I'm 30F, H is 30F and G is 29F. I have been friends with H for 7 years, and known G for 2. H is a family friend and her mom & my mom have known one another for 40+ years.
H introduced me to G in 2022 when G moved to NY (H was living in a different city at the time). Shortly after I met G, I was diagnosed with a cancer recurrence. I was initially diagnosed in 2016 at age 22, then covid hit (plus my only sibling had a malignant tumor in 2021), then my recurrence in 2022. That said, my family has had a lot of health issues over the years, and my 20s were tough, especially socially/dating wise bc I wasn’t going out a lot, plus I had to take a lot of time off from work for shitty reasons & was laying low. In the spring between my surgery & radiation, G & I went to visit H in her city, then G stayed with my family by the beach over the 4th of July & then again over Easter (H’s family also has a house in the same area, so we all met up). These group hangs really foreshadowed a lot of unnecessary bs drama.
Visiting H in the Spring
I’m def a girly girl - i love fashion, makeup, reality tv etc, but I didnt think that makes me public enemy #1, especially with “friends”. As I was putting on lipgloss before we left, H said “oh my god you’re not a Kardashian” - as if me lipgloss personally offended her to the point where she, as my friend, felt it was ok to compare me to a woman who made a sex tape, amongst many other unwise life decisions… I had a massive (double) scar on my neck, it was the first time away from home since my neck dissection, & my only sibling gave me the lipgloss in a post-op care package bc we live on opposite coasts, &, as I mentioned earlier she also had a malignant tumor the year prior. So it’s a combo of “it’s not that deep im putting on lip gloss ffs” but also “stop judging a book by it’s cover and fwiw this is a gift from my sibling who cares about me & understands what I am going through in a way very few others do.” I was just adjusting to a massively swollen upper half of my body/trying to feel confident again while in the middle of my treatment. G said nothing but kept going off w/ H whispering and acting secretive and obsessing over H. This was the first time it was the three of us and I very mcuh
4th of July
This was right before I had radiation, & I was a nervous wreck, especially after hearing the side effects, long term risk of various cancers etc. I know others have been through way worse but I know I was terribly anxious so probably not great company, but didn’t want to un-invite G to stay w me bc I knew she would want to see H, who was visiting her own family (and more importantly, had a full house so G couldn't stay there). Also, H never wants to leave her parents house/neighborhood, so of course we had to do everything on H’s terms as we did when we visited her!!! But that’s fine, I can go with the flow, I can go to her house / beach etc, but eventually H says she wants to go to get a lobster roll almost 1 hr south of where my family lives, so I said no that’s where I draw the line. I don’t even eat lobster rolls so asking me to drive 1 hr south of my moms house on a holiday weekend when i had so much on my mind was not something I would agree to, & I knew sitting in traffic on a holiday weekend while I was worried about real issues would aggravate me to no end. When I said I didn’t feel like going that far, G aggressively “offered” to drive my mom’s car, completely missing the point. My mom would never have agreed to that, and I didnt even tell her until more recently. This was the first time she stayed at my moms so aside from meeting my mom once in our city for lunch, this was a fucking weird ask. I was shocked at how entitled G was acting - its like she was just trying to act like H but doesnt recognize she is a new friend and that’s Hs personality vs G acting like an ass just to try to act like H.
To add a geographical visual it would be like if my fam’s house is in Hampton Bays, H’s fam is in Southampton, and instead of meeting somewhere in the middle or one of those 2 towns, H was insisting upon going to Montauk for a fucking lobster roll, and me as a hostess saying “I think we can find that same food in between the two towns” then a new friend/guest demanding to drive that distance Hampton Bays > Montauk is bizarre IMO. Not the actual towns, but I made this reference for a reason bc H’s fam lives in a nicer town than my mom, and G really raves about it all the time, which is whatever, but more importantly - her attitude, tone/treatment of me & my mom is really fucking rude compared to the way she treats H’s family. My mom has picked up on it too (More on that later).
When we were back at my mom’s house, we ended up talking about sunscreen (a non controversial topic lol) and my mom said she likes SuperGoop, noting it was founded by women + “clean” sunscreen. G started comparing it to Trader Joe’s sunscreen and, candidly, I was sort of picking up on a bit of frustration/hostility by her tone? G & H are obsessed w Trader Joes. Like they get mad & call me bougie just bc i wont go take a bus to Trader Joes and would rather get my groceries 1 block from my home. An irrational obsession with “Tjs!” But G was getting vividly upset that my mom bought a different sunscreen, kept citing the prices and going on and on in a really aggressive and bizarre way. I have never seen anyone get that bent out of shape before about sunscreen & trader joes, let alone at someones mom, in her home no less!! As a single woman, owning a home was a big deal for her post divorce and i just couldn't believe she was there for the first time bitching to my mom about something so trivial like her choice of sunscreen. My mom also picked up on the hostility, and privately mentioned she thought it was odd, without even knowing what happened when I visited H / lobstergate (lol).
Nov - H moves to my city, moves in w G
By this time, I have lived in my apartment for 5 years, & I knew G&H moving in together would change the friendships quite a bit, but didn't anticipate it being so obvious so quickly. I offered to help G move the weekend before and after their move in date, as well as offered to store anything in my apt if needed. I never offered during the week as I had my own job, and as mentioned I had to take significant time off for 2 medical leave and needed the job for health insurance. G quite rudely ignored the help I offered and repeatedly asked me to take the middle of the week and help her after I said no - I didn’t say no to be difficult, but I was visiting my sister at Christmas so I had to focus on my job before getting time off for vacay bc companies don't care about why you were off - you missed work, and you’re asking for time off at Christmas, so between that you need to do your effing job, not help some entitled brat move. I think she judges me bc I like to look good / have my own apartment and always says shit to me like “must be nice!” in an aggressive tone but I too need a job to put a roof over my head. I worked at a top, household name corporation, so just bc I had wfh privileges didn't mean I could run her fucking errands during my work day. And just bc i live alone does not mean I don’t make sacrifices to do so.
Initially, G was sweet about my recurrence (tbh cant pin any medals on her, how could you not be compassionate) but over time/since moving in w H, she has really become super judgemental, entitled and condescending, especially since moving in w H / me starting to date again post cancer. It feels like they think they can treat me like shit now that i am cancer free. G acts like a know it all, has made jokes about people with "daddy issues" and then the request to change my work schedule really show how much I cannot stand her, esp bc I don't have the same history with her as I do with H. But when was quite obnoxious to my mom on multiple occasions in her home no less that really struck a nerve.
And this is honestly what hurts me the most, and it’s a huge part of why “daddy issues” is such a nasty fucking phrase in my opinion, on top of it being rape culture rhetoric that blames children, specially female children, for the psychological aftermath of an absent parent...but hey H & G go to women's marches and wave their pink signs for their IG posts so they must be allowed to make “jokes” about daddy issues and comment on my figure!!!! Keep only including me in plans that revolve around substance abuse when you know I am focused on sobriety!!!!
IMO their notion of feminism is some BS performance art, they think a pink sign at a protest on an IG post is actually helping but they’re the ones tearing other women down. I’m not close with my father despite the health issues I have had, and she has been to my moms home and made these “jokes” after the fact, so it’s also insulting to my mom IMO. Again, women bashing women but go off with your pink sign, sis!!! It’s really helping !!! And G is the one who constantly bashes men, saying “men are trash, men are trash” on a constant loop bc she doesn't have anything of value to add, but i find this equally toxic. I’m not close to my father but he’s gay, not a horrible human. I also don't open up about that to them bc it’s not my story to tell, and is sensitive to both of my parents. My father hasn't come out to his mom, and my own mom is a bit embarrassed about marrying a gay man (even though this is sort of common for that generation). Men are not trash, and I believe all humans are worthy of love, respect and compassion. Apparently not according to G&H.
Fast forward to the point where I am “cancer free” (the term my drs use is “No evidence of disease”) which is great, but I am at risk for 5+ other types of cancer, plus I could always have another recurrence, so cancer prevention is and will always be top of mind for me and my family. I truly am not trying to play the cancer card (and to anyone who has also had cancer, I don’t think this term is fair at all and it minimizes the frighteningly transcending experience), but after cancer + covid + cancer, I was just eager to get back into dating. This has seemingly offended G & H to the point where they talked a lot about me behind my back (H shared this with me as if it was normal and not offensive). I lost weight after getting off of a temporary medicine, and H has made “jokes” that I am an almond mom, which is like saying I'm anorexic, when in reality I am just trying to eat healthy to control the few things in life I can control. Also, a cancer patient eating healthy isn’t bad, and my weight loss has been from medicine changes. It can also be a sign someone is sick again so I find it beyond disturbing to comment on, let alone mock.
H’s birthday
H had a bunch of friends to her beach house for her birthday, I wasn't invited. Thats all. But im the one whose too cool for school? Lol.
Easter 2024
I invited G to my mom’s, noting I was going to watch my dog while my mom was visiting my sister. I noted I had a responsibility but she was more than welcome to join me. I checked w H beforehand to make sure I did not step on anyone's toes or step in on existing plans, and included H (knowing she wouldn’t join bc it wasn't with her family). G said she would “let me know” then a week later said yes. The weekend rolls around, I had to leave the city before G, so again, using the geographical metaphor I used earlier, she took the train from NY and I told her what town to go to and where I would pick her up. She offered to go to H’s town, which is 20 min south of where my mom’s home is - not only was she refusing to listen to what I told her, but she kept acting like little miss sunshine “I'll take the train to Southampton!” well why tf would you do that vs listening to me, your hostess, especially bc I offered to pick her up further north so she wouldn't need to be on the train longer than she needed to be. She responded by obsessing over the nicer town
H had last minute invited both of us to her extended relatives house before the weekend began. I personally didn't want to go, G nearly wet her pants out of excitement, practically panting at the chance. I think G would legit wipe H’s ass if asked. I initially agreed bc i could tell that's what G wanted (I know this is on me) but then i clarified to both G & H that I wasn't going to go, between working on sobriety, not getting included in H’s birthday and the weird comments about my body, plus I used to live in that nicer town and I’ve had family members die there, just not a good vibe for me even without this dumb drama. I said to G days before I understood I was the one changing my mind, but just please let me know what you end up doing so I can plan accordingly.
G tells me she is just going to stop by for an hour, then repeatedly asked me to drive her despite me saying no, I don’t want to leave my dog and act like a chauffeur.” She repeatedly told me she would join me, her fucking hostess, for dinner. So she left, and I walked my dog so I could stay local in case she came back after less than 1 hour. Then she kept piecemealing the updates “It’s taking longer than I thought” then finally “omg so sorry the party is gonna start later than expected - eat without me!” This was so bizarre IMO.
Then 5 hours later she comes back to my moms as if its a fucking hotel and brings a spiked seltzer inside. Whatever, I get that my sobriety isnt something everyone else needs to partake in, but after lying, acting like a supportive tea totaler in front of my mom, and acting so judgemental about me being sober, I found this to be odd. My moms home isnt a hotel or a sorority house, and my mom could see this on her security cameras and was uncomfortable bc she was out of town and didnt expect this all to be taking place at her house while I was just there watching my dog. I was obviously annoyed when G returned and she kept trying to drunkenly force hugging me and I was not having it and said this was really rude to lie and ditch me like this. You know what she said after that? “It was a sit down dinner” so I said “exactly - you went to a sit down dinner elsewhere while lying to me, expecting me to drive you, knowing I invited you to dinner and had bought plenty of food for 2 - I dont need to make a large meal with apps, entree and dessert for 2 just to sit here alone.” G is definitely done in my eyes.
Present day
I gather they really just enjoy putting me down bc I am a cisgendered, heterosexual white woman and therefore in their eyes, specifically H’s, i am unworthy of any empathy. But since G has no personality of her own, she has to mirror H's personality too!
Then H tells me G was upset about my birthday last year (I hung out with other friends + the man I was dating, but I still saw her every fucking day so not sure how my birthday suddenly became about G and what wanted to do, but this attitude is exactly why I made an effort to spend my birthday with other people). When I told them I’m not drinking, they repeatedly invite me out for “martinis!” and then
When I spoke to H in person about all of this drama & bs, she seemingly understood then days later invites me to buy THC soda for 4/20!!! WTF!! I know H is a pain in the ass, sipping the woke cool aid and projecting it onto anyone who doesnt fit that narrative, but G is just flat out fucking rude to and about my mom, in her home so TBH I dont have the same bandwidth to tolerate her as I do with H.
At this point, neither of them are acting like genuine friends and as someone who has had cancer in my 20s twice, I just don't have the time, patience or energy for this drama, and we’re too old for them to be blowing me off, leaving for shared plans without me, making fun of me and my appearance to my face and gossiping about me behind my back, while also (possibly unintentionally) sabotaging my sobriety by. It’s quite clear they do not like me as a person and think they can speak to and about me in a really negative manner, but then get mad at me for just doing my own thing with other friends who speak to me kindly and support me. I spoke to H and afterwards she said “we thought you didn’t want to be in our inner circle” WTF what 30 yo talks like that, but also I never said that - they just judge tf out of me for being me, and living my life as I have for years.
How can I set boundaries and keep my distance without coming across as rude? I don’t want to be dramatic but I’m trying to find the balance between boundaries/protecting my peace vs being too confrontational. ’m just tired and want to live my life, enjoy every minute I have, especially because you truly never know when things can change for either myself or anyone in my family.
TLDR: 2 friends pseudo support during cancer is showing as they mock my appearance, lack of relationship with my father, focus on my mental health and removal of substance abuse / junk food post cancer recurrence and confirmed they have talked about me behind my back, demand rides & other favors as they judge, but also get mad at me when I spend more time with more like-minded and supportive friends. Judgmental af that I’m trying to look and feel my best after having cancer twice in my 20s and I’m fucking over it!

Hi there! I’m very new to this (only completed my first loop last night), but I’m curious; I’m looking at the merch shop and the STAR stuff. Is it permanent? Temporary? I want the Little Rock crab keychain to get a shoulder. Urdu necklace, but it says ‘limited time’ on the page. Is that only for the person I’m holding hands with? What about the alchemist cape pin?
Thank you!

Welcome back to my Reverse-Monolocke Master challenge! I’ve finished my test run in Diamond... and found out my new computer has a very weak graphics card. Well, at least the Delta emulator is available now. I’ll be cropping images and reducing their size before transferring them to imgur, though.
Anyway, onto the challenge! If you’re not familiar with my Reverse-Monolocke runs, feel free to check out the Nuzlocke Forum thread I made for the challenge. It has the full table of contents for the first four runs, all of which were successful! It also has rules in there, but I’m once again adding a game-specific rule, so read that below.
On to the chosen Weakness Type: All of my Pokemon will be weak to Rock-type! I experimented with the risky type’s user being earlier in the last run, so now it’s time to strategize enough to fight against the risky type right off the bat! Well, there’s other dangerous Rock-type users in Diamond (like Byron, Agatha, and *snickers* Flint), but I’ll have a WateFlying-type by then.
Here’s the rules (please view on oldreddit):

• Base nuzlocke rules. Dead is dead but blackout is not a game over.
• Only Pokémon weak to a certain type are allowed. Pokémon who lack the weakness, but gain it on evolution are allowed. Pokémon who lose the weakness on evolution are prohibited from evolving.
  • Temporary in-battle type changes that make a Pokemon immune to the Weakness Type may be used, but similar forms that stick outside of battle are not. The type that a Pokemon is in outside of battle is what you should base viability on. (ex. Castform in a Fighting Rev-Mono can change to Sun Form in battle, but Castform’s Sun Form existing does not mean you can catch it in a Water Rev-Mono.)
• For games where there is no valid Pokemon in the normal selection of starters, I will use UPR to modify my starter Pokemon. This modified starter Pokemon must fit the following criteria: Must be a base form that can evolve AND has 415 Base Stat Total (BST) or less.
• One chance of catching per route (first encounter), but only valid Pokémon count as encounters.
• Kantonian Dupes Clause: Dupes Clause is only present if a new, valid Pokemon appears in that area. If not, you're getting a duplicate.
• Level cap is on par with the highest and lowest leveled Pokémon of the next ‘boss battle’ (gym leaders, rival battles, etc). Only one of my Pokemon may match the level of the boss’ Ace, the rest must be the same level as their weakest.
• Shiny clause: Any shiny that is weak to the Weakness Type may be caught and used no matter what. A shiny that does not have the weakness cannot be used but may still be caught and exchanged for either reviving a dead Pokémon or revisiting a previous route for another catch (all randomly determined).
• In-game trades between two valid Pokemon are free game. In-game trades where the requested Pokémon is non-valid but the given Pokémon is valid may also be accepted, but I must “pay” a sum of money equal to the given Pokémon’s base stat total * its base xp yield. This will make sure the best Pokémon don’t come cheap. Gen 3 Examples: Bulbasaur 20K, Venusaur 123K, Magikarp 8K, Gyarados 102K, Dratini 18K, Dragonite 162K, Mewtwo 208K, Chansey 177K, Blissey 328K. It should be pretty rare to find a trade like this and pretty challenging to get 100K together to spend on it, so I think it’s fairly balanced.
• Token rule, needed for rare types: For every route where I have to forfeit a catch because no valid type appears there, I get a token. 3 tokens can be spent to revisit a route where I know I can catch something. I can also use 2 tokens to catch in another subsection of a location (e.g. if Mount Moon has valid types on two floors and I missed a catch on Route 1 and 2, I can catch on two floors in Mount Moon).
  • 5 tokens can be used to make another version of a Pokemon that you only get one of (ex. Starter, Eevee, etc.), but only after the original dies. This new Pokemon won’t be a clone and will have a new name, set of stats, and PID. This rule cannot be applied to a Legendary or a Pokemon you never owned. (ex. The Mt. Moon fossil you didn’t choose)
• Where I would normally get gifted a Return TM by Rowan in Platinum, Rowan has instead prepared the gift of a Poke Radar for me. (All of the runs with Froslass’ other weaknesses are already planned and I couldn’t live without using Froslass in a Rev-Mono Run. 😔)

Starter So, looking at my choice of starters and Rule #3... Chimchar can’t evolve, because Fighting resists Rock! Guess I can edit in a Rock Smash-learning Bagon instead! ”Isn’t that a bit cheatsy?” Oh, most certainly, but it’s my only hope for Roark! I’m not gonna pin all of this run’s hopes on the Rock Smash capabilities of a baby monkey and Kricketune. (Though soloing with Bagon might not be any better...)
Moving on, Rocky (the Rival) dragged me into tall grass to get attacked by a Starly. I had Bagon replace Chimchar in the Briefcase, so it still looks like I’m choosing the unevolvable Pokemon, heh. With a tiny Dragon by her side, Roll (Dawn) had it Bite the Starly. The bird’s Growl didn’t phase Bagon, who took it down with one more Bite.
Like the characters’ names? Rock and Roll seemed like an obvious choice, but I made the rival Rocky to make it slightly less of a Mega Man reference. This run’s Nickname Theme is types of rocks to camouflage our Pokemon, so Bagon got named Schist when we reached Rowan. (The wikipedia page says Schist can be easily split, so my brain connected the dots with Rock Smash, heh.) And like the final rule says, once I left his lab (and finished Lucas’ tour...) I used PkHeX to receive the wonderful gift of a brand new Poke Radar~ (Don’t expect me to use it any time soon, though.)
Strengths and weaknesses As usual I’ll link to my Weakness Type document, where you can see that the valid types for this run are Fire, Bug, Flying, and Ice. The banned sub-types are Ground, Steel, and the previously mentioned Fighting.
Sinnoh’s lack of Fire-types is well known, so I expect to use some tokens for multiple Ponyta when the time comes, but Salamence does learn Flamethrower. Bug-types in Sinnoh also means I’ll be using Honey and changing my phone’s time a lot... Wait, PkHeX has an option to make a tree shake right away? I’ll definitely abuse that! Thirdly, Starly’s (and Zubat’s!) ubiquity in Sinnoh will probably lead to a lack of tokens, but I foresee Staraptor’s Close Combat helping a lot with the Ice and Rocks.
All of the viable Pokemon are pretty good, thankfully. Though there’s a handful of Birds that seem allergic to Flying-type STAB. (Murkrow/Honchkrow, Swablu/Altaria, and Drifloon/Drifblim) The Poke Radar doesn’t add many Pokemon (Venonat is Post-Game...), but I’m looking forward to using one of my favorites~
Opportunities and expectations Here’s a quick overview of the 55 viable and obtainable Pokemon:
Zubat/Golbat/Crobat: It’s a speedy staple for a reason
Ponyta/Rapidash: Its late evolution is annoying, but it’s just in time for Candice!
Magikarp/Gyarados: Speedy Physical Rock Destroyer
Hoothoot/Noctowl: Doesn’t hit hard, but sleep induction is always nice.
Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff: I really like them, and their status effects will certainly help.
Sneasel/Weavile: It hits hard and fast, but isn’t as good in the defense department.
Mantyke/Mantine: It beats Gyarados in SpDef, but only shows up in the last route of the game :(
Wurmple/Silcoon/Beautifly: No.
Cascoon/Dustox: I love my Poisonous Bugs with Psychic-type affiliation and Dustox is no exception!
Swellow: It’s a Hoenn staple for a reason
Wingull/Pelipper: Special Rock Destroyer and Protect Enthusiast
Nincada/Ninjask: Out of my many Eterna Forest options, Nincada is not near the top of my list.
Shedinja: Not risking it.
Snorunt/Glalie: The Glalie in my test run proved they’re very good Mixed Attackers.
Bagon/Shelgon/Salamence: I’ll teach Schist Brick Break after I delete Rock Smash, heh.
Starly/Staravia/Staraptor: It’s a Sinnoh staple for a reason
Kricketot/Kricketune: They’ll quickly be outclassed, but their Rock Smash may help.
Burmy/Wormadam (Plant): I’m very sad that I can’t use my favorite Pink Cloak, but I’m sure those Psychic moves will still be useful.
Mothim: There’s a reason I abandoned my last Nuzlocke Mothim.
Combee/Vespiquen: pulls out PkHeX Be Girl or Become Girl. Oh, and I wish I got more than one U-Turn TM, because Attack/Defend Order could complement that.
Chatot: Does a lot less than Starly, but screaming for more damage is such a fun concept!
Skorupi: Wait, it has more Defense than Kricketune?? If only Eviolite was a thing...
SnoveAbomasnow: Just keep it away from Fire and that Wood Hammer can destroy nearly anything! It’s definitely my best Grass-type option.
Frosslass: *Pokemon Fan Club President impression* Wonderful...Speedy...Gorgeous...Strong!
I don’t expect this to be as much of a breeze as the last game, but I think I’ll rack up a ton of box mons just like in the Dragon-Weak run. The test run was on a randomized Diamond game, so I didn’t get to experience Flint’s silly Steelix, but it was still pretty rough. (I trapped myself with a team that was 5/6ths weak to Ground, ugh.) Schist will certainly do a lot of carrying early on, but I won’t leave out everyone else!
By the way, I tried really hard to think of a way to play my first Pokemon game for this challenge, and I couldn’t think of any other type that would be good in Sinnoh (I thought about Poison-Weak, but that’s a Grass Mono unless I want to do two physical cartridge runs in this challenge), so it seems like this is the last time I’ll be Weak in Sinnoh. I hope this Sendoff (Spring) to Sinnoh goes well!

Alien-Nation Chapter 202: Property Damage

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Chapter Summary:

Morsh breaks Goshen's omni-pad to wipe anything incriminating she might've gotten out of her interrogation targets, then they have good conversations with Amilita
Oh, and Elias Wakes up
The borrowed fleet car was a far cry from a noblewoman's private vehicle. Even at full acceleration, it lagged far behind the ambulance, until it had disappeared from view. Finally, they found a building that seemed far too tall to be made of brick, with square windows and white curtains.
"This is it," Natalie confirmed, pointing at the "H" on the roof.
"You're sure it's not that one?"
"It's still under construction, see?" She pointed at the construction equipment, and now that Morsh squinted she could see that the far corner was still unfinished. She grunted unhappily and started to approach the small rooftop landing pad.
"Fleet car 117, please go to visitor parking," traffic control spoke through the fleet car's speakers, and the heads' up display highlighted the part where another officer car was already headed toward. Probably Amilita.
"This is Nataliska of house Rakten, we have business with the occupant of that patient. We will be setting down on the roof."
"Helipad is not for visitors," the accented trade shil repeated herself. "Please do not go."
Nataliska leaned forward and flicked off the comms, and Morsh guided the fleet car to the 'Helipad' and set down next to the already-empty ambulance.
She hopped from the car and sprinted to the main door. "Come on." The door from the roof was locked, however, and when Morsh gave it a more firm tug, it popped the handle clean off.
"Now what?" Nataliska asked, but before Morsh could even think to answer the girl was already in motion, thin and dexterous fingers finding a part of steel in the ripped apart internals to peel back, the latch opening with a click.
"Nice work," she complimented her ward for her persistence.
She may have celebrated too early, because they now found themselves lost in the bowels of the alien building. Nataliska seemed to move with a purpose, though, pressing a button, and a lift opened.
Going down a couple floors in a box that felt entirely too shaky for Morsh's liking opened, only to find themselves immediately lost as the doors opened. The staff milling about wore various colored uniforms, probably meant to indicate something about their speciality, though Morsh saw no bloodstains or helpful lettering to guide the unfamiliar.
"Where to?" Nataliska asked, uncertainly.
Morsh was increasingly sure that hospitals served a secret universal purpose: To hide away anyone suffering in a maze that only employees could solve. Whether on-board the depths of a warship, a space station, planetside on an embattled world, or even in an alien-constructed, retrofitted building, she always got lost whenever she found herself in one.
"Hey, I can't read this stuff," Morsh waved a hand at the alien lettering and raised her omni-pad, letting it translate what text it saw. It took a couple times of double-checking, counting the third one from the top. "This one says 'child-medicine.' Is Elias still considered a child?"
"Pediatrics?" Nataliska sounded the human word out.
Morsh squinted at her omni-pad, and then back at the sign. "I think so?"
The bodyguard loathed the insurgency for the delays they'd caused. Had it not been for them, then she wouldn't be stuck navigating these hallways, and the new hospital next door would be finished already. At least something about this place would be familiar.
"I think we follow these colored lines on the wall. It's the same color as the sign."
"Alright," it was as good an idea as any, and they went around the corner to find a waiting room.
"Let's try one of the attendants?" Nataliska suggested, striding forward before Morsh could ask her to wait. The woman behind the desk had the sagging skin of someone from a high-gravity world, though at least they had the tendency to be stocky, but strong. Yet she seemed almost too round for her chair, bloated underneath the strange mottling that ran up her exposed arms and lower neck. She frowned from behind her thick-framed glasses at the pair of approaching shil'vati. Morsh sensed some vague hostility, but the woman certainly also seemed utterly impotent, so she filed it away as a triviality and instead took the room's surroundings, gauging the others in it. No one in the waiting room seemed particularly dangerous, though they were all keeping their distance.
Nataliska leaned forward. "Hi," she used the human greeting, though Morsh realized she'd forgotten to activate her translator and missed the next bunch of words. By the time she'd gotten it online, she'd missed everything except "Elias Sampson."
The blank stare returned showed no more understanding than Morsh had of what Nataliska had just said.
"I need to see Elias Sampson," Nataliska tried again. "He was taken here. He was hurt badly. He's my friend, and I need to check in on him." She tapped hurriedly on her omni-pad, and then smiled, pointing at a photo of him she'd taken. The woman glanced at the screen with disinterest, and then huffed.
"Try the Emergency Ward, or maybe surgery," was the only answer they got before the strangely-shaped woman started to rise from her desk.
"Where's that?" Nataliska's patience was obviously running thin.
"East wing. * " The woman finished standing from her desk and waddled away from the glass partition before either of them could ask where the 'East Wing*' was.
"Thank you!" Natalie said, always polite.
"Now what?"
"We find the East Wing." Natalie glanced at the window. "It's...uh...evening, so, away from there. That means..." she pointed, and started down the hallways.
Morsh shook her head. This felt like it was getting them nowhere. Worse, they quickly found dead-ends where they couldn't proceed through without a pass of some sort- and no one seemed to come along the particular hall that they'd gone down so they could follow them inside to get further east. Nataliska had insisted Morsh not put a shoulder to the locked door- avoiding incidents seemed to be a priority.
Eventually a nurse wearing blue scrubs rounded the corner, and started to double-back when Morsh decided she'd had enough of being made to wander aimlessly and flanked the human, cutting off her retreat.
Nataliska brought her omni-pad back up again, pointing at the picture. "Elias Sampson- sorry, I should start over. Do you know where surgery is, or perhaps the emergency room? East Wing?"
The nurse studied the picture for a few seconds longer than the secretary had, and then looked at Nataliska for a couple more, as if thinking about what to say in response. "Ask her to guide us," Morsh suggested, the translator speaking her own words back out for her before she shut off its speaker. "That way if she's thinking of misdirecting us, at least she's wasting her time, too," she added.
"Why would she do that?" Nataliska asked.
*"I'm sorry, are you next of kin or family?" *The nurse asked dutifully.
"Well, no, but I'm a noblewoman, and he was hurt badly. I ask that you aid us. It's very important that I'm there when he wakes up."
The corners of her mouth dipped slightly lower. "I see. Are you listed as his emergency contact?"
"Please. It's important."
"Of course it is. I'm going to have to ask your name."
"Nataliska of house Rakten. I'm right here-" she began scrolling through the photos, until she found one of the two of them side-by-side. "See?" This time the nurse didn't even bother looking.
"Sampson...tell you what, wait here, and I'll go check the emergency contact list-"
The nurse's indirect refusals to give any straight answers only ended when their demands were joined by the huffing arrival of the Lieutenant Colonel.
"Sorry. I was just setting up a place to work from when I saw you walk by," she said, panting the words out, and gauging the situation.
Morsh was tired of hearing the girl repeat herself in asking, and decided to speak the inevitable question for her. "Where's Elias? We've been trying to find him."
Amilita turned to the nurse they'd cornered, and activated her translator. "Please show them to the patient's room. I'm General Amilita, Acting commander of the Delaware Garrison." The woman paled slightly, and Morsh switched off her translator halfway through repeating Amilita's translator's English back into Shil'vati.
"Of course, ma'am," the woman said in trade shil'. And just like that, the three of them were off with a guide, though Amilita peeled off the group after only a few dozen steps.
What a strange inversion it was when a combined noblewoman's title and presence of a bodyguard couldn't get the respect a military uniform apparently commanded here.
"This is the room," Nataliska relayed for the Nurse, who immediately scampered off. The door opened, revealing a nurse who was as startled to see them as the first nurse had been, and Nataliska started drilling her with rapid-fire questions. The new Nurse was surprised that the shil'vati girl was fluent in English, and answered each question quickly, if shortly. Morsh switched back on her translator, but it was already too late to catch most of it.
When Nataliska had apparently finished her questions, Morsh let the nurse slip past and leaned in. "So? What'd you learn?"
"He's 'stable,' whatever that means, and has been sedated for his own good." She sighed. "I guess I'll go into the room, and talk with the doctors attending. Maybe they know when he can be woken up." She took a second to think. "I wonder what machines they used to use to bring people out of comas." Then she smiled a little bit- the first one she'd had in a while. "I wonder if they just slapped or shook their patients? Or was it a really loud noise? Do you think there's a prescribed one that they'd always use?"
She tried the handle, the question clearly on the tip of her tusk.
Except there was no one to ask. The room had been left empty, with just Elias laying there unconscious. The boy had filled out since the early days, when the newly-minted 'Natalie' had confessed she'd found a boy to finally talk and sit alone with, then proudly showing off a photo she'd snuck. He'd looked almost malnourished, waifish then. Now, laying still in the cot, despite all the lean muscle he'd put on through maturing, he looked no less vulnerable. The various faces he wore with such an intense focus and force of will were gone, leaving a vacant expression she'd never thought she'd see him wear. The planet could think what it wanted about boys and what they were supposed to be- the reality was they were still boys. No amount of arguing would ever make her feel anything other than a twist in the gut, and a feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.
The staff hadn't even a doc bot left in the room to keep an eye. There were distant squeaks of shoes on the shiny surface that humans loved to floor their interiors with, muted conversations drifting down the hallways, but only a few people milling about. Whatever the doctors had done, they felt they'd finished their work and cleared out.
"So, what now?" Morsh asked.
"We could wait?" Nataliska suggested, trying to hide how nervous she was. "I mean, maybe he'll wake up on his own? Or they're getting one of those machines I saw on TV."
"What machine?" Morsh asked.
"Well, when the person's asleep, then someone gets a machine that makes a whining noise." Suddenly, Natalie got quiet.
"And then what?"
"...then they rip open the guy's shirt, and uh, it's not what you think! They put their hands on it- his chest- the part where his heart is, I mean. And they put these metal pads on him, and someone says 'clear' and then he wakes up with a jolt."
"Uh-huh. And they just put this on TV, for anyone to see?"
"It's not like that! It's a legitimate medical procedure!"
"The nurse didn't say anything at all about that? Like, not even a rough idea on if that's what they're going to do, or when they're going to be back?"
Nataliska shrugged helplessly. "No, not really. I could wait with him? Or at least keep an eye over him, and ask anyone that comes by."
"Might be smart," Morsh agreed. "I'll stand guard. Want me to close the door? I know he doesn't like me all that much ever since the, well, you know. Everything."
"Thanks," she said. "I'm just worried about being seen alone with a boy behind a closed door."
"Come on, it's you two. Whatever went on, no one else knows about you crying in your room for days on end. I'll leave the two of you to chat alone and sort things out."
"Thanks, Morsh. You're the best. It's fine though, you can leave the door open for now, and I want to stay here, just in case." She walked in and pulled the chair up alongside the bed and gave the bodyguard a slight smile.
The bodyguard felt the minutes tick by. It bothered her that he'd been dumped there without so much as an attendant, with all manner of wires and human machines watching him in their stead. Pathetic. At least the room had an actual door and glass windows, curtained for privacy. It seemed they were very short-staffed, but that did keep her job of watching for threats simpler, and having to defend just the one point of entry made life easy. She idly tapped her pocket to make sure she still had that crucial object before an idea worked its way into her head.
She knocked on the doorframe, and Nataliska raised her head from her omni-pad.
"Kid, you're okay to take over guarding him for a bit?" Morsh asked.
"Huh?" She asked, standing and coming up to the door.
Morsh handed Nataliska her pistol. "I've gotta take a leak." The eyes of a nurse who wandered by were as large as saucers at the sight of the weapon, and she hurried her footsteps away from the pair.
"Uh...yeah," Nataliska answered, fumbling the grip for a moment. She started to stare at it and look down the barrel before Morsh pushed the tip down at the floor, making eye contact.
"That part faces whatever you want to kill," Morsh reminded her young ward, feeling a sudden sense of unease about leaving the same girl she'd just chewed out over acting before thinking alone with a pistol. One that Morsh clearly needed to actually teach her to use, too.
"How do I...?" Nataliska asked nervously, almost fumbling the pistol as she tried to hold it out for her bodyguard to inspect.
"The safety's on. This button here. Actually, you know what? Here. Take the knife. Don't use it unless you have to." The swap was quick, and Morsh felt the reassuring feel of her custom laspistol on her thigh once it had settled back into its quickdraw holster.
"Um..." the girl hesitated. Morsh prayed she didn't need to tell her which end to stick a threat with. Then again, common sense with nobles was like oxygen. The higher up someone went, the rarer it was to find.
"Just for a second. If you need me, press the panic button on your omni-pad, and hold them off with the knife until then. You understand?"
"I understand," she echoed, inching closer to the door, as if already imagining someone trying to sneak past her.
Morsh felt the unfamiliar bulge shift in her pocket as she made her way down the hall. The old human hospital with alien writing on the wall still threatened to misdirect her from the point where she'd seen a particular sign. It took only a couple turns she'd committed to remembering before she came across it again. She pushed open the double-doors and took in the enormous room, pleased with herself that it was almost certainly what she'd hoped it would be.
The small technician lady stood from behind her desk, itself separated with its own wall. Morsh let out a low whistle from between her tusks. "Whew, that is a big machine you have in there." She squinted exaggeratedly. "Not a lot of wiggle room for a patient, though," she muttered as if in contemplation. "Gotta have some courage to crawl in there and be treated here, I gotta admit. Say, Doc, you know I left my knife behind. And this thing here- well, let's just pretend it's not here at all," she tapped her holster, before fishing out and tossing the omni-pad she'd pickpocketed off Amilita into the center hole, watching in fascination how its course changed before sticking fast to one of the inner walls, defying gravity. "So, why don't you turn on that machine for me? It's that magnetic...uh...thing."
She glanced down at the workstation the woman was at, and noted the various pieces of metal arrayed on the desk. Her laspistol should be safe here- or at least better here than in Nataliska's shaky hands.
"Magnetic Resonance Imager, and I think that would be a very bad idea. It would-" she eyed Morsh with increasing alarm as the bodyguard strode closer until she leaned over the woman, leering.
"I didn't ask what you thought."
Swallowing nervously, the much smaller woman started trying to explain what it was in the crudest trade shil, stumbling over her words.
"Didn't ask what it was, either, I said turn it on." The little woman's babbling ceased, and she quaked where she stood. "Do it, or trust me, you'll need more than whatever it can do for you."
The woman finally did as she was told, and the omni-pad began to promptly bang around the inside, until with a final, terrifying crack it went silent, and a warning chime sounded.
The woman let out a wail of distress and then stared balefully up at Morsh in a very: See? I told you so! gaze, as if missing the entire point. Morsh only let out a low whistle after she pulled open the door. Some people just could not be shown a good time or anything neat. The omni-pad was now stuck fast to the inner wall of the circular device, having punched a hole right through the plastic. "Do you have any idea how much that cost? This hospital has one of those, and parts for it- I don't even know where-"
Morsh pried the omni-pad loose, having to brace herself against it and pull with all her strength and then tested to see if it would switch on, noting with some satisfaction that it was certainly wiped of whatever it contained. She'd held corpses of comrades with more life left in them.
"Bill us."
Besides, how useful could the machine still be in this day and age? Morsh shook her head. Humans could keep their sentimentality and attachment to outdated tools. She'd prefer a doc bot any day to the confinement chamber.
She came back to find the situation outside Elias's room more or less as she'd left it and patted her ward on the shoulder after retaking possession of the knife with a genuinely relieved sigh.
"Sorry about that, I've been holding it in since I broke orbit. No visitors?"
Nataliska shook her head. Morsh sighed. "Then we're probably going to be here a while. But you know who isn't, and I suggest you go settle things with? Amilita."
"But, what if he-"
"I'll message you immediately," she promised. "Now, go, before he does wake up and you're still not back."
That got the girl moving, Morsh noted with some satisfaction.

Settlement

The hospital smelled. None of the scents were familiar to her, some of them were even superficially pleasant, and she imagined she might even enjoy the cleansers or aerosol sprays used to disinfect if she shut her eyes to relieve them from the long, harsh blue lights and imagine a breeze or spring. Oh, to close one's eyes and pretend the world isn't what it is.
Natalie was reluctant to leave Elias's side but Morsh was right. She had to talk with Amilita.
It took a few tries, but she eventually was directed to the same hallway she'd been in before. She stopped at the open doorway to see that the giantess had taken over an empty storeroom and made it into a temporary office headquarters, resignedly signing off orders from her wrist-pad in rapid-fire motions. The rings under the old family friend's eyes were visible even through the semi-transparent image of her wrist-pad. When she shifted her focus and noticed the young noblewoman snooping at the threshold, Amilita stood to greet her before then ducking her head in a sign of respect and submission to the authority Natalie wielded, something Amilita had only done for her mother.
"I hear Morsh has been busy protecting the boy's privacy." The words were offered plainly and left for Natalie to determine how they were meant. She'd had enough of assuming the better of people after today.
"That's right, I stationed Morsh there. I hope that isn't going to be a problem."
Amilita put her hands up, showing off the white bandages taped around her knuckles as fresh flesh grew back underneath, "No, not at all. I've even requested the boy's medical files not be updated to reflect his recent visit here." With her other hand, she tapped a small stack of printed out papers.
Natalie blinked at the news. "Why?"
"His death would have been framed by Goshen as a suicide," she muttered.
"What? How? That's ridiculous. He was kidnapped!"
"I know," Amilita poked a finger at the gauze to again emphasize what she'd done at the sight. "Perhaps I ought to explain how I found him. He was hanging by his belt, dangling from a pipe. When I carried him out, he was barely breathing from asphyxiation and with marks on his neck. From what I can tell, they used the doc bot to check the airway and noted no spinal fractures. What matters is that these notes only include injuries, not their context." Natalie already knew from his treatment at school that he'd have a history of bruising, swelling, and cuts. Injuries she now understood why he'd wanted to treat on his own, rather than potentially hand information over. As she considered the implications, Amilita cleared her throat, lowering her hand. "What have you heard about when boys attempt suicide, Nataliska?"
"Uh, well..." she didn't want to appear ignorant, but she knew it wasn't exactly common. "I hear they choose quiet methods? I guess it's so wives won't try and stop them?"
"Usually it's described as a cry for help. When a boy threatens it, it's as a desperate gambit to force his terrible wives to release him. The women either lose him and are forever known and outed as husband-killers and neglectful. Or they take him to the hospital and at least avoid the 'boy-killer' charges. Threatening suicide is the final move of the truly desperate."
"Wasn't he desperate, though?" She felt she was missing something.
"What do those women who were in his life say in their defense, though? And remember, the medical records will leave Goshen out. It's just his injuries that are left in."
Natalie blinked. "Well, I guess they don't just confess?"
The officer's tone turned weary and she seemed to deflate some at Natalie's lack of answer. "I don't know if it's because I've been spending too much time around the wrong people, or if I'm suddenly sensitive to it after having a son. People always say about boys who attempt suicide: 'He couldn't handle it.' That he couldn't take the prospect of a life of housework and the pressures of fatherhood, which is always said to be easy. That, or he felt he couldn't compete with the pressures of acting like and being treated as a woman if he had a job." Amilita bit her lip. "I don't want that said about Elias- they won't know about the circumstances of the kidnapping, or anything else."
The young noble bristled, some heat entering her voice, "The trial should be easy enough to point back to. It doesn't matter if they dig it up."
"You can't appeal decisions on admittance or acceptance to a future job if they never even tell you they dug so deep into your past in the first place. I worry that if I step in and demand the circumstances be included, it'll be so unusual that people will still doubt him. They'll think I pulled strings. If you do it, they'll think you're doing the same, all to protect him. See the problem? We can't add it. So it is for the best that this stays off his record completely. We made sure we're not burying him physically, and now I'm making sure we're not burying his future." She inhaled, and then looked Natalie in the eyes. "I'm fine with the only record being in your hands, holding it in trust for him to decide if he wants to re-enter it into his medical history or not." She broke her eye contact and tapped the small stack of papers meaningfully. "I'm asking that you respect his privacy, because I have a duty to enter these into his record. But if they happen to go wandering, well, it's for the better then. I just ask that you...not share these to the datanet." She added the last part quietly.
Natalie nodded mutely. Her mouth opened, but no noise escaped at first. It took several moments to process that he possibly had been willing to kill himself to keep her family secret buried. Elias, You helped me when I told you my family's secret and Myrrah came to us. I ran and wasn't there to help when someone came to you over yours. There's still at least one more thing I can do.
"If the record is left out, would that help Goshen's case? I mean...what if she isn't punished for this?"
"My personal testimony could condemn her by itself, and you still retain the physical medical record. Not to mention you could weigh in, and so could he, and it would remain out of any record or background check. Besides, Goshen's cuffed to a bed in the commoner ward, and I doubt she'll live much longer."
"You almost killed her?"
"Well, I wasn't gentle," Amilita admitted, not at all bothered by the admission. "But, no, she is seen as the one responsible for the loss of the noblewomen. The fleet and Nobles don't want to pin the loss of three system lady matriarchs on a martyr. Especially when one of them's a scioness of the Maudalenti family- you wouldn't know them but they're renowned for their brave military service."
Natalie's head spun. She'd actually heard of that family. "Why was he able to take so many of such high stature?"
"It takes considerable power or favor to bully one's way onto this world, past all the secrecy and safety demands, and even more to get to enjoy a pleasant time in a green zone. So naturally, almost all of them had it in spades. Enough to where their families could afford to chase Goshen to the ends of the Galaxy to make an example of her if they wanted, and I suspect greatly that they do. Even in the Delaware barracks, they're furious at Goshen for losing the Marine hostages, and ordering repeated long charges over open terrain against railguns. There's no state I can transfer her to, thanks to all the borrowed troops. There's hardly any that I can think of that didn't lose at least a pod or two. The sad reality is Galatea Goshen hasn't a friend left in the galaxy, let alone one here who can stand up to all that. Normally when this many interested parties want someone in uniform to be hung up by her ears the officers are able to close ranks and stop them, but for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would. Azraea is thought to have died because Goshen couldn't get the job done." Then she sighed and looked skyward. "Even the Goddesses would abandon her now. The warrior Goddess Krek was bloodthirsty and loyal, but she would have hated the senseless casualties Goshen pushed for. And now, even I'm abandoning her over what she did to Elias." Her eyes drifted back down to meet Natalie's. "Do you understand what I'm saying? She's unlikely to live to see a trial."
She was laying Goshen out on a line.
"'Justice will be done'," Natalie promised, quoting an ancient tome carved into stone, weathered away by sea spray in the millennia since. Amilita hung her head ever so slightly deeper. Natalie shouldn't tip her hand, she knew, but then again Amilita also dared not interfere.
"Do you know when he'll wake up?"
"No," she said. "They sedated him on the flight over, apparently for his own protection, and it won't last. I'm told this may be a polite way of saying that he attacked them."
She blinked and started to stand up, "Then if you'll excuse me, I need to watch over him."
"Of course," Amilita almost whispered. "I'm sorry," so quiet and tender the words could hardly be said to have come from someone of Amilita's rank and physical stature.

Living Dead Boy

Natalie returned to find that an unknown Marine had joined Morsh near Elias's door, the former staying a respectful distance across the hallway. She wore a darker blue patch, indicating she wasn't here from Delaware's garrison. She strode right past Morsh, who made a point of shutting the door behind her.
Natalie stared at the stack of papers on the small table next to the chair she waited in, her gaze wandering about the room listlessly, coming once more to fall on its sole occupant
His chest rose and fell steadily, with an annoying 'beep' repeating at a constant interval indicating he was being monitored in at least some sense. His clothing was disheveled, like when she'd first met him.
She turned on her omni-pad, and sent a panoramic photo of the room to her mom, not even managing a smile. Just giving you an update. I don't know much. Watching the doctors, when they come in. Don't show anyone, obviously. It felt strange to even have to ask such a courtesy.
The message back was immediate: How much would I need to pay to have one here, just to answer my questions and look over Elias, and not just disappear somewhere else at random times?
The medical staff had wielded immense power, even in the face of a noble name. It reminded her more of a cult than a proper medical institution. Still, on Earth, most services seemed to have a price, even things that were held sacred. Thanks to the exchange rate the price was often rather pitiably small, surely, one doctor wouldn't take too much.
She was about to respond with a rough estimate when she thought she saw him stir, though it might have just been the sheet settling.
"Elias?" She asked, leaning over and placing her hand gently on his forearm, only for him to jerk awake and slap her hand off.
He had been stirring slowly, then more quickly and feverishly until he began kicking his legs, yanking the carefully tucked bed sheets out of where they were pressed and tangling them around his feet. The beeping had grown to a frantic and erratic pace, and a tone began to blare as he ripped something off his finger.
"Elias, calm down!"
Instead, he swung his legs out from the hospital bed and tried to push himself off of the bed and to the door, instead going down in a heap as the little white sheet slid on the slick floor. He let out a slight cry of pained alarm that would wrench at any woman's heart. Bright eyes wide and wild, he lay there for a second or two, and Natalie hesitated. She couldn't help but feel responsible in some way for the pain he was in, and so she backed off, and instead crouched down, showing her empty palms.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Natalie tried to soothe him, though he glanced over her shoulder at the exit, then around the room as her words sank in and he met her eyes- just for a moment, before he paused and gave her a second glance. "Natalie?" He rubbed at his eyes. "Sorry, everything was a bit blurry for a second there..."
The momentary expression of relief that settled over her was shattered when the door was suddenly shoved open, knocking Natalie forward and toward Elias, and then everyone began screaming at each other, all at the same time.
The poor Nurse let out a shriek of terror as Morsh pulled the hapless woman sprawling back out of the doorway by her fabric collar, legs and hands in the air as she slid.
Natalie tried to shield Elias's crouched form while finally cutting through everyone else's screaming with a simple command: 'Get out!' Elias was trying to push past her, but she couldn't let him run, she'd just found him! Then Morsh tried to step through the door, saying something about how an alert had gone off. Elias had half blocked her off with his body and gotten into some semblance of a fighting stance, and was now trying to protect Natalie from her own bodyguard. Each of them was blundering through trying to protect each other, but the chaos of the situation ensured that none succeeded at anything but getting in each other's way.
"Get OUT!" Natalie roared again. Morsh knew when to pick her battles, and when to follow orders, and slammed the door shut so hard it hurt her ears. Angry voices on the other side went back and forth, but Natalie pushed herself against the frame, even as the newly-conscious Elias gathered himself up and met her eyes.
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Author's Notes:
Also, good news. My father's made it through his surgery! A lot of stress taken off. He is in good health, and good spirits. Editor is progressing through what is occupying him. I would like to thank Guardsman Miku and Tumbleman for their efforts in helping with the editing.
Archive Of Our Own contains the latest version of Alien-Nation with a lot of added scenes, flow improvements, and so on. (You can also download the story as an ePub for reading on your personal device, if you feel like doing so, though I recommend waiting until Book One is truly finished.)
Link to Archive Version here:

^Title. I'm a software engineer. Often times I look up a solution and it takes me to the docs which I already have as a pinned tab. Example:

1. I look up something and click on a result say, tailwindcss.com/docs
2. However, I already have, tailwindcss.com pinned
3. I would like to merge the tabs and make the pinned tab tailwindcss.com/docs

Is this possible through air traffic control. A scripting language for air traffic control would make this a lot easier.

So I have been working for busch gardens for 2 yrs as a temporary job when I relocated from my home state. Arrived for every shift even worked multiple days in a row with 1 to no days off every 2 weeks. Was written up twice in the past once by a so called friend who was fucking her supervisor which the whole place found out so she pinned it on me. Also she quit a month later. 2nd time was I would walk passed security as they check my bag if it's a female I'd politely say thanks hun or sweetie as I'm from Florida and being raised by my grandfather that's how it's been so I was wrote up for that and was given a final written warning. Since then I kept my mouth shut and stayed to myself. Working in my area smoking food I had a small incident with a international worker as I asked him if he could pull some chicken out so I could get some more pans as I just got back from break and him and someone else left it cooking to dry out. He said no I'm not doing that. I replied with ok well you are in here to work and you have to work. He runs to the supervisor to tell him I yelled at him. 10 mins later I went to inform our supervisor what happened and as I was going to walk back in he shoulder checks me which I'm 125lbs and he's about 150lbs. Left my left shoulder hurting due to a injury I received 2 yrs ago. I went to inform my head department supervisor at which they was going to talk to him. But instead dude went to hr complaining that I yelled and was aggressive towards him even though I was polite the whole time. Fast forward to today I was pulled into the head office and was informed I was terminated due to this and apparently I was hitting on a previous international female months ago which is unknown to me since I've been friendly to everyone who came to work with us. Now I got fired yet the dude who assaulted me got off Scott free. How is that exactly fair? Smh corporate America at its finest.

My group made the switch to OSE about a year ago, and now that the party is in the lvl 4-6 range the barbarian's prohibition on magic items is starting to bite somewhat. I really like the flavor of "magic is taboo, it always ends badly, never touch it", so I don't really want to handwave it away/have a character arc for the party barb to learn to trust magic. So I am trying to think about other ways to handle it and I have come up with 3 ideas:
1: assign some portion if randomly found magic items to be "tribal heirlooms" and therefore okay to use. Probably the easiest to implement but also my least favorite as it is effectively a handwave.
2: Unique tribal items. Either found as part of a character arc/quest but maybe simply taken out of tribal stores in exchange for something. These would be magic items with more subtle powers/folkloric or tribal themes. Lower poweconsumable but situationally powerful would be the desired mechanic. A few examples:
Devil's hooks: iron spikes mined from a specific meteor. If driven through any part of an undead or outsider and into anything else they are pinned in place, unable to remove the nails.
Beast totems: hides/fetishes/weapons (claws could be fun) that grant a temporary access to that animal's abilities. Wolf might grant an automatic success on tracking, vulture could grant ability to eat carrion. Flying feels a bit powerful but it's on the table. May also provide some level or friendship with that animal.
Ancestral mummy: bulky and "haunts" the party but can provide basic divination or speak with the dead.
Ancestral weapons: rather than a flat +x have them be mundane, but with some 1/time ability and drawback. Eg: once per month the spear of kurak turns into a lightning bolt when thrown, but it must be used to kill a member of the weasel tribe once per year.
3: "mundane" magical items - leaning into the barbarians herbal proficiency. Low level potions might be made entirely mundanely provided the right monster parts can be found. Potion of barkskin requires treant bark, potion of flying requires roc feathers. Magic arms and armour become about special materials/craftsmen. A silver sword provides the ability to wound invulnerable monsters, an elven one provides +x to hit and a dwarf one provides +x to damage.
What do y'all think?

I would like to propose a temporary pinned Deep Dip 2 thread with links to the donation for prize pool and for mapper support.
I would make a nice post myself but I’m currently not at my computer and should rather not do it on mobile.
Just wanted to throw it out there.

AboutThere were several transactions billed to my partner's bank account that were fradulent. The attackers tried several different amounts in decreasing magnitude until they found an amount that was under the available balance and it went through (the amount is roughly 1200 €). My partner noticed it the same very day and immediatelly reported it to the bank. The bank let the transactions go through (even though they were still pending) and refused to reimburse the money saying my partner was grossly negligent and also claiming the transactions were done through Google Pay.
My partner is not aware of any suspicious activity when she would authorize anything.
How could such a payment even be made through Google Pay?
I assume it could not be done physically using NFC as that requires the PIN for higher amounts. Some websites have the option to pay with Google Pay. I have never used it this way myselft but the limited succes I have with searching the web suggests one should approve such transactions through their bank. So how could Google Pay be used to authenticate such transactions (or is the bank making it up)?
The transactions also do not show up the url that I cannot post here due to a bot (activity tab on payments dot google) - I imagine somebody might have managed to register the card with their Google Account . It is true there was an SMS giving a code to authorize the card with Google pay a month before the attack, though my partner claims she has not acted upon it nor has she requested it. Not sure if the same card can be registered to multiple Google Accounts (it was registered to hers).
Up until the bank claimed Google Pay was involved, I assumed that the card details were somehow stolen and the attackers figured out a way to pay with the card without needing second factor authentization (I think that especially in the US it is sometimes seemingly so easy to pay with a card without authenticating anything, but I am not sure if it is still a case).
We are based in the EU (Czechia, the bank is Fio Banka) so in theory we should be well protected against this but it seems in practice it is not so rosy. It is possible my partner was somehow compromised - but to my knowledge it means they would need to compromise at least two factors from her, possibly by taking over her phone and then keylogging some PIN codes or such. I am not saying it is impossible but it seems unlikely without her noticing it with hindsight.

My boyfriend and I have been together for 6 years. We’ve had our ups and downs, most of that I pin on our relationship developing in our teens even though I shouldn’t. We have 2 little girls now. He’s never called me any names to my face before until now.
My oldest has learned to climb out of her crib so as a quick fix we took the bottom out (her crib was being replaced anyways, she’s autistic and broke the bottom by jumping) put it on floor level and drilled some nicely white painted wood to cover the holes, essentially making a toddler proof crib. This is a temporary solution, her other crib comes from Amazon in about a week so we’ll skip past that lol. But anyways I was having a hard time getting the screw to stay at first and he’s over here like “use the extender bit”. I told him I don’t think the extender bit will help in this situation and he got pissy telling me he knows what he’s doing. I made a joke and said “it looks like the extender bit in this situation would be used for lazy boyfriends” I was laughing in the middle of it but he decided to say “yeah and for bitchy girlfriends if she actually does it right” with a dead serious look on his face. We usually joke around to lighten the mood but I could tell he wasn’t joking so I just finished what I was doing and went into our room. He tried to justify himself by saying he was joking but that was no where near joking. He always tries to say he’s joking about something when he gets mad and says unnecessary shit. I told him I knew he wasn’t joking and he started rolling his eyes.
He’s always rolling his eyes at me or cutting me off mid sentences if he doesn’t want to hear it. He has tendencies to guilt trip me and start fake crying if I’m mad at him (ex- Christmas he choose the first thing that came to mind for a gift to get it done and over with -books that I never have time to read as a mom since im the main handler of the kids, I also wasn’t fond of those books because we’ve had conversations about them before he bought them- after I told him I was a little disappointed because I spent over $400 on gifts for him with thought he started crying and said he tried. Y’all Walmart is 15 minutes away and he was only gone for about 40)
His mother is highly narcissistic and sometimes he shows the same traits. He gets riled up quickly often blaming the anger on other things, he’s also said some other hurtful things but still hasn’t ever called me a name so I’m shocked he went that far. Side note he made fun of my lazy eye (had it since I was a kid, getting surgery this year) while we were on our date for our 6th anniversary. (Yes I’m still really upset about that) Leaving isn’t an option I can afford so I guess now I’m just ranting.

Hi, my home network has been stable and working great for 8 months. We suddenly began having issues with it 2 weeks ago. We have sudden temporary issues where zoom calls, gaming and sometimes stream get incredibly glitchy and unusable this lasts typically 2-5min. Episodes occur roughly 1x an hour and the weird thing is speed tests on my phone etc… seem normal during this issues (500down and over 300up)… the spikes are annoying but cause my wife to have to log off then log back onto her corporate network from home making it really disruptive.
I’ve down the basic reboot etc… but without any success. The only thing I noticed that maybe unrelated is that Eero pushed and update to all my devices on 4/15…. Anyway any advice would be really appreciated
My setup: ISP Frontier Fios 500
Frontier Modem -> Eero Pro 6e Gateway Eero Pro Gateway -> TP Link PoE switch (TL-SG1218MP) TP Link Switch -> 3 PoE Eero 6 Access Points
Other things: Devices: I was surprised how many devices (30)we have on the network. We have ring cams both hardwired for PoE and on WiFi, smart TVs, a few smart lighting devices, and a handful of consumer devices… My instinct is to clean this up but the eero analysis says the congestion is only 40%. Also almost all of the devices are unlabeled and I don’t know how to go about this without starting from scratch
2.4 v 5g: It looks likes all of my traffic is on 2.4ghz… that said my wife’s Mac which is the big issue is on 5ghz

RevyOS Newsletter (2024-05 #007)

## Editor's Note Happy Labor Day! Welcome to the 7th issue of the RevyOS Newsletter. This monthly publication syncs with the latest developments of RevyOS, and we hope everyone can pay more attention to and use RevyOS! There are no mirror updates this month. Currently, we are advancing the SDK upgrade to a new version, and the new version of the mirror is expected to be updated in May. Please look forward to the release of the new version of the mirror. Most of the changes this month are related to code and testing support, and we are gradually advancing the content related to ROS. So let's take a look at what specific content there is this month! ## Image Update No image updates for RevyOS this month ## Code Changes Most of RevyOS's code is open source, project repository address: https://github.com/revyos Here are the main changes this month: ### Thead-kernel https://github.com/revyos/thead-kernel - Add orientation of lichee console 4a panel - Use revyos-kernel-builder for build - In riscv64 force use -j32 - Enable riscv64 native build - Change dc-charger pin, add compatible field ### Th1520-linux-kernel https://github.com/revyos/th1520-linux-kernel - Add Lichee Pi 4A IO expansions - Add th1520 reset driver support - Add xtheadvector in dts - kernel auto build on native - Add support for kernel mode vector ### U-boot https://github.com/revyos/thead-u-boot - New version of U-boot released ### Other - [chromium release 123.0.6312.122-1](https://github.com/revyos/chromium/commit/f902f02fbc1b80242dfd942f7adc65689cc035bf) - [add flash_offset param to the pack script](https://github.com/revyos/bootloader-riscv-sophgo/commit/af4d6e5852e8b81fd605bc0f5ff0b9cf27d16914) - [opensbi: use sg2042-v1.4](https://github.com/revyos/bootloader-riscv-sophgo/commit/5044d360f9b6776e92777616a90e29bca930a24f) - binutils-gdb[Deal old xthead extension names with new ratified spec version](https://github.com/revyos/binutils-gdb/commit/213435d7768cd3f0d6faf15a4e5bf8256de7767f) - binutils-gdb[Fix test failed in glibc mutex's tests caused by TH-1520 hardware problems](https://github.com/revyos/binutils-gdb/commit/346e45325860e72ac32a86566aefd7ed755fba18) - ROS ## User Support - Added sysbench testing content - Added fio testing content - Added LTP testing content - Added trinity testing content ## Related News - [SpacemiT Introduces High-Performance Processor Core X100](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Qs53dEtsda6vyd_rEwxY7Q) - [SpacemiT Unveils the World's First 8-core RISC-V AI CPU](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ty1SN_YYRkV-bccdllc7xg) - [Interns at PLCT Lab Complete ThreadX Porting for RISC-V](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8W31zlLTmPgxwhRJN73L4g) - [PLCT Lab Establishes Linux Kernel Team, Providing 6.6 Kernel Public Infrastructure for RISC-V Manufacturers](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qoAld_Ihk9zX2keVoFZmGA) - [Imagination Releases Latest Product APXM-6200 CPU, the Second Catapult IP Series Based on RISC-V Architecture](https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1795911483070672820&wfr=spider&for=pc) - [SiFive Launches New RISC-V Development Board HiFive Premier P550](https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1795839635027396529&wfr=spider&for=pc) - [Beijing ESWIN Unveils World's First RISC-V Edge Computing Chip](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_26895343) - [RISC-V International Achieves Milestone with Ratification of 40 Specifications in Two Years](https://translate.google.com/details?sl=auto&tl=zh-CN&text=Enterprise&op=translate) 

NOTICE: Sitting at a pretty 11,276 words, this chapter is even longer than the last one. That means that, by necessity once more, I have split the post into two as to fly under the character limit imposed by Reddit. This is the first post. When you reach the end, you'll want to go on to the second.
It's out! Please ignore how it takes me three months to write chapters anymore. A/N at bottom of second post.
Standard boilerplate disclaimer: Nature of Predators is property of our holy lord and savior SpacePaladin15. I am not him, and thus I do not own Nature of Predators. If at any time he wishes I take down anything related to Nature of Predators that I have posted, I shall do so immediately upon seeing the request. Thank you again to SpacePaladin15 for allowing fanworks.
File Selected: Entry 8 – 00:57, January 14th, 2137.mp3
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Beginning Playback…
WARNING: THIS RECORDING IS PRIMARY EVIDENCE IN AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION. UNLAWFUL LISTENING TO, REPRODUCTION OF, OR TAMPERING WITH IN PART OR IN WHOLE OF THIS RECORDING IS A FELONY. IF YOU ARE NOT A LEGAL OFFICIAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH, STOP THIS PLAYBACK IMMEDIATELY AND CONTACT YOUR CLOSEST EXTERMINATOR FOR DISPOSAL OF ILLICIT INFORMATION. ENFORCEMENT OF THIS LAW IS REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY HIGH JUDGE HYACIDUS OF THE GLASS GARDEN METROPOLITAN ZONE.
The entry begins in an amateurish attempt at a sing-song style, Jiyuulia’s consistently basal tones swinging through her full vocal range over the course of the introduction before stabilizing in a steady, yet almost grandstanding cadence. At some points, the high notes almost reach a normal conversational pitch, though the awkward way the words are stressed ruins the effect. Nevertheless, Jiyuulia’s voice is strong, ostentatious, even, its booming volume echoing off the cavern walls with what one might go so far as to argue to be the smallest drop of pride. Aside from her poor vocals, audio quality has increased drastically in comparison to that of the previous entry, Jiyuulia’s voice clean, crisp, and otherwise without significant flaw beyond its abnormal register and lackluster talent. Much like last time, a constant wind flows in the background, creating a wind tunnel effect that is present throughout the entire entry. Unlike last time, however, the winds have slowed greatly; their previously deleterious effects on audio quality absent as the piercing howl of earlier. Actually, the sound is almost a positive thing, calming in its own way, the white noise helping to mitigate the worst of the echo whilst doing nothing to impede the clarity of the speaker. It is not quite enough, however, to mask the frantic scrabbling and squirming of a smaller creature making its way toward the microphone, almost reaching it before the being is caught and hauled away with a huff.
Greetings, Great Hunters! I, Jiyuuila, Spirit of Bounty, bring to you today the spoils of the ongoing hunt, regaling all with the in-progress tale of Hunter Potentiate Kyrix’s turbulent entry examination and the many chaotic events he encounters in his path to heaven.
*That’s me!*
With danger around every corner, greater and greater challenges presenting themselves with each and every obstacle, and even death itself stalking our brave Potentiate, Kyrix’s adventure has yet to let up! As his faithful guide and trophy, and thus dutybound to recording all of Kyrix’s great endeavors in his quest for ascension, I present to you, Great Hunters, and all those who listen in the lands above, the true tale of Kyrix’s journey through the mortal world. A thrilling adventure jam-packed with action and strife, the journey’s been long, and we’ve been through so much that it’s almost too much for me to keep up!
*Squishy never keeps up with anyone.*
…All that content won’t cover itself, so let’s get started! First off, I—
Jiyuulia pauses. A light shuffling can be heard coming from somewhere atop her.
Settled now?
…
Right, so first off, I should talk about — ow — about the situation Kyrix found himself in after our whitewater rafting trip, and — watch the earholes — the immediate challenges — that’s my eye — that nearly ended the journey — that’s my other eye — before it even — okay, Kyrix, if you can’t stop moving, I’m gonna have to take the entry without you.
*Nooo! I wanna stay! You said I could stay!*
I said you could stay if you could be good.
*I’m being good! No movement, see?*
Uh huh. Starting over. So first off, we — are you done?
A pointed silence passes. Jiyuulia’s exasperated glare is palpable, even through an audio recording.
Ahem. So. First off, we were — alright, that’s it.
A loud thud blasts the microphone as Jiyuulia’s bulk slams against the stony floor. A tentacle shoots out, quickly twisting around a loudly protesting miniature creature and yanking it from its insecure position before forcefully nestling it in a new spot somewhere in front of her. Its desperate struggles do nothing to save it — though not for lack of trying — and the Arxur is quickly restrained against the soft, fatty wall of Jiyuulia’s belly, pinned underneath a limb that individually weighs more than it does. Before its struggles can escalate to violence, two more tentacles digs into its sides, running up and down in a crude form of torture as they slither and poke at any softer bits of tissue.
*EEEEEIIII! Nooo-hehe-oo—mrph!*
Ahh, that’s better. Now, where was I?
Oh yeah, the riverbank. I, er, we, uh…
How do I put this?
…
Hmm. So, uhm, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you listener— ers! Listeners, but the temporary respite at the end of my last entry was short-lived. I only managed to get about half an hour of peace between me signing off and Kyrix beginning to wake up, and the rest of the survivors weren’t far behind him.
Seeing as how we were, y’know, totally lost, lacking any form of equipment whatsoever beyond my pad and torn clothing, and all probably at least slightly injured, I had taken it upon myself to, during my short break, prepare a quick speech detailing our unfortunate predicament to give to the crew while they were temporarily incapacitated.
Knowing my audience, I’d even prepared a nice little presentation out of some smoothed pebbles to act as a visual aid for the Butcher. It wasn’t the most detailed thing out there, and I was totally missing both the pretty lady and the weather segment, but all in all, I was pretty happy with the “highlights” I’d setup. I wasn’t gonna be optimistic with our collective chances of survival anything so ridiculous, but it felt like I was making progress, and I figured I could rely on the recently comatose state of my audience and the near-death experience we’d all recently shared to help temper reactions and allow me to introduce a little group cohesion before somebody could panic and do whatever it is Arxur do when they freak out in confined spaces — e.g., splatter my guts all over the floor.
I needn’t have bothered. The instant everyone had finished expelling the copious amounts of water they’d swallowed and I’d managed to finagle Kyrix into somewhat of a seated position, Hothead started going off about it somehow being everyone’s else’s fault that we were all in this mess, and that all of us (minus me, who was at fault for a litany of other things) were all sorry excuses for Arxur that needed to learn from his example and do their jobs properly — after all, not even he could carry the whole team on his shoulders.
Given the nature of our crew’s fragile egos, it’s honestly a little surprising he managed to get as far as he did. He’d accused us all of being illegitimate bastards, compared our collective intellects to that of a fruit fly, gone on a rather uncomfortably long and heartfelt spiel about mucus stains and public seating, and was halfway through a tirade on property rights relating to improvised emergency flotation devices before the Butcher’s limited cognition finally managed to catch up with what was happening, resulting in her lunging at him with three limbs at once and howling “Island Piñata!”
To his credit, Hothead reacted with a speed befitting his occupation, turning and fleeing the scene before the furious ball of predatory rage that was the Butcher could manage to do anything more than tear open his lower back, but with really only one direction to go that wasn’t back into the river, that “plan” cumulated in him peeling off into the darkness of the tunnels before the Butcher could regain her footing and follow him, screeching something unintelligible about “the DPS” while trying and failing to avoid falling face-first over every larger rock in the way.
To make matters worse, somewhere between the third and fourth stumble, the blood he’d managed to smear over the last three rocks triggered something in our other crazy, and with him joining the chase, it wasn’t thirty seconds before the fading echoes of the three morons were all I had left of half my original audience, their screaming voices slowly dimming from somewhere within the unknown black and leaving us with absolutely no method of tracking them down whatsoever.
As you might imagine, a murder plot breaking out before everyone had managed to stand up straight and shake the fuzz out of their heads was somewhat… demoralizing, for those of us left behind. But if you look on the bright side, at least I wasn’t alone in my suffering this time! My most unpredictable audience member — the one real adult here on this trip aside from myself — was left especially stunned by the near-instantaneous rate at which something I’d been involved in had degraded into an uncontrollable violent chaos that put everyone’s lives at risk. I couldn’t tell you why that is — one must wonder where he’s been all this time to somehow not expect my life to fall apart at the slightest opportunity — but with his eyes bugging out and his jaw hanging half open, coupled with the fervent glances at my less-than-impressed visage… well, it’s no matter. I ought to think I managed an impression somewhere in there.
Ah, well. Whether or not he’s reconsidering his stance on the doughiest Kolshian alive, I still find it hilarious that somehow, even after all this time, he still expects the other crewmembers to need a reason for them to screw everything up.
Is it messed up that I find his naivety an endearing quirk?
Jiyuulia hums, seemingly hesitant about something. It’s fairly loud, and the resultant rumbling of her chest and stomach set off a new peal of screaming laughter from the Arxur, still totally inattentive to her words in its hysteria. Occasionally, a series of wet slapping sounds can be heard, starting and stopping whenever the Arxur begins to quiet, and the position of the Arxur relative to the microphone will shift up and down rapidly, sending it deep into further fits of laughter.
Given all this talk about him, I guess now’s as good a time as any I’ll ever get to introduce him. Listener, meet Orderly, former station guard, full-time hyper-neurotic nervous wreck.
I’ll admit I may have been perhaps a tad harsh on him in my last entry; I didn’t know the guy, and given the regular assortment of literally predatory Predator-Diseased crazies on this trip and my own poor mood at the time, I wasn’t exactly feeling optimistic about my chances of actually getting someone who was even halfway reliable down here. But fortune’s been rather indecisive as of late when it comes to me, and seeing as how I think I’m rather deserving of a chance for some actual, willingly-provided help with how things have gone thus far, I’d like to go out on a bit of a thinner limb here and tentatively say that, given my choices of Arxur, Arxur, and Arxur, he might actually be worth taking with me.
Still, though, what I wouldn’t do for a proper Gojid…
Yeah, though. Unlike every other Arxur I’ve had the pleasure of knowing so far — barring Kyrix, that is, who’s been shockingly obedient for a bloodthirsty monster — Orderly is… well, orderly. Rather than being some bullheaded retard with an inability to understand such nuances as “scheduling” or “regular duties” like I’ve come to expect from such a twisted waste of an attempt at sapience as his race tends to be, Orderly’s probably the most right-angled, waxed-crest, day-planner-in-hand kinda guy I’ve ever met.
If there’s another person on this trip who’s been having as much fun as he and I, I haven’t noticed, because so far, the only emotions I’ve caught from the overly-cortisonal disaster are reminiscent of an all-too-familiar grad student I used to know that, at the time, had been averaging two hours of sleep a night while strung out on — if my memory serves — at least seven different stimulants of varying levels of legality. In particular, she’d been having thoughts during an early-morning binge session that’d left her barely able to stand because it was three hours before her thesis defense, and rather than sleep, she’d spent six hours of the night before on a call with the student disability and accommodations office arguing over the plainly discriminatory size of the showers in Solegnolia Hall, and how it was unfair and unjust of the school to restrict the largest showers to those of certain species rather than by total body volume.
Except that in his case, rather than dealing with his emotions by drowning them in excess sugar and sleeping off the subsequent hormonal crash for two days straight afterwards, Orderly’s just been in that state the whole time I’ve known him, and so far I’ve been given no reason to doubt that he’s been like this the whole trip, his fingers constantly twitching for a stylus of some sort as he levels an incredulous, almost worrisome gaze of simultaneous fascination and envy at me whenever I pull out my exclusively tentacle-friendly pad.
Before you ask, no, I have not offered him the chance to use the calendar app. I’ve only got the one valuable possession left, I’m not just gonna lend it out without some serious incentives.
And yes, getting my “disproportional” arse out of having to play Dance Mania as a Takkan again is considered a “serious incentive.” My pride can only take so much. My cankles, even less.
Either way, from both my own light discussions I’ve managed to hold with the guy and what I’ve managed to pick up from the others, Orderly’s former job… err, more, “specialization,” really, and the other half of where his name comes from? Stampede Suppression Handler.
It might be a throwback, listener, but do you remember, back when we were in the cells on the cattle station, how I suggested that a rampaging Mazic would’ve made for a serious threat to station stability, (not that it would matter now) and that the Arxur were likely using the odd cell layout as a method of breaking their spirits in order to nullify the danger they posed? Well, as it turns out, engineering solutions aren’t the only solutions the Dominion implements when it comes to this “common issue.”
The parallels to Exterminators are a bit uncomfortable, really, but “Incongruity Reduction and Neutralization Officers” like Orderly participated in “optimization” operations related to “inefficient use of resources and manpower.” That is to say, Orderly is a professional problem-puncher, and much like the rest of his kind, he wasn’t made to be too discriminatory on who or what that problem was. Rather than dwell on the rather… unfortunate… implications of that particular phrase, I’ll just use the examples he gave me.
Suppose, for a minute, that a prized Takkan stud has escaped from his cell, deciding that his time is better spent running amok down the halls and putting a fat dent in every flat piece of metal he sees. Admin disagrees, and would like to have him put back in his cell without ruining his capacity for creating further offspring. Orderly’s en route as we speak.
Or, for a more pertinent example, say, oh, I don’t know, there’s a mentally-challenged Arxur causing a scene that you needed to neutralize immediately, but for whatever reason, they’re also somehow important enough that you can’t just slit the guy’s throat and be done with it? Well, try replacing “Arxur” with “Predator Diseased soon-to-be-patient” — because honestly we’re really not losing out on any fidelity with at least two out of the three here — and ask yourself: what would a normal, civilized society do in that situation?
…
Hah! I knew you were smart, listener! You call the Exterminators, and they deal with it. Now just make both your patient and your “Exterminator” evil monsters beyond all bounds of any ethical system ever devised, and you’ve got yourself a solid idea of what was going on here. Were he some real person back home rather than the beast he is, he’d have a solid job with the Exterminators or one of the PD facilities, either capturing those who wouldn’t turn themselves in or handling the high-risk patients undergoing treatment as an — you guessed it — orderly.
See? It fits so well!
And may the stars above forgive me, for I’ve had very few high points to go off of over the course of this whole adventure, and with my sanity where it’s at, I’ve really ought to take the humor where I can find it, but this still continues to send me: How many other prey out there can say they had a problem, and got to call Dominion Law Enforcement to come fix it?
Jiyuulia laughs.
Not many, I can tell you that!
So yeah. No points for guesses on who my favorite down here’s been. Barring Kyrix, of course.
…
Speaking of the little guy, what do you think, Great Hunters? Has it been long enough yet?
Yeah, I think so too.
Fabric rustles as a heavy limb lifts itself from the Arxur. It gasps loudly with the movement, and its breathing is ragged, coming in heavy, rapid bursts.
You gonna behave this time?
…
The limb moves again. The Arxur’s breath hitches.
Well? I need an answer!
There’s a brief flash of movement. The Arxur beings to laugh again, this time without a muffling tentacle cutting off its airway. It’s a high-pitched, chirping note, an odd sound for the conventionally drum-like noise usually associated with Arxur, but according to available materials, not a particularly unusual one for Arxur young. See Reference 46C for further examples and wave models.
*Ye-yes! Squi-shy tickles!*
And don’t you forget it. But while you were fighting for your life, I was getting some of the boring stuff out of the way. We’re doing introductions of the crew now. Did you have anything to say about him?
*About who?*
Oh, right, I’m doing… uhh… y’know… the guy. The guy who was with us. The other non-stabby one, not the pilot.
*Oh! Giznel is nice. He’s really smart, and he knows a lot of secrets! And he lets me do important work! Like, there was this one time he had me sort out the little tasty-looking blocks in the engine bay. They’re not tasty, but I didn’t know that yet, and they’d all fallen off the wall after somebody hit the other side too hard. I had to sort the oily-tasting, burny-tasting, and nothing-tasting ones into different boxes before they melted and burned the floor too much. I was fast, and he said I did a good job!*
…Right. Was this before or after the water filter failed?
*Before! I think. I don’t really remember that day very good. You should ask Giznel. He always knows that stuff.*
Jiyuulia sighs. The audio doesn’t pick it up with any clarity, but she says something as she does. The tone is remarkably disappointed.
Right. Yeah. I’ll just do that the next time I see him. That’ll go well.
*Ooh! Can I be there? I haven’t talked to him in a while. The last time was when he was confused earlier and wanted to know how I controlled you so well, something about you being “almost professional,” whatever that means. I told him it was really easy because you were special and not really a prey at all, so I actually didn’t have to control you because you could control yourself, and were even acting as my guide instead!*
…Ah. And how’d he take that?
*Really weird! Instead of being happy I answered his question, he got really nervous and started warning me about how “those above were always watching, even if it wasn’t obvious,” which I told him was dumb because I already knew you were here to watch for the Great Hunters and you’re the most obvious person I’ve ever seen, and he really should have known that you weren’t normal without having to ask. He left the room after that, and he’s been really busy since then, always needing to do something and never having any more work for me.*
…
A loud boom blasts the microphone as the pad falls to the floor, skittering along the rough stone. Jiyuulia, without a word, gets up, plods off, and crashes to the floor in a heavy thud some distance away. The cave ambiance is too loud to hear much of her after that, but the occasional high-pitched (for Jiyuulia’s unusual vocal register, that is) squeal still reaches the microphone from time to time. Whether it is raucous laughter or muffled crying is hard to tell. It’s very possible that it’s both.
*Squishy?*
The next few squeals are louder, though no less ambiguous. Note the mutterings and odd sloshing noises that occur after the second instance of the sound.
*Huh. I thought she only did this in her room.*
The recording pauses for about half an hour. When it resumes, it does so suddenly, and without any sort of fanfare. Jiyuulia is quieter, more reserved than she was before.
I think I’m good now.
A-hem. So. Disregarding some pertinent recent revelations in the interest of my continued sanity…
Giznel, apparently, was the first one to snap himself out of it, sprinting off in the direction of the soon-to-be-lost crewmembers and the unfortunately still necessary pilot. He did so with flawless grace and form, his single-minded determination evident to all those who saw him… for about thirty feet. The whole effect didn’t really last beyond the part where the predator managed to immediately trip over the same foot-tall rock shelf the pilot had first tumbled over, slamming his head into the ground the instant he’d passed over the boundary between the darkness of the tunnels and the safety of the moss’s light. He wasn’t hurt by the fall, at least not beyond his wounded pride — not that that was ever going to be salvageable to begin with after today — but even as another loud boom echoed from deeper into the tunnel and the then suddenly very audible screaming reached a pitch I hadn’t known Arxur were quite capable of until then, the hunt for the crew was over before it had even began, stalled before it could even truly begin as the lone hunter was forced to stop at the edge of the available light.
Normally, that’s where it would’ve stopped. Unlike the hooligans that had sprinted off into the darkness under the motivations of either insanity, threats of homicide, or both, it was clear to those of us who didn’t have claws wrapped around our throats that it was perhaps not the safest course of action to go barreling down a pitch-black deathtrap of a tunnel filled with an unknowable number of trip hazards and rather inconveniently located chest-high crystalline stalagmites growing out of the walls. The scenario only got worse when the whole purpose of the thing was to find and catch multiple dangerous and combative individuals that were all clearly having some sort of episode, even if the person responsible for the (de?)escalation did have some experience in the matter.
Unfortunately for us, the stakes were far too high for us to ever even consider giving up, and as much as it pains me to say, the pilot’s skillset, though rather limited, is still far too valuable for us to consider him a write off whenever things got bad. Hence, enter me, and more specifically, this pad.
I’m sure you’ve used a pad before, listener. Who hasn’t, really? They’re useful for a huge number of different applications, including but not limited to: day planning, record taking, short-range communications, time-wasting, and projecting games of skill for me to lose at to a four-year-old — along with contacting secretive government intelligence agencies, apparently.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to get at here is that most models nowadays tend to have this little thing on the back called a flashlight, and — despite what you might think — these have a purpose beyond just being something your dad can yell at you for after you fail to bend light around three separate corners while he finagles with something on the underside of the hovercar. The light-creating device came with problems, like the previously stated issue with my personal model’s exclusively tentacle-friendly nature and my status as the sole being within a dozen parsecs blessed with such useful appendages, but all in all, it only took a mere forty-five seconds of intense panicking to figure out which way to point it (not into one’s eyes) and flip it on, allowing resumption of the quickly halted hunt, except this time, extenuating factors required that the party be headed by an egregiously unfit herbivorous noncombatant rather than literally anyone else.
My opinion on being at the front has not changed since the last time I mentioned it, by the way. Alas, neither has an opportunity arisen for me to get out of it.
Oh well.
I know I’m kinda setting this whole thing up to be the start of the next great adventure I got dragged on — thankfully not literally this time — but I’ll have to let you down, listener. I’m not trying to make the story about myself here.
Actually, all things considered, the chase from there on went pretty well. Apart from the part where the dedicated tunnel blocker got stuck in the front, the actual scouting operation for the lost crewmembers was not actually all that exciting.
I mean, it absolutely involved more violence than any prey creature should ever be comfortable with; Giznel broke out some absolutely vile and most definitely illegal headlock maneuvers that I couldn’t even begin to describe, and there were more sharp objects being sent in my direction than I particularly cared for, sure. But while that’s all very well and bad, and perhaps it’s just the massive amount of desensitization and PD I’ve picked up on the way, but honestly? When put into the context of everything else that’s happened so far, watching some idiot predator get bent backwards for the fourth time that day is far from the worst thing I’ve had to witness just within the last twelve hours, and adding a drop of police brutality to the ocean of gratuitous violence this whole thing’s been is not really gonna be bursting any flood barriers here. Nobody ended up with fourteen slashing wounds and two individually fatal counts of arterial bleeding.
Stars, the Butcher didn’t even manage to make it to the fight, having ran face-first into a wall where the tunnel made an abrupt turn halfway to where the real bloodbath was going on and consequently knocking herself out. And without her, it was easy. Orderly was semi-competent, and for all Paintbrush likes his blood art, he has to be the one responsible for its creation for it to be any fun, apparently, and he’d left his tools at home. More natural methods of scattering one’s internal organs across the surrounding environment, like impaling oneself on a stalagmite in utter darkness, for example, just didn’t hold the same appeal. He surrendered without a fight.
Jiyuuila shifts slightly. It’s a careful motion.
Now, you might be forgiven for thinking that subtracting the two people trying to actually commit the murder from the murder scene would calm the situation down a little bit. And if those involved were any other species, you’d be right! Maybe even if it weren’t these specific Arxur; the crew has struck me as somewhat “below average” in most things, really. Regardless, Hothead was involved as the “victim” here, and as you may recall, Giznel had to demonstrate his moves on somebody who hadn’t already surrendered or otherwise fallen unconscious, soo…
Same old same old. You already know what happens whenever he gets involved, and it ain’t pretty. Ugh.
At least it was mostly blunt force trauma this time. Mostly.
Jiyuulia exhales loudly through her nose.
At this rate, it’ll be a miracle if there’s enough of him left to remember how to fly the ship straight by the time we make it that far, much less actually make any progress towards getting us home.
Not that any of the rest of us know how to do that either.
…Aaanyways, I sat on the floor and held a light, thinking my happy thoughts while watching an Arxur warrior beat someone to within an inch of their life a few feet in front of me. Kyrix got to sit behind me facing the wall. What more is there to say about our involvement, really?
Soo… yeah. No special glories stolen from Kyrix, here. Things went really pretty well from there on out, except for, y’know, all the times they didn’t, but hey! Such is life. Or unlife — I should really probably get that clear for my little charge here. But after all, it wouldn’t be much of a trial without hardship. They’re kinda all pains by definition.
…
Speaking of the little terror himself, I’m sure you’ve noticed that he’s been absent for this particular section. Stars above, I’m sure you’ve noticed that everyone’s been absent for a while now! And I’m getting to that, don’t worry, but as for the miniature hellspawn himself, the explanation is a little simpler: He’s recuperating after a brief “healing spell” involving a series of circular rubbing motions and a glob of “magic slime” being pressed into his brand new head wound left by the rock shard he’d managed to lodge in his forehead after I left him unsupervised for a grand total of two minutes. Don’t ask me how it happened, either, the boy literally cannot walk on his own and was feet from the nearest sharp object (that wasn’t himself) when I’d left him to deal with an “emergency.”
As it turns out, my future as a masseuse is bright, because my spell was so effective that he almost immediately calmed down and fell asleep. Unfortunately, my future as a mattress is even brighter, and this is the sixth time this week that the devious little predator has decided that I was a good place to take a nap. Safe, soft, warm, and apparently I even “smell really good sometimes,” which is a compliment one always wishes to hear from a member of the race that abducted me for sustenance less than a month ago.
Still, though, as entertaining as having an Arxur ensconced in my fat folds is, the negative effect on my already strained productivity is “not great.” I might have to try making him a blanket out of what remains of my shirt or something later, who knows. He’d probably like that.
Jiyuulia sighs.
…What am I doing with my life?
First Prev Part 2

-(YOU CAN SEE ACT 1 ON MY PROFILE)
-Act 2 (10 hours):
-Miles drops the body off at the police, Rio, Ganke and Hailey are there at home and heard the news, they all comfort him, he doesn’t appreciate them, and just goes to his room, Ganke and Hailey leave, and Rio tries talking to Miles, but Miles isn’t having it, and eventually leaves to do even more Spider-Man work
-Peter goes home, the Symbiote repels into him, creating black clothing, “Forgot it could do that…” Peter knocks on the door and MJ and Harry hug him, Prowler’s death and the Spider-Men fighting were all over the news, Peter rejects the comfort, saying he’s happy he was at least able to stop Miles from killing Kraven, Harry leaves, promising his dad he’d be in protective custody, and MJ, as sensitively as possible, confronts him about using the Symbiote again… Peter says he doesn’t have a choice… he could barely keep up with Miles as is, MJ says fine, but that he has to get it back to Harry, Peter says he knows, but only once he’s beat Kraven, MJ is worried but Peter reassures her it’s different this time, and that he’s only going to use it to stop Kraven, then he’ll give it back
-We see Harry make it back to Norman’s penthouse, and Norman questions him on how Peter’s doing, and what the issue was, Harry reaffirms it wasn’t that serious and just wanted to make sure he was okay, Norman compliments him, saying he was always so empathetic, Harry begrudgingly agrees, Harry stands up with some issue, Norman tries to help, he asks what’s wrong, Harry says he’s fine, but to maybe get some of that temporary medicine, Norman says the “treatment” should be taking care of it, but Harry assured it’s not a big deal, he just needs a little extra help is all, Norman says he’ll call Dr. Connors, Harry gets a little testy with him, saying it’s fine, and that he doesn’t need to bother Connors, Norman says he will anyway, just to be safe, Harry goes to bed, angry, hating his father, Norman decides not to call Connors
-Miles goes out in the morning, and Ganke calls him, saying there have been sighting of a man in a fur vest near Chinatown, we go to where they were last seen and get introduced to Miles’ challenges for the game from Kraven, fighting challenges, stealth challenges, bombs, and races, all to see test Miles even farther, Miles hears a message from Kraven taunting him, Ganke tries to comfort him but Miles immediately hangs up, he then calls Peter, Peter tries to apologize and talk everything through, but Miles isn’t having any of it, he cuts him off and asks what the plan is, Peter reiterates, to try and save some of the villains before Kraven can kill them, Peter says anyone with powers or is a vigilante nearby is a target, and he’s gonna start with the new girl, Wraith, who’s been hunting down Tombstone and the Beetle’s gang for awhile, Miles says fine, and he’ll look out for Vulture, he’s always had a close relationship with his family, and that’ll be a good place to start, Peter agrees, Miles hangs up abruptly
-Peter goes to a Tombstone gang crime where Wraith has been sighted, he warns her about everything while fighting Tombstone’s goons at a weapons deal, Wraith then interrogates one of them, Peter stops her from being too brutal, but either way she gets the information out of one of the goons, they’re hold up in a warehouse in Harlem, Wraith and Spider-Man go to stop her, we have a boss fight, and are able to defeat Beetle, and get her into protective custody, Wraith promises to help fight Kraven when the time comes
-Harry calls Peter, hoping he’s okay and that the suit isn’t changing him, Peter says he has it under control, and that it’s different this time, Harry says ok, and that he trusts him, but deep down, he doesn’t believe a word Peter is saying, even for the short time he had the Symbiote he knows how invigorating it can be, and how hungry it is, how much it takes from the host, he says his dad is starting to get suspicious as to why the treatment seems to not be working, and that he’s come up with the lie that it seems to have dissipated, and that it was only a temporary cure… Norman says he’s going to put him back into the tank until he can find a solution… Peter says it won’t come to that, and that he’ll find a way to save Harry… Hardy thanks him and hangs up (The reason Norman doesn’t question Spider-Man having the Symbiote is because he’s so focused on another cure for Harry, he’s ignored all news and media, and because it was a top secret project, no one has come forward about it to him.)
-Miles goes to Vulture’s family’s apartment, and he knows the location because of Starling, he goes there and finds them all huddled and about to leave, Hunters recently came and Adrien was barely able to fight them off, more Hunters arrive, Spider-Man and Starling fight them off while Adrien and Starling’s parents escape, Spider-Man asks how Starling has been doing, he kind of has a crush on her, she knows this, but doesn’t really care all that much, she cares more about her grandfather, she says she’s been fine, but she’ll do anything for her grandfather, Adrien’s cancer has debilitated him, but he still has the suit, that does the work for him, so he’s still seen as a threat, but maybe Starling is too, Miles warns her, but Starling refutes that, she’ll fight to keep her family safe, Miles is inspired by her, he eventually leaves and calls his mom, they plan on having dinner together that night, Adrien and his family go into hiding, with Starling to protect them, they’ll be okay
-Miles and Rio eat dinner together, all is well, enjoying homemade food and each other’s company, until Rio talks about how she’s worried about Miles, this sets him off, saying he’s only doing what he has to do, Rio says she saw him on the news, so how brutal he was, and that he doesn’t want to see him go down a certain path… one similar to Uncle Aaron, this absolutely breaks Miles, who rejects her food and swings away into the evening
-Miles is angry and is looking to blow off steam, and during times like this he’d want to talk to Uncle Aaron, he then goes back to one of Prowler’s old hideouts and sits there for awhile, trying to relax, he misses his uncle more than he could possibly imagine, he talks out loud as if Aaron can hear him, saying how he let this happen, and how he feels immense guilt, but that he’ll make up for it, he’ll stop Kraven… by any means necessary, Miles looks around a bit longer and finds maps with his stashes hidden around the city, Miles pressed play on a recorder he finds, and Aaron apparently has recorded messages for him at each of his bases, he figured Miles would find them sooner or later, because he showed him, or he got back into the work and Miles tracked him down… or if he died… he gives an inspiring message to Miles, but leaves him with the most important note, “Do what you have to for yourself. Never compromise.” Miles then unlocks Prowler stashes where he can hear words of wisdom from his late uncle throughout the city
-Peter gets reports from MJ about White Rabbit robbing a bank, and saying Hunters will be there soon, Harry hyped us up as we go over and fight a ton of Hunters while White Rabbit escapes, we chase her down, have a boss fight with her, and eventually get her into protective custody, until Kraven shows up, we fight him in a boss fight, but we’re over powered by him, and he kills White Rabbit, Peter is angry, he yells in rage and punches Kraven into a water tower, Kraven is impressed by his strength… he wants to know what it can do, we learn a new Symbiote ability here as we fight him for a second phase, we’re about to beat him when the police show up, and use a megaphone, but it breaks and lets out a large high-pitched sound, the suit malfunctions and Peter collapses to the ground writhing in agony, Kraven stands over him “You have your uses…” Kraven then escapes the police, and Peter eventually recuperates, and yells at the officers for messing it all up, but after seeing his anger, he feels guilt and swings away
-MJ is on her own, writing articles about all that’s happening, she’s staying at Peter’s house at the moment while all this is happening, but she make it clear she isn’t moving in, anyway, she sees White Rabbit die on the news but also sees how brutal Peter was to White Rabbit, and especially to Kraven, Peter comes home, MJ tries to comfort her, he snaps at her, his anger fueling him, she feels ashamed, she begins to cry as she leaves, Peter wants to go after her… but for some reason, he doesn’t…
-Miles sees what happened to White Rabbit in the news, and contemplates calling Peter, but decides to keep focused on the mission, he then gets a call from Ganke the next day, and sees that Juggernaut is rampaging through the city, trying to escape Hunters, we go and follow the trail of chaos, fighting Hunters along the way while minimizing casualties to the civilians around, we eventually beat the Hunters, and try to convince Juggernaut to stop, but Juggernaut keeps going, terrified of what will happen to him if he stops, we then have a boss fight when we crowd him with abandoned cars, forming an arena, as soon as the boss fight starts, a black tentacle shoots out of nowhere and knocks the Juggernaut back and into the wreckage around him, causing even more chaos, and Peter joins the fight, yelling at Juggernaut to stop what he’s doing, and that they can stop Kraven, but to let them protect him, or better, help them defeat Kraven, Juggernaut says he ain’t risking it, and we fight him for a phase as Peter, and defeat him as Miles, Miles goes berserk on Juggernaut, electrocuting him and punching over and over, Peter doesn’t stop him, he just swings away and lets Miles take care of it, Miles doesn’t stop until the people around him, civilians, start begging him to stop, saying he’s had enough, Miles looks down, his hands are bloody, and Juggernaut is nearly dead, Miles begins to feel remorse, but quickly swings away, desperate to ignore what he’s just done
-Ganke calls Miles and is worried about how angry Miles was, and how he nearly killed Juggernaut, you can tell Miles does feel bad, but he won’t let that show, if he starts letting his conscience get in the way, what if he won’t have what it takes to stop Kraven? Miles pushes Ganke away
-Miles and Peter go after Shocker who has been caught in a stand-off with the police, begging to let him, the Spider-Men try to calm down the police but it doesn’t work, they retreat to where Shocker is, Shocker prepares his weapons, but the Spider-Men tell him to calm down, Shocker doesn’t, and says he just wants to go home and that he just wants to be safe, Peter tells him to calm down, he puts his hands down, intimidating Herman, Shocker doesn’t like this, and he punches Peter away, and he uses his gloves to create shockwaves that propel him away, at the same time, Hunters arrive and get the jump on the police and Miles, the police fall back and leave, leaving Miles to fend for himself, he is pinned and hurt, Peter looks at him, then looks at Shocker, and without another thought, leaves to go find Shocker, we play as Peter as we chase him throughout the city, he eventually ends up in Harlem, and into an apartment, Spider-Man rushes in, plowing the door open with the Symbiote and runs in to see Shocker shielding a man and a kid, Shocker asks him to just leave and let him go, but Spider-Man refuses, saying he can help him, but Shocker doesn’t care, he just wants to protect his family himself, Spider-Man never helped him before, kept him away from his family, why would he ever help him now? And Peter is honest “Because now I finally can.” on those words, an explosion wrecks the wall, and Kraven appears on the other side, Shocker and Spider-Man begrudgingly decide to work together as we fight Kraven for a single phase of a boss fight, we cut back to Miles to see him defeating the Hunters, and eventually go after Peter and Shocker, once we do, we see Kraven, and we see nothing but red, we tackle him, and punch him senseless, Hunters arrive, Shocker runs back to go save his family, and Peter fights the Hunters, we continue as Miles as we fight Kraven, who compliments us, one Spider-Man uses a beast to hunt, the other IS the beast…” Miles doesn’t care what he says and keeps punching him, we eventually defeat him, until Peter is overpowered, Kraven looks at Peter, “I know my final hunt…” and he slinks away as we save Peter, unlike how he left Miles earlier, Shocker and his family leave the building, until Kraven corners them, Miles and Peter are distracted, Kraven kills Shocker, leaving his boyfriend and his kid alive, “Perhaps one day, you’ll feel the thrill of the hunt…” Kraven escapes as the Spider-Men fight off the Hunters, and the family mourns the loss of Herman, the Spider-Men feel guilt for not being able to save them
-The Spider-Men leave and recuperate at the top of a water tower, both arguing, both letting their anger and hatred consume them, they go their separate ways, both feeling guilt, neither trying to do better
-Miles goes home, Rio wants to comfort him once again, and he finally breaks down, hugging her and crying, he’s failed to save another, so many people have died because of him… but his mom assures him, it wasn’t his fault, and that he’s saved dozens of lives, he’s a hero… he’s Spider-Man. Miles goes to sleep and rests for the night, messaging Ganke, telling him he’s okay, and apologizing for his actions, he’s starting to let himself heal
-Peter, however, delves further and further into his addictions, his anger, he cannot let go, or at least, he won’t let himself, at that moment, Hydro-Man and Molten-Man appear on the news at the docks, daring Kraven to fight them, Peter knows what idiots they are, and goes to fight
-Miles gets the news from Ganke too, and his mom comes in, saying he doesn’t have to go, Miles says he knows, but leaves anyways, he sees it as a responsibility, one he can handle
-Peter fights Hydro-Man and Molten-Man at the docks, who are causing irreparable damage to their surroundings, endangering people, Miles joins Peter as they fight, Peter is significantly more powerful than Miles, and more brutal, he uses a power plant to electrocute Hydro-Man, and use the docks to douse Molten-Man until both can be contained, Kraven is nowhere to be seen, Miles and Peter meet up, Miles tries to talk to Peter, Peter snaps at him, fully letting his anger control him, Peter goes home, Miles is left alone, feeling guilt, but finally doing something about it
-Peter goes home, and is short with MJ and Harry, who are worried because of what Miles told them and what they saw on the news, he snaps at them, and they both leave, he yells at them, they know the suit is taking him over, but Peter doubles down, if it wasn’t for the suit, even more would be dead, and MJ let’s him know, look how many have died WITH him having the suit, at that moment, Peter yells at her to leave, and tells Harry to get out of his face, Harry and MJ are worried, but Harry is angry, saying she shouldn’t have said what she said, and MJ is surprised Harry is defending Peter, Harry says Peter is his best friend and… he will do anything for him and will stick by him through anything, something even MJ won’t do, Harry rushes home, Norman tries to comfort Harry and Harry pushes him away, MJ goes home and cries
-Miles knows most of the plan is done, and goes home and is comforted by Ganke and Rio, but he begins to crawl back into his shell again, he might have saved most of the villains, but he hasn’t taken down Kraven, and he promises them, he will
-Peter has “taken care of” every villain who has escaped, all that’s left is to find Kraven, and beat him, but Peter feels lonely, he feels ashamed, he feels guilt, he calls Felicia, and he spends a night with her, she was worried, she didn’t want to have Peter cheat on MJ, but he says it doesn’t matter, he needs, something, anything… Felicia comforts him, he wants something Felicia won’t give to him, Peter recoils at any help, and is angry she won’t sleep with him, after all he’s done to help her, it just doesn’t matter to her, he leaves, furious
-He then gets a call from MJ, and Kraven speaks from the other end, and gives him a location, and tells him to come alone…
-Peter arrives at Kraven’s base, an old church, and he plows his way through Hunters that have surrounded the base, and he makes his way to Kraven inside, the Symbiote almost fully taking him over, Kraven uses the bell at the top by hitting a switch that hurts Peter, but he powers through nonetheless, and we fight Kraven in 3 phases as let’s loose on us, but when we finally defeat him, we hear Miles arrive, Kraven sighs, “My final hunt is here…” Miles bursts through and begs Peter to stop, Peter whips him away with a tentacle, Miles crashes into pews but gets right back up, and shoots his electricity at Peter, stunning him as Kraven hits the bell one more time, Peter recoils in pure agony, Miles looks at Peter, then Kraven, and runs to tear the Symbiote off of Peter, Kraven yells in fury, he’s supposed to fight Kraven, he’s supposed to kill, Kraven will prove himself superior to the most powerful Spider-Man, we enter what looks like to be a boss fight, but ends as quickly as it starts as Miles hits the switch for the bell, Peter screams in agony again, and pushes Miles away, Kraven charges towards Miles, but peter flicks him away with a tentacle, Kraven is about to get back up, when the Hunters surround him, he knows when he’s outnumbered, and properly escapes, the Hunters chase after him as Miles and Peter are alone in the church…
-Miles tries to talk Peter down “Pete please, this isn’t how we do things! We don’t kill, we can’t!” Peter is in a pure bloodlust at this point, and we fight as Miles as we try and use the bell to stun Peter, we fight him for three phases and are eventually able to overcome him, we hit the bell one more time, and Peter swings up to the bell tower, and we fight him along there, begging him to stop, telling him how terrible he’s been to people, but more importantly, that he’s sorry, he’s sorry Aunt May is gone, that he couldn’t save White Rabbit or Shocker, that’s he’s sorry he’s hurting, he’s sorry he’s stretching himself too thin, but he doesn’t get to hurt himself or others because of that, Peter begins to break down, he shoots his way up to the bell on a large platform, he screams and cries in agony as Peter begins to fight hack, Peter yells at Miles to hit it, and Miles punches the bell over and over again, Peter begins to tear the Symbiote off, but it recoils back onto him, Miles encourages him, he knows Pete his strong enough, we then go inside Peter’s mind
-Peter fights the Symbiote as it physically manifests in his psyche, it begins to taunt him over and over as Peter fights it in a 3 phase boss fight, taunting him about his failures and insecurities and anger over and over and over again until Peter eventually beats it
-We cut back to reality, Miles is cheering him on and Peter himself hits the bell, and tears the Symbiote off, he throws it off of him, and Miles contains it in an Oscorp container, Peter thanks Miles, but they get away quickly, they go back to Peter’s house, Miles calls MJ and Harry to come help him, they go to his house and comfort him, proud of him for what he’s done, Peter breaks down and cries, finally letting all his emotions out. Miles asks Harry if he can keep the Symbiote in a lab connected to Oscorp, and keep it under wraps until they can find a suitable place to contain it permanently, Harry agrees and walks away, but before he does he looks back, seeing MJ hug Peter, she got to have him, she gets to comfort him, despite all Harry has done for him, he looks down at the Symbiote, it calls to him and he leaves the house to go to the lab
-Peter asks Miles to give him and MJ a second, Miles leaves and waits outside, and he apologizes to how terrible he treated her, but that there was something he tried to do, he tried to cheat on her, and he would have done it too, he doesn’t explain his actions or his motivations because he knows it doesn’t matter, he did what he did, MJ is silent, she gets up, saying they’re done, and leaving, until Peter begs her, “I can’t do this… not alone… I need you…” and MJ looks back at him, “It’s not my problem anymore. I won’t protect you or coddle you again. You betrayed me, and Harry, and Miles, people who love you people who care about you. Don’t try to call me.” She rushes, “When can I-“ Peter isn’t able to finish his sentence until MJ slams the door shut, she walks away and Miles tries to comfort her, but she shrugs him off, “I just need time for myself…” Miles understands, and rightfully backs off, MJ goes home
-We cut to Harry going ti his room at Norman’s penthouse, opening a backpack and taking the container with the Symbiote out of it, he sets it down on the bed, it lurches towards him behind the glass, begging for someone to feed off of, Harry picks it up, examines it, and Norman bursts in, asking Harry where he’s been, and is stunned when he sees the Symbiote, “I thought it was gone…” “No I just… lent it to- to someone I care about.” Harry responds, Norman is confused and furious, “You lent it? You LENT it? You need that Harry, it saved your life and what? You just give it away!? Do you not understand how… I won’t lose you too. Put it back on. Now.” Harry is honest, “If I do, I don’t know what I’ll become.” “You’ve already become everything you need to be, you’re my son. And I love you.” “But he doesn’t…” Harry solemnly says, Norman feels empathy, “I know, son. I wish I could change that. I do. You deserve to be happy. But you can be happy without him. You do not need him.” Harry looks down at the Symbiote, “I know…” Harry opens the container as the Symbiote spreads across his entire body, “…Not anymore…” Norman is relived until he starts to create a hulking mass surrounding Harry, black ooze and tentacles spilling everywhere, a large white spider growing across the chest, and a sharp smile, “Oh my god…” Norman steps back, “Harry-“ Venom slaps him away with a tentacle across the apartment knocking him out, and the guards come in, shocked and terrified at what they’re seeing. A monster.
-We play as Venom as we rage through the apartment building, killing all those in our way, Harry fully devoting himself to the Symbiote, both want revenge on Peter, for how he mistreated them, they think they gave him everything they could give, and it wasn’t enough, he never loved them… Either of them… Venom becomes tunnel-visioned as we fight our way through Oscorp security and eventually out of the building, he is now surrounded by Hunters as he crashes a helicopter into Times Square
-Miles gets a text from Ganke and his Mom, Venom is on the loose, Miles freaks out, and goes to fight him, Peter joins, despite Miles’ dismay
-We switch back to Venom tearing his way through every Hunter around, he finally beats them all, and then the Spider-Men show up, Peter can’t believe what he’s seeing, but he begs the Symbiote to let Harry go, and he tells Harry it’s going to be okay, Miles stays back, Venom tells Peter they know what he’s done, and now they know that he is a parasite, feeding off of others luring them in with kindness, only to stab them in the back… Peter tries to calm him down but it doesn’t work, Venom grabs Peter and throws him into a billboard and charges after him, Miles goes to fight him and is then caught in a net, and dragged to the opposite building, when he unravels the net and gets out, an injured Kraven stands before him, “We are not finished… Little Spider…” Miles now cares more for others than he does his revenge, “Yes, we are.” We then fight Kraven for a phase, we kick him into the next building, Miles swings over to help Peter, who is being torn apart by Venom, until Miles comes in and saves him, but Venom easily swats Miles away, and then throws him to the ground, both Peter and Miles completely incapacitated, Kraven watches from afar as Venom looms over Peter, “Not yet…” and he jumps away, Kraven knows the Spider-Men will not be down for long… and neither will he…

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I spun around. I'd gotten used to the platitudes, but Nick didn't give me the opening to reply, "You keep refusing to admit you can't play by the same rules as everyone else, heroes included. You could learn magic, psychic powers, even that chi shit, and you keep just letting yourself back into fuckin' powers rather than picking a direction. You sitting still? It gets people hurt."
He'd hit it on the head, the part of my mind that told me I could've prevented it. I dropped my head, ashamed, and I said nothing. Nick gave me a moment to let it sink in, then pulled my head up so I could look him in the eyes, "All you had to do was work on telepathy. Yeah, I get it, there's downsides, so get 1% better at negating 'em. If you'd started when you first realized you could, you'd have been able to know where everyone was, how many, what weapons, and who was a legit threat with them. You could've used a magic shield for the cops, some sort of sleep spell to put the bad guys the fuck out peacefully! You had every option open to you, and you sat on your goddamn hands!
"Now, you wanna stop it from happening again? You wanna honor those who died to teach you the lesson? Figure out how to fix the damn thing, and stop holding back! This personal pity-party shit was good at first, but now it's time to sort your shit out. Do whatever you gotta do, but this crap? It doesn't fix shit!"
And then he walked off, leaving me to myself for the first time since it had all gone down. Virtus chimed in: Every leader I remember, and all the ones I've learned about since we came together have gone through this, Marcus. You can do this. I'm here for you.
I considered, and made a decision: I put in a temporary leave of absence with the office and the H.A.A., both of which were more than willing to grant it given what all had happened. Everyone had been more worried when I threw myself into the reports and paperwork, hand-writing letters to the families of the fallen. Anna was concerned, but understood there was a certain catharsis in the action, she just made sure to talk things out with me in session. I let Anna know I was going to miss a few sessions, but that I was good, I had a direction. She wasn't thrilled with it, but she got it.
I brought up the H.A.A. computer, and brought up the database of knowledge that they had. Nick was right. I'd directly avoided doing almost anything with trainable abilities, trying to limit myself, and it had indirectly led to this state. One more thing I could chalk up to my refusal to admit to what my life had become. I needed to get on the ball, and fast, starting with opening up my psychic ability to move around and do things.
That brings us to my emancipation hearing. It was finally time, and when I showed up to the court, the gallery was flooded with people. I knew most of them, but there were people I had no idea of, I'd never met or talked to them before in my life, but they weren't reporters. When I stepped into the court itself, Mackenzie, Merida, Mom, and Dad trailing behind to either side of me. My teachers, Mr. Bethel, Mr. Tsumpti, Father Patrick, Mrs. Brown, The Road Crew, John and Anna from the H.A.A., there were so many people present. I took my spot where the bailiff motioned, with my family filling in around, and I felt Aimee touch my shoulder from behind. I kissed her hand, and Nick quickly went over what was going to happen. Eventually, the bailiff called, "All rise!"
Everyone stood up, and I could hear shuffling from outside the courtroom as the attendees moved to watch the proceedings on the TVs outside. When everyone was standing, with the obvious exception of Mr. Bethel, the bailiff called out, "The honorable judge Frank Carter, presiding."
Dad muttered to himself, "Tell me Bethel doesn't do that joke."
An older gentleman came out in black robes and proceeded up toward the bench, pausing as he saw the mammoth crowd, then at me. I just shrugged, and mouthed an apology. It was all I could think of. He tilted his head a bit, shrugged, and took his seat behind the bench, "Be seated."
He flipped open the case file and checked it quickly, going through the time, date, case number, and that it was my emancipation hearing, "Before we begin, I would like to take a quick poll. Raise your hand if you are here as character witness for Mr. McKenna here."
I looked back and every hand was in the air. I don't even know most of these people, and a clerk waved from the hall outside, and hands up out there as well. Even on the monitor in court used for distance proceedings, hands were up on the individual screens of the Zoom call. It took several minutes before the judge got a text, and then address the stenographer, "Let the record show that Marcus McKenna has 247 character witnesses for the claimant. And how many are here as character witnesses against the claimant?"
Hands dropped, and the clerk outside the court looked around for a moment, and made a zero with his hand, and the judge once again looked to the stenographer, "Let the record show that there are zero character witnesses against the claimant. Now, is there an attorney of record present for the claimant?"
Nick leaned toward the microphone in front of him, "Yes, your Honor. May I call my client up to the stand, if it pleases the court?"
The judge considered a moment, then nodded, "Proceed. Mr. McKenna, please take the stand."
The bailiff escorted me up to the witness stand, and I stood there as I got sworn in, then sat down. Nick stood at the central podium, and looked to me, "Marcus. You are credited as the first open superhero, yes?"
I nodded, "Yes."
"One of the first and most vital requirements for emanicpation is that you must choose emancipation of your own volition. Is this the case for you?", Nick said, comfortable in the thing he loved so much, and I'll be honest, first time I'd heard him talk this long without swearing.
"It is," my knees shook as I spoke. God, so many people here.
Nick took a measured pause before his next question, "But do you really want emancipation?"
He was moving me somewhere, and I wanted to just say yes, "No, not really."
I could actively everyone's breath catch for a moment as Nick nodded, unphased, "Could you elaborate, please?"
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, and was shaking my head. I had my hands on my knees, to steady them as they felt like they were going to wobble, steadying my eyes on the floor of the well as I spoke, "I didn't want any of this. I never wanted this power, I don't want to be a hero. I just want to go to my Scout meetings, camping, spend time with my girlfriend. I wanna read to my sister, Merida, and get in some stupid fight with Mackenzie, to just hang out with my buddy Darryl.
"But I do have this power, this constant 1% improvement, and it gives me a higher responsibility. I've fought against it, tried to keep throwing the brakes on it, but there are too many people who are depending on me, and this ability changes everything. I can't hold onto who I was, not the mundane parts at the very least. To my mind, it would be morally no different than a doctor standing by doing nothing as a room full of patients they could easily save die."
My knees were relaxing a bit, and my breath was coming easier. Nick continued on with his questions, "This power, this 1%, why does it make things so different? Could you give me an example."
I took a moment to collect myself, "Well, let's start with my power being always 'on'. It's not a power I activate, I'm just always improving. For instance, from here, I can see that your tie clip has the Yale emblem on it, and is precisely fifteen feet and seven and three-quarters inches away from me, twenty-seven degrees below my eyeline. You're proud of your achievement in graduating Yale Law, the number one law school in the country, but interestingly, your favorite tie that you're wearing doesn't match it. It does, however, match the colors of the Marine Corps. You never served, but I'm guessing your Dad did, which by your age, means he likely fought both in the first Gulf War, and then, again guessing, Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11. I saw a trifolded flag in your house the one time I was there, so he didn't come back, and I can't imagine how much that must have hurt. Also, the stenographer just misspelled Afghanistan- she outpaced her own typing and hit the S before the I because she's left-handed, I'd like to request a short bathroom break so the bailiff can go pee before he hurts himself cause he's more used to standing guard than being a bailiff since he was a Marine by the way he reacted when I mentioned your dad, and His Honor hurt his left hip somehow, but he's hiding the slight limp by standing extra straight and putting more of weight weight on his right, so my guess is he tripped or something, and is a bit embarrassed about it for no real reason. I get anyone wrong?"
The judge confirmed the stenographer had indeed misspelled Afghanistan, who was deeply shocked. I hadn't even been looking in her direction, concentrating on Nick's face. He then confirmed with the bailiff, and got it all on the record, "Let the record show that Afghanistan was spelled incorrectly, the bailiff does need a trip to the lavatory... sigh... and I hurt myself yesterday trying to keep up with my grandson at two-hand touch football. Ten minute recess."
I stayed in the witness stand as everyone left, and Nick came up to me, "God, man, I'm sorry, I was just-"
He cut me off, "No, it was perfect, kid. Yeah, it went great. We'll get a bit more mundane after this, but I needed them to see it first so they understood what's different here. I'm good."
While I was technically dismissed, I didn't move. Christ, there were just so many people, this was nuts. I waited patiently until the court resumed, with all the formalities covered. With things back in motion, Nick picked back up, "Alright, now, let's talk about the requirements for emancipation. What employment do you have?"
"I am CEO of Aegis, Incorporated, as well as a registered hero with the H.A.A., and I have income through sponsorships, which are related to my Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media site incomes," Pretty straightforward, really, but it sounded so daft when I said it.
Nick held up a file, "Your Honor, may I approach the bench?"
The judge motioned and gave ascent, and Nick strode across the well, "I'd like to enter into evidence the financial statements for Marcus since he first started receiving streaming income. Also included are his self-made budgets for his apartment, vehicles, and other related expenses for the next five years, including projected increases in rent, utilities, and groceries over time, assuming the Portland limit of 10% rise per year.
After those, are a copy of his high school diploma, gained at the end of September of this year, his account statements, and finally, his stock holdings."
He returned to the podium, and the judge accepted the evidence. Nick looked to me again, "Can you tell the court what emancipation means for you?"
I shrugged a small bit, "It means that I will be a full adult in the eyes of the law. I can be charged as an adult, my parents won't be required to hold custody on me, nor will they be responsible for me. I can sign contracts such as my apartment lease, legal documents, and other stuff. It means a lot of things, I read up.
"For me, though..."
I winced slightly, "Sorry, Dad- it means I stop getting slowed down. At every turn of this thing, I've been having to move faster in a legal and economic sense, and in those arenas right now, I have to stop every time a piece of paperwork needs signed, to go get my Dad to sign it for me, and usually lately, I have to explain the paperwork to him, given the nature of what I'm doing. Calculating it out, and allowing for the fact that it's going to be increasing given the current run of things, I'm properly losing about five to seven hours a month to having to explain things for my dad just so I can get started. It would like you needing to get all your contracts run past your parents, you wouldn't be taken seriously by your clients, or the legal system as a whole. For reference, though, Dad was Dean's List at Portland State."
"Thank you, I have no further questions. For my next witness, I would like to call John Cox, head of the Portland Branch of the Heroes Association of America."
I was dismissed and returned to my seat, and got the shoulder squeeze from Dad. John confirmed that he believed in my maturity enough to put the fate of the entire state in my hands despite a history of fighting with each other, and that the H.A.A. recognized my powers as creating a deviation that advanced my consideration for age.
Then Mr. Bethel was called up and sworn in in front of the witness stand to accommodate the wheelchair, then jumped in before Nick could ask anything, looking over to the judge, "Your Honor, sorry about not standin' when you came in, but I think I may have tweaked my knee a bit."
That fucking joke. He'd been sitting on it, waiting to let it out, and everyone who'd been in Scouts with him in the courtroom groaned as he grinned like an idiot. Eight years. I've heard that joke for eight years, every time there was a situation where people were asked to stand for something. Merida still thought it was hilarious. Nick confirmed he was my Scoutmaster, and then gave his recommendation, "Marcus is a Life Scout, and really, in half a year, he'll be Eagle. The only reason for that is that time in rank is a requirement. If not, we'd already have pinned him, but he wants to do it his way, and there's respect in that. He's arranging his Eagle Scout service project. Not sure why, since just the last few weeks, he's done more service for the community than any Scout in history, but he respects the rule, and he didn't name any of those things as his service project. If he doesn't count as a MAN, we're all fucked!"
People laughed, and the judge banged his gavel, "Mr. Bethel, please watch your language. You may continue."
Nick had no further questions for Mr. Bethel, and then a succession of my parents, Anna, and some of the others who'd been with me got up to the stand and gave their testimony. The judge was about to call, but Nick had one final witness he wanted to call, and implored the judge that it was critically important. The judge finally nodded, and my whole world lurched, "Thank you, Your Honor. I would like to call to the stand Julio Ramirez."
Ramirez...
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Hello!
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Thank you and good luck with finals!

I visit some family throughout the year and cell service in the area with my carrier isn't so great. I was wondering if there are any decent temporary Internet solutions I could use at their place that I could basically make use of as needed vs paying monthly or annually. They did have Verizon FIOS at one point but got rid of all that. I just mentioned it to show there is infrastructure here.

Hey guys,
As there aren’t that many mild flox recovery stories, I’ve decided to post mine. I know, it’s still too early to judge, whether I truly recovered or not, but hey, this is my progress so far!
I am 30M and from Austria. Pre-Flox I was quite active physically, going regularly to the gym and walking 10-15k steps every day.
I took three pills of cipro for a suspected prostatitis and, of course, the doc didn’t mention any long-lasting side effects – or any side effects at all. After the second pill, I’ve had some mild tendon pain in my left foot, but didn’t associate it with the antibiotics. Took the third pill and read the leaflet – that’s the point where I’ve found out how f* I am. I can remember, that I already took eight pills of cipro three years before and had some skin rush. Shame on me for not thinking about it, when I was on my second course.
Started to google about cipros and discovered several EMA and FDA warnings (thanks for nothing, Doc). Also discovered floxies which helped me a lot in staying calm and preparing myself for this hell of a roller coaster.
Week 1:
Tendon pain all over my legs (especially Achilles), shoulders, knees. Muscle weakness developed and my joints were popping. My depression and anxiety amplified, because my brain realized I’ve got floxed and couldn’t really believe it. Also had heart palpitations and tachycardia especially at night. Once or twice, I’ve felt needle pins in my hands and legs.
Still was able to walk about 10k steps a day with pain. Decided to stop sports and as advised to rest as much as possible.
Supplements: Magnesium+Calcium, CoQ10, Omega 3 and Multi Vit. No alcohol, no caffeine and intermediate fasting.
Week 2:
Tendon and muscle pain worsened. Some nights I suffered from insomnia. Depression and Anxiety were sky high and I was mentally really in a bad shape.
Reduced the steps I walked to about 5-7k per day and tried walking shorter distances more often. I started to go to saunas, tried hot-cold showers at home to get the circulation flowing. Also tried to swim just a little bit to use some upper body muscles – turned out to be a mistake and flared for three days with lots of pain.
Supplements: Magnesium+Calcium, CoQ10, Omega 3 and Multi Vit. No alcohol. Started with 1 coffee a day (I just love coffee), that was the maximum I tolerated.
Week 3:
Saunas helped for about a day to feel less pain. Still every morning my Achilles tendons hurt like hell. This was the worst week with pain. These were the days, where I could barely walk to the supermarket. Also, some new symptoms popped up like liver pain and gastritis.
Reduced the steps per day to about 4k and tried some more aggressive resting. I was bored a lot, still couldn’t believe what is happening to me and was desperate. I had suicidal thoughts quite regularly at this point, so I told myself to stick it out a few more weeks to see if there is any progress.
Supplements: Magnesium+Calcium, CoQ10, Omega 3 and Multi Vit. No alcohol, no caffeine and intermediate fasting.
Week 4:
No new symptoms developed. Pain got much better, but still every walk hurt. Bought two pairs of compression socks, which made a significant difference and a massage gun. My mindset also changed as I accepted that I was floxed, it’s temporary (like being injured from a car accident or a surgery), and most people recover.
Increased steps to about 7k per day, with some days to 10k (compression socks!). Went to the Sauna twice and tried light swimming again – to my surprise no flare.
Supplements: Magnesium+Calcium, CoQ10, Omega 3 and Multi vit. No alcohol, fasting and 1-2 coffees per day.
Week 5:
Things started improving a lot and quite fast. Increased my steps to 8-10k per day, some light swimming and also tried to go to the gym with 30%-50% of the weight I could lift before.
Supplements: At this point, Magnesium+Calcium all the time, while the other supplements less regularly. No alcohol, fasting and 2-3 coffees per day.
Week 6:
I can walk about 8-10k steps mostly pain-free or some mild tendon pain. Whenever I walked more, the tendon pain got worse, but nothing compared to the first weeks. Also went to the doc to get some blood work done and ultra-sonography. Nothing. Everything seemed alright – no signs of inflammation or injuries.
Set my goal to walking 10-12k steps every day and went to the gym twice with 50%-60% intensity. Also tried to cycle at the gym for about 15 mins. No flares!
Supplements: Just Magnesium+Calcium. After physical activities, I took multi vit pills.
Week 7:
Walking 10k steps a day is not a problem anymore. Some days, I walk 14-17k steps. Even tried jogging at the treadmill for 15 mins and worked out at the gym with 70%-80% of the weight pre-flox. It’s just incredible to being able to walk somewhere in the city without thinking too much, if I can make it back home pain free. Also started biking (30 mins) which is such a damn joy.
Supplements: Just Magnesium+Calcium every day. Tried alcohol and can tolerate it with no flares!
So far, it’s Week 8 and sometimes I forgot that I’ve been floxed. There is still some tendon pain and stiffness here and there, and I am still not fully recovered, but so much better than in the first three weeks. I just hope that I won’t get a mega flare or relapse and that things keep improving until I am my old self.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the mistakes. English is not my first language! 😉