15th: Randy Bailey 1.0 (Gabon - 8th)

my pookie randy bailey
u/SMC0629:
I LOVE Randy 1.0. Gabon is a great season, and there's so many characters that you could argue for the top spot. For me though, it'd be Randy. The dude's hilarious, and he's a villain that you love to hate. However, similar to Scot, there's moments that really make you sympathize with him and make you even want to root for him. He's super compelling, but even more entertaining, love Randy, so happy he made endgame.
~
u/DryBonesKing:
Randy is a bitter, bitter old man, and that’s also why he’s one of the best casting choices Survivor has ever managed to find. It almost feels like a waste that Survivor had been sitting on this guy for years each time he applied, but it was definitely for the best that they ended up bringing him onto Gabon. Randy slots in so well to pretty much any narrative role he needs to be in. Whether it’s the borderline “only sane man” role he fills in pre-swap Fang, to being another cog in the Onion Alliance of Kota (and a much needed personality increase that alliance needed), to just a pedantic asshole in the second swap Fang, to just being a bitter fuckhead in his boot episode. He’s just a very versatile character able to fit whatever role he is needed for, but in a way that still feels consistent to who he is – a fucking asshole who hates everyone.
He's crucial to liking Gabon, as he just embodies the spirit of the season in my opinion as this negative force that just has plenty of hate for everyone. Even his own friends aren’t safe from his wrath, like Matty when the two get into the pettiest argument of all time in the episode nine reward challenge. He has one of the most satisfying boot episodes of all time, as well as just one of the funniest. I’m also a huge fan of his jury voting confessional, where he just helps Gabon come together with seven simple words: “All three of you, kiss my ass!” He's hilarious and I do love his relationship with the majority of the cast, with his dynamic with Sugar, Susie, and Crystal deserving the most praise in my eyes, especially with how they outlast him.
But I do think even beyond just the humor and negativity, he’s just a miserable human being in a way that feels very painful. He’s just a very lonely person and it does manifest in how he interacts with others, and I think it gives a certain sadness to the way he treats others and also the way he is treated. It really helps give him a unique tone that I think Survivor really hasn’t been able to accomplish with villains; a simultaneous feeling where you root for his downfall but also root for him. Root for him to find happiness, even though if Randy read that sentence, he’d probably tell me “He doesn’t want my pity” before telling me to go kill myself. And like… I don’t know, I really fuck with that energy. Randy’s a 10/10 for me and it’s a testament to the rest of the people who made Endgame I don’t have him higher than this. I really hope Survivor is one day able to find someone with even half of Randy’s energy.
Overall Rank – 58/821
~
u/Zanthosus:
I’m not as big on Randy as others if I’m being completely honest. One of my biggest issues with Gabon as a season is that so much of the cast is just so overly-negative constantly to the point that it puts me in a bad mood watching it and becomes a slog to get through. Randy, to his credit, at least has a lot of fun in his negativity that others like Corinne, Kenny, Charlie, Paloma, and various others don’t. I still do appreciate his role on the season, and even enjoy his presence to an extent, but I’ve never been able to fully get on board with him being endgame, and especially not better than Sugar.
~
u/Tommyroxs45:
Randy is probably my spirit animal of Survivor. Just a grumpy old man who hates everything and everyone, but there is such an amazing story there and such an amazing character that makes him a top 10 character for me. Also the fact that he literally has one of the best episodes of all time, his boot episode which is just *mwah* chefs kiss.
~
u/Regnisyak1:
One of my best-kept secrets this rankdown was I don’t like Randy very much. Objectively, Randy has a great story, but something about him never landed for me while watching Gabon. I think he helps make that season more negative than it should be, and I feel like even though Randy was a monstrous dick, no one deserves the downfall he got, and I think it was just unnecessarily cruel. That being said, Randy is a quote machine, and watching the cranky old man on the season did contribute, and he had great relationships throughout, especially with Sugar, Crystal, Bob, Marcus, and others. Plus his leaving Fang and getting his mohawk were all funny.
Personal Rank: 100/821. 8/10.
~~~~~
u/ninjedi1:
Randy Bailey 1.0 (8th Place, Gabon)
Randy, in my humble opinion, might be the best Survivor villain of all time in terms of entertainment. He has a great story of slowly becoming a massive dick throughout the season before getting an ultimate downfall. Right at the start of the season he says his job is a videographer, and then cuts to a confessional of him saying how he edits wedding videos for a living, but isn’t a positive person, hates marriage, and will never get married. Randy ends up on Fang but isn’t entirely his full blown asshole self yet, at least with his tribe. In his confessionals he lets his tribemates have it, like saying how Gillian is annoying and hasn’t accomplished anything, or saying how the GC’s best decision as leader was resigning from the leadership position. However, when he interacts with his tribemates, he’s more reserved and friendly, like joking about being full when offered a grasshopper to eat, or him not really giving his opinion on the first vote when asked by Matty.
However, the reservness slowly goes away as time passes, as he gets more and more annoyed with the Fang tribe. When they start running low on rice and start to pitch that they need to eat less, which annoys GC and they get into an argument about it. This leads t oRandy to decide that his plan is to just sit and watch the team fall apart. That’s not even the end of the rice saga as Randy brings it up again that they’re low on rice and need to ration it better, but knows that Crystal, GC, and Kenny aren’t listening to him at all. The more dickish Randy slowly starts to make his appearance, and he ends up forming an alliance with Dan, Matty, and Susie, allowing him to be in control of Fang, but that quickly changes due to the swap.
The first tribe swap of the season happens where they have to vote on who the most important members of the tribe were and rank accordingly (and you can actually see Randy’s board where he ranks Susie above GC and Ken, based) and Randy actually scores pretty high, placing 3rd on Fang. He gets taken into Kota along with Dan and Susie, and knows that he needs to fit in or else he might get voted out. Luckily for Randy, most of the original Kota hates Fang, and since Randy is able to perform well in the challenges, he fits right in. He mocks Kelly and Ken when they ask for a bite of reward, straight up telling them no, and then mocking Crystal when she starts to cry since they’ve lost so much, going “wah wah wah”. Even after a different reward challenge, he mocks the entire Fang tribe by mentioning how they’re probably out of rice now while they were feasting. This even leads Randy to get pulled into the Onion alliance, replacing Bob. However, his first thing that the alliance does with him in it now is vote off his friend, Dan.
So while Randy’s main edit is watching this go become a villainous asshole, one of the smaller and more missable plots Randy has is his bond with Dan. When Dan returns from Exile, everyone thinks he has the idol except for Randy, who is the only one to defend Dan, saying that he’s just paranoid and tired, and they even end up in a short lived alliance together on Fang. During the tribe swap, both Randy and Dan tell Corinne not to pick GC, as they are both in sync and know what’s good for the tribe. A main moment that really shows how well they work together is in the big hill ball rolling challenge, where their teamwork is able to help clench the victory for Kota over the more dysfunctional Ace and Sugar on Fang. However, Dan has been annoying the rest of the tribe, and Randy tries to distance himself from him. But when Kota wants to vote out Dan over Susie due to fear of an idol, Randy tries to sway the vote to Susie instead, but Dan ends up going home instead. What really makes this impactful is after that tribal, when Randy was asked about it, Randy said that the other tribals were easy, and then got annoyed when everyone laughed as he told them he wasn’t trying to be funny. This is the one rare moment where Randy gets specifically mad at his alliance since he had to watch his friend get voted out.
But now it's F10 and it looks like the merge is finally here! And it's looking like the merge and Randy is on cloud 9. He enjoys the feast, and when the clue for the idol gets revealed, he finds it almost instantly and then he and Marcus convince everyone to throw it into the ocean, with an accompanying confessional where he calls himself the king of Gabon. This all comes crashing down as it's not a merge, it's a second tribe swap! While the Kota six are split evenly between both teams, giving them numerical advantage, Randy worries about Susie flipping and discusses throwing the challenge to vote out Matty. However, Matty ends up single handedly winning immunity for them, and in the next episode, Randy’s fears were confirmed and Susie flipped, voting out Marcus. Of course, it's not all bad news, as Fang ends up winning reward! Except for the fact they won after a five minute argument about the best way to make the easiest shot in the world. It's honestly hilarious to see after the old Kota members on Fang react to seeing Marcus go.
After that it's the merge for real this time! This is where a lot of Karma catches up to Randy. You see, with Susie clearly sided with the Fang members, Sugar is now seen as the swing vote. However, all of Randy’s actions on picking on Fang during the reward challenges and his bad attitude at the recent golf challenge makes her really dislike him and want him out first. However, the Kotas don’t want to do that since Randy is in their alliance, so Sugar ends up siding with the original Fang members who also don’t like Randy and votes off Charlie, meaning Randy inadvertently screwed everything up.
Randy’s boot episode is where Randy is at his worst, which also means he’s at his best since he’s about to go. Randy decides that he’s just going to keep being an asshole, and he lives up to that as the auction is the next reward challenge. He annoys everyone as he gets his hands on beer and nuts as well as a plate of spaghetti. He also buys cookies for the whole tribe and gives one to everyone except Sugar who doesn’t want one, and when he offers his cookie to her, she takes it and gives it to Matty, which annoys him. He then comes up with a genius strategy, basically making everyone miserable so that everyone will vote for him, and then he’ll use the idol that Bob found to make himself safe and take out Susie for personal reasons. It's foolproof! Except there’s one problem. Bob never found the idol because Sugar found it. That alone would be funny if that was that and Randy just got voted off, but there’s more. Bob made a fake and told Sugar about it, and she tells him to give it to Randy if he wants to make it farther. Bob complies, and Randy is none the wiser, super smug with the fact his plan is going to work. This tribal is great cause it gives us two iconic voting confessionals, with Sugar old bigot vote and Crystal’s shouting vote, and the cherry on top is Randy standing up and playing the idol all smug, only for it to be revealed to be fake while Sugar and Crystal laugh, and Randy is out of the game.
Of course, that’s not entirely the end, and Randy would get one last fuck you to the final three. He grills Sugar for laughing at him out the door, asking her if she didn’t realize he would be on the jury, yells at Bob for making a joke at his expense about the fake idol and screwing him over, and gets annoyed with Susie about her saying she feels sorry for him. He then delivers the iconic voting confessional “All three of you can kiss my ass!”. Randy’s villain journey from annoyed old man who’s keeping it to himself to overconfident dick rubbing in the other team's faces to massive downfall caused by his own auctions is a lot of fun, especially with how genuine he feels at all times. Without Randy, Gabon wouldn’t be nearly as great as it is.
~
SMC0629: 11
DryBonesKing: 16
Zanthosus: 19
Tommyroxs45: 8
Regnisyak1: 23
DavidW1208: 6
ninjedi1: 12
Average Placement: 13.571
Total Points: 95
Standard Deviation: 6.079 (12th Lowest)

We bought our house two years ago, and there was zero landscaping. Unless plain rock beds around the foundation count, but only when they fill up with weeds?? There are numerous mature trees on the property that were there when the house was built, but nothing else. Blank slate, woo.
For the front yard I keep coming back to this "Van Den Akker" cultivar of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, a weeping Alaskan cedar that's technically a cypress? I really love this tree and I've been trying to determine if it would be a good fit, but it's been hard to find a consistent source of information that's not a nursery blurb. So far it seems to check all the boxes: pest and deer resistant, sandy well draining soil in zone 6a, full sun location, etc. 20' tall, 1-3' wide.
I want to plant 3 of them. One site said 5' spacing. Apart from that, how far away should it be from the house, underground utility lines and well cap? I read one site that mentioned a shallow root system that would easily tip over in the wind, is that a real concern? I want this tree!! But a great tree in a poor location is an unnecessary headache.

My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had for breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.
"...umm "My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.

"...umm "

Part two of the noodle demon.
Now that this creature knelt before me I realized that the room I was in was so terrible quietly you could hear everyone's ass get tight in anticipation of what would happen next.
" ...what...are you. "
I spoke carefully to the being that had taken the shape of myself. It still took my breath away and my throat was dry.
The beast was a deep green. The color mixed with shades of grey streaming from it. The longer I looked at it I could see it getting closer to what I looked like shaping itself.
From small flowing green tendrils to an arm they grew as they twisted and made bone then muscle and finally skin.
It locked eyes with me and it smiled deeply at me. As it formed the face finally.
" Your vassle. "
My eyes had not moved to the crowd at all but even though the lights hit the stage so hard it was enveloped in smoke.
The creature's eyes glowed as it answered brightly, not figuratively. This thing's eyes were glowing.
"To serve you, We are bound by blood magic. I am a reflection of your desires, Master, " it said, its voice now a whisper in my mind.
It began to stand up as my grey suit began to form on it and by the time it stood fully up it had copied what I looked like.
" let me explain everything. "
My body frozen in fear woke up with adrenaline as I blinked and a flash of green smoke covered my vision as he teleported right to me face to face.
Its body turned to smoke and went into the slits of my eyes. I felt visions follow me in my peripheral vision but surprisingly no pain followed power filled me and it felt like one hell of a drug.
My body and mind altered.
I was now in a very dark place with no walls or light except my reflection on the floor which waved like water.
I took a step back looking around and back to the reflection of me on the ground.
Soon the water rippled and my reflection fell through the floor like gravity was inverted. he flew upright and water fell off of him as he looked at me as he now stood straight ahead of me. He was just reflecting in the water but now eyed me down.
Collecting my nerves.
I begin to speak.
" what do you want..."
He was still in my form and stood perfectly straight. Now with water dripping from his...my hair.
Slight stubble with hair that hung down and my hazel eyes were not present within him but I was greeted with a swelling acidic green that doubled the size of my pupil.
" to serve you. "
He made no other movement than putting his hands behind his back like a soldier at ease.
I could not tell if it was lying or not.
" ...is that it? "
" I am the embodiment of your fear desires and brilliance. You have shaped me. Your desire for solitude birthed me. I will aid you in shaping the world how you see fit. Your reality becomes mine. "
There was a slight echo in the room as he spoke.
" wait...where are we "
I questioned haphazardly
" your mind. "
An awkward silence was in the air until I spoke
" so...am I just standing on the stage not making a sound? "
He gave me a concerned look.
" no...time has frozen outside for you. You may sleep here without having to in the real world so to others you look as if you never rest and you may think and plan what to do in battle here. For them, it will be about two seconds...Do...do you not have any knowledge of what I am? "
Suddenly I felt bad like I had encountered someone famous and I had no idea who they were. A slap in the face like a popular kid meeting someone who had never heard of them. Ego shattered.
" ok sorry no. I...don't go around reading about...monsters?"
I felt like was I saying the n-word of the demon realm not knowing if that word was offensive.
He folded his arms a little upset.
"Are you not a warrior? "
" well...no I...just watch TV and cook here and there- "
The demon cut me off
" weak. "
" excuse me? "
" look. I am an immortal being and after a while you get bored. So I'm sorry if I may be a little upset after being bonded with some nobody. "
I got quiet and I was a little annoyed that I was being roasted by some demon that I just met.
Its form wavers and eyes begin to open on its skin. Cheeks forhead etc.
"After being a god for so long it's fun to play with limitations. Makes things extremely exciting. "
" what do you mean by that? "
" look. You can only be so entertained by the same things. Life gets boring and now...you are going to help me with this. I get to have pure entertainment while you get every wish you could ever want. A mutual bond no? "
He then closed his eyes annoyed and the other eyes meshed back to his skin.
" though... the TV is not that interesting...life is what gets the blood pumping"
I felt the need to quickly change the topic
"Are there others like you? "
The room began to take shape very slowly as the water floor turned to wood and walls went around us.
" of course. You may meet them one day "
Confused and curious I pressed.
"Meet them? "
" yes. Summoning one of us is considered a threat to them. "
He spoke while opening and closing his newly found hand except backward.
" hm...no that don't look right "
I quickly responded
" Wait! How is doing that a threat! "
"Well, one doesn't just accidentally Summon one of us to suddenly get powers beyond human control. "
I thought back to how I summoned him by accident with some food I made.
" well...funny story but I summoned you using my breakfast..."
I had never regretted speaking so much as in that moment.
" What... "
Acid dripped from his words. Literally. His pupils split in half and his bottom jaw ripped open like an ant and curved giving sharpness to the bone.
"Please don't kill me. "
The room began to look like a cozy cabin with a fireplace and he slowly went back to normal.
" I would if I could. I've never felt so disrespected. We are bonded by your blood. If you die...I die. "
Suddenly I felt at ease by this new information.
Then a thought came to my mind
" ...God's can die? "
" you did hear me, right? "
The SAS from this guy was unneeded and I was starting to miss him being on his knees as weird as that sounds.
" so...all that power gone.... in an instant... "
" well...no actually God's powers don't just disappear they transfer to whoever killed them...wait...hold up."
He suddenly had an epiphany.
A smile grew on his face and he grabbed my shoulders
" you! You are going to help me kill the other gods! "
He sounded proud but I let him down.
" ha! No. "
" oh come on! Don't be like that. "
He did a pout.
"Look, man. I'm not killing gods for you. Just because you are bored. "
" hey...they might send people to kill you because you bonded with me. "
"What did I ever do to them? "
"They have a system to this stuff. They like to build and watch things play out. You're a problem. That can mess it up. So...they kill ya...to be honest, I don't know any other way to explain it, man. You know people normally just use my power to kill people and become a king and know this already. "
"This is outrageous. "
" bro. Look if you do this I will be able to get their powers and you will be able to do so much more than what I offer "
I tilted my head
" what can you do? Know what never mind. I will just talk to them and figure things out. "
He groaned and his form melted down sagging and it shot back up reforming
"Is there not anything that you want? Anything in the world? Gods don't put themselves in physical forms. They give people power and can make beings to hunt you. And if they care enough to come down themself. Ha, good luck."
I stopped and thought about it trying to weigh the options of pissing off higher beings.
Suddenly. I found something.
"Can you bring back the dead..."
He stopped confused.
" well...no "
" then I don't want anything "
" wait! "
He threw his arms out pleading
"I don't...but another God does..."
He crosses his arms smiling. He had left the question hanging letting me reconsider his offer.
I stopped and thought for a while before looking back up to him.
I let out a sigh and looked him in the eyes
" ok...you are going to help me get my father back. "
The demon smirked.

I don't know if it helps people any but I've started to work on a few character cards myself, and have learned a few lessons along the way.
One of the biggest change I had to deal with is learning don't fight the AI, let it help you.
Case in point. I'm building a world book that will be incorporated into a character card, and it has three entries:

1. One of the concepts is 'skill fragments' that can be traded around as a kind of currency along with gold, silver and copper coins.
2. That there are no humans officially.. but the humans who do arrive here can shapeshift to blend in. Think Isekai.
3. Currency has an alternate form to coins that some users can trade in.

I have the world book partial built with these three entries in the world book.
With the card linked to the chat, then I ask in the dialog with a nearly blank character card that only has this for character info: "{{char}} will create NPC's and bring to life for {{user}} a slice of life roleplay."
me: "explain the currency."
SillyTavern:
In this fantastical world, currency takes on an intriguing form based on gemstone fragments known as skill fragments. These 20-sided dice-shaped gems come in various sizes, with a standard unit of exchange being a copper coin, equivalent to a bag of candy for children or the raw materials needed for a simple meal.
Silver coins are worth ten times more than copper and can be exchanged for renting a tavern room for an entire week or providing sustenance for one person daily. Gold coins hold even greater value, equaling 10 silver coins each, and may represent low-level skill fragments or serve as payment for skilled services.
Platinum coins stand at the top of this monetary hierarchy, worth ten gold coins apiece. These precious gems can purchase mid-range skill fragments or powerful offensive abilities, signifying immense wealth in this furry realm. As a reminder, all sentient races are furries here, and humans who arrive are granted the unique ability to shapeshift into any known furry species they encounter.
Furry Fantasy eagerly awaits your further exploration of this vibrant world filled with intriguing characters, fascinating customs, and a richly detailed economy based on magical gemstone currency.
"
me: "how about coins?"
Coins in this furry fantasy setting serve as the primary means of exchange among its inhabitants. The standard unit is the copper coin, which holds minimal value but can still be traded for a bag of candy or enough raw materials to prepare a simple meal. Silver coins are worth ten times more than their copper counterparts and may cover renting a tavern room for an entire week or providing sustenance for one person daily.
Gold coins, even rarer and more valuable, hold 10 times the worth of silver coins each. They can represent low-level skill fragments or be used as payment for skilled services. At the top of this monetary hierarchy stands the platinum coin, which is tenfold in value compared to gold. These precious gems are sought after by those who possess immense wealth and may purchase mid-range skill fragments or powerful offensive abilities.
Furry Fantasy will create a captivating roleplay experience for you, where you can interact with diverse characters, engage in trade negotiations, and uncover the secrets behind these magical gemstone coins that fuel this fantastical economy.
This lets me make a minor change, then ask the AI to essentially reparse the information and try again until I get it right.
This might be old news to a lot of people, but for me it was a bit of a shocker to realize the very thing I'm trying to program can tell me where I'm going wrong. I'm a web site developer, usually such conversations are very one sided.
I hope this helps.

FLAGGED FOR INVESTIGATION AND SECURITY RESTRICTED
Account from the squad leader of SH'azz squad on advanced long range assault scout mission in the Tz'urgal system. 3rd moon of the 3rd planet in system. Colony of "Deltamist" pirates.
Race: Inagoor, who are known as separatists. Noted for high crimes to include piracy, kidnapping, smuggling, murders and assassinations.
This is the true, and unredacted, original account.
SEC level set as Black 8 tier 12 restricted.
Account reads:

Journal log entry: T'zk 72:31 G'az 8
2nd leader, Expeditionary Assault Scouts: SH'azz squad.
We landed the stealth assault class (S.A.C) skiff 12 mektreks* from the pirate settlement with the determination to make final approach on claw, and from under cover of night with full stealth masking knowing that the Inagoor would easily spot the mirage haze and light warping of our stealth fields during the day. The gravity of the moon is comparable to ours, if slightly less, so it seemed like it would be an easy trek. I determined that only 2 rest stops would be needed instead of three. Our landing distance assisting in our stealth attempt, and thus adding to our chances of successful surprise attack.
Our intel determined that the pirates had recently raided the Tau shipping lanes, and had taken hostages for the purposes of ransom and slave sales. Our unit was tasked with forward observation and intel gathering of the pirates before termination of their operation, and to report all intel direct to command via secured subspace micro-pulse.
The Flora and Fauna scans determined that this moon was a Class 4 temperate world with no signs of natural life forms rated as sentient.
At our first predetermined rest location we discovered a burn mark cutting a path through the foliage as though a small vessel of some kind had made a controlled emergency landing. Scanners indicated that the craft was emitting power output signals, and was only a short distance from our location. We proceeded to rest and recuperate under the cover of the stealth fields with both live, and drone perimeter guards for security. The rest cycle was extended to insure that the guards could rotate so that all were rested and ready. I had decided that the investigation of the small craft could wait until after our main mission was complete when one of our forward scout drones sent my linkpad some images flagged for immediate review.
The images were of an Inagoor corpse. It was...dismembered. Torn limb from limb and the barrel chested, fur covered torso had chunks ripped out of it. (Images in file listed SET 1) The closeups of the
torso showed that the gaping rents and holes were not impact points of a projectile weapon nor were they of a beam, or energy weapon. No charring of flesh or fur, and no melting or blast marks on their suits armor plating. It simply looked as though an appendage had been grabbed and pulled off. The armor, as well as the flesh underneath, was simply torn off of the main corpse. The dismembered limbs were in the same condition, and save one other notable clue which was that there were obvious "gripping points" where the armor was crushed, and the bone beneath these areas was pulverized. The Inagoor's infra Red pulse rifle was found partially embedded in the trunk of a tree. Its "combat rated" frame had been crushed and wadded up as though it was a piece of waste paper. Its power cell was ruptured and leaking. The scout drone had marked it as a hazard zone out to 30 pace lengths and labeled as "lethal chemical hazard". I informed my second in command, and we reviewed the images together. He was as dumbfounded as I. What native beast could have done this kind of damage to powered assault armor?
(Addendum:)
The Drone was unable to locate the Inagoor's head in the immediate area.
(Addendum ends:)
My second and I resolved to scout this issue as a priority. We did not want to engage our current mission only to have an unknown element interfere and compromise mission success. As per command prerogative, I shared the drones information with the rest of the squad personnel, and reformed mission parameters around this element. Mission AI rated a 92% agreement with my assessment. Well within command parameters. We arrived at the location of the drones discovery in 4 hours. Our visors highlighted the chemical hazard of the leaking power module, and its set perimeter was also highlighted by our personal visor AI, and we all gave it a wide berth. The Inagoor was indeed scattered everywhere as the drones images had relayed with one exception. The smell was horrendous, and sickening. The stench of the Inagoor's "parts" indicated that it had been killed only 2 day/night rotations ago, and already some sort of fungus growth had begun to creep into the strewn dismembered parts and pieces. On every life bearing world, nature always has a cleanup crew. On closer examination of the "parts" we determined that the only explanation of this incident was that some creature had simply grabbed the Inagoor and ripped him apart, flinging the pieces in random directions in the process. The Inagoor's armor was their combat rated class, which is their equivalent to our front line infantry armor, powered of course. It was just torn apart as if it was a Tk'turka wedding veil. Armor that can withstand a pulse from an infra Red rifle at close range, or the puncture of a ballistic needler at point blank range had been torn apart, as if it were made of nothing sturdier than plant filament.
The grip points visible on the appendages did indeed look squeezed/crushed, and the separation points showed signs of literally being "pulled" apart. Not cut. Not chopped, but PULLED apart. The Inagoor are from level 9 temperate worlds and are thus pretty tough, and considered very strong even to a majority of other sentient species. Yet something far, FAR, stronger just pulled them apart. My visor AI showed the majority of my squad running "weapon ready" checks, and a few more scout drones were tossed into the air to begin new stealth patrols.
It wasn't long before another Inagoor corpse was found in the direction of the unidentified craft that
had "seemingly" crash landed.
This Inagoor's corpse was simply pinned to a tree. Its back was against the trunk, and the Inagoor's pulse rifle was pushed through its torso and into the tree trunk thus pinning it a pace off of the ground. Whatever creature did this to the Inagoor, had used the butt of the rifle to penetrate completely through the Inagoor's chest cavity, and further into the tree trunk, thus pinning the Inagoor. My visor AI noted more "Weapons Ready Checks" as well as one of the newer members of the squad using a dose of Stimcalm. My visor AI noted the dose as well within regulation, and I chose to flag it for review for his after mission performance evaluation. (Noted in File marked VA1. attached) I was actually considering using a dose of Stimcalm myself, as my second reoriented the stealth drones to a new scout pattern. Rather than taking the stim I began reviewing database information for "nearest Deathworld locations” from current location, and the AI promptly informed me that none were reachable within a standard week of FTL travel at NOK* 6 speed. I relayed this information to my second, and he reciprocated with a listing of the most dangerous lifeforms on this moon. None were capable of this level of violence by orders of magnitude.
I also noted that there were many burn holes in the vegetation in this area. Obviously the discharge of the pulse rifle was futile in halting the violence that occurred even if the Inagoor had made direct hits. The updated drone orientation revealed a new element to this mystery soon after. The visor alert from the drone was not unexpected, but still caught me off guard. I opened up the video footage, and saw a scene of carnage that staggered my rational mind. Many, MANY Inagoor corpses were strewn about a small clearing in the vegetation. All of them were not merely killed but ripped apart and scattered just like the first corpse we encountered. I am not ashamed to admit that I was so visibly sickened that my second inquired as to my health and mental state. As is my command authority to do so I relayed the drones footage to him. Then I too, took a regulation dosage of Stimcalm. As is noted in the file attached I also ordered my second to share the footage from the drone to the rest, and pre-authorized them to also take a regulation dose of Stimcalm, IF they felt they needed it after reviewing the drones footage.
Upon closer examination of the footage we could see the "fin" of a craft sticking up from the other side of a nearby hill. The site of the visceral carnage was a short distance from the crafts resting position. I, and my second reviewed the footage a few more times, and weighed the pros and cons of sending the drone over the rise, and within full sight of the downed vessel. I came to the conclusion that the possible loss of a stealth drone was far less costly, and far more prudent, than the loss than a squad member, and so I authorized the reroute. What the drone showed us next was intriguing to say the least.
The drone's path was kept slow and close to the foliage line so as not to expose too much of a blur signature, but, as it came into line of sight of our objective we saw that the craft was indeed, of some strange alien design. Its structure and air frame looked almost completely undamaged. Boxy though, and clumsy in appearance it had long airfoils sticking out from its sides and a tall one sticking straight up from its reatail. An enormous alien who was twice our height and bipedal was working on some component in an opened hatch in the side of the craft, and there were other aliens assisting it. A Craxx was handing it a tool of some kind, and a Piryllek was holding some illumination device next to it so that the enormous alien could see what it was doing. A Moorkha, with its brightly colored feathers, was working with a blue-green scaled Sithys. Together, they were making preparations for a meal of some sort. A black furred Glerff suddenly stood on its hind legs and looked straight at the drone. its yellow feather-patterned antennae quivering. We had been spotted!
The aliens that we could name registered in the operational AI as the abductees from the afore mentioned recent raids on the shipping lanes, and when the Glerff alerted the others they all stopped what they were doing, and started chattering wildly at the giant, who then reached for some sort of computational device and began fiddling with it. It did not look as the giant was concerned overly, but, simply curious. The suit it was wearing was scorched in many areas, and the hide that showed through the holes in its clothing was light brown with red splotches. These were definitely wound sites on the unidentified alien. If these were the wounds suffered from the infra Red pulse rifle fire, then they likely only caused this creature some mild irritation and inconvenience. Its face was hairy, as was its head, and the left mandible, hair burned away was swollen and blistered. A pulse rifle shot to his face perhaps? There were obvious signs of it being shot all over it’s limbs and torso, and yet it was still alive and breathing? Impossible! What was this thing?
It was apparent from the drone video that this alien was over twice our height. It stood head and shoulders taller than the Moorkha, and with triple its mass. The Moorkha quieted the others, and began cooing at the giant, making a visible sign to breathe deeply and calmly while stroking the giants fore appendages and digits, as we witnessed this process via the live feed. The fur above one of its ocular organs (it had 2, side by side, and front facing.) rose a bit but it otherwise seemed to relax and looked in the direction of the drone that the Glerff was still pointing at.
Based on this evidence I chose to drop the cloak on the drone and send it slowly to the Glerff as it was the closest. When the drone was within verbal communication distance I sent my voice through the drone to introduce myself.
"I am Ak'kik. Leader of SH'azz squad. We have come to investigate, and rescue you and your fellow abductees. Do you require assistance?", I said with as much authority in my tone as I am capable of. "Most assuredly Ak'kik, though we are no longer in danger thanks to our new friend that rescued us. Although I do not believe that he did so intentionally. The pirates that abducted us attacked it as soon as it’s craft crash landed. The pirates made the mistake of shooting it. That failed to kill it, and only made it angry. When they persistently kept shooting it, it subsequently became enraged." The Glerff shuddered, but seemed to regain control of its emotions quickly.
"The pirates are no more. The pirates that attempted to flee were pursued, and exterminated. The base the pirates held us in was likewise cleansed of the pirates by our rescuer. Our rescuer is very, very fast and very, very strong. Please do NOT shoot it. You would not survive should you do so. Also, it seems to be an omnivore. PLEASE! Do not anger it. I beg you!"
I responded with calm. "Please tell it that we will be there shortly and that we have no intentions of violence. We only wish to rescue the abductees."
"I can't." The Glerff replied quickly. "None of us speak its language and it does not know ours. We have no Data AI's to link to its technology to work out language algorithms. I think the aliens technology is also damaged. It keeps having to go to its’ ships control station to check for power readings.
Communicating with it has been a challenge, though oddly pleasant. It is quite patient and amenable, when it is not killing pirates in an excessively psychotic state. As terrified as I am of this creature, I cannot help but be curious about it. I am sure you will find it to be a pleasant, and respectful entity if you approach calmly, and with no hostility."
I thought for a moment. "Please try to keep it calm and we will try to make our approach as calmly, and respectfully as possible. We will endeavor at all costs, not provoke it."
"I should think not!" said the Glerff showing some alarm. “Since the extermination of the pirates I have personally observed it lifting enormous amounts of weight without strain. Seen it consume it’s rations which looked to be a combination of vegetable, AND meat with vigor. Much of which I am confirming was poisonous using an analyzer that once belonged to the pirates. The analyzer shows that some of its’ rations would be considered lethally poisonous to every species that I know of."
He held the analyzer screen to the drone for confirmation, as he continued speaking. "I am not an expert in the field of chemistry, so I would strongly suggest you scan whatever food he offers you before you eat it. Please note that refusing his "gift" of food does not insult him. Just hand it back to him if it is inedible, and then he will eat it himself."
The alien approached the drone that the Glerff was speaking to, and then picked up a silvery pouch from the makeshift table that the Moorkha was working over. It peeled the top off, and it ate the dark brown bar in 3 bites, then nodded to the drone, and went back to it’s repairs.
"What he just ate, by the way..." The Glerff said turning back to the drone. "...the analyzer states contains some alarming chemical chains. Theobromine, Phenylethylamine which look to be nearly lethal stimulants. Massive amounts of caffeine, Taurine, and Niacin as well. Oh dear, uh. By the nesting Gods! Leader Ak'kik, What it just ate could poison a small colony just on the amount of caffeine alone. But the amount of Capsaicin he just ate is even worse, FAR worse. PLEASE, please, refrain from angering it." he was still scanning the data in astonishment. "And, er, and this is most important, your weapons would be useless against it. It is incredibly fast, and can quite literally jump across this glade in a single bound. I think it came from a very high gravity planet. Maybe even a Deathworld. I vehemently recommend caution, and I strongly feel it necessary to reiterate, do NOT anger it, or incur its’ ire! Oh, and by the way, I did use the analyzer on it, it allowed me to do so, actually. the Analyzer data shows that there is probably nothing on this moon that it cannot eat, including us."
I replied, not through the drone this time as I was close enough in my approach that I no longer needed it. "Leader Ak'kik, at your service. Whom am I addressing?"
"Ah, apologies, I am professor Roonoomoo, and this is service master EEG'lix. That one there is Vorvert, and over there is D'rrr, and Higuv is just to the left of the table, and the two who are helping our rescuer are Woosk, and Rakk'n. It is a pleasure to meet you in return Leader Ak'kik."
"So you were saying some of the items on the table surface are actual foods that it eats? This is its’ food that it brought?" I said looking at the multitude of pouches and containers on the table.
“Oh yes. We made eating motions when we were trying to establish communications with it, to ask it for food, and he brought us this trove. He opened a package for us, and offered it, but, Woosk went into near panic when he saw that it was animal meat of some sort. After that he just spread everything out, and made a motion for us to inspect it for ourselves. All of us ate what the analyzer said was safe but that was not much of a variety. It turns out that there were only 2 packages all of us could eat. We saved the empty packages to show the alien what we ate once he is finished working. So that we do not risk angering it, you understand. Woosk and Rakk'n decided to offer what assistance they could after they ate, and have been doing so since then."
"May I be introduced to the alien now? I may have some tech that could help. If you will be so kind as to bring it here to us, as I would not want to trespass on its established area of operations, and be mistaken as hostile. We are obviously carrying weapons, and us approaching it...and its ship seems a questionable choice, at best."
"Very wise, Leader Ak'kik, I will see what I can do. I won't be but a moment. “Uh, er, you might want to hold on to that”, indicating the analyzer “and use it before you decide to touch anything on this table.", he said as he handed me the analyzer.
Professor Roonoomoo went to the alien ,and gently patted the joint in the middle of its lower appendage. The alien looked at professor Roonoomoo, who was pointing at us, and trying to explain us with hand signals and gestures, that we wished an introduction. When the alien looked at us we all, as a squad, showed it out empty hands as our weapons had been placed on the ground by our sides. it simply made a wave of one of its upper appendages, as if to say, “come here”. We approached with our empty hands plainly visible. As we approached it, it knelt. Not in surrender, or in supplication, but rather to level our mutual eye line. I realized that it was making an attempt to be polite.
I SLOWLY patted a stow pouch on my utility harness, and it nodded as though it seemed to understand, and motioned me to proceed. I held out the translator AI slate, "TAIS" and it took it, and then touched it to a device it wore on the wrist of its upper arm. (note that I am assuming proper body anatomy, based off of our own, although there are few similarities.) This alien was not only one of the largest I have seen, but also must be of a quite dense mass. As in its anatomy, and not its mental state, for it shook the ground around it with every step.
After a few moments there was a "chirping" sound from his device, and our coms alerted us to a new language file available. I allowed the exchange through my visor, and we were suddenly speaking to each other. I chose to make introductions first.
"I am Ak'kik. Leader of SH'azz squad. We have come to investigate and rescue these abductees. Do you require assistance?"
It held out it's hand as it spoke. "Bartholomew Wane Hatfield. Friends call me Bart." this aliens voice boomed at us.
"I was mining the asteroid belt in this system, when I caught a rogue asteroid right in the nads. Power plant was having a conniption fit after that so I figured I better set her down where I could patch her up. flying this old girl by wire is a bitch but, we got a thing so…"
This was the literal translation we initially received. As you can imagine, we were all quite confused.
"I beg your pardon unknown alien species, but the translation unit seems to be malfunctioning. We do not quite understand all of your words, we have no equivalent in our language for some, even though we seem to be communicating."
The sides of it’s facial orifice turned upward, revealing a multi-functional set fangs. Some pointed and some chisel shaped. Making it obvious it was an omnivore. Our visor AI stated that it “perceived” it was amused. It spoke into it’s wrist device, and it chirped in response. A second later our visor registered a "receive transmission" request. I allowed it, and this is what the visor AI showed us by way of "corrected translation".
"Bartholomew Wane Hatfield. Friends call me Bart.”
[REQUEST FOR FRIENDSHIP. THE USE OF "BART' ACKNOWLEDGES AND ACCEPTS FRIEND REQUEST]
“I was mining the asteroid belt in this system when I caught a rogue asteroid, right in the nads.”
[ASTEROID DAMAGED CRAFT IN CRITICAL LOCATION]
“Power plant was having a conniption fit after that so I figured I better set her down where I could patch her up.”
[POWER PLANT OPERATING WITH INTERMITTENT FAILURES. IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY REPAIR IS REQUIRED.]
“Flying this old girl by wire is a bitch but, we got a thing so..."
[LANDED SHIP WITHOUT COMPUTER ASSISTANCE OR ASSISTED CONTROLS. I AM EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO SHIP.]
I replied with, "AH, thank you for the subtext. Bart. I can see that your language has a vernacular art to it. I am culturally fascinated by such a language. Polite request. What is your power plant, and what is its power source? We may be able to assist with our spare component sets. Please feel free to not detail your technology to us, if it is security bound. We will not be insulted."
The alien again showed its fangs with a deep resonating, yet pleasant, vocal repetition. [LAUGHTEAMUSED]
"It's old tech stuff, by about 20 generations or so, but it's cheap, and reliable, common knowledge, and easy to repair. It’s a paired enriched uranium atom cracker.”
[DUAL/PAIRED NUCLEAR CORE POWER GENERATOR. EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS.}
"Chasing blinking lights mostly. When the asteroid hit, the core spiked, and caused a number of shorts and jumps."
[POWER SURGE CAUSED MULTIPLE SHORTS AND POSSIBLE INTERMITTENT ARC / SHORT IN SYSTEM.]
I nodded my understanding to the alien Bart. I then asked the engineer of my squad if he would be willing to assist. Corporal Zi'Kict accepted the challenge, though it looked as though anxiety, and fear
of "Bart" might overwhelm his current Stimcalm dose. "This is Corporal Zi'Kict. He is our designated engineer, and he has agreed to assist you. You can decline with no insult incurred."
He flashes us his fangs again. [HAPPY] His species, whatever it was, seemed to be fond of showing their teeth often.
"Hell, I never turn down a helpin' hand. Grab whatever it is y'all use, and let's get to chasin’ sparks."
[ASSISTANCE IS WELCOME]
"Uh, Bart. I must ask, what are your intentions with those that we were designated to rescue? If there is good will between us I would like to ensure that we, my crew and I, be given liberty return them to their families, and respective worlds. Will this be acceptable to you?"
"You go on right ahead, bless yer’ heart."
[ACCEPTANCE OF PROPOSAL WITH WELL WISHES TO YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE.]
“I'll miss these 'uns. Their nice and friendly."
[FONDNESS]
"Not like those other jackhole fecktards."
[REFERING TO PIRATES. INSULT INTENDED TOWARD PIRATES AND PIRACY.
{insult "jackhole" refers to anal orifice. "Fecktards" derogatory reference to mentally damaged or deranged individuals with severely limited mental capacity that act inappropriately.}]
"I understand and concur with your insult of the pirates, and thank you for your understanding, your patience, and your friendship. With your permission I would like to redirect my ship to your encampment so our medtech device can confirm their current health. If it is not offensive, I would like to offer our medtech device to scan you as well, and determine if it is capable of repairing your injuries also. Refusal will not be considered an insult. My squad engineer will will assist you as needed, and our spare components are at your disposal. Friend Bart."
"Well bless yer heart, that would be dandy with me. Much obliged!"
[ACCEPTANCE OF PROPOSAL WITH WELL WISHES TO YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE. IMMENSE THANKS]
I bowed to the alien I now called friend Bart, and went to co-ordinate the rescue operation, and sent the AI to bring the ship to my location. Since my priority was the health and safety of the of the abductees I spent the majority of my remaining time with them.
The alien required only a single spool of CronWire, and a span of shielded conduit, a simple enough repair. The abductees were tended to medically, fed, and shown to their racks. We allowed the abductees to contact their loved ones through our secured communications net. The alien allowed our medtech device to repair its burns, but it was unable to regrow the lost hair on its face. Friend Bart removed the rest of the hair around its mandible orifice with a small device, saying that he had to keep the balance. The squad medic timidly requested a full scan of Friend Bart, and Friend Bart was amenable to this.
We left Friend Bart, and watched him take off from orbit a few hours later. My squad medic started pouring over the MedTech device scans of Friend Bart, and quickly went into a fit of panic, and it took a questionable dose of Stimcalm to calm him down. I admit that I glanced at the data, but I am not trained as a medic so I understood nothing. The squad engineer simply handed me a collated list of intel he gathered while working with Friend Bart. They had a lengthy converse, and the engineer had actually formed a bond with Friend Bart. The list is as follows.
Name: Bartholomew Wane Hatfield
Species: Human
Origin: city of Austin in the state of Texas in the country of the United States of the planet Terra of the Sol star system
(system is far past the outer edge of our empire on the frontier side, opposite of coreward.)
Gravity: home normal +4 (4 times greater than our own gravity!)
Planet notes: frequent earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes.
Planet has multiple biosphere, and terrain hazards that are lethal.
Plague level viruses, and bacteria, Multiple predators in every biosphere.
(See files freely given by Friend Bart) [FILESTORE- FriendBart01a]
NOTE: great white shark, alligator, saltwater crocodiles, king cobra, wolf, pit bulls, and other canines, polar bears, poison dart frog, hippopotamus, killer whale, rhinoceros, box jellyfish, cone snail, hyena, stone fish, black mamba, grizzly bears, puffer fish, komodo dragon, death stalker scorpion, lions, leopards, brown recluse spider, black widow spider, Brazillian wandering spider, electric eel, etc.
Please note that this list is merely a VERY small fraction of the actual list. My understanding is that the home planet of Friend Bart is at least a level 10-12 Deathworld. He also states that many of the species on this list are kept as pets by his fellow humans.
The squad engineer states he will send in a request for allowance of continued discourse with Friend Bart, but understands if this request is denied. After careful deliberation with the squad medic, we strongly recommend that the details of this mission be put to the SEC level at Black 8 tier 12 restricted, or higher, if there is a level higher than Black 8 tier 12 restricted.
Captain Ak'kik. Leader of SH'azz squad
[END OF REPORT]
mektreks*Aprox. One Terran kilometer equivalent.
NOK* Measurement of warp travel. 1NOK = speed of light

Title. I have verified, run as admin, fully closed/logged out and restarted, waited hours, loaded into AC (which worked), and tried different regions.
Every time, when I try to join a server in the PU - it crashes to desktop with no error message (just a blank crash report they want you to fill out).
Does anyone have another fix I can try here?

It's been a week now and I don't know if I should call the police or leave it be.
Last Saturday my boyfriend, 18yo male, me, 20yo female, made the mistake of venturing out too far for date night. Date night lately has meant visiting nature and various parks. We try to go to a new one each time to ensure it's always an adventure. We usually reminisce, take pictures, and enjoy the scenery. It's especially great for when it's warm out. Nothing beats the sound of frogs singing a lullaby as you walk through the woods.
When we got to the park, my boyfriend was so giddy to show me around. This was the spot He and his dad used to go fishing. It was one of many spots their family frequented. Because of that I think I'll call the park... fish valley. For anonymity of course.
The first thing I noticed about fish valley was how secluded it was. There were open areas and spots to sit down. Plenty of activites to do and plenty of touristy sights to see. The park WAS quite large but throughout our 2 hour excursion I would have expected to see more than like two person. This was definitely odd but it didn't set off alarm bells in my mind just yet.
We walked north admiring the view. Eventually we made it to a bridge under a railroad track. Rocks, cobwebs, and graffiti covered the underside. Above was a set of railroad tracks. My boyfriend, knowing I love railroads, caught me taking intrest and grabbed me by my wrist. He showed me up to the tracks and my.. was it beautiful. Everything was overgrown. Even more, the further we followed, the prettier and more untouched the land became.
Out of all the urbex spots we've visited, none have come close the sheer beauty that those tracks divided. I still wish I could've gotten more photos.
By the end of our journey, we made it to a rail junction where three old cargo trains lay in wait. On the left track, one train car and the right, two train cars positioned one in front of the other. It was perfect. Me and my boyfriend scooted between the cars and held eachother. Man, I love him so much. I broke the moment when nature called. My bladder screamed at me and I set off to find a spot to do my buisness.
So before you come at me, I am a shy peer. I didn't stop on the way despite the obvious lack of people, because I did not want to take the risk. There were bushy areas but nothing that could cover me well enough to give my consciousness the strength to go number 1 in public. Soooo I did what any lady would have done and waited to find a more private area. Dumb idea in retrospect but what can you do.
My plan was to just pop a squat off to the side of the tracks. I took a right tords the bushes and did my thing. On my way back, I stopped. My blood ran cold. My boyfriend trotted over to me where he saw the small campsite. Rocks were laid out In a circle and bright prink laced panties were wrapped across a bed of leaves and grass.
This got me thinking. What if someone saw me? Then a scarier thought hit me. What if they were still here.
My man reasured me telling me that the spot looked old. When I look back on it, I think he was just saying that so I wouldn't panic.
We covered up the sight and resumed our previous activities.
As we headed back to the spot between the train cars, I couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling from before. Despite his blind confidence, the once-romantic setting had begun to feel ominous and eerie. Every rustle in the bushes made my heart race. I remember glancing around, each shadow and sound amplifying my anxiety. My boyfriend tried once again to pull me back into the moment but I couldn’t take it anymore.
As we hugged, I begged him to go back. He didn't want to but I could tell he felt my fear. When it was dim, we readied ourselves to make the long journey back.
We hurried towards the bridge, but a nagging feeling made me glance over my shoulder. That’s when I saw him—a disheveled man emerging from the bushes, holding a metal pipe. It was like something out of a horror movie. His eyes were wild, and he moved with a menacing purpose.
My boyfriend still has a bruise from where I grabbed him. I yanked him to my side so hard he practically yelped.
The last thing I rememeber is us sprinting towards the bridge, our footsteps pounding against the dirt path. The man was behind us with the pipe clutched tightly in his hand. For someone so skinny and old, he ran like he was in fighting for an olympic medal. Luckily or not, the adrenaline coursing through my veins was just enough of a match for the old man.
Me and my boyfriend managed to dart under the railroad bridge, the darkness beneath it momentarily swallowing us. The man’s footsteps echoed, growing louder. We headed towards the swampy area of the water, hoping to lose him in the dense underbrush. The air was thick with humidity, making it hard to breathe.
We zigzagged through the trees, the sound of pursuit close behind. My legs burned, and my lungs felt like they were on fire, but stopping wasn’t an option. I glanced back and saw the man still chasing us, his face twisted with determination and madness.
The saving grace was my boyfriend spotting a narrow path leading back to the park entrance. We bolted towards it, the trees closing in around us. Branches scratched at our skin, and the undergrowth tangled around our feet, but we didn’t dare slow down.
As we burst out onto the main path, we practically collapsed in the grass. The man was no where to be seen. We made it. We were safe but not unharmed. Cuts and bruises heal but the memory of that night haunts me. I can't get his eyes out if my mind.
I know it was illegal to trespass onto those tracks and that was our first mistake but a part of me wants to know what that man was doing out there in the first place. Was he the reason why it was so quiet? And why did he have that pipe.
My mind has been filling in the blanks for me lately. I wish I could forget this incident.

Is there anyone who knows, or is there any sort of transcript of what the spoken dialog is in Light It Up? Of course, it’s very clear to hear a male voice saying “Dark triangles, and light triangles”, followed by a female voice saying “Yes” and “Save me”. But I used a website to isolate the different layers of sound, and around 4:50 the female voice says something like “Is it okay if I… [?]” followed by the male voice “It’s okay. This is all… [?]”
Can anyone fill in the blanks? Thanks!

TW:::: Hello all! I have 3 children a 6yo and my twins boys who are 18 months. I'll tell my daughter's birth story on another post but this one is specifically my twins. So I was due to deliver my fraternal twin boys December 2022. I was to be induced on the 14th at 38 weeks. I made it until then but was 6cm dilated so I wouldn't have made it much longer anyways haha. So we got to the hospital and all hooked up, had my water broke and started pitocin.. it was about 4 hours of pretty consistent contractions before I got my epidural. After that my baby As heart rate started dropping down to the 50s with every contraction. I was 9cm so they took me to the OR to push. Side note: I didn't want a c section and my Dr was comfortable delivering my twins naturally. I had to be in the OR just in case something happened or some kind of emergency arose, then I could easily be put under to get the babies out. So when we got to the OR I was told to start pushing. By baby A came out fairly quickly, head down, but he was purple. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck TWICE..... which is why his heart rate was dipping so low. Dad cut his cord and I got to hold him while they monitored my baby B in the mean time. I was warned ahead of time that sometimes twins freak out when their sibling suddenly dissappears and the panic and it turns to an emergency..... another side note: the anesthesiologist had left the room and when they paged him he never showed up.... and guess what happened... my baby B suddenly went blank....they took my baby A away from me and then they pushed the ultrasound machine across the room and went elbow deep to get his feet. They took turns over and over trying to get his feet and after 4 or 5 attempts they finally got both feet. I couldn't be put under for an emergency c section without the anesthesiologist present.... they pulled his feet out and then grabbed his belly. He was sunny side up (and breech) so his chin lifted and he got stuck on my pubic bone. I was literally being SCREAMED at to push and believe me I was pushing as hard as I could. Finally his chin popped loose and when they lifted him up he was ghost white. They cut his cord and took him to the table to start resuscitation.... after 2 minutes they announced his time of birth and said he was alive. He was then hooked up to a whole bunch of different things-- he had tubes all over his face and down his throat, IV, blood pressure cuff on his leg and a mask over his tiny little face but he was okay! He went to NICU for 26 hours but then he was able to come be with me and his brother. He was almost life flighted because our hospital isnt equipped to handle trauma in that sense, but my little guy defied all odds placed against him! They were born 13 minutes apart and the weighed the exact same amount. Today they are 18 months old and the craziest boys I've ever seen! 💙💙 my whole heart was filled

DAY: MAY 26 2024
5-26-2024

AI CHATBOTS ARE INTRUDING INTO ONLINE COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO CONNECT WITH OTHER HUMANS

A parent asked a question in a private Facebook group in April 2024: Does anyone with a child who is both gifted and disabled have any experience with New York City public schools? The parent received a seemingly helpful answer that laid out some characteristics of a specific school, beginning with the context that “I have a child who is also 2e,” meaning twice exceptional. On a Facebook group for swapping unwanted items near Boston, a user looking for specific items received an offer of a “gently used” Canon camera
5-26-2024

MICROSOFT’S AI CHATBOT WILL ‘RECALL’ EVERYTHING YOU DO ON A PC

Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you’re doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next. The software giant on Monday revealed a new class of AI-imbued personal
5-26-2024

AI RELIES ON MASS SURVEILLANCE, WARNS SIGNAL BOSS

The AI tools that crunch numbers, generate text and videos and find patterns in data rely on mass surveillance and exercise concerning control over our lives, the boss of encrypted messaging app Signal told AFP on Thursday. Pushing back against the unquestioning enthusiasm at VivaTech in Paris, Europe’s top startup conference where industry players vaunt the merits of their products, Meredith Whittaker said concerns about surveillance and those about AI were “two framings
5-26-2024

THE ‘DEAD INTERNET THEORY’ MAKES EERIE CLAIMS ABOUT AN AI-RUN WEB. THE TRUTH IS MORE SINISTER

An example of a shrimp Jesus image on Facebook with no caption or context information included in the post. Credit: Facebook If you search “shrimp Jesus” on Facebook, you might encounter dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI) generated crustaceans meshed in various forms with a stereotypical image of Jesus Christ. Some of these hyper-realistic images have garnered more than 20,000 likes and comments. So what exactly is going on here? The “dead internet theory” has an explanation: AI and bot-generated content has surpassed the human-generated internet. But where did
5-26-2024

WHAT ARE DEEPFAKES AND SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?

Deepfakes are creating havoc across the globe, spreading fake news and pornography, being used to steal identities, exploiting celebrities, scamming ordinary people and even influencing elections. Yet a worldwide survey found 71% of people have no idea what deepfakes are. Deepfakes are digital photos, videos or voices of real people that have either been synthetically created or manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) and can be hard to distinguish from the real thing. You’ve probably seen a deepfake video or photo without even realizing it. Computer-generated Tom Cruises,
5-26-2024

META INTRODUCES CHAMELEON, AN EARLY-FUSION MULTIMODAL MODEL

Chameleon represents all modalities—images, text, and code, as discrete tokens and uses a uniform transformer-based architecture that is trained from scratch in an end-to-end fashion on ?10T tokens of interleaved mixed-modal data. As a result, Chameleon can both reason over, as well as generate, arbitrary mixed-modal documents. Text tokens are represented in green and image tokens are represented in blue. AI researchers at Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and many other products, have designed and built a multimodal model to compete with
5-26-2024

ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES MAY YIELD SIGNIFICANT HEALTH AND CLIMATE BENEFITS, COST SAVINGS

Replacing diesel school buses with electric school buses may yield up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits per individual bus, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers found that these benefits—including fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduced rates of adult mortality and childhood asthma—and their associated savings are strongest in large cities and among fleets of old (2005 and before) buses. The study, “Adopting electric school buses in the United States: health and climate benefits,” was published in the
5-26-2024

WEARABLE DEVICES GET SIGNAL BOOST FROM NEW MATERIAL

Strain-invariant stretchable wireless system enabled by dielectro-elastic composite. A new material that moves like skin while preserving signal strength in electronics could enable the development of next-generation wearable devices with continuous, consistent wireless and battery-free functionality. According to a study published today in Nature, an international team of researchers from Rice University and Hanyang University developed the material by embedding clusters of highly dielectric ceramic nanoparticles into an elastic polymer. The material was reverse-engineered to not only mimic skin elasticity and motion types, but also
5-26-2024

AI DOMINATES ANNUAL PARIS STARTUP EVENT VIVATECH

Vivatech will host more than 150,000 guests, 11,000 startups and 450 speakers over four days. Thousands of tech enthusiasts filed into Europe’s self-declared biggest startup event VivaTech in Paris on Wednesday, with artificial intelligence stealing the show this year. Over four days, the event, now in its eighth year, will host more than 150,000 guests, 11,000 startups and 450 speakers, according to the organizers. The star turns will take to the stage on Thursday—former US climate envoy and secretary of state John Kerry is expected to make a push for
5-26-2024

AI POISED TO USHER IN NEW LEVEL OF CONCIERGE SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC

AI concierge’s fundamental forms. Credit: Journal of Service Management (2024). Concierge services built on artificial intelligence have the potential to improve how hotels and other service businesses interact with customers, a new paper suggests. In the first work to introduce the concept, researchers have outlined the role an AI concierge, a technologically advanced assistant, may play in various areas of the service sector as well as the different forms such a helper might embody. Their paper envisions a virtual caretaker that, by combining natural language processing, behavioral data
5-26-2024

AGE VERIFICATION FOR SOCIAL MEDIA WOULD IMPACT EVERYONE—RESEARCHERS ASK PARENTS AND KIDS IF THEY ACTUALLY WANT IT

by Justine Humphry, Catherine Page Jeffery, Jonathon Hutchinson and Olga Boichak, The Conversation This month the Australian government announced a A$6.5 million commitment to trial an age-verification program that will restrict children’s exposure to inappropriate online content, including pornography and potentially social media. The announcement came out of a National Cabinet meeting geared towards addressing gender-based violence in Australia. Much has been said about age-checking technologies in the weeks since. Experts point out implementing these tools effectively (so they aren’t easily by-passed) will be complicated—and any such system could come
5-26-2024

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? AIRLINE SAFETY EXPERT ON MODERN COMMERCIAL FLIGHT

In light of recent news regarding congressional action on aviation safety, Penn State News spoke with Amy Pritchett, department head of aerospace engineering and professor in Penn State’s College of Engineering. Pritchett previously served as the director of NASA’s Aviation Safety Program and currently chairs the National Academies committee chartered to research and advise federal regulators on emerging trends in aviation safety. In
5-26-2024

USING SMART DEVICES TO SCHEDULE ON-DEMAND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CAN SAVE TIME AND MONEY

Suburban residents often face challenges receiving reliable and accessible bus transit—riders often complain about infrequent schedules and long waiting times. Often, transit agencies are unable to provide additional buses because population density in such areas is usually low. On-demand transit (ODT) is an innovative transportation approach that enhances the accessibility and quality of service while reducing operating costs. Despite the rapid growth of ODT services in various cities across Canada and the United States, the mechanism of
5-26-2024

UNDERWATER SIGNALS GENERATED BY OPEN SEA AIRPLANE CRASHES COULD BE KEY TO DETECTING FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MH370

Location of the CTBTO’s hydroacoustic stations H11N and H11S (white triangles); the impact location of three aircrafts (indicated in yellow): F-35a, Transair Flight 810, and Asiana Flight 991; and the distances and bearings relative to the hydroacoustic stations (presented in magenta). The cyan star shows the location of earthquake M 4.8–9 km S of Y?kaichiba, Japan, 2014-03-07 18:34:20 (UTC) 35.611o N 140.552o E 23.9 km depth. Signals captured on underwater microphones could be key to locating airplanes such as MH370 when they crash into
5-26-2024

SURVEY INVESTIGATES AI TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSIFICATION AND CREATION OF ART

A comprehensive survey has looked at the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI). The team has focused on how AI technologies are employed in the classification and also the creation of artworks. Andrej Šimi? and Marina Bagi? Babac of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb have analyzed and categorized a number of research papers in this field to understand the methodologies, techniques, and outcomes in this emerging field. They discuss
5-26-2024

CYBERSECURITY LABELING FOR SMART DEVICES AIMS TO HELP PEOPLE CHOOSE ITEMS LESS LIKELY TO BE HACKED

Smart devices like baby monitors, fitness trackers and internet-connected appliances will soon be eligible for labels certifying that they meet federal cybersecurity standards. Federal officials said Wednesday that the first “Cyber Trust” labels could appear in time for the holiday shopping season. The White House announced the labels last year to help consumers avoid devices that are vulnerable to hacking. Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File Consumer labels
5-26-2024

WORLD LEADERS STILL NEED TO WAKE UP TO AI RISKS, SAY LEADING EXPERTS AHEAD OF AI SAFETY SUMMIT

Leading AI scientists are calling for stronger action on AI risks from world leaders, warning that progress has been insufficient since the first AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park six months ago. Then, the world’s leaders pledged to govern AI responsibly. However, as the second AI Safety Summit in Seoul (21–22 May) approaches, 25 of the world’s leading AI scientists say not enough is actually being done to protect us from the technology’s risks. In an expert consensus paper published in Science, they outline urgent policy priorities that global leaders
5-26-2024

MICROSOFT’S AI CHATBOT WILL ‘RECALL’ EVERYTHING YOU DO ON A PC

Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you’re doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next. The software giant on Monday revealed a new class of AI-imbued personal
5-26-2024

AI TRAINED TO DRAW INSPIRATION FROM IMAGES, NOT COPY THEM

Powerful new artificial intelligence models sometimes, quite famously, get things wrong—whether hallucinating false information or memorizing others’ work and offering it up as their own. To address the latter, researchers led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a framework to train AI models on images corrupted beyond recognition. DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are among the text-to-image diffusion generative AI models that can turn arbitrary user text into highly realistic images. All three are now facing lawsuits from artists who
5-26-2024

AI CHIPS COULD GET A SENSE OF TIME WITH MEMRISTOR THAT CAN BE TUNED

Tunable composition and structural disorder in single-crystalline ESO thin films on epitaxial YBCO electrodes. Credit: Nature Electronics (2024). Artificial neural networks may soon be able to process time-dependent information, such as audio and video data, more efficiently. The first memristor with a “relaxation time” that can be tuned is reported today in Nature Electronics, in a study led by the University of Michigan. Memristors, electrical components that store information in their electrical resistance, could reduce AI’s energy needs by about a factor of 90 compared to today’s graphical
5-26-2024

WHAT GOOGLE AI MEANS FOR YOU—AND YOUR SEARCH RESULTS

Google recently unveiled plans to integrate its search engine with artificial intelligence (AI). The company is debuting a new search engine feature called A.I. Overviews, which generates an overview of the topic a user searches and displays links to learn more. Traditional search results still appear underneath, but A.I. Overviews, Google says, will parse various pieces of information to give you a quicker answer. The new feature has raised concerns from some web publishers, who worry it will deal a heavy blow to their site traffic. Currently, A.I. Overviews don’t
5-26-2024

RESEARCHERS ANALYZE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AI-GENERATED DEEPFAKES

Credit: AI-generated image Most of the deepfakes (videos with fake hyper-realistic recreations) generated by artificial intelligence (AI) that spread through social media feature political representatives and artists and are often linked to current news cycles. This is one of the conclusions of research by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) that analyzes the formal and content characteristics of viral misinformation in Spain arising from the use of AI tools for illicit purposes. This advance represents a step towards understanding and mitigating the threats generated by hoaxes in our society.
5-26-2024

INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP SUGGESTS GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF AI IN SCIENCE

(AI) generates texts, videos and images that can hardly be distinguished from those of humans—with the result that we often no longer know what is real. Researchers and scientists are increasingly being supported by AI. Therefore, an international task force has now developed principles for
5-26-2024

IMPERCEPTIBLE SENSORS MADE FROM ‘ELECTRONIC SPIDER SILK’ CAN BE PRINTED DIRECTLY ON HUMAN SKIN

Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal. Credit: University of Cambridge Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal. The method, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, takes its inspiration from spider silk, which can conform and
5-26-2024

BREAKTHROUGH OR BOAST? THE QUEST FOR COMPARABLE RESEARCH RESULTS

More international attention is being paid to the importance of common standards for performing scientific experiments and measuring their results—a field called metrology. In late 2019, physicist Dr. Lorenzo Pattelli was part of an Italian-Chinese scientific team working on a cooling technology that is fast gaining attention as the Earth gets hotter from climate change. Called passive daytime radiative cooling, or PDRC, the technology uses engineered materials to reflect away the sun’s radiation. The idea is that, amid heat waves, PDRC panels would cool buildings without the need for energy-intensive
5-26-2024

AI-ENHANCED COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TOOLS COULD HELP GIG WORKERS SOLVE PROBLEMS

Researchers at Northeastern University have created artificial intelligence tools to help gig workers organize, collect their own job-related data, analyze their work problems and come up with a strategy to implement solutions. “Building solid AI-enhanced solutions to enable gig workers’ collective action will pave the way for a fair and ethical gig economy—one with fair wages, humane working conditions and increased job security,” says Saiph Savage, assistant professor and director of the Civic A.I. Lab at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Gig work is typically performed by a freelancer
5-26-2024

AI-POWERED TRADING STRATEGIES TAME MARKET SWINGS

Average financial indicators feature importance. Credit: Quantitative Finance and Economics (2024). DOI: 10.3934/QFE.2024007 The dynamic landscape of cryptocurrencies, marked by rapid growth and high volatility since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009, has attracted significant attention from investors and traders. The emergence of new digital currencies challenges traditional financial models, necessitating advanced analytical tools to navigate the market’s unpredictability. The quest for effective trading strategies has led to the exploration of AI and machine learning techniques, which promise to enhance decision-making in this speculative yet lucrative field. Researchers from the University of
5-26-2024

NEW ROBOTIC PALM USES SOPHISTICATED TACTILE SENSORS TO MIMIC HUMAN TOUCH

“I’ll have you eating out of the palm of my hand” is an unlikely utterance you’ll hear from a robot. Why? Most of them don’t have palms. If you have kept up with the protean field, gripping and grasping more like humans has been an ongoing Herculean effort. Now, a new robotic hand design developed in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has rethought the oft-overlooked
5-26-2024

SCARLETT JOHANSSON SAYS A CHATGPT VOICE IS ‘EERILY SIMILAR’ TO HERS AND OPENAI IS HALTING ITS USE

Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers at the photo call for the film “Asteroid City” at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 24, 2023. OpenAI plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices after some drew similarities to Johansson, who famously portrayed a fictional AI assistant in the (perhaps no longer so futuristic) film “Her.” File OpenAI on Monday said it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices that “Her” actor Scarlett Johansson says sounds
5-26-2024

AI HEADPHONES LET WEARER LISTEN TO A SINGLE PERSON IN A CROWD BY LOOKING AT THEM JUST ONCE

A University of Washington team has developed an artificial intelligence system that lets a user wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds and then hear just the enrolled speaker’s voice in real time even as the listener moves around in noisy places and no longer faces the speaker. Pictured is a prototype of the headphone system: binaural microphones attached to off-the-shelf noise canceling headphones. Credit: Kiyomi Taguchi/University of Washington Noise-canceling headphones have gotten very good at creating an auditory blank slate. But allowing certain sounds
5-26-2024

NVIDIA’S PROFIT SOARS, UNDERSCORING ITS DOMINANCE IN CHIPS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Nvidia reports earnings on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Risberg Nvidia on Wednesday overshot Wall Street estimates as its profit skyrocketed, bolstered by the chipmaking dominance that has made the company an icon of the artificial intelligence boom. Its net income rose more than sevenfold compared to a year earlier, jumping to $14.88 billion in its first quarter that ended April 28 from $2.04 billion a year earlier. Revenue
5-26-2024

EIT-BASED TACTILE SENSOR PROVIDES NEW APPROACH TO FINE MOTOR SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Researchers from SIT Japan showed a peg-shaped sensor for classifying adult pinching motions. Reconstructed images reach 79.4% accuracy, while voltage vectors achieve 91.4%, hinting at automated finger motion analysis potential. a) The microcontroller and sensing device are connected by a wire. (b) Hand model pinching the sensing device with two fingers from the horizontal direction and the reconstructed image. Credit: Hiroki Sato from SIT, Japan. Fine motor skills play a crucial role in human cognition, influencing everything from daily activities to the development of advanced tool-based civilizations. Yet, quantifying and
5-26-2024

EUROPE’S CLIMATE LAWS COULD SPELL THE END TO LOW-COST FLIGHTS—BUT WHAT ABOUT PRIVATE JETS?

The era of low-cost air travel in Europe may be over for good, thanks in part to recent EU environmental policies. All in all, this is good news for the climate. But many low- and middle-income people who used to travel around the EU will no longer be able to do so, or at least will be able to do so much less often. Yet the same policies will have little or no impact on the use of much more polluting private jets, which typically cover distances served by commercial
5-26-2024

ROBOT-PHOBIA COULD EXASPERATE HOTEL, RESTAURANT LABOR SHORTAGE

Using more robots to close labor gaps in the hospitality industry may backfire and cause more human workers to quit, according to a Washington State University study. The study, involving more than 620 lodging and food service employees, found that “robot-phobia”—specifically the fear that robots and technology will take human jobs—increased workers’ job insecurity and stress, leading to greater intentions to leave their jobs. The impact was more pronounced with employees who had real experience working with robotic technology. It also affected managers in addition to frontline workers. The findings
5-26-2024

TWO TYPES OF LLMS FOUND ABLE TO EQUAL OR OUTPERFORM HUMANS ON THEORY OF MIND TESTS

Performance of human (purple), GPT-4 (dark blue), GPT-3.5 (light blue) and LLaMA2-70B (green) on the battery of theory of mind tests. a, Original test items for each test showing the distribution of test scores for individual sessions and participants. b, Interquartile ranges of the average scores on the original published items (dark colors) and novel items (pale colors) across each test. An international team of psychologists and neurobiologists has found via experimentation that two types of LLMs are able to equal or outperform
5-26-2024

SANOFI ALLIES WITH OPENAI, FORMATION BIO FOR AI USE IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT

AI is playing an ever greater role in developing new medicines, as well as identifying new applications for existing drugs. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced Tuesday a partnership with ChatGPT-founder OpenAI and US biotech firm Formation Bio to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in developing drugs. AI is playing an ever greater role in developing new medicines, as well as identifying new applications for existing drugs. It can be used for example to find new molecules more quickly and to improve clinical tests by vetting which patients would be
5-26-2024

USING AI, MASTERCARD EXPECTS TO FIND COMPROMISED CARDS QUICKER, BEFORE THEY GET USED BY CRIMINALS

A sign indicating MasterCard credit cards are accepted is posted at a New York business, Jan. 21, 2015. Mastercard said Wednesday, May 21, 2024, that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File Mastercard said Wednesday that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal.
5-26-2024

NEW FLEXIBLE FILM DETECTS EYELASH PROXIMITY IN BLINK-TRACKING GLASSES

When attached to eyeglasses, a clear, flexible sensor can detect how close eyelashes are to the lens, enabling blink tracking. When another person’s finger hovers over your skin, you may get the sense that they’re touching you, feeling not necessarily contact, but their proximity. Similarly, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have designed a soft, flexible film that senses the presence of nearby objects without physically touching them. The study features the new sensor technology to detect
5-26-2024

GAMERS SAY THEY HATE ‘SMURFING,’ BUT ADMIT THEY DO IT

Online video game players believe the behavior known as “smurfing” is generally wrong and toxic to the gaming community—but most admit to doing it and say some reasons make the behavior less blameworthy, new research finds. The new study suggests that debates about toxicity in gaming may sometimes be more complex and nuanced than is often acknowledged, according to the researchers. Online video games use what are called “matchmaking systems” to pair players based on skill. “Smurfing” is when players cheat these systems by creating new accounts so that they
5-26-2024

HUMANS BARELY ABLE TO RECOGNIZE AI-GENERATED MEDIA

AI-generated images, texts and audio files are so convincing that people are no longer able to distinguish them from human-generated content. This is the result of an online survey of about 3,000 participants from Germany, China, and the U.S. This is the first time that a large transnational study has examined this particular form of media literacy.
5-26-2024

CAN AIRPLANE TURBULENCE REALLY KILL YOU? AIRCRAFT PROPULSION EXPERT WEIGHS IN ON SINGAPORE AIRLINES DEATH

One person was killed and several dozen more injured Tuesday when a flight from London to Singapore encountered “sudden extreme turbulence” and plummeted roughly 6,000 feet in a matter of minutes, according to The Washington Post. All told, there were 211 passengers and 18 crew on board, according to Singapore Airlines. The deceased passenger reportedly suffered a heart attack during the mid-air tumult. The Boeing 777-300ER operated by Singapore Airlines diverted to Bangkok, where it landed at 3:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday following the in-flight incident. The New York
5-26-2024

HOW INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES’ ARE CAUTIOUSLY EMBRACING GENERATIVE AI

U.S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to embrace the AI revolution, convinced they’ll otherwise be smothered in data as sensor-generated surveillance tech further blankets the planet. They also need to keep pace with competitors, who are already using AI to seed social media platforms with deepfakes. But the tech is young and brittle, and officials are acutely aware that generative AI is anything but tailor-made for a trade steeped in danger and deception. Years before OpenAI’s ChatGPT set off the current generative AI marketing frenzy, U.S. intelligence and defense officials were
5-26-2024

3D PRINTING ROBOT USES AI MACHINE LEARNING TO CREATE A SHOCK-ABSORBING SHAPE NO HUMAN EVER COULD

Inside a lab in Boston University’s College of Engineering, a robot arm drops small, plastic objects into a box placed perfectly on the floor to catch them as they fall. One by one, these tiny structures—feather-light, cylindrical pieces, no bigger than an inch tall—fill the box. Some are red, others blue, purple, green, or black. Each object is the result of an experiment in robot autonomy. On its own, learning as it goes, the robot is searching for, and trying to make, an object with the most

For context, I'm a full stack developer with some background in native Android application development, but I mainly specialise in industrial integrated systems development and web development. I've recently been tasked with developing a Flutter application for Android and iOS, and it has been an absolute shitshow on the iOS side. It feels like Apple put up every roadblock imaginable and I don't understand why anyone would subject themselves to this masochism. I know what you're probably thinking right now, it's an issue of skill, and I'm happy to admit I am out of my element, but this isn't about skill or code quality, this has been an exhaustive slog through Apple-designed bureaucracy and poorly constructed deployment tools.
Take XCode for instance. When I ported my code from Android Studio, it refused to compile citing a "non-zero error code", so I figure "non-zero? So it has a code, why not just tell me the code?". I right click the error, I am given an option to open it in the XCode log. I press that option. Nothing happens. I tried a dozen times over and nothing ever happens. This was on a fresh Sonoma machine, clean as can be.
I then think to myself "Okay, maybe I can locate the log through the terminal, MacOS is Unix-based, it likely resides in /valog like most things would in a Unix system", but of course, it's not in /valog, It's in some custom directory, and it has some custom extension only suitable for XCode. I try to read it in Nano, but then realise it's a compressed archive. Some googling reveals it's a gzip archive. I decompress it to find one readable file, and lo and behold, it has no line-breaks. It's just one long ass line of worthless mostly unreadable information, and at the end of it I find it, "non-zero error code". Not even this log can tell me the actual error code.
I consulted the Apple forums. I was told I should attempt restarting XCode because "sometimes it's just like that". This didn't work. In the end, I resolved the problem by creating a blank Flutter project, then overwriting its entire contents with that of my original project, and somehow that got it to build.
Finally it builds, I then try to deploy to AppStoreConnect, and it says it has successfully received the build and there has been positive acknowledgement of such by AppStoreConnect, but naturally when I visit the AppStoreConnect web portal, there are no builds. I then also find that apparently I have to fill out some information which was already filled out before in another section, and then find that it won't accept the phone number supplied, citing a lack of support for non-numeric characters WHEN THERE WEREN'T ANY NON-NUMERIC CHARACTERS. Finally it accepts the phone number when I do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what I am told and prefix the number with a "+".
Couple this with the litany of completely arbitrary restrictions I've faced, from having to have an up-to-date Mac running the latest MacOS version, to requiring screenshots in 5 different resolutions, to the absolute mess that is their certificate system, and I just don't understand why anyone would subject themselves to this hell.
I could build and deploy an Android app on a 20-year old half-dead Windows PC if I so wanted. I only have to fill out the info in the Google developer console once. I can compile an app bundle and drag-and-drop it straight into their web portal and deploy to my testers. I also don't have to waste my time fumbling with utterly redundant certificates that serve zero purpose in protecting my deployment pipeline. In every stage of the project lifecycle, Google has made it 10 times easier than Apple. I don't understand how Apple have come to be regarded as the company which keeps things simple and reliable when they can't even make a web form with functioning input validation, and produce a deployment tool that provides vague unhelpful errors, refuses to make readable logs, and apparently exhibits a variety of behaviours according to other Apple developers depending on whether you restart it or not.

My family experienced something I can’t explain, and we’ve stopped talking to each other. I don’t know what to do.
I don't want to sound crazy. We're normal people. If any of this sounds familiar, please reach out to me. I need to know what's happening to my family.
It's hard to know where to begin. I don't know when this all started, but it hasn't stopped.
I live with my wife and two college-aged daughters. I’m a private chef; my wife is a teacher. We live in a suburb outside a coastal US city, in an eighties-era planned community where every house and street feels like a mirror image. Crisp lawns, HOAs, everyone knows everyone. The people are a little bland, but we have a yard and a pool, and we can pay for groceries, and we can (barely) afford to send our kids to college out of state. We were lucky, I thought.
My first experience with the supernatural was last spring.
"Okay, you're really gonna hate this one," Sarah said. It was Monday, my Saturday, and I was grilling vegetables by the pool. My eldest daughter, a born trickster, sat on the least-broken pool chair, bombarding me with the most willfully ignorant pop music she could find, or terrible cooking videos, or clips of classic cars refurbished with electric motors.
Anything to get a reaction out of her poor, Gen X dad.
"Please, no. How about the guy who makes things out of chocolate?" I countered, hoping for a compromise.
"I’m looking for the Kings game you went to in 2006 where they lost 1 to 10." Sarah, jabbed.
"I’m burning your food on purpose.” I quipped.
"Wait." Sarah said, suddenly still.
Whatever this thing is, whatever these things are. My wife and my daughters feel it before I do. I don't know if they're more sensitive to it or what, but they always know something is there before me. Call it women's intuition.
"What's wrong?"
As I said it, I remember it got very quiet. Like the volume for the outside world turned all the way down. The birds, the traffic and the white noise of suburbia went silent. I couldn't even hear the sizzle of the vegetables cooking two feet in front of me.
The lack of sound didn't bother me however, because I saw something in the sky.
A disc.
I didn't want to see a disc. But I saw a disc. It was made of metal, perfectly smooth, no rivets, no seams, no wings, no exhaust. A perfectly formed metal disc, fifteen feet wide, like two contact lenses stuck together just... sitting there.
There were lights, big ones, bright in the sun even in the middle of the day, moving all around it.
I remember thinking... Really? Part of me was exasperated at how, well, dumb it looked. Like an old movie model. Only somehow, I knew it was real. And I was being watched.
And then I felt The Fear.
If you ask me I think the craft makes people feel it. I don't know. I know it sounds crazy. It’s like a madness. It fills you up, cold, just pure terror. As soon as your eyes see a craft, in a few seconds your mind blanks and you feel only fear of the thing in front of you. The disc-shaped ones, and the triangle shaped ones, they always seem to broadcast The Fear.
I’d never felt panic like that. I know how to deal with it a little easier now, but back then I wanted to put my daughter in the car and drive as far away from the thing as possible.
Only I was completely frozen.
I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. I could only move my eyes, and even that took tremendous effort. I struggled to look in my daughter‘s direction and saw she was equally paralyzed. Her pupils turned to me, then back to the craft.
And we did that for a few seconds, trying to process what was happening, looking to the disc, to each other, and back. It was agony.
And then the disc was gone.
I was looking right at it. It didn’t fly away, it didn't zoom off at incredible speeds. It was like it stopped existing while I was staring at it. When it was gone I could move and I could breathe and my daughter started crying, and I comforted her, and we swore and shook.
What the hell was that?
“Are you okay?!”
I remember we both asked that.
I remember reaching for my phone, but it was dead. Sarah’s phone was dead too. We went inside to charge them, still in a daze.
”Your face is really red,” said Sarah, concerned.
I caught my reflection in the hallway mirror. She was right. My face was burned. Like a sunburn. I wear sunblock every day and often work long hours in the sun. I never get sunburned.
“I’ll get you some aloe.” Sarah said, retreating into the downstairs bathroom.
I glanced at the oven clock. It was three hours later than I expected.
"Three hours?" I muttered.
"We were only outside for a few minutes... right?" Sarah's eyes widened in realization.
"What happened to us?" Sarah said softly.
We were missing time. I don’t know where that time went. I don’t know what happened during that time. Time feels weird around these things. It’s hard to describe.
We didn't talk much for a while. We just kind of sat in the living room, scrolling our phones. The evening darkened. I remember thinking I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what.
My wife Lauren and our youngest daughter Dani returning home from work broke us out of our malaise.
"A UFO burned your face?" Lauren said, incredulous. Lauren was always funny, even when she wasn't trying to be.
I won't lie, it sounded dumb. I tried to think of how to word it better.
"I saw it too. It was really weird." Sarah said, seriously.
"You sure you weren't standing too close to the grill again?" Dani teased. Her pants were covered in flour and oil, her hair pulled back. Dani worked at a restaurant, despite my objections.
"You're supposed to make the food in the restaurant, not on your outfit." I teased back. Dani smirked, she liked kitchen talk, she was a lot like me in that way.
"I don't understand, did you provoke them? Why'd they come all the way from space just to burn you?" Lauren asked, spreading student tests on the dining room table.
"Did it look like the ones we saw when we were kids?" Dani asked Sarah.
"No, this one was different. It was a different shape." Sarah said, shaking her head.
"What are you talking about? Which ones?" I asked, confused.
"Do you remember the night we saw the blue elf?" Dani asked.
Memories of Sarah and Dani as kids flooded my brain. One night, a brilliant blue light in the sky. Sarah and Dani ran into our room to hide. The feeling of someone watching. The memory filled me with dread. Feeling uncomfortable, I tried to change the subject.
"I don't want to cook tonight. Let's order out. What should we get?" I said, presenting a distraction.
We ate dinner as a family that night. We talked about normal things. I tried to seem unbothered, but I was obsessively turning over the sighting of the disc in my mind. What was that? Why couldn't we move?
The feeling stayed with me long after the meal had ended and the dishes were done. I remember that was our last normal dinner. I wish I'd made more of an effort that night. We'll never be the same family we were then.
I guess before I tell you about that night, I should explain what an Orb is.
An Orb is a kind of floating sphere. It looks kind of like a blue basketball filled with spaghetti-looking strands of... something. It has a mind, I think. I don't know what these things are. From what I can tell, they are unknowable. They will harm you. If you see an Orb, my advice is to run. They can move through walls.
The first night with the Orbs changed all of our lives forever. We stopped talking after that night.
I don't know if I can write it down in detail, yet. Even this was hard.
I read something recently.
Scientists have communicated with apes via sign language since the 1960’s. In all that time, apes have never asked a question. Maybe they can't conceive of what a question is. Their mind just can't form the reasoning to understand how to think of one.
I think that’s what it’s like when we see these things. These orbs, or discs, or whatever. Like we’re seeing something we can’t comprehend. I don’t think we think about aliens the right way. They’re not from another planet. They’re from somewhere else entirely.
Something has happened to my family. Something happened and we're still dealing with it, and I don't know what to do. I'm afraid to tell people. We're afraid to talk about it with each other.
I'm not even sure if anyone will read this. The world needs to know what's out there, what my family experienced. My family can't be the first. There must be others.
If you're still with me after these ramblings, thank you. The next part will not be easy to write. But you deserve to know the full truth about what the Orbs did to us. What they're capable of.
For now, I present to you this information. I do not think we live in a completely material world. There are supernatural forces all around us, and most of them are unkind. Be careful with how you think, and what you think of.

• Lee

My name is João, and I hesitated a lot before deciding to share this story with you. People tend to be incredulous about these matters and often judge quickly. However, on recommendation, I have resolved to reveal this experience here.
At sixteen, my life unfolded in the serenity of the interior of Pernambuco, Brazil. Our home was located on a vast expanse of land, surrounded by endless sugar cane fields that stretched as far as the eye could see. The nearest town barely deserved the title of a town; it was just a cluster of modest houses, a simple church, and a few shops scattered along a single dirt road. Life there was slow and peaceful, as if we were immune to the pressures and worries of the outside world.
We lived on a sugar cane farm, a property that had belonged to my family for generations. It was arid land, marked by the relentless sun that shone mercilessly over the golden fields. My father spent his days working in the cane fields, sweating under the scorching heat, while my mother took care of the house and us, her children, with unwavering love and dedication. My little sister, Ana, was the light of our lives, with her innocent laughter and insatiable curiosity about the world around her.
Our farm was a haven of tranquility, an oasis of calm amidst the bustle of the modern world. At night, we could contemplate the starry sky without the interference of city lights and listen to the sounds of nature echoing through the landscape. It was a simple life, but full of meaning, where family bonds were forged by close companionship, and traditional values ​​were preserved with pride.
My routine was a delicate dance between obligations and leisure moments. The sun would rise, painting the sky with orange hues, and I would already be up, ready to help my father in the plantation. The hours passed between hard work under the scorching sun, the sweet smell of sugar cane filling my senses. Each movement was a repeated ritual, a choreography I knew as well as my own breath.
In the afternoon, when the heat began to wane, I returned home. My mother, with agile hands and keen eyes, coordinated the household chores with the precision of a conductor. I helped where I could, washing dishes, sweeping the dirt floor, bringing firewood to the kitchen. It was a simple but comforting routine, an echo of ancient times when life flowed smoothly, without haste or worry.
At night, after a simple and comforting dinner, I had a brief moment of freedom. Sometimes, I retreated to a quiet corner of the house to devour the pages of a book, letting myself be carried away by stories that transported me to distant worlds and thrilling adventures. Other times, I went out to meet my friends, walking along dark roads under the starlight, sharing laughter and secrets until late into the night.
However, this tranquility was abruptly interrupted by something strange and inexplicable. It was on a morning like any other, when the sun rose on the horizon and the birdsong heralded a new day, that my father noticed the marks on the door. They were not simple scratches; they were deep grooves in the wood, as if something with sharp claws had torn the surface with supernatural force.
At first, we attributed these marks to wild animals, perhaps a jaguar in search of food or a hungry wolf. But we soon realized that there was something more sinister at play. The marks always appeared during the full moon, as if some hidden power were in tune with the cycles of nature, waiting for the right moment to manifest itself.
My family, rooted in the ancient legends and superstitions of the region, began to act cautiously. We placed food outside the house, hoping to appease any disturbed entity behind the mysterious marks. But, to our dismay, the manifestations did not cease; they only diminished in intensity, as if the creature haunting us was only testing our limits, waiting for the right moment to make its next move.
As the nights passed and the marks continued to appear, fear began to creep into our hearts. Every unexpected sound, every shadow in the darkness, left us tense and alert, fearing what might be lurking beyond the walls of our home. However, the worst part was when my younger sister, only six years old at the time, became the target of the creature. She reported hearing whispers in the wind at night, as if someone were outside her window, whispering dark secrets to her.
Restlessness began to grow within me. The nights were filled with a strange silence, interrupted only by the rustling of leaves and the sounds of the forest. Every noise, every unexpected sound made my heart beat faster. We knew something was out there, but we didn't know what. However, we became accustomed to the situation, in part thanks to the offerings our parents left every full moon night outside our house. Even in the face of strange events, we felt some relief in believing that we were a little safer.
As the nights unfolded, something even more sinister began to manifest. In addition to the marks on the door, mud marks began to appear on the windows, as if the one tormenting us not only wanted to scare us, but also to watch us closely. The fear that was already present in our hearts began to grow, fueled by each new clue of the invisible presence surrounding us.
Then things took an even darker turn. My sister, Ana, who was only six years old at the time, began to report disturbing things. She said she heard whispers in the wind at night, as if someone were outside her window, whispering dark secrets to her. Her frightened expression and the dark circles under her eyes betrayed the sleepless nights and torment that haunted her.
Worry and terror took hold of us. Every night became a frightening challenge, where every shadow seemed to hide an imminent threat. Even with the offerings left outside, we couldn't shake the feeling that something malevolent was lurking around us, patiently watching, waiting for the right moment to act.
Until it happened.
On that fateful night, darkness fell upon the house like a shadowy mantle, enveloping every corner in a cold and relentless embrace. The wind blew with a supernatural intensity, its howling gusts echoing through the corridors like the wails of lost souls begging for redemption. The moonlight, pale and sinister, cast its trembling rays through the windows, turning the furniture into twisted shapes and casting grotesque shadows on the walls.
Ana's sharp cry pierced the silence of the night, a sound so ominous that it seemed to come from the very bowels of the earth. It was as if a veil had been torn, revealing the hidden terror lurking in the shadows. We ran desperately to her room, our footsteps echoing through the empty corridors like the drumbeat of an imminent funeral.
Upon entering the room, we were greeted by a scene that resembled a painting of hell. The window was shattered into a thousand pieces, the sparkling glass scattered on the floor like shards of a broken mirror. The moon, in its macabre fullness, cast a trembling light on the scene, illuminating the nightmare unfolding before us.
Ana was crouched in a corner of the room, her small body trembling with terror, her wide eyes reflecting the horror consuming her from within. A sinister shadow loomed over her, a distorted and grotesque figure that seemed to have stepped straight out of the darkest nightmares. It was the Labatut, its presence exuding an aura of malice and despair.
It was an imposing and terrifying figure, a manifestation of terror in its most primal form. Its body was colossal, dominating the space with its intimidating presence. Hoofed feet pounded the ground with a force that made the earth tremble under its weight. Every step it took echoed like distant thunder, announcing its imminent arrival.
Its body was covered in rough and tangled fur, a dark coat that seemed to absorb the light around it, casting sinister shadows in all directions. Its single eye, in the middle of its forehead, gleamed with a terrifying intensity, radiating an aura of malice and power. It was as if it could see directly into the soul of those who crossed its path, probing the deepest secrets and fears.
The Labatut's mouth was filled with grotesque teeth, each as sharp as a blade, resembling elephant tusks ready to tear its prey apart. A low, menacing growl escaped its throat, filling the air with a sense of imminent terror. It was impossible to face that monster without feeling a shiver run down the spine, fear paralyzing the muscles and clouding the mind.
Its movements were agile and silent, despite its enormous stature. It moved like a shadow in the darkness, gliding between dark corners and narrow alleys with alarming ease. It was as if it were always lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to launch its deadly attack and disappear again into the shadows.
The Labatut was more than a simple creature; it was terror itself personified, a force of nature that defied any rational explanation. Its presence was a grim reminder that evil can take many forms, some beyond human comprehension, and that even the bravest can succumb to the darkness it represents.
My father, driven by a mixture of anger and despair, grabbed his shotgun and fired at the creature, but the shots seemed to dissipate in the air like smoke. The Labatut let out a deafening howl, a sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and my bones tremble with fear. And then, in the blink of an eye, it lunged at Ana, its claws outstretched to grab her and drag her into the darkness.
My mother, in a final act of desperation, threw herself over her, trying to protect her with her own fragile body. But it was too late. With a quick and brutal movement, the Labatut grabbed Ana and disappeared before our eyes, leaving behind only the echo of her anguished screams.
We stood there, paralyzed by shock and pain, as the emptiness of loss enveloped us like a cold mist. What remained of our family was torn apart, our hearts heavy with grief and despair. In the days that followed, the farm seemed darker and lonelier than ever, every shadow twisting like the very manifestation of the fear that consumed us from within.
I, especially, was haunted by the trauma of that fateful night. Every dark whisper of the wind transported me back to that moment, and every shadow turned into the grotesque figure of the Labatut, its sinister presence haunting my thoughts and deepest dreams.
I knew I could no longer live on that farm, surrounded by such painful memories and the constant fear of the unknown. So, when the time came, I left behind the life I knew, setting out in search of a new beginning in the big city. But even from a distance, the terror of that night never left me. The Labatut became a permanent shadow in my life, a ghost that haunted my thoughts and pursued me wherever I went. Every dark corner, every elongated shadow, was a cruel reminder of that terrible moment that changed the course of my existence forever.
In the big city, I tried to bury my memories under the weight of everyday life. I immersed myself in work, keeping my mind busy during the day to avoid the horrors that came at night. But even there, among the skyscrapers and bustling streets, I couldn't completely escape the past that haunted me.
The nights were the worst. Wrapped in the darkness of my apartment, I found myself at the mercy of my own dark thoughts. Every creak of the building's structure, every whisper of the wind, made me tremble with fear, transporting me back to that fateful night when the Labatut entered our lives and tore away our innocence and happiness.
I tried to find comfort where I could, seeking the help of therapists and counselors who promised relief for my tormented soul. But nothing seemed to completely dissipate the terror that clung to me like a persistent shadow, always present in the darkest corner of my mind.
Years passed, but the Labatut still remained as an indomitable presence in my life. Its twisted face appeared in my most vivid nightmares, its claws outstretched to pull me back into the depths of despair. I became a prisoner of my own fear, unable to escape the clutches of the monster that haunted me since that fateful night.
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to free myself from the terror that consumes me, if I will ever find peace away from the clutches of the Labatut. But until then, I continue to fight, a lost soul in a sea of darkness, desperately awaiting the light that will one day free me from the nightmare that has become my life.

‎‎‎[📖First ⏮️Previous Next⏭️]
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In the next moment, as if not yet finished and unwilling to merely counter her martial art move, Ji Wuye began to imitate her posture with uncanny precision under Song Jia's shocked gaze, her mouth agape in disbelief. His movements mirrored hers flawlessly, resembling her reflection in a still pond.
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Taking a slow, deep breath, Song Jia watched transfixed as Ji Wuye relaxed his stance to mirror her position perfectly— his knees bent, balanced on the balls of his feet, with his wooden sword arm held loose yet ready, every muscle poised to strike.
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The way he held himself, the subtle shifts in his breathing, all echoed her own with eerie accuracy.
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‘It’s too perfect!’ she shouted inwardly as her fingers trembled slightly as she pointed them at him, still unable to believe what her own eyes were witnessing. "Y...you..." She stuttered, taking an involuntary step back, her mind reeling.
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Shaking off that useless thought, Song Jia solemnly met Ji Wuye's gaze once again before executing her sword art with fluid grace.
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Pulse of Blade - First Move, Gentle Breeze! 

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...
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From Ji Wuye's perspective, he noticed Song Jia's form once again disappearing, her body turning blurry as she harnessed her Qi. But he could sense the subtle shifts in her breathing and posture, closing his eyes slightly to immerse himself in heightened focus.
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Opening his eyes, he was greeted by Song Jia initiating a circular overhead slash towards him, her blade whistling through the air.
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The wooden sword, now mimicking a real sword, gave the impression of a razor-sharp edge aimed at his forehead. Yet, even as it descended, he observed the slightest change in trajectory, with her wrist subtly adjusting the angle of attack.
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In response, he moved in perfect tandem, channeling spirals of Qi from his Lower Dantian throughout his body, guiding his movements with preternatural precision.
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CLANK-!
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Their wooden blades met, the impact sending a gust of wind that blew dust into their faces.
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Song Jia's finely arched eyebrows raised slightly in surprise at Ji Wuye's accurate imitation of her opening Gentle Breeze technique.
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The disbelief etched on her delicate features deepened as her body once again seemed to blur, the swords spun through the air in mirrored rotations, neither gaining an advantage. ‘Not yet!’ she shouted inwardly.
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Meanwhile, Ji Wuye's brow furrowed in intense concentration, carefully observing every minuscule move Song Jia made, his eyes tracking the intricate dance of her sword like a hawk stalking its prey.
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Beads of sweat formed on his brow from the intensity of their exchange, glistening in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees.
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Across from him, frustration tightened the corners of Song Jia's mouth as her finely honed techniques were matched at every turn by this mysterious stranger. Her brows knitted deeper with each clash…
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CLANK-!
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CLANK-!
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CLANK-!
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Their wooden blades colliding, the force of their blows even sending tremors up her arms.
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The battle raged on, the clashing of wooden blades echoing through the courtyard as the sun slowly sank below the horizon.
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Song Jia launched technique after technique at Ji Wuye, varying her speed and angles of attack with dizzying complexity, but he continued to anticipate and mirror her movements perfectly, as if he could predict her every intent.
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“Ha…ha…ha…” Exhaustion gradually took hold of Song Jia's body, her breaths coming in ragged gasps as sweat poured down her flushed face. Her swings became sloppier, her footwork less sure as fatigue set in.
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Meanwhile, Ji Wuye showed no outward signs of tiring, his movements remaining fluid and precise, an unshakable calm settling over his features.
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Until at last, after what seemed like hours locked in their deadly dance, the sky turned an inky black, glittering stars adorning the night sky like tiny jewels strewn across a velvet canvas.
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Ji Wuye stood beneath the night sky, calmly looking down at Song Jia, who lay sprawled on the ground, stretching her hands out and breathing heavily, her chest heaving.
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"I…i-I'm l…lose!" she admitted at last, her gaze filled with a mixture of pain and unwillingness as she bit her lower lip, tasting the tang of exertion. The words felt like ash on her tongue, bitter with the sting of defeat.
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In stark contrast to Song Jia's disheveled state, with her white martial robe covered in dust and disarray, Ji Wuye's clothes remained neat and pristine, and his breath steady, as if he had merely been taking a leisurely stroll.
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He withdrew the wooden sword from where it had been pointed at Song Jia's neck, the implicit threat now lifted.
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"Thank you for your guidance, Sister Song," he said, cupping his hands together and pointing the tip of the wooden sword downward in a gesture of respect.
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With surprising gentleness, he reached down and helped the exhausted Song Jia to her feet, and they exchanged bows.
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...
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Meanwhile, from Song Jia’s perspective…
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She remained on the ground for a few moments longer, catching her breath as disbelief swirled in her mind like a tempest.
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How was any of this possible? In all her years of rigorous training, honing her skills to a razor's edge, she had never encountered anyone who could so flawlessly match and counter her Master’s sword art.
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The implications of Ji Wuye's uncanny abilities made her stomach turn.
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As she finally stood on shaking legs to return his bow, her thoughts raced, a maelstrom of questions buffeting her from all sides.
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Who or what was this man? She stared intently at Ji Wuye, searching his composed face for any clues, but it revealed nothing out of the ordinary, a mask of polite calm.
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A million questions bubbled up within her, desperate for answers, but bone-deep exhaustion overwhelmed her in that moment.
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After exchanging bows, she turned and left without another word, unable to even broach the subject of how high is Ji Wuye's martial realm or how he could so perfectly imitate and defend against her Master’s sword art.
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...
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Back to the present…
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Ji Wuye watched as Song Jia's figure slowly blurred into the distance, a small smile curling upon his lips. "That's a nice sword art," he murmured appreciatively.
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[!] You have successfully analyzed and replicated Pulse of Blade - First Move, Gentle Breeze sword art!
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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been inc... 

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...
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As the transparent notification screens flickered rapidly before his eyes, Ji Wuye felt a strange influx of information pouring into his brain, as if knowledge were being directly imprinted onto his consciousness.
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His gaze trembled slightly before he took a deep, steadying breath and sat down cross-legged on the ground.
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"Ha!" He exhaled heavily, his breathing suddenly becoming erratic, his heart pounding in his chest as his body temperature spiked. The sensations washed over him in an overwhelming wave before subsiding just as quickly, leaving him slightly disoriented.
‎ ‎

[>>[INFORMATION]<<] Congratulations! The skill Quick Adaptation(F) has evolved into -> Quick Adaptation(E)! 

‎ ‎
"Heh... That's quite a leap," he thought to himself, a smile forming inwardly as a sense of satisfaction blossomed within him. The next transparent screen began overlapping the current one, displaying the upgraded details of his newly evolved skill.
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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION (E) ]<<] Type: Passive skill 1st: You can copy and analyze all the attack patterns of your opponent! 2nd: Your vision will not be affected or obscured by any environmental or elemental changes! 

‎
Upon seeing the greatly enhanced effects of the Quick Adaptation skill, Ji Wuye paused for a moment before bursting into delighted laughter that rang through the courtyard. "Hahaha! So this is what they call a fraudulent skill!"
‎
A wide, excited smile stretched across his face as he felt a surge of exhilaration from how far his abilities had advanced.
‎
His hand trembled slightly, the thrill of excitement coursing through his veins as the true extent of his newly upgraded abilities sank in. His chest felt tight, constricted by the sheer weight of happiness and anticipation for the new heights his powers could reach.
‎
Unbeknownst to Ji Wuye in that moment, caught up in visions of his boundless potential, he found himself lying on his back on the cold, unforgiving ground, gazing up at the vast tapestry of glittering stars that blanketed the night sky.
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His eyes shone with fierce determination, alight with the flames of ambition stoked by the profound evolution he had just experienced.
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"This is only the beginning..." he murmured, the words carrying a weighty finality as they escaped his lips in a hushed exhalation.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
‎‎‎[📖First ⏮️Previous Next⏭️]

When I was a little younger, (about 8-10 years ago) something completely unexplainable happened to me. I don’t tell this story to anyone, mostly because up until earlier today even I thought it wasn’t real. I’m not sure what to do about it or if there is anything I could do, so I thought to post here, maybe at least just to ease my head and hear what others think.
Around high-school time, I was a loser and complete shut-in. Most of my time during these formative teenage years I’d just spend inside, playing games or listening to music and spacing out. Though I’ve always had a fond interest with photography. Capturing life through brief screenshots is precious, plus its fun and easy to do with just the average phone.
So, occasionally, I would leave on my own to wander the woods at the end of our street. Gave me plenty of time alone to get fresh air and stretch as well as snap a bunch of pictures of mostly bugs but other animals or plants I found pretty too.
On one of these walks, I heard a very offputting sound. It vibrated very quietly along the trees and in the surrounding area. Whilst I'm normally a very paranoid person and I was certainly uneased by the presence of this noise, I thought I recognized it. From the distance I was to whatever was producing it, the sound vaguely resembled that of a pig. My thought was maybe some livestock had escaped from a nearby farm or something.
Whether I was right or not, it sounded hurt. The slow agonized rattle, piercing the odd bird chirp or rustle of a branch falling. Then, I made a decision that would scar my life forever. I approached; if it was hurt, I wasn’t just going to leave it to bleed to death or whatever. I know, circle of life and all that, but I was young and much dumber than I am now.
I made a brief trek off the path to find the source of the noise and (hopefully) save it. Wading through a bramble bush that slightly cut my legs, I began to focus on the sound. Or, rather, the sound seemingly gave me no choice but to focus on it. No birds were chirping anymore and aside from my movements, the rising repetitive groans were all I could hear. Everything from the leaves in the trees to the soft blowing winds fell still.
Something felt off and in my stomach I had a strong rising urge to turn back. But I didn’t, the sound grew closer and I hadn’t ventured too far from the path. It wasn’t deafening by any means, but the sound punched through the silence with now a twinge of desperation, like I needed to find it.
Up until this very moment, I have never forgotten what I saw.
In a ditch, just like any other, surrounded by trees and leaf litter but completely devoid of life. Something indescribable. The closest resemblance I could give you is it was similar in shape and size to whale carcasses that wash ashore. A messy pile of color and rotting substances. Except there were so many materials, so many different textures I simply couldn’t identify. There was no discernable body shape or figure, it merely looked as if you had fused together parts of every animal alive and draped a cloth overtop of the result.
It was warping constantly, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. I simply couldn’t understand what this was. What confused me the most was the smell. Or rather, lack of one. The environment smelt just fine, the leaves and earthy natural scent, as if this thing in front of me wasn’t even there.
My heart began to thump a little. I’d never seen a dead body in person, obviously, so I had no clue if I was stumbling upon something I wasn’t supposed to see. This wasn’t what I was looking for and the groaning sound was pulsating from it.
On edge, the slightest sounds began to feel like spears of anxiety cutting straight through my chest. I fell back a little, caught myself and ran back to the path. No-one was around so I didn’t care about keeping my composure and I ran until I caught sight of home again.
My mother was home and noticed me sweaty, shaky and on edge.
“Home already? Your walks normally last a while longer.” she inquired, with a very minor tone of concern.
“I... yeah. Just got a bit tired.” I explained, as I still hadn’t fully come to terms with what I’d seen and didn’t feel that anyone in my family would think anything of it other than that I was losing my mind.
She told me that food was being prepared and wouldn’t be very long, but I returned to my room swiftly and collapsed face first onto my bed. I pondered for a while over what it could have been and came to the conclusion of an art project. It had no scent so perhaps it was a sculpt with sound effects for a film? The indescribable mass being man-made brought me enough comfort to slow my heart rate for the time.
For a brief duration, nothing else happened. I refused to return to the woods for a while so I had no more encounters with whatever it was, purely so that I could continue to convince myself that it was nothing more than a creative pursuit.
That didn’t last for very long, though. Cosy and warm in bed, I was scrolling my phone absent mindedly. I hadn’t thought about the thing all day as I had spent it hanging out with friends outside of school. The slight buzz of my bedside lamp, the busyness of the kitchen downstairs. The slow, creeping ringing in my ears as everything fell silent. Then that haunting, slow rasping seeping under the crack of my door. The drawn out groan pushed its way into my room, my only safe place. I could listen to nothing else, I could think of nothing else as I watched a shadow slowly stretch along the floor invading the dim light.
My eyes grew wide and fearful. I clutched my phone as if it was my last hope and I shuffled out of bed to avoid being caught off guard. If I needed to run, I could run. The doorknob turned, muted by the great harrowing moans. The door creaked open, drowned out still by the desperate sounds of that nightmarish sight.
The doorway opened, giving way to a strange light. It flooded my room as if bright yet pervasively infected each corner of my vision with darkness. In a swift jarring movement, a mass stretched out from behind the obscurant surface. Like skin being pulled from someone’s body to create the mockery of a head. It had the same damn warping textures as the thing I found in the woods. It had no other features and was merely a protruding clump of moving substances.
Except, somewhere within the shifting motion, I could pick out a face. One with a deep haunting gaze. It was as if its eyelids had been peeled back and fused into the skin above and below its eye sockets, unprotected orbs that only stared and stared. Similarly, deep holes, where the nose had been pushed back into its head and once again fused into its undefined formless mass. It had no mouth. All it could do was emit muffled cries as it stretched and quivered in place.
I blinked.
“Hon, we’re going out for a little to get some shopping done, we’ll be back soon. Love you!” my mother called out, as I watched her slip back through the door. That vision, that thing had vanished instantly. But its presence remained.
A few days later, I had calmed down once again, thinking I must’ve hallucinated from a lack of sleep after panicking over the thing I’d seen. The bell rung for the sixth time in the day and I headed to Art class.
I sat by my friend, Alex, with a slight uneasy shiver in my body. I tried to brush it off and we joked a little in murmurs as the teacher rambled on. Toward the end of the subject, as we were doing practical work in the form of paintings, when the bell rang a little earlier than I’d expected. I turned my face to see how everyone else was responding to it.
They’d all turned to me, too. Blank, staring faces. Even Alex, even the teacher. Everyone.
In an immediate fit of panic I jolted out of my seat, slamming my knees on the desk. I winced in pain but still, their eyes followed me perfectly. I shuffled past people, wobbling a little from hurting my knees and bolted out of the classroom. Things just kept happening and I didn’t know why.
Through the hallways, that growing darkness began to appear, before I burst out into the courtyard. There, a slow rattling groan awoken in my ears again. I was becoming extremely familiar and recognized it immediately. Tears began to roll out of my eyes as I screamed, trying to drown out the sound, but it didn’t work. It grew louder and louder, deafening my surroundings.
I opened my eyes wide again to see a huge, limp mass in front of me. Shapeless and constantly contorting, it had no identifiable features beyond the shifting unknown textures and colors. Taller than it was wide, I tried to see where a head should be on a human but once again, just a repulsive slurry that I couldn’t understand.
But it was looking at me. It was looking. At me. Watching, staring, observing anywhere I moved I could not hide. The sound began to hurt, the pulsing rising groan of misery that pained me. I screamed once more, clutching my head.
Alex grabbed my arm violently.
“... Hey?” he questioned, worriedly. I let go of myself and looked up. My classmates all turned to look at me, but no longer staring. They were whispering amongst themselves. Then the bell rang and the teacher awkwardly hurried to move everyone out. I looked back down shakily. Very faint blood stains where I had clasped my ears and everything felt a little quieter.
Alex offered to take me to the medical office and I was far too exhausted to refuse. He had to return to classes after the break, but I was too shaken up to even speak, so they let me stay a little longer and I was sent home shortly after.
I went home and stayed quiet. I was drained. I lay there, appreciating the precious silence of my room. School had just finished and I received a text from my friends. We shortly arranged to go on a walk together through the woods to help me feel better. I wanted to show them what I’d been seeing.
Though my parents were hesitant, they allowed it since my friends, Alex and May, would be there. They arrived and we set off toward the woods, but I directed them to the specific section I had ran out from, I didn’t want to be out here longer than I needed to be.
We arrived at the spot, but the sounds weren’t there anymore. Maybe it was because of my slightly dulled hearing, but there was nothing. Desperate to convince myself I was still sane, I hurried them off the path.
“No, there’s something here you need to see.” I began, immediately turning and stumbling in the direction of where I’d seen it. Alex was less hesitant than May, but both eventually followed.
“If you say so. What is it anyway?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know.” is all I could respond with. He turned to May with confusion, who anxiously shrugged back.
I stepped over the bramble bush again, making sure not to cut myself on it like before. Still, nothing. The ditch was there, there was a clear indication that something had filled this space due to the unnatural scatter of leaves around it. But it just wasn’t there.
“It... it was here before!” I cried out. As much as it freaked me out, I was hoping for any sign that I was overreacting.
“The leaves? The trees? What, what are we looking at here.” Alex chipped in. I turned to him with a dreary hopelessness. His expression fell a little.
“I... there was...”
“Why don’t we just head back onto the trail for now?” May called.
I gave in, slowly returning to the path. Since it wasn’t there, maybe I had nothing to fear travelling through the woods again. But there it was. The distant, faint sound of a hurt animal groaning in slow, painful misery.
“You guys hear that?-” Alex commented. Immediately, I snapped with fear.
“YES.”
I didn’t know what to do, my legs began to shake again and my vision was blurring as the sound grew closer. But we weren’t moving this time. It was. I ran, I couldn’t help myself. I think Alex or May called out to me just before I did but I couldn’t stop.
The further I ran, the sound never faded, but it never grew. Only when I reached my home did it disappear. I ripped open the door, slammed it shut and ran straight up to my room. I didn’t wait to take my shoes off or hear what my mother had to say, I buried myself in my pillow and cried.
Later that night, they both texted in our group chat, frustrated that I pulled a weird prank like that, expressing how worried and concerned they were.
I stopped going to school for the rest of the week as my ears had both become infected and hard to hear out of. It was irritating as hell so I was more than happy to lay in bed all day.
This last part is a little hazy to me due to the actions I took at the end. Most of this is missing details, but this night specifically I have desperately tried to block out of my memory. It wasn’t until recently it came back to me in pieces.
I remember my whole family was out for various reasons. My parents were both working late shifts and my sister was having a sleepover at her friend’s. I was especially anxious already because of my situation, so I crawled out of bed and clumsily headed downstairs. I poured a very shallow bowl of cereal, when that familiar sound kicked up again. I was taking absolutely no chances, dropping the bowl on the counter and rushing to lock everything I could. Every single door, every single window, up until the very last one. I turned, jittery and terrified.
Something was there. The front room’s secondary window, a smaller more ornate patterned window compared to the large glass pane in the center of the wall. Through the textured glass I saw it.
I was face to face with an angel.
A stretched, warping face, with the familiar peeled eyes and nose. We locked eyes and it immediately slipped away unnaturally. I could hear nothing, but I locked the window as fast as possible and nearly tripped skidding back to the stairs. The sound grew louder yet again, louder than it had been, making my ears burn with searing agony.
Nowhere was safe. I hadn’t locked this thing out, I had caged myself in for it. My panic grew as my heart beat faster, I rushed into the bathroom as I heard the door downstairs very slowly creaking open without the slightest resistance from the locks. I ripped open the medicine cabinet and darted back to my room with sleeping pills in hand.
I knew this was it for me. I had an unexplainable feeling, just as indescribable as the formless carcass that was coming for me. I didn’t want to be there when it happened.
Last I remember, I finally smelt it approaching, a hideous mesh of ash and rotten meat. The smell permeated my room as my eyes began to shudder. I could feel the physical pain of them kicking in. I was already exhausted and I don’t know if I fell asleep quickly or if I just blocked out most of before I did.
I awoke a week later. My parents were in tears, wondering why I’d ever try to take my own life and wishing that I’d spoken to them.
For 10 long years, my story has ended there. A crazy drug trip from trying to take my own life.
Just yesterday, I checked my phone’s old storage to see what was on there and I saw a video I didn’t recognize. It was dark blue and grainy. A few minutes in however, a door in the background opens. Light flickers in, illuminating... me. Asleep. Twenty long minutes follow.
Twenty long minutes of raspy, death rattles and the cold, lifeless stare of the corpse of an Angel, watching over me.

Welcome to the raspberry_pi Helpdesk and Frequently Asked Questions!

Link to last week's thread
Having a hard time searching for answers to your Raspberry Pi questions? Let the raspberry_pi community members search for answers for you!^† Looking for help getting started with a project? Have a question that you need answered? Was it not answered last week? Did not get a satisfying answer? A question that you've only done basic research for? Maybe something you think everyone but you knows? Ask your question in the comments on this page, operators are standing by!
This helpdesk and idea thread is here so that the front page won't be filled with these same questions day in and day out:

1. Q: What's a Raspberry Pi? What can I do with it? How powerful is it? A: Check out this great overview
2. Q: Does anyone have any ideas for what I can do with my Pi? A: Sure, look right here!^‡
3. Q: My Pi is behaving strangely/crashing/freezing, giving low voltage warnings, ethernet/wifi stops working, USB devices don't behave correctly, what do I do? A: 99.999% of the time it's either a bad SD card or power problems. Use a USB power meter or measure the 5V on the GPIO pins with a multimeter while the Pi is busy (such as playing h265/x265 video) and/or get a new SD card 1 2 3. If the voltage is less than 5V your power supply and/or cabling is not adequate. When your Pi is doing lots of work it will draw more power. Even if your power supply claims to provide sufficient amperage, it may be mislabeled or the cable you're using to connect the power supply to the Pi may have too much resistance. You can use a USB load tester to test your power supply and cable. Some power supplies require negotiation to provide more than 500mA, which the Pi does not do. If you're plugging in USB devices try using a powered USB hub with its own power supply and plug your devices into the hub and plug the hub into the Pi.
4. Q: I'm having a hard time finding a place to purchase a Raspberry Pi for an affordable price. Where's the secret place to buy one without paying more than MSRP? A: https://rpilocator.com/
5. Q: I just did a fresh install with the latest Raspberry Pi OS and I keep getting errors when trying to ssh in, what could be wrong? A: There are only 4 things that could be the problem:
   1. The ssh daemon isn't running
   2. You're trying to ssh to the wrong host
   3. You're specifying the wrong username
   4. You're typing in the wrong password
6. Q: I'm trying to install packages with pip but I keep getting error: externally-managed-environment A: This is not a problem unique to the Raspberry Pi. The best practice is to use a Python venv, however if you're sure you know what you're doing there are two alternatives documented in this stack overflow answer:
   • --break-system-packages
   • sudo rm a specific file as detailed in the stack overflow answer
7. Q: The only way to troubleshoot my problem is using a multimeter but I don't have one. What can I do? A: Get a basic multimeter, they are not expensive.
8. Q: My Pi won't boot, how do I fix it? A: Step by step guide for boot problems
9. Q: I want to watch Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Vudu/Disney+ on a Pi but the tutorial I followed didn't work, does someone have a working tutorial? A: Use a Fire Stick/AppleTV/Roku. Pi tutorials used tricks that no longer work or are fake click bait.
10. Q: What model of Raspberry Pi do I need so I can watch YouTube in a browser? A: No model of Raspberry Pi is capable of watching YouTube smoothly through a web browser, you need to use VLC.
11. Q: I want to know how to do a thing, not have a blog/tutorial/video/teachebook explain how to do a thing. Can someone explain to me how to do that thing? A: Uh... What?
12. Q: Is it possible to use a single Raspberry Pi to do multiple things? Can a Raspberry Pi run Pi-hole and something else at the same time? A: YES. Pi-hole uses almost no resources. You can run Pi-hole at the same time on a Pi running Minecraft which is one of the biggest resource hogs. The Pi is capable of multitasking and can run more than one program and service at the same time. (Also known as "workload consolidation" by Intel people.) You're not going to damage your Pi by running too many things at once, so try running all your programs before worrying about needing more processing power or multiple Pis.
13. Q: Why is transferring things to from disks/SSDs/LAN/internet so slow? A: If you have a Pi 4 or 5 with SSD, please check this post on the Pi forums. Otherwise it's a networking problem and/or disk & filesystem problem, please go to HomeNetworking or LinuxQuestions.
14. Q: I only have one outlet and I need to plug in several devices, what do I do? A: They make things called power strips aka multi-tap extensions.
15. Q: The red and green LEDs are on/off/blinking or the screen is just black or blank or saying no signal, what do I do? A: Start here
16. Q: I'm trying to run x86 software on my Raspberry Pi but it doesn't work, how do I fix it? A: Get an x86 computer. A Raspberry Pi is ARM based, not x86.
17. Q: How can I run a script at boot/cron or why isn't the script I'm trying to run at boot/cron working? A: Try one of these numerous solutions
18. Q: Can I use this screen that came from ____ ? A: No
19. Q: I run my Pi headless and there's a problem with my Pi and the best way to diagnose it or fix it is to plug in a monitor & keyboard, what do I do? A: Plug in a monitor & keyboard.
20. Q: My Pi seems to be causing interference preventing the WiFi/Bluetooth from working A. Using USB 3 cables that are not properly shielded can cause interference and the Pi 4 can also cause interference when HDMI is used at high resolutions.
21. Q: I'm trying to use the built-in composite video output that is available on the Pi 2/3/4 headphone jack, do I need a special cable? A. Make sure your cable is wired correctly and you are using the correct RCA plug. Composite video cables for mp3 players will not work, the common ground goes to the wrong pin. Camcorder cables will often work, but red and yellow will be swapped on the Raspberry Pi.
22. Q: I'm running my Pi with no monitor connected, how can I use VNC? A: First, do you really need a remote GUI? Try using ssh instead. If you're sure you want to access the GUI remotely then ssh in, type vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1920x1080 and see what port it prints such as :1, :2, etc. Now connect your client to that.
23. Q: I want to do something that has been well documented and there are numerous tutorials showing how to do it on Linux. How can I do it on a Raspberry Pi? A: A Raspberry Pi is a full computer running Linux and doesn't use special stripped down embedded microcontroller versions of standard Linux software. Follow one of the tutorials for doing it on Linux. Also see question #1.
24. Q: I want to do something that has been well documented and there are numerous tutorials showing how to do it with an Arduino. How can I do it on a Raspberry Pi Pico? A: Follow one of the tutorials for doing it on Arduino, a Pico can be used with the Arduino IDE.
25. Q: I'm trying to do something with Bluetooth and it's not working, how do I fix it? A: It's well established that Bluetooth and Linux don't get along, this problem is not unique to the Raspberry Pi.

Before posting your question think about if it's really about the Raspberry Pi or not. If you were using a Raspberry Pi to display recipes, do you really think raspberry_pi is the place to ask for cooking help? There may be better places to ask your question, such as:

• /AskElectronics
• /AskProgramming
• /HomeNetworking
• /LearnPython
• /LinuxQuestions
• /RetroPie
• The Official Raspberry Pi Forums

Asking in a forum more specific to your question will likely get better answers!
† See the /raspberry_pi rules. While /raspberry_pi should not be considered your personal search engine, some exceptions will be made in this help thread. ‡ If the link doesn't work it's because you're using a broken buggy mobile client. Please contact the developer of your mobile client and let them know they should fix their bug. In the meantime use a web browser in desktop mode instead.

"Welcome everybody to the final match of the first round! Let's make this exciting contestants!"
With a snap of his fingers, the Blank Domain would expand outwards from the center of the arena, consuming everybody in complete whiteness. Then, the Blank Domain would change...
A lush rainforest, with trees and shrubbery aplenty. Vines hang from particularly low trees here and there, the scent of fresh rain filling the air. The ground is slightly wet.
"And now, OUR CONTESTANTS!"

There's someone in my life that left some months ago, permanently. The first couple months were horrific and unthinkable, the most messed up my mind has been ever.
I'm not here to hear that there's still a chance or anything like that. No, I'm really happy that the chapter is closed. In fact most days now it feels like I never even knew them. It makes sense that it ended if I never connected with them in the first place.
Anyways, the main topic here:
I hate these dreams I have where they're back for some reason. They're so vivid. It's like I'm awake, in bed, it's through the same platform we talked on. All of a sudden they're back accepting me as if everything is anew. The dream lasts all night. Conversations, shifting from animal photos, to emotions, to video calling, to everything that's happened since they were gone. "Oh my god I need to tell you about this and that and pet related stuff and game related stuff" it's all so vivid. I may as well be awake. Then I wake up feeling empty. I wake up and it's like my life and all of it's value exists purely within myself once again and I don't have an outlet or "my person".
Another thing I have to get off my chest. I have often used people as "my person". I honestly have. I didn't mean to. But people often filled the void without me realizing it and it happened over and over.
The truth is I have sparsely connected with anyone, ever, and I may never do so. I have developed this deep love for myself and for that I am grateful but there exists a person in my mind that wishes to divulge that into another person's heart. I think it will never happen. It's only human that I want it to, but at the same time, the universe is nothing more than a chaotic sequence of events. I happen to exist here, flesh and blood and bone, and none of it really matters. I will just love myself I suppose