Discord (indigostevie) and I'll get you sorted. If you wanna jump in the server and get to know us a little before you join the in game clan, that's fine too, same deal.
I love this clan with all my heart. They are some of the best friends I've ever known. I hope you like us too :)
https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/Index?groupId=3541785 (we will not accept join requests without a message to an Admin just FYI)
2024.05.18 23:34 Memespoonerer Covering the (composite) scarlet king.
the scarlet king is an elder god who predates most beings in the omniverse he is said to be greater than his brothers and sisters
As an elder god he has no origin and came out of non-existent itself along with creating the concept of division giving him non-existent existence, conceptual manipulation, and beyond causality.
The scarlet king is also a concept entity.
In the tale the thing at the bottom of my dreams
The scarlet king and the cosmic starfish fought leading to the noosphere to turn inside out
Giving conceptual manipulation and conceptual existence.
The scarlet king is the aspect of the crimson demon who embodies all negative plot points in stories. The scarlet king is also an aspect of 2747 and embodies all villain tropes
The scarlet king also acted as a counter to two narrative forces
H.I pickmins proposal is narrative causality
the patasphere narrative causality as it defines how stories go and is also called the universal narrative
The universal narrative is the infinitely complicated story that reality imitates
this exists in all timelines
Patasphere is the set of all possible narratives in a timeline
Another example of this is the phantom bubble model
the scarlet demon reduced multiple phantom bubbles to ash by just moving
fought unity which embodies all laws in a narrative
These hypercanon structures contain every canon in scp, contains all storylines and cosmological models, and does it to an infinite recursive degree
As an aspect of 2747 it would also have the immunity of one being a hard coded aspect of reality
This gives him plot manipulation, plot immunity, omniscient and omnipresent across all impossible outcomes.
As a god he is above the whole of the multiverses
there are infinite universes With infinite layers of existence and transfinite expansion and transfinite dimensions With reality having infinite universes inside universes with whole universes inside of atoms
The multiverses are then put into clusters that grow in size
There are infinite metaverses which contain infinite multiverses
beyond this resides non reality that is bigger then all of that
Then all of this resides in an infinite chain of multiverses which transcend the last in all ways and has new theories and ideas.
This endless multiverses runs on all theories and philosophy and is stacked in all ways with one final reality at the end of it all that arranges every already said in all ways](https://imgur.com/a/SyIRsq9)
All of this is within the noosphere
which is just yesod
The giants that forged yesod [are nothing to the elder gods which the scarlet king is the strongest of them](thttps://imgur.com/a/AZhEJxQ)
This gives him massive Hyperdimensional size.
submitted by Memespoonerer to DeathBattleMatchups [link] [comments]
As an elder god he has no origin and came out of non-existent itself along with creating the concept of division giving him non-existent existence, conceptual manipulation, and beyond causality.
The scarlet king is also a concept entity.
In the tale the thing at the bottom of my dreams
The scarlet king and the cosmic starfish fought leading to the noosphere to turn inside out
Giving conceptual manipulation and conceptual existence.
The scarlet king is the aspect of the crimson demon who embodies all negative plot points in stories. The scarlet king is also an aspect of 2747 and embodies all villain tropes
The scarlet king also acted as a counter to two narrative forces
H.I pickmins proposal is narrative causality
the patasphere narrative causality as it defines how stories go and is also called the universal narrative
The universal narrative is the infinitely complicated story that reality imitates
this exists in all timelines
Patasphere is the set of all possible narratives in a timeline
Another example of this is the phantom bubble model
the scarlet demon reduced multiple phantom bubbles to ash by just moving
fought unity which embodies all laws in a narrative
These hypercanon structures contain every canon in scp, contains all storylines and cosmological models, and does it to an infinite recursive degree
As an aspect of 2747 it would also have the immunity of one being a hard coded aspect of reality
This gives him plot manipulation, plot immunity, omniscient and omnipresent across all impossible outcomes.
As a god he is above the whole of the multiverses
there are infinite universes With infinite layers of existence and transfinite expansion and transfinite dimensions With reality having infinite universes inside universes with whole universes inside of atoms
The multiverses are then put into clusters that grow in size
There are infinite metaverses which contain infinite multiverses
beyond this resides non reality that is bigger then all of that
Then all of this resides in an infinite chain of multiverses which transcend the last in all ways and has new theories and ideas.
This endless multiverses runs on all theories and philosophy and is stacked in all ways with one final reality at the end of it all that arranges every already said in all ways](https://imgur.com/a/SyIRsq9)
All of this is within the noosphere
which is just yesod
The giants that forged yesod [are nothing to the elder gods which the scarlet king is the strongest of them](thttps://imgur.com/a/AZhEJxQ)
This gives him massive Hyperdimensional size.
2024.05.18 23:33 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Your career management as an investment portfolio
In most cases when sales of a product have plateaued, market saturation is often used. That suggests there is more supply than demand for a given product. Western marketplaces are bursting with work options and ways to make money. Today’s young people must act smart and move quick to locate new employment opportunities.In most cases when sales of a product have plateaued, market saturation is often used. That suggests there is more supply than demand for a given product. Western marketplaces are bursting with work options and ways to make money. Today’s young people must act smart and move quick to locate new employment opportunities.
Suppose one wants to be successful in this field, they should focus on expanding markets, developing innovative technology, and uncovering undiscovered company prospects in highly profitable niche industries, among other things (Agarwal et al, 6). Businesses in crowded markets may cut the price of their products to gain a larger market share. As a result, businesses are always undercutting each other to attract new customers. Cost-cutting is a common strategy for firms when profits are stagnant (Simonazzi et al., 17). Unnecessary or avoidable cost savings are welcome, but they don’t address the underlying issue.Where do I pay my taxes if I am a digital nomad?
According to the recent reports, westerners already pay too many taxes in a number of business entities. Due to the high cost of living in their new home nation, one out of every five American ex-pats is contemplating renunciation of their citizenship. Senators are concerned about how to pay for the deficit, and Senate rules prohibit raising long-term deficits through reconciliation bills. Consequently, more money will be available to Congress if the budget reconciliation plan generates more revenue. The United States will not make significant investments unless Congress makes significant adjustments to the tax structure (Michel et al., 89). Increased budget deficits could slow the long-term growth of the economy. In addition private investment or borrowing from other countries is used to pay for government borrowing when the economy is close to capacity (Chen et al.440). When a person is experiencing difficulties, it might harm their future well-being. To put it another way, the long-term impacts of tax policy are influenced by its incentives and its budgetary implications.Digital nomads have historically been seen as a threat in some places, but several countries around the world are now actively seeking to attract this growing digital population through new remote work visas.
All this converges into a superstorm, and more and more people will opt for digital nomad opportunities. While tax regulations can vary significantly depending on where you are in the world, general guidelines may be helpful to for those seeking information on paying taxes as a digital nomad. Naturally, tax filing is done with the country of tax residence as determined by the place of a principal residence. Digital nomads, however, may encounter a variety of additional layers of tax residence due to their physical presence in other countries during a tax year. In addition, state/province/territory and local taxes may also apply.
Cancel culture and family safety issues
The cancellation culture has a lot to do with social media and if it hadn’t been for social media, pop culture would not have gotten the attention it has in the previous decade. In most case the cultures are frequently canceled by unfollowing, blocking, and publicly criticizing an organization or individual on social media. Due to their large social media followings, celebrity cancellations often garner much media attention. As a result of using social media to communicate with celebrities, many teenagers desire to emulate their peers. Most adolescent cancel culture is carried out online, primarily via comments and unfollows (Yar et al., 80). This can happen in the real world, such as at school or in extracurricular activities. They are often rejected, mocked, and disregarded by their peers, who have had their activities canceled. Most Western workers are experiencing job instability due to the growth of a “cancel culture” in the workplace (Dąbrowska-Kłosińska, 30). This can be a terrific method for teenagers to learn and grow, as their peers may call them out for using insulting words or acting inappropriately.Investment analysis and forecasting as part of the individual development strategy
To produce an accurate financial projection, one must consider both general macroeconomic trends and your organization’s specific circumstances. Predicting how much money a company will generate and spend in the future is known as financial forecasting. A full estimate contains both short-term and long-term revenue estimates and costs that aren’t anticipated at the time of the estimate (Poorter et al.120). People who know how to create models are critical to financial forecasting firms that do a good job. Some people have extensive knowledge of the organization, its sectors, and the communities it serves to support them along the way. Similarly, data collection and analysis are critical to the financial forecasting process and the use of the software.Scenario planning and personal life choices
Global events like COVID 19, inflation, or food crisis can impact our life choices a lot. To avoid reacting to events, we need to think about what might happen in the future. Scenario planning helps us do this. Scenario planning allows business leaders to consider what might happen, reflect on past actions, and devise strategies for positive and poor outcomes. Scenario planning is more than just a means to think about the future when it comes to financial planning. It can assist one in determining how much money you’ll make, how much money you’ll have, and how to manage hazards. Early warning indications of difficulties can be spotted by leaders who make their organizations aware of potential issues (MacKenzie et al.900). One can use scenario planning papers to quickly run through numerous scenarios and figure out the best course of action in the event of a crisis. Making a strategy in the event of an emergency is essential. Having a strategy in place is critical in the event of a product going viral and seeing a threefold increase in demand in a single day.Building the right skills for the jobs of the future
To be eligible for future employment, one must possess the abilities that will be most in demand. Coding has taken off swiftly as one of the most sought-after skills. Almost any industry can benefit from the versatility and scalability of computer languages. People believe that coding is so prevalent in the workplace that it will soon become an essential skill for everyone. Learning to code is a difficult task. Learning how to code and the language you choose impacts how long it takes to do so (Moldoveanu et al.40). Before you begin learning how to code, look at several computer languages and determine which ones are relevant to your industry. Many people begin by studying HTML or JavaScript when learning a new language. After you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you can move to more popular and widely used languages like Python. It is possible to store and manage corporate data in the cloud while allowing employees to work from home.Riding on global trends of tomorrow
By adopting an agile culture, knowing how to cope with ambiguity, pushing outside our comfort zones, and quickly adjusting to new trends, among other things, we achieve success. We all agree that the weather has gotten more erratic in the last few decades. Crop failure, sea-level rise, and water scarcity are exacerbated by global warming. Malaria and dengue fever epidemics are also on the rise due to the influx of people from developing countries. According to the Kyoto Protocol, 175 countries have agreed to begin the long process of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by signing it (Penalva et al., 340). According to business leaders worldwide, firms have a larger role in society and should do more than merely follow the law to reduce pollution. According to a McKinsey survey, this is the case. The “triple bottom line” refers to a company’s efforts to benefit its shareholders and its workers and the environment. Increasing numbers of businesses are waking up to the need to lower their carbon footprints, produce ecologically friendly products, and operate their operations for more than just quarterly profits.References
Agarwal, Khushboo, and Veeraruna Kavitha. “Saturated total-population dependent branching process and viral markets.” arXiv preprint arXiv: 2203.16239 (2022).Chen, Novia X., and Terry Shevlin. ““US worldwide taxation and domestic mergers and acquisitions” a discussion✰.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 66.2-3 (2018): 439-447.
Dąbrowska-Kłosińska, Patrycja. “The Protection of Human Rights in Pandemics—Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future.” German Law Journal 22.6 (2021): 28-38.
MacKenzie, Meredith A., et al. “Respecting choices and related models of advance care planning: a systematic review of published evidence.” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® 35.6 (2018): 897-907.
Michel, Adam N. “When It Comes to Taxation, Borders Matter—Europe and the US Should Act Accordingly.” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief 4855 (2018).
Moldoveanu, Mihnea, and Das Narayandas. “The future of leadership development.” Harvard business review 97.2 (2019): 40-48.
Penalva, Jose. “Innovation, personalised education and Little Red Riding Hood.” International Journal of Lifelong Education 39.4 (2020): 339-355.
Poorter, Lourens, et al. “Can traits predict individual growth performance? A test in a hyperdiverse tropical forest.” New Phytologist 219.1 (2018): 109-121.
Simonazzi, Annamaria, Jorge Carreto Sanginés, and Margherita Russo. “The Future of the Automotive Industry: Dangerous Challenges or New Life for a Saturated Market?” Institute for New Economic Thinking Working Paper Series 141 (2020).
Yar, Sanam, and Jonah Engel Bromwich. “Tales From the teenage cancel culture.” The New York Times (2019).
Authors
Paul Lalovich
Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution PracticeTesha Teshanovich
Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice2024.05.18 23:29 LeadingDurian1583 Front more curly, back wavy
 | I have been struggling with my different hair textures. I have curly hair in the front and most of my sides but on the back part of my hair it’s wavy. submitted by LeadingDurian1583 to curlyhair [link] [comments] I always thought it was because the layers weren’t short enough in the back, and so today I got a shorter hair cut with short layers and nothing changed. Current hair routine: Shampoo and conditioner every 2-3 days. Flip hair over, work on products - Leave in conditioner and either curl cream or I have been trying mousse to get more volume/ blend my curls and waves better. Typically I use a hair towel and then let it air dry. Do I need to finger coil? Sleep with a bonnet? Change products? Apply products in sections/layers? Just accept and embrace it? I need any advice you all have please! |
2024.05.18 23:27 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Unlocking the power of blockchain technology for explosive growth in growth markets
The evolution of digital infrastructure stands as a cornerstone for the burgeoning growth markets in the realm of technological sovereignty.
The recent media discussions surrounding the origins of semiconductor chips used in the Huawei Mate 60 Pro handset have intensified the global conversation about the need for technological sovereignty. This device represents a burgeoning symbol of the steadfast journey toward technological self-sufficiency. Amid economic uncertainty, there is an aspiration that these advanced hi-tech devices will spur domestic consumer consumption, highlighting the critical importance of national technological sovereignty in the modern era.Digital infrastructure
The drive towards self-reliance in technology underscores the broader, global imperative for nations to develop robust digital and blockchain infrastructures, pivotal in enhancing security, innovation and economic resilience.Technological sovereignty underscores the imperative for comprehensive control across three fundamental layers: the physical layer surrounding infrastructure and technology, the code layer covering standards, rules, and design, and the data layer relating to ownership, flows, and utilization. It aims to shield individuals by enhancing data protection, bolster the competitiveness of domestic enterprises through local content requirements or diverse industrial policy considerations, and safeguard strategic public interests.
Digital governance
In digital governance, especially data governance, escalating tensions are palpable. The critical question is who lays the foundation for the global digital economy’s basic infrastructure, extending even to third countries worldwide. Amid the concerted efforts by various economic, innovation and technology policies to establish economic sovereignty, the allure of technological sovereignty is intensifying.This attraction parallels the exploitation of raw materials and the strategic positioning of economic actors in global production and value chains.
Technology sovereignty is intrinsically intertwined with innovation sovereignty, serving as a vital conduit to achieving the latter. Innovation sovereignty relies on achieving both short- and long-term economic objectives, necessitating the cultivation of local technological advancements.
The dual attainment of technology and innovation sovereignty is realized by creating pertinent scientific and technological knowledge. However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that such knowledge holds tangible economic impact only when supported by essential resources and preconditions, including a robust regulatory framework and substantial infrastructure.
Developing nations
Numerous developing nations grapple with the challenge of independently constructing digital hardware and software. The predominant advantage within the digital economy for these countries lies in adeptly harnessing available technologies to amplify output and productivity across agricultural and manufacturing value chains. Nevertheless, realizing this advantage necessitates tailored digital industrial policies that encourage local innovation and stimulate demand within the domestic private sector, considering the hurdles of absorptive capacity.Digital infrastructure evolution is a cornerstone for the burgeoning growth markets in technological sovereignty. The advent of Web3 and blockchain technologies presents an opportunity in this endeavor. As decentralized and open-source platforms, they provide robust frameworks that can catalyze comprehensive development.
The technology’s inherent centralization emboldens the enhancement of regulatory frameworks, reinforcing information security and ensuring transparency via the secure dissemination of encrypted data within peer-to-peer networks. In the quest to optimize the manifold benefits of blockchain for surmounting developmental obstacles, the expeditious establishment of a supportive environment is crucial for developing nations.
This commitment includes meticulously crafting an organizational structure and augmenting digital infrastructure. Such an initiative is vital to unlocking blockchain’s economic prospects while navigating the potential risks within the digital economy.
2024.05.18 23:27 itschriscollins I upgraded my custom card storage with a box - and magnets
 | The Daggerheart Box. Satisfyingly heavy submitted by itschriscollins to daggerheart [link] [comments] Tried to make it look like buckles Magnets! It's deliciously sturdy They just look so darn good! Reprinted all of these, much better colour gradients Magnets! Look, I went a bit nuts - again. So, I originally printed and cut out a bunch of card boxes akin to playing card packets. But, I didn't work out the right size for the GM box and then I made Hope/Fear cards and they were a little flimsy and the tabs wouldn't last being pulled in and out all the time.. so anyway, I reprinted them all on a much thicker (300gsm) card stock and replaced the tab slot with some magnets I had from an old job. They are incredibly satisfying, and much more sturdy. But then I faced the problem of needing a box for all these boxes! I was using a plastic box but it was too wide and short so some of them were stacked opposite each other and they could slide around... so anyway, I bought some black card, stuck it together to make it double thickness, and went to town on the magnets! The fit is very close, with the lid being ever so slightly too short so the narrow ends bulge slightly - I might redo it, but for now I'm happy. It's insanely satisfying to hold the box, it's got a decent heft to it and with the double layer and the matched minimal logos printed on it it feels very premium. Just don't look too closely at the poorly trimmed rounded buckles. Currently cutting out all the 1.4 cards, in time for my next in-person game. Next project will be making player boxes so players can keep their class/ancestry/community/vault cards all together... |
2024.05.18 23:25 Aiming4Gaming0 30 GREATEST Changes In V Rising 1.0 Release You Might Have Missed
 | https://preview.redd.it/rtx5qsp0591d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d94be54b8f00bf9da4acc2fc6226ecf95c9755e submitted by Aiming4Gaming0 to vrising [link] [comments] V Rising 1.0 release has brought a lot of new awesome stuff. That’s why I’ve prepared 30 most important changes that might interest you, short and simple. This is Aiming4Gaming, and today we're aiming for a feature checking! TL;DRI know that some people prefer watching videos over reading text guides. If you're one of them, here's a video version of this guide where I describe each new feature in action.If you prefer text guides, it's right below! The guide
ConclusionI hope with this guide you have achieved what you were aiming for today!Also, here's the list with all my guides for reference:
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