Collanite Season 1: Storyline: one day, during day of the blood ring on monstinia, a portal made of this excess energy formed in the relatively small but populated and active island, known as aphrodite, not only that, but it also created a energy dome around itself, that slowly grew until it covered the entire island, causing strange, anomalous events to occur on the island. On further investigation, it was discovered that these events only affect aphrodite. Later on, from the same portal, a group of people from another world fell through into the island and started colonizing it for themself. Theme: strange, otherworldly characters have entered aphrodite
Locations: Monster Metropolis, Saltwater Shore, Skier Slopes, Doggy Diner, Peace Pond, Mount Anon, Starlit Suburb, Golden Saucer, Cozy Cabins, Sakura Swim Club, Misty Mesa, Sacred Shrines
Skins: Travis Touchdown(1), Link(22), 2b(43), Glamrock Freddy(62), Monika(84), Cloud Strife(100)
Destruction Tools: Blood Berry, Ancient Battle Axe, Virtuous Contract, Glamrock Mic, Heart Pen, Buster Sword
Backblings: Blood Berry, Hyrule Shield, Virtuous Contract, Glamrock Giftbox, Poetry Book, Buster Sword
Emoticons: Ancient Bow Drawn, Well Done Superstar, MonikaHeart, Confident Cloud
Gliders: Demzamtiger, Wild Paraglider, yoRHa Flight Unit, Car Battery, Poetry Book, Hardy Daytona
Contrails: Sheikah Symbol, Pod 042, Blue Boltz, Glitching, Materia Orbs
Emotes: Beam Showoff, Milk Drink, Slate Check, Phut Hon, Glamrock Wave, Glamrock Giftbox, Write Your Heart, Code Panel, Piano Practice, Victory!
Weapon Wraps: Tunic Of Memories, yoRHa Specialist, Glamrock Shell, Doki Hearts, Buster Steel
Music Pack: Berry Beatdown, Open Wilds, Blissful Death, Pizzaplex Performance, Your Reality, Let The Battle Begin
Weapon Charms: Jeane, Triforce Of Courage, Superstar, Chibi Sayori, Chocobo
Loading Screens: View Of The Wild, yoRHa Installation, Below The Pizzaplex, JuSt MoNiKa, Fantasy Evolution
Edit Styles: Purple Jacket(Travis Touchdown), Tunic Of Memories, Tunic Of The Wild, Well Worn Outfit(Link), 2p Mock Machine, Mask Off(2B), Dirty Freddy(Glamrock Freddy), Paper President, Ghost Menu Monika, Ponytail Monika, Jumpscares Monika(Monika), Playstation Polygonal(Cloud Strife)
Wildlife: Goose, Chocobo, Wolf, Horse, Snowcoat Fox
Weapons: Thrasher Assault Rifle, Thrasher Burst AR, Thunder Shotgun, Buster Shotgun, Calamity Submachine Gun, Sacred Submachine Gun, Tactical Pistol, Drum Pistol, Ancient Sniper Rifle, Monster Grenades, Silver Longsword, Royal Guards Sword, Beam Katana, Silver Knife, Bronze Knife
Items: Crafting Station, Pizza Box, Pizza Slices, Maple Sprout, Maple Vines, Apple, Baked Apple, Maple Pie, Raw Meat, Meat Skewer, Knights Shield
Weekly Challenges/Updates: Week 1. Visit Named Locations (3) Deal Damage With The Bronze Or Silver Knife (300) Search Loot Crates (5) Plant A Maple Sprout, Then Consume Maple Vines (2) Eliminations With Beam Katana (1) Week 2. Visit Starlit Suburb, Then Block Damage With A Shield (200) Retrieve A Stolen Item From A Goose Search Uncommon Or Rare Loot Crates (3), Deal Damage With A Thrasher Assault Rifle Or Thunder Shotgun (500) Tame Horses Or Wolves (1) Deal Damage With The Royal Guards Sword While Riding On A Horse (350) Added: Bows, Arrows, Milk Bottles Week 3. Fire Arrows At Opponents (8) Land At Sacred Shrines And Reach Top 50 (1) Interact With yoHRa Pods (3) Craft A Shotgun Or SMG Using The Crafting Station (1) Deal Damage With A yoRHa Assault Rifle (300) Added: yoHRa Assault Rifle Week 4. Pick Up Or Purchase A Pizza Box (1) Visit Doggy Diner And Consume Pizza Slices (5) Perform Dodge Rolls With The Knights Shield (3) Construct A Stage Inside Of Doggy Diner (1) Eliminate Opponents With The Silver Knife (5) Week 5. Visit The Clubroom At Starlit Suburbs (1) Eliminate Opponents At Starlit Suburbs Or Sakura Swim Club (3) Consume Cupcakes (5) Collect A Fazer Blaster And Stun An Opponent Using It (1) Delete Opponents By Eliminating Them With Four Hits Or Less (1) Added: Apple Pie, Fazer Blaster Week 6. Visit Sacred Shrines Or Sakura Swim Club, Drink Milk Bottles (3) Collect Torn Poem Pieces Scattered Around Starlit Suburb (7) Restore Health And Stamina Using Meat Skewers (75) Deal Damage Using Monster Grenades (150) Destroy Structures With Beam Katana In A Single Match (20) Week 7. Consume Apple Pie (1) Investigate Strange Energy Signals At Monster Metropolis, Mount Anon And Skier Slopes (3) Collect A Tactical Pistol And Deal 150 Damage Using It Piece Together The Torn Poem Pieces Into A Full Poem (7) Get An Elimination With The Ancient Sniper Rifle (1) Week 8. Deal Damage With The Buster Sword (175) Land At Golden Saucer Block Damage With The Knights Shield 30 Seconds After Landing (150) Visit Skier Slopes And Cozy Cabins In A Single Match Land At Monster Metropolis And Deal Damage With The Buster Swords Cross Slash Or Blade Beam Attack (100) Added: Buster Sword. Week 9. Deal Total Damage With The Calamity Smg and Royal Guards Sword In A Single Match (300) Consume Baked Apples, Maple Pies Or Pizza Slices In A Single Match (8) Visit The Clubroom At Starlit Suburbs, Read The Pieced Together Poem (1) Use The Buster Swords Cross Slash To Deal Damage In Different Matches (3) Tame A Chocobo And Ride It 250 Meters Week 10. Interact With The Strange Gauntlet At Mount Anon (1) Eliminate Opponents Using The Buster Sword (3) Investigate Strange Objects Appearing At Monster Metropolis, Saltwater Shore, And Misty Mesa (1) Defeat Prismarine Warriors (5) Visit Named Locations In A Single Match (3) Added: Prismarine Warriors, Prismarine Knife End Event: Power Theft The event starts players around Mt. Anon. The event starts with an anomaly opening up at mount anon and from ot, Romeo the admin appears and steps out laughing maniacally “it is time, people of aphrodite. Time that I take this islands power for my own!” Romeo then rises up into the air, hovering above the center of mt. Anon.. then 2b rushes up the side of the mountain and slashes Romeo with the virtuous contract, causing him to yell out in pain for a moment before quickly composing himself and fires a blast of lava towards 2b, knocking her off the mountain and onto the ground with a thud. He then fires another blast, attempting to finish off the islanders of aphrodite, but monika forms a shield of code that absorbs the blast before closing it. “Don’t worry about him, we’ll stop him before he can do anything harmful” monika says, and then both cloud and travis run up to the mountain, weapons drawn- and then in sync, they jump up into the air and travis performs quick and powerful slashes with his beam katana, while cloud fires multiple blade beams at Romeo, greatly damaging him and knocking him back down onto the mountain, as they both fall back down sure they’ve beaten him.. and they took that moment to rest, but just then as soon as they let their guards down.. romeo began laughing before getting up and dusting himself off and commanding his army of prismarine colossus to rise up from the water around the island and attack everyone on it. Then saying “Now, back to absorbing this pathetic heart of yours” and forming a small protective shield around himself and firing two guardian beams at the center of the island, glamrock freddy then throws everyone a Fazer blaster to stun the colossi, allowing the rest of them to fire at them while they can’t move. Romeo then attempts to pull the power heart out, causing a small tremor as the power heart is ripped out from the core of the island, then once it’s all the way exposed he begins using the beams to absorb the crystallic energy. once the first set of colossus fall, another one walks up from the water almost immediately, and then monika seeing this, says “it’s no use. They just keep coming..” then she gets an idea, and says “alright, I have an idea. But- it’s a risky one..” “if the powerheart becomes corrupted, then it’s dark energy will drain the energy and power of anything making contact with it..” “but, as the heart is what controls everything on this island. If it gets corrupted, the islands landscape and everything would also become corrupted and sinister.. but it’s the only way” monika hesitates for a moment before manipulating and corrupting the powerheart. as the heart grows darker and begins to crack slightly, the influx of dark energy causes romeos beams to backfire, draining him of all his energy and admin powers and causing him to fall out of the sky, back onto the mountain and sliding down the side of it, hitting various things on his way down before eventually coming to a stop on the ground surrounded by everyone else. Romeo then lets out a weak cough, saying in a weak raspy voice “what.. h-happened?..” and link chimes in saying “you just got defeated by us.. now.” And link draws his sword, ready to finish off romeo.. but before he can, the powerheart lets out a big burst of dark energy, knocking everyone back and leaving a decent sized crater around it.

So, before I start, races in GTA Online are actually good. The races themselves, 99% of the ones I've played are really good, but I feel the experience, at least these days, is just terrible. Let's dive into it, but keep it short.
Now, in most to all races I play, I don't actually do horrible, BUT, those who do, or don't do great just leave. It feels like if players aren't in the top 5 (depending on race/lobby size), they leave. And I don't blame them. I've fallen behind on a race before, and catching up is near impossible. So...finish out the race with no chance of catching up for a higher placement/reward or leave for a better race? Well, the leave option is just better, especially to not waste your own time. So, it just creates this HORRIBLE experience where lobbies just decrease overtime till it's like 5 or 3 people.
ESPECIALLY in destroy last place races, which, I'm not gonna lie, is just dumb. It can be funny with friends, but in a public lobby with randos, that lobby is just gonna decrease and decrease. I personally would never play one of those lobbies, since, as I mentioned, if you get far enough behind, you lose by default.
Lastly, and this is more of a personal problem....I feel I like no contact races better. Idk. It feels like that relies 100% on driving skill, rather than your ability to just hit others and screw others over, and make their experience less fun, and, again, if you get far enough behind, you'll or people will just leave.
Idk. I can swear it hasn't ALWAYS been this way, but I've just felt this over the past few years. I mean hell, I was in first place in a race I was JUST playing, and I just left, since it was just a lobby of 3, and the other two were light years behind. It just didn't feel fun.
PS. I understand and do find entertainment out of contact races, since it can be funny craziness, but sometimes it can be very annoying when hitting everyone becomes one vengeful sprits mission.
Let me know what you think and your thoughts? Obviously this is subjective, if you have fun in races, no problem with that. Hell, even I still do. This is just something I've noticed that's become a big problem.
EDIT: I did notice my title for this post is a bit harsh. It doesn't suck. It's just become a bit of a mess, that's become...a little unfun, and seems to have a harder time retaining players.

This is the story of Gavicus XXIX, the leader of the Aurean Dominate at the beginning of my book series. The Aurean Dominate is a declining empire centered around the Planet Aurea and a few pieces of the surrounding worlds. Despite this, the Aurean Dominate still remains one of the four dominant powers in the South Nebula, competing with the Haxamanian Empire over its southern and eastern worlds. The north is dominated by the Ishga Empire and the west is controlled by the mysterious and brand-new Tatiians. Was Gavicus XXIX a good ruler in your opinion? Why or why not?
INFO ABOUT GAVICUS XXIX:
Gavicus XXIX was a Guant born somewhere in Occidens on Aurea 65 years before the end of Book 1. Not much is known about his early life, but it is known that Gavicus XXIX's birth name was Galerius Decimus Tranio and that he spent most of his young adulthood serving in the army during the war against Beyin Epivoulos and his criminal empire. He eventually became a Senator representing an area of rural Occidens, and after a few terms in the Aurean Senate, was chosen to become the Consigliere of Dominus Theodosius IV after the former Consigliere was ousted in the aftermath of the Great Nicopolitan Scandal. His tenure as Consigliere was short, however, as Theodosius IV died of the Blood Bleaching less than a year later. Galerius ascended the throne in Theodosius's place, and took the name Gavicus XXIX upon doing so. He was 47 years old at the time.
Gavicus inherited a bureaucracy that had just been stripped of the vast majority of its talent, as many of the best officials that had served under Theodosius had been implicated in the Great Nicopolitan Scandal and thus were barred from future office. Syagrios Komnenos, the Exarch of Tifinagh under Theodosius who had helped defeat Majorian IX when he tried to use Tifinagh as a base to usurp the throne, was replaced by Marcus Septimius Massgaba. Massgaba was an incompetent wealthy landowner who had bought his way into the Aurean Senate and would go on to spend his tenure as Exarch raising taxes like a maniac, triggering several small revolts, needlessly prolonging the war with the Haxamanians through his impatience and battlefield incompetence, and dying pathetically in the Battle of Tasfahn. Nassenia Montana, the highly capable Magistra Milita that had served under Theodosius IV was replaced by Gaius Caesonius Theodosius (no relation to Theodosius IV), a somewhat competent general who would go on to serve Gavicus well in the wars in Amorica but utterly fail him in the Battle of Tasfahn. For his Consigliere (2nd-in-command/heir in case of his resignation or death), Gavicus chose Tiverios Theodosiopoulos, the most capable of Theodosius IV's sons, who by this time was serving in the army and Senate as a Legate (Senator in command of a legion). As Gavicus was often away on campaign, Tiverios would go on to amass plenty of political clout and power for himself, as he is who Gavicus always left in charge of governance while out of the capital.
Almost immediately after ascending the throne, Gavicus was forced to deal with a crisis. In Lapum, a working-class satellite city of Aurea's largest city Nicopolis, an ethnic Tangolian civilian named Arslan Yi'it was murdered by Aurean legionaries stationed in the city, causing four days of ethnic violence and chaos known as the Lapum Riots. Large portions of the city were burned and looted. Gavicus personally led a legion into the city to quell the uprising, doing so with only 50 civilian deaths and a few hundred injuries, but this did little to quell the underlying ethnic tensions in the city and elsewhere in Aurea. Despite Gavicus's best attempts to invest in Lapum in the years following the violence, much of Lapum's terrified, ethnically Aurean and Centralian upper and middle class fled the city for Nicopolis and elsewhere, resulting in the beginnings of the urban decay the city is known for today.
Additionally and most importantly, Gavicus had inherited the war with the Haxamanian Empire that had cost the Aureans almost all of their territories on the Planet Awal. Only Tifinagh's islands and a small scrap of the mainland Theodosius IV reconquered just before his death remained under Aurean control. Immediately after dealing with the Lapum Riots, Gavicus traveled to Tifinagh, hoping to cement his legitimacy by reconquering the rest of Tifinagh. Due to the Haxamanians' attention largely being focused elsewhere, Gavicus and Massgaba managed to get significantly further than Theodosius IV did, marching east along mainland Tifinagh's northern coast to little resistance. A small Haxamanian force that tried to stop them outside the city of Dymox was easily defeated, and they took Chera, one of the largest cities on Tifinagh's mainland, with no resistance. However, the city had been emptied by the Haxamanians of its food, its civilians, its water, and its supplies. Immediately knowing this was a trap, Gavicus sent for reinforcements, naval resupply, and a fleet from Carthadasta, Tifinagh's capital. Too impatient to wait for supplies, Massgaba disobeyed Gavicus's orders to stay put and led small bands of cavalry to plunder what they could from the local countryside.
While on one of these raids, they clashed with a small band of Imazi cavalry, previously Aurean subjects who'd switched sides to the Haxamanians after the latter captured their land. The Aureans were victorious and managed to capture some, learning from them that the Haxamanians were amassing a massive army nearby, led personally by the Haxamanian Shahanshah (King of Kings) Bahram VII and his Spahbed (top general) Bacha Hilazai. Only a day later, a Haxamanian fleet appeared from the northwest and parked itself in Chera Bay, blocking reinforcements from reaching the city. However, just as according to Gavicus's plan, the Aurean fleet arrived soon after and defeated it, allowing the simultaneously arriving food and supplies to enter the city. Having lost their advantage in a siege, the Haxamanians instead opted to meet the Aureans in open battle, choosing a nearby site at the edge of the Imazi Desert. Gaius Caesonius Theodosius, who had arrived with the reinforcements, along with Gavicus and Massgaba, led the Aureans to a resounding victory, killing or capturing half the Haxamanian force and routing the rest. The victory at the Battle of the Imazi Desert allowed the Aureans to march much further into mainland Tifinagh, recapturing essentially the entire western half of the Exarchate. Meanwhile, Bahram and Bacha retreated to the fortified port of Vasanos to lick their wounds and await reinforcements. Hoping to return to governance, Gavicus left the situation on Awal to Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Massgaba for the time being and returned to Aurea proper.
In his early reign, Gavicus focused primarily on strengthening trade relations with the Ishgas, but was soon forced to shift his attention elsewhere. 4 years into his reign, the galactic warlord Tate released a magical cataclysm known as the Iteru Genocide on Iteru, a moon of the Planet Awal with close relations to the Aurean Dominate, as it was a former Aurean possession. With Iteru's Pharaoh Nuterhek, a close personal friend of Gavicus, begging him for help, Gavicus provided what rice and wheat the Aurean Dominate could spare to help with the associated famine. While it wasn't enough to save Iteru, the food aid bought many of Iteru's people the time they needed to flee the doomed moon. Despite the Aurean Dominate's extremely isolationist policies for the past few centuries, Gavicus made an agreement with Nuterhek to resettle some Iteru refugees on Aurea, angering many hardliners in the Aurean Senate. The decision was only able to pass the Aurean Senate when Gavicus agreed to cap the total number of migrants at 60,000 and restrict Iteru settlement to the cities of Astras and Olinthaseia. Most consequential of these arrivals was Taftenkhamun, Nuterhek's 10-year-old son and heir to Iteru's throne, whom Gavicus agreed with Nuterhek to adopt as a son. Despite Gavicus's efforts, however, the Iteru Genocide killed or forced into exile all sentient life on Iteru, taking the life of his friend Nuterhek as well, who chose to die with his people rather than flee to Aurea. Gavicus would live with the guilt of not doing more to help Iteru for the rest of his life.
Gavicus would raise Taftenkhamun, much better known by his Aurean name of Taftus, as the son he never had. He allowed Taftus to live with him in the Palace of the Domini, continued his education, and did his best to balance spending time with him and showing him love and affection with the duties of being the Aurean Dominus. Despite Gavicus trying to push Taftus into going into politics like he did, Taftus was far more interested in the military, and enlisted in the Aurean legions at 17, as soon as he became of age.
After a year of scheming to turn the tide of the war, Bahram sent Bacha undercover to the rebellious Aurean Province of Tangolia, tasked with fomenting a rebellion so they could use the province as a springboard to attack Aurea proper. Many Tangolians, particularly the Otrar and Gazan Tangolians, both felt mistreatment under Aurean rule and had more in common culturally with the Haxamanians than the Aureans, and many flocked to join the revolt, which quickly took control of the north and center of the province. Qajeer, the Tangolian Khan loyal to the Aureans, fought off several attempts by the rebels to capture Tengribalik, the Tangolian Capital. However, once the Haxamanians arrived, led by Bacha Hilazai, their combined strength was too much for Qajeer to deal with and he was forced to abandon the city to the rebels and Haxamanians, fleeing to Tangolia's eastern seaboard, an area much more loyal to the Aureans. With Gaius Caesonius Theodosius tied down in Tifinagh and not trusting Massgaba to defend the Exarchate on his own, Gavicus was forced to rely on what was left of Qajeer's force, border guard units, and regional commanders to stop the ensuing Haxamanian-Tangolian invasion of Argentolia, the Aurean heartland. The border guard units proved to be little more than a speed bump for the combined Haxamanian-Tangolian force, which easily broke through the border wall and crossed the Hsia River, invading Argentolia. As most of eastern Argentolia's regional commanders with any actual talent had been implicated in the Great Nicopolitan Scandal under Gavicus's predecessor and thus were no longer in command, almost all of them were fairly new recruits with little experience leading troops, resulting in disaster after disaster. Daion was the first city to fall to the Haxamanian-Tangolian force, which then followed that up by defeating an Aurean field army near Cannoria. Within three months, both Cannoria and Ferum, the latter being one of the largest and most important cities in the Aurean Dominate, would be in enemy hands. Over the following six months, poorly led field army after poorly led field army would fall to the invaders, with the major cities of Eresus, Cercapese, Ager Capulum, and Sacrini all falling within the next year. For the first time since the Aurean Dominate's founding, the capital of Astras was within striking distance.
Under immense pressure from the Aurean Senate and general public, Gavicus finally recalled Gaius Caesonius Theodosius from Tifinagh after Sacrini fell, as the enemy was nearing Astras, thought for millennia to be untouchable. By the time Gaius Caesonius Theodosius had arrived, the Haxamanian-Tangolian force had seized Artegion, on the doorstep of Astras, and with it, a fleet. With the combined arms of their massive land force and this fleet, the Haxamanian-Tangolian force laid siege to Astras, with Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Gavicus leading the defense of the city. The city's massive, three-layered walls, combined with its easily defensible location on the sea with only a few land entrances, allowed the Aureans to repel the invaders, marking a turning point in the war. While the Haxamanians under Bacha Hilazai simply sailed back to Awal, the Tangolians, with no such option and trapped thousands of miles deep in Aurean territory, would be dealt with piecemeal over the next three years. Around the same time, Qajeer had managed to reverse his fortunes in Tangolia and recapture Tengribalik and much of the province's center.
By year 6 of Gavicus's reign, the situation with the Tangolians was under enough control for Gavicus to return his military attention to Awal. While Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Gavicus had been busy fighting off Bacha Hilazai and the Tangolians, Massgaba had lost some ground to Bahram VII in Tifinagh, having been pushed back to the city of Thubiscurum. Taking advantage of low Haxamanian morale after the failed Siege of Astras, the Aureans were able to push the Haxamanians out of Tifinagh entirely when Gavicus and Gaius Caesonius Theodosius returned, restoring the Aurean Exarchate of Tifinagh to full Aurean control for the first time in decades. Other lost Aurean Exarchates in the area - Kilikia, Meroe, Adua, and the Imazi Tribal Lands - were restored to Aurean hands over the next six years, putting the Haxamanians decisively on the back foot. During this time, Bacha Hilazai was killed at the Battle of Taoudenni, greatly weakening the Haxamanians and lowering their morale.
Relations with the Kingdom of Arturia were fraught, with conflict erupting 7 years into Gavicus's reign over the Aurean Exarchate of Amorica, an isolated Aurean territory on the Planet Arturia that the Kingdom of Arturia continued to claim. Paradoxically, these tensions began when Arturia's king, King Arturius, traveled to Aurea to meet with Gavicus to negotiate an end to their millennia-long conflict. While Gavicus was personally in favor of a deal, King Arturius refused to relinquish his claim on Amorica, leading to the Aurean Senate rejecting the deal and forcing Gavicus to continue the conflict. Additionally angering the Aurean Senate, Gavicus made the mistake of insisting that he meet with Arturius in Astras rather than on Arturia. Despite Gavicus's attempt to pitch it as a beginning of the end of Aurea's centuries of isolationism that even many Aureans were starting to regard as self destructive, this was seen as a bridge too far for most. During the failed negotiations, Gavicus briefly met Pompeia, a young disciple of King Arturius who would become of note much later. In order to make up his lost standing in the Aurean Senate, Gavicus was forced to escalate the situation in Arturia immediately after the negotiations broke down, distracting King Arturius with a vacation in Astras while he ordered a massive invasion force to land in Amorica and seize as much Arturian land as possible.
Exceeding even Gavicus's expectations, this force managed to break through the Arturian Alps and put Caerbannog, the Kingdom of Arturia's capital, under siege. Upon his return, however, Arturius managed to break the siege despite being taken completely by surprise, and defeated the Aureans in several battles, pushing them all the way back into Amorica. Eventually, Arturius, livid at Gavicus's betrayal, managed to invade into Amorica itself and fought the Aureans, led personally by Gavicus as he had traveled there by this point, to a stalemate at the Battle of Caerwent. While Gavicus still had enough resources to continue prosecuting the war, he felt that this particular episode proved there was no reason to continue the constant skirmishes with Arturia, and accepted an offer to negotiate peace terms with Arturius again, this time in Amorica.
The ensuing peace deal returned Aurea's and Arturia's borders to status quo antebellum, although Arturius was not happy about Aurea retaining Amorica. However, Aurea had to bite the bullet and recognize the Kingdom of Arturia's independence and normalize relations, as all of Aurea's previous Domini had refused to do this despite it having been fait accompli for millennia at this point. Aurea had previously seen the entire Kingdom of Arturia as little more than a rogue province that had somehow managed to slip from its control long ago. Aurea paid Arturia a hefty war indemnity, but this was paltry compared to the money that new trade relations between Arturia and Aurea brought in for both nations. Although recognizing Arturia's independence was not popular on Aurea at first, Gavicus was able to sell it based on the fact that he had retained Amorica, held the peace negotiations off-planet this time, and most importantly because of all the money that new trade relations with Arturia brought in, as Arturia sat along a key trade route linking Aurea more closely with the wealthy and technologically advanced Ishgas far beyond. This allowed Gavicus to hold lavish games, as well as expand Aurea's existing food dole for the poor to include protoceratops and psittacosaurus meat in addition to wheat, olive oil, rice, pork, and chicken. His popularity spiked, and in the tenth year of his reign, he would go on to sail to reelection against Qajeer Khan, winning 55% of the vote nationwide.
In the ninth year of Gavicus's reign, the last holdouts of the Tangolian revolt had been put down by Qajeer. Qajeer had his uncle Jamukha, who had led the revolt, strangled for doing so. However, Qajeer had his own reasons for helping crush the revolt instead of participating in it himself. While he secretly loathed the Aureans and the way they treated his people, Qajeer instead chose to bide his time, gaining the Aureans' trust and building a robust local power base while he waited for his own opening to revolt. For the entire rest of his life, Gavicus would be none the wiser. Qajeer would eventually revolt under Gavicus's successor, resulting in a multi-year civil war that would leave the already exhausted Aurean Dominate open to the machinations of Tate soon after.
Gavicus tried his best to manage the Blood Bleaching pandemic that circulated on Aurea during the first few years of his reign, but little could be done to spare Aurea from the destruction of that disease, and like most of the rest of the galaxy, Aurea lost a substantial chunk of its population. Thanks largely to Gavicus's enforcement of strict social distancing throughout its duration, however, the Blood Bleaching killed far less of the population on Aurea than it did on the hardest-hit worlds of Arturia and Iteru, each of which lost half or more of their pre-pandemic populations. In total, it is estimated around 10-15% of the Aurean Dominate's pre-pandemic population was killed by the Blood Bleaching, compared to around 50% on Arturia and a whopping 70% on Iteru. Even Aurea's relatively small loss was not without its consequences, however, as this caused a decline in tax revenue for years and a noticeable strain on the military's recruitment pool.
In the first four years after his reelection, Gaius Caesonius Theodosius managed to reconquer all of the lost Exarchates on Awal the Haxamanians had taken from the Aureans during Theodosius IV's reign. Nova Aurea, Caria, and finally Carmania were all finally returned to the Aurean Dominate after decades of Haxamanian occupation, and Gavicus's popularity soared as a result.
Despite having recognized Arturia's independence earlier, 14 years into Gavicus's reign, tensions flared up with Arturia again Amorica again. An Arturian garrison had left a border fort in the Arturian Alps briefly undefended, and a small Aurean force seized it without orders, prompting a small-scale war between Aurea and Arturia. This conflict was over in about two months, with the Kingdom of Arturia suing for peace after the Aureans seized a few more border forts and badly defeated an Arturian field army at the Battle of Allt-Gollau. At the negotiating table, Gavicus agreed to return the border between the Aurean Exarchate of Amorica and the Kingdom of Arturia to status quo antebellum in exchange for the freeing of 500 Aurean hostages Arturia took during the fighting and the Aureans who seized the initial border fort without orders were put on trial. Most notable about this conflict was the brilliance of an Aurean cavalry commander named Gorgo Gualtera at the Battle of Allt-Gollau, resulting in her catching Gavicus's eye. Gavicus promoted her to Exarch of Amorica, giving her full military and civilian control of the territory. Unbeknownst to Gavicus or anyone else, however, Gorgo was both the daughter of the dead Aurean crimelord Beyin Epivoulos (the crimelord whose forces Gavicus had fought in his youth), as well as a deep cover agent for Tate (the architect of the Iteru Genocide and many other atrocities across the galaxy).
The next year, the Haxamanian Empire was engulfed in a civil war, and Gavicus saw the perfect opportunity to strike at the Haxamanian Capital while the area was engulfed in turmoil, finally ending the decades-long war or maybe even conquering the Haxamanians completely in the process. However, things did not at all go according to plan, and all the armies he brought with him got destroyed by the forces of Rukhsana I Shahanzai, a disaffected member of the Haxamanian royal family who had escaped from prison, gotten an army together, annihilated the Aureans in the disastrous Battle of Tasfahn, and took the Haxamanian throne for herself. Several Aurean generals and other military leaders, including Massgaba, were killed, and Gavicus barely escaped the battle with his life. The Aureans had no forces left on Awal after this to protect their holdings there. On the other hand, Taftus, who was also present during the campaign, became a national hero when he used his tactical prowess to save the troops under his command from annihilation by a Haxamanian ambush deep in the mountains.
In the aftermath, Gavicus was forced to enter into peace negotiations. At first, Rukhsana demanded the Aureans cede all their lands on Awal to the Haxamanians, which Gavicus flatly refused (The Exarchate of Tifinagh on Awal was one of Aurea's most valuable regions and ceding it to the Haxamanians would have meant an end to the grain dole and mass starvation across Aurea). Eventually, a deal was reached in which the Aureans would cede all their lands on Awal except the Exarchate of Tifinagh to the Haxamanians, and the Aureans would have to pay a huge war indemnity to the Haxamanians as well. The Aurean Exarchates of Nova Aurea, Kilikia, Meroe, Adua, the Imazi Tribal Lands, Carmania, and Caria were all permanently handed over to the Haxamanians, essentially rendering all of Gavicus's reconquests except those in Tifinagh moot. This was formalized in the humiliating Treaty of Mingora, which Gavicus was forced to sign.
Gavicus's popularity took a nosedive in the aftermath of this event, and he dedicated the rest of his reign to domestic policy, commissioning public works projects, throwing lavish games, and beginning by far his most important legacy: he decided that to keep up with the rest of the galaxy, Aurea needed to end its isolationism and industrialize along the Ishga model. He decided that Aurea's largest city, Nicopolis, would be a good place to test industrialization, and he hired Ishga scientists, architects, engineers, and developers to transform Nicopolis into a modern city. While Gavicus's popularity would never recover to the heights it was at after his victory over the Arturians, this was enough to keep him from being assassinated (at least for a while).
For the rest of Gavicus's life, Taftus would alternate between his extremely promising military career and a middling-to-poor one as an elected politician, helping Gavicus with some of his later projects such as industrialization but turning out to be too scandal-ridden and debauched to be the protege Gavicus wanted. For all his military talent, Taftus had a reputation for extreme abrasiveness and anger issues, and it seemed every other week there was another rumor going around about Taftus having massive orgies involving female politicians and/or prostitutes. While Gavicus would never fully disown Taftus, he had largely abandoned him as a protege by the end of his reign, assigning him military command of the backwater province of Tiorangi where he didn't have to pay much attention to him. The year before Gavicus died, he made Gorgo Gualtera his Magister Equitum, supreme commander of all cavalry forces in the Aurean Dominate after the previous officeholder died suddenly of a stroke. While Gavicus had no way of knowing this at the time, this decision would eventually result in both his own death and Aurea being pulled into the galaxy's broader confrontation with Tate years later that would result in the bloodiest war in galactic history.
Towards the end of his life, Gavicus befriended Pompeia, a young woman of mixed Aurean and Tangolian heritage who had spent much of her life on the Planet Arturia before returning to Aurea by accident. She rose to superstardom as a gladiator, having trained in magic under King Arturius, utilizing magic in combat in ways that hadn't been seen in millennia. He was both shocked and intrigued by Pomepeia's friendship and past brief romantic involvement with Rukhsana I Shahanzai of the Haxamanian Empire. Gavicus saw great potential in Pompeia and reinstated her Aurean citizenship, even allowing her to serve as his Consigliere after Tiverios was indicted on corruption charges. However, there was some tension between the two, as Pompeia was from Lapum, had witnessed the Lapum Riots as a child, and was critical of Gavicus's failure to address the longstanding discrimination against Tangolians that led to them. Less than a year later, Gavicus was assassinated under mysterious circumstances (it would later be discovered that Gorgo Gualtera arranged his murder and covered it up so well that no one even suspected her until she would eventually reveal her true intentions years later), and Pompeia ascended the throne as the first female Dominus (Domina) in history. Gavicus's body was cremated after his death and his urn was placed in the Mausoleum of the Domini in Astras. Decades of constant conflict with the Haxamanians, both under Gavicus and his predecessor Theodosius IV, as well as civil conflict, multiple Tangolian revolts, the Hoc Nostrum conflict, and the Amorican Wars with Arturia would leave Pompeia with an exhausted Aurean Dominate, bereft of manpower, resources, money, and talent that would be completely unprepared to deal with Tate and his machinations only a few years after Gavicus's death.

There are many XFs like this WF from the background who loves and supports AMs such as found in the link

https://old.reddit.com/AsianMasculinity/comments/1cv3urz/yall_are_loved_and_cherished_and_if_youre_not/

Then there are ricels who get skeptical just because they don't get any action, thereby projecting their personal failures with women unto Asian fellas as a whole. You see them with comments like

Supportive words have their place, but validation of those words by proof of results is what ultimately matters.

and

because truth of the matter is the average asian guy won't get the same attention as the average non-asian guy.
i know you're trying to uplift and encourage but in real life the avg asian guys are mostly invisible.
hope the best for your relationship. i know y'all will raise your kids well (if y'all plan that far ahead and plan to have kids).

Both of them lie because the truth is that WMAF/XMAF < AMWF/AMXF quantitatively and qualitatively, and this includes the extensive cheating advantage of mail order brides in WMAF/XMAF, yet still arent as numerous as AMWF/AMXF. Always has and this was during the pre-Hallyu era, making XM incels, Lululemons, and ricels become xxxtra butthurt. Want to know which non-Asian countries where AMWF/AMXF outnumber WMAF/XMAF? Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Jamaica, Morocco, and Tunisia. Even some legit western countries are included such as Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Wales, Austria, and Spain. This not a full list either. There are many others I didnt bother to mention and not going to moving forward because I rather have Asian fellas travel and explore the world, beyond the usual suspects. Holy moley, Russia alone has more AMWF than all the WMAF has combined in the west! Its so overwhelming that some white fella had to point it out to another White fella https://archive.ph/fB8RS.
Ricels are mostly American, thus, have a very narrow American-centric view of things. Despite the US making up immigrants from every part of the world, people who have been abroad knows that America is still not all of humanity, and not's even close. For one, the US population is small relative to its large land size. Two, the majority of descendants from Europe, Asia, Africa, etc, that immigrated to America many generations ago were beta rejects from their native countries. Three, the US is increasingly becoming irrlevant on the world stage and its demise is due to their maladjusted and inadequate government, and China with its allies accelerating America's fall.
Multitudes of US born and raised AMs are also very clueless regarding romance. I guarantee there were many or at least some real cases about windows of opportunity throughout their lives for them to get with excellent high quality XFs that werent descended from beta reject families of their native countries, and these XFs also being a lot more attractive in every level than Americanized Lululemons, yet numerous American AMs chose not to reciporcate flirations by XFs that clearly showed strong interest.
Partly to blame is the beta upbringing that American AMs had, so they lacked the ability to read signals accurately and act accordingly combined with outdated expectations for the AMs to only go for AF, while only living in a non-Asian country where XFs are so much more common. Another reason is the brainwashing effects of American media that engineered AMs to be undesirable within the US.
Even then, propaganda does have its limitations and the previous generations of Boomers, GenX, and Millennials success of AMs with XFs is proof of that, especially Southeast Asian men (Filipinos, Burmese, Viets, Cambodians, Malaysians, Indonesians, etc) who did a lot more repping AMXF without any media hype uplifting their image. This must be endlessly frustrating for East AM ricels that look down on Southeast Asians lol. Not saying Southeast AM ricels dont exist btw because they do. Its just more impressive that a group of men (Southeast AM) which had the same hurdles as East AM, yet Southeast AMs still slayed so much in comparison! Southeast AM didnt have the advantage of having tv dramas that tug at the heart strings or exhilarating comic books to give them any halo effect which East AMs have in spades. You can even say Southeast AM faced more discrimination than their East AM bruthas because not only did Southeast AM get racist treatment from non-Asians in America as many of us know how a lot of Americans especially tend to be "Hurr durr, ALL gooks look alike, whether theyre east or southeast hahahahahaha", Southeast AMs also got racist treatment from their snooty East Asian-American kin. I can picture East AM ricels try to come up with a retort that goes "But but but but Southeast AMs don't have the cultural expectation to only stick with AFs from their respective ethnic group." Uh yeah they do, including Filipinos who are arguably the most chill and relaxed ethnicity out of all Southeast Asians or Asians as a whole or people in general.
A solacement is that some American AMs, particularly East Asian because they prematurely sabotage themselves the most, broke away from the evil magic spell of US brainwashing and rebelled against their mommy's and daddy's expectations about being a "good" Asian son, whatever the fuck that means, unashamedly went for the XFs they love rather than settling with a disturbed Lululemon. The AF may not even be a Lu. There are Asian fellas that barely find AFs physically attractive while these Asian fellas are genuinely attracted to XFs. I don't blame them because physical Asian attributes look better and more fitting on men after all. Physical attraction is usually the first step for men to be interested at starting intimate relations with a women, although other aspects are important too such as personalities being compatible. Asian fellas who had the guts to forge their life like that can be considered BAD (Big Asian Dick) Boys as well.
Then at the first link I showed, there is a Lulumon larping as a young White woman who said

As a white girl with a Chinese husband, I loved your post until I got to the mega cringe part attacking Asian women. We should try not to make more hate and problems. There are wonderful Asian girls too. We need less racism towards Asians, not more. Our daughters will be Asian/white mixed girls. Let’s not be the inverse of white dads with Asian women that push their Asian sons to only date other Asians while encouraging their daughters to date white.
You’re doing great supporting people that need it! Please stick to the part that’s great and don’t also spread hate 😊

No you troll Lu. WMAF/XMAF are not equal to AMWF/AMXF. I'm happy the post opener called out that Lululemon larper on her stupidity.
BAD (Big Asian Dick) Boy are genuinely loved.

They need to do some QoL changes to the reviving. Especially with the map sizes, and how fast your bleed out timer is.
The timer for bleed out should pause the moment someone starts the revive. In nightmare mode, if I’m not within 30 M of my teammate when they go down, they are unfortunately going to bleed out from my experience.
Extending the timer for bleed out would be another way to circumvent this, albeit not as “clutch” as being able to get the revive with the timer stopped right before bleed out.
Another thing is the actual process or window for revive needs to be made bigger. What I mean by that is that I should be forced to stop reviving my teammate just due to a zombie physically pushing me out of the way an inch. There have been numerous times where I have the Invulnerable ult popped, reviving a teammate and I get interrupted because 1 or 2 zombies physically pushed me out of the window for that action. There should be a stick mechanic where as long as I’m holding revive, it’ll revive (within reason) even if physically nudged.
Would love to hear some others thoughts on this niche rant I went on!

Measurements: 28, 27, 26, 30, 32, 31.5
After many tries, I finally found a bra that maybe fits! It's the b'tempt'd Future Foundations t-shirt bra in 28D. the cups are close to perfect (slightly wide but close enough and I fill them out without quadding), the band is good (slightly stretchier than I would prefer, but seems to pretty much stay put), the straps feel good. The only discomfort is at the gore, not sure why it's digging in. If I fold a tissue and put it under the gore, that seems to solve it. Thoughts? I tentatively plan to keep it pending the gore issue, and while I love the fit, it's pretty boring, which is why it took me so long to try it. So I'm looking for similar fits but ~cuter~. I was the first one to add this size to Bratabase so I don't have much to go on over there.
Throughout this process, I've continuously been learning more about my shape. I started out thinking I was shallow, wide-set, and FOB, but I've slowly realized that I'm at least somewhat projected, mid-set (2 fingers between breast tissue when supported...I mistook lack of inner fullness as being wide-set), and I actually have tall roots with more of an even top/bottom fullness. On the outside, I have breast tissue until about an inch in front of my resting arm, not sure if that means in terms of horizontal root width. Maybe average or narrow? I don't have much fullness at the nipple, so a somewhat conical shape.
I've started gravitating towards plunge styles since I can rarely fill out the inner parts of a fuller-cup bra. I also have to stay away from anything closed on top due to the tall roots.
The Freya Offbeat Side Support almost fits me (after sizing up one cup size to 28DD), but it's wrinkling a little in the middle of the cup. With the 28D it was wrinkling horribly because the side panel was cutting right through the middle of my tissue and I'm thinking the 28DD might still be doing that a little bit as well. I have some tissue on the outside that's not being captured by the cup. I'm surprised that it's close, though, since the gore is pretty tall and I read that's it's pretty closed on top (I do get slight wrinkling at the top as well, maybe that's why). Is it worth trying the 28E?
Tango II Plunge in 28D was terrible. Not sure if it's just way too big in the cup or too closed on top or what but I could pinch about an inch of fabric in the middle after scoop/swoop.
I also tried the Panache Black Ardour in 28D and 28DD. The DD fit better but neither was great, mostly due to gore discomfort and some gaping, especially right next to the gore. The straps are also comically wide-set, which adds to the gaping problem because I have to pull them in to keep them from falling off my shoulders, which then pushes the cups into a weird shape. If I perch the straps on the edges of my shoulders, cups look fine. I'm thinking I should have sized up in the band for that one since it seems to run small, but I'm not sure I'll try it again due to the wide strap issue. It has pretty lace so I'm sad it didn't work.
Recommendations? TIA!

GOOD DAY MY GLORIOUS DIPSHITS!
So here we are, nearly halfway through the near, and we still can't figure out how to use Reddit or AskMen. THE LAST STICKY has been added to the FAQ but its not like you degenerates actually read a goddamned thing.
Joking aside for a moment
AskMen is a place to ask questions that will open a conversation with men or to gain a male perspective on things.
This is not a sex sub. This is not an anti-woman sub. This is not a dating sub. This is not a PUA tips sub. This is not a MGTOW sub. This is not an Incel positive sub.
Men are not a monolith. Do not ask questions that treat all men as a singular being. Do not post questions that assume all men think a single way, and you want to know why. You're already on the wrong path. Your boyfriend/husband/SO is an individual not part of collective male mind. If you want to know why they did something - ASK THEM, NOT US. You want to buy your boyfriend/husband/SO a gift, and don't know what to get them, HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH THEM.
You didn't have a dad growing up and want to ask a question - we got dads here. You didn't or don't have many male friends and don't understand a reference - we got dudes here. You never learned how to do a thing that "every dude" seems to know how to do, and want it explained - we got those guys here too.
I am saying all this, because lately there has been a swarm of really anti-female shit being said around here, people feeding into it, and then other (usually either anti-male or pro-fem) subs using it to buzz around and incite fights, flaming and other bullshit. The bots catch a lot, but the mod inbox the last two weeks has been full to the brim.
This is a safe space. Liberal, Conservative, Gay, Straight, Bi, Trans, Cis, Married, Single, Poly, Child-free, parenting, POC, White, Religious, Atheist, whatever...thats all part of the male experience, so it's all valued and all valid.
WE THE MODERATION TEAM ARE ASKING - when you see hateful shit, when you see people behaving badly, when you see people being wrong - fucking report it. if it's reported, report it again - three reports takes it down. Or message us with a link - and title it "This Fucking Person"
We will act, but we have to know about it. We need your help to keep this place a good place to be. It's a big sub, and we mods are few.
We may hate you dumbfucks, but we love you as well.

So I watched Game Theory's newest TADC theory I was interested by the points that it made, but I think it ultimately came to the wrong conclusion about Jax being an NPC. Gooseworx could've been simply sizing up Caine as relentlessly tormenting people in the teaser episode to draw more attention, and the actual evidence for Jax being an NPC, can just as easily be concluded as him simply being the foil to Pomni, with greater understanding than he is letting on, as shown with his pin room. The chekov's gun of NPCs still has lots of opportunities for future episodes.
So, as compensation, I came to a different conclusion with Game theory's evidence, and some of my own.
Jax is willingly choosing to stay in the Circus, and preventing the others from catching on to find ways to escape.
Jaz clearly knows more than he let's on, with how he manages to have keys for everything without any explanation, which Ragatha notes as not being normal. He has the means to explore more and peal away at the curtain of the Digital Circus, yet tells Pomni they've all already tried to leave and Failed.
Jax treats people as simple entertainment, but even so, he should be able to work together with the others if he really wants to escape with his prior experience. Remember, he did bring Gangle and Kingar with him to hide from Kaufmo. He is willing to help or work with people out of absolute necessity.
If this is the case, why did he never begrudgingly work with the others on the absolute necessity of ESCAPING?
Simple, he could've already, but he doesn't want to. He prefers the Digital Circus to whatever hedonistic and shallow life he lived before. Gooseworx did comment that he deserves to be trapped there the most.
So instead, he continues living his past life through the others' suffering, a life free from consequences, where he imposes his will on everyone around him and they are forced to put up with him.
In addition to general sadism, he could then be tormenting the others as a means of submission, to be an obstacle that obstructs them from ever focusing on the bigger picture and escaping without his help.
His first response to Pomni's distress isn't to empathize or be blunt but fair, it's to give her the cold reality immediately, reinforce it by saying everyone else already tried to leave, and then mock her continously for the rest of the episode about her desire to escape.
Furthermore, remember that he was also the one to choose who to pair up as teams in the pilot. As noticed by Ragatha, he pairs up the two most unstable and despondent characters. Whilst he is the one who decides to go with Pomni and Ragatha.
If his sadism is a means of creating submission, then it makes perfect sense why he'd choose to go with Pomni and Ragatha. Pomni, because she's still having initial discontent and hoping to escape, and Ragatha, who maintains a positive attitude and tries to still help others with their situation, both are conflicts to his interests of preventing anyone from escaping. He leaves Gangle and Kingar alone because, in his eyes, they're already too far gone, therefore he has no need to accompany them.
He bullies Gangle because she still has enough reason left to suffer, whist largely ignoring Kingar, because, like a sadist, he realizes that Kinger is too innocent and friendly to give him any satisfaction in tormenting him, he wants a reaction.
To add to his influence of submission and blind acceptance, I noticed looking back at episode 2, the only seemingly affable thing he does without an obvious alterior motive is near the beginning. He playfully invities Zooble to come along for the adventure and mess around with the new AI. It's strange on rewarch, he may only want to torment Zooble, but the odd sincerity with which he invites her betrays his own demeanor. He knows Zooble hates him, he's bullied her as well in the pilot, and she hates adventures. He earnestly is attempting to hype her up, to make her interested in going on the adventures.
This small moment takes a dark twist under this new idea of willful misdirection. He wants her to give into the worthless entertainment. If his goal is to prevent the others from finding a way to escape, then Zooble refusing to go on adventures is a direct wrench in his plans, when he has no control or influence over them, they could do whatever they want.
Now, the last part of this puzzle to support this idea. What will this mean thematically? TADC is a story about existentialism and nihilism;questinging the value of your own reality.
Episode two ends on a bittersweet note, Pomni realizes she may still be trapped, but she discovers that she has the others to help her through it. Episode 2 also, as explained by gametheory, highlights the similarities between AI and Humans, but this can be taken in another direction, where the humans' lives aren't much different in the circus either, they both face impending insignificance and the threat of oblivion, so TADC will tell us something about the worth of our lives.
So then, how will this tie to Jax? Jax acts as a sorta foil to Pomni, as supported by Game theory and it's here in this funeral scene we get the first shred of humility from him. Whilst Pomni ends happier after attending Kaufmo's funeral, accepting her own vulnerability, Jax storms off with the tiny hint of emotion in his eyes, but repressing it as he refuses to attend.
This is a noteworthy moment of applying empathy to his character, but we must remember, Gooseworx has directly stated that Jax will be even worse in future episodes, and has nothing heroic in him. Therefore, I find it hard to believe he is feeling genuine sadness for Kaufmo, in a way that is actually selfless.
To reinforce the evidece of Gamethoery that Jax is worse than Caine and the true tormenter in the circus, now that him being an AI isnt the conclusin, him actively conspiring against the others gives more credence to this idea of him being the true villain, as he better fits the role of AM, the main antagonist of I have no Mouth and I must Scream, the primary inspiration for TADC, as he treats people like playthings and forces them to be stuck with him, in an attempt to repress his own suffering.
Now, let me recontextulize the funeral scene;when Ragatha brings up the topic of Funerals he isn't getting emotional over Kaufmo's, he's thinking of his own, and for a tiny moment, he realizes the grim reality that no one is gonna be attending his, but chooses to brush it aside.
He is the antithesis to Pomni, he is the anti role model who reflects horrible ways to cope with your existence, and more importantly, shows how he's hurting himself by choosing to live this way, depriving him of any true purpose. He chooses to stay trapped, so he may live a life without consequences, but under his anger, he's fearful and empty.

I need some feedback about how to handle a problematic short term rental situation here in kl.
I negotiated directly with an agency for a monthly rental. I came to see this place before moving in and it looked fine, much better than my previous stay. The problems did not become apparent until I moved in.
After a few hours here I realized there was a very strange smell in the studio . It reminded me of mothballs. I assumed this must be a coincidence as I could not see any mothballs in the closet. I thought it might be the dirty air conditioner filters so I cleaned them - made no difference. So I tried to ventilate the room by keeping the balcony door open - this helped a bit but the smell returned as soon as I closed the door.
By the second day I was coughing on and off, feeling nauseous, and feeling generally unwell. After searching a bit I discovered a couple of mothballs in wrappers under the sink and threw them out.
then later I discovered more of them. They were in hard to find places like corners of higher less accessible cabinets in the kitchen area. They had been removed from their wrappers and broken into fragments and scattered inside the cabinets. I cleaned the cabinets and got rid of all of them.
At this point I reached out to my contact at the rental agency to describe what was happening. I asked her if they could bring me a fan to help ventilate the room and if they had another room similar to this one that I could view, so I could switch rooms if necessary.
She did not directly answer my questions about the fan or seeing another room but apologized and told me to let her know if I was still having trouble breathing.
I knew that mothballs smelt bad but didn't actually realize how dangerous they are. They are actually pesticides in solid form that become gaseous at room temperature - so if you smell them, it means you are breathing poisonous fumes. They are only supposed to be kept with clothes in tightly sealed containers.
But I thought I had found all the mothballs, so I opened the balcony doors, and hoped the smell would go away.
The smell was still strong around the bed area so the next day I decided to move the bed. Underneath the bed was filthy and had obviously never been cleaned and guess what I discovered there? Two more mothballs!
My guess is if the owner or cleaning staff did not intententionally put these in the room for some reason, some previous guest who did not understand the dangers of mothballs scattered them around the room, thinking it was a good way to repel insects.
I'm hoping at this point I've found all of them. the smell in the room has improved but it is not completely gone. It seems to have been absorbed by some of the furniture.
Meanwhile I've discovered other less serious issues with the apartment, which I've told the agency about but which still haven't been resolved : the dryer of the washedryer doesn't seem to work and I can't get the TV to work either. The unit also isn't a quiet as they told me it was . it's located in the block of the building furthest from the freeway but I guess there are vehicles that are modified in some way, because the noise they make is insanely loud and has been worse on the weekend, and they race down the freeway all night long.
My main concern though is the smell in the apartment and the possibility there are more mothballs I haven't found. If I were renting through Airbnb I know they offer certain protections and at this point I would be able to get a refund and get help finding another place but I have no experience working directly with Malaysian agencies and have already paid the full amount plus deposit for one month here. I don't know if they would return my money for unspent nights if I said I wanted to leave, offer a discount, or what (if anything) to expect.
It took me two weeks to find this place and I was not able to find another studio to rent that met my needs so I don't have a good alternative right now if I leave. I'm also hesitant to move if I don't have to because my first rental experience here (through Airbnb) was also bad, and I don't want to start over again in a new place only to find myself in an even worse situation.
I'm just too worn out and overwhelmed by all this to think clearly right now so I'd appreciate any advice on what to do and the best way to deal with the agency.

OOC: Co-Written with u/VictoriousBaffon :)
When Maxwell took the job to refuel the car, he figured he would be the one doing the oil change. Quick business, 20 minutes in and out. Wrenches, rags, the whole shabang. Easy job, easy brownie points for the empty Techne cabin. Let’s clear the three elephants in the room, though.
Firstly. Why is the job labeled as refueling the car when it actually needs an oil change? That’s not a refueling! That’s an oil change!
Secondly! Why did he need to find a mechanic? Maxwell could do it! It’s easy! You just put the car on a jack, crawl under it, remove the oil pan screw, wait for it to drain, screw it back in, remove the filter, replace it with the new one, and then add oil at the top! Whatever. One day, he might just do something like that here.
Thirdly…
“Theo, why did you sign up for this?” Maxwell questioned his girlfriend as she approached, a grin plastered on her face.
“Oh, come on, Max. It says it right there! One of you probably needs to know how to drive! I can drive, and, besides, if you went alone, someone might try to steal you from me, and I can’t have that.” She said simply, patting Maxwell’s cheek affectionately.
“Theo, nobody would try to steal me from you. Besides, it’s not like the mechanic is far. Maybe… 12 miles? That’s, what…” He scratched his head, his fingers moving in a way as if they were typing on an invisible keyboard, “20 minutes? Half an hour? If that.” He said simply before something clicked in his brain. “Hey! I can drive too!”
“Mario Kart doesn’t count. Not even that old one from some 30 years ago where you actually steer with the remote.”
“Mario Kart Wii is probably more realistic than what you’ve done. Besides, when have you driven?”
Theodora shrugged nonchalantly as she explained, “Nikita showed me how. I’ve driven around in an empty parking lot once or twice, so I figure I’m more qualified.”
Maxwell sighed, shaking his head. “I really feel like we should get someone who has an actual license on hand. Besides, Theo, this is an entirely different beast! New York traffic is infamous for being impossible to navigate without wanting to burn your horn out with how much you use it!”
“Max, c’mon. We’ve got seatbelts for a reason. ‘Sides, who’s gonna know?”
“Me! You! Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if Mr. D, Chiron, or Lady A found out! No, I will not let you drive!” Maxwell stomped his foot on the ground as he huffed, coming off as more adorable than actually scary or intimidating. Of course, unphased as always, Theodora just laughed as she kissed her boyfriend.
“You’re the worst…”
“I love you too, Max.”
Maxwell stood beside the van, looking down at the ground as he nudged Theo, nodding towards an approaching NPC daughter of Hypnos. Theodora glanced at her boyfriend exasperatedly, making the son of Techne just shake his head as the daughter of the god of sleep got into the driver’s seat.
Maxwell got into the back seats of the van, leaving shotgun open if Theo wanted it. She did not. Instead, she decided to get back at her boyfriend for daring to doubt her ability to drive, license be damned. That’s why she got in the backseat with Maxwell, deciding to get into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck, taking great satisfaction in the flushing of his face.
The daughter of Nike couldn’t help but laugh slightly at how easily the boy flushed, teasing him. “Something wrong, Max?” She asked nonchalantly as she fiddled and toyed with the drawstrings on Maxwell’s hoodie.
“Yes? One. We’re about to leave, and you’re on my lap. That’s… Not safe. Two. We’re not exactly alone, Theo. Three. This is my seat!” Maxwell listed off his reasons for wanting Theo to get off of his lap, unable to meet her eyes as he did so.
“Buzzkill.” Theo rolled her eyes as she slid off of Maxwell’s lap, plopping down right next to him afterwards. She got adjusted in her seat, wrapping an arm around Maxwell’s shoulder, pulling him close to her as the three demigods rode off towards the mechanic.
The mechanic was no further than half an hour out from camp, and the car ride was… Uneventful, to say the least. Mostly the occasional murmur from the young couple in the back, mostly about things such as Sam– Theo’s cousin, the son of Hecate– and his relationship with the other Sam, or about how Theo could go to the Techne cabin at any time due to it being mostly empty now.
Thankfully, right as Theodora was about to fall asleep from boredom, the car came to a halt as the daughter of sleep, who had driven them here with a valid driver’s license, of course, gave the keys to the mortal mechanic, telling him they needed an oil change. This was, of course, the cue for Maxwell, Theo, and their chauffeur to get out of the van, Maxwell stretching out as he did so.
Now, it was pleasantly warm outside today, and, as such, Maxwell decided to take his hoodie off, revealing a pair of overalls underneath. By the look of things, he really had his little heart set on changing the oil himself. Now, of course, the instant he took his hoodie off, Theo paused to check her boyfriend out just a bit think about something. For all of a second. The daughter of victory was quick to the draw thanks to her superior speed. Maxwell’s own creation, the flight-capable Omnichao, could only fly at 15 miles to the hour. Theodora, on the other hand, at her maximum potential, could blast past the automaton at a mindboggling 23 miles an hour. With this speed, dexterity, and agility, Theo could do a lot of things.
This includes stealing the seafoam green hoodie from Maxwell’s hands.
Maxwell’s eyes went wide as the hoodie was ripped from his hands. Of course, he kept a loose grip on it, but he didn’t expect it to just be ripped out like that. “Theo!” Maxwell said sharply, turning around, pouting as he saw her putting his hoodie on. There was a decent size difference between Maxwell’s clothes and Theo’s, and it showed. Maxie’s hoodie was just a little bit large on Theodora, and it was clear she was loving this. The grin on her face said it all as she spoke, “What? You clearly don’t want it on right now. That’s why you took it off, right? For me?”
“That’s–”
“That’s not–”
“I didn’t–”
“I knew it. Oh, I must be the luckiest girl alive.” Theo stuck her tongue out as Maxwell attempted to plead his case. “‘Sides, it smells like you, and I like having things which remind me of you.” Seeing Maxwell’s eyes roll, Theo clicked her tongue before she approached Maxwell, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed his nose. “I’ll let you have one of mine in exchange. Deal?”
“...Deal.” Maxwell sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he subconsciously used his thermal grasp power to steal some bodily heat from the blonde.
Mortal mechanics work fast. Provided they’re competent, that is. This particular mortal, who semeed no more than 40, seemed competent, though, as if making sure, Maxwell subtly watched from behind. The last thing he needed was for the three of them to be on their way back, only for the car to try to use gunk shot, and blast oil all over the freeway like they were laying the course for a Mario Kart track.
Thankfully, Maxwell couldn’t find any faults within the mechanic’s working. The man charged the trio of demigods a large fee of 70 USD, which made Maxwell cringe, taking a mental note to just ask if he could do it himself next time. He could’ve done it for a fraction of that price. 30 USD, if that. But, whatever. Not his problem. It would normally have been the problem of Theo’s moms, except for two issues. One. It’s not even a problem– they’re millionaires. 70 dollars is like pricking someone on the finger for one measly droplet of blood. They’d survive. Two. It seemed as though the daughter of Hypnos had them covered. Well, that was nice of her. The three campers all climbed back into the van after they paid for the mechanic’s service, riding back off to camp. Discussions between Maxwell and Theo mostly consisted of topics such as, ”When are we going to spar?”, ”My sleep schedule is fine.”, and, ”Since when did you appear in the news?” Normal demigod business. Another half of an hour passed, and the three demigods rolled up, the van still notably in one piece. Maxwell and Theo talked about it before they decided that they probably(?) didn’t have to go to the big house to make an announcement. It’s not like they fought monsters, much to the disappointment of Theodora.
Instead, Maxwell allowed himself to be dragged off to cabin 17 for the hoodie he was promised from Theo.

I saw this Tumblr post and was able to find this Reddit one, but I'm confused! The site already lists Dexter Dragon as being available in large—but large is listed as being 12cm x 14cm x 50cm, which is the same dimensions as my current Dexter... which I swear wasn't a "large" when I brought him several years ago? He's certainly not the retired size, anyway.
I'd always wanted the biggest sized Dexter and was sad that he retired before I could get him. Is he actually making a return, though, or has the size names been changed and that's confusing things?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed light!

28 - The Fountain Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 1000 CP 1000 (Base)

Jump Details

Document name: 28 - The Fountain Version: 1.1 Author: SJ-Chan Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J9PF3AIk-7AcY8Gd2R7CJXaqDZPdxgeO/view

Jump Duration

Years: 10 Months: 0 Days: 0

Perks

Noble Thought (Free)
A noble is a creature of excess, and excess has a way of blinding one to reality. Well, not you. No matter how much you have, you will never forget the value of things, the realities of the lives of people who aren’t you, and truth that the world does not, in fact, revolve around you. You will not forget to treat people with the respect due them, nor will you disregard their suffering simply because it doesn’t affect you.
Noble Deed (Free)
Things you do echo further, have greater impact, are remembered longer. History books never leave you out and, when you visit places you once tread, you will find relics and signs of your passage no matter how much time has passed. You will not be forgotten. But you might not be remembered fondly.
Inventor's Vision (Free)
When you look upon a problem or issue that you understand even a bit, you instantly get a sense for how you might solve that problem, upgrade that item, or improve that situation. The longer you study some situation or item, the greater the insight will be and the more far reaching the solution. You might look at the state of education in your society and within a week have a dozen workable plans for small ways to improve the situation, and within a year of study have a comprehensive and feasible plan for a complete overhaul of the system. While not guaranteed that all your ideas will be good ones, improvement becomes far more likely with time and effort. Unforeseen side effects might still crop up though.
Inventor's Intent (Free)
One of the worst things an inventor can experience is discovering that someone has used their invention in a way they would not approve of... or even worse, that their invention has some horrible side-effect. Now this is much less likely to happen to you. Processes, techniques, and tools invented by you are much harder to abuse in ways you would not approve of, and you’re much better at foreseeing potential problems ahead of time and figuring out ways to head them off or, at least, lessen the fallout that will result from them.
Improved POV (Free)
Somehow, wherever you go, you always seem to be in five closely related locations at the same time. Well, that’s not quite right. Let me try again. When you are anywhere, four versions of you that aren’t quite really there, but could be there if you weren’t there... are there. Does that make any sense? Probably not. But what it boils down to is that for every event you experience, you have not one but five points of view on the event. Maybe one of you was right in the middle of a bar-fight, while another you was in the corner watching, and a third was working a pick-up shift behind the bar, and a fourth was an EMT who responded to the event and the fifth was a bum on the sidewalk outside listening. Only the primary you is the one who was really in the moment, but you can freely remember what all the four... let’s call them shadows... would have seen and experienced from their own unique POVs. You can’t really choose what they were doing, as they are more like echoes of potential you’s, but their experiences will be close enough to what you’d have experienced to be easily internalized and all the details will be as true as anything you actually experienced.
Bystander (Free)
When you don’t want to be involved in the events unfolding around you, be that a war, a fight, or a natural disaster, you may remove yourself from the flow of events almost entirely. As long as no individual or entity involved wants to target you specifically, you may become an all but intangible, unperceivable, untargetable observer. Even area effect things like, say, atomic bomb blasts, will pass harmlessly through you, though you might want to get out of there before the radiation gets to you. All Together Now (Free)
You have grown tired of casting off the memories and emotions each Jump layers over your basic identity. You may now choose to absorb the personality of any self you gain or have ever been into a gestalten whole. While this may dilute your basic youness, it also makes it much harder for anyone but you to make sense of your memories or to use any specific traumatic experience against you. Although there is now more of you, your essential sense of self only grows stronger the more times you do this, as all these facets of yourself serve to reinforce your fundamental identity, and you realize that the more you appear to change, the more you explore the limits of who you are. In layman’s terms, each apparent change is more akin to uncovering further digits of pi. Pi itself never changes even as it grows more complex.
500 Years of Practice - Teaching [100/900 CP]
You have spent five centuries mastering (and beyond mastering) any singular skill or artform. Sure, you might be a bit obsessed with that subject, but that obsession will fade as the jump comes to an end. Your compulsive delving into the limits of this singular area of study has granted you insights that no other living being has ever reached, allowing you to casually compose masterpieces which can profoundly move those who witness them, or create stunning refinements undreamt of by mere masters. A painter could trace a perfect circle in black on a white background and viewers would stare for hours. A dancer could reduce the audience to tears simply by standing still. A sculptor could carve hard stone until it was all but impossible to tell the sculpture from a living being. A poet’s words could touch the hardest heart or sway public opinion like a gale-force wind.
Soothing Presence [200/700 CP]
You have achieved inner calm and can project it at others as long as you are not currently experiencing any strong emotion yourself. Merely being in someone’s presence is enough to calm them dramatically, but physical contact, oratory or song, or simply allowing them to see you can all boost the effect by orders of magnitude. This can sooth mental, emotional, or spiritual suffering, or simply induce a sense of lassitude over the target or targets. This can work on any number of people as long as you can reach them with your presence.
Absolution [300/400 CP]
If you can convince someone to willingly pour out their deepest fears, regrets, or sins to you, you can grant them true absolution, allowing them to forgive themselves and move on. This does absolutely nothing for you as it does not work if you make it conditional. Their repentance must be genuine for this to work and they cannot desire gaining absolution for any immoral or unethical purpose.

Items Stipend: [+200/600 CP]

Meditation Garden (Free)
The Body. The Mind. The Soul. A perfect trinity, working in harmony to reflect the Self. But when one of these is disrupted, balance can be at risk. Balance must be maintained. Upon purchase, your Warehouse gains a small Meditation Garden attachment, that while it cannot be used for storage, it will always fit whatever form you are wearing. Its aesthetics will always change to represent what you interpret as an environment of perfect serenity and 'oneness', and a significant time meditating in this space will help you reach an intrinsic understanding of the self and how your experiences can define you. The past cannot always be changed, but the present can forever be gleaned on... so that the future is always one of your design. You can, if you like, plant a few small plants in your Garden as well. Any plant inside the garden will always be in the full flush of life.
Biosphere [200/400 CP]
The body is but a vessel of the mind, with one changing as the other does, constantly learning from what it experiences and accomplishes. It is only natural then, that the experiences of those around the body will likewise help shape it. To gain the perspective and change you desire, your environment must reflect that. For this meager price, your Warehouse has gained the properties of a Biosphere; self-contained, but controlled. The walls and ceiling can be made 'open', to make it appear as though you were in the middle of an open field in the summer, or a cliffside as the night sky illuminated the plains. While you cannot store anything outside of the Warehouse boundaries, and you will always be aware of these boundaries... the weather and the environment around you shall be in your control, with even simulacrums of wildlife that may fly around. Perhaps by expressing your mind in here, you can begin to understand it. The higher price unlocks the Biosphere Supplement and grants you 800 BP to spend there instead of the default 600.
Tree of Life Sapling [400/0 CP]
You have managed to obtain a fully viable, albeit fairly young Tree of Life. It produces both bark and, once a decade, six fully viable fruits that will (if left on the tree) mature to seeds. Each takes a hundred years to become a sapling, and a thousand years to reach full maturity. The sap is incredibly deadly, so it’s a good thing the flesh of the tree is all but impenetrable to anything short of divine weapons. If you purchased the Meditation Garden, the Sapling will initially be planted there. If you did not, it will be planted in a small reflecting pool attached to your Warehouse. Those who eat the fruit of the tree of life can live forever in the prime of life and free of all disease, gaining the effects of the Perfect Health Perk above.
Note - Perfect Health [Free in the Future, 400 to Keep]: Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, you have gained perfect health, immunity to all diseases, the ability to heal from any non-lethal wound, and to live, essentially, forever.

28A - Biosphere Supplement Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 800 CP 800 (Base)

Jump Details

Document name: 28A - Biosphere Supplement Version: 1.7 Author: SJ-Chan Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XhaR5HSde1GKV_kbfp2u_YQEYFGqOg2a1GIBOgp8FfQ/edit

Items

Biosphere Basic and Freebies (Free)
Note: Main island is 64km diameter (3217 sqkm area - basically the same size as the county I live in) , 2 islands are 16km diameter, 3 islands are 4km diameter, etc. "World" zone is 25,736 sqkm area (181km diameter)
The Sphere is divided into an inner “Land Space” World and an outer “Air Space” Shell. If the World expands, it does not increase the thickness of the Shell and vis versa. The sphere is always a perfect sphere.
The initial World is 1 km from edge to edge and contains your base island. The Island is 1 km in diameter. It is mostly circular, with an area of 0.785 km2. It is 200-250 meters thick and all jagged on the bottom. The World is a sphere, though the half above “sea level” is likely to be largely full of air. It is exactly as tall as it is wide. Your warehouse is always at the exact center of the World’s horizontal axes, though it can be raised or lowered vertically if you have the means.
The initial Shell is also 1 km. This means it is ½ km give or take, from the edge of your initial island. If you fall off the edge of the island, you will fall to the bottom of the sphere and need to get someone to come and get you if you cannot fly. Building within ½ km of the outer edge of the Shell is prohibited.
Gravity is Earth normal.
Biosphere Day Cycler [Free] - Now you can run your Biosphere through a day night system.
Utilities [Free if you have them from the Warehouse or Housing] - Electricity, Intranet with wifi (will only connect to outside data net if you have that upgrade), Running Water (Fluoridated or not, your choice), Sewage System, AC & Heating to all buildings.
Basic Pollution Scrubber [Free] - This pulls all incidental contamination out of the atmosphere of your Sphere.
Rope Ladders [Free] - Extends off the bottom of all your islands so you can climb up.
Biosphere - The Huge Island [90/710 CP]
Your Island is now 64km in diameter / 3,217 km2 in area. The thickness increases to 1600-2000 meters. Your World expands to contain this respectably sized landmass.
Biosphere - Double Archipeligo [150/560 CP]
You really like land, don’t you? Okay, just for you. You now have 2 Secondary Islands, 3 Tertiary Islands, 4 Quaternary Islands, and so on. You may also have up to 200 smaller islands that may not exceed 4 m across. This doubles the size of your World one last time.
note: each island is 1/4th the diameter of the last. If your main island is 256 km across, your other islands will be 64 km, 16 km, 4 km, 1 km, 250 m, 62.5 m, 15.6 m.
Biosphere - Snowball in Hell [20/540 CP]
The thickness of your Shell is now 4 km in all directions.
Biosphere - The Ocean Not So Deep [50/490 CP]
Instead of just being surrounded by air, your Island is surrounded by water. This water is freshwater and drops down to the bottom of your island, but only has a seafloor for the first 100 meters in all directions. It does not have tides or waves and has no flora or fauna. This ocean extends out to within 1km of the walls of your sphere, including down. Requires at least Snowball in Hell.
Biosphere - The Seafloor [20/470 CP]
The ocean around your islands now has a seafloor that extends out as far as your ocean does. It gets progressively deeper the further from land it is, down to within 200 meters of the bottom of your thickest island. Requires The Ocean Not So Deep.
Biosphere - Ocean Life [20/450 CP]
Your ocean now teams with freshwater plants and fish, shellfish, and bivalves. Nothing poisonous or dangerous exists in this environment naturally, but you could import it if you like. There are no marine mammals, but you could bring those in too if you like. The native species are self replicating, even if fished to extinction. Requires The Seafloor.
Biosphere - Weatherworks [15/435 CP]
Want to do a spot of sailing or just like a breeze? This machine makes the wind blow. There are now heavy updrafts for you hang-gliders. There are now big white fluffy clouds floating around inside your Biosphere. You have complete control over weather if you have the Observation Deck.
Biosphere - Season Simulator [10/425 CP]
Like variation? Now you can set the seasons to cycle anywhere from once a day to once a century. Don’t like Winter? Skip it! Want to make up your own seasons? Cool! Requires Weatherworks & Day Cycler.
Biosphere - Climatology [10/415 CP]
Now you can designate latitudes inside your sphere where the climate varies, either arctic at the center and tropical at the edges or vis versa. Need not be that extreme. Requires Season Simulator.
Biosphere - Terrain Modification Engine [40/375 CP]
All the flat getting to you? This machine can raise hills or create valleys or rivers or any other terrain features you might want within your Biosphere. You could even make mountains that tower up to 30 km high if your Sphere is big enough. Terrain features rise or fall no more than 1 meter per 24 hours. High mountains will develope snow caps if you have the Weatherworks and Oceans.
Biosphere - Floral Universe Creation Kit [20/355 CP]
All the endless grass getting to you? This machine can create forests, jungles, savannahs… you name it. Plants grown with this machine grow 1 meter per day and each machine can create up to 5,000 cubic meters of living plant matter every day. This system can generate 10,000 different species of plant and adding a new one simply requires a genetic sample. Only natural plants can be generated. The machine can be removed from your Biosphere for up to 7 days before needing 28 to recharge.
Biosphere - Small Fauna Generator [25/330 CP]
Want some chipmunks, birds, butterflies, bees? Nothing this machine generates is overly dangerous or a pest species, and the system automatically keeps everything in check, even if you’re a dick to nature. Each Generator can produce and maintain up to 500 species of small (5kg or smaller) animal life, both terrestrial and aquatic. Each machine can create up to 5,000 kg of animal life per day. To add a species to this machine’s databank, you must have at least 50 different genetic samples of that species. Only natural animals can be generated.
Biosphere - Big Fauna Generator [50/280 CP]
Want some more… aggressive or majestic species? Or just some sheep or cows or piggies? This is for you. Each machine can generate and maintain up to 50 species of large (500kg or smaller) animal life, both terrestrial and aquatic. Animals made by this machine will not be hostile, but can be dangerous if provoked. Each machine can create up to 5,000 kg of animal life per day. You will need to acquire at least 50 different genetic samples from the same species for this machine to add it to its databank. Only natural animals can be generated.
Biosphere - Celestial Bodies [5/275 CP]
Suns, Moons, Stars, Rings, Comets, Meteor Showers, Other Planets? You name it, all of them can progress across your fake sky. They’re just images, but comforting ones. You have full control of them.
Biosphere - Transport Disks [20/255 CP]
These disk platforms are all over your Biosphere. Each one can carry a person at 10km/h to anywhere within the sphere and each can carry up to 750kg. THey can be programmed to follow you around and there is even a Transport Disk launch station at the very bottom of the sphere in case someone gets stuck down there. Biosphere - Industrial Disks [10/245 CP]
Removes the weight limits from Transport Disks.
Biosphere - Airport & Marina [20/225 CP]
Not only does this give you a place to store, maintenance, and launch all your watercraft and aircraft, it also allows you to generate a world rift that allows you to bring them into or out of whatever world you happen to be visiting.
Biosphere - Observation Deck [25/200 CP]
This structure is at the top of the Sphere and allows you to look down upon all your creation, like some kind of god. If you have controls, they can be accessed from here instead of from the warehouse. You can even move your bedroom up here. Only you and those you invite can enter.
Biosphere - Restricted Zones [25/175 CP]
You get to set areas of the Biosphere (like the warehouse) off limits to some people. Like keeping kids out of the arsenal… or your friend who’s on a diet out of the fridge.
Biosphere - Hydrogeology [20/155 CP]
Your islands now have a complete hydrogeological cycle, meaning that water, in the form of cold, freshwater springs, will form on all your islands, providing rivers and ponds as appropriate.
Biosphere - Farming Zone x6 [30/125 CP]
Farms for your Farming Needs. Covers 20 hectares initially, but can be purchased multiple times, doubling the farming area each time. The soil is always perfect for whatever crops you plant in it. (total 640 hectares: 1581 acres / 6.4 sqkm)
Biosphere - Freestanding Buildings [10/115 CP]
Each of the various add-ons to your Warehouse now are freestanding, forming a nice compound, or spread out across your entire domain.
Biosphere - Industrial Plant [100/15 CP]
Your Biosphere includes a complete factory system, including advanced Atmospheric and Hydrological Pollution Scrubbing. You'll have to find someone to do the actual production, or find robots. It is the size of Detroit and automatically up to whatever tech-level your science has reached.
Biosphere - X - Spaceport [15/0 CP]
I just made this up, it's not in the doc, but this seems reasonable. Requires Airport & Marina and sufficient space

I've never done this before as in I've never made a post on reddit. I'm a pretty private individual and I think previous trauma in my life has made it difficult for me to want to reach out/trust people. This may be one of the reasons I'm where I'm at now. Onto the vent...
I (27F) am in a relationship with BF (32M). We have been together for almost 4 years.... I moved in with him close to the end of 2021. We met during the start of the pandemic as coworkers, and he had just moved from a very conservative, southern state. I also moved from a state with similar.. views and social standards? as he did but this was almost 8 years ago for me at the time. We both live on the west coast now. Just for context here.
When I first met this guy I was about 5 months out of a very long, abusive relationship. I spent almost 7 years with my high-school sweetheart and it was very tumultuous, long story short I finally realized I needed to leave that when after a suicide attempt (at the hand of being broken down by my ex and truly thinking I would be doing those in my life a favor) and when he (luckily) called our friends - because even tho he constantly told me I should kill myself i guess actually trying was "crazy" of me to do... my friends showed up and gave me the intervention I needed and I started going to therapy. Over time with all the realizations through getting help, making adjustments in my life, and still undergoing abuse I finally snapped out of it and realized I wasn't the problem, and I needed to leave the relationship.
So needless to say, I was vulnerable when I met BF, and while he didn't know the extent of things, he definetly knew how fresh my breakup was. This didn't seem to deter him at all. I did my best to tell him I needed to take my time in a lot of ways, and he gave the impression he was being patient, but really I just think he did a good job of dressing up his impatience with love bombing, so he did a good job of making me feel loved and cared for and safe, I think I gave into a lot of things too early.
We started dating a few months into me meeting him, and he seemed wonderful. Patient, open minded, he really gave me this idea that where he was from he knew he stood out, and moved where he moved to fit in with people that he could vibe with better. This meant in my eyes we shouldn't have too many issues agreeing on a lot of views. To put it simply. I'm not very political, but I do find that some people with the extreme side of conservative values tend to take issue with ME, just existing with tattoos and being a strong willed woman who likes her independence and not being told that im supposed to stay in the kitchen or whatever.... but let me be clear. I've always been the "mom friend" and I tend to take a caregiver role a lot. I think he liked that about me. He also always told me how cool it was that I was against the grain, cool that im closer to vegetarian than not, cool i dye my hair, ect.
Well fast forward to almost a year in and im realizing this dude is very clingy. He wants one of us to be at eachothers house every night. He's getting jelous all the time over me having to work with men for BUSINESS REASONS. literally one night he saw me post a snapchat story inside my house and he saw I still had shoes on and I had to spend like an hour convincing him that just because it was late and I still had shoes on that doesn't mean there's someone in my house that I'm lying about??? Anyways, the accusations of me cheating finally did die down when I blew up on him one day and told him I've never cheated on anyone in my life and I won't put up with this.
But yet I just took it as him really liking me, because hey the last guy told me no one would ever love someone as difficult as me and I was lucky he put up with me...
So this turned into him convincing me that i had to move in with him because the 30 minute drive to my house every night was too much and sleeping alone without me was too much to handle. I had the cheaper rent, bigger house... but that's not what he wanted. He didn't like the area, whatever, I tell him this isn't gonna work. I have 2 dogs. He lives in a 900sq ft box. He's convinced he can handle it. Did I mention this guy has insane cleanliness standards? The place needs to look show room quality at all times. Just remember that detail.
Btw, im very very clean, always referred to by my friends as the uptight show room house. Boy, I thought I was bad but im realistic. BF doesn't seem to have patience for the extra mess that dogs include. I also am in the midst of starting my own business. I'm apologizing every day, doing my best, but there are still boxes taking up space because WE LIVE IN A BOX.
I quickly learn that BF has a violent streak and alcoholism. Not towards me, but objects. One day he's drunk and screams in my face that I'm a bitch and I don't care about him because I tell him that maybe he's being too hard on his boss at work (I was just trying to be honest with him, he seems to have really high standards for a lot of situations). Another time he comes home and im on my period (forgot this, but I have endometriosis, and it often makes me feel like it's ruining my life by how badly it puts me down for 3-4 days at a time sometimes) so I wasn't able to clean up some of the boxes he asked me too that morning. (Knowing I was on my period, with me having explained several times that i can't physically get much done around that time) and when he came in the door he threw such a fit that he kicked a box with expensive items (equipment for my business) across the room and broke things.
He would always apologize profusely, tell me I didn't deserve it, but his violent tendencies kept stacking. I'm not always easy to argue with, im one of those "actually" people but its because I'm f**king honest and real and I only argue with facts instead of point fingers/name calling. He on the other hand, is a name caller and spiteful. This kept leading to major blowups. I mean literally one day he almost wrecked his car( swears he had total control of the car the whole time) because he was talking over me while I was on the phone and I got off the phone and was like "dude I couldn't hear her" and he flew off the handle saying "I was trying to include important information!!!" When I explained that it was okay and his information wasn't going to help, he got angry, said I was being a bitch to him, I got an attitude about that, he ended up driving like a maniac and screaming at me until I literally almost threw myself out of the car because I was having a panic attack (I have ptsd from getting abused, and sexually assaulted in the past).
One good thing I can give him is he did decide to go sober started in 2022 and has remained sober since, so know that much. Half of these things are done out of him being drunk, it's literally just his temper.
Another example of a time my view of who he was changed was when I finally decided to confide in him that I was coerced into getting drunk and then raped when I was 14. And his response was to tell me "that was high-school stuff though, you're really still not over it?" I don't think I felt the same about him afterwards but again, I took it as a me problem, maybe i expected too much.
Fast forward again to he can't live like this anymore, he can't live in a house this small with these dogs, he can't have my business mess around any longer, but the rental market has been shit, I can't find any rent that we can afford, and hes being picky about finding a new job, since he quit his last 2 while having a temper tantrum about something. Not saying he didn't need to leave them, but he didn't line anything up before leaving. And I'm having to help cover bills, try to run my business, cook dinner every night because that's what he expects, and ive also got an inflammatory disease that makes me suffer most days so I'm not always the fastest, most productive person. Another thing, this is the kind of guy who wakes up in the morning and is already zooming at 1000mph and "beast moding" while I'm shuffling around in the morning waiting for some of my inflammation to subside while I get ready.
So I apply for part time job to work alongside starting my business, I find another opportunity where if I work part time at another place, I can then use the property to conduct my business, what are the chances! I find a solution to making more money and getting the business out of the house? Now we just need a bigger place to live! And hopefully this means BF can be left to find a decent job right?
Well he eventually did, and that's nice. But he's still short tempered. He's always upset because I don't thank him for "washing a weeks worth of dishes" even tho... they were only the dishes from us eating dinner the night before. I've washed dishes every day that week without a single thank you, which I didn't care for, because I knew that it was a team effort. That was when it was clear that everything I do is unnoticed, but god forbid he does somthing without his accolades afterwards.
We finally find a 2 bedroom house that solves a lot of issues. I thought well part of the problem is we are just on top of eachother. It will get easier. If we both have personal space right? Well it's just different now.
We've passed the point where I told him if he calls me names or breaks somthing again then I'm leaving him. I told him he has to go to therapy for his issues. No more violence. Instead he just doesn't even kiss me goodbye before he walks out the door and if I ask him too, he gives me a side hug and mashes his lips against me for a couple seconds and says "bye" before shutting the door in my face. Every nice thing I do to try and spark up a good time I get looked at and asked "why I'm acting like I actually care".
Everything is always on me, I need to find him a therapist, he doesn't know how, I need to help him with his temper, it's not his fault, he's like his dad, he can't help cook dinner, he doesn't know how, it's not his fault, so these are all things I'm expected to do.
At this point all I do is work. I work all day every day. Even weekends. Sometimes I enforce a day off, but it means all I do is lay around and think about what I'm getting behind on. And he resents me for everything.
He gets off at 3 or earlier most days, he has a ton of freedom in his job because he works sales, but im the one who isn't trying hard enough because I won't cook dinner with him or spend time with him. I don't have sex with him anymore because i have so much resentment, and he blames me for that too. "Well maybe I would be in a better mood if you actually had sex with me" and when we do and it's short lived "well maybe if you maintained me better I wouldn't finish so fast"
The way that I have to sit here and listen to him talk about cars and fishing for hours, and I do it just to be supportive, and yet I can't get him to stop looking at his phone anytime I want to talk. If I do vent about my day he just tries to tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I need to fix.
I just finally sat him down and told him how I felt. How I think he doesn't realize how selfish he can be, how everything I've done that he hates about me now has been for him, how I've watched him essentially ask me to be his mom(that woman literally will still buy him clothes and handle life things for him and he's a grown ass man, she often thanks me for "putting up with her bratty son and he loves you girls so much") which almost feels like she's known he's a brat this whole time.... and anyways what's his response?
"Well im not happy either. You're a slob and all you do is work and when you don't work you just lay around and complain, you never have sex with me and you're not fun"
To say that I'm so lost is an understatement. We live in a time where it's not easy to afford living alone. I like my house but I don't think I can afford it alone. I haven't been able to grow my own business because of everything I've just been doing for years to try and make BF happy and yet I'm sitting here and feeling like I've just once again wasted my life for a man who doesn't respect me for who I am, and only loves me conditionally. I just feel so stupid, that I've let it get this far. I literally contributed to breaking myself down into someone that he can't respect and now it's easy for him to say it's all my fault and he cannot understand the idea that im a shell of myself because of how much I've put into this. He thinks I'm wrong, he says I'm his everything and he's put everything into us, and I know he has, but it's always been on his terms, where as for my needs it's still also always been on his..... I'm sorry. I'm sure it's been difficult for anyone to read this long. I am just going to leave it here.
Yall can let me have it in the comments. I'd love the honesty....

My credit limit increase automatically by 25% and I never inquired about a credit limit increase. I actually had one missed payment recently because I was five dollars short on my auto minimum payment after I left a remaining balance during the billing rollover. Anybody else get random credit increases of this size? I’ve had this card since 2017.

Long story short, I’m moving into my first apartment and have terrible decoration skills. It’s a junior one bedroom, meaning it’s basically a luxurious sized studio with a clear separation. I don’t have the best pics or videos because it was in the middle of being renovated so please bear with me. The first two pictures are the bedroom, with the second picture showing the opposite view of the first picture. The third and fourth are the living room, where I feel I need the most help. Anything is appreciated, down to color schemes. Thank you!

Previous part
I stood in my doorway, frozen to the spot as Shaoni walked past me, into my house.
“Weren’t you going to invite me in?”
Shaoni cooed at me, somehow making the arbitrary question sound like a threat.
“I uh… what can I get you.”
I stammered out, automatically reverting to subservient. I know it sounds bad but when you’ve seen what I’ve seen her do you listen first, ask questions later.
“Is water alright? It’s all I’ve got since I only just moved here because… well I guess you know why already.”
I said, wanting to keep the orange juice I was currently hiding behind me in the fridge for myself.
“The visions? Yes I do know about them. It’s what drew all of you here, just like I wanted. Though you weren’t supposed to see the stage yet, none of you were.”
She said, narrowing her eyes at me, presumably because of my earlier expedition into the mine.
“Why do you keep saying “you” like there’s more than one of me?”
I asked, finally working up the confidence to question her.
“Because there is, do you really think you’re the only one I marked? Keith your a special case yes, but not that special.”
“Special case? What do you..”
“If you let me finish I’m getting to that.”
Shaoni cracked back at me, I could feel the pressure in the room rise with her temper.
“Sorry ma’am… it just slipped out.”
She seemed to find my knee-jerk formal apology amusing and the pressure in the room returned to normal.
“I offered several people the same deal I offered you, most accepted. These are the others I refer to, all of which are here or on their way here now. That’s what the dreams, visions, whatever you’d like to call them, were for.”
“So you wanted us here, all together in this one specific town, why?”
“The trials of course, if you remember you agreed to take a burden from me. I guess I would describe it more accurately as a gift but it has become a burden for me.”
“What is it?”
“Now where’s the fun in telling you now? Besides your smart enough, I’m sure you’ll figure it out on your own.”
She answered, smiling devilishly at me and sending little pin pricks of ice down my spine. I let the conversation fall silent for a bit, watching Shaoni sip absentmindedly at the glass of water I’d given her before I asked another question.
“So what exactly are these trials for?”
“I want to use them as a selection process, it separates the wheat from the chaff as the saying goes. Only one of you will take on my burden and I want to make sure its the right one.”
“Ok, that makes sense but I’ve still got one more thing. Why did you say I was special before?”
I inquired, as Shaoni got up and started to leave.
“Well, because this is all new to you, you have no idea of the forces really at play in the world, the “supernatural” is what you’d call it. You’re at a particular disadvantage because you didn’t know what you were getting into so I figured I’d help out of the kindness of my heart. In addition to that, many of those I’ve chosen came from my own followers. You are one of the few I found on my travels that accepted my deal. I believe in keeping things fair, and so I came to warn you of what’s to come.”
Shaoni told me as she walked out the door without so much as a goodbye. The storm that had been brewing outside left with her, dropping bits of cracked branches and loose leaves to the ground as she got further and further away. I finally realized I was still standing at my front door, glued in place watching her. Once I closed and locked the door I heard a shrill screech pierce the night as Shaoni shed her human appearance and took to the skies as I saw a single shiny grey feather flutter to the ground.
I didn’t get much sleep that night, I didn’t even try. After something like Shaoni waltzing into my home like she owned the place and telling me I’m about to be part of some kind of “trials”, I just gave up on sleep that night. What I was worried about more than anything was the fact that I didn’t have a choice. Sure, she had never said that out right but if she showed up to tell me the trials were starting and I said no, that wouldn’t go well. I’d probably end up like those men in Imalone, just ashes on the wind. There was something she wasn’t saying as well. Shaoni wanted to flaunt that there was some sort of reward at the end of this, that the whole process would help her select a “worthy candidate”. But the reward was also the burden I had agreed to take. If whatever it was was something she wanted to get rid of why would anyone look at it as a reward? Something just wasn’t adding up in my head so I decided not to think about it for a bit. I instead I threw on some clothes as the sun finally rose and made my way over to Bianca’s house to pick up my backpack that she still had.
“Hey there Frank. Where’s Stein I wanted to ask how that research was coming, and has anyone seen Bianca?”
I said as soon as I’d walked in the front door. Rocco was eating something out of a bowl on the counter top and shot to attention as he saw me.
“What do you just live here now?”
He remarked, whirling around to face me. Frank looked up from the paper he’d been reading at the counter and gave me a half hearted wave.
“Stein’s in the basement testing a few samples of thunderbird feathers Tuck brought in.”
“You know Tuck? The mountain that just so happens to run a bar in town, that Tuck?”
“Yes of course, he’s helped us immensely with developing a suppressant for lycanthropy.”
“I… we’ll unpack that one later I guess but I’ve got too find Bianca first, she still has something of mine. Let Stein know I’m looking for him if he comes back up.”
I told Frank as he nodded in acknowledgment and I made my way over to the stairs leading up to the second floor.
“Oh god dammit, I just got that!”
I yelled to no-one in particular as I knocked on Bianca’s bedroom door. I heard a crash behind it as Bianca came flying towards me, throwing open the door and almost smacking me in the process.
“What the hell is going on why are you here! And what did you just get?!”
She belted out at me, apparently startled by my outburst. She had a long loose t-shirt on and maybe something on underneath that, I wasn’t going to check. I must’ve turned crab red as I saw her but it didn’t stop me from telling her what I just pieced together.
“Their names, Frank and Stein, Frankenstein. They did that on purpose didn’t they? I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on that sooner!”
“What are you… oooh, OOOH! I’ve been around them how many years and I’m just picking up on that too.”
She said, sounding a little disappointed and smacking herself in the head with the palm of her hand.
“So what’re you doing here anyways Keith?”
“You still have my backpack from yesterday and I could use that back.”
“Oh sure I forgot about that, come in.”
She said holding open the door for me and causing her shirt to hike up a bit, She did not in fact have anything other than what you’d expect on under it.
“Ummm… do you maybe want to get dressed first?”
Bianca turned redder than I’d ever seen anyone get in an instant. Her eyes Immediately started glowing and she slammed the door shut, apparently just realizing she had answered the door in nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. I heard of muffled groan of embarrassment from the other side of the door and decided to leave her to it.
When I came back downstairs into the living room Frank and Stein where waiting for me on the couch. It was a sight to see, two old scientists sitting in the middle of a lavish black leather couch that wrapped the outer edge of the room. The two looked out of place, like a time traveler trying desperately to look normal in a society they knew nothing about.
“Before you guys start I’ve got to know, did you do that intentionally?”
“Did we do what, what are you talking about?”
They both asked in unison.
“The names, Frank and Stein, did you do that on purpose?”
Frank smiled at this and looked toward Stein who seemed to be fuming.
“It’s been 60 years since I’ve heard that question and no, its purely coincidental. We just so happen to share similar names with this Frankenstein”
Stein replied, actually shaking with anger. Frank on the other hand, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. In light of this I decided to push my luck just a little further.
“Ok, but I’m still going to call Rocco Frankenstein’s monster from now on, I can’t just pass up that opportunity.”
Frank laughed at this and Stein shook his head in disappointment.
“Children, both you.”
“Oh come now Stein, even you have to admit its a little humorous.”
“I will not be compared to some fantasy doctor and their failed facsimile of life! Rocco is a proper experiment with guidelines and uses that monster from the story is just a harebrained pet project!”
Stein fumed, seemingly offended at the concept of being compared to doctor Frankenstein. After a short tirade, none of which I really want to repeat here, we got Stein calmed down. Then the two got me seated and asked a question I wasn’t expecting.
“Do you know why we decided to settle down in this town in the first place?”
The question took me by surprise, I had assumed they just ended up here for no particular reason. Like a tumble weed being blown across the desert. They were here now caught on a fence or something but I always got the sense the wind would blow them along to somewhere else eventually. I hadn’t given much thought as to why they would be here at all. My vacant stare must’ve clued them into the fact that I had no idea how to answer the question.
“Let me rephrase, do you have any idea why things like Bianca or Tuck or even us seem to be concentrated here?”
Stein asked again, a calm tone to his voice like he was explaining something to a child.
“Tuck? What does Tuck have to do with this? I get you two are supernatural researchers and Bianca is a succubus but Tuck is just a really, really string guy right?”
I shakily asked, slowly drawing a connection to what Frank said about Tuck and lycanthropy when I came in.
“Tuck is a werewolf, a repentant one but a werewolf nonetheless.”
“That… actually would check out, It would definitely explain why the guy is built like the Rock’s bigger cousin. But what exactly are you getting at?”
“This town Keith, There’s a reason it attracts people like us and the Thunderbird is a big part of that. It had been sleeping in the mines as far as Frank was able to tell, once it woke up it caused the collapse and it made a huge stir. Obviously reports came out about this massive thing coming out of the ground and talking flight but you’ll never find any of them. The government stepped in to help Eagles peak cover up its existence, if people knew about the Thunderbird there would be uproars and questions as to what else was out there, questions no-one really would’ve had answers too. Instead they buried it and tried to bury most records of this town, turning it into a haven for the supernatural, especially those who would rather be left alone.”
Stein’s lecture made sense, if the town was basically wiped off the map as far as recent information goes it would explain its small size. I really hadn’t seen anyone in town besides those people getting off the bus the day I met Tuck and a few employees at local stores I went to. But not all of them could’ve been supernatural beings right?
“So are you trying to say everyone in town is some kind of what… supernatural entity?”
“Nothing as grand as that but there’s certainly more supernatural beings than usual concentrated in this town. Even some of the normal people have ties to the supernatural here. It’s a place were people who know about these things can pass through without to much scrutiny. What’s more interesting though is the other Thunderbird sightings we were able to dig up. Almost all of them lead to a town like this, taken off the usual map with a barley visible digital presence. Tiny little nowhere places that aren’t known for much and never show up on the news. The Thunderbird seems to be making these sanctuary’s for the supernatural throughout the world. It doesn’t seem to monitor these places afterwards but they certainly never recover from the coverups after the Thunderbird makes an appearance.”
Stein continued to lecture, speaking just as much with his hands as he did with his words.
“Has she ever come back to any of these sanctuaries she’s created.”
“She!? You don’t mean the woman you saw in Imalone? I had chalked her up to a stress induced hallucination.”
I had to briefly explain to Stein that I had not in fact hallucinated the naked woman that ultimately turned out to be Shaoni, to his displeasure.
“So you saw this woman then?”
“Yeah, in the cave attached to what I’d have to guess were the mines. She even showed up at my house last night.”
“It… she, talked to you?”
“She said that there was going to be some sort of trials to see who takes on this burden of her’s. The whole thing was really unclear if I’m honest.”
“So she’s coming back then, not only that but she’s in the town or the forest right now. I don’t get to say this often but I really don’t know what’s going to happen with this Keith. Frank and I will keep an eye on what we can but we’re researchers, if she decides to pull you into these trials we won’t be much help.”
Stein said, growing concerning on his face. I don’t think seeing Stein in this state did anything to assure me. This is someone who worked on the wrong side of world war 2 and he seemed scared by the thought of what Shaoni might be up to. It was at least nice to know someone would be monitoring the situation when I got myself killed.
“I could go with him.”
An unexpected voice cut through the silence of the room, Bianca’s voice. She had wandered down from her room wearing a black leather jacket paired with a tight red shirt and ratty jeans, my ratty jeans I noticed. She had the backpack she owed me in one hand and her eyes locked on us.
“What?”
We all said, in shock of what Bianca had just offered.
“I could go, watch your back and see what’s going on with these trials. I’m familiar enough with the supernatural, not as much as Frank or Stein but I could help.”
She said with raw unfiltered confidence that was unusual for her.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that, I told you the story, you know what Shaoni is capable of.”
I bargained, hoping to keep her out of the line of fire for some reason. I knew it would probably be smarter to bring her with me if I did get forced into these trials but some protective instinct kicked in. I’d seen her barley able to keep herself together just talking about her past and shut down when someone grabbed her. I didn’t want to see her get hurt trying to look out for me. Her past obviously still effected her in a big way. Another part of me wanted to bring her with me just to see her fight against the power her past still held over her. When we were on the way to that mine yesterday she finally seemed alive. Bianca wasn’t just this this scared person living in a gilded cage with two people who took her in like a kicked puppy. Yesterday she was her own person again, if only for a little bit.
“Look I can’t stay here doing nothing forever, besides you helped me out watching the house way back when you first got into town. You didn’t hold the fact I manipulated you into it against me and you never really cared about what I was. I at least owe you this Keith, please.”
Bianca begged, I didn’t feel like she was trying to pul me one way or another this time, the choice was my own. I could also tell it was hard for her to give me a choice, her nature was to just use her power and make me agree with her. That single fact meant more to me than whatever fight was going on in my head, I nodded to tell her I agreed.
Frank and Stein weren’t particularly thrilled with the idea of Bianca watching out for me. They were worried it put her in too much danger. Despite the situation surrounding those three I could tell Frank and Stein really did care for her, or at the very least worried about her. She may not realize it but she was like a daughter to them, anyone could see that, anyone but her apparently. Or maybe she had closed herself off from the world so much to try and survive on her own that she just couldn’t bring herself to realize it anymore. I think that’s the more likely option but it begged the question. Why exactly does she keep going out of her way for me?
Bianca managed to convince them to let her keep an eye on me. Thanks in no small part to the fact that she claimed living anywhere near Rocco for prolonged periods of time was hazardous to her health. At which point almost as if on cue, Rocco shot out of a wall. Not off of it or out from around, no straight out of the wall sending plaster flying like shrapnel. Right after this we smelled the beginnings of an electrical fire. Rocco ran back into the room and jumped back through the hole in the wall with a fire extinguisher. Frank and Stein lost their minds at this point and went to find the proper equipment to deal with that. They agreed with Bianca on the spot after that one. Rocco claimed he was “trying to update the wiring in the house”, whatever that meant but you could never tell with him. Once everything had calmed down I headed over to the kitchen to make lunch for myself. I settled for a bologna and mustard sandwich and sat down to eat. As soon as I took a bite of the sandwich my phone rang with a number I didn’t expect a call from, Mom.
“Hi, what’s going on?”
“Are you ok, You never call, I just got your message.”
My mother Carla said, in that worried but angry tone only mothers can pull off.
“I’m fine mom I just wanted to let you know what was going on with me, I don’t think I ever told you I was moving and I didn’t want you to worry.”
Bianca walked into the kitchen at this point in the conversation and looked at me. I put my finger to my lips and shushed her. She just sat down across from me and took a bite out of MY sandwich.
“You didn’t, I know I don’t see you much and your fine on your own but I still worry. We were never the closest but that doesn’t mean I don’t wan to know If you’re moving halfway across the country on a whim.”
“I know mom, I know. A lot of things happened at once and it was such short notice I just… forgot.”
“I understand… just call me next time alright, and if you ever just want to talk I’m here. Just because we weren’t all that close doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear from you now and then. Anyways I have to get back to work.”
“Oh, ok Just… how’s dad doing?”
I sighed knowing the answer to my question already.
“He’s… he’s the same Keith, Love you.”
And with that Carla hung up.
Bianca eyed me with a mildly stunned look on her face. Like she just realized I was born not raised in a test tube somewhere.
“That was your mom?”
She asked, pointing at the phone in my hand and still eating the sandwich I had made for myself.
“Yes, Oh come on give me that!”
I yelled, reaching for the sandwich in her hand. She laughed and pulled it away, finishing it. She tried to speak with a mouthful of sandwich but I couldn’t make out a thing till she gave herself a minute to chew.
“I haven’t talked to my mom since the whole thing with Brooke. She never approved and that was that, I went my way and she went her’s.”
“What about your dad?”
I asked her, suddenly not as mad about her stealing my food.
“I never really knew him. Apparently he left when I was really young but that’s about all I know.”
“Is there a single question I can ask about you that won’t just leave me feeling sorry I had a moderately normal life before this? Really I just… that’s terrible.”
Bianca looked a little sullen as she thought about her family, her real family. I realized that as strange as this whole relationship with Frank and Stein was it was the closest thing she had to something stable. Hell, I might be the first real friend she’s had outside of the house in years.
“Tell you what, I’m suddenly hungry for some reason so why don’t we head down to the Eagle’s Roost and get something to eat?”
I glared at her just a little bit as I said that first part.
“It’s like 1o’clock now I don’t think Tuck opens up till 5 or so.”
“Well I’ve got a few questions for him now, besides last time I went down there early too and he was just hanging out behind the bar, didn’t seem to mind either. Wait, you know him? He didn’t really look at you when he saved us yesterday, come to think of it he barley mentioned you.”
“Yeah I’ve seen him coming in and out of the house when he helps Stein with his experiments, giving blood and tissue samples to him, that sort of thing. I don’t know why he didn’t say anything to me. Maybe cause he thought Frank and Stein didn’t know I was out there so he just didn’t want to stick his toe in that situation?”
She had to think for a second about that last part, furrowing her brow and shrugging when she couldn’t come up with anything better.
“Could be it, anyways its just one more thing I can ask him. So are you coming with me or what?”
“Yeah sure, just let me pack a few things.”
“Pack a few things? What do you mean it’s just…”
But Bianca was already running up the stairs back towards her room.

Axstrom's Notes

1. The list is here: big jump list
2. The draw (1-5548) is 877, 1520, 4754, 5265, 1478
   1. Drawing 5 so there are backups in case of issues, but the jumper gets to choose among 4
   2. 877 is Earth Final Conflict - A TV show whewre aliens come and uplift Earth but have a hidden agenda
   3. 1520 is Investiture of the Gods - A fantasy tale in Zhou Dynasty
   4. 4754 is Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - a Disney mashup videogame
   5. 5265 is The Fountain - A film about contuinity across time, grief, death, and growth
   6. Jumper chooses The Fountain
      1. Jump Doc
      2. Reddit discussion
   7. Jumper buys access to The Biosphere Supplement
      1. Supplement Doc

Build Notes

1. Drawbacks - None - Part of the point is that you can't have everything
2. Companions - None - This is the journey of an individual soul
3. Origin
   1. Past: Noble - setting the stage for grander thigns
   2. Present: Inventor - striving for progress
   3. Future: Witness - seeing what has become of the world
4. Perks
   1. Noble Thought - free for Noble, stay connected to the people who are affected by your actions
   2. Noble Deed - free for Noble, your actions have greater impact and are remembered and recorded
   3. Inventor's Vision - free for inventor, studying a problem gives increasing insight in how to improve it
   4. Inventor's Intent - free for inventor, your creations are harder to misuse
   5. Improved POV - free for witness, observe / remember events from multiple perspectives
   6. Bystander - free for witness, events can unfold around you leaving you unharmed
   7. All Together Now - merge all your past origins into a complex mind
   8. 500 Years of Practice (Teaching) - mastery beyond mastery of the chosen skill
   9. Soothing Presence - calm strong emotions and suffering
   10. Absolution - If someone genuinely repents, you can allow them to move
5. Items
   1. Meditation Garden - self-explanatory warehouse attachment
   2. Biosphere - Full purchase activates the Biosphere Supplement
   3. Tree of Life Sapling - Grows six immortality fruits per decade, which can (over very long time) grow more trees

Jump Notes

1. I wake up in my room in the warehouse apartments, after shutting myself in without even checking the Benefactor's Lounge the night before
   1. I'm still lingering on the frustration of not cracking the riddle of Allabar, and not being able to solve the problem permanently
   2. But there's no going back, so I commit to facing forward for the rest of the week, and head to the Benefactor room
      1. Once again, there are four envelopes with me, and my big chart of jumps up on the wall, like something from a Kindergarten classroom
      2. As I affix a sticker saying "The Fountain (2006)" to the big chart, a small round outline appears next to it: "Biosphere Supplement available"
   3. On my way to call a team meeting, I catch a surprise outside the apartments
      1. Three of our bard graduates are slowly exploring the area
   4. At the team meeting, I announce my intention to go solo on the next jump
      1. The decision isn't popular, but most of them have waited while I've done gauntlets before, so it's not a big shock
   5. We set up the entertainment room to watch the movie, even though I don't expect that meta knowledge will be much help
      1. For the first time, we don't all fit in the Entertainment room
      2. By count, there are eleven of us (me and ten companions), the Halflings are now up to fifteen after two recent births, and we have nine new bards with us, so we set up a second showing in the evening
   6. Finally, before heading in to the jump, I make one last check of the Benefactor's office to see if there's more information on the biosphere supplement, but though my note has been removed, there is no response, and nothing on the tablet
2. I awake from a deep sleep in a luxurious bed, it is early morning and the sun is still rising
   1. I can feel the absence of my abilities; I am reduced below even bodymod, to the level of a baseline middle-aged man in a world with primitive medicine
      1. Nevertheless, I can feel a gift reaching back in time to me - and as I accept it, I am calmed, no longer distressed by what I have lost
   2. In this time, I have duties, both in the mundane sense of the tasks those around me expect me to perform, as well as a greater sense in which I must try to make this world better
   3. My new gift becomes invaluable in due time
      1. All manner of petitioners and officers come to me with grievances, and each of them are a storm of emotions - no one comes before their Count to declare how satisfied they are with things
      2. In short time, word of my wisdom spreads, and my council is sought by King Ferdinand
   4. I lobby my King with an eye to improving the lives of all involved
      1. It is the lives of ordinary Spaniards that are the measure of his ability as a King, not the mass of his treasury
      2. Colonialism brings with it dangers beyond the obvious, and responsibilities for ages to come
      3. Allowing the priests to destroy artifacts of other cultures does not increase our glory, but diminishes it
   5. Despite my ability to make my case clearly and seemingly overcome all objections, my guidance is rarely heeded when I leave the room
   6. And before long, it seems I have made enemies of those who stand to gain by plundering the New World
      1. They do not discuss the matter with me, or make their displeasure known by facing me down in violence
      2. But as the breath leaves my lungs over dinner, my last thought is that I have been poisoned by a coward
3. I awake from a fitful sleep in a large bed, my wife still asleep beside me despite the chirping of my alarm clock
   1. My first throught is of the date - It is September 7, 1999 - the first day of fall semester
      1. This will not be my first time teaching CS 101, but this time will be different, I can feel the power in my body, my mind, and my soul
   2. I arrive at my office early, of course, and make sure everything is in order - the syllabus handouts are ready, my slides are in order and proof-read, and my TAs have confirmed their preparedness
      1. The lecure hall is large - so many students sign up for CS 101 without any prior programming knowledge, just to see what it's like, or convinced that they will be a natural
      2. As the students file in, they sparsely occupy the massive auditorium, afraid to sit near people they don't know, not fully understanding that for the vast majority of them, this is their first class on campus, their first opportunity to get to know eachother
      3. I exhort them to move towards the front so they can hear and see better, and a few oblige
      4. The first lecture flows like a breeze, the students hanging on my words as I understand what each one needs to hear to understand what the rest of this semester will hold
   3. By semester's end, the students and TAs are in awe, the CS department chair has asked for my materials and told me that spring registrations for CS102 are higher than ever, both of the student papers have run articles praising my class, and the dean of Arts and Sciences has interceded to clear my spring schedule to prioritize my research work on the condition that I teach 101 again next year
      1. I appreciate my grad students and TAs, but I don't have a real family in this life, so I head into the warehouse for winter break
4. I awaken rested and enthusiastic on a beautiful spring day
   1. It is graduation day for the first group of freshman I taught after coming to this jump, nearly four years ago
      1. They have come so far, and I'm fortunate that some of the best have continued to work with me, and three of them will be graduate students working under me starting in the fall
   2. It is also the first day of human trials for the drug, a new anti-inflammatory
      1. We were hoping it would treat chronic inflammatory diseases, but early testing suggests that it may significantly reduce hay fever, which would be great if we can mass produce it cheaply
   3. My reputation at the school has skyrocketed thanks to the combination of my groundbreaking research plus my teaching perks ensuring high instructor reviews as well as students learning and retaining more
      1. My tenure process has been fast-tracked, since the dean is rightly concerned about losing me to another institution
5. I awaken slowly, and awkwardly, as if from a coma, as a cocktail of drugs is released into my body, still restrained on my cryobed
   1. Our vessel, the Cyllene, is essentially a large asteroid with a hole carved in the middle, stuffed with propellent, equipment, supplies, expansive aquaponics facilities, and a relatively tiny living area
      1. Cyllene was said to have nursed and protected Hermes, as this vessel must nurture and protect us, the first observers, and hopefully, colonists,
   2. As my body and mind resume normal function over the course of 90 minutes, I get a slow trickle of updates on the status of the Cyllene and our mission
      1. The mission clock says it's 202 years since we left Earth, but thanks to time dilation, Earth has experienced 221
      2. Computer Block 5 (of 8) is currently undergoing automated reconstruction as the block with the highest error correction rate at the time the last automated reconstruction completed
      3. 1575 individuals are currently in cryosleep, and 25 (including me) are active, all sufficiently healthy
      4. I am still Dr. John Axstrom, revered teacher and groundbreaking computational pharmacologist, but my consciousness seems to have jumped forward a few hundred years, skipping past the development of miracle cures, life extension medications, and cryogenic preservation of humans
   3. As I realign with my memories and identity, I remember why I'm here
      1. If colonization proceeds, the coming generations are going to need exceptional teachers if they are to learn their place in the universe, and I'm one of the best there ever was
      2. Our mission is expected to take about 750 years from departure to arrival, and though the vast majority of that time is spent in cryosleep, we take shifts being "awake" to ensure systems are functioning and keep eachother mentally and physically healthy
   4. Since the monitoring systems will throw a fit if I straight up disappear from the vessel, I take a long ride out to the external "observation" check, out of the range of most of the sensor systems
      1. There's not really much to observe in deep space - it's like the night sky, as the ancients saw it with no light pollution, but from a different perspective
      2. Here I quickly form a stunt double duplicate, hand over my electronics, and duck into the warehouse
   5. The warehouse clock confirms my suspicions - I'm nearly seven years into the jump
      1. Since it looks like this isn't going to take nearly 1000 years, the team hasn't been going full-stasis mode
      2. The bards have been poring over J-Borg's personal library as well as the impressive collection of the warehouse media room
      3. But the reason I came is the Tablet of the Free - I'm stuck on a large but still confined deep-space vessel until my scheduled return to cryosleep - how is that supposed to entertain the boss?
      4. After confirming nothing interesting is in the warehouse, I head back to the observation deck, and stash the portable door I've been using back into hammer-space before re-merging with my stunt double, and taking the long trip back to the living area
6. I wake up to an unfamiliar synthetic beep - apparently the Cyllene's version of a doorbell
   1. When I open the door, one of my crewmates tells me that our directional antennas have picked up some unusual RF activity that seems to be coming from our destination system, and they want me (as the on-shift programmer) to help the astronomer, comms, and operations staff to help make sense of it, and ensure we're not about to get nuked by a magnetar or something
   2. Initial findings were sparse and inconclusive - just occasional pulses of a signal that must have been very strong and highly directional at the time of transmission, to reach us so far away
   3. But I had access to diagnostic tools that the astrophysicists and comms staff didn't, for all their training and equipment: a series of perks specifically for teasing out the needles of relevance from the haystack of noise
      1. And as I looked at what we were seeing, and what we weren't, the answer became clear: these radio bursts looked just like a primitive form of RADAR
      2. At first my colleagues on the Cyllene were skeptical, but the evidence kept mounting, with 4 additional series of "pings" being detected in the next six weeks
   4. With the spectre of extraterrestrial intelligence hanging over the Cyllene, our XO followed protocol, and ordered the full complement to be wakened from cryosleep to assist in the work to come
   5. Within six months, we had fabricated and installed a much larger purpose-built directional antenna array on the surface of our asteroid hull, and reports of different signals were coming in almost daily
      1. We needed all the extra hands, even our mining and terraforming experts were lending a hand with signal analysis and attempts to form patterns
      2. The whole crew felt the urgency and wondered at the situation - temporally, it would mean that their early experiments with RADAR and initial RF broadcasts would have happened at about the same time as humans did those things on earth, and if they developed at the same rate as us (a big if), they would likely be more advanced when we arrivedd than humans were when we left (and thus the technology of our vessel), and would almost certainly see us coming
   6. The coming months flew past, each bringing further confirmation of suspicious, but with it frustration, as we had been unable to extract a coherent signal - the broadcasts we could pick up didn't appear to be using either amplitude or frequency modulation
      1. More than once I brought signal samples to the warehouse team, but they were just as stumped as us
      2. Even more "esoteric" means didn't work - we tried every variation of "Tongues" and "Comprehend Language" spells on printed, audioized, and even engraved versions of the RF signals we caught, but they all failed and the representations seemed full of too many discontinuities
   7. I could feel my new Inventor's Vision working on the task of how to decode these signals, and about two years after the first pulse was detected, I had my breakthrough
      1. The signals didn't represent continuous audio (like human radio) or even piece-by-piece visuals (like rasterized video), but something of each, and a little weirder
      2. They were composed of many (from seven to three hundred, and not consistent at all) micro-audio clips
      3. It was like making an ultra-low bitrate recordding of the voice of every singer in a chorus individually, and transmitting fifty milliseconds of one, then fifty milliseconds of the next, and so one, in serial, and then starting back again with the first voice
      4. We couldn't figure out why they did this, but once I was able to identify the break points between each "voice", I could layer them on top of eachother to make a composite audio version
      5. And that composite audio could be played, and was a viable candidate for magic translation
   8. The entire vessel went wild when I demonstrated the isolation and recombination of the signals to produce audio
      1. The sound of the thing was somewhat like the sound of multiple birds, frogs, and crickets in a forest, in very brief clips
      2. Of course, I didn't reveal that I had access to magic translation - I figured the comms and signals staff (and the one cryptographer) should have to earn their pay
   9. The remaining year and a half was spent in intense research, for them, while I mostly slacked off and tried to make conversation with the people doing important work on this front, since my actual mission here was to "observe" as humans of this universe underwent a sort of assymmetrical first contact
7. I awaken in my weird little pod bed in my weird little capsule room for the last time, perfectly aware of the remaining hours in this jump
   1. After the initial excitement died down, the majority of the colonists were put back into cryosleep, with only the decoding specialists and those "on shift" like me staying active
      1. There has been a lot of anxiety around the Cyllene for the last few months - we are clearly a colony ship and the intelligent inhabitants of that system probably do not want to be colonized, and may well be easily capable of destroying us
      2. There were discussions about trying to reverse course and head back to Earth, but we could do that any time, and the closer we get, the more information we can gather about the system and its inhabitants
   2. It would be cruel to try to skim supplies from this vessel even if there were something I wanted aboard, so I just wait my time out, helping where I can and secretly translating any communications we receive when time permits
      1. So far it has all been rather uninspiring, which makes me even more curious what kind of species would develop radio technology but not transmit any fiction or speeches or poetry
   3. When it's almost time, I once again make the long trek out to the Cyllene's observation deck alone, and split off a Stunt Double, who can at least stay here for a month, while I slip into the warehouse
      1. When I enter, J-Borg greets me and informs me of a message at the Benefactor's lounge
      2. The note on the door says "Supplement Pending - please attend as soon as possible", so I go in to check it out
      3. With the choices all locked in, the door unlocks and I head out to meet with the team
   4. With the memories of my time in Spain finally restored, I realize how I had been trying to communicate with myself all along, but failing
      1. The need for calm communcation and education will never end - among our closest neighbors or with a civilization 300 light years away
   5. We have the traditional group dinner in the commons, and discuss what's going on
      1. The team did end up spending most of the time in stasis, and the formerly-newborn halflings are a little over a year now biologically, learning to speak and walk
      2. When I mention the Biosphere supplement and how I wasn't allowed to consult them, they naturally asked when it would apply, but it hadn't even occurred to me that there were now definitely too many of us to wait out warehouse changes in the entrance hall, so I checked with the central control
   6. Afterward, no one was complaining when the doors finally unlocked and we were able to leave the commons hall, only to find that the door led to an outdoor path with a natural-looking sunset on the horizon
      1. I didn't want to spoil the whole setup yet, so I said we could tour in the morning, and turned off a number of the facilities and systems for the night, to give me some time to understand what options were available before letting my companions go wild with them
      2. Fortunately, the obvious items like the tree of life and factory complex were on other islands, that would be difficult to reach without the transport disks running
   7. And then I went to sleep again, wondering what the next awakening had in store for me

Notes on the Fountain Jump Doc

1. Honestly this doc has been on my to-try list since I saw it - I really enjoyed the movie and gladly rewatched it again when it came up in my random draw.
2. The author took some liberties with the source material, which makes sense because of how focused on Thomas the story is, and the extensions largely make sense
3. There were a few confusing things in the jump, such as how you get essences and what powers you bring with you into each phase of the jump, but a close reading makes them clear enough
4. The jump has a few really standout purchase
   1. the inventor's intention is the answer to a lot of concers that "do-gooder" jumpers are likely to have in their careers
   2. the full tree of life is an amazing item - the ability to grant perfect health and immunity to aging within a regrowing item solves a lot of problems
   3. 500 years of practice is amazing if you have a particular skill or art in mind - literally centuries better than the "10 years of practice" equivalents that you find din many other jumps, and has a lot of potential to synergize with other perks that scale off your skill in a particular area
   4. Biosphere is super cool if you want your fiat-backed warehouse to grow into something more
   5. The Dagger of the Path is a great example of a conceptual weapon, and something I probably would have picked up if I had a bunch more points
5. How you're supposed to interleave the three eras is a little unclear, and maybe I'm not a creative enough author to pull it off. I don't believe SJ Chan ever got around to writing a fictionalized account of jumping to it, unfortunately
   1. If anyone else has done a good jump fiction of this jump, please let me know
6. Overall absolutely a fantastic jump. Obviously a great option for anyone who likes the movie or wants to solve one of the specific problems available
   1. I'd especially recommend it for an early-chain jumper because of the generally low danger level and great variety of rewards

Notes on the Biosphere Supplement Doc

1. I knew this was something I wanted to pick up when I first read the fountain jumpdoc several months ago
2. I use the "Personal Reality" warehouse which was co-authored by SJ Chan, and this supplement feels perfectly tailored to supplement that
3. There are lots of good pickups for people with various interests, or those who just want to keep their options open
   1. Observation Deck seems like the real must-have since a lot of the other buys are controllable through it
4. The structure of the biosphere was a little confusing at first - I thought that there was an island, a void around the island, and a hard shell, and wasn't sure why you'd want to increase the shell thickness, but further reading cleared that up
5. On the whole, a good pick up, especially considering it only cost 400 CP in the jump, and normally buying warehouse upgrades with CP has a very unfavorable conversion, but in this case, the biosphere purchases all seemed cheaper than they ought to be.

(Builds to come in a separate post due to length restrictions)