Htc evo text recovery

Wade held Jasmine in his arms as he flew a low height down the long road to another section of the staryard, Tina on his back and Nathan and F right behind them in the air. Together, the five glided across the base grounds, taking care as to not irritate the aerial security during their search for the meeting room. Being outside for the flight, the group considered it a blessing that Wade's 'enhanced cooling unit' allowed his body to tolerate the breaching sun in the still cloudy sky, which, according to F, was dangerous to drones like her due to the inefficient cooling she and disassembly drones like her suffered from. Given F's physical fault, she had to fly under shady areas in order to safely traverse the base at day.
Originally, Wade and his friends had planned to walk to the meeting zone, but after running into a trooper experiencing a health mishap, the group did what they could to help the distressed officer. By the time he was brought to the medical ward by other soldiers, Wade found that him and his team would be at least a few minutes late if they kept on their way with their walk.
Deciding to speed things up, Wade, understanding the concern for performing such an effort, opted to carry the Fowleys around the base to the meeting area. Reluctantly, F decided to come along, carrying Nathan in a similar manner that Wade was carrying Jasmine. Taking notice of the time on his HUD, which read, "9:47 AM", Wade scouted for the building he and his friends were directed to. "8072" He said to himself, the number being for the building that would house the imminent meeting.
"They said it was down here, right?" Wade asked aloud to Tina before stopping himself in mid-air, the girl holding onto him tightly as he tried to speak over the growing sound of a retrofit Apache flying overhead.
Looking about, Tina nodded as she spotted the target building. "Yes, I believe that's the one over there!" Pointing past his head, Wade followed her finger to a large building ahead at his right. The structure was moderately tall, only about two stories high, with several soldiers and officers going in and out of the building. Wade smiled as he noticed the target number, as well as the big, bold words describing the building's designation. "8072, Briefing Center B"
"Good eye, honey. Hang on!" Continuing his low glide, Wade zoomed towards the building's entrance before stopping just meters above the ground, his two friends close behind as they slowed down as well. The troopers around them initially looked startled by the sudden arrival of Wade and his group, but quickly regained their composure as Wade hovered still above them.
"At ease! Just visitors." One of the soldiers declared as they identified the newcomers, who touched down before Wade let Jasmine down to her feet, Tina hopping onto the ground along with her.
Putting his hands up, Wade apologized for his swift surprise. "Sorry for the scare, we got delayed for a meeting we're invited to."
The soldier gave an understanding nod as he replied to the former worker drone sternly. "I can see that, just be a bit more careful next time, Mr. Carter. You gave the boys here quite a scare."
Wade returned the gesture in embarrassment as F put a hand to his back, chuckling at his efforts as Tina questioned the officer. "Is Mrs. J in there? She's the one who called for us."
The guard gave his reply as Wade and Tina pulled out their IDs for clearance. "Yes she is, Miss. The meeting's set to begin in under ten minutes." Checking the two drones' IDs, Jasmine and the others pulled out theirs as well, the watchman motioning another trooper over to verify the group. Once the guard finished checking the five's cards, he nodded in approval as the watchman spoke once more. "You're clear to enter."
"Thank you Sir, again, sorry about that spook back there." Wade replied with a smile as the trooper gave one of his own, the disassembly drone and his allies making their way towards the office door before stopping upon the call of a voice.
"Hey, Felice!" Wade turned to find the origin of the voice, F doing the same as the two quickly spotted a quartet of soldiers walking excitedly towards F. The disassembly drone glanced to her friends with a smile before turning back to the approaching entourage.
Wade examined the four troops as they got closer: Two human men, one woman, and a male worker drone. One of the male soldiers had short, blonde hair, and a small scar to the right side of their face. The second man bore a tan skin tone and had black hair, with blue strips that went down slightly in a mullet style. The woman bore a set of long, dark green hair, with the hair going down and over her left shoulder. As for the worker drone, he wore the standard green soldier helmet, single eye visor and all. He had no hair on him from what Wade could tell, and bore a pair of whiteish purple eyes on his visor.
As F walked over to the soldiers, the same one that called to her spoke again. "Felicity, I didn't expect to see you around here today! Where you been?"
The girl soldier interrupted his initial chatter. "Hang on Carlos, do you even know if she remembers us?"
"Aye, don't she have one o' them memory locks, or sumthin?" The drone added in a heavy Scottish accent.
F waved her hand as she replied to the group. "Easy, everyone. Thankfully I still got my memories, courtesy of my technician back at Central." Lowering her hand, F let down her usual persona as she gave a wide smirk to the soldiers, clearly pleased to see them. "Good to see you guys around here."
The soldiers gave light cheers to F as they all embraced her, the group having a surprise reunion as Wade and the others watched in surprise. These must've been F's old colleagues from when she was in the service, Wade thought. Quite the coincidence for them to be here at this base of all places.
Not bothering with the convenience of the matter, Wade shook the thought off as he and his friends watched F and her old friends breaking the hug, Tina wrapping an arm around her boyfriend as the second male human spoke to her in what the two discerned as Spanish. "Ay, who your new friends, F?"
"Oh, these guys?" F replied in the same language, quietly startling Wade and the others as they had never heard her speak like that until now. Glancing over to Wade, F motioned him and the others to come over. "Everyone, these are some friends I made in the past few days. Wade, Nathan, Tina, and Jasmine." She pointed her hand to the four as she said each of their names. "I met the boys here during my time on Ceres. Jasmine and Tina here are sisters."
The four soldiers gave various forms of excitement, ranging from hearty laughs to low woops and even a whistle from one of the guys. As F stood next to her old teammates, they each introduced themselves to Wade and his friends. The blonde soldier went first. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all, name's Carlos, Lieutenant Marksman."
"I'm Private Alvaros, good with close-range and stealth operations." Said the tan soldier with a salute.
"Sergeant Lucia Vasquez, usually the one who leads this bunch around these days." The female warrior stated with a humorous smirk.
"And Corporal Duncan Wallace, at your service!" The soldier drone stated proudly as he saluted to the bunch in front of him, who gave warm smiles as Wade shook his hand.
"Quite honored to meet you all, seems you have quite the history with F." The former worker drone said as Carlos patted F on her back.
"Oh, we do! She's the one who took charge when we didn't! Did you all hear of the Pasting of Nola VI?" Jasmine and Tina gave nods of affirmation while Wade, not as familiar with such history, held his hand up in a questioning manner.
"I think, wasn't that the battle where the Navy just barely held the outpost in that system? From the Stryker Clan?" Wade asked as Carlos nodded approvingly to him.
"That's right, and if Felice weren't there, WE would've been the ones getting pasted!" Carlos' statement brought victorious cheers and "oorahs" from the group, F letting a blush loose as she chuckled at her team's praise of her efforts.
"Well, that's not wrong." Although she didn't want to break off from her friends and discuss the past few years since they'd last met, F remembered the briefing. Clearing her throat, she continued. "And as much as I'd like to chat about the good times, I've been called to a meeting here, as have Wade and his crew."
The soldier group gave understanding looks to F as Lucia spoke up. "Thought so, Carl here was real eager to see you, though."
"Maybe we can talk after the meeting?" Nathan proposed as the soldiers collectively nodded in agreement, F readying a smartcomm attachment before turning to face her friends again.
"We're probably getting low on time, you all go in, I'll catch up in a sec." Wade nodded in acknowledgement before taking Tina's hand, the lover drones continuing towards the briefing center as Jasmine and Nathan followed behind them.
Passing through the door, the four guests observed a short hallway, which seemed to split into two paths as they came closer to the other end. Looking to a sign on the wall above, they saw arrows pointing to two separate areas, "Primary Briefing Room; Main Lobby + Secondary & Tertiary" Going to the right, they entered the moderately active lobby, several officers walking and standing about in mass chatter. Walking over to the desk up against the wall to their left, Wade and his group waved a hand to the occupying attendant.
"Welcome, what do you need?" The desk attendant asked as Tina raised a finger to reply.
"We're here for a meeting, Mrs. J called us here."
The attendant nodded in understanding before directing an arm towards the other end of the room, where a single door stood. "She should be in the second briefing room down that way."
"Thank you." Tina replied warmly before she and Wade began walking towards the door, their friends behind them as they proceeded into the room.
The room beyond the door was quite sizable, a large circular table occupying the middle with several chairs surrounding it. The walls went up a few meters, with four whiteish blue lights illuminating the room. On the wall opposite to Wade and Tina were three monitor screens, all of which showed the USN in bright blue. In several of the seats were faces both familiar and unfamiliar, several men and women in varying styles of uniforms conversing about quietly or taking notice of the recent visitors. Standing up near the monitors were three people: A decorated officer whom Tina identified as a ship captain, and the so-called operatives, Tessa, albeit as a hologram, and J.
Walking slowly into the room, Wade gave a low wave of his hand as he tried to hide his nervousness. Noticing his shyness in front of the officers, Tina held his hand and rubbed his arm comfortingly while returning a pleasant smile to the staff in the room.
"Ah, Wade, Tina. Glad to see you all here." J stated with a smile as she scanned the group, raising a digital eyebrow as she noticed one missing guest. "Or, most of you, I see. Did F run off somewhere?"
Wade shook his head as he replied to his fellow disassembly drone. "Oh, no. She just ran into some old friends, she should be back-"
"Right now." F finished aloud as she entered the room, seemingly having heard Wade speaking about her absence. The warrior drone fast walked to Wade's team, taking a seat near them as they prepared to do the same. "Not too late, are we?"
"Not at all." The standing officer answered as the group took their seats, Wade and Tina sitting next to each other as they got comfortable. The captain examined the lot for a moment, glancing to J as he asked about them. "So, these are the ones you helped rescue from the Mojave?"
"Yes Captain, and they helped us out greatly in turn. This is Wade Carter, one of the captured drones whom became a disassembly drone before we could mount the rescue. The luckiest one, if you ask me." Motioning her arm over the others, she continued. "And there's his girlfriend, Mrs. Tina Fowley, and her sister Jasmine." Smirking to F and Nathan, she finished her friends' introductions. "And these two are Serial Designation F and Mr. Nathan, whom I've heard were once under your ranks."
The military captain gave a welcoming smile to the five as they returned the gesture, eyeing F and Nathan specifically before speaking to them. "Indeed they were, we still have records on their contributions to the colonies." Eyeing F, he continued. "Though, in Mrs. F's case, I won't blame her if she doesn't remember us. We've been very well aware of JCJenson's 'memory suppression' protocols when it comes to their DDs."
F laid back in her seat with a smug look as she replied to her former superior. "Well, my friend on the station's a good tech gal. She's... waived that hindrance from me."
"I see, that means your still with us, am I right, Mrs. Lee?" Unlike her friends next to her, F was not startled by her original name being said aloud, rather smiling proudly as she saluted to the captain. "Good to see you again."
"Pleased to be here, Sir." F replied as she lowered her arm, glancing to her companions next to her as J spoke up.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Captain Preston Mitchell, commander of the USNV Vickers down at the stardock."
Wade gave a respectful salute to Preston as he spoke first. "It's an honor to meet you, Sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Carter. I've heard about your efforts from J, you did an admirable job back there, son." Wade failed to hide an embarrassed blush from the compliment, but it quickly faded as a beep sounded from a small device on the table. It was swiftly silenced by the captain as he tapped a button on the small, pyramid shaped timer, then facing Wade's group before continuing. "Though, as much as we could use some small talk, it'll have to wait till later."
"Indeed, we're running late at this point." Said another officer, a highly decorated member of the base with dark skin, dark grey hair and a thin beard. He immediately won the attention of everyone in the room as he spoke up. "I'm General Hugh Hood, overseer of this base. I'm certain you know some of the reasons you're here with us, correct?"
Wade nodded as he spoke to Hood. "Yeah, it's cause of those rogue agents from the JCJenson corporation." Glancing to J, the corporate drone nodded in affirmation before speaking herself.
"Tessa and I spent the last hours of yesterday evening clearing up the matter with General Hood, along with several other officials stationed here." She stopped as the middle monitor behind her flashed with a banner at the top, reading, "INCOMING TRANSMISSION", and in place of the USN emblem was a textless version of the JCJenson logo. Below the profile image was another two lines of text. "N. Jenson (Company Exec); Comms Source: Yottrite IV"
"And also told our boss about what happened here too, he wanted to give his say on this ordeal." Looking to the general, J asked him, "May I put him on?"
Hood only gave a nod of approval to the corporate drone before she picked up a remote on the table and tapped a button, accepting the call as the picture shifted to show a middle-aged man in a pristine-looking business suit on the screen.
Wade and Tina glanced to each other before J introduced their guest on the screen. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the CEO of JCJenson: Mr. Noor Jenson."
Jenson gave a pleased nod to his subordinate as he spoke to J. "Thank you for the pleasantries, J. I see we are ready to discuss our plans on dealing with this 'recall' disaster I've bore witness to on the news this morning?"
J nodded as she replied to her boss. "Indeed, I've explained to General Hood here about our efforts yesterday, and, as of recent, we've just received a message from a source we believe to be close to the company."
Mr. Jenson looked down to J attentively as he spoke to her. "Well, that's quite intriguing news, J. Do you have this message available for us to view?" J and Hood both nodded in affirmation, but didn't get an immediate reply as Jenson gazed to Wade and his friends. "...And I presume these are some of the drones rescued from one of the factories?"
Again, J nodded to her superior before explaining her colleagues. "Yes Mr. Jenson, the two drones at the front in particular were among those taken by the Administrator and their subordinates." Pointing an arm to Wade and Tina, she introduced the drone couple. "The disassembly drone here is Mr. Wade Carter, a brother to his-technically speaking-owner, the late Ron Carter. The latter helped us recover Wade during an initial raid inside the Nevada facility." When bringing up Ron, J gave an apologetic look to Wade as to show she did not mean to be offending on him and his brother's relationship. "And this is his romantic partner, Mrs. Tina Fowley. I heard she and her sister Jasmine are pilots."
Jenson looked over the two drones as his obedient employee described them to him, quietly sighing as Wade and Tina returned the gaze with nervous smiles. Once J finished, Jenson spoke to Wade. "I... would say it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carter. But, given recent events, I don't hold fault to you for feeling frustrated at me for my... former subordinate's actions."
Wade shook his head lightly, taking Jenson's light apology with a faint smile as he replied to the CEO. "Actually, I don't. The only person I have such feelings put towards is," He hesitated for a moment, his anger at Dr. Halloway returning for a short moment before he eased himself. "..That bastard Halloway."
"The feeling's mutual, Mr. Carter. Dr. Halloway has been trying my patience for years now, especially with you and your fellow disassembly drones." Looking to J, then F, he returned his gaze to Wade before questioning him on his new body. "I don't know if J has told you of this, but if there's one truth my company has admittedly not held up to for a while, it's our quality. Recently, some of my research staff here made blueprints for an upgraded variant of the disassembly drone design. It's intended to fix several faults we expected to be nonexistent previously, most notably that atrocious cooling unit."
As a schematic pulled up on the left monitor, everyone glanced to the improved design before F spoke up about it. "If I may ask, Mr. Jenson, how big of an improvement is this new cooling unit supposed to be?"
"Good question, F. Frankly, it's supposed to do away with the issue entirely. Saves us from sacrificing enormous supplies of oil for the poorly built unit in the previous iterations. We even tested it with a repaired drone just a few days ago, and it worked flawlessly." Then, glancing to Wade again, he questioned the former worker drone on his new form. "Speaking of, how does your enhanced body feel, Mr. Carter? I'm certain it feels better to not have to-"
"Actually, Mr. Jenson," Wade interrupted, pulling out one of his canteens as he answered the CEO on his upgrades. "I guess Halloway changed up the blueprints, cause unfortunately this new cooling unit didn't cure the overheating problem. I... kinda learned that the hard way." Wade glanced to Tina apologetically, still feeling bad from her seeing him eat the corpse of the dead murder drone back at the factory.
The corporate CEO grimaced in frustration as he took in Wade's statement, already intolerant of the head researcher's actions as he replied. "...I was worried about that, Edgar always likes to run things his own way, making excuses for that 'Administrator' he watches over." Taking an agitated breath, he continued on with his spew on the two culprits of yesterday's events. "It was only because of all the very impressive creations and enhancements she and her research team provided that I tolerated them for so long, but this..." Sitting up straight in front of the camera, Jenson finished sternly. "J said the Administrator... Cyn, I believe? She was apparently something worse than we presumed originally, and I'm very inclined to believe so after yesterday."
"As well as the program tied to the Administrator, the AbsoluteSolver." J clarified before receiving an agreeing nod from Mr. Jenson, standing corrected on his placing of blame.
Raising a hand, Nathan asked about the supposed plans. "Yeah, about this "Solver Project", what do we plan to do about that?"
"Good question, Nate." Tessa replied as she crossed her arms before looking to Jenson and beginning her explanation. "Initially, we were going to investigate the other factories spread across Earth in order to get some more info on the Administrator before things get worse. But, just this morning, it seems someone else saved us the trouble." Just as Tessa neared the end of her sentence, J held up the remote again, tapping a few buttons before the left monitor shifted to show a slightly grainy video onscreen.
The video only showed a single being, a worker drone, dressed in a chrome suit and bearing a set of yellow eyes. Behind them was what appeared to be a vacant room, a few shelves holding many books within them standing still in the back. The drone's visage indicated they were filled with immense anxiety, terrified of being caught as they spoke quietly to the camera.
"I can only hope someone gets this in time, they're gonna be on me once they find out the transmitter screens are down!" Turning the camera, he showed what appeared to be a large factory room, several more of the mysterious conveyor belts like at the factory slotted next to each other. It was hard to discern every detail due to not only the window reflection, but also the dark lighting in the inactive conveyor room. Filming the room beyond, the drone continued. "Dr. Halloway's a madman, he's got more of those stolen drones being brought here and he's going to be overseeing it in the afternoon tomorrow! I've seen what happened back in Nevada, I can't take this any longer! I'm at coordinates ##.######, -###.###### Please, send someo-"
The suspicious, partially scrambled transmission immediately cut off to static, leaving Wade, Tina, and their friends with confused expressions as Tessa spoke up. "Yeah, that caught me by surprise too."
"So, that guy says they got more drones being sent 'there', but... where is there, exactly?" Jasmine asked with immense curiosity.
"I was hoping you'd ask that, Mrs. Fowley." The technician replied as she glanced to J, who tapped a few more buttons on the remote before speaking over her boss-friend.
"While the transmission itself isn't much to work off of, our friends from Comms over here managed to intercept the signal earlier, and even better, discern where it originated from." As J started her explanation, the screen shifted once more to show a large city, with one skyscraper highlighted in red as it was zoomed towards on the screen. "That scrambled audio wasn't a simple glitch, it was intentionally done so as to hide key information for us to uncover. Upon cleaning up the message, we managed to recover a set of coordinates, which direct to this structure here, in San Francisco."
Wade and his friends stared at the building in shock, examining the tall structure as it stood over the shorter buildings in the city. Tina broke the silence in her gaze. "So, this is another factory? It looks... terribly different from the one we got out of."
"Not exactly, Mrs. Fowley." Mr. Jenson answered, Tina and the others looking to him as he continued. "THAT is the Administrator's main laboratory, its location was kept on the down low so other authorities and terrorist groups wouldn't find out what the buildings true purpose was." Sighing, Jenson completed his reply. "But, with this recent mistake of Halloway's, that place has lost all purpose for us at the company."
Wade raised a hand to speak. "So, we're going to pounce on that place? Get Halloway before he runs off again?"
"Exactly." General Hood replied as he looked up to Mr. Jenson. "This whole 'recovery/recruitment' effort has gotten out of hand all across Sol. We've gotten countless reports of people being killed because of this, be it the brutal robberies here in Nevada or the bloodbath on Ceres. Even if Mr. Jenson refuses to cooperate, this has become a dire matter for us now. One way or another, this insanity will be stopped with due haste."
The CEO nodded in acknowledgement before explaining his own plans for the mission. "Speaking of cooperation, upon seeing what was happening at Earth, I ordered a detachment of our corporate starships in orbit at the time to depart for Sol in order to help with investigating the situation. They're not warships, but they are well-armed. I'll dispatch them to your authority upon concluding this call." Glancing to Wade and his team for a moment, Jenson continued. "As for the mission, I may not have much of a say, but let it be known that you have my blessing to do whatever it takes to end this madness. I don't care what you do with Halloway or any of his lackeys, or what happens to that facility down there... I want that program shut down."
"Thank you for the extra hands, Mr. Jenson. We'll make sure this Administrator is dealt with." Hood replied gratefully as Wade sat firm in his seat, Tina and the others following suite.
"General?" The former worker drone said aloud, catching Hood's attention before he made his request. "I know I'm not a soldier, but I want to help with dealing with Halloway and his grunts. After what he did, after losing my brother, I can't rest until I see that man stopped."
Tina raised a finger as well. "As do I, Wade could use a hand with those people, and given how we did during our escape run out of that place, I think the two of us make quite the duo." She glanced to Wade with a smirk as she referenced their combat prowess when flying together.
Nathan and F stood up before the latter gave her own request. "Sir, I wish to take part in this mission as well. I can also recommend Wade for you too, as I fought alongside him during the factory raid."
"Wouldn't mind giving a hand myself! And I'm sure my pal Kurtis would love to help, he's here at the base too!" Nathan added with a confident smirk, the group's determination encouraging Jasmine to stand up as well.
"I'd like to help too." She stated simply, a smile on her face as the general and his companions observed the five guests.
Admittedly, Hood knew it would be a bit absurd to allow these people to take part in an operation which would certainly involve bloodshed, especially considering most of them merely had civilian status at the moment. But, upon careful evaluation of the five, their desire to see this problem dealt with, and the fact that some of them had experience on the field...
He paused his train of thought as Captain Mitchell spoke to him. "General? I read up on the Fowleys' files when we recovered Mrs. Jasmine here, they provided service in their early careers." He smirked to the pilot sisters as he finished adding his say. "And to be frank, we need more people like them here. The records we have of them showed them to be damn fine pilots."
Tina blushed at the praise from Mitchell as she spoke to the general. "That is true, we uh... did get discharged for our... 'fancy maneuvering'."
"Sir?" Jasmine said, the general's attention on her as she added to the conversation. "Even if our flying is a bit out of protocol, Tina saved a lot of people on that starjet a few days back. I can promise you, she's an excellent woman to have at the wheel."
Glancing to Wade again, Hood took in his face, one of begging desperation as he spoke once more. "Please, Sir. My brother, the troops he brought from the Coalition, Halloway's gotten them all killed cause of this. I want to do this. I HAVE to do this, at least for them."
The good general took a deep, quiet breath, considering his decision once more before finally revealing it to Wade and his friends. "Mr. Carter, Fowleys? I'm probably making myself a fool for saying this, but you're permitted to assist us in this mission."
The drone couple contained their gratefulness in the form of ecstatic grins as Wade replied to the general. "Thanks, General. We won't let you down."
"And Mrs. Lee?" Hood said as he glanced to F, who returned the gesture as he told her, "You're technically under Mr. Jenson's authority, whatever his answer is, it's mine as well."
Bringing her yellow-orange eyes to her CEO, F awaited Mr. Jenson's answer. "F, yes? I heard Mr. Hood call you by a different name just now, I assume you have some experience with the army?"
The warrior drone nodded as she explained herself. "I once inherited the name of Felicity Lee, Mr. Jenson. I served under the USN Defense Forces before joining the DD Division." Then, glancing to the military staff near her, she finished with, "I had hoped to provide my enhancements to the Force one day."
Jenson gave a hint of a proud smile as he finally gave his decision. "Well, it seems you'll finally get that chance. From now on, even after this mission on Earth is over with, you're hereby dispatched to serve under the USN."
F admittedly couldn't hide her excited smirk as she flung a salute to her now former boss. "Thank you Sir!"
Looking up to Jenson, General Hood asked the CEO, "Mr. Jenson, how long until your ships can reach Earth?"
Jenson glanced down at his communication console as he answered the military leader. "At max speed, their Ion drives should be able to bring them into orbit in as little as one to two days. I believe there should be some ships within the system that could help as well."
"Signal them when you can, Mr. Jenson. We could use all the help we can get from them." The CEO nodded to Hood as he stood firmly to the viewer, the general turning to face Wade and his colleagues. "And Mr. Carter? We'll be mobilizing our forces immediately after this meeting concludes. It'll be a minute, but I want you to gather whatever items and belongings you'll need for this operation. Be ready to head to the flight pads in no more than three hours."
"Understood Sir!" Wade said with a salute, Tina, Jasmine and Nathan giving their own as Jasmine raised a finger.
"What about the area around the lab? That place looks like it's in the middle of the city."
J raised a finger as she told Jasmine and the others about their resolution of the civilian obstacle. "Shortly after reporting our findings on the transmission, Hood told us that they were sending in some teams to clear out the civilian population within several miles of the facility. Once we get there, it should be of no concern."
Jasmine sighed in relief as Tina spoke up. "So the people should be safe from any sort of danger?"
"Correct, Mrs. Tina." Preston answered before continuing. "Given the resistance Halloway and his men showed during the Coalition's raid, they most certainly won't hold back there."
"One more thing, Sir." Nathan asked. "The Coalition's going to help us out with this too, right?"
"You can count on it, Mr. Nathan." The Vickers' captain replied as he looked to J, then to Jenson as he spoke further. "I met the leader of the Coalition's detachment working with us when I was introduced to J and Mrs. Elliott here, they intend to see this conflict finished. I highly doubt they're willing to sit back and let us do this by ourselves."
"And their help will be much appreciated." Hood added, everyone's attention returned to him as he looked to Tessa, curious eyes scanning her holographic form. "And Mrs. Elliott, if I may. Do you mind heading down here to assist us in our investigations later on?"
"Funny you say that, General. I'm almost done with my own snooping around on the JCJ up in orbit, Cyn has some small departments of hers aboard, and I thought I'd gather some more intel before coming down." Glancing to Mr. Jenson, she saw him giving an understanding nod before returning her gaze to the military staff. "I should be down there by the evening, judging by where you're located."
"Do what you must, Mrs. Elliott. We could use whatever you find." Hood replied firmly as he turned once more to the JCJenson CEO. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Jenson. We will get to the bottom of this."
"It's my pleasure, General." Glancing to J and Tessa, he spoke to them once more. "J? Contact me when you've finished with Halloway and his Administrator."
"It'll be done, Mr. Jenson." The obedient servant answered before saluting firmly, receiving a final nod from her boss before he ended the transmission.
With their off-world guest out of the way, Hood looked to Wade and his friends, J, Tessa and Captain Mitchells sharing the gaze with them as the general spoke to them in finality. "Well, you know what comes next everyone. You're all dismissed for now. And remember, landing zone by 1300."
"We'll be there Sir." Wade said with a nod as he and his friends stood up, pushing in their chairs before making their way out to the door.
As they neared it, Wade stopped for a moment as they heard Hood call to one of his friends. "And F?" The soldier drone looked to the general as he continued. "Before we depart, would you mind changing your uniform? I believe it could help with identifying you from the other disassembly drones more easily." Glancing to J, then back to F, he finished with, "I recall hearing about the most formidable drones having clones prepared, yes?"
"Correct, Sir. I'll stop by the nearest barracks while I can." F replied before turning back to the door with her colleagues, Wade opening the door for them all as they passed through. After them, Wade passed through himself, shutting the door to the meeting room as he returned to the lobby.
Walking about together, F spoke to Wade and the others. "Well, that went smoothly. I'll be heading down to the barracks, then head over to your place to help out."
"Actually," Wade replied, raising a finger up as he asked his fellow murder drone, "You think you could bring your friends over? We could get to know each other while we're getting ready."
F glanced to Nathan with a smile before returning her eyes to Wade. "I could see about that. You're gonna like them, I can promise you that."
Taking Tina's hand, Wade walked with his girlfriend alongside Jasmine and the others, nearing the hallway they came through as they prepared for the walk back to the apartment.

Hey, everyone. I've been a lurker here for a while and reddit even longer but finally decided to post. I'm a 29M, PNW American who was diagnosed with diverticulitis in April of 2021. My first ever bout was a stomach ache I couldn't kick for about 5 days, got a week of antibiotics and it went away right back to normal. Next bout 13 months later and pretty much the same thing except I went in sooner this time. Keep in mind as this time I was like 26 and 27. Also up to this point I hadn't had much of an education or talking to by healthcare providers on what the condition really is. Fast foward to July 2023 and I have another flare up treated by another week of antibiotics, this time however they refer me to a GI and Surgeon. They go over the options of surgery but I barely listened, surely it was going to be another course of antibiotics and boom I'd be normal as always what a silly little disease.
Well mid March 2024 and I'd been walking around smoldering for at least a month, I'd thought it was just my overall poorer health and getting older. It was also easy to push aside because i was in a race against the clock to secure a job and some money as to not end up on the street. After securing the new job and putting a week or two in I went to ER to get diagnosed with microperforation and an abscessed diverticuliti. This resulted in an 8 day stay being discharged 3/27 with a drain in the abscess and oral antibiotics, along with a scheduled colonoscopy for 5/12 and a lacroscopic lower anterior resection 5/17. I'm on the mend for a bit at home and even have the drain removed, before realizing the infection is taking hold again late April. I get re-admitted 5/1 for about 5 days before being discharged again with oral antibiotics and a drain. Colonoscopy revealed diverticulitis and nothing else special which felt like good news. Right after the colonoscopy but before the surgery I could feel telltale signs of the infection returning again, causing me major anxiety leading up into the surgery. 5/17 and I get the surgery done, succseful removal of maybe 8 or 9 inches of my sigmeud(however you spell it) colon, no complications.
Here I am now 4 days out starting my 5th day of recovery and I feel okay I suppose. Sorry for the wall of text but I've been looking here for tons of info and just silent commiseration figured I'd finally add my story to the well as I sit here awake and scared at night in the hospital. I'd never had surgery or a disease anything like this. Some of the notable wrinkles I'm still stressing over is that I have genital pain, no 'air bullets' and my CT with dye yesterday didn't show a fistula. I'd complained about the genital pain, both admittances and mucus-y urine throughout both, so they left the catheter in a few days. I got it out 5/20. I really just don't know how I'm gonna return to normal ever. This whole thing has been so traumatic and shattering. I have plenty of other things to say, and other parts to this that have added to the major and crushing anxiety and stress. Figured I'd finally just sign up and post, though. To everyone here, thank you for sharing your stories, I definitely used lots of this stuff as a resource to understand what's going on. It also is one if the fee things that makes me feel a little less alone reading all your stories. I think that's it nice to meet ya all.

I woke up to seagulls this morning, I really like the sound of them. I mean they don’t make pretty sounds, nor is it relaxing, but it feels like a comforting noise I guess? I think because I like being by the sea. I’m not sure. It was nice though. I love living by the sea, like I hear ship horns and seagulls and all of that. It makes me forever paranoid of tsunamis though. I think I’d like to live in a little seaside town with my honey, but I also don’t because then I couldn’t have the garden of my dreams nor would I have the countryside lifestyle I want. I don’t really know what I want. I don’t think I have enough money to be all that picky anyway.
I kind of woke up with that pit in my stomach feeling today. I don’t like how our calls were last night, either one of them. The first I felt like he didn’t want to talk to me and the second it was me being like that to him. I didn’t mean to make it come across that way, but I think he just caught me out when I was mid-deep sleep? I couldn’t wake up or focus and idk. Normally I’m fine to wake up though? And I love his night time calls, to know he’s thinking about me makes me feel so warm inside. It feels weird to think I ever cross his mind when we aren’t in an active conversation, I guess that comes back to the self esteem thing and feeling unworthy of being a thought in his mind, not feeling important enough, or something. But in that second call, I guess I didn’t like that he got me off the phone earlier because he was so sleepy, but then it turned out he was still up and about two hours later? It made me feel like he lied about being tired to get rid of me. I don’t think that was the case, but it’s how it made me feel in the moment. Anyway I woke up feeling uneasy, I felt okay but a little uneasy so I made sure to apologise. I think as well because I fell asleep feeling a little uneasy, it felt like he rushed me off the phone or like I was boring him to death or something. But it made me think about how it’s only 9pm where he is, and that he could quite easily have someone come over around that time. I don’t believe he would do that, but it scares me all the same. The way in which he could crush me into nothing is a little frightening sometimes, it really feels like I’ve just laid out my sad little heart out there for him to stomp all over if he so wishes to do so. I know if he did end things I would be okay, I think, but I can’t say I don’t worry about how it would affect my mental health and “recovery” - how far would it set me back? But also that’s not on him at all, and I’m never ever going to imply as such to him. He ought to make decisions based on what he wants and is best for him. Anyway it’s fine and we talked this morning and nothing has changed for him either, we both still want each other and this so it doesn’t even matter. I still feel bad about how I made him feel. I’m really glad, even though I made him feel bad which I wish I hadn’t, but sometimes it really helps to have him say he still wants this. I know his actions speak louder than words, but sometimes I need the words too. And so him saying “I’m still the same” was really reassuring and made me feel so lovey.
I’ve made a hair appointment, for end of June. I kind of wanted it early June as my hair is annoying the f out of me now, but her first available slot is end of June sooo I guess it still works out well. It gives me five weeks to continue growing out my layers so that we can start afresh. I’m going to get my face framies cut shorter this time as they grow out so quickly. I think otherwise I’ll get very subtle layering, enough to add some movement and help it air dry nicely, but I want the ends as thick as possible too. I’ll get a general root touch up to darken them up a little, and then a tonegloss for the lengths to cool down the warmth a little and darken it up ever so slightly. And then I’ve booked in for a full on olaplex treatment, so that will be nice. I am all about my hair health this year. I always have been but now even more so.
It’s so autumnal today. I really want to watch my favourite cosy romcoms, their autumn scenes are always my most absolute favourite. And winter I suppose. Basically Meg Ryan in autumn is my favourite thing and comforts me to no end.
I think I assume that if I know something then everyone else must know it too, so when they don’t I find it baffling that they don’t know. I guess because I consider myself thicker than a brick and everyone else smarter than I am, so I’d say in the team quiz no one knows the answer I start thinking how do you not know this, but that’s unfair of me and I’m making an assumption based on my low self esteem. But also I am as dumb as a rock so I mean there’s low self esteem and then there’s self awareness. But I just assume that if I know something, then it therefore must be as widely known as 2+2=4.
I’m wearing my Mon Guerlain perfume today, I quite like it, I guess I liked it a fair but considering I seem to have both a bottle of the edp and edt? I think this was during lockdown. Anyway I never wear it but I am today as it’s quite a warm scent, it’s like a warm vanilla but with a touch of lavender? Barely any lavender though, just a teeny tiny little bit. I just googled and that’s exactly what it is so yay me! Except it’s blatantly obvious so perhaps I’ll calm down on the self celebrations. Anyway it’s not one I’d replace but I do like it I suppose. It feels a little mature, not in an older woman way but in a mid-40s way. I read a comment and it said that it gives wife-and-adoring-mother with a wealthy husband, who’s just kissed her children goodnight before sweeping off in her furs to dinner and the opera. It’s classy and elegant, but with something warm and motherly to it and I get that too. Like the mama in Peter Pan! Anyway I’m a little ways off that stage of my life. But it’s a nice wfh scent I suppose. Most of my perfumes are just wfh/chill at home ones now. I wear perfume everyday, I’d say that’s silly but a) Andy tends to too and anything he does that I do makes me feel more assured it’s okay, b) I have a lottttt to get through and c) even if I didn’t have a lottttt to get through I still would because I just like to feel pretty. I may be as ugly as a troll but I will still be presentable enough. Not nicely, but perfume, groomed brows, glowy skin/skincare, my cutie lil diamond studs, brushed hair etc. Except I like a lived in look, I don’t like to look super prim and proper I prefer more bedheady hair and to look like I don’t care an awful lot, but in a nonchalant Kate Moss way not a get wrecked Adam Sandler way. Except I think Adam Sandler is the better of the two - I read he still has a regular-ish house? Then again it was the internet and I’m as gullible as… idk something gullible. That’s what I adore about Andy, he will do his own research and not believe anything outright, he’ll question it and all of that. Whereas I can just be like woowwwww crazy and then move on. There are many ways I’d like to be more like him, I don’t want to be like him but I just want to be better and he’s better so idk. He seems a little paranoid I’ll be like his ex who basically tried to become the tweedle dum to his tweedle dee, but I mean that’s never going to happen? I like to try things he likes, for example snacks and drinks and things. And if he says he enjoys using something and recommends it, ie his mouse, then I take his recommendations seriously. But I’m never going to dress or act like him, I mean I adore him but I don’t want to be a man…? I like being girly and different from him! But I just mean I like how he approaches things, I like how he handles disagreements or thinks about new information - they’re things I want to kind of learn from him. Not in a way where I’d ask because that makes it weirder. Idk. This whole thing is weird. I just admire him. Now I sound like some kinda single white female… which I am… oh god.
Todays been fine overall. I did something new workwise, getting into LOEs for H&S speeding stuff, I had a call with a manager about one of his direct reports this morning and he was like I mean is it that bad and I had to tell a 40 something grown man that it is indeed bad to speed 28km over the speed limit. For any reason. And in a branded vehicle at that. Anyway so then I had to do the letter which was fine but it’s such a confusing template so I suggested some alterations to the Head of and she said they were excellent and she would change the template letter to include my suggestions, so that made me feel good. I enjoy that part of my work, I think I like processes and policies and all of that stuff. Idk why someone with social anxiety thought it would be smart to get into PEOPLE advisory. But like I said, as thick as a brick.
I had such a fun chat with him this evening, he makes me all giggly and silly and I hate myself for saying that. The word giggle is so bleh. I mean it’s a cute word but it feels wrong to say for whatever reason. It’s like when people say “hehe” in texts or whatever, it makes me feel gross even though I don’t even mind it. I think in the right context from the right person it’s fine, but I’ve never experienced that so idk. Now I’m thinking of… something. Something we watched. And the subtitles had it as “heh heh” and I’m thinking sopranos. Anyway newsflash to no one: I love him a hellllllll of a lot.
I wish I didn’t have to go to the office tomorrow. It’s so annoying. I know it’s good for me and also my manager has outright asked me to, so I kind of have to regardless, but also I’ll just focus on the fact it’s good for me to be properly out of the house and stuff. And it has perks I guess, I can have sushi for lunch, peruse the bookshop nearby and I also don’t snack when I’m at the office, I take nuts with me but I don’t eat them because I get all anxy about if people can hear me chewing or if they think I’m some kind of insatiable ogre who can’t wait til lunch or dinner. But so I just have a few bits of sushi for lunch. Although I really want to try this Vietnamese place, they have a salad that looks so bloody good, but I’ve never been and it looks like the kind you line up for like subway and that sends a barrage of anxiety through me so maybe sometime in the future. But I also tend to get more done and idk. It’s good for me. I’ll just keep telling myself that while I hate life two days a week for the foreseeable. It’s not even that bad, it is bad anxiety wise - like yesterday I didn’t go to the bathroom for over an hour from when I needed to pee because of my anxiety, I also didn’t fill up my drink bottle or get another coffee at all for the whole day. So my anxiety is bad, but maybe over time it’ll get better, I’m sure it will, I just have to suck it up in the interim.
I think I’ll stop now because I have 10 mins exactly til 8 and I need to get entirely ready for bed and post this. I needed to blowdry my hair but I spent too long in the shower and now I don’t have time so oh well. Tbh I look like utter shite anyway lately so what’s a bad hair day to go with it? I’ll just put it up. I feel disgustingly ugly lately, I always do but especially lately. Okay now I have 8 minutes night night

My (39 F) daughter (20) is a really good kid. She's always been. She's very smart, she's compassionate. I raised her on my own since she was 5. It has always been us. When she was 8 she decided on her own to be baptized. She decided on her own to make a vow to stay pure until marriage. My parents bought her a ring. When she was 19. She started dating her first boyfriend. I really liked him, I still do but here is my issue.... He isn't a Christian, he doesn't go to church with her, he has no intention on doing so either. Also, she broke her vow to stay pure . I knew and at first she didn't tell me, but I could sense an energy shift. Idk mom's just know these things. When she finally confessed, she said it was her who initiated. They started dating in April of 2023. Fast forward to end of June, I was in a serious car accident, that had me in ICu, then rehab, then recovery at my parents house. Finally this April I returned home. While I was away, he stayed with her at my house. Which I was understanding of, because of the extent of my injuries they didn't know if I was going to even survive. He was her comfort, he was there so she didn't have to be alone. When I was at my parents they would come together, and it was nice. I that time away my relationship with God got better. When I came home, I went right back to the rules I had before I was gone. He couldn't stay over, door had to be open. He was was fully moved out before I came and got his own house. Now she stays there a lot of nights during the week. She has initially asked me do you mind if I stay the night. And I said, if you ask me, I'm going to say yes. It doesn't align with my beliefs, and it doesn't align with what God wants for you, or what you choose for yourself either. But you're also an adult, if you choose to stay don't ask me, because I will say no. If you do stay just know I don't agree with it, neither does God but im not going to stop you. Lately we've been fighting, which we haven't done in a while. When we text during a fight, she will respond in a way that seems more like him than her. I started to unsend my messages and she accused me of doing so because what I was saying was wrong. Which it wasn't, the reason I did was because it dawned on me that he's influencing her replies and involved in our conversation that had nothing to do with him, and I decided it's better to delete and not have the conversation over text. He doesn't have a very good relationship with his own mom. Or his sisters. He's mentioned their conversations before and it's very odd. I am not a controlling mom, I was a young mom. I've never been strict, I never even forced church on her, everything she did was on her own. Now I see her making choices that just go against everything we both believe, and honestly down the same path I took with her dad. She says, it's not your relationship, you can't view it like it's hour yours was. But, she doesn't get in not comparing out of comparison sake. It's from experience, I see what's happening from a mile away. Ever since about September, she's been sick with random things, and this girl was NEVER sick. She had a double kidney infection from the first time they had sex, was severely sick with that until she fessed up and I took her to the doctor. She's had covid, flu, pink eye at least 4x. And randomly she has eczema on her hands. I'm really not exaggerating, she was never sick. Like she barely ever even had a cold. The problem is that this accident has left me unable to drive, so now we're in a weird dynamic, where in the mom but she's having to drive me pick me up, and pick up the slack. The sad thing is that I really loved him, but since I've back home, during her and my disagreements, she had me on speaker and let him listen. She let him hear me asking if he helps her, if he's ever going to church, that I don't know if he's the one because they aren't equally yoked. Now he doesn't have anything to do with me. So I feel like I'm losing her, and to someone who had nothing to do with her only parent. I don't know how to address it or if I even should because I am not wanting to push her away, because I don't think it will last forever, and I want her to know I am here for her. But I don't want to mention i don't think it will last. I think she's confused too because before I didn't have a problem and now I do. While I was gone God was the only one there constantly, I seriously have turned my own life around and in doing so I can now see in her situation what I didn't see before. The closer I got to God the stronger my convictions are. I don't even know what I'm asking....

So, in May 2023, my friend (Em f23) and I (f28) had a conversation that started off friendly. Just chit-chat and funny anecdotes from the day. She brought up a situation with her coworker she enjoyed. It involved tourettes and one of her coworkers' specific tics.
I made a comment that I genuinely didn't think much of at the time. It was just some trivia I knew of and thought was interesting. Specifically that people with tourettes can 'catch' or involuntarily copy tics from other people with tourettes. It's something I learned from watching content made by people with tourettes. She made a comment like, "Maybe it's not like that, in this specific situation with my coworker."
Here's where I should have realised she was not interested in my trivia. What I definitely didn't realise was that it in fact made her mad, but I kept pushing anyways because I felt I was correct, that the coworker had picked up the tic from a well know streamer because it was literally identical. Em then stopped answering, after a couple hours of silence I asked her if she was actually mad about what I said and she responded with "Its fucking fine." Cue her not talking to me at all for 3 days. On the third day, she said we needed to have a sit-down conversation about boundaries because she "is having big feelings." her words, not mine.
I was so confused about what would have triggered her wanting to talk about boundaries when the conversation we had was a mild disagreement at worst. I would understand if I said something offensive, but I literally just said a fact and my opinion on her coworker, I didn't try to force her to agree, and there's proof of the streamer with that specific tic so it wasn't like I was lying to be able to one up her or something? I don't know, this whole part of the situation is incredibly confusing to me because she never talked about why that conversation triggered her to give me the silent treatment in the first place or how it led her to wanting to talk about boundaries. In the end, the boundaries she talked about much much later had nothing to do with this conversation even though it seemed to be what caused her to want boundaries. Idk, I'm still very confused about what actually caused her to want to have the discussion after the three days of silence and a minor disagreement.
At this point, still May 2023, I was in severe pain, but I did not know it was cancer yet. I was barely making it through each day with how much I was in pain. The tumor is in my leg, growing out of the top portion of my tibia in a way that has made the tibial platue hollow, or essentially a whisper thin shell of bone filled with slime, sorry but that's the best way to describe it. At any moment, my surgeon told me this later, I could have broken that thin bone and had a collapsed knee joint. I say this so you you know when I talk about pain here, I'm talking excruciating levels of pain.
So walking specifically and everything else was extremely painful, and that was taking a lot of energy and brain space. I told her I was in a ton of pain. I was exhausted and barely scraping by just to keep working while waiting for my doctors visits to hopefully figure out what was wrong. I said I would try to find a day to have "the talk," but things just kept getting worse. By the end of July I had seen four different doctors, three of which thought I was just trying to get drugs, the last one was an orthopedic doctor and she took two minutes of looking at an xray and another minute of looking at my leg to say I most likely had a tumor.
The official on paper diagnosis came in September because of the waiting time to meet with the surgeon, but we knew it was a tumor in August. I was put on essentially bed rest from august to the day I had surgery September 27th. I told Em about the tumor the day I got the MRI results which I had in mid August to prepare for the appointment with the surgeon. Her response was extremely upsetting to me.
Em: "That's a lot to deal with. The possibility of having a malignant tumor is scary and can make you really question life. When you're put into a situation like that, it forces you to look back on your life and reevaluate. You find out what you really want out of life and what you waisted too much time dealing with. That's really tough. I'm sorry I made you feel like you couldn't talk to me about your pain. Being more supportive of each other was something I wanted to talk about. Hopefully, you have a sweet and easy recovery."
That response hurt, it felt like she was saying I had a lot to regret in life and like I didn't have much time left to live to fix my regrets. But I thanked her for the empathy she tried to give and moved on. After that she never checked in on me, never asked how I was or what the plan of treatment was. My surgery was scheduled for the end of Spetember, the day after her birthday. I wished her a happy birthday. Then I let her know after the surgery that everything went well and that I was going to be in the hopsital for a few days. I was loopy on strong pain meds so i also told her that my nurse drew me a cute doodle on my white board, she said ".That's great! Hopefully you heal fast so you can go on a date with her. 😉" which was totally out of the blue. I havent dated anyone in the time Ive know or been friends with Em. Im asexual, and an extreme introvert, dating is not really my thing and she knows this. So that comment was very weird to me. After that she never even texted to check in on me or tried to visit me in the 5 days I stayed in the hospital after the surgery. Keep in mind, we are supposedly best friends.
I almost considered our friendship over by then, but I reached out to her when I was pretty much back on my feet to see what was going on and asked her what the conversation about boundaries was about. I apologized for being too chicken shit to ask about it earlier because I don't do well emotionally with getting criticism even when it's valid and I know I need to hear it. On top of that I was (and still am) dealing with fucking cancer. Not an excuse, it is an explanation though. So I apologized.
Her responses here, copy and pasted from our messages:
Em:
"First off I want so say that it's very respectable that you are willing to admit what you did wrong. Thank you for the apology.
Secondly, I don't know if the the conversation is still worth having. I'd be lying if I said I was devastated that we dropped off and didn't communicate for months. To be brutally honest, my life has drastically improved in our time apart. I'm so much more effective and positive. I'm very proud of how far I've come.
That's not to say I believed that you were the soul cause of all of my misfortune. In fact one of the boundaries I wanted to set was actual planned dates instead of spontaneous ones. Because I realized that I was using you like a form of procrastination. I couldn't do the things I needed to do because I chose to hang out with you instead. With my main distraction gone I've been able to thoroughly work through my shit, mental and physical.
When we last hung out I remembered feeling dark and heavy afterwards because it was nothing special. It was just a normal outing for us. I remember feeling angry that what we should have talked about wasn't addressed. Annoyed that it seemed like nothing had changed and that I had not changed. And scared that opening up communication could lead to me falling back into the pit again.
I don't know if we should have the original talk because so much has changed for both of us. We both equally walked over our own thresholds of hell. What I had to say months ago, I believe was true then, but I don't think it will be true now. I think it's quite possible for us to start anew and correct and develop as we go. But I think it would be just as easy to admit our friendship was a great experience. We were there when we needed each other. But it might be time to go our separate ways.
I will say, if we collectively choose to merge back together. I WON'T let it be the same. I don't want you to tell me every tiny dark secret. But I do want you to tell me that you want to stop at game stop and ask me to take you somewhere. Without fear of gas. I want you to tell me if it pisses you off that I take you to only crystal shops or that I talk about spiritually. Because I want to improve. I have no intention of continuing a relationship that doesn't inspire growth or bring me positivity."
So she stopped talking to me, because she had no self-control. She abandoned me during the worst medical crisis of my fucking life, because she doesn't know how to manage her time or her motivation. She punished me, for her problems. To be very specific the spontaneous hanging out was nearly 100% on her. I would ask to hang out rarely, because I never had the chance to because she would be asking to see me multiple times a week.
I'm not a social person, so other than work I don't have much going on and she was my best friend. I wasn't going to say no if I didn't have any other plans. She never brought up that she was procrastinating anything by hanging out with me. Never a peep. Never a hint. Nothing. I had no idea any of that was going on. If I did know I would have been 150,000% there to support her by asking how her goals were going, how her chores were going. Hell I would have helped her do chores as our hang out if she had asked. I did help her with some stuff. Painting her head board, rearranging and cleaning her room, working on crafts when she needed motivation to finish a piece for a friend, being a study buddy when she needed to focus on her mental health books, things like that.
Also in what world is learning to be accountable for your own actions and vacuuming regularly the same as going through cancer? I don't like comparing pain or life struggles usually, but this was a crossed line for me. For her to say her dealing with procrastination was an "equal threshold of hell" as my bone eating tumor and excruciating pain and the fear of it spreading to other parts of my body, it infuriates me still to think about that.
So I am now hurt and angry as hell, that she stopped talking to me over seemingly nothing that I did. I had no idea what was going on with the tourettes coworker conversation that ended in "its fucking fine" from her and then her next message was about her needing to set boundaries. And then she says her life is better without me in it.
Friendship effectively over. Or it should have been.
Here's where I'm a bit of an asshole.
I took her back. I said we could try again. That we both needed to improve but that we could do it better this time. At the time I genuinely believed it. For a couple weeks.
Then the more I thought about laying in that hospital bed, alone, wishing I had someone to distract me from the pain and fear, the more I started to realise her reasons for cutting contact was bullshit. Her wanting to have this big talk about boundaries and the boundaries she wanted were literally nothing I could do they were all her issues with her own decisions and there's was nothing I could change about myself to fix the problem she was putting 50/50 on my shoulders. Her saying her life was better without me when that whole time I was crying over missing her and trying to figure out what I did wrong where I fucked up, what I could do or say to fix it. It all just added up too much and so I sent her one last message.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking and going through my emotions and I think I'm going to step back from whatever this friendship has turned into. I'll be honest I feel betrayed that you didn't even try to support me going through cancer. I understand things were rocky when I got my diagnosis, however if our friendship was important to you on any level I can't understand why you didn't even text me to see how I was doing for months at a time when you knew I was going through one of, if not the most, difficult medical diagnosis humans can get. I felt completely abandoned, especially since the reason we even stopped talking and hanging out was because of your own procrastination issues which I had nothing to do with. If you had even just told me that you needed to get things done before we could hang out I would have supported you unconditionally. Instead you gave a vague "we need to talk about boundaries and being more supportive of each other." And then never supported me in the darkest time of my life so far. It's taken me a while to get to the root of why I feel the way I do, but I don't think I can just let this go like I wanted to. I loved being your friend and it always felt like you valued my friendship too, until you were cutting me off because of your poor time management. I know that will sound harsh, I'm sorry, but it's true. I have my own issues that hurt you, I know that and I really am sorry. I am sorry I could never reciprocate financially, I'm sorry you were the one always picking me up and driving. I'm sorry that I never gave you the birthday or Christmas gifts you wanted. Thank you for all the amazing times. Goodbye."
To clarify the gift thing, I have been very poor for a long time. I am neurodivergent and I struggle to hold down a job. But I hand made her gifts, or cooked for her. The last thing I made for her was a crochet mandala blanket, please look up Radiance Mandala Blanket to see how much effort I went to, she picked the colors and I made her a lap blanket version for christmas 2022. It took her less than a month to complain that she wished she could have picked the colors. SHE DID. I told her to pick a pallet of colors specifically for her blanket and did my best to match the colors she picked with yarn I already owned. It wasn't perfect but I got it as close as I could. I don't like to make a big deal out of things I do for people because giving to the ones I love is literally the easiest thing in the world for me. But to have her act like I didnt try to make it as perfect for her as I could hurt so much.
Anyways, back to me telling her I was done. Her reply back pissed me off, maybe because I was already angry. It felt so patronizing and dismissive. But that might just be because of all the emotions I was already feeling at the time I read it.
Em: "Your feelings are valid. I'm sorry I made you feel abandoned in the hardest time. I wish you the best of luck on your way through life. Fall in love, have your farm, raise your kids, craft wonderful creations, enjoy the many YouTube videos to come, and don't forget to live your best self. I'll take this harsh lesson and apply it to friendships in the future. Live long and prosper, my friend, and have many pleasant wanderings."
Harsh lesson my ass. If it was harsh for anyone it was harsh for me to learn my best friend gave absolutely no shits about me and couldnt be bothered to try and support me through this medical crisis. We haven't spoken since. I have her blocked on everything. So, aita for cutting off Em? Even though I'm angry, I'm conflicted because I still love her, she was my best friend for 6 years.

She had been in the hospital for about two and a half weeks with a severe fungal lung infection, it took them quite a while to figure out appropriate treatment.
They released her on Friday and she was very happy to get out, and was feeling better. I was happy to get her back in her home, and she lives alone but seemed strong enough to manage pretty well. I was still nervous because she was still coughing, and while speaking with her on the phone the following day she was coughing very badly, kept telling me it happens for a while then settles down. I’m obviously a bit nervous at this point.
Spoke to her and texted her many times just checking on her and she texted me last night that she thought her recovery was going to take longer than she expected but said she’ll be ok. That was at almost 11 pm last night and I went to bed.
I texted her next morning around 7:30 to check in again, no response and I called her several times. Around noon I texted her that if I didn’t hear from her I would come to the house to check on her, so I went at 2 pm which would have been 15 hours since I heard from her, I just though (hoped) maybe she was still sleeping.
I get to the house, let myself in, and I see her on the bathroom floor, blood all over the sink, on the floor. I freak out and grab her arm, completely cold…she was gone. I screamed and dry heaved in pure panic.
I’m devastated. This woman is the only human on earth that has had my back no matter what, ever. She had been a caretaker for my sick aunt for many years before this, and my aunt had died less than a year ago. While that was of course sad, I hoped my mom would finally have a chance to recover herself and not be stressed about her sister.
It’s so unfair, I should have told her to go back to the hospital on Saturday when I heard how badly she was coughing still.
I don’t know what else to say, I am still in shock and have to go to the funeral home tomorrow to start figuring things out.
I just wanted to get this out in the open somewhere, so if you read all of this I just want to say thank you. If you have a spare moment, please say a small prayer or send well wishes to Stephanie, the best person I have ever known. I’m so heartbroken knowing she likely died in panic, fear, and pain. I love her so much and I didn’t tell her that enough. She was a rock, an unrecognized hero, and not even 70 years old yet.
I love you Mom, I hope whatever is beyond life is a relief for you and I am so very sorry that I wasn’t able to help more. She deserved so much better than this.
Thank you all for taking time to read this and allowing me to share, and my heartfelt condolences to anyone that has gone through something similar.
I miss you so much already.

Hi guys, I’m (30F) an only child currently dealing with my mother (67) and stepfather (67). My stepfather has always had issues with alcohol, but in the last 7 years my mom seems to have her own issues that have only gotten worse since her retirement.
So my mom retired about 2.5 years ago, she’s never really been the type to want to leave her house so needless to say I worried about her. About 3 months into her retirement she experienced a really bad fall. She tripped on a rug and hit one side of her body against a sideboard, causing bleeding in her brain and a fractured pelvis. Her hospital stay was traumatizing for me, she ended up talking gibberish for a few days due to brain swelling. They also discovered she had AFIB. Meanwhile my stepdad says her fall was caused by alcohol and that they won’t be drinking hard alcohol anymore (sure, Jan).
To make a long story short, she ended up recovering with a relatively mild TBI and my husband and I were hopeful that with me supporting my mom at her Doctors appointments she would make a good recovery (which she did for a while).
My mom refuses to follow up with PT, she can shuffle around the house and do the bare minimum to live, but that’s about it. I’m convinced that if she’d even put a little effort into being active she could physically be so much better. My stepdad doesn’t push her to do these things at all, I think he’d rather drink all day with my mom.
The thing that makes me worry the most is the drinking, I worry that she’s going to have a fall again due to the drinking and her instability on her feet, and with her blood thinners for her AFIB she might not be as lucky next time. She sends me texts/videos and calls when she’s clearly been drinking and it drives my anxiety up the wall.
I go with her to her doctors appointments, but I’m not sure if I’m overstepping my bounds by voicing these concerns during an appointment? I’ve sat them down and told them my concerns, and tried to get my mom out of the house and walking around, but I have my own life and responsibilities! I just feel so guilty and I feel like I’m not doing enough.

Hi everyone,
this is my first time ever posting so bear with me and my jumbled thoughts. I just found out that the guy i was seeing for a year and a half is actually married. I just need a place to vent where no one knows me.
a bit of backstory, I met this guy at a boxing gym. he started training me, the first week of training i noticed he would flirt with me heavily (which i didn't mind because we were both in our 20s and single, or at least thats what i thought at the beginning). two weeks in and he asked me out, and thats how we began talking. nothing was out of the ordinary, he would respond to texts all the time, we would see each other daily, hed often cancel his clients to hang out. we would see each other during his off days too, he invited me over to his place but i declined as it was very early on (my first mistake, could have saved me alot of heartache. i feel like i could have easily clocked it if i went over idk)
it started to get weird 6 months in. he would always cancel any weekend hang outs, his excuse at the time was that he was in the middle of moving house and renovating (which was true) he would send me videos of the construction and videos of everything. so i chucked it off to him being very busy. this is when we got into our first fight, we were looking at photos in my phone and when i asked to see his he changed the subject. i let it go for a bit but it rubbed me the wrong way, and i asked again. he started to say that i would not like how he talks to certain clients he has. since they have been with him for years and they are very comfortable with each other. i told him that i feel like theres something he is hiding, and he got defensive and said "if you dont trust me thats not my problem". after back and forth i just kind of left it at that and went home. we didnt speak for a few days, he didnt bother messaging at all. (this was another issue, every time he messed up he would just not text me over the weekend, since we see each other all week. so he would leave it to fester up, and i mean zero communication.)
he started to get weird about me having his address, since we mostly met at my place, or a restaurant, or the boxing gym. (his reason was that his parents have a kay and they can come in any time they like, were both from a religion that doesn't really allow dating like this lol) but again, not a good excuse in my book because i was putting in the effort and risking alot.
fast forward, sometime happens and im hospitalized ( i dont want to get into this because its not something im comfortable with). i have surgery done and im back home, were texting through out this whole thing, talking on the phone every single day, hes being very responsive and supportive. (or so i thought) 2 months into my recovery, and i need another surgery (mind you before this i gave him an out 3 times, he swore up and down that he would never leave his "girl" in a hard time). the day of my surgery, i wake up and update him that im out and it went well and nothing. silence. 5 hours go by and again nothing, he reads my messages at 2 AM. he doesnt respond.
i get discharged from the hospital the next day, again nothing from him. im freaking out now, im stuck at home i cant leave and im worried about him. he doesnt text back or answer. i make a fake number and i pretend to be a client, he calls back and hangs up the second he hears my voice. thats when it hits me, hes trying to ghost. super shitty timing, he had so many opportunities to go but he chose now? and without even a conversation.
4 months go by, i go back to the gym. and he sees me, comes up to me and starts tearing up. saying that he didn't know what to do. to sum up the story he came up with: his family set him up with someone back in his home country, he went over there to tell them he wasn't interested because he had a girlfriend in (our city). makes zero sense why he didnt say shit to me. he would drive to my neighborhood and park near me house a few times after he came back to get a chance to "see me". oh and he changed his phone number and was being cagey about it. (he had said he wanted to give me his new number but then panicked and changed his mind, i didnt press about it because at that point i knew something was very off and i wanted to move on already)
today, i was going through my old FB, and his profile came up (weird because he said he doesnt really use it?) anyway, i get curious as one does and i fall into a worm hole. he has pictures of his "ex" still up, and i find her profile and she updated her picture to a recent one of him and her. she has his last name, and the status is married. this whole time we were together, he was still with his wife that he broke up with ( mind you he NEVER said she was his wife. he called her an ex girlfriend. he said he had been single for 2 years. doesnt talk to many people and keeps to himself. in his own words, he doesnt have friends and spends his days with his dogs doing nothing basically. now i know all this is a bunch of lies but god why waste my time)
im in my early twenties, this is basically my first "real" relationship that i would count. it just sucks that its actually not real at all and was just a game to him.
thank you for listening

I recently lost access to my account that I am still currently paying a monthly membership for and all my recovery requests just keep getting denied.
In the recovery request, I am giving them all the locations and zip codes I have lived in throughout the history of my account, my password, and the last 4 digits of my credit card number that has been paying the membership for my account (including when the payments started and the membership duration of each payment). I'm not sure what proof would be enough for them to approve it if all that is not enough.
Do they really expect me to remember specific details about account creation from when I was like 10 years old?
It's impossible to even get in touch with someone to speak about the issue. I tried their discord server for support because they have an account-help text channel, but was told that there is nothing that they can do and my only option is to keep submitting account recovery requests and hope that they decide to approve it eventually. So apparently, the best they can do is send a generic copy-and-paste denial email to you with no specific details of why your evidence wasn't enough for your request to be approved.
I have always heard that Jagex Customer support was horrible but this is my first time experiencing it myself. They have such a loyal fanbase of people who have played this game for decades and invested countless hours of time grinding. Yet, they do absolutely nothing to help you when you need it.

My boyfriend and I had made plans a week ago to go out to the city today and take cute couple photos, which was actually his idea to begin with. Our work schedules are pretty opposite. So, when we hang out any other day, it’s usually after work for me and it’s usually just dinner and hanging out for a couple of hours. I knew that this day with the photos would take a good chunk of our day and we both wanted to make sure we had plenty of time together. The only solution we could come up with would be to take the day off. I ended up taking the day off.
Well, this morning, at 7am, he texts me saying he’s taking his sister to the ER and that we need to reschedule the original time we had planned. I responded saying “hope everything is okay, keep me updated”. And then I hadn’t heard from him all day. I called him, texted him and nothing. He then updates me, 9 hours later that his sister fell and hit her head. I expressed my concern and wished for her speedy recovery. I then asked him to call me when he had chance. He calls, and we talked for about 10 minutes. He said sorry for not saying anything and that his phone was on silent and didn’t want to talk to anyone and that he couldn’t focus on anything else.
I’m not mad that he couldn’t meet up, obviously his sister is injured, so he says. It’s the communication. He has actually used the ER excuse as a reason in the past when we had made plans. One time he claimed to have been in the ER for chest pain and didn’t tell me until midnight, claimed it’s too hard to think when you’re in that kind of situation. Another time, we were supposed to go on a birthday weekend getaway, he had gone to the ER and it had gotten canceled. One time he was supposed to see me, he claimed he needed to help his friend with something and couldn’t meet up. So, Idk, it seems weird something like this happens constantly.
We actually broke up 3 months ago because of his communication problems. He didn’t talk to me for 10 days after losing his job, he basically acted like I didn’t exist to him and that he was dealing with his issues and that I shouldn’t be upset with him. I broke up with him for this. Then 2 months later, he reached out again, apologized for everything and promised to work on it and that he still loves me. I decided to give him another chance, and things were good, up until today.
What bothers me, is he knew I took the day off for us. I know technically it’s not a big deal, but I work in the medical field and hate taking days off unless absolutely necessary. He knows how I feel about my job. And then the whole disappearing act of not saying anything to me. Claimed to be not on his phone and was ignoring all calls. I’m sitting at home worried sick and he doesn’t even have the decency to take one minute out of his day to text me to update me. And considering the type of injury she had, he could’ve told me that I should go to work because he won’t be able to make it, but he basically had me sitting and waiting for him. This almost feels break up worthy for me. I’m not sure if I’m overreacting though.

I am sixth months in from my Lasik surgery and everything was going well in terms of my eyes healing. But a week ago I started doing a skincare routine which consist of:

1. Oil Cleanser: Anua heartleaf
2. Foam Cleanser: Dr.Pepti foaming cleanse
3. Toner: Dr. Pepti Centella toner
4. Second Toner: Hada Labo hyaluronic acid
5. Exfoliator Acid: Paula Choice 2% BHA Liquid Salicylic Acid
6. Ampoule: Skin 1004 Madagascar
7. Moisturizer: La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5

From one week of doing this skincare routine, I immediately noticed that it is affecting my vision. I was using these products on my forehead as well so I'm guessing some would dripped down to my eyelids. I was also using some under my eyebags. I feel like it had damaged my Meibomian glands. To a point I am getting dry eyes so bad that I am seeing double vision (white text on dark backgrounds from captions in a movie). I am also getting blurry vision because of dry eyes. I haven't use eye drops in months but after a week straight of this skincare routine I had to resort to using them again.
My question is should I stop this skincare routine completely? What I plan to do right now is to stop for a week straight and see if my eyes would be back to what it was. Apparently Lasik surgery full recovery can take up to 6 months to a year. So, I do not want to mess with my eyes healing process.
Would I be able to resume this routine in the future? But this time avoiding my eyes, eyelids at all cost? I am looking at the ingredients for each of the products I used but I do not see Tretinoin which is the one that can damage your Meibomian glands. So, I am not sure which product to remove from my routine when I do continue again.

I am sixth months in from my Lasik surgery and everything was going well in terms of my eyes healing. But a week ago I started doing a skincare routine which consist of:

1. Oil Cleanser: Anua heartleaf
2. Foam Cleanser: Dr.Pepti foaming cleanse
3. Toner: Dr. Pepti Centella toner
4. Second Toner: Hada Labo hyaluronic acid
5. Exfoliator Acid: Paula Choice 2% BHA Liquid Salicylic Acid
6. Ampoule: Skin 1004 Madagascar
7. Moisturizer: La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5

From one week of doing this skincare routine, I immediately noticed that it is affecting my vision. I was using these products on my forehead as well so I'm guessing some would dripped down to my eyelids. I was also using some under my eyebags. I feel like it had damaged my Meibomian glands. To a point I am getting dry eyes so bad that I am seeing double vision (white text on dark backgrounds from captions in a movie). I am also getting blurry vision because of dry eyes. I haven't use eye drops in months but after a week straight of this skincare routine I had to resort to using them again.
My question is should I stop this skincare routine completely? What I plan to do right now is to stop for a week straight and see if my eyes would be back to what it was. Apparently Lasik surgery full recovery can take up to 6 months to a year. So, I do not want to mess with my eyes healing process.
Would I be able to resume this routine in the future? But this time avoiding my eyes, eyelids at all cost? I am looking at the ingredients for each of the products I used but I do not see Tretinoin which is the one that can damage your Meibomian glands. So, I am not sure which product to remove from my routine when I do continue again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
This is going to be a side project that will get slowly updated, if ever. It's a fun idea I have been mulling over for a few months now, but don't see myself fully committing to it in the future. It's not going to be the main story I am working on, nor will it ever be referenced in other chapters unless I explicitly say so in the author's notes.
This is an alternative timeline for The Skalgan, and this will begin in the middle of Chapter 20. As such, the first half of this chapter will be identical to the first half of that chapter.
Enjoy.
Memory transcription subject: Dr. Rebecca Taylor, M.D., Ph.D., Human exchange program participant, U.N. Therapist
Date [Standardized human time]: February 3, 2137
I quickly tightened my grip around Jorlka’s paw to reassure him. His breathing had stopped, and his tail movements became a bit erratic.
“If you are NOT okay with this, then it’s fine. We would never want you to feel pressured into something you are not comfortable with doing. Nobody will be upset with you.”
I do not fucking care how much Havingsway bitches at me. I will protect Jorlka.
“I-I-I… I mean… How would…” His eyes were darting around, examining my face all over, like his was trying to decipher information that wasn’t there.
“Jorlka, breath. Please.” I let the hand on top of his paw go and reached to his back to lightly pat it. His eyes shut tight at this and he did as I asked, letting in a long breath and holding it. For bit longer than felt comfortable. “… Okay, now exhale.”
He released the air with a loud pant.
“Do… Do you want to… Here?” His face was still maintaining that bright orange glow all over, from the tips of his ears to his snout. I would be swooning over this adorable vestige if I didn’t know that the person in front of me was incredibly stressed.
“No, not here. We’ve got a room set aside for you. Private. Nobody will be there with you.”
“N-No… Nobody?” He started to calm down and his expression and look in his eyes switched to one of puzzlement. “Then… How would you…” He paused as he struggled to find the words. “I can’t… Not without help?”
“What do you…” I returned his puzzled look with one in kind, then focused on the paw I was holding.
Claws. He can’t… Male Venlil don’t… OH MY GOD. I am fucking pissed at myself for never even considering that before. He thought that I was going to… OH MY GOD!
I looked back at him, right in the eye. “Th-that’s not a problem! They’ve got special tools and materials in the room so that you can do it without help! And if there’s anything you need, I’m certain the staff would happily help you get it.”
We already know there are enough Venlil who would jump at the chance. Hell, Havingsway is desperate enough that he may both figuratively and literally bend over for this… Fuck, I would even call Freya down if you asked.
“I… I see.” He had finally calmed down enough to start thinking properly again. “And… This is needed to fix my people?”
“It’s not absolutely needed. Our scientists, Human and Venlil, are more than capable of undoing the damage that the federation caused… But your samples would expedite the work by… God, probably years.” I dug my fingers into the wool on his back as I comforted him. My god, his wool was even softer and smoother than Freya’s was, and I love running my fingers through hers.
“I see…” Jorlka repeated himself, and closed his eyes, becoming lost in thought. We sat in silence for several moments, and I continued to gently caress his paw in one hand and embraced his back with the other. He could take all the time he needed; I was no rush.
“… V-very well. I… I’ll do it.” His eyes opened again and looked at mine again.
“Are you certain? It’s perfectly okay if you don’t. I promise yo-“
His ears and tail lashed with irritation. “Please, just stop before I do actually change my mind.” His voice cracked slightly. His performance wasn’t as convincing as he had hoped, but it will have to do.
“… Alright. Come, I’ll take you down.” I helped him to his feet and lowered the hand to the center of his spine. We made our way out of the office and down the hall without any words. His ears were still twitching erratically from time to time, clearly indicating that his thoughts on this were mixed.
There really wasn’t much else I could say or do to alleviate his stress. If he’s found the confidence to go through with this, then we’ll capitalize on it. We got down to the furthest part of the wing, and there stood two individuals in white lab coats. A male human and a female Venlil: Dr. Havingsway and Bilvi.
The two of them introduced themselves and offered to take Jorlka into the room behind them.
I turned Jorlka to me one more time, away from the pair. “Okay, Jorlka. Are you sure now? There is no judgement or shame if you have second thoughts.”
Havingsway stared daggers at me as I said these words. I glared back quickly, with a look that said ’I will find a baseball bat’. I swear to fucking god, I might actually turn violent if I get wind that these two pressured him. The message was received as he averted his eyes from me with a brief flash of fear.
“I’m… I’m fine. I need to do this.” I pulled him into a hug, giving him a reassuring embrace, and whispered into his ear.
“My office is just back down the hall. Come back right away, okay? I’ll be there for you, even if you back out.”
His breathing hitched, and he softly replied back. “… Thank you.”
I released and let the pair of doctors take him through the door. I watched as it closed behind him, then turned back to my office.
[Time advancement: 40 minutes]
He should have been back by now… I think. How long do male Venlil...
I shook my head to rid myself of that thought. I actually didn’t want to know. I turned my head to look at my water kettle which had finished boiling. I emptied a packet of instant coffee into a mug and poured the water in after it.
There was a ding from my computer, indicating that I just got an email. Thank goodness, I’d been going a bit stir crazy. Jorlka is scheduled to be my entire day today because of how important he is, so I haven’t had much to do but worry about him.
I poured in a packet of sugar, and a little cup of real cream that I swiped from the special cafeteria–I’ve never liked the non-dairy stuff–and stirred the mug with a plastic spoon as I returned to my desk to check the email.
Sitting at my desk, I set the mug aside and opened my mailbox, to find that I had received a new message from the team responsible for handling information from the Archives. They were the ones responsible for sorting and getting back to each of the different alien societies that were negatively impacted by the actions of the Federation. They were also the ones that had found Jorlka’s cryopod.
This is unusual. I figured I was done talking with them now that Jorlka was safely brought back to his home. I opened the email.
[ERROR. ERROR. ANAMOLY DETECTED IN TRANSCRIPTION.]
[RESUME PLAYBACK? Y/N]
[Y]
[RESUMING PLAYBACK]
Dear Dr. Taylor:
We have recently come across a new discovery in the Archives: Additional files pertaining to the Venlil that was originally found within, as well as a shocking new revelation.
He was not the only one. We have found a second pod that was buried away in the furthest depths, forgotten by the archivists themselves. We scoured all records pertaining to the Venlil and only found a single file that references this Venlil.
Attached to this email is an image we have taken of the cryopod and its occupant, as well as the relevant files. We believe this Venlil has ties to the one that you have already been working with, so we will be sending this pod to you for you to awaken.
The new Venlil will arrive within 5 days.
The UN Archive recovery team
Oh, holy shit! Jorlka isn’t alone anymore?! I hastily opened the first file. It was a record directly from the Archive, recorded by an unnamed Farsul scientist. It was recorded in their language, but the translator in the software quickly turned the text to plain English for me.
Subject_001
Species: Venlil
Sex: Male
Status: Stasis
Archivist note: The first Venlil we have abducted as we begin our efforts to indoctrinate the planet of Skalga Venlil Prime. We have elected to keep this subject in stasis, and to keep their physiology untouched. If and when we go about altering the genecode of their species, it will be good practice to keep a pure sample in case of unforeseen complications.
End of file
Attached to the file is an image of Jorlka asleep in his pod, with a small label placed on him denoting him as ‘Subject_001’.
Well, this would be the file on Jorlka. Nothing major here, other than stating WHY the Farsul kept him on ice. I can show him this when he gets back, I guess?
This really didn’t feel that important when compared to what was coming. I opened the image file first out of curiosity.
It showed a cryopod that looked identical to the one that Jorlka arrived in, with the glass frosted over. The frost on the glass made it difficult for details of the occupant within to be seen. I could see the outline of a white Venlil, and the contours of a snout were visible through the opaque lid.
This image wasn’t that much help, but maybe Jorlka will recognize them?
I clicked on the data file after I gave up on trying to extract more detail from the image.
Subject_002
Species: Venlil
Sex: Female
Status: Stasis
Archivist note: The first subject of the efforts to tame the Venlil populus. The genecode was successfully altered in the embryo within her womb. The subject gave birth to the first corrected Venlil. The subject was placed back into stasis shortly after. As her own genecode is still pure, she will be kept as a pure sample in case of unforeseen complications.
Archivist note: Thank you. You were a delight to have, and we apologize for the less than amicable ending to our relationship. We hope you will one day forgive us.
End of file
Oh, dear god, what the fuck did they put her through!?
I was not given any time to process this information: there was a click at the front of the room. The door had closed had Jorlka was standing there. His face was lined with tear stains, and his eyes were shot.
“R-Rebecca… It is done.” His voice was cracked. His entire body shook with distress.
I rose from my desk and quietly made my way to him. Without a word said I wrapped my arms around him, and he started to weep into my shoulder. Tears flowed fresh from his eyes and stained into my blouse. His armed reached up, shaking the entire time, and gripped the lose fabric above my hips.
We stayed there in silence. He said something. It was barely a whisper. It was barely audible.
“Why does she have her name?” His paws gripped harder on my shirt. His claws pierced through the fabric with a tearing noise. “Why does she have her eyes?”
I gently patted him on the back and did what I could to soothe him, with a gentle shush. He sank deeper into my embrace. I didn’t understand what he was asking, or who he was referencing, but that wasn’t my concern right now.
I need to help him get his mind off what he just went through.
“Jorlka, you did something really great for your people, nothing to be ashamed of.” I gently guided the two of us back towards the couch in my office and sat us down, giving him more physical reassurance. “And I, as well as Freya, will do whatever we can to help you.”
His state started to calm down as he kept his arms tightly bound to my body. “I-I know…”
“If it’ll help you get your mind off it, I have what I think will be good news for you.”
He slowly pulled away from me and reached for some of the tissues on the coffee table. I gave him a moment to blow his nose and wipe the tears away. “G-Good news? What kind?”
“I just got a message from the humans that are managing the efforts to sort the Archive information. They found some new information on you, as well as something that will really shock you, cause it absolutely just shocked me.” I placed my hand on his should and rubbed it lightly, waiting for his response.
“And what would that information be? That those bastards killed more of my people?” His ears folded back frustrated as he let out some cynicism. I don’t blame him; it is information about the Archives. Everything related to that damn place has been absolute shit for him.
“No, they found another Venlil in stasis, and she’s unmodified like you.”
“WHAT!?” His ears shot up in alarm as this clearly flabbergasted him harder than it did to me. “REALLY!? WHO!?” His paws landed on my shoulders again as he took hold of me, enraptured by what I just said.
I couldn’t help but to laugh at the sudden change, it really brought some refreshing levity that I felt was much-needed. “Easy there, big guy! I can show you the files on my computer. Come on.”
He shot up onto his paws and bolted by my PC before I could stand up properly myself, before coming to a stop, realizing that he didn’t know how to use the device. He turned back to me slightly embarrassed at how he acted and making an effort to not seem impatient. I gave him an understanding smile as I walked around him and sat in my chair.
Then, with a few taps on my keyboard I opened the message again and resized the window so that it was all seen on the screen, before turning it to the Skalgan.
He stood in silence reading the messages and the files, before his eyes fell onto the image of the opaque white Venlil in the pod. Then the only word that left his mouth was the thing that shocked me the most out of all of this, more than everything that email contained.
“… Freya.”

My ex and I agreed to be friends when we broke and up and truly wished each other the best during and after the split. It was a sad breakup on both sides due to long distance and different visions of the future.
I was able to be her friend for a few months and it was nice in a way but more painful once she started doing great without me and I still really missed her in my life. Eventually I blocked her on all social media. She texted me a few days later and asked how I was and I told her I wasn't doing great and needed space. She said "sure, whatever you need. Reach out whenever you're ready". No communication since then.
Some days I feel bad because it didn't seem like a big deal at all for her. Other days I feel guilty because I wasn't able to be the friend I wanted to be for someone I cared about. Overall the no contact has been so good for my recovery though. I do still miss her and it makes me sad to think the blocking is just making me that much more of a blip in her past. It's been such a painful, drawn out process over all these months of getting better.

Context
I have a 1st generation google pixel which stopped working around 5 years ago (wouldn't charge or turn on, no apparent cause or damage). A friend tried working on it a bit, but was unsuccessful (replaced battery, replaced daughterboard with charging port, may have done more). My friend thinks that the most likely problem is a dead motherboard or CPU. I'd like to recover photos and text messages from the phone.
Questions

1. Are data recovery services the things I should be looking for, or would repairing the phone be a better course of action?
2. If data recovery services are the better option, are there any that I should consider in particular? I've already called a few but the difference in quotes between services is quite large.
3. I've heard that data in flash storage doesn't last forever in a powered-off state. Is this data still likely to even be recoverable?
4. From what I've read, the 1st gen pixel had storage encryption enabled by default. I still have my passcode and my fingerprints. Are there any problems that could be caused by the storage being encrypted?

I thought I’d share this breakup with you all in the hope someone else has gone through something similar and maybe I can get some insight on it. There is a TLDR at the bottom as I know some of you won’t want to read this short story but please do if you can.
My ex broke up with me in a way that has left me confused and somewhat stuck as I am sure a lot of you are as well. We had been dating for 1.5 years, but had a very close friendship for around 3+ years. Fast forward to about 2 years of knowing each other, I had all but given up we would be a couple by this point. I had 0 expectations as we became best friends who’d talk everyday and I was happy with this. She then surprisingly asks me out one day and of course I said yes, we were so close with each other that it just made sense. This was one of the best days of my life.
What came next was what I thought was the start a very long and beautiful relationship. We were still mid-distance taking turns seeing each other at our hometowns or meeting in our local cities. When trying to brake down the barriers of being friends to lovers, it was initially awkward. She was very avoidant with romance and never really spoke about it to me. So was I in a sense but I was trying to break through. I had to be the one to initiate all of it, which at the time I thought was just a gender role thing she had in her head or something she wasn’t into (first red flag?). Besides that things had been going very well. We talked about everything, we went on trips together, and introduced each to our families which both respectively loved me and my ex. It was getting to the point where I wanted to live with this person. We could only see each other every weekend due to our jobs and commitments. I would have saw her during the week but it was never something she wanted to do (another red flag perhaps).
So just over a year into our relationship a relative of theirs gets very sick. My ex was extremely close to this family member and found it tough during this time. I tried to be there for her while this family member’s health deteriorated further, offering any solace that I could. Spending days with her or taking her out to try and give her comfort. I thought I was doing the right thing and she never communicated that I was doing anything wrong. There was also some hope during this time where the relative seemed to be doing better. This was when I feel we had our last happy moments together, where everything seemed normal, maybe better then normal. I wanted to start planning our future and live with this person but I couldn’t bring it up at this time as I didn’t want to make this moment about me while she was coping with her sick relative.
A month later the relative passes away which left my ex and her family broken. I tried whatever I could to be there, but also allow space for them to grieve in their own way. This was a very close-knit family that I had only known about a year. I felt welcome with them but didn’t feel I had earned that place where I could be with them during this time of extreme grief. I sent condolences and offered to go to the funeral, which my ex said she was fine with me not due to the distance and the fact that it was early on a weekday. This was maybe the first sign things had started to go downhill but I still regret to this day I didn’t just go anyway. She didn’t get mad but I suspect this may have been a sort of test in her head.
This was the point of no return for us but I didn’t realize it yet. The next time we met up she just wanted to meet for the day but had a proper excuse as to why she couldn’t stay over and I knew not to push anything at this point as she was deeply grieving. I allowed space for all the things she wanted to do with her family and said I’d be there for her if she wanted me to go anywhere or do anything. I tried to plan a trip away to get her mind off it as it was around my birthday and thought we should use this time to re-connect our relationship as it had been quite strained, again me thinking this was related to the grief. I am not a big birthday person but I always liked spending it with her. I called her one night to organize it as she had initially said yes over a message (this will become an ongoing theme). She goes on to tell me we should do it further into the summer when the weather is a bit better so we didn’t end up booking this. In hindsight I should have asked “Is anything up with us? Do you want to talk about it”, but I was still very much in the mindset where I didn’t want to push her about us because of her on-going grief. For my birthday we just meet up like normal, went out for a meal, and watched a movie at her house. I didn’t know this would be the last night we’d spend together, and if I did I would have done 1000 different things. But I just treated like normal and for the most part she seemed herself. An alarming thing was that we went for coffee and she brought up that she “needed a big change in her life” and started to ask me how I thought we had been doing as a couple. I told the truth as I saw it and said everything was going well but at the moment a lot has been happening in her life so it hasn’t been perfect, but this is not anyone’s fault. She then goes onto talk about our mid-distance situation, to which I bring up that I would love to start planning our life together when she is ready. This was met with a positive response and after that everything was normal for the rest of time we spent together. I thought this was the big change she wanted. Clearly though she had started to make her mind up on us and didn’t communicate this further until a few weeks later.
After that discussion I felt a sense of uneasiness she brought this subject up at this time, but naively I thought it was actually a good thing we discussed our future plans or even just us in general. We also committed to seeing and talking to each other more after that discussion. The next time I tried to make plans to see her, there was a pretty believable health related excuse as to why she couldn’t see me. I accepted this but we still talked on the phone about our plans together. One of the more confusing aspects during this time was she was inviting me to things for example; she invited me to a large event with her family a few months into the future, RSVP’d to an event of mine and told me her meal choices, and also we started to plan an international trip together. Anyone would say things were going well with us at least on paper. The next weekend comes around where I try to make plans again (which she had agreed to the week prior) and again disaster strikes health wise. It was nothing extremely serious but I still understood why it would be uncomfortable to be around someone with. I was willing to still hang out even if she was this way but she felt it was best to leave it. We do more calls and again normal conversation, making plans, laughing, talking about us.
I get a call the next day from her out of the blue where she claims to be unhappy and that “There was no romance left between us”. This came as a massive shock as she previously claimed it was distance or ongoing grief that was causing this rift. She said we should meet for a chat to discuss this further and all I could really do was accept it. I did ask if she wanted to try make this work as this wasn’t something we had discussed before in-depth. She said yes we can try to work on us. Confusingly I sent her a text after to reassure her about making it work and she said something along the lines of “I care for you deeply, but I just don’t see how this will work out”. The following week was the most awkward and demoralizing experience I think I have ever experienced. We still messaged each other more or less as normal. Sharing music, memes, and talking about general stuff but we didn’t bring up the pending discussion or anymore about how we would fix it. At this point I felt that there was hope but I still tried to prepare myself for the worst outcome. I wasn’t going to force it anymore if she felt we should leave things at our next in-person meeting.
The day comes where we met up for the dreaded discussion. I told myself I’d let her explain herself fully and not to get angry no matter what the decision was. She explained that “We weren’t on the same page” romantically and things had been really strained between us. Also the fact that we didn’t have much of a connection anymore. This came as a shock as I felt we did still have a deep connection, shared so many interests, and spoke to each constantly about everything. After all of her explanation I ask “Are you happy with me?” to which she says yes. Then I say lets work on all of this, have open discussions about what we are currently thinking of each other, and rekindle the flame that you believe to be gone. She actually seems happy with all of this and started to smile and laugh more like her old self. We started to talk about our future and I say we should start to look at places together, plan where we will move to, and other future plans. Again, she was happy with all of this and said “Yes I would like that”. Maybe I can’t read emotion or she was very good at hiding it but she seemed genuinely positive with what we discussed. Between our discussions I asked her two more times “Are you sure you are happy with me?” to let her express any doubts or to give her an out, as if she wasn’t then the relationship is over anyway no matter how much we try to fix it. She said yes she was happy with me. I also asked if any of these feelings came pre losing her relative. She said no. This was a very positive discussion and I felt we broke down a few barriers with how frank we were being. The conversation ends with us in a good place. We end up spending the rest of the day together hanging out as normal, getting food, shopping, and just talking about us and our future. We don’t spend the night together as we discussed a lot that day and it was best not to push things with all the raw emotion.
Sidebar but I don’t know how many of you have seen the TV show Chernobyl or know about the stages of radiation sickness. But there is basically a stage of rad sickness depicted in the show where you think the firemen are supposed to be near-death or showing signs of it but they seem to be making a full recovery, playing cards with each other, laughing, and having fun.>! It turns out this was the latent period before the radiation starts to shut down the body and (spoiler alert) the men do end up dying in a terrible way!<. This was me, I felt sick and helpless the week prior thinking it was over, but those few days that followed I was happy and thinking everything ok I have nothing to worry about.
Until it actually got me…
I call her with this renewed excitement in our relationship, to plan when we would next meet each other properly. But then I was met with coldness and before I could really talk about anything she says “She is not happy”. This struck me to my core, after everything we had discussed this is where she was. Was what she said previous all lies? Was she too scared to tell when we last met she wanted to breakup? Why do it now when I gave her the chance multiple times face-to-face to breakup? All of these questions started to rush through my head at once.
Her reason was that she came to the conclusion over the few days we spoke and felt it just wouldn’t work anymore as she lost feelings for me. I tried my best to compose myself as getting angry or sad wouldn’t help the situation. I just wanted to know why. I asked was there something else going on? maybe another person or something I didn’t know about in her life. She assured there wasn’t but honestly, I didn’t know what to believe at this point. I say “So it’s over then” defeated by my other attempts to save whatever we had, and she said she was sorry but it was fully over. I was in complete shock, I didn’t know what to do or say, it was over so quickly. She asked if we could still be friends and I said “No I would just always be looking for you to come back and seeing you with a new partner would destroy me”. This was my best friend by way and saying not only the relationship was over, but friendship is over was so much to take at once.
From then it was NC with each other and two weeks later she removed me from IG altogether. I removed her from other social media sites in what was a kinda cold war of “If you’re going to remove me ill remove you”. This broke me as we had so much history together on there and it was gone so quickly.
TLDR: After what I thought was a beautiful loving friendship-to-relationship of three and a half years my ex breaks up with me following the death of a very close relative. Before doing this she accepts to work on our relationship multiple times just to end up claiming “She lost feelings” and it would never work. We went from talking every day for 3.5 years to full NC and blocking each other.
I fear this is the worst kind of breakup where there is so much room for “what ifs” and “maybe if I did this”. There were red flags at certain points but when you mix grief into the equation it’s hard to decipher what is from the pain of losing their relative, and what was the stuff that they truly felt. I will forever wonder if the former never happened would we still be together. Maybe it would have ended anyway I just don’t know. All I do know is I miss my friend but there is properly no going back.
Was this breakup caused by grief from losing her family member? Was this always meant to happen but grief sped up the process? How can someone who was your best friend become your worst enemy a matter of days?
On self-reflection I do understand that I was an anxious avoidant who couldn’t let her go. She may have been a avoidant as well (fearful) but its hard to label it. I do know if she really wanted to stop things and told me what it was from the start, I would have her go. I was ready to do it during the last in-person meeting but she gave me so much false hope. I also don’t blame her as she sounded distraught the last time we spoke and I knew how much pain this breakup was causing her.
Anyone had a similar experience they can share, maybe tips to get over this kind of breakup? I would like to hear from both sides if you are the dumper or dumpee.
Lastly was I too harsh to say I didn’t want to be friends to protect my own feelings? Should I reach out and try to get more closure?
I am asking a lot of questions but those last two are the most important.

It's been 10 days now. I was told the news, I saw her with my own eyes. I spent a whole night with her body. I attended the funeral, I put her body to grave.
I still cannot believe it.
My girlfriend of 3.5 years was suffering from severe depression and alcoholism. Anyone who's ever dealt with someone who's going through alcoholism or depression knows that it's a very unique kind of struggle. It's physically, mentally and emotionally draining in a way that was far worse than anything I'd experienced before.
We had been battling her alcoholism pretty much ever since we met. Week after week she would sneak and start drinking. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help herself. This is what people (including sometimes myself) just don't get: Alcoholics don't like the way they are. They don't want to drink. They are just powerless against it.
For the past 6 months, she was in the hospital. She had contracted some neurological disease and had lost her mobility, and dexterity in her hands. She could not walk or use her hands. But she was also alcohol-free. For the past 6 months, we connected like we'd never connected before. Now when I rang her phone, I didn't hear drunken, sluring words: I heard my Sheila. When I visited her, her eyes lit up and she would open her arms for me. I told her that even though this affliction has been horrible for her, it has brought us so much closer, and it has renewed my hopes in our relationship. I made plans for us: Her physical recovery, her getting back into education, freezing her eggs, us traveling and having fun. One year of sobriety, and then we get married and start our family.
After 6 months, she was discharged from the hospital. She had only regained 50% of her mobility, but she was well on her way to recovery. Only she couldn't see it. "I think I would stay like this. I would rather be dead". I kept assuring her that she was getting well. In my mind, there was no dobut she was recovering. But not in hers. And that was a terrible burden on her.
When she was discharged, I took her to her parents' house. Everything was going well. Then I found her in the bathroom popping sleeping pills (she was addicted to them also). My heart sank. It had been less than 2 weeks since she was discharged, and she ruined 6 months of sobriety by going straight to what landed her in the hospital in the first place.
I had told her before that addiction is a red line for me. I told her that I was not going to bring a child into this world where a parent is addicted. I told her that so long as she doesn't fall back to addiction, that I would be with her and support her in every way. When I saw her taking the pills, I told her that I no longer saw her as a suitable partner. That I am not comfortable bringing in a child into this world with her. That she had betrayed my trust, and destroyed everything I'd done for her in the past 6 months and before that. She listened quietly, with tears in her eyes.
I didn't want to cause a scene at her parents' place, so I stayed quiet and pretended everything was ok. A few hours later, I went back into the room. I saw her taking even more pills. This time I wasn't just shocked....I was angry. How could you do the exact same thing that completely crushed me a mere hour or two ago? How could you do that again?
"If I can't have you, then I'd rather be an addicted fuck-up. I am nothing without you". I had heard this before. Many, many times before. Dozens of times before (literally). In my head I thought "You abuse pills when you're with me, you abuse pills when we're broken up. So when exactly will you not absue the pills?". This time I threw the pills at her and said "Then go ahead and take them". I went and told her mom, who was very cross with her. As both her mom and I approached the room, she approached me and said "I haven't taken the pills, they're on the bed. You can check". And I just ignored it. She was trying to salvage the relationship. She was trying to tell me that she hadn't done what she was about to do, and I just brushed it aside. I'd had it.
She lived by herself. Her hands barely worked. Her mobility was poor. She could only walk with a rollator. I couldn't take being with her anymore. I couldn't take the fact that she's gone right back to her addiction. But do I leave her alone in her apartment, or do I stay with her? I didn't want to leave her alone, but I couldn't stay with her either. As we were leaving, her mom told me "You can't put your life on hold because of her. Leave her in her apartment and head back to your house". And so I decided to do just that. In that moment, I forgot to empathise with her. I forgot that she was so hurt. I forgot that she couldn't control herself, that her brain was battling a disease. I forgot how vulnerable she was in that time. I forgot how hopeless she felt. "I am nothing without you". She meant it this time. This wasn't emotional blackmail or an attempt to get me back. That's how she genuinely felt.
I left her in her apartment, and went back to my city.
The next day I got a text from her. "I am nothing without you. I can't even open the bin bags". I responded rather harshly. I said "I'd given you 3 years of my life. I won't give you 3 more seconds". Then we were on a call. She told me how sorry she was, that it was all her fault. "I will punish myself for what I've done to you". I told her that I don't want that, and literally the only person who wants to punish her is herself. I told her I'll forgive her in time, but for now I need to move on. She said she understood, and she said the next girl who I will let into my heart will be the luckiest girl ever. I didn't pay much thought to that. She implored me to take conseling. I said I would probably need that. I wished her best of luck, and said goodbye to her.
I had recently bought a house. I had loads of things to do around the house. I spend the next 2 days doing stuff around the place. But what she'd said about being unable to open the bin bag stuck with me. I felt awful. I thought to myself that I won't be going there, but I could arrange for a helper to go there and look after her. And so I did. I found a helper who went there, cleaned up her apartment, gave her a shower and left.
"How much do I owe you?" I received a text.
"Nothing, because I didn't ask you before hiring her". She sent me a 100 euros anyway.
That was the last message I received from her.
2 days later, I heard the news. She had overdosed on sleeping pills and alcohol, with the intention of ending her life. She had left a note.
Why would she do that? We had fought dozens of times before! I always came back, and I would have this time as well! This time, she was mentally and emotionally vulnerable due to her physical condition, but I couldn't see that! I couldn't feel how hopeless she felt! I thought after a week or so we would get back to talking to each other again, and I would go right back to her!
It didn't happen this time. That was the last time I ever saw her.
She probably felt alone and thought that I've left her for good. She was wrong. I loved her more than anything else in the world.
I only left because I was frustrated, and because I didn't want to trivialize her abusing sleeping pills. If I hadn't left her by herself, she might've believed that she's still loved.
I would've hugged her, and she would've been fine. She would've been alive.
My Sheilers. Oh my Sheilers. Why did you do that? Did you not know I loved you? Did it never occur to you to call me? I would've rushed to you in an instant if you'd asked for me. "Call and I'll rush out" "You've got that power over me!" like that Dermot Kennedy song. That was our song! Did you forget about how I felt for you in those moments? Why did you have to take that step?
My beautiful Sheila took her own life. I had arranged for the carer to go see her again. It never came to that.
I know what she did wasn't my fault. But I also know, for a fact, that had I been there for her...it wouldn't have happened. Had I kept my emotions in check, it wouldn't have happened. Had I not abandoned a vulnerable person to live by herself in an apartment, that would've have happened. It cost me my Sheila. It cost us that beautiful, wonderful soul.
She had addiction, but when she was in her senses, she was my EVERYTHING. I mean it. She. Was. My. EVERYTHING. Her loving embrace was my safe space. Everything could be going wrong in the world, and she would hug me, and everything would be ok. And now, that is no more. My blue eyed angel is no more. I would have to spend the rest of my life thinking about her, living without her. The pain is so unbearable.
One night of compassion could've stopped it. I have to live with this now.

Hello !
I‘m here to ask for any ideas/support you guys might have.
So my Steamdeck is downloading terribly slow at home. It is the only device in my home that suffers from this. My Switch/PS5/Series S/PC/Smartphone all are downloading with a reasonable speed. I have a gigabit connection, fyi. My PC Steam downloads are between 90 to 115 MB/S. My deck only gets 8 to 18 MB/S. When i got it, it was at 69 MB/S
I tried everything. Limiting the dl speed to 10,000,000 setting the DNS to 1.1.1.1
I even completely reinstalled my deck from a recovery image and did a factory reset of my routemodem.
A friend brought his deck to my place and suffers the same problem.
I have a dock and we tried Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and even different Ethernet cables
another weird thing is, that this only applies to steam downloads, downloading stuff from a browser in desktop mode also provides speeds above 50 MB/S
I dont get it, why its only SteamOS thats so slow in my network.
any suggestions what else I could try?
sorry for the long text, and english is not my first language, so sorry for mistakes

START OF THE INTERVIEW
Thiago: We want to welcome you and acknowledge your participation in this interview.
Luu: Thank you for inviting us to this interview. We are honored to participate and answer your questions, comrades.
Thiago: When was the Serving the People (Vietnam) blog created and what are its objectives?
Luu: The blog was created in December last year. With 4 main objectives, to digitize and archive texts from China, in particular texts of Chairman Mao, the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution, in addition to other Marxist texts such as documents from the Great Debate, Stalin, Kalinin and other works from countries like Brazil and the Philippines, in Vietnamese, so everyone can access them for free. We also want to push for the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Vietnam as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party and encourage the masses to practice and organize, in the north and south of the country.
Thiago: Which groups represented the left line of the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1956 until the total restoration of capitalism?
Thang: There was a rise of the right-wing opportunist line, by the group called "Nhan van-Giai Pham", which attempted to restore capitalist culture through what is called "literature for literature's sake". President Ho Chi Minh was the main defender of Marxism in this struggle.
In the Great Debate between Leninism and revisionism, Ho Chi Minh occupies the middle line. But this line was a serious mistake, because it created fertile ground for the rise of revisionism and opportunism and for the restoration of capitalism in Vietnam later.
Overall, in the history of the Communist Party, the left line was defended mainly by Ho Chi Minh, but he also indirectly liquidated this line by moving to centrism, creating a vacuum that allowed revisionism to take power.
After his death in 1969, the Left line was completely liquidated. The remaining Party leaders fell into centrism or revisionism, and no significant group represented the left line in Vietnam.
Thiago: How did the restoration of capitalism and bourgeois dictatorship occur in Vietnam? How do the State, the Party and the Vietnamese economy work today?
Thang: The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in Vietnam began after the death of Ho Chi Minh and the seizure of power by the revisionist clique, transforming Vietnam into a semi-colony of Soviet social-imperialism. The complete restoration of capitalism in Vietnam began in 1986, when the Doi Moi reform transformed Vietnam from a semi-colony of Soviet social-imperialism into a semi-colony of American imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism, strengthening thus the semi-feudal state.
(Additional note from Luu based on Thang's response: They, the revisionists, adopt the theory of productive forces, similar to that of Deng Xiaoping in every way. This liquidated the Party, turning it into a lap dog of foreign imperialists Vietnam is currently a police state, a bourgeois dictatorship. The economy is heavily controlled by the Yankee and Chinese imperialists, the state also maintains friendly relations with foreign companies and imperialists, as they cooperate with them against the people. in general and the proletariat in particular)
Thiago: What are your criticisms of Ho Chi Minh's centrist deviation and subsequent adoption of "Ho Chi Minh Thought" by his successors? Were there any prominent leaders “to the left” of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam?
Luu: We must criticize Ho Chi Minh's centrism and recognize that he liquidated the left line. We recognize that centrism is a very dangerous thing, even if it is not overtly anti-communist like the right line, but it creates an opening for the right line. We could compare his errors with those of Kim Il-Sung and other leaders who adopted the same positions: at his death, in his will, he did not say to defend Chairman Mao's line, but wanted " not to intervene in the affairs of other nations", although he was sympathetic to Albania and China, he also did not attack the right line, but he nevertheless refused conciliation with the Americans and the policy of capitulation that the Khruschevists were trying to impose on us. However, Vietnam fought nothing else.
Concerning "Ho Chi Minh Thought", those who claim it are dogmatists, taking its centrism as dogma, focusing on its revolutionary morality and asserting that the People's War was a contribution of Ho Chi Minh and not of Mao Zedong. They denied the influence of Mao Zedong Thought on Ho Chi Minh Thought, distorting Ho Chi Minh Thought, claiming that it is influenced by reactionary religions and ideals, transforming it from a revolutionary theory into a reactionary theory. There were no representatives of the left line, only opportunists.
Thiago: What do you think of President Gonzalo and his contributions of universal value? How are anti-revisionism and Maoism perceived in Vietnam?
Thắng: As Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, we cannot but recognize the role of President Gonzalo and his significant contributions to Marxist theory. He identified Maoism as the third and highest phase of Marxism, stating that Maoism is the Marxism-Leninism of the era of imperialism and modern revisionism. In addition, he made important contributions to Maoist theory, such as the militarization of the Communist Party, the theory of Jefatura [“Great Direction” in French, editor's note, cdp.] and the theory of concentric construction of the Party. These contributions are not only valuable for the Peruvian revolution, but also have universal relevance for the international socialist revolution. We must not forget this.
As for the influence of President Gonzalo and his ideology in Vietnam, initially, it was only mentioned through campaigns aimed at degrading his reputation by the government in place. In recent years, with the rise of the communist movement in Vietnam, the Gonzalo question has become an important issue among communists in our country. The revisionists, Trotskyists and pseudo-Maoists always seek to deny the role of President Gonzalo and use the propaganda tools of the imperialists to oppose him. Additionally, government loyalists and liberal forces are participating in this “campaign.” Thus, revisionists, reactionaries, and anti-communists created a sort of “sacred alliance” to oppose Gonzalo’s thought and contributions. Therefore, the immediate task of Vietnamese communists today is to wage a line struggle to defend President Gonzalo, uproot the weeds of modern revisionism, and advance toward the reconstitution of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Thiago: How is the revolutionary movement developing in Vietnam and what are the current struggles of the masses in urban and rural areas?
Thang: The current “leaders” of the organized revolutionary movement are petty bourgeois. There are so-called “Marxist” groups, such as the “Red Flag League” and the “Young Marxists of Vietnam”. These petty bourgeois groups use memes to propagate and agitate, which is an action to ridicule Marxism, because Marxism is a revolutionary science and cannot be expressed through memes. This action is particularly remarkable among the Young Marxists of Vietnam.
There are also fake "Maoists" like the "Red Flag League", who deny Gonzalo and "defend" the Marxism-Leninism of Mao Zedong Thought, denying the advancement of the revolutionary struggle. They also engage in unnecessary debates online. These guys are also trying to make money by organizing readings of Chairman Mao Zedong's quotes instead of making them universal for the masses.
Luu: There are many strikes and disorganized revolutionary movements within the proletariat, which speak out against their conditions of exploitation. Many peasants are in conflict with the state over land issues. There was a recent revolt in which peasants attempted to reclaim their land by armed methods, such as during the Dong Tam revolt, but they were quickly and brutally suppressed by the so-called state “socialist”. Many uprisings have also taken place in the Central Highlands, but some of them have fallen under the influence of foreign reactionary terrorist groups and are not spontaneous like others. The masses are ready to fight for the revolution, but they are still disorganized.
Thiago: What is the general impression that the masses have of the Communist Party? What daily problems do the masses face and how are they exploited by capitalism and semi-feudalism in Vietnam today?
Luu: Within the petty bourgeoisie, there are two main camps, there is the opposition camp and the loyalist camp. The loyalist camp is generally made up of children of bureaucrats and people who know little about the state. The opposition camp is mainly represented by South Vietnam loyalists, all anti-communist, while the loyalists appear to be communist, but they leave communism aside, being only pro-state and anti-West.
Among the peasants and proletariat, we are not sure, but from what we see, the majority of them do not openly support the state, being rather neutral about the situation. However, the opposition of these classes, notably peasants and indigenous peoples, who took up arms and rose up against the state, was brutally repressed by the police forces. The only indigenous armed groups that carry out terrorist attacks are those sponsored by the United States and CIA agents, but they do not represent all indigenous movements and peasant movements that oppose the state.
The condition of the proletariat in Vietnam is not what one would call good, as even the state claims that many workers live in poverty and misery. The examples are numerous: their salary is not as good as the revisionists claim, and they barely earn enough to survive, as capitalism dictates. Even though schedules are not as strict and conditions are not as bad as in laissez-faire capitalism (like in Bangladesh or other Asian countries), state-controlled unions do the bare minimum to support the workers and seek to make them accept their crumbs and not to organize them.
A friend (who was 14, illustrating child labor) and a family member of mine worked in sweatshops and currently are in poor health, have difficult living conditions, work long hours and are not not paid enough for their efforts.
Thiago: What is the semi-colonial relationship that Vietnam maintains today with North American imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism?
Thang: That’s a great question! The relationship between the Vietnamese bureaucratic capitalist government and the Yankee and Chinese imperialists constitutes one of the most peculiar international relations for the Vietnamese state. First, the state called their relationship with them a "comprehensive strategic partnership", established with China in 2008 and with the United States in 2023. They export capital and goods to Vietnam, establish factories and monopolize the market . This relationship deepens the exploitation of capitalism and the semi-feudal condition of Vietnam.
Additional note from Luu: In terms of industry, citing data from the General Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Science and Technology, about 75% of Vietnam's technology and equipment come from foreign countries, this technology and equipment mainly come from developed countries and regions such as the United States, South Korea and the European Union, which have shown a slight upward trend in recent years (2022 data). Therefore, Vietnam is unable to develop many important industrial technologies (such as oil refining technology, metallurgy, shipbuilding, etc.), because Vietnam's industry is heavily dependent on foreign capitalist conglomerates.
Additionally, Vietnam is a “global sweatshop” with abundant resources and cheap labor. Therefore, Vietnam has become an ideal location for capitalist conglomerates from the United States, China and other capitalist countries to export capital, establish factories and enterprises, invest and control commercial capital in our country. The working class must endure hardship with low wages and difficult living conditions, without enjoying the fruits of their labor, which are instead seized by the capitalist class.
Moreover, the export of goods from the United States and China has disrupted the Vietnamese market, as the revolutionaries of the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc movement once said: "If our products are not purchased from the Chinese, they are bought from the West.”
Vietnamese agriculture relies heavily on Chinese traders, as agricultural products always depend on the purchasing needs of traders. Therefore, many difficulties are often encountered if China imposes border closures. Furthermore, the question of the “lease system” persists in certain small localities in central Vietnam, Vietnam still having feudal characteristics.
Thiago: How is the history of Vietnam, the international communist movement and Marxism taught in Vietnamese schools and universities?
Thang: There was a push towards nationalism and nationalist propaganda in Vietnamese schools by the revisionist clique, they masked Vietnamese settler colonialism against indigenous people and other minorities under the idea of ​​"expansion of territory through the recovery of wild lands” that they were formerly Champa and Chenla (Kampuchea Krom Region). This colonialism was called the “Nam Tien” march south and lasted for centuries. The revisionists also liquidated and erased the history of the struggle for autonomy of ethnic minority groups, supported by Ho Chi Minh.
Luu adds: There were autonomous zones in the North and Northwest mountains, and there was also the Autonomous Mountain People's Movement within the National Liberation Front.
The revisionists have omitted many important parts of the international revolutionary movement. They also dogmatically teach Marxism as a theory without practice in universities, leading students to label it a "nightmare" and only study it to succeed in college, instead of viewing it as a scientific view of the world. They present the Great Debate as a simple “Sino-Soviet split” rather than an international struggle against revisionism. They try to get people to “believe the Party line” without reservation. They immaterialize and trivialize Marxism in general.
Thiago: What is your opinion on Democratic Kampuchea [ Cambodia, editor's note, cdp.] and Laos? Is there a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement in these two countries today?
Luu: This is a delicate question for us. We recognize the national liberation of the people of Kampuchea led by the Communist Party of Kampuchea against the military dictatorship and the American imperialists. We maintain a neutral view of the policies implemented under his government, but we understand that Pol Pot betrayed the Cambodian revolution by supporting the revisionist clique of Deng Xiaoping and arresting the so-called "Gang of Four."
Pol Pot fell into revisionism in his later years. We also oppose the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea and the Chinese invasion of Vietnam; which was just a repeat of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It was a war that only served the profits of two social-imperialist blocs.
Laos today is a semi-colony of Chinese social-imperialism. This country owes China around 25 billion dollars and has had to destroy many lands and rubber plantations. In 2021, the Laos–China (Vientiane–Kunming) high-speed railway line entered service. In addition to tourism needs, this railway is also used to transport timber, rubber, food and minerals from Laos to China. This railway is part of the so-called “Belt and Road” proposed by the Xi Jinping clique.
The People's Revolutionary Party was formed after the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam. In the 1950s, they were not a puppet of Soviet social-imperialism, but became one in the 1960s, falling completely into revisionism after the war and after gaining independence. , being occupied by fifty thousand Vietnamese soldiers, which signifies their dependence on revisionist Vietnam and the social-imperialist USSR. After the fall of the USSR, it became a semi-colony of China.
We have no further information on the Communist Movement in Laos and Kampuchea, so we cannot say anything further on this matter.
FINAL NOTES:
Thang: We are very grateful for this interview, it not only marks the solidarity between the Vietnamese and Brazilian proletariat, but also serves as a great example of proletarian internationalism in the class struggle, the national liberation struggle against imperialism and revisionism. Red salute from Vietnam!
Source : https://valedospomares.wordpress.com/2024/04/06/entrevista-com-o-servir-ao-povo-vietna-comunistas-em-um-pais-revisionista/