Right of navel
NavelNSFW : For the Love of Navel
2016.10.25 06:02 NavelNSFW : For the Love of Navel
Navel Fetishism is the second most popular fetish according to Wikipedia. Indian actresses, especially, have always expressed comfort in exposing navel in films and other media. Close-ups, song sequences, navel play scenes, etc., have always provided immense pleasure to the viewers. This community is dedicated to celebrate all the best navel shows that are memorable, and also to bring together the hidden gems of navel exposure.
2017.12.12 22:05 Stone_One Divine Right of Kings: Power, Money, Politics and People
A subreddit devoted to discussion about how the mixture of wealth, politics and policy has concentrated power into the hands of the few who. It is often these few that feel that if it were not for their wealth and power, the many would not thrive. Much like the Kings of old, these few feel they are not beholden to the many, the state or humanity but that it is their right.
2022.07.19 22:46 undue-influence Links and screenshots of Conservative Subjects on Twiiter
A sub for thought provoking and humorous tweets, be they from twitter or any other twitter like source
2024.05.19 19:02 YourInnerFlamingo I recovered from MTD - I want to share my experience
Preface: I'm not a doctor, I'm not a speech therapist, and this is not medical advice. This is just what I've done to overcome my MTD and my opinions.
MTD is a name given to a large number of conditions. The architecture of our vocal instrument is very complex though, and "muscle tension" is not only a very uninformative diagnosis, but even a misdirecting one. I say this because:
The speech therapist gave me exercises and tips, she told me to talk with a confidential voice, she instructed me to keep a correct posture, she instructed me to always use abdominal breathing. She was meaning well, but all this had the effect of adding tension to my tension.
Months went by with no progress. I could speak, but not more than one day at a time. If I spoke one day, my voice would feel destroyed the day after. Speaking would become painful and effortful. Several days of silence would get my voice back almost to a normal state, but a single day of speaking would ruin all the work I'd done.
I was fortunate enough however, that all this happened after I left my job to focus on music (the irony), and so at some point I decided to find a way myself, focus entirely on my voice and get rid of this problem once for all.
My MTD lasted about 6 months. After I practiced what I'm describing in this post it subsided over the span of about 3 weeks.
I want to share my findings with you, but keep in mind that
First, some general principles I followed 1. Don't interfere with your voice outside of your exercises. Don't try to speak the right way. Leave that voice alone. 2. Only unintentional progress is real progress. I don't care about progress that is actually a result of breaking the first rule. So you can finally stop worrying about your voice when you are not exercising. 3. Progress comes after sleep, not while you practice
When you practice things will get frustrating. Your brain registers that frustration and builds new connections while you sleep. Frustration and lack of progress while you practice are a good thing, it means that you are successfully building the input that will be processed while you sleep. Give it two nights of sleep, and results will come.
Ok, so here's what I've done. It's a simple three phases plan where we keep adding stuff:
1. Fix your breathing:
This is the basis. You've heard that before, but if I ask you to do abdominal breathing I'd be asking you to do something intentionally, which breaks principle 1. The other component of the basis is a relaxed attitude, which is a difficult thing to have when you feel betrayed by your body. We need to kill these two birds with a single massive stone.
What follows is a slightly modified version of the zazen meditation technique. I'm aware it can sound boring, but this is really important and I think it's necessary to practice this every day until recovery, without exceptions. Really.
Set a timer for 25 minutes, sit comfortably, close your eyes, and let your body breathe. While you breathe, identify the point at the centre of your body, about 4 inches below your navel. I want you to notice the sensation of breathing in that point. Don't try to change your breath, just notice any sensations there. If there aren't any, just stay vigilant, 'cause there will be.
Keep paying attention to that point, and start counting the breaths 1 to 10. When you get to 10 restart from one. If you lose the count, just restart from one. If you start thinking about dinner and lose contact with the centre of your body, just bring it back into your attention field. Every time you lose attention and bring it back, your mind relaxes a bit. The more you do it, the more your attention naturally settles on the sensation of breathing at the centre of your body.
Don't try to force your attention to stay there. Let it be and bring it back only if you notice it wanders. Also, don't focus super hard, that wouldn't be relaxing at all! Chill and let your attention rest there.
Thoughts will occur. That's ok, in fact, thoughts are part of the process. Let them happen, but keep the sensations at the centre of your body in your field of attention. When you notice that you lost attention, the thought stream will naturally interrupt and your attention will go back to your centre. There is no need for you to forcefully interrupt your thought stream. It'll happen by itself when you remember about your centre.
You may feel deeply relaxed, which is great, just try not to fall asleep.
If you do this consistently, you'll be breathing diaphragmatically without even noticing, which we agreed counts as real progress.
2. Rewiring
After about one week practicing the previous step (which you must keep doing), I started humming whenever I felt tension building up around my neck, which was normally just after I spoke two sentences. I know it's counterintuitive, but it made sense for me. What we are trying to do here is breaking the association voice emission -> tension, and create a new one voice emission -> relaxation. After all, we all know that our vocal chords are perfectly fine, and those sweet vibrations have a relaxing effect on our muscles. They have it even if you experience MTD, we just don't notice it because the tension created by our condition is greater than that relaxing stimulus.
So now when you feel that tension building up do the following:
3. Trigger relaxation. After about a week practicing the previous step (which you must keep doing) I started working actively on muscle relaxation. The basic idea here is to trigger a chain reaction. All our muscles are connected. As we all learned, unfortunately, one muscle becoming tense leads to all the muscles around becoming tense too. Well, the opposite is also true.
Because we can interact with our tongue much more easily than with other internal muscles, we'll use that to trigger the chain reaction. Follow the instructions on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OorqNloxITM do it al least twice a day (in the morning and before you go to sleep) and every time you feel you need it. Pay especial attention to step where you let the tongue relax while pulling it.
From now on, stop trying to control your voice or to speak confidentially, or whatever you are doing in fear of hurting yourself. Now it's the time to let all the work express some results, so don't interfere. Do whatever comes naturally. If you naturally want to speak softly do that, if not, don't.
Keep practicing all the three steps for a few weeks and only then check whether this is working for you or not. Unless you feel you are getting hurt by this, abstain from judgement until then, otherwise you'll pay too much attention to your voice and interfere with the process.
I really hope this works for you as well as it did for me. Once again, I'm nobody, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a speech therapist, I just wanted to share this in case it's helpful to somebody, but what you do with your voice is your responsibility.
submitted by YourInnerFlamingo to singing [link] [comments]
MTD is a name given to a large number of conditions. The architecture of our vocal instrument is very complex though, and "muscle tension" is not only a very uninformative diagnosis, but even a misdirecting one. I say this because:
- Most people don't actually know how muscles work, and will create an incorrect mental model of what's going on, which adds tension to tension.
- It encourages a view of our muscles and vocal instrument as an "external object" that is "misbehaving" and that "we need to correct and control", which, needless to say, adds more tension to tension.
The speech therapist gave me exercises and tips, she told me to talk with a confidential voice, she instructed me to keep a correct posture, she instructed me to always use abdominal breathing. She was meaning well, but all this had the effect of adding tension to my tension.
Months went by with no progress. I could speak, but not more than one day at a time. If I spoke one day, my voice would feel destroyed the day after. Speaking would become painful and effortful. Several days of silence would get my voice back almost to a normal state, but a single day of speaking would ruin all the work I'd done.
I was fortunate enough however, that all this happened after I left my job to focus on music (the irony), and so at some point I decided to find a way myself, focus entirely on my voice and get rid of this problem once for all.
My MTD lasted about 6 months. After I practiced what I'm describing in this post it subsided over the span of about 3 weeks.
I want to share my findings with you, but keep in mind that
- I am not a doctor, I'm only sharing my experience. What you do with this is only your responsibility. If you have any doubts please consult with your doctor first.
First, some general principles I followed 1. Don't interfere with your voice outside of your exercises. Don't try to speak the right way. Leave that voice alone. 2. Only unintentional progress is real progress. I don't care about progress that is actually a result of breaking the first rule. So you can finally stop worrying about your voice when you are not exercising. 3. Progress comes after sleep, not while you practice
When you practice things will get frustrating. Your brain registers that frustration and builds new connections while you sleep. Frustration and lack of progress while you practice are a good thing, it means that you are successfully building the input that will be processed while you sleep. Give it two nights of sleep, and results will come.
Ok, so here's what I've done. It's a simple three phases plan where we keep adding stuff:
1. Fix your breathing:
This is the basis. You've heard that before, but if I ask you to do abdominal breathing I'd be asking you to do something intentionally, which breaks principle 1. The other component of the basis is a relaxed attitude, which is a difficult thing to have when you feel betrayed by your body. We need to kill these two birds with a single massive stone.
What follows is a slightly modified version of the zazen meditation technique. I'm aware it can sound boring, but this is really important and I think it's necessary to practice this every day until recovery, without exceptions. Really.
Set a timer for 25 minutes, sit comfortably, close your eyes, and let your body breathe. While you breathe, identify the point at the centre of your body, about 4 inches below your navel. I want you to notice the sensation of breathing in that point. Don't try to change your breath, just notice any sensations there. If there aren't any, just stay vigilant, 'cause there will be.
Keep paying attention to that point, and start counting the breaths 1 to 10. When you get to 10 restart from one. If you lose the count, just restart from one. If you start thinking about dinner and lose contact with the centre of your body, just bring it back into your attention field. Every time you lose attention and bring it back, your mind relaxes a bit. The more you do it, the more your attention naturally settles on the sensation of breathing at the centre of your body.
Don't try to force your attention to stay there. Let it be and bring it back only if you notice it wanders. Also, don't focus super hard, that wouldn't be relaxing at all! Chill and let your attention rest there.
Thoughts will occur. That's ok, in fact, thoughts are part of the process. Let them happen, but keep the sensations at the centre of your body in your field of attention. When you notice that you lost attention, the thought stream will naturally interrupt and your attention will go back to your centre. There is no need for you to forcefully interrupt your thought stream. It'll happen by itself when you remember about your centre.
You may feel deeply relaxed, which is great, just try not to fall asleep.
If you do this consistently, you'll be breathing diaphragmatically without even noticing, which we agreed counts as real progress.
2. Rewiring
After about one week practicing the previous step (which you must keep doing), I started humming whenever I felt tension building up around my neck, which was normally just after I spoke two sentences. I know it's counterintuitive, but it made sense for me. What we are trying to do here is breaking the association voice emission -> tension, and create a new one voice emission -> relaxation. After all, we all know that our vocal chords are perfectly fine, and those sweet vibrations have a relaxing effect on our muscles. They have it even if you experience MTD, we just don't notice it because the tension created by our condition is greater than that relaxing stimulus.
So now when you feel that tension building up do the following:
- Check your upper chest: if it's contracted, let it relax
- Bring your attention to the point below the navel, just like you've practiced every day.
- Hum at a very low volume, in a similar fashion as humming in yoga practice. Try to identify that relaxation stimulus in your body. Pay attention to the positive sensations. Hum slowly, feel your body relaxing and your breath naturally centering itself lower in your body.
- Bonus: play with the resonance of that hum and check if your pleasant sensations change.
3. Trigger relaxation. After about a week practicing the previous step (which you must keep doing) I started working actively on muscle relaxation. The basic idea here is to trigger a chain reaction. All our muscles are connected. As we all learned, unfortunately, one muscle becoming tense leads to all the muscles around becoming tense too. Well, the opposite is also true.
Because we can interact with our tongue much more easily than with other internal muscles, we'll use that to trigger the chain reaction. Follow the instructions on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OorqNloxITM do it al least twice a day (in the morning and before you go to sleep) and every time you feel you need it. Pay especial attention to step where you let the tongue relax while pulling it.
From now on, stop trying to control your voice or to speak confidentially, or whatever you are doing in fear of hurting yourself. Now it's the time to let all the work express some results, so don't interfere. Do whatever comes naturally. If you naturally want to speak softly do that, if not, don't.
Keep practicing all the three steps for a few weeks and only then check whether this is working for you or not. Unless you feel you are getting hurt by this, abstain from judgement until then, otherwise you'll pay too much attention to your voice and interfere with the process.
I really hope this works for you as well as it did for me. Once again, I'm nobody, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a speech therapist, I just wanted to share this in case it's helpful to somebody, but what you do with your voice is your responsibility.
2024.05.19 12:48 sootybearz UTI and possible kidney infection 4 weeks now
Around 4 weeks ago I started to get some pains around mid and lower back area on right hand side. This seemed to then spread and I felt the pain both sides as well as on the front and down sides. Started to then get shivers about 4 days in then 6th day really bad shivers, no heat in my hands, even numbness on one of my forearms, night sweats, headaches, nausea feeling etc. On checking urine that day at start it was quite cloudy and dark and over the day I was running to toilet quite a bit.
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea being away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim (I think), cefalexin (currently on)
submitted by sootybearz to TwoXChromosomes [link] [comments]
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea being away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim (I think), cefalexin (currently on)
2024.05.19 12:36 sootybearz UTI and possible kidney infection 4 weeks now
UTI / possible kidney infection around 4 weeks
Male 45 UK. UTI, possible (but I’d guess from pain around there) kidney infection. Advice needed
Around 4 weeks ago I started to get some pains around mid and lower back area on right hand side. This seemed to then spread and I felt the pain both sides as well as on the front and down sides. Started to then get shivers about 4 days in then 6th day really bad shivers, no heat in my hands, even numbness on one of my forearms, night sweats, headaches, nausea feeling etc. On checking urine that day at start it was quite cloudy and dark and over the day I was running to toilet quite a bit.
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea bejng away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin trimethoprim (I think) cefalexin (currently on)
submitted by sootybearz to AskDocs [link] [comments]
Male 45 UK. UTI, possible (but I’d guess from pain around there) kidney infection. Advice needed
Around 4 weeks ago I started to get some pains around mid and lower back area on right hand side. This seemed to then spread and I felt the pain both sides as well as on the front and down sides. Started to then get shivers about 4 days in then 6th day really bad shivers, no heat in my hands, even numbness on one of my forearms, night sweats, headaches, nausea feeling etc. On checking urine that day at start it was quite cloudy and dark and over the day I was running to toilet quite a bit.
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea bejng away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin trimethoprim (I think) cefalexin (currently on)
2024.05.19 12:23 sootybearz UTI / possible kidney infection around 4 weeks
UTI, possible (but I’d guess from pain around there) kidney infection. Advice needed
Around 4 weeks ago I started to get some pains around mid and lower back area on right hand side. This seemed to then spread and I felt the pain both sides as well as on the front and down sides. Started to then get shivers about 4 days in then 6th day really bad shivers, no heat in my hands, even numbness on one of my forearms, night sweats, headaches, nausea feeling etc. On checking urine that day at start it was quite cloudy and dark and over the day I was running to toilet quite a bit.
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea bejng away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin trimethoprim (I think) cefalexin (currently on)
submitted by sootybearz to CUTI [link] [comments]
Around 4 weeks ago I started to get some pains around mid and lower back area on right hand side. This seemed to then spread and I felt the pain both sides as well as on the front and down sides. Started to then get shivers about 4 days in then 6th day really bad shivers, no heat in my hands, even numbness on one of my forearms, night sweats, headaches, nausea feeling etc. On checking urine that day at start it was quite cloudy and dark and over the day I was running to toilet quite a bit.
Next day I’d had enough and as it was weekend went to out of hours docs for NHS and was told after dip test they found “plus one” for white blood cells in urine, this was after about 6 toilet breaks already that day and drinking around 1.5 litres of water so maybe things were diluted. They didn’t do any culture tests etc as out of hours only have so many options. I was put on antibiotics for a week which took away the worst / weirder of the symptoms to the point that I was only left with the pain and pain was primarily on right side again but not always. Was getting it just above belly button on both sides at one time or another but again mainly right front and back.
The day after finishing the first antibiotic pain started to build again so went back to out of hours again 2 days after they ended as it was a bank holiday weekend. They gave me another week course but asked me to go to gp right away next day. I did so and brought a urine sample, at this point id finished the first antibiotic about 2.5 days before and had started the second set and had a full days dose the day before. They did a culture test from that day. Anyway the urine sample didn’t grow anything during the culture test which may be down to the antibiotics as I’d finished the first set some days ago and started second set day before - I really don’t know - but apparently pus was found in the sample. What amount I’m not sure.
I continued to take the second antibiotic course and towards the end I felt the pain reducing further. The day after it finished I was quite hopeful it was dealt with as pain had subsided so much and I was actually peeing without having to push, normal feeling was back in my lower abdomen- but it was short lived as the day after that it got a bit worse again and continued to do so.
Those second antibiotics had completed last sunday, I left it till Friday to go back to the doctors because I wanted a proper urine sample without antibiotics affecting it. I went in Friday, when I took the sample there was stuff floating everywhere, the worst I’d seen so far. Even though the doctor did a dip test and nothing showed so I’m freaking that they won’t detect what it is. Doctor then gave me a 3rd antibiotic, I’ve taken two and a half days now and still feel a bit numb down below, hesitations at times going toilet so having to push a bit, and pain up around back and kidney areas and around and below navel. All these symptoms had mostly vanished for a short spell after the second antibiotic but back again.
At this point even though I’m not even halfway on this 3rd but different set I’m thinking going private to a urologist who could see me Wednesday. I tried taking d mannose Friday for day and a half but pain around kidney area seemed to get worse so stopped so I can tell if it’s infection related or simply taking that also.
Anyone got any words of wisdom to give, I feel like being on antibiotics a week at a time and then having a few days or more till next one is allowing things to go back to square one again. I’m really hoping I can just get over this now quickly somehow. Supposed to be taking a week holiday with the family in 8 days but starting to lose hope and don’t know if it’s great idea bejng away from local doctors etc.
Antibiotics so far:
Nitrofurantoin trimethoprim (I think) cefalexin (currently on)
2024.05.19 06:53 w1ckedlunch I need advice/help for supplements/lifestyle changes for (mainly) mitigating Hirutism! (full story below)
TLDR; hirutism getting much worse despite a reasonably healthy lifestyle, need advice on how to mitigate it!
Hi there, I'm 23, and I have known I have had PCOS since about early 2021 when I went to my doctor (again) sobbing about my acne (as it had never gotten better despite being on the pill, then doxycycline for a number of years). I got a pelvic ultrasound which confirmed the left ovary was far bigger than the right, and I assume my bloods showed high testosterone etc, but I did not really have much help/follow up from doctors.
I am currently on year two of a Mirena IUD, and I had Jaydess in the past. Periods are too painful & heavy to not have contraception in, although I haven't been off contraception since 2019 (wondering if Mirena is interacting with androgens? Might be worth getting off it to see how things go?)
To give a full picture of me - they suspect I have endometriosis, possibly on lower colon as I have had IBS-related symptoms since I was about 17, although I have struggled with OCD & a phobia for as long as I can remember (a very anxious wee child). I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2019. (The endo has not been confirmed as I have not had a lap, but ever since I've had an IUD in the pain has been very manageable). I do struggle with very irregular periods, I seem to only get a few a year which upsets me a little as I wish they were regular.
Supplement wise - I am currently taking an Omega 3-6-9 complex, I've been taking it for 6 months consistently and have taken it on and off over the past three years. I have introduced a 500mg inositol supplement into my routine also in the last 6 months after reading about how much it helps, although I have only noticed my hirutism getting worse. I'm currently the most active I have been in two years as I have been working a ski season again (did this mid 2022 also and I felt my symptoms were much better during that period). I regularly take a Magnesium biglycinate powder, and have been a longtime magnesium taker. Due to cannabis being legal where I live, I do consume edibles on a regular basis but I always eat the high CBD content gummies, as I'm not super concerned about getting 'baked', and I know it helps with inflammation & lowering stress.
Diet wise - I went dairy-free when I was 17, and slowly started eating it again during a trip to Europe, and during first year of university but I kept having IBS attacks so I went dairy free again in 2020, and have been dairy-free since then, although have slowly reintroduced it again as I moved countries and find I tolerate the lactose-free products here a lot better, along with some hard cheeses & butter (low FODMAP). I find I get ibs attacks less frequently. Anywho, I also have dabbled in low-gluten and vegetarian/vegan diets but found I couldn't get enough protein in as a highly-active person if I give up meat AND dairy so I dabble in the two intermittently to ensure I get enough protein. I've been getting more into learning about gut microbiomes and whatnot so have been making a conscious effort lately to eat more probiotics/prebiotics such as greek yoghurt, kimchi, saurkraut and of course my favourite, kombucha.
I noticed hirutism appearing possibly around the same time as the dairy-free ness but I do naturally have very dark brown hair, my eyebrows & eyelashes are naturally pretty much black, and I've always had darker hair on my shins and pubic area. I try to avoid processed foods, but I do have an affinity for cured meats (salami is just a handy protein snack), and candy (but I find I crave it a lot less - is this inositol?). Worth noting I have never dealt with hair loss, it is very thick and grows super fast, and it has been dyed to absolute shit (which surprises me).
I remember occasionally getting the odd super long dark chin hair here and there, and I've been either microblading or using hair removal cream on my upper lip since I was about 17, but my acne has always superseded my opinion on my hair or made it difficult to wax/shave so I used to just pluck. I have had a little snail trail/lower navel dark hair for a long time too, and even got electrolysis on it for a bit when I was at high school but it just hurt too much. I take to plucking it when I get bored so I usually stay on top of it.
In the past year or so, possibly longer, I have noticed my hirutism has gradually been getting worse, as the usual 1 or 2 dark hairs on my breasts/chest slowly spread as the hair seems to be getting darker. I am feeling rather down about this and I don't feel as feminine whenever I find it. I accept I have naturally very dark hair but I feel at a loss as to why it's getting worse. I'm currently on my second round of isotretonin, which helped my skin considerably the first time around, but I did it during the winter, so my skin was fully clear when it came to summertime (have always found sunshine + ocean help my skin so much), for the first time since I was a child I had clear acne-free skin! I'm hoping the second time will kill it off but maybe I'm not so sure.
Worth noting also I am a healthy weight (I think?? my waist size is 28-30 inches, hasn't changed for as long as I can remember, some periods in my life I've been more of a 25-26. Probably have a bit more fat than muscle but been actually enjoying being a regular gym goer at the moment. Not a huge cardio person anymore. Do a lot of skiing. I weigh about 70 kilos and I am 173cm tall. Have not been near scales in about six months though haha). Not sure about insulin resistance or anything else.
I have noticed the chin hairs getting worse and worse, and there are longer, darker hairs going all down my neck now. I've always been a fairly hairy person but it's kind of getting excessive at this point and I'm at my wits end about it. Does anyone have any suggestions for lifestyle changes/tweaks I could try to mitigate it? Any supplements that help?
submitted by w1ckedlunch to PCOS [link] [comments]
Hi there, I'm 23, and I have known I have had PCOS since about early 2021 when I went to my doctor (again) sobbing about my acne (as it had never gotten better despite being on the pill, then doxycycline for a number of years). I got a pelvic ultrasound which confirmed the left ovary was far bigger than the right, and I assume my bloods showed high testosterone etc, but I did not really have much help/follow up from doctors.
I am currently on year two of a Mirena IUD, and I had Jaydess in the past. Periods are too painful & heavy to not have contraception in, although I haven't been off contraception since 2019 (wondering if Mirena is interacting with androgens? Might be worth getting off it to see how things go?)
To give a full picture of me - they suspect I have endometriosis, possibly on lower colon as I have had IBS-related symptoms since I was about 17, although I have struggled with OCD & a phobia for as long as I can remember (a very anxious wee child). I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2019. (The endo has not been confirmed as I have not had a lap, but ever since I've had an IUD in the pain has been very manageable). I do struggle with very irregular periods, I seem to only get a few a year which upsets me a little as I wish they were regular.
Supplement wise - I am currently taking an Omega 3-6-9 complex, I've been taking it for 6 months consistently and have taken it on and off over the past three years. I have introduced a 500mg inositol supplement into my routine also in the last 6 months after reading about how much it helps, although I have only noticed my hirutism getting worse. I'm currently the most active I have been in two years as I have been working a ski season again (did this mid 2022 also and I felt my symptoms were much better during that period). I regularly take a Magnesium biglycinate powder, and have been a longtime magnesium taker. Due to cannabis being legal where I live, I do consume edibles on a regular basis but I always eat the high CBD content gummies, as I'm not super concerned about getting 'baked', and I know it helps with inflammation & lowering stress.
Diet wise - I went dairy-free when I was 17, and slowly started eating it again during a trip to Europe, and during first year of university but I kept having IBS attacks so I went dairy free again in 2020, and have been dairy-free since then, although have slowly reintroduced it again as I moved countries and find I tolerate the lactose-free products here a lot better, along with some hard cheeses & butter (low FODMAP). I find I get ibs attacks less frequently. Anywho, I also have dabbled in low-gluten and vegetarian/vegan diets but found I couldn't get enough protein in as a highly-active person if I give up meat AND dairy so I dabble in the two intermittently to ensure I get enough protein. I've been getting more into learning about gut microbiomes and whatnot so have been making a conscious effort lately to eat more probiotics/prebiotics such as greek yoghurt, kimchi, saurkraut and of course my favourite, kombucha.
I noticed hirutism appearing possibly around the same time as the dairy-free ness but I do naturally have very dark brown hair, my eyebrows & eyelashes are naturally pretty much black, and I've always had darker hair on my shins and pubic area. I try to avoid processed foods, but I do have an affinity for cured meats (salami is just a handy protein snack), and candy (but I find I crave it a lot less - is this inositol?). Worth noting I have never dealt with hair loss, it is very thick and grows super fast, and it has been dyed to absolute shit (which surprises me).
I remember occasionally getting the odd super long dark chin hair here and there, and I've been either microblading or using hair removal cream on my upper lip since I was about 17, but my acne has always superseded my opinion on my hair or made it difficult to wax/shave so I used to just pluck. I have had a little snail trail/lower navel dark hair for a long time too, and even got electrolysis on it for a bit when I was at high school but it just hurt too much. I take to plucking it when I get bored so I usually stay on top of it.
In the past year or so, possibly longer, I have noticed my hirutism has gradually been getting worse, as the usual 1 or 2 dark hairs on my breasts/chest slowly spread as the hair seems to be getting darker. I am feeling rather down about this and I don't feel as feminine whenever I find it. I accept I have naturally very dark hair but I feel at a loss as to why it's getting worse. I'm currently on my second round of isotretonin, which helped my skin considerably the first time around, but I did it during the winter, so my skin was fully clear when it came to summertime (have always found sunshine + ocean help my skin so much), for the first time since I was a child I had clear acne-free skin! I'm hoping the second time will kill it off but maybe I'm not so sure.
Worth noting also I am a healthy weight (I think?? my waist size is 28-30 inches, hasn't changed for as long as I can remember, some periods in my life I've been more of a 25-26. Probably have a bit more fat than muscle but been actually enjoying being a regular gym goer at the moment. Not a huge cardio person anymore. Do a lot of skiing. I weigh about 70 kilos and I am 173cm tall. Have not been near scales in about six months though haha). Not sure about insulin resistance or anything else.
I have noticed the chin hairs getting worse and worse, and there are longer, darker hairs going all down my neck now. I've always been a fairly hairy person but it's kind of getting excessive at this point and I'm at my wits end about it. Does anyone have any suggestions for lifestyle changes/tweaks I could try to mitigate it? Any supplements that help?
2024.05.18 10:03 helplessaromantic just (like an hour ago) pierced belly button
okay so i just wanted to make sure i didnt fuck anything up- so ive watched a lot of navel piercing videos online and tips, i also got an actual piercing kit and sanitized everything multiple times. everything went fine but i bled a lot (think around tablespoon amount of blood) i dont think theres anything wrong i just wanted to check, everything feels okay and bleeding has gone down besides when i do a lot of movement. i was also lying down kinda propped up on a pillow when i did this too so maybe that has something to with this idk.
first photo is right after i did it and cleaned up the blood some second photo is after my adrenaline went down (the blood scared me lmao) and i really went and cleaned off the blood
submitted by helplessaromantic to SelfPiercing [link] [comments]
first photo is right after i did it and cleaned up the blood some second photo is after my adrenaline went down (the blood scared me lmao) and i really went and cleaned off the blood
2024.05.18 02:10 SnooDucks6631 Pain shooting from abdomen to head
Hi everyone,
I've recently experienced this weird shooting pain about three times for the last two months, and I genuinely have no idea what this is.
The first time I experienced this started about 5cm above my navel, felt like I was being electrocuted for 0.5 seconds. I felt like this pain was shooting up to a specific area of my head and had the same pain for 0.5. I was laying down flat just doing my phone, and this kind of episode lasted 5 times with few minutes of interval. Then I never felt this pain anymore.
Last night, I experienced the same thing, but the pain was at the same level of my navel but slightly back around my right torso. Felt like being electrocuted for 0.5 seconds, and the pain shot up to one area of my head giving the same pain for 0.5 seconds. This only lasted once, but not multiple episodes.
I usually don't feel any pain before or after this kind of episode. I also don't feel any changes in heart rate or breathing difficulties during the episode.
I did MRA and MRI last month, but I found nothing there. I wonder what this is all about. I wonder how a pain can rapidly shot up from my abdomen area to my head.
I went to the hospital couple of days ago and drew some blood for further analysis, but I have to wait for two weeks to see the more detailed result.
Should I get a CT or MRI scan in my abdomen area or not really...?
I'm 24 female, 160cm, 41kg, don't take any medications, not smoking, drinking (both alcohol and coffee), doing drugs, but I have been recently diagnosed with panic disorder but I think this is irrelevant.
submitted by SnooDucks6631 to AskDocs [link] [comments]
I've recently experienced this weird shooting pain about three times for the last two months, and I genuinely have no idea what this is.
The first time I experienced this started about 5cm above my navel, felt like I was being electrocuted for 0.5 seconds. I felt like this pain was shooting up to a specific area of my head and had the same pain for 0.5. I was laying down flat just doing my phone, and this kind of episode lasted 5 times with few minutes of interval. Then I never felt this pain anymore.
Last night, I experienced the same thing, but the pain was at the same level of my navel but slightly back around my right torso. Felt like being electrocuted for 0.5 seconds, and the pain shot up to one area of my head giving the same pain for 0.5 seconds. This only lasted once, but not multiple episodes.
I usually don't feel any pain before or after this kind of episode. I also don't feel any changes in heart rate or breathing difficulties during the episode.
I did MRA and MRI last month, but I found nothing there. I wonder what this is all about. I wonder how a pain can rapidly shot up from my abdomen area to my head.
I went to the hospital couple of days ago and drew some blood for further analysis, but I have to wait for two weeks to see the more detailed result.
Should I get a CT or MRI scan in my abdomen area or not really...?
I'm 24 female, 160cm, 41kg, don't take any medications, not smoking, drinking (both alcohol and coffee), doing drugs, but I have been recently diagnosed with panic disorder but I think this is irrelevant.
2024.05.15 12:36 AnchorPointsOfficial Anchor Points: Age of Heroes Chapter 9 - Entropy
CHAPTER 9 – ENTROPY
DATE: MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION) LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
CAPTAIN HENRY O’TOOLE
"Ah, there you are Commander. Your message said there was something you wanted to talk with me about?" Henry asked as his executive officer approached the system map.
“Aye Captain, now's a good a time as any. As you know, the rate of disciplinary incidents has more than tripled in the last two weeks. We've had six fistfights, one near strangling, a few dozen counts of sexual harassment amongst different parties, and a few more incidents of a nature that I would rather not get into for fear of derailing the point of this conversation. I need additional resources to allocate towards ship internal security. With your permission, I'd like to borrow some of our more trusted marines to help the MA's out on their off shifts.” Commander Alvarez asked.
“Yeah, of course, take what you need to nip this in the bud. I can't say I'm entirely surprised; we expected a certain amount of this with the stresses of FTL travel. With everyone cooped up like this, maybe we should brainstorm some new outlets for the crew. Were there any specific incidents I need to get involved with?” Henry replied as he looked up from the list of updates and reports on his own console.
“No, I have it covered. It's just the regs state I need to ask permission to use marines for internal security matters.” The Commander waved it off.
“Excellent, continue to keep me in the loop then. Can I ask you a question?” Henry took the opportunity to ask something that had been bothering him.
“You just did. Hah! Just kidding, put the axe away boy! Now what would you like to know?” He said with a twinkle in his eye.
“I've seen your file, well, the parts that weren’t redacted anyway. If anything, I should be taking your orders! I mean, you're the Space Wolf! Nobody came even close to the number of ships captured or destroyed than you in the early days of the battle for the belt. Why would they want me to be captain when they had someone like you coming along the whole time? Why aren't you a captain anymore? By all right this should be your command, not mine.” Henry asked, after taking one last look around to verify they were still alone around the system map.
Commander Alvarez seemed stunned for a moment before he settled into a more pensive look.
“Listen, son, you're all full of the vigor and high passions of youth. By that I mean you've got a certain fire and aggression in you, yet I've seen you generally keep it balanced by wit and wisdom. You are a perfect match for the job, even if you could use some more real world experience. With some guidance, you'll do just fine, if you can keep strict standards for yourself and crew and a cool head when things get tough."
"I appreciate that, and I will definitely lean on your experience whenever possible. However, you didn't really answer my question... Why aren't you a captain anymore?"
"I... got a lot of damn good men and women killed in an impossible situation when we lost the Michigan-II, and I never truly got over it. No amount of medals, captured enemy ships, or the fact that I've saved many more lives than I lost can make up for that. I finally found peace with that, but that peace required that I relieve myself of any chance of future command. My legacy, for better or worse, is set in stone. Joining this expedition gives me another chance at adjusting the scales without breaking my former vows, even if the only people who will ever know it are here on the voyage with us.”
“So, you claim you have no aims or desires for leadership, but here you are a mere heartbeat away from it.” Henry said, carefully studying his executive officer's every reaction.
“My time for glory is mostly gone, yours is at your feet before you. To the world, I am retired in comfort and isolation. In reality you have me here to help make your will law. You can relax. I already turned down command of this expedition. I was plan A, why do you think they had to scramble to find you? I will take command of this mission only if you are incapable of doing so yourself, Sir. In the meantime, let my experience and whatever wisdom I can offer guide you.”
An emergency alert snapped both of their attention out of their conversation. "There's a fire in one of the officer's cabins?!" Henry’s pulse quickened as he referenced the map to find which one.
“Fuck, it started in Chantal’s room!” Henry said, horrified.
“I've got the CIC under control. Go on and get her out of there, I'll send the cavalry."
“Thank you, Commander.” Henry called back over his shoulder as he rushed for the quick lift.
The officer cabins were the in the very next deck overhead, so he was able to arrive quickly and break into a sprint. The ship shifted as it dodged some antimatter, causing Henry to slip and scramble back to his feet. As he rounded the corner he saw her door was closed and the keypad powered was off. He could hear thumps and muffled screaming from within the room.
"HANG ON CHANTAL, I'M COMING!" Henry shouted in the hope that she could hear him as he pried at the manual override panel.
Two modified Paladin exo-combat armor suits rounded the corner seconds later with a hospitalman trailing behind pushing a medical cart.
"WE'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE, SIR." A speaker-amplified voice spoke from behind him.
One of the Paladin suits accessed the manual control override and forced the door open enough for the other suit to reach in and pry it the rest of the way open as smoke plumed into the corridor. The second suit charged into the room with its flood lights on as a water cannon mounted on the right wrist sprayed flame retardant from a pack on its back. The first suit abandoned the door control and entered, emerging moments later with Chantal awake and coughing from inside the darkened door frame. She was quickly ushered into cleaner air, set gently down, wrapped in a blanket, and was quickly attended to by a hospitalman who began to check her vitals.
Relief flooded Henry’s mind as his adrenaline surge broke against the wall of worry he had built up during his mad dash from the CIC.
“Baby you came for me! I thought I was going to die in there." She pulled him into a tight embrace as she wept in cathartic release.
"Of course I did! I couldn't stand to lose you, especially not over something like this. So, what the hell happened in there?"
"Well you know me, I was all burning the midnight oil and then I smelled smoke! Then there were some sparks, the outlet pops then whoosh! My computer station and my desk are all ablaze along with half my notes, then the damned door wouldn't work! I had to drop to the floor under the smoke and pound on the door in hopes that someone would hear me. God, it was horrible... I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life." She replied with a deep shudder.
"You're safe now, it's going to be alright."
"I know, but what about my work?" She replied with a forlorn look back at her smoke damaged room.
"What about your work?"
"As you know, I lost a ton of it just now, but what’s worse is I don't even have the ability to recover them! Remember how I lost my backup drive last week? Like, I know I packed it and it is not here anywhere! It’s like some sick cosmic joke on me or something. Sorry! Gotta keep it positive, girl! I get to rethink my last few weeks’ worth of work from scratch... that was almost positive! I probably have most of this recoverable from email sent box backups. Fuck, what do you do if there's no good silver lining?” Chantal bemoaned.
Henry couldn’t help himself but laugh for a second, while his girlfriend stared at him, waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry, is this funny to you or something?”
“No, no of course not. This might be one of those times where the only silver lining is that you're alive. Plus, if anyone can remember and rebuild their notes, you can." Henry smiled down at her.
“Fine, fine, at least I am alive. I was only breathing smoke for a few seconds after all.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Thank you for rushing down here right away anyway, it means a lot. You're amazing, you know.”
Henry smiled, slightly uncomfortable for a moment, so he changed the subject.
“I do my best... Anyway, it seems like these electrical issues seem to be getting worse instead of better. Whatever patch these clowns have slapped on my ship to get her to pass inspection is clearly coming undone. What do you think is going on here?” Henry asked in mild exasperation.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you without digging into the systems myself, which I would rather avoid. My plate is full enough as it is right now, especially having to reproduce so much of my own work now. This ship has kilometers of power cables running throughout it, after all, and you have an entire loyal, capable team down there in electrical, so it should only be a matter of time before they sort it out for you. Let them do their jobs without harassing them too much, please?”
Henry felt a little irked at her for not giving him credit to know not to go overboard, but he stowed it, seeing as she ultimately was right.
“The crew has been under a lot of stress, too, between the technical issues with the lights going out, losing power to workstations, or the constant antimatter threat. More than a few people have tried to convince me to turn us around and return to S33 for a more in-depth refit and repair cycle before we try the mission again. So far, everyone has accepted the fact that we are continuing the mission without much argument, but I fear what may happen if these issues are seen as getting worse. Our orders are clear, though, we must continue the journey.” Henry said, uncomfortable with the implications, even if he didn't dare voice it.
“You should get on the Q-Comm to report the fire to S33. Maybe they will order us back to base after this.” She offered, looking for a solution to an impossible problem.
“Good idea, at least the Q-Comm is still working. It’s incredible to me those particles maintained their entanglement once we passed through the baryonic barrier. That alone has been a huge morale boost, being able to contact home base with no time lag.” Henry replied.
“It’s incredible to you because you only have a basic grasp of the science, hon. But that’s alright, very few people truly understand it. That’s in part what you have me here for anyway. Einstein called the effect spooky action from a distance; I always liked that line.”
Henry ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Chantal, with a shake of his head and a smile.
“Listen, Henry, I just had a crazy stressful experience and I need to unwind. Plus, I haven’t slept in almost a day, so I am bone tired. Let’s go to bed, huh? What do you say doc, am I clear to go?” Chantal asked.
The hospitalman closed her eyes and shook her head before responding. "Yes, you are cleared to rest, and only to rest, do you understand me?"
Chantal mouthed a thank you before she took Henry by the hand and led him off to the captain’s quarters. Henry felt no desire to fight it, nor flaw with her reasoning. Sleep sounded good, really good. Plus, he was about an hour from the start of his sleep shift anyway, and Alvarez had the CIC well covered. The lights flickered again, but Henry very purposefully ignored it.
“Hey, since we have a little time and we are both a little wound up, Why don’t we take a shower together real quick?” She said with genuine enthusiasm and a wink.
“Madam, I like the way you think.” The couple raced just a bit faster than regulations would have liked, and arrived at his door in record speed.
Inside the room they fell upon each other in great passion and need, stripping each other out of their BDU’s and underclothes. Henry tossed a giggling Chantal onto the bed, and proceeded to kiss her neck and nibble on her ear causing her to purr in anticipation before he moved down her chest, past her navel, and then eagerly began to move his kisses in between her thighs.
“Hah…. I haven’t showered. Are you sure? Oooookay! I think…. Hah…. Okay.” She said breathlessly as Henry began to work his tongue until she began to shiver and squirm before she cried out as she melted in his mouth.
“Enough, please, I can’t take it anymore! Just fuck me already!” Chantal pulled herself together enough to beg for it. Henry stood rigid and ready and set himself to granting her request, first slowly, and then with a growing intensity. She once more began to squirm as he paid close attention to her hip’s cues, knowing very well by now what she liked.
As she climaxed again, Henry lifted her from the bed and pushed her up against the wall, and then bent her over his desk for a bit before he could take it no longer and they finished together.
“Holy shit… my legs aren’t gonna work for a bit after that one. Help me up?” Chantal said in between shallow breaths.
“Yes, ma’am. It would be my pleasure.” Henry said as he helped her to her feet and into the shower, staying in longer than was strictly necessary.
Henry left the steam first, once more thankful that his cabin included its own small bathroom, rather than a communal one. Being captain had its perks, after all. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, then handed another to Chantal who gratefully accepted it before it dropped to the ground as she stared straight past him.
“Henry!" She squeaked as she pointed past him.
"What?" Henry asked, confused.
"Henry, someone was in here!”
On their bathroom mirror, wiped from the steam were the words TURN BACK.
Henry's blood ran cold and his adrenaline spiked him into overdrive. He waved Chantal back into the shower and put his finger to his lips. She nodded then wrapped herself in her retrieved towel and dropped to the shower floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, whimpering slightly. Henry moved silently along the wall, watching the visible half of his room for any movement. He then burst round the door frame, only to find everything perfectly, precisely as they had left it. The shock of finding nothing collided with the spike of his adrenaline surge, which only fed his growing unease.
“There’s nobody here!” Henry called out after checking the closet, the only other place someone could have hidden.
“Did you lock the door?” Chantal asked, her mind already working on the mystery.
“I set the security protocol to auto lock every time it closes.”
“Paul. We need to talk to Paul.” Chantal said, squeezing her BDU’s up over her hips with a few hops. Henry pulled on his undershirt before tossing over her bra.
“Why would we want to bring that weasel into this?” Henry asked, incredulous at to how he could possibly help.
“Because he has access to the surveillance tapes, why else?”
Henry stared at Chantal, brimming with rage, trying his hardest to keep it isolated to Paul over the invasion of his privacy.
“Did you just say surveillance tapes!?!” Henry asked in an icy tone. “That does it, I’m going to strangle him.” Henry said, moving with a purpose toward the door.
“Stop. Turn around and give me a kiss. I already disabled the video cameras, at least all the ones I could find. He has audio at best, even that I doubt. What he does have that I want is the data from the motion sensor that he had installed just in case you found the more obvious bugs. Unfortunately, I sabotaged its effectiveness by blocking the sensor with dense foam, but there might be enough of something to give us a clue."
“How in the hell do you know about all of this anyway, and why the hell didn’t you tell me?!” Henry roared.
“This entire enterprise is run by an intelligence agency; how can you not have seen that one coming a mile away? I have gotten very good at catching bugs over the years. Just because I expect the invasion of privacy to be happening, doesn’t mean I have to make it easy on them. Just be happy I already took care of the issue, alright?” She replied firmly while staring him in the eyes with raised eyebrows.
“You’re incredible, I love you.” Henry blurted out before he could catch himself. Chantal beamed and tackled him to the bed sitting on his lap.
“What took you so long? Never mind, don’t answer that. I love you too, man have I wanted to say that one for a while now.”
“You know these things aren’t easy for me. I had to be sure, I also didn’t want to mess anything up. We need to be able to work together even if we had turned out to be a bad couple.” Henry admitted, Chantal made an show as she thought it over, but she then smiled and helped Henry to his feet.
“Alright, my captain. You speak great wisdom. While I have certainly felt, and thoroughly enjoyed, the depths of your passion, it is really nice to hear about it too. I do think it makes it all the better that you rule said passion with reason. It’s just one of the many things I love about you.” She said, laying her hand over his heart.
Henry took her other hand and kissed it before replying. “I think above all, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t take you for granted, nor suffer the same in reverse. A wise woman once gave me some great advice there that I have taken to heart.”
“Okay, Romeo, maybe you have a better handle on these things than you think. Now… Let’s go interrogate Paul.” Chantal had a fire in her eyes that Henry was loving very much at that moment.
“I have wanted to turn the screws on that spook for a while now.” Henry smiled as he spoke, and he opened up the connection to the ship’s intranet through his neural implant to send a message.
MEET ME IN YOUR QUARTERS IN 5 MINUTES FOR A DISCUSSION OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE – CPT. O'TOOLE
“That ought to get him there and alone.” Henry smirked. “Let’s go.”
Together, they made their way to Paul’s equivalent-sized quarters, which he had somehow secured for himself in the ship design to help facilitate his role as the official thorn in Henry’s paw. I guess being the captain’s handler has its perks as well. Henry’s eye twitched at the corner.
After making them wait far too long, Paul opened the door and gesturing them inside. The door closed and Paul turned towards them, narrowing his eyes, studying them both.
“Is this about the fire?” Paul asked before Henry punched the weasel right in the diaphragm, forcing him to gasp for air. The look of shock on his face as he bent forwards was priceless.
“What the fuck, Henry!?” Paul managed to choke out after a minute between gasps.
“Relax, I didn’t do any permanent damage, yet.” Henry said, Paul for just a second showed actual fear in his eyes before he sneered in defiance. “Oh? That got your attention, did it? Why were you spying on me?” Henry growled.
Paul closed his eyes, dropped his head, and began to laugh before Henry grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Foolishly, Paul even then kept laughing amidst the gasping. So Henry squeezed until Paul started slapping his arm, looking genuine fear once more growing across his face.
“Orders… I was following orders!” Paul managed to say amidst gasps and coughs.
“I thought it might be something like that. You're going to open up those files, now, and you're going to show me everything.” Henry said, dropping him to his feet at last.
“Fucking hell, Henry, I thought you of all people would have anticipated this was going to be the case. Do you think the people who made this all possible would simply let you fly around the most dangerous, advanced warship in human history without some insurance?”
“Don’t try and weasel out of your own personal culpability here. You may also want to think back to other people who were “only following orders” while performing acts they knew were wrong before you wave that line around like some get out of jail free card.” The fact that he had nothing to say spoke volumes.
“You should have told me, Paul.” Henry growled.
“That defeats the purpose! Plus, your girlfriend sabotaged them all before we ever left S33 anyway, and once more after! That type of tech doesn’t just grow on trees you know, and I don’t have an unlimited supply. You should be thanking me for covering for her and reporting back like things are normal!” Paul shouted in indignation.
“This is pointless, show me the files from around fifteen minutes ago, motion trackers, thermals, anything you have that's not blocked or sabotaged.” Henry commanded. Paul’s eyes narrowed, but after a long moment he huffed and closed his eyes.
Paul then sat down at his station and fired it up.
“Like I said, I've got practically nothing. No video, muffled audio and readings from what I assume to be a faulty motion sensor, that’s it. What are we looking for?”
“Chantal and I were, well, together. After we got out of the shower we saw that someone had written turn back in the condensation on the bathroom mirror. Only problem? My door auto locks when closed and only opens for my biometrics. That is why all of this even came up in the first place.”
“Motherfucker. That's a whole heap of bad news.” Paul said. Henry merely nodded, paying rather more attention to the screen to see if he could catch Paul in a lie about the extent of the spying.
“There’s nothing. No disturbances in the air that would even remotely resemble human movement between you two getting in the shower and you charging into your bedroom. With the noise of the shower and the distance to the microphone, there is nothing I can discern that is anomalous. You can see it all right here for yourself.”
Henry found himself even more confused and alarmed than before.
“How is that possible? Look again, run through some filters or something. There must be some evidence somewhere!”
“Alright, relax, I will get to work on this and get you a report by the end of C shift. In the meantime, you look like a mess. Get some sleep man! I can take care of it from here. Oh, and I want you to remember that I forgave you quite magnanimously for that little episode back there where you attacked me.” Henry and Chantal gave each other a look as Paul spoke.
“Wasn’t gonna apologize anyway, you had it coming. I’m going to hit the rack. I expect that report to be detailed and ready when I get up.” Henry took Chantal by the hand, and they left together, not waiting for a response.
“What a snake. Did you see him in there? Zero guilt or recognition whatsoever about spying like that. It just makes my skin crawl. Gives me bad memories.” Chantal said, turning pensive and quiet.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Henry asked, seeing that there was something clearly bothering her.
“I… had an uncle that lived with us from time to time and he would spy on me when I was dressing, try and sneak looks in the shower, stuff like that. Never touched me or anyone else that I know of, thank god, but man did it screw me up a bit still. Played havoc with my sense of security and even my sanity, never being quite sure it was real or all in my head. I wish I had said something, but I was afraid everyone would think I was overreacting or imagining it. I saw it in his eyes though, that look of... predatory lust. At least I didn't see anything like that in Paul's eyes. To this day it makes my skin crawl.”
“Good God, I can see how alone you must have felt in the middle of all that.” He squeezed her hand, she smiled up at him.
“Yeah, that was one of the hardest parts. I don’t think Paul is some raging pervert or anything, but it concerns me how normalized it was to him. Even if he isn’t being a creep with it, as if we can take his claims to be covering for me at face value. There is still no way I am going to let him have easy access to intimate videos of us, if I can possibly help it.” Chantal said before adding, “I’ll be all right, don’t worry about me. Let’s just get some sleep.”
Henry put his palm against the biometric scanner outside his room and the door slid open for them. They definitely needed some sleep after the emotional roller coaster of the past few hours, and the irresistible warm embrace of his bed called for him. The Q-Comm report could wait until he woke, he decided.
Better to have the electrical inspection ordered up, too.
I WANT A FULL REPORT AND INSPECTION PERFORMED ON THE ELECTRICAL FIRE IN CHANTAL’S ROOM BY THE START OF A SHIFT. – CAPT. O'TOOLE
Good enough. Henry thought as he sent the message. Now he could sleep. The chief could handle it from there.
MEANWHILE…
DATE : MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
FIREMAN APPRENTICE SARAH CALLAHAN
It'll be back again tonight...
Sarah’s haunted thoughts repeated like a mantra. She had to be ready, but how? Her skin crawled and itched, the long sleeves of her BDU’s prevented her from being able to do anything about the painful sensation from the inflamed scratches they hid. She blearily rubbed at her sunken eyes, and she drained the rest of her coffee. All the numbers on the screen had started bleeding in together and her eyes hurt horribly, with the throbbing pain in her abdomen only compounding her misery.
“My god, Sarah, you look a wreck, hon. How have you been sleeping?” Yvonne, her shift partner asked, with concern in her voice.
“I have a monster tension headache, I just hope the meds kick in soon. Can you check my math? I need to get out of these white lights for a few minutes. Close my eyes for a bit, something, anything. I've been having nightmares again.” Sarah felt good, being able to admit it, and Yvonne had long since proven her friendship, so it was easier to actually speak.
“Yeah, no prob. As soon as I am done here I will check your readings and we can get out of here. Do you mean nightmares from the invasion?” Yvonne asked, carefully picking her words and tone.
“Kind of the same general themes, but different. Everything is going wrong, like the worst possible outcomes of my worst nightmares are all combining together. Like, it feels actively malicious, I don't know, its hard to explain...” Sarah said, bleakly.
“That’s hard, I am sorry. You need a shower, and an uninterrupted nap. Sleep deprivation plays all kinds of hell on the body and mind. I had a friend who went through an insomniac phase so extreme he would go days without sleeping. Wound up in the hospital after trying to drive to work while hallucinating his dead fiancée was sitting in the passenger seat screaming at him to watch out. Wound up rear-ending the car in front of him. Thank God he lived to tell the tale, but that is why it worries me to see you like this.” Yvonne planted her hand on Sarah’s shoulder as she told the story.
“Yikes, I think I slept like two hours into my sleep shift before I started having the nightmares again, woke up, and passed in and out of some restless sleep. It got really bad around oh three hundred. There were sounds... noises like scratching and a loud bang, and the shadows were moving. I just kept feeling like I was being watched, but everyone else seemed to be having disturbed sleep in their bunks. God, it was a creepy feeling.” Sarah took a moment to compose herself.
“I know how crazy this will sound, maybe that I am sleep deprived and likely hallucinating like your friend, but just hear me out. There was something there Yvonne, in the dark at the edge of perception, I could feel it. I also know I wasn’t the only one tossing and turning either. I could also hear scratchy whispering, too. I just hid, strapped in under the weighted blanket. At some point I slept some more, I must have, but not for what felt like a few stressful and draining hours. I'm just making a total mess of explaining this, aren’t I?”
“No, you're fine, girl! I am sorry that happened, my dorm has been pretty quiet, but I have always slept like a rock. Is there anything I can do?”
“I could use a hug.” Sarah said, which caused Yvonne to laugh, breaking some of the tension. They embraced warmly for a good minute, which did wonders for relieving some of the headache and her black mood.
“Thanks, Yvonne, I know it’s all in my head and it’s a vicious feedback cycle due to lack of quality sleep. Thanks for listening without calling me crazy.“ Sarah said, shying away from the last thing she hadn’t the courage to say.
She didn’t dare mention how she had hidden under the covers as she felt it get near. How she had felt something pushing on the mattress. How as her fear peaked, she herself peeked over the covers to find nothing there just to have the oppressive feeling evaporate along with the sensation of pressure by her feet. Her dorm mates all seemed to stop stirring after that, and only then did the nightmares stop for her that night. By then she was left with barely enough time for one last short sleep cycle before the start of A shift that very morning. This was a secret she would have to keep to herself, nobody would believe her anyway.
“I think I'll ask the Chief for a break from my duties today to rest and to visit med bay. Maybe they can give me something to help catch back up on my sleep.” Sarah said.
“Good idea, can I come with? I’ll back you up.” Yvonne said. Sarah smiled at her friend before she nodded at her before they checked off the last of their duties on site and headed away to find the Chief.
submitted by AnchorPointsOfficial to HFY [link] [comments]
DATE: MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION) LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
CAPTAIN HENRY O’TOOLE
"Ah, there you are Commander. Your message said there was something you wanted to talk with me about?" Henry asked as his executive officer approached the system map.
“Aye Captain, now's a good a time as any. As you know, the rate of disciplinary incidents has more than tripled in the last two weeks. We've had six fistfights, one near strangling, a few dozen counts of sexual harassment amongst different parties, and a few more incidents of a nature that I would rather not get into for fear of derailing the point of this conversation. I need additional resources to allocate towards ship internal security. With your permission, I'd like to borrow some of our more trusted marines to help the MA's out on their off shifts.” Commander Alvarez asked.
“Yeah, of course, take what you need to nip this in the bud. I can't say I'm entirely surprised; we expected a certain amount of this with the stresses of FTL travel. With everyone cooped up like this, maybe we should brainstorm some new outlets for the crew. Were there any specific incidents I need to get involved with?” Henry replied as he looked up from the list of updates and reports on his own console.
“No, I have it covered. It's just the regs state I need to ask permission to use marines for internal security matters.” The Commander waved it off.
“Excellent, continue to keep me in the loop then. Can I ask you a question?” Henry took the opportunity to ask something that had been bothering him.
“You just did. Hah! Just kidding, put the axe away boy! Now what would you like to know?” He said with a twinkle in his eye.
“I've seen your file, well, the parts that weren’t redacted anyway. If anything, I should be taking your orders! I mean, you're the Space Wolf! Nobody came even close to the number of ships captured or destroyed than you in the early days of the battle for the belt. Why would they want me to be captain when they had someone like you coming along the whole time? Why aren't you a captain anymore? By all right this should be your command, not mine.” Henry asked, after taking one last look around to verify they were still alone around the system map.
Commander Alvarez seemed stunned for a moment before he settled into a more pensive look.
“Listen, son, you're all full of the vigor and high passions of youth. By that I mean you've got a certain fire and aggression in you, yet I've seen you generally keep it balanced by wit and wisdom. You are a perfect match for the job, even if you could use some more real world experience. With some guidance, you'll do just fine, if you can keep strict standards for yourself and crew and a cool head when things get tough."
"I appreciate that, and I will definitely lean on your experience whenever possible. However, you didn't really answer my question... Why aren't you a captain anymore?"
"I... got a lot of damn good men and women killed in an impossible situation when we lost the Michigan-II, and I never truly got over it. No amount of medals, captured enemy ships, or the fact that I've saved many more lives than I lost can make up for that. I finally found peace with that, but that peace required that I relieve myself of any chance of future command. My legacy, for better or worse, is set in stone. Joining this expedition gives me another chance at adjusting the scales without breaking my former vows, even if the only people who will ever know it are here on the voyage with us.”
“So, you claim you have no aims or desires for leadership, but here you are a mere heartbeat away from it.” Henry said, carefully studying his executive officer's every reaction.
“My time for glory is mostly gone, yours is at your feet before you. To the world, I am retired in comfort and isolation. In reality you have me here to help make your will law. You can relax. I already turned down command of this expedition. I was plan A, why do you think they had to scramble to find you? I will take command of this mission only if you are incapable of doing so yourself, Sir. In the meantime, let my experience and whatever wisdom I can offer guide you.”
An emergency alert snapped both of their attention out of their conversation. "There's a fire in one of the officer's cabins?!" Henry’s pulse quickened as he referenced the map to find which one.
“Fuck, it started in Chantal’s room!” Henry said, horrified.
“I've got the CIC under control. Go on and get her out of there, I'll send the cavalry."
“Thank you, Commander.” Henry called back over his shoulder as he rushed for the quick lift.
The officer cabins were the in the very next deck overhead, so he was able to arrive quickly and break into a sprint. The ship shifted as it dodged some antimatter, causing Henry to slip and scramble back to his feet. As he rounded the corner he saw her door was closed and the keypad powered was off. He could hear thumps and muffled screaming from within the room.
"HANG ON CHANTAL, I'M COMING!" Henry shouted in the hope that she could hear him as he pried at the manual override panel.
Two modified Paladin exo-combat armor suits rounded the corner seconds later with a hospitalman trailing behind pushing a medical cart.
"WE'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE, SIR." A speaker-amplified voice spoke from behind him.
One of the Paladin suits accessed the manual control override and forced the door open enough for the other suit to reach in and pry it the rest of the way open as smoke plumed into the corridor. The second suit charged into the room with its flood lights on as a water cannon mounted on the right wrist sprayed flame retardant from a pack on its back. The first suit abandoned the door control and entered, emerging moments later with Chantal awake and coughing from inside the darkened door frame. She was quickly ushered into cleaner air, set gently down, wrapped in a blanket, and was quickly attended to by a hospitalman who began to check her vitals.
Relief flooded Henry’s mind as his adrenaline surge broke against the wall of worry he had built up during his mad dash from the CIC.
“Baby you came for me! I thought I was going to die in there." She pulled him into a tight embrace as she wept in cathartic release.
"Of course I did! I couldn't stand to lose you, especially not over something like this. So, what the hell happened in there?"
"Well you know me, I was all burning the midnight oil and then I smelled smoke! Then there were some sparks, the outlet pops then whoosh! My computer station and my desk are all ablaze along with half my notes, then the damned door wouldn't work! I had to drop to the floor under the smoke and pound on the door in hopes that someone would hear me. God, it was horrible... I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life." She replied with a deep shudder.
"You're safe now, it's going to be alright."
"I know, but what about my work?" She replied with a forlorn look back at her smoke damaged room.
"What about your work?"
"As you know, I lost a ton of it just now, but what’s worse is I don't even have the ability to recover them! Remember how I lost my backup drive last week? Like, I know I packed it and it is not here anywhere! It’s like some sick cosmic joke on me or something. Sorry! Gotta keep it positive, girl! I get to rethink my last few weeks’ worth of work from scratch... that was almost positive! I probably have most of this recoverable from email sent box backups. Fuck, what do you do if there's no good silver lining?” Chantal bemoaned.
Henry couldn’t help himself but laugh for a second, while his girlfriend stared at him, waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry, is this funny to you or something?”
“No, no of course not. This might be one of those times where the only silver lining is that you're alive. Plus, if anyone can remember and rebuild their notes, you can." Henry smiled down at her.
“Fine, fine, at least I am alive. I was only breathing smoke for a few seconds after all.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Thank you for rushing down here right away anyway, it means a lot. You're amazing, you know.”
Henry smiled, slightly uncomfortable for a moment, so he changed the subject.
“I do my best... Anyway, it seems like these electrical issues seem to be getting worse instead of better. Whatever patch these clowns have slapped on my ship to get her to pass inspection is clearly coming undone. What do you think is going on here?” Henry asked in mild exasperation.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you without digging into the systems myself, which I would rather avoid. My plate is full enough as it is right now, especially having to reproduce so much of my own work now. This ship has kilometers of power cables running throughout it, after all, and you have an entire loyal, capable team down there in electrical, so it should only be a matter of time before they sort it out for you. Let them do their jobs without harassing them too much, please?”
Henry felt a little irked at her for not giving him credit to know not to go overboard, but he stowed it, seeing as she ultimately was right.
“The crew has been under a lot of stress, too, between the technical issues with the lights going out, losing power to workstations, or the constant antimatter threat. More than a few people have tried to convince me to turn us around and return to S33 for a more in-depth refit and repair cycle before we try the mission again. So far, everyone has accepted the fact that we are continuing the mission without much argument, but I fear what may happen if these issues are seen as getting worse. Our orders are clear, though, we must continue the journey.” Henry said, uncomfortable with the implications, even if he didn't dare voice it.
“You should get on the Q-Comm to report the fire to S33. Maybe they will order us back to base after this.” She offered, looking for a solution to an impossible problem.
“Good idea, at least the Q-Comm is still working. It’s incredible to me those particles maintained their entanglement once we passed through the baryonic barrier. That alone has been a huge morale boost, being able to contact home base with no time lag.” Henry replied.
“It’s incredible to you because you only have a basic grasp of the science, hon. But that’s alright, very few people truly understand it. That’s in part what you have me here for anyway. Einstein called the effect spooky action from a distance; I always liked that line.”
Henry ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Chantal, with a shake of his head and a smile.
“Listen, Henry, I just had a crazy stressful experience and I need to unwind. Plus, I haven’t slept in almost a day, so I am bone tired. Let’s go to bed, huh? What do you say doc, am I clear to go?” Chantal asked.
The hospitalman closed her eyes and shook her head before responding. "Yes, you are cleared to rest, and only to rest, do you understand me?"
Chantal mouthed a thank you before she took Henry by the hand and led him off to the captain’s quarters. Henry felt no desire to fight it, nor flaw with her reasoning. Sleep sounded good, really good. Plus, he was about an hour from the start of his sleep shift anyway, and Alvarez had the CIC well covered. The lights flickered again, but Henry very purposefully ignored it.
“Hey, since we have a little time and we are both a little wound up, Why don’t we take a shower together real quick?” She said with genuine enthusiasm and a wink.
“Madam, I like the way you think.” The couple raced just a bit faster than regulations would have liked, and arrived at his door in record speed.
Inside the room they fell upon each other in great passion and need, stripping each other out of their BDU’s and underclothes. Henry tossed a giggling Chantal onto the bed, and proceeded to kiss her neck and nibble on her ear causing her to purr in anticipation before he moved down her chest, past her navel, and then eagerly began to move his kisses in between her thighs.
“Hah…. I haven’t showered. Are you sure? Oooookay! I think…. Hah…. Okay.” She said breathlessly as Henry began to work his tongue until she began to shiver and squirm before she cried out as she melted in his mouth.
“Enough, please, I can’t take it anymore! Just fuck me already!” Chantal pulled herself together enough to beg for it. Henry stood rigid and ready and set himself to granting her request, first slowly, and then with a growing intensity. She once more began to squirm as he paid close attention to her hip’s cues, knowing very well by now what she liked.
As she climaxed again, Henry lifted her from the bed and pushed her up against the wall, and then bent her over his desk for a bit before he could take it no longer and they finished together.
“Holy shit… my legs aren’t gonna work for a bit after that one. Help me up?” Chantal said in between shallow breaths.
“Yes, ma’am. It would be my pleasure.” Henry said as he helped her to her feet and into the shower, staying in longer than was strictly necessary.
Henry left the steam first, once more thankful that his cabin included its own small bathroom, rather than a communal one. Being captain had its perks, after all. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, then handed another to Chantal who gratefully accepted it before it dropped to the ground as she stared straight past him.
“Henry!" She squeaked as she pointed past him.
"What?" Henry asked, confused.
"Henry, someone was in here!”
On their bathroom mirror, wiped from the steam were the words TURN BACK.
Henry's blood ran cold and his adrenaline spiked him into overdrive. He waved Chantal back into the shower and put his finger to his lips. She nodded then wrapped herself in her retrieved towel and dropped to the shower floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, whimpering slightly. Henry moved silently along the wall, watching the visible half of his room for any movement. He then burst round the door frame, only to find everything perfectly, precisely as they had left it. The shock of finding nothing collided with the spike of his adrenaline surge, which only fed his growing unease.
“There’s nobody here!” Henry called out after checking the closet, the only other place someone could have hidden.
“Did you lock the door?” Chantal asked, her mind already working on the mystery.
“I set the security protocol to auto lock every time it closes.”
“Paul. We need to talk to Paul.” Chantal said, squeezing her BDU’s up over her hips with a few hops. Henry pulled on his undershirt before tossing over her bra.
“Why would we want to bring that weasel into this?” Henry asked, incredulous at to how he could possibly help.
“Because he has access to the surveillance tapes, why else?”
Henry stared at Chantal, brimming with rage, trying his hardest to keep it isolated to Paul over the invasion of his privacy.
“Did you just say surveillance tapes!?!” Henry asked in an icy tone. “That does it, I’m going to strangle him.” Henry said, moving with a purpose toward the door.
“Stop. Turn around and give me a kiss. I already disabled the video cameras, at least all the ones I could find. He has audio at best, even that I doubt. What he does have that I want is the data from the motion sensor that he had installed just in case you found the more obvious bugs. Unfortunately, I sabotaged its effectiveness by blocking the sensor with dense foam, but there might be enough of something to give us a clue."
“How in the hell do you know about all of this anyway, and why the hell didn’t you tell me?!” Henry roared.
“This entire enterprise is run by an intelligence agency; how can you not have seen that one coming a mile away? I have gotten very good at catching bugs over the years. Just because I expect the invasion of privacy to be happening, doesn’t mean I have to make it easy on them. Just be happy I already took care of the issue, alright?” She replied firmly while staring him in the eyes with raised eyebrows.
“You’re incredible, I love you.” Henry blurted out before he could catch himself. Chantal beamed and tackled him to the bed sitting on his lap.
“What took you so long? Never mind, don’t answer that. I love you too, man have I wanted to say that one for a while now.”
“You know these things aren’t easy for me. I had to be sure, I also didn’t want to mess anything up. We need to be able to work together even if we had turned out to be a bad couple.” Henry admitted, Chantal made an show as she thought it over, but she then smiled and helped Henry to his feet.
“Alright, my captain. You speak great wisdom. While I have certainly felt, and thoroughly enjoyed, the depths of your passion, it is really nice to hear about it too. I do think it makes it all the better that you rule said passion with reason. It’s just one of the many things I love about you.” She said, laying her hand over his heart.
Henry took her other hand and kissed it before replying. “I think above all, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t take you for granted, nor suffer the same in reverse. A wise woman once gave me some great advice there that I have taken to heart.”
“Okay, Romeo, maybe you have a better handle on these things than you think. Now… Let’s go interrogate Paul.” Chantal had a fire in her eyes that Henry was loving very much at that moment.
“I have wanted to turn the screws on that spook for a while now.” Henry smiled as he spoke, and he opened up the connection to the ship’s intranet through his neural implant to send a message.
MEET ME IN YOUR QUARTERS IN 5 MINUTES FOR A DISCUSSION OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE – CPT. O'TOOLE
“That ought to get him there and alone.” Henry smirked. “Let’s go.”
Together, they made their way to Paul’s equivalent-sized quarters, which he had somehow secured for himself in the ship design to help facilitate his role as the official thorn in Henry’s paw. I guess being the captain’s handler has its perks as well. Henry’s eye twitched at the corner.
After making them wait far too long, Paul opened the door and gesturing them inside. The door closed and Paul turned towards them, narrowing his eyes, studying them both.
“Is this about the fire?” Paul asked before Henry punched the weasel right in the diaphragm, forcing him to gasp for air. The look of shock on his face as he bent forwards was priceless.
“What the fuck, Henry!?” Paul managed to choke out after a minute between gasps.
“Relax, I didn’t do any permanent damage, yet.” Henry said, Paul for just a second showed actual fear in his eyes before he sneered in defiance. “Oh? That got your attention, did it? Why were you spying on me?” Henry growled.
Paul closed his eyes, dropped his head, and began to laugh before Henry grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Foolishly, Paul even then kept laughing amidst the gasping. So Henry squeezed until Paul started slapping his arm, looking genuine fear once more growing across his face.
“Orders… I was following orders!” Paul managed to say amidst gasps and coughs.
“I thought it might be something like that. You're going to open up those files, now, and you're going to show me everything.” Henry said, dropping him to his feet at last.
“Fucking hell, Henry, I thought you of all people would have anticipated this was going to be the case. Do you think the people who made this all possible would simply let you fly around the most dangerous, advanced warship in human history without some insurance?”
“Don’t try and weasel out of your own personal culpability here. You may also want to think back to other people who were “only following orders” while performing acts they knew were wrong before you wave that line around like some get out of jail free card.” The fact that he had nothing to say spoke volumes.
“You should have told me, Paul.” Henry growled.
“That defeats the purpose! Plus, your girlfriend sabotaged them all before we ever left S33 anyway, and once more after! That type of tech doesn’t just grow on trees you know, and I don’t have an unlimited supply. You should be thanking me for covering for her and reporting back like things are normal!” Paul shouted in indignation.
“This is pointless, show me the files from around fifteen minutes ago, motion trackers, thermals, anything you have that's not blocked or sabotaged.” Henry commanded. Paul’s eyes narrowed, but after a long moment he huffed and closed his eyes.
Paul then sat down at his station and fired it up.
“Like I said, I've got practically nothing. No video, muffled audio and readings from what I assume to be a faulty motion sensor, that’s it. What are we looking for?”
“Chantal and I were, well, together. After we got out of the shower we saw that someone had written turn back in the condensation on the bathroom mirror. Only problem? My door auto locks when closed and only opens for my biometrics. That is why all of this even came up in the first place.”
“Motherfucker. That's a whole heap of bad news.” Paul said. Henry merely nodded, paying rather more attention to the screen to see if he could catch Paul in a lie about the extent of the spying.
“There’s nothing. No disturbances in the air that would even remotely resemble human movement between you two getting in the shower and you charging into your bedroom. With the noise of the shower and the distance to the microphone, there is nothing I can discern that is anomalous. You can see it all right here for yourself.”
Henry found himself even more confused and alarmed than before.
“How is that possible? Look again, run through some filters or something. There must be some evidence somewhere!”
“Alright, relax, I will get to work on this and get you a report by the end of C shift. In the meantime, you look like a mess. Get some sleep man! I can take care of it from here. Oh, and I want you to remember that I forgave you quite magnanimously for that little episode back there where you attacked me.” Henry and Chantal gave each other a look as Paul spoke.
“Wasn’t gonna apologize anyway, you had it coming. I’m going to hit the rack. I expect that report to be detailed and ready when I get up.” Henry took Chantal by the hand, and they left together, not waiting for a response.
“What a snake. Did you see him in there? Zero guilt or recognition whatsoever about spying like that. It just makes my skin crawl. Gives me bad memories.” Chantal said, turning pensive and quiet.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Henry asked, seeing that there was something clearly bothering her.
“I… had an uncle that lived with us from time to time and he would spy on me when I was dressing, try and sneak looks in the shower, stuff like that. Never touched me or anyone else that I know of, thank god, but man did it screw me up a bit still. Played havoc with my sense of security and even my sanity, never being quite sure it was real or all in my head. I wish I had said something, but I was afraid everyone would think I was overreacting or imagining it. I saw it in his eyes though, that look of... predatory lust. At least I didn't see anything like that in Paul's eyes. To this day it makes my skin crawl.”
“Good God, I can see how alone you must have felt in the middle of all that.” He squeezed her hand, she smiled up at him.
“Yeah, that was one of the hardest parts. I don’t think Paul is some raging pervert or anything, but it concerns me how normalized it was to him. Even if he isn’t being a creep with it, as if we can take his claims to be covering for me at face value. There is still no way I am going to let him have easy access to intimate videos of us, if I can possibly help it.” Chantal said before adding, “I’ll be all right, don’t worry about me. Let’s just get some sleep.”
Henry put his palm against the biometric scanner outside his room and the door slid open for them. They definitely needed some sleep after the emotional roller coaster of the past few hours, and the irresistible warm embrace of his bed called for him. The Q-Comm report could wait until he woke, he decided.
Better to have the electrical inspection ordered up, too.
I WANT A FULL REPORT AND INSPECTION PERFORMED ON THE ELECTRICAL FIRE IN CHANTAL’S ROOM BY THE START OF A SHIFT. – CAPT. O'TOOLE
Good enough. Henry thought as he sent the message. Now he could sleep. The chief could handle it from there.
MEANWHILE…
DATE : MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
FIREMAN APPRENTICE SARAH CALLAHAN
It'll be back again tonight...
Sarah’s haunted thoughts repeated like a mantra. She had to be ready, but how? Her skin crawled and itched, the long sleeves of her BDU’s prevented her from being able to do anything about the painful sensation from the inflamed scratches they hid. She blearily rubbed at her sunken eyes, and she drained the rest of her coffee. All the numbers on the screen had started bleeding in together and her eyes hurt horribly, with the throbbing pain in her abdomen only compounding her misery.
“My god, Sarah, you look a wreck, hon. How have you been sleeping?” Yvonne, her shift partner asked, with concern in her voice.
“I have a monster tension headache, I just hope the meds kick in soon. Can you check my math? I need to get out of these white lights for a few minutes. Close my eyes for a bit, something, anything. I've been having nightmares again.” Sarah felt good, being able to admit it, and Yvonne had long since proven her friendship, so it was easier to actually speak.
“Yeah, no prob. As soon as I am done here I will check your readings and we can get out of here. Do you mean nightmares from the invasion?” Yvonne asked, carefully picking her words and tone.
“Kind of the same general themes, but different. Everything is going wrong, like the worst possible outcomes of my worst nightmares are all combining together. Like, it feels actively malicious, I don't know, its hard to explain...” Sarah said, bleakly.
“That’s hard, I am sorry. You need a shower, and an uninterrupted nap. Sleep deprivation plays all kinds of hell on the body and mind. I had a friend who went through an insomniac phase so extreme he would go days without sleeping. Wound up in the hospital after trying to drive to work while hallucinating his dead fiancée was sitting in the passenger seat screaming at him to watch out. Wound up rear-ending the car in front of him. Thank God he lived to tell the tale, but that is why it worries me to see you like this.” Yvonne planted her hand on Sarah’s shoulder as she told the story.
“Yikes, I think I slept like two hours into my sleep shift before I started having the nightmares again, woke up, and passed in and out of some restless sleep. It got really bad around oh three hundred. There were sounds... noises like scratching and a loud bang, and the shadows were moving. I just kept feeling like I was being watched, but everyone else seemed to be having disturbed sleep in their bunks. God, it was a creepy feeling.” Sarah took a moment to compose herself.
“I know how crazy this will sound, maybe that I am sleep deprived and likely hallucinating like your friend, but just hear me out. There was something there Yvonne, in the dark at the edge of perception, I could feel it. I also know I wasn’t the only one tossing and turning either. I could also hear scratchy whispering, too. I just hid, strapped in under the weighted blanket. At some point I slept some more, I must have, but not for what felt like a few stressful and draining hours. I'm just making a total mess of explaining this, aren’t I?”
“No, you're fine, girl! I am sorry that happened, my dorm has been pretty quiet, but I have always slept like a rock. Is there anything I can do?”
“I could use a hug.” Sarah said, which caused Yvonne to laugh, breaking some of the tension. They embraced warmly for a good minute, which did wonders for relieving some of the headache and her black mood.
“Thanks, Yvonne, I know it’s all in my head and it’s a vicious feedback cycle due to lack of quality sleep. Thanks for listening without calling me crazy.“ Sarah said, shying away from the last thing she hadn’t the courage to say.
She didn’t dare mention how she had hidden under the covers as she felt it get near. How she had felt something pushing on the mattress. How as her fear peaked, she herself peeked over the covers to find nothing there just to have the oppressive feeling evaporate along with the sensation of pressure by her feet. Her dorm mates all seemed to stop stirring after that, and only then did the nightmares stop for her that night. By then she was left with barely enough time for one last short sleep cycle before the start of A shift that very morning. This was a secret she would have to keep to herself, nobody would believe her anyway.
“I think I'll ask the Chief for a break from my duties today to rest and to visit med bay. Maybe they can give me something to help catch back up on my sleep.” Sarah said.
“Good idea, can I come with? I’ll back you up.” Yvonne said. Sarah smiled at her friend before she nodded at her before they checked off the last of their duties on site and headed away to find the Chief.
2024.05.15 11:21 Aussie_Endeavour Nature of Pokemon (55)
A fanfiction of The Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_predators/
Previous Prologue Next
Memory Transcription Subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardized Earth time]: August 21, 2136
Walking into the lab, we were welcomed by a Pokemon that looked oddly familiar to me, a pink creature with predatory eyes and small wings that looked completely vestigial. It wasn’t until I saw the Human inspecting a large screen embedded in the wall that I recognised them. Lilith and Sara, who were among the first Terrans to have visited Venlil Prime. Lilith, whose species was the ‘Clefable’ if I remember correctly, gestured for the three of us to come further into the lab.
“Hello there, thank you for coming so soon after settling in! It seems a lot of Venlil are quite excited to do the Infinity Energy tests.”
I give a slightly nervous ear flick in response.
“I uh, really just wanted to get this over and done with.”
“Right, well in that case you’ll be glad to know that this takes no time at all. It’ll be over before you know it, and you’ll have your exchange partners beside you through the whole process.”
I look up at Marcel and Felix, who both give me further reassuring glances. Marcel seems a little nervous though, awkwardly standing just in front of the door and obviously having no idea what he should be doing. As the Clefable leads me over to a chair and gestures for me to take a seat, she passes over a piece of paper and a pen.
“This is the consent form, please read it out completely and carefully before writing your basic information and signature.”
Lilith then bounds away to converse with Sara, who is still looking at the large screen teeming with strange writing and graphs. As I read through the consent form, I only grow more worried.
‘Permanent Infinity Energy infusion.’
‘Monitored for remainder of Space Corps service.’
‘Possibility of previously unknown side effects.’
I look over to Marcel and Felix, beckoning them over with a wave of my tail. Marcel kneels down beside the chair, bringing the three of us to roughly eye level as Felix rests on his shoulder.
“Sorry, but can you two just… stay close? This seems a bit more intense than I was expecting.”
Felix nods furiously, followed by Marcel giving a small, closed mouth smile.
“Of course, we’ll be right here.”
“After this is over, we can all get some food from the cafeteria. A nice salad or something, alright?”
The Human’s suggestion sounds nice, and my tail sways in agreement. I sign the form after reading through it a second time, and Lilith soon comes over to collect it. As she does so, I see Sara walking over with some wires and wool clips. She places them on a nearby table before turning to finally address me.
“Hello Mr Slanek, sorry for the wait. It’s just, the data we’ve gathered so far from the other Venlil is beyond fascinating. It's an amazing opportunity to investigate how life not native to Earth reacts with Infinity Energy and uh… you probably don’t care, sorry.”
With a lightly red hue showing in her cheeks, she grabs the wires and clips, and gets started on attaching them to various points on my body. From my knees to my paws, snout, ears, stomach, chest, tail… almost everywhere, really. This all only makes my nerves grow even more.
“Now, just as a warning, this will probably hurt a bit. It’s only for a moment though, and it just means that everything is working.”
As Sara attaches the last clip to the wool on my back, she walks back over to large screen on the opposite wall, which I am surprised to find now displays a wireframe model of myself. I notice my paws are beginning to shake slightly, and I turn towards my exchange partners, hoping to find solace. Not so long ago, I would never have even fathomed the idea of looking to predators for comfort, but now…
I reach out a shaking paw towards them. After hesitating for a moment, a look of surprise coming over his face, Marcel reaches out and takes hold of it. Felix scurries down the Human’s arm and places his own small paw on top of mine as Marcel gives it a gentle squeeze.
Turning back to the rest of the lab, Sara is swiping her hand to rotate the wireframe model of my body, while Lilith is retrieving something from a large, formerly locked box nearby. She pulls out a small yellow crystal, and walks back over to me. Sara sidles up beside her partner, and double checks the wire clips one last time as the Clefable holds out the crystal to me.
“This is a revive, which will inject Infinity Energy directly into you. Make sure you hold onto it tight, ok?”
I take a deep breath, giving Marcel’s hand and Felix’s paw a gentle squeeze as I do so.
“Understood.”
I reach out with my other paw, and grab onto the revive. For a moment, nothing happens, but then the revive begins to glow. I shut my eyes tight against the blinding light, and tighten my grip on the crystal. A strange sensation, like waves of pressure, emanate from where the revive touches my paw. Through my arm, across my chest, up my neck and down my navel un-
“BRAKH!”
I cry out as pain suddenly engulfs my snout and legs. A loud beeping noise comes from the clips attached to them, which I silently pray means that everything is working as it should. It feels like my legs are trying to rip themselves apart at the knees, and I understand instantly why I’m sat down for this. My snout too lights up, as if on fire without the heat, forcing me to grit my teeth until my jaw starts hurting as well from the preassure alone. I tighten my grip on both the revive and my partners. I feel weight shifting, and Felix’s paw disappears. Not a moment later, something warm and fuzzy jumps up onto the chair beside me, reaching up to rest a paw on my shoulder.
“It’s alright, we’re right here.”
I go to wrap my tail around him, only to find something strange. My tail has gone numb. The mixture of sensations, from numbness to pain, continues for a little while. As the revive breaks down into grey dust, I can finally open my eyes and unclench my teeth. Steadily, the searing pain fades, leaving my tail numb and my snout and legs sore. I breathe deeply again, and I turn my attention to Felix and Marcel. I retrieve my paw from Marcel’s grip and Felix hops back down from the chair. The Human reaches over to lightly pat me on the back.
“There we go, all over now. You did great, Slanek.”
“Th-thanks.”
Lilith comes over and begins detaching the clips from my wool, while Sara is already tapping away at the screen, the wireframe model of my body now looking very different than it was before. The majority of it is now coloured a stark white, although notably my snout and legs are a dimmer shade of muted grey. The only splash of actual colour is in my tail, the entire limb a vivid purple, most intense at the tip. After inspecting it for a moment, Sara turns back around to address me.
“Thank you for coming, Mr Slanek. The full results of this test will be sent to your holopad shortly, but I’ll give you the most important information now.”
Sara taps the screen a few times, and labels written in Venscript appear as a key for the colours.
White – Mixed
Violet – Poison
Grey – Unknown
“Your results are consistent with what we’ve seen in all the other Venlil that have been tested so far. Most of your body contain a mixture of all Types of IE, similar to Humans. Different Venlil seem to have the Poison IE concentrate in different areas of the body, I’ve seen it in arms, abdomen, throat, wool and elsewhere. For you it’s in the tail, which so far seems fairly common. The grey zones are the most interesting, as they’re in the same areas for each and every Venlil; the snout and legs. Combine that with how this energy isn’t quite Normal but also not Typeless, not to mention it’s almost complete lack of reactivity to external or internal stimuli… it will certainly be an area of research I'll happily dive into soon.”
As Sara explains the results of the test, Marcel helps me to stand up again. At first, I’m a little unsteady as my legs still feel slightly odd, but leaning on his arm helps. The numb feeling in my tail slowly fades, and I experimentally shake it back and forth a few times. There is… Poison in it? It doesn’t feel any different, at least at the moment. After Lilith and Sara once again thank me for my cooperation, the three of us are ushered out of the lab, left standing together in the hallway as another mini herd files in after us. I turn to look up at my companions, a slight bloom making its way onto my face.
“Hey, uh, sorry for what happened in there. To predators it’s probably a show of weakness to need someone sticking nearby but-”
“Okay, we’re nipping that ‘weakness’ shit in the bud right now.”
Felix’s surprising angry voice catches me off guard, and for a second I’m worried that I said something to make him mad. I realise that, in a way, I had… but not for the reason I thought.
“Needing a friend ain’t weakness, Slanek. Just look at Marc and I!”
Marcel smiles at the Buizel, before turning his gaze back down at me. His predatory gaze seems stern, and yet somehow friendly, despite that being essentially oxymoronic.
“Slanek, if I’ve learned anything from my time in the military, it’s that ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ are meaningless words in isolation. People can only reach their full potential when they have others lifting them up, whether they be a Human or Pokemon. I doubt Venlil are any different.”
Something flashes through my mind, a memory that Marcel's words invoked. Of course. One of the first pieces of Terran media I saw after First Contact; 'The Power of Us'. Felix nods along excitedly, jumping down from the Human's shoulder to be a bit closer to my level.
“Never call yourself weak again, alright? Marcel and I were already growing stronger with just the two of us, but now we have a brand-new friend? The three of us together will be unstoppable!”
Marcel snickers slightly.
“Not really the angle I was going for, but sure. Anyway, that packet of chips wasn't nearly enough. Like I said earlier, let’s go grab something from the cafeteria, alright?”
Seemingly immediately forgetting the previous topic, Felix’s eyes light up and his tails whir into action.
“Oh! I hope they have Wacan berries!”
As Felix rapidly ascends back up onto Marcel’s shoulder, my own tail begins to sway back and forth again. The predators’ kind words lifted my spirits and cast aside the embarrassment I had felt, spurring me to happily step forwards and follow the Human’s lead towards the station’s cafeteria.
As we made our way through the halls, I paid more attention to the various pairs and trios we passed. The Venlil all ranged from bubbling with excitement, a spring in their step as they walked joyfully beside their partners, to barely containing their fear, shaking slightly as they stuck close to the walls and avoided looking at most of the more predatory looking Pokemon. I wasn’t at either extreme, though I was leaning towards the former. I strode beside Marcel with contentment, mentally thanking my past self for signing up for the program. I was nervous to meet them at first, but it took almost no time at all for me to recognise the friends I had already been speaking to over text for whole herds of paws at this point.
When we reached the cafeteria, the place was already alive with many Terrans and Venlil. Some sat just with their exchange partners, while others gathered into larger herds, with the countless conversations happening between them melding together with the clinking of cutlery. Even out here on this station, with by far the strangest creatures in the Universe, the sound of people enjoying each other’s company was oh so familiar.
The three of us collected our meals and decided just to sit by ourselves, eventually finding a spot near a rather short Venlil sitting with a large, purple serpentine Pokemon that was presumably their partner. As Marcel and I set our meals down on the table, Felix quickly grabs a pastry from Marcel’s tray.
“I call dibs on the Wacan muffin!”
Marcel has selected some sort of soup for himself, while I chose a simple bunt leaf salad, although my serving seemed to have some sort of fruit in it that I didn’t recognise. I prodded the yellow chunks around, trying to determine if I had gotten some underripe juicefruit or something, catching Marcel’s attention.
“That’s Shuca berry. Not really my thing, but it’s decently popular.”
“Oh, it’s an Earth fruit?”
“Yep, looks like the kitchen’s experimenting with mixing cuisines. This soup is… surprisingly spicy.”
Looking up at the Human, I find that his face has turned a slight reddish hue, the flush no doubt signifying that he was struggling. A quick peek at the contents of his meal provides an answer, making me whistle slightly in laughter.
“Ah, that would be firefruit. Fitting name, isn’t it?”
“Fuck, you can say that again.”
As I watch my Human partner gulp down his glass of water, I pick up a few bunt leaves along with a small chunk of the Shuca berry and pop them in my mouth. The yellow fruit goes well with the bunt leaves, providing a mild but nice sweetness with the slightest kick of spice. Though, obviously not nearly as much as Marcel’s firefruit. The Human soon excuses himself to refill his water, Felix throwing a teasing quip his way between bites of the muffin.
“Fire Type doesn’t suit you, Marc!”
While trying to stifle my laughter at my friend’s misfortune, a slightly alarmed, raspy voice coming from my right catches my attention.
“Ssssevik, are you alright?”
Turning to my right, I find the large serpent Pokemon sitting nearby looking at her Venlil partner with concern. He is holding a paw over his stomach and groaning slightly.
“Y-yeah Arbok, I’m fi-fi -hurk-”
He gives a horrible sound somewhere between a burp and a retch, grabbing the attention of a few other people around us.
“Wassss it the berriesss?”
“N-no it’s -hurk- I think is the Pois- -hurk-“
Thinking quickly, one of the nearby Humans passes the Venlil a plastic bag. He accepts it and tries to thank them, only for his attempt to be interrupted by more retching. Just as he seems to lose control of his meal completely, he cries out.
“Gastro Acid!”
Instead of the typically yellowy green, the Venlil expels a thick, deep purple fluid into the bag. After a single powerful heave, the Venlil looks back up, seemingly slightly dizzy. A moment later, a sizzling sound can be heard coming from the bag, the bottom of which soon breaks. The acidic substance spills onto the floor, having corroded through the plastic like it was nothing. For a while, nobody makes a sound, nor barely moves. Venlil, Human and Pokemon alike in our little section of the cafeteria are all staring at the poor little Venlil who in turn has his eyes glued onto the now useless plastic bag. As for the purple acid, it soon fizzles away into nothing, leaving the floor spotless with no evidence that it ever existed.
The sound of approaching footsteps makes me turn around with a slight jump, finding Marcel returning with a new glass of water. His eyes dart first to the silent crowd, then to the small Venlil, then finally to me and Felix.
“Uh, did I miss something?”
Previous Prologue Next
~~~~~~~
Gojid - Steel/Rock
Normal /Poison
Zurulian - ???/???
Farsul - ???/???
Kolshian - ???/???
Yotul - ???/???
Mazic - ???/???
Dossur - ???/???
Sivkit - ???/???
Krakotl - Flying/???
Harchen - ???/???
Duertan - Flying/???
Thafki - Wate???
Sulean - ???/???
Iftali - ???/???
Drezjin - Flying/???
Jaur - ???/???
Letian - ???/???
Leshee - ???/???
Yulpa - ???/???
submitted by Aussie_Endeavour to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
Previous Prologue Next
Memory Transcription Subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps
Date [standardized Earth time]: August 21, 2136
Walking into the lab, we were welcomed by a Pokemon that looked oddly familiar to me, a pink creature with predatory eyes and small wings that looked completely vestigial. It wasn’t until I saw the Human inspecting a large screen embedded in the wall that I recognised them. Lilith and Sara, who were among the first Terrans to have visited Venlil Prime. Lilith, whose species was the ‘Clefable’ if I remember correctly, gestured for the three of us to come further into the lab.
“Hello there, thank you for coming so soon after settling in! It seems a lot of Venlil are quite excited to do the Infinity Energy tests.”
I give a slightly nervous ear flick in response.
“I uh, really just wanted to get this over and done with.”
“Right, well in that case you’ll be glad to know that this takes no time at all. It’ll be over before you know it, and you’ll have your exchange partners beside you through the whole process.”
I look up at Marcel and Felix, who both give me further reassuring glances. Marcel seems a little nervous though, awkwardly standing just in front of the door and obviously having no idea what he should be doing. As the Clefable leads me over to a chair and gestures for me to take a seat, she passes over a piece of paper and a pen.
“This is the consent form, please read it out completely and carefully before writing your basic information and signature.”
Lilith then bounds away to converse with Sara, who is still looking at the large screen teeming with strange writing and graphs. As I read through the consent form, I only grow more worried.
‘Permanent Infinity Energy infusion.’
‘Monitored for remainder of Space Corps service.’
‘Possibility of previously unknown side effects.’
I look over to Marcel and Felix, beckoning them over with a wave of my tail. Marcel kneels down beside the chair, bringing the three of us to roughly eye level as Felix rests on his shoulder.
“Sorry, but can you two just… stay close? This seems a bit more intense than I was expecting.”
Felix nods furiously, followed by Marcel giving a small, closed mouth smile.
“Of course, we’ll be right here.”
“After this is over, we can all get some food from the cafeteria. A nice salad or something, alright?”
The Human’s suggestion sounds nice, and my tail sways in agreement. I sign the form after reading through it a second time, and Lilith soon comes over to collect it. As she does so, I see Sara walking over with some wires and wool clips. She places them on a nearby table before turning to finally address me.
“Hello Mr Slanek, sorry for the wait. It’s just, the data we’ve gathered so far from the other Venlil is beyond fascinating. It's an amazing opportunity to investigate how life not native to Earth reacts with Infinity Energy and uh… you probably don’t care, sorry.”
With a lightly red hue showing in her cheeks, she grabs the wires and clips, and gets started on attaching them to various points on my body. From my knees to my paws, snout, ears, stomach, chest, tail… almost everywhere, really. This all only makes my nerves grow even more.
“Now, just as a warning, this will probably hurt a bit. It’s only for a moment though, and it just means that everything is working.”
As Sara attaches the last clip to the wool on my back, she walks back over to large screen on the opposite wall, which I am surprised to find now displays a wireframe model of myself. I notice my paws are beginning to shake slightly, and I turn towards my exchange partners, hoping to find solace. Not so long ago, I would never have even fathomed the idea of looking to predators for comfort, but now…
I reach out a shaking paw towards them. After hesitating for a moment, a look of surprise coming over his face, Marcel reaches out and takes hold of it. Felix scurries down the Human’s arm and places his own small paw on top of mine as Marcel gives it a gentle squeeze.
Turning back to the rest of the lab, Sara is swiping her hand to rotate the wireframe model of my body, while Lilith is retrieving something from a large, formerly locked box nearby. She pulls out a small yellow crystal, and walks back over to me. Sara sidles up beside her partner, and double checks the wire clips one last time as the Clefable holds out the crystal to me.
“This is a revive, which will inject Infinity Energy directly into you. Make sure you hold onto it tight, ok?”
I take a deep breath, giving Marcel’s hand and Felix’s paw a gentle squeeze as I do so.
“Understood.”
I reach out with my other paw, and grab onto the revive. For a moment, nothing happens, but then the revive begins to glow. I shut my eyes tight against the blinding light, and tighten my grip on the crystal. A strange sensation, like waves of pressure, emanate from where the revive touches my paw. Through my arm, across my chest, up my neck and down my navel un-
“BRAKH!”
I cry out as pain suddenly engulfs my snout and legs. A loud beeping noise comes from the clips attached to them, which I silently pray means that everything is working as it should. It feels like my legs are trying to rip themselves apart at the knees, and I understand instantly why I’m sat down for this. My snout too lights up, as if on fire without the heat, forcing me to grit my teeth until my jaw starts hurting as well from the preassure alone. I tighten my grip on both the revive and my partners. I feel weight shifting, and Felix’s paw disappears. Not a moment later, something warm and fuzzy jumps up onto the chair beside me, reaching up to rest a paw on my shoulder.
“It’s alright, we’re right here.”
I go to wrap my tail around him, only to find something strange. My tail has gone numb. The mixture of sensations, from numbness to pain, continues for a little while. As the revive breaks down into grey dust, I can finally open my eyes and unclench my teeth. Steadily, the searing pain fades, leaving my tail numb and my snout and legs sore. I breathe deeply again, and I turn my attention to Felix and Marcel. I retrieve my paw from Marcel’s grip and Felix hops back down from the chair. The Human reaches over to lightly pat me on the back.
“There we go, all over now. You did great, Slanek.”
“Th-thanks.”
Lilith comes over and begins detaching the clips from my wool, while Sara is already tapping away at the screen, the wireframe model of my body now looking very different than it was before. The majority of it is now coloured a stark white, although notably my snout and legs are a dimmer shade of muted grey. The only splash of actual colour is in my tail, the entire limb a vivid purple, most intense at the tip. After inspecting it for a moment, Sara turns back around to address me.
“Thank you for coming, Mr Slanek. The full results of this test will be sent to your holopad shortly, but I’ll give you the most important information now.”
Sara taps the screen a few times, and labels written in Venscript appear as a key for the colours.
White – Mixed
Violet – Poison
Grey – Unknown
“Your results are consistent with what we’ve seen in all the other Venlil that have been tested so far. Most of your body contain a mixture of all Types of IE, similar to Humans. Different Venlil seem to have the Poison IE concentrate in different areas of the body, I’ve seen it in arms, abdomen, throat, wool and elsewhere. For you it’s in the tail, which so far seems fairly common. The grey zones are the most interesting, as they’re in the same areas for each and every Venlil; the snout and legs. Combine that with how this energy isn’t quite Normal but also not Typeless, not to mention it’s almost complete lack of reactivity to external or internal stimuli… it will certainly be an area of research I'll happily dive into soon.”
As Sara explains the results of the test, Marcel helps me to stand up again. At first, I’m a little unsteady as my legs still feel slightly odd, but leaning on his arm helps. The numb feeling in my tail slowly fades, and I experimentally shake it back and forth a few times. There is… Poison in it? It doesn’t feel any different, at least at the moment. After Lilith and Sara once again thank me for my cooperation, the three of us are ushered out of the lab, left standing together in the hallway as another mini herd files in after us. I turn to look up at my companions, a slight bloom making its way onto my face.
“Hey, uh, sorry for what happened in there. To predators it’s probably a show of weakness to need someone sticking nearby but-”
“Okay, we’re nipping that ‘weakness’ shit in the bud right now.”
Felix’s surprising angry voice catches me off guard, and for a second I’m worried that I said something to make him mad. I realise that, in a way, I had… but not for the reason I thought.
“Needing a friend ain’t weakness, Slanek. Just look at Marc and I!”
Marcel smiles at the Buizel, before turning his gaze back down at me. His predatory gaze seems stern, and yet somehow friendly, despite that being essentially oxymoronic.
“Slanek, if I’ve learned anything from my time in the military, it’s that ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ are meaningless words in isolation. People can only reach their full potential when they have others lifting them up, whether they be a Human or Pokemon. I doubt Venlil are any different.”
Something flashes through my mind, a memory that Marcel's words invoked. Of course. One of the first pieces of Terran media I saw after First Contact; 'The Power of Us'. Felix nods along excitedly, jumping down from the Human's shoulder to be a bit closer to my level.
“Never call yourself weak again, alright? Marcel and I were already growing stronger with just the two of us, but now we have a brand-new friend? The three of us together will be unstoppable!”
Marcel snickers slightly.
“Not really the angle I was going for, but sure. Anyway, that packet of chips wasn't nearly enough. Like I said earlier, let’s go grab something from the cafeteria, alright?”
Seemingly immediately forgetting the previous topic, Felix’s eyes light up and his tails whir into action.
“Oh! I hope they have Wacan berries!”
As Felix rapidly ascends back up onto Marcel’s shoulder, my own tail begins to sway back and forth again. The predators’ kind words lifted my spirits and cast aside the embarrassment I had felt, spurring me to happily step forwards and follow the Human’s lead towards the station’s cafeteria.
As we made our way through the halls, I paid more attention to the various pairs and trios we passed. The Venlil all ranged from bubbling with excitement, a spring in their step as they walked joyfully beside their partners, to barely containing their fear, shaking slightly as they stuck close to the walls and avoided looking at most of the more predatory looking Pokemon. I wasn’t at either extreme, though I was leaning towards the former. I strode beside Marcel with contentment, mentally thanking my past self for signing up for the program. I was nervous to meet them at first, but it took almost no time at all for me to recognise the friends I had already been speaking to over text for whole herds of paws at this point.
When we reached the cafeteria, the place was already alive with many Terrans and Venlil. Some sat just with their exchange partners, while others gathered into larger herds, with the countless conversations happening between them melding together with the clinking of cutlery. Even out here on this station, with by far the strangest creatures in the Universe, the sound of people enjoying each other’s company was oh so familiar.
The three of us collected our meals and decided just to sit by ourselves, eventually finding a spot near a rather short Venlil sitting with a large, purple serpentine Pokemon that was presumably their partner. As Marcel and I set our meals down on the table, Felix quickly grabs a pastry from Marcel’s tray.
“I call dibs on the Wacan muffin!”
Marcel has selected some sort of soup for himself, while I chose a simple bunt leaf salad, although my serving seemed to have some sort of fruit in it that I didn’t recognise. I prodded the yellow chunks around, trying to determine if I had gotten some underripe juicefruit or something, catching Marcel’s attention.
“That’s Shuca berry. Not really my thing, but it’s decently popular.”
“Oh, it’s an Earth fruit?”
“Yep, looks like the kitchen’s experimenting with mixing cuisines. This soup is… surprisingly spicy.”
Looking up at the Human, I find that his face has turned a slight reddish hue, the flush no doubt signifying that he was struggling. A quick peek at the contents of his meal provides an answer, making me whistle slightly in laughter.
“Ah, that would be firefruit. Fitting name, isn’t it?”
“Fuck, you can say that again.”
As I watch my Human partner gulp down his glass of water, I pick up a few bunt leaves along with a small chunk of the Shuca berry and pop them in my mouth. The yellow fruit goes well with the bunt leaves, providing a mild but nice sweetness with the slightest kick of spice. Though, obviously not nearly as much as Marcel’s firefruit. The Human soon excuses himself to refill his water, Felix throwing a teasing quip his way between bites of the muffin.
“Fire Type doesn’t suit you, Marc!”
While trying to stifle my laughter at my friend’s misfortune, a slightly alarmed, raspy voice coming from my right catches my attention.
“Ssssevik, are you alright?”
Turning to my right, I find the large serpent Pokemon sitting nearby looking at her Venlil partner with concern. He is holding a paw over his stomach and groaning slightly.
“Y-yeah Arbok, I’m fi-fi -hurk-”
He gives a horrible sound somewhere between a burp and a retch, grabbing the attention of a few other people around us.
“Wassss it the berriesss?”
“N-no it’s -hurk- I think is the Pois- -hurk-“
Thinking quickly, one of the nearby Humans passes the Venlil a plastic bag. He accepts it and tries to thank them, only for his attempt to be interrupted by more retching. Just as he seems to lose control of his meal completely, he cries out.
“Gastro Acid!”
Instead of the typically yellowy green, the Venlil expels a thick, deep purple fluid into the bag. After a single powerful heave, the Venlil looks back up, seemingly slightly dizzy. A moment later, a sizzling sound can be heard coming from the bag, the bottom of which soon breaks. The acidic substance spills onto the floor, having corroded through the plastic like it was nothing. For a while, nobody makes a sound, nor barely moves. Venlil, Human and Pokemon alike in our little section of the cafeteria are all staring at the poor little Venlil who in turn has his eyes glued onto the now useless plastic bag. As for the purple acid, it soon fizzles away into nothing, leaving the floor spotless with no evidence that it ever existed.
The sound of approaching footsteps makes me turn around with a slight jump, finding Marcel returning with a new glass of water. His eyes dart first to the silent crowd, then to the small Venlil, then finally to me and Felix.
“Uh, did I miss something?”
Previous Prologue Next
~~~~~~~
NoPokedex
Humans - TypelessGojid - Steel/Rock
- Sovlin: Metal Claw & Rollout
- Kam: ??? & Poison Jab
- Slanek: ??? & ???
- Isif: Dragon Pulse & ???
Zurulian - ???/???
Farsul - ???/???
Kolshian - ???/???
Yotul - ???/???
Mazic - ???/???
Dossur - ???/???
Sivkit - ???/???
Krakotl - Flying/???
Harchen - ???/???
Duertan - Flying/???
Thafki - Wate???
Sulean - ???/???
Iftali - ???/???
Drezjin - Flying/???
Jaur - ???/???
Letian - ???/???
Leshee - ???/???
Yulpa - ???/???
2024.05.14 15:08 YourlocalTitanicguy Odd Titanica: Hollywood sleaze
In this edition of “Odd Titanica”, we are going to dive into the sleazy, opportunistic world of show business. A world that comedian Fred Allen said of, “you can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly, and still have room for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart”. Hyperbolic? Let’s take a look at Hollywood’s response to the Titanic disaster to see that there really is no business like show business.
Dorothy Gibson and the lost, first, film are well worn trivia by now. The traumatized actress rushed into production, her inability to process her trauma causing her mental breakdown, collapse, and retirement from acting immediately after the film was finished - it’s a perfect story to demonstrate the callousness of the film industry. But there is more to the story, and digging deeper shows us that “Saved” may have been the least sleazy project undertaken by the studios.
Dorothy’s account of the sinking and the suffering she endured filming “Saved from the Titanic” are predominantly found in two sources - The New York Dramatic Mirror and Moving Picture World. These were trade magazines, published weekly, and consisting solely of material related to the stage and screen business. These would be announcements of upcoming features, casting news, celebrity gossip, technical news - anything the movie star to the man sweeping the floor at the cinema needed to know. And they included ads … lots and lots of ads.
Immediately realizing that Titanic was not only a horrible tragedy but an incredible business opportunity, Moving Picture World got to work. As people stormed White Star Line offices, and raided newspaper carts for any drop of news regarding the sinking, Moving Picture World provided the latest in Titanic news; or perhaps we should say “Titanic” news.
The headlines of the April 27th issue may have screamed TITANIC, but as the public grabbed their copy and hurriedly flipped through the pages, they found that what they were actually given was ads. Those eye grabbing headlines were followed by much smaller print-
TITANIC EFFORTS... are being exerted by Champion to put before the exhibitors that will make them regular Champ Patrons! Get the following latest [releases] and you’ll be convinced!.
UNSINKABLE … is the reputation of Rep productions, but these two releases will sink into the minds of everyone who sees them and will remain there as worthy object lessons.
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN …suggested by the poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning in 2 reels this Tuesday!
THE GREATEST MOTION PICTURE OF NATIONAL INTEREST - THE SINKING OF…. the big battleship. Remember the Maine!
THE DEATH SHIP...a sensational two reel drama of the sea containing one of the most thrilling dynamite explosions imaginable!
For all the slimy marketing tricks, flipping through the pages still has plenty of legitimate ads for real Titanic newsreels, movies, and a specific type of presentation known a Myriorama involving painting, music, and recitation. But, show business would strike again - the ads were legitimate, but what they were advertising was not. History has sort of forgotten the huge demand for Titanic media in the wake of the sinking, something that didn’t really exist. When cinema owners would order these “only surviving genuine negatives of the disaster” complete with lobby display package, they instead received-
Once this ruse was discovered, the studios shifted gears. The next step was to advertise film along with presentations by “A Lecturer who was on board”. When the audience realized the lecturer was not on Titanic and demanded a refund - the response from the managers was
As for the movies themselves?
But, where was Dorothy in all this? Tucked in the very back of the magazine, after another newsreel ad,, we get to the celebrity sighting and gossip section. Ed Lux of the Rex Film Exchange was in town, Dan Markowitz of Fox Pictures was as well, Arthur Schmidt of the Victor Film Company was seen having a lovely spa at a Turkish Bath, Sam Gobel of the St Louis Motion Picture Company has been walking up and down 42nd street, we don’t know if Southern film maker Henry Wasserman is still here but he might be, Dorothy Gibson survived the sinking of the Titanic, and the Director of Selig Pictures took some actresses to Santa Catalina for a swim and a photoshoot and they had a great time.
By the following edition, on May 2nd, Moving Picture World was also able to provide its readers with the first stills from “Saved from the Titanic” and a feature on Dorothy. Along with this, tucked in the editorials, the magazine finally published a piece of truthful news about the Titanic disaster-
submitted by YourlocalTitanicguy to titanic [link] [comments]
Dorothy Gibson and the lost, first, film are well worn trivia by now. The traumatized actress rushed into production, her inability to process her trauma causing her mental breakdown, collapse, and retirement from acting immediately after the film was finished - it’s a perfect story to demonstrate the callousness of the film industry. But there is more to the story, and digging deeper shows us that “Saved” may have been the least sleazy project undertaken by the studios.
Dorothy’s account of the sinking and the suffering she endured filming “Saved from the Titanic” are predominantly found in two sources - The New York Dramatic Mirror and Moving Picture World. These were trade magazines, published weekly, and consisting solely of material related to the stage and screen business. These would be announcements of upcoming features, casting news, celebrity gossip, technical news - anything the movie star to the man sweeping the floor at the cinema needed to know. And they included ads … lots and lots of ads.
Immediately realizing that Titanic was not only a horrible tragedy but an incredible business opportunity, Moving Picture World got to work. As people stormed White Star Line offices, and raided newspaper carts for any drop of news regarding the sinking, Moving Picture World provided the latest in Titanic news; or perhaps we should say “Titanic” news.
The headlines of the April 27th issue may have screamed TITANIC, but as the public grabbed their copy and hurriedly flipped through the pages, they found that what they were actually given was ads. Those eye grabbing headlines were followed by much smaller print-
TITANIC EFFORTS... are being exerted by Champion to put before the exhibitors that will make them regular Champ Patrons! Get the following latest [releases] and you’ll be convinced!.
UNSINKABLE … is the reputation of Rep productions, but these two releases will sink into the minds of everyone who sees them and will remain there as worthy object lessons.
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN …suggested by the poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning in 2 reels this Tuesday!
THE GREATEST MOTION PICTURE OF NATIONAL INTEREST - THE SINKING OF…. the big battleship. Remember the Maine!
THE DEATH SHIP...a sensational two reel drama of the sea containing one of the most thrilling dynamite explosions imaginable!
For all the slimy marketing tricks, flipping through the pages still has plenty of legitimate ads for real Titanic newsreels, movies, and a specific type of presentation known a Myriorama involving painting, music, and recitation. But, show business would strike again - the ads were legitimate, but what they were advertising was not. History has sort of forgotten the huge demand for Titanic media in the wake of the sinking, something that didn’t really exist. When cinema owners would order these “only surviving genuine negatives of the disaster” complete with lobby display package, they instead received-
our astonishment to find the Lusitania and Olympic, and one or two scratch films of ancient days posing as pictures of Titanic.But they didn’t stop. Animated Weekly advertised that they were “the first to reach the wreck… chartered a tug from Cape Breton and rushed to the scene while the survivors were still in the water”. Cinemas began to promote footage of the sinking. Audiences wrote their disgust to Moving Picture World-
These representations are to the point of criminality … Take, for instance, the picture showing the Titanic with about a sixth of her forward length stuck into the iceberg. Everybody knows the collision did not occur in that manner!They pointed to the following ad as an example - FIRST PICTURES OF THE TITANIC OCEAN DISASTER. The cinema owners responded by noting that they had misread, crammed in tiny letters were the words “sunk in” so that ad actually read FIRST PICTURES OF THE TITANIC sunk in OCEAN DISASTER. It was the customer's fault, they said, to be stupid enough to think anyone could have actually filmed the sinking.
Once this ruse was discovered, the studios shifted gears. The next step was to advertise film along with presentations by “A Lecturer who was on board”. When the audience realized the lecturer was not on Titanic and demanded a refund - the response from the managers was
Those signs didn’t say he was a survivor.… and any attempt to charge him with the crime of fraud was absurd because, in his own words-
Of course I didn’t give him his money back. The sign didn’t misrepresent anything. West was on the Titanic, the sign didn’t say when he was.…which was true. The lecturer, Eugene West, had visited Titanic while she was under construction at Belfast.
As for the movies themselves?
We said we had pictures. If people were foolish enough to think we meant moving pictures, that was their fault.This particular cheated audience member was told if he wanted his money back, to go on the street and sing for it. Whether it was this, or something else, eventually the public snapped and began hauling out cinema managers and beating them in the streets. By May, the mayors of Boston and Memphis had banned the showing of any Titanic pictures - moving or still- within the city.
But, where was Dorothy in all this? Tucked in the very back of the magazine, after another newsreel ad,, we get to the celebrity sighting and gossip section. Ed Lux of the Rex Film Exchange was in town, Dan Markowitz of Fox Pictures was as well, Arthur Schmidt of the Victor Film Company was seen having a lovely spa at a Turkish Bath, Sam Gobel of the St Louis Motion Picture Company has been walking up and down 42nd street, we don’t know if Southern film maker Henry Wasserman is still here but he might be, Dorothy Gibson survived the sinking of the Titanic, and the Director of Selig Pictures took some actresses to Santa Catalina for a swim and a photoshoot and they had a great time.
By the following edition, on May 2nd, Moving Picture World was also able to provide its readers with the first stills from “Saved from the Titanic” and a feature on Dorothy. Along with this, tucked in the editorials, the magazine finally published a piece of truthful news about the Titanic disaster-
Senator William Alden Smith … declined to grant permission to have the cinematopgraph make a record of the sessions of the committee. “The sessions” he is quoted as saying…”are solemn affairs and must not be hippodromed or commercialized”. He is, however, falling into a serious error in judgement-…they sniffed.
As a matter of right, the camera man ought to have been permitted. The day of the enfranchisement of the motion picture will surely come .. which will give equal rights to the cinematographer and the newspaper man.Then, among the illegal false advertising and reports of public brawls at the cinema, they ended with-
The lesson of the Titanic disaster and all its incidents can be made far more impressive by pictures that move than by mere words in cold letters.
2024.05.14 15:05 YourlocalTitanicguy Odd Titanica: Hollywood sleaze
In this edition of “Odd Titanica”, we are going to dive into the sleazy, opportunistic world of show business. A world that comedian Fred Allen said of, “you can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly, and still have room for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart”. Hyperbolic? Let’s take a look at Hollywood’s response to the Titanic disaster to see that there really is no business like show business.
Dorothy Gibson and the lost, first, film are well worn trivia by now. The traumatized actress rushed into production, her inability to process her trauma causing her mental breakdown, collapse, and retirement from acting immediately after the film was finished - it’s a perfect story to demonstrate the callousness of the film industry. But there is more to the story, and digging deeper shows us that “Saved” may have been the least sleazy project undertaken by the studios.
Dorothy’s account of the sinking and the suffering she endured filming “Saved from the Titanic” are predominantly found in two sources - The New York Dramatic Mirror and Moving Picture World. These were trade magazines, published weekly, and consisting solely of material related to the stage and screen business. These would be announcements of upcoming features, casting news, celebrity gossip, technical news - anything the movie star to the man sweeping the floor at the cinema needed to know. And they included ads … lots and lots of ads.
Immediately realizing that Titanic was not only a horrible tragedy but an incredible business opportunity, Moving Picture World got to work. As people stormed White Star Line offices, and raided newspaper carts for any drop of news regarding the sinking, Moving Picture World provided the latest in Titanic news; or perhaps we should say “Titanic” news.
The headlines of the April 27th issue may have screamed TITANIC, but as the public grabbed their copy and hurriedly flipped through the pages, they found that what they were actually given was ads. Those eye grabbing headlines were followed by much smaller print-
TITANIC EFFORTS are being exerted by Champion to put before the exhibitors that will make them regular Champ Patrons! Get the following latest [releases] and you’ll be convinced!.
UNSINKABLE … is the reputation of Rep productions, but these two releases will sink into the minds of everyone who sees them and will remain there as worthy object lessons.
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN …suggested by the poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning in 2 reels this Tuesday!
** THE GREATEST MOTION PICTURE OF NATIONAL INTEREST - THE SINKING OF**…. the big battleship. Remember the Maine!
THE DEATH SHIP...a sensational two reel drama of the sea containing one of the most thrilling dynamite explosions imaginable!
For all the slimy marketing tricks, flipping through the pages still has plenty of legitimate ads for real Titanic newsreels, movies, and a specific type of presentation known a Myriorama involving painting, music, and recitation. But, show business would strike again - the ads were legitimate, but what they were advertising was not.
History has sort of forgotten the huge demand for Titanic media in the wake of the sinking, something that didn’t really exist. When cinema owners would order these “only surviving genuine negatives of the disaster” complete with lobby display package, they instead received-
Once this ruse was discovered, the studios shifted gears. The next step was to advertise film along with presentations by “A Lecturer who was on board”. When the audience realized the lecturer was not on Titanic and demanded a refund - the response from the managers was
As for the movies themselves?
But, where was Dorothy in all this? Tucked in the very back of the magazine, after another newsreel ad,, we get to the celebrity sighting and gossip section. Ed Lux of the Rex Film Exchange was in town, Dan Markowitz of Fox Pictures was as well, Arthur Schmidt of the Victor Film Company was seen having a lovely spa at a Turkish Bath, Sam Gobel of the St Louis Motion Picture Company has been walking up and down 42nd street, we don’t know if Southern film maker Henry Wasserman is still here but he might be, Dorothy Gibson survived the sinking of the Titanic, and the Director of Selig Pictures took some actresses to Santa Catalina for a swim and a photoshoot and they had a great time.
By the following edition, on May 2nd, Moving Picture World was also able to provide its readers with the first stills from “Saved from the Titanic” and a feature on Dorothy. Along with this, tucked in the editorials, the magazine finally published a piece of truthful news about the Titanic disaster-
submitted by YourlocalTitanicguy to RMS_Titanic [link] [comments]
Dorothy Gibson and the lost, first, film are well worn trivia by now. The traumatized actress rushed into production, her inability to process her trauma causing her mental breakdown, collapse, and retirement from acting immediately after the film was finished - it’s a perfect story to demonstrate the callousness of the film industry. But there is more to the story, and digging deeper shows us that “Saved” may have been the least sleazy project undertaken by the studios.
Dorothy’s account of the sinking and the suffering she endured filming “Saved from the Titanic” are predominantly found in two sources - The New York Dramatic Mirror and Moving Picture World. These were trade magazines, published weekly, and consisting solely of material related to the stage and screen business. These would be announcements of upcoming features, casting news, celebrity gossip, technical news - anything the movie star to the man sweeping the floor at the cinema needed to know. And they included ads … lots and lots of ads.
Immediately realizing that Titanic was not only a horrible tragedy but an incredible business opportunity, Moving Picture World got to work. As people stormed White Star Line offices, and raided newspaper carts for any drop of news regarding the sinking, Moving Picture World provided the latest in Titanic news; or perhaps we should say “Titanic” news.
The headlines of the April 27th issue may have screamed TITANIC, but as the public grabbed their copy and hurriedly flipped through the pages, they found that what they were actually given was ads. Those eye grabbing headlines were followed by much smaller print-
TITANIC EFFORTS are being exerted by Champion to put before the exhibitors that will make them regular Champ Patrons! Get the following latest [releases] and you’ll be convinced!.
UNSINKABLE … is the reputation of Rep productions, but these two releases will sink into the minds of everyone who sees them and will remain there as worthy object lessons.
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN …suggested by the poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning in 2 reels this Tuesday!
** THE GREATEST MOTION PICTURE OF NATIONAL INTEREST - THE SINKING OF**…. the big battleship. Remember the Maine!
THE DEATH SHIP...a sensational two reel drama of the sea containing one of the most thrilling dynamite explosions imaginable!
For all the slimy marketing tricks, flipping through the pages still has plenty of legitimate ads for real Titanic newsreels, movies, and a specific type of presentation known a Myriorama involving painting, music, and recitation. But, show business would strike again - the ads were legitimate, but what they were advertising was not.
History has sort of forgotten the huge demand for Titanic media in the wake of the sinking, something that didn’t really exist. When cinema owners would order these “only surviving genuine negatives of the disaster” complete with lobby display package, they instead received-
our astonishment to find the Lusitania and Olympic, and one or two scratch films of ancient days posing as pictures of Titanic.But they didn’t stop. Animated Weekly advertised that they were “the first to reach the wreck… chartered a tug from Cape Breton and rushed to the scene while the survivors were still in the water”. Cinemas began to promote footage of the sinking. Audiences wrote their disgust to Moving Picture World-
These representations are to the point of criminality … Take, for instance, the picture showing the Titanic with about a sixth of her forward length stuck into the iceberg. Everybody knows the collision did not occur in that manner!They pointed to the following ad as an example - FIRST PICTURES OF THE TITANIC OCEAN DISASTER. The cinema owners responded by noting that they had misread, crammed in tiny letters were the words “sunk in” so that ad actually read FIRST PICTURES OF THE TITANIC sunk in OCEAN DISASTER. It was the customers fault, they said, to be stupid enough to think anyone could have actually filmed the sinking.
Once this ruse was discovered, the studios shifted gears. The next step was to advertise film along with presentations by “A Lecturer who was on board”. When the audience realized the lecturer was not on Titanic and demanded a refund - the response from the managers was
Those signs didn’t say he was a survivor.… and any attempt to charge him with the crime of fraud was absurd because, in his own words-
Of course I didn’t give him his money back. The sign didn’t misrepresent anything. West was on the Titanic, the sign didn’t say when he was.…which was true. The lecturer, Eugene West, had visited Titanic while she was under construction at Belfast.
As for the movies themselves?
We said we had pictures. If people were foolish enough to think we meant moving pictures, that was their fault.This particular cheated audience member was told if he wanted his money back, to go on the street and sing for it. Whether it was this, or something else, eventually the public snapped and began hauling out cinema managers and beating them in the streets. By May, the mayors of Boston and Memphis had banned the showing of any Titanic pictures - moving or still- within the city.
But, where was Dorothy in all this? Tucked in the very back of the magazine, after another newsreel ad,, we get to the celebrity sighting and gossip section. Ed Lux of the Rex Film Exchange was in town, Dan Markowitz of Fox Pictures was as well, Arthur Schmidt of the Victor Film Company was seen having a lovely spa at a Turkish Bath, Sam Gobel of the St Louis Motion Picture Company has been walking up and down 42nd street, we don’t know if Southern film maker Henry Wasserman is still here but he might be, Dorothy Gibson survived the sinking of the Titanic, and the Director of Selig Pictures took some actresses to Santa Catalina for a swim and a photoshoot and they had a great time.
By the following edition, on May 2nd, Moving Picture World was also able to provide its readers with the first stills from “Saved from the Titanic” and a feature on Dorothy. Along with this, tucked in the editorials, the magazine finally published a piece of truthful news about the Titanic disaster-
Senator William Alden Smith … declined to grant permission to have the cinematopgraph make a record of the sessions of the committee. “The sessions” he is quoted as saying…”are solemn affairs and must not be hippodromed or commercialized”. He is, however, falling into a serious error in judgement-…they sniffed.
As a matter of right, the camera man ought to have been permitted. The day of the enfranchisement of the motion picture will surely come .. which will give equal rights to the cinematographer and the newspaper man.Then, among the illegal false advertising and reports of public brawls at the cinema, they ended with-
The lesson of the Titanic disaster and all its incidents can be made far more impressive by pictures that move than by mere words in cold letters.
2024.05.14 13:26 DarkDevaofDestruct Infected, Irritated, or Rejecting?
Hello! I got my navel piercing done in February, so it’s been about 3 months. It is implant-grade titanium and the top ball screws in. After getting it done, both ends of the piercing began to be red and flaky. I downsized it to the current jewelery I have right now, and that fixed the issue. However, around 1 and 1/2 months later, a bump began to form on the bottom ball. What ensued was pus, some stringy blood, and a lot of crusties. I’ve been cleaning it 1-2x a day with saline solution, trying not to accidentally touch it or sleep on my stomach, and wearing low-waisted pants. I do admit I used to pick at the crusts a bit but I have since stopped. I actually took the piercing out yesterday, but my local piercing shop advised me to put it back in and treat it that way. I’m not sure how legit the whole “neosporin” and “tea tree oil” thing is, so I haven’t tried. And yes, my navel collapses while sitting! Should I leave it in and treat it? Or take it out, let it heal, and get it repierced later on? (While the piercing may look angled, I have lifted my stomach slightly and to the side to properly show the bump.)
submitted by DarkDevaofDestruct to PiercingAdvice [link] [comments]
2024.05.14 03:33 Adventurous-Ear9433 Healing properties of Bells in Cathedrals, Parasitic Entities, significance of Tritone suppression & how it effects us
Serpent-headed when the glamour was lifted but appearing to man as men among men. Crept they into the Councils, taking forms that were like unto men. Slaying by their arts the chiefs of the kingdoms, taking their form and ruling o'er man. Only by magic could they be discovered. Only by sound could their faces be seen. Sought they from the Kingdom of shadows to destroy man and rule in his place. But, know ye, the Masters were mighty in magic, able to lift the Veil from the face of the serpent, able to send him back to his place -Thoth, the Great Wise
Remember Venom, the parasitic alien life form that is attached to spiderman & a massive church bell isused to get rid of em? Venom was basically an Archon that the gnostics & Thoth talk about. Symbiotes are symbiotic alien life forms which feed on the emotions of their hosts, particularly negative emotions. Bells
Its been reported for ages that the plague would skip over the areas in Russia where they had larger concentrations of church bells. Many Soviet researchers determined the amazing healing properties of bells and found that the oscillation of the ultrasonic range of church bells repels bacilli, viruses, and other infectious diseases that are transmitted through the air, and even cures many other diseases. Bells Healing Study
The Apkalu who introduced the Me, brought arts/crafts, agriculture, writing, magic & music. Enki was god of music. See the golden age ancient civilizations sound, frequency & harmonics was widely understood to be the greatest method for healing the body.
To be clear, the cathedrals that you see around the world were never meant to be churches, they were centers used for healing. Cathedrals Healing Centers Everything the church had was pirated.. In sixth century, Pope Gregory, in a letter to those who were to carry Catholicism to Britain, cautioned these missionaries NOT to destroy the ancient sites. Gregory wanted them to destroy their idols, but insisted they kept the architecture as it was thereby automatically linking alignment to the ley lines and maintaining the power source. Egyptian concept of Maat(Harmony) was of the utmost importance, the reason the discipline that the church created to study Egypt has more questions than answers is because they don't understand this.
In the campaign to disconnect us from our true selves, the most detrimental action theyd take involved musical theory principles, suppression of the tritone in music was a central theme for hundreds of years. Canon laws were passed to mandate rules for how to construct scales, how to handle voice leading, what was considered consonant and dissonant, how contrary motion should be handled, what tones should and should not be emphasized in rhythm, which rhythmic patterns were acceptable and specific instructions for how music should be written. Megalithic monuments were built using acoustic HARMONIC Resonance, one will never understand Pyramid, temples, etc disregarding Harmony with nature.
History repeats itself, this 1939 Nature article wouls lead to the change by International Standards Association (ISA) from 432hz to 440hz & still today they have no true understanding of sound & its many benefits. A=440Hz tuning disassociates the connection of consciousness to the body and creates anti-social conditions in humanity. Music -Double Blind study In preliminary research, analysis, and professional discussions by Walton, Koehler, Reid, et al., on the web, A=440Hz frequency music conflicts with human energy centers (i.e., chakras) from the heart to the base of the spine. Alternatively, chakras above the heart are stimulated. Theoretically, the vibration stimulates ego and left-brain function, suppressing the "heart-mind," intuition and creative inspiration. Interestingly, the difference between 440 and 741 Hz is known in musicology as the Devil's Interval.
For maximum suppression of human consciousness, the frequencies we naturally resonate with, and which are the most biologically and psycho-spiritually enhancing, must be maximally suppressed.Ancient Egyptian and Greek instruments have reportedly been found to be tuned to 432 Hz. 432Hz is consistent with the natural resonance of the UNI-VERSE and all of NATURE, that the pitch is more HARMONIOUS and that when our atoms and DNA resonate in harmony with nature's SPIRAL pattern, our sense of connection to nature is said to be AMPLIFIED. Previously I cited the recent discoveries showing DNA being repaired by use of sound frequencies. Priests of Horus meant that they maintained the knowledge of harmony.
The great pyramid Acoustic chambers matched the harmonic chambers of the human body, the King chambesarcophagus Resonance frequency created a resounding beat frequency matching the human heartbeat. Every site had a navel which resonate at 111hz which switched from left to right brain dominance assisting with holistic processing, leading to altered state of consciousness.
Hollywood comes from the Druid magicians whod make Wands outta wood from the Holly tree to cast spells on the unsuspecting. Sounds like Op Mockingbird to me. To disconnect as much as possible the functions of these two distinct parts of the brain so we can be manipulated through the right brain while only being conscious of the left.They plant thoughts, responses, and images through the right brain (the dream-state, the non-conscious, through symbolism and subliminal imagery) while imprisoning the human conscious level in the left brain - the world of can I touch it, smell it, taste it, see it, hear it, OK it must exist. This is why the "education" system, and "science" is designed to talk to the left brain.
No architectural element of antiquity (excluding bearing elements), was just a decoration. Everything had a function. Even the vases, and doorknobs. The doorknobs would be made of copper to kill bacteria & infections. So, at the correct frequency there were regenerating concert halls, where people recharged themselves with pleasant music while buildings collected the energy of the ether. They stigmatized the ether & removed it as well. If zero-point energy machines were developed on the biological model of the caduceus coil and central ion channel then our energy generation could actually enhance human evolution rather than harming ourselves and the planet as it does now. Similarly if we construct superconducting solar architecture with a monoatomic lattice in manmade stone, then the energy emanating from this energy generator will also enhance the consciousness of life around it
submitted by Adventurous-Ear9433 to HighStrangeness [link] [comments]
Remember Venom, the parasitic alien life form that is attached to spiderman & a massive church bell isused to get rid of em? Venom was basically an Archon that the gnostics & Thoth talk about. Symbiotes are symbiotic alien life forms which feed on the emotions of their hosts, particularly negative emotions. Bells
Its been reported for ages that the plague would skip over the areas in Russia where they had larger concentrations of church bells. Many Soviet researchers determined the amazing healing properties of bells and found that the oscillation of the ultrasonic range of church bells repels bacilli, viruses, and other infectious diseases that are transmitted through the air, and even cures many other diseases. Bells Healing Study
The Apkalu who introduced the Me, brought arts/crafts, agriculture, writing, magic & music. Enki was god of music. See the golden age ancient civilizations sound, frequency & harmonics was widely understood to be the greatest method for healing the body.
To be clear, the cathedrals that you see around the world were never meant to be churches, they were centers used for healing. Cathedrals Healing Centers Everything the church had was pirated.. In sixth century, Pope Gregory, in a letter to those who were to carry Catholicism to Britain, cautioned these missionaries NOT to destroy the ancient sites. Gregory wanted them to destroy their idols, but insisted they kept the architecture as it was thereby automatically linking alignment to the ley lines and maintaining the power source. Egyptian concept of Maat(Harmony) was of the utmost importance, the reason the discipline that the church created to study Egypt has more questions than answers is because they don't understand this.
In the campaign to disconnect us from our true selves, the most detrimental action theyd take involved musical theory principles, suppression of the tritone in music was a central theme for hundreds of years. Canon laws were passed to mandate rules for how to construct scales, how to handle voice leading, what was considered consonant and dissonant, how contrary motion should be handled, what tones should and should not be emphasized in rhythm, which rhythmic patterns were acceptable and specific instructions for how music should be written. Megalithic monuments were built using acoustic HARMONIC Resonance, one will never understand Pyramid, temples, etc disregarding Harmony with nature.
History repeats itself, this 1939 Nature article wouls lead to the change by International Standards Association (ISA) from 432hz to 440hz & still today they have no true understanding of sound & its many benefits. A=440Hz tuning disassociates the connection of consciousness to the body and creates anti-social conditions in humanity. Music -Double Blind study In preliminary research, analysis, and professional discussions by Walton, Koehler, Reid, et al., on the web, A=440Hz frequency music conflicts with human energy centers (i.e., chakras) from the heart to the base of the spine. Alternatively, chakras above the heart are stimulated. Theoretically, the vibration stimulates ego and left-brain function, suppressing the "heart-mind," intuition and creative inspiration. Interestingly, the difference between 440 and 741 Hz is known in musicology as the Devil's Interval.
For maximum suppression of human consciousness, the frequencies we naturally resonate with, and which are the most biologically and psycho-spiritually enhancing, must be maximally suppressed.Ancient Egyptian and Greek instruments have reportedly been found to be tuned to 432 Hz. 432Hz is consistent with the natural resonance of the UNI-VERSE and all of NATURE, that the pitch is more HARMONIOUS and that when our atoms and DNA resonate in harmony with nature's SPIRAL pattern, our sense of connection to nature is said to be AMPLIFIED. Previously I cited the recent discoveries showing DNA being repaired by use of sound frequencies. Priests of Horus meant that they maintained the knowledge of harmony.
The great pyramid Acoustic chambers matched the harmonic chambers of the human body, the King chambesarcophagus Resonance frequency created a resounding beat frequency matching the human heartbeat. Every site had a navel which resonate at 111hz which switched from left to right brain dominance assisting with holistic processing, leading to altered state of consciousness.
Hollywood comes from the Druid magicians whod make Wands outta wood from the Holly tree to cast spells on the unsuspecting. Sounds like Op Mockingbird to me. To disconnect as much as possible the functions of these two distinct parts of the brain so we can be manipulated through the right brain while only being conscious of the left.They plant thoughts, responses, and images through the right brain (the dream-state, the non-conscious, through symbolism and subliminal imagery) while imprisoning the human conscious level in the left brain - the world of can I touch it, smell it, taste it, see it, hear it, OK it must exist. This is why the "education" system, and "science" is designed to talk to the left brain.
No architectural element of antiquity (excluding bearing elements), was just a decoration. Everything had a function. Even the vases, and doorknobs. The doorknobs would be made of copper to kill bacteria & infections. So, at the correct frequency there were regenerating concert halls, where people recharged themselves with pleasant music while buildings collected the energy of the ether. They stigmatized the ether & removed it as well. If zero-point energy machines were developed on the biological model of the caduceus coil and central ion channel then our energy generation could actually enhance human evolution rather than harming ourselves and the planet as it does now. Similarly if we construct superconducting solar architecture with a monoatomic lattice in manmade stone, then the energy emanating from this energy generator will also enhance the consciousness of life around it
2024.05.14 03:28 Adventurous-Ear9433 Acoustic Harmonic resonance in sacred sites : Cathedrals as Healing Centers , church bells & parasitic entities
Serpent-headed when the glamour was lifted but appearing to man as men among men. Crept they into the Councils, taking forms that were like unto men. Slaying by their arts the chiefs of the kingdoms, taking their form and ruling o'er man. Only by magic could they be discovered. Only by sound could their faces be seen. Sought they from the Kingdom of shadows to destroy man and rule in his place. But, know ye, the Masters were mighty in magic, able to lift the Veil from the face of the serpent, able to send him back to his place -Thoth, the Great Wise
Remember Venom, the parasitic alien life form that is attached to spiderman & a massive church bell isused to get rid of em? Venom was basically an Archon that the gnostics & Thoth talk about. Symbiotes are symbiotic alien life forms which feed on the emotions of their hosts, particularly negative emotions. Bells
Its been reported for ages that the plague would skip over the areas in Russia where they had larger concentrations of church bells. Many Soviet researchers determined the amazing healing properties of bells and found that the oscillation of the ultrasonic range of church bells repels bacilli, viruses, and other infectious diseases that are transmitted through the air, and even cures many other diseases. Bells Healing Study
The Apkalu who introduced the Me, brought arts/crafts, agriculture, writing, magic & music. Enki was god of music. See the golden age ancient civilizations sound, frequency & harmonics was widely understood to be the greatest method for healing the body.
To be clear, the cathedrals that you see around the world were never meant to be churches, they were centers used for healing. Cathedrals Healing Centers Everything the church had was pirated.. In sixth century, Pope Gregory, in a letter to those who were to carry Catholicism to Britain, cautioned these missionaries NOT to destroy the ancient sites. Gregory wanted them to destroy their idols, but insisted they kept the architecture as it was thereby automatically linking alignment to the ley lines and maintaining the power source. Egyptian concept of Maat(Harmony) was of the utmost importance, the reason the discipline that the church created to study Egypt has more questions than answers is because they don't understand this.
In the campaign to disconnect us from our true selves, the most detrimental action theyd take involved musical theory principles, suppression of the tritone in music was a central theme for hundreds of years. Canon laws were passed to mandate rules for how to construct scales, how to handle voice leading, what was considered consonant and dissonant, how contrary motion should be handled, what tones should and should not be emphasized in rhythm, which rhythmic patterns were acceptable and specific instructions for how music should be written. Megalithic monuments were built using acoustic HARMONIC Resonance, one will never understand Pyramid, temples, etc disregarding Harmony with nature.
History repeats itself, this 1939 Nature article wouls lead to the change by International Standards Association (ISA) from 432hz to 440hz & still today they have no true understanding of sound & its many benefits. A=440Hz tuning disassociates the connection of consciousness to the body and creates anti-social conditions in humanity. Music -Double Blind study In preliminary research, analysis, and professional discussions by Walton, Koehler, Reid, et al., on the web, A=440Hz frequency music conflicts with human energy centers (i.e., chakras) from the heart to the base of the spine. Alternatively, chakras above the heart are stimulated. Theoretically, the vibration stimulates ego and left-brain function, suppressing the "heart-mind," intuition and creative inspiration. Interestingly, the difference between 440 and 741 Hz is known in musicology as the Devil's Interval.
For maximum suppression of human consciousness, the frequencies we naturally resonate with, and which are the most biologically and psycho-spiritually enhancing, must be maximally suppressed.Ancient Egyptian and Greek instruments have reportedly been found to be tuned to 432 Hz. 432Hz is consistent with the natural resonance of the UNI-VERSE and all of NATURE, that the pitch is more HARMONIOUS and that when our atoms and DNA resonate in harmony with nature's SPIRAL pattern, our sense of connection to nature is said to be AMPLIFIED. Previously I cited the recent discoveries showing DNA being repaired by use of sound frequencies. Priests of Horus meant that they maintained the knowledge of harmony.
The great pyramid Acoustic chambers matched the harmonic chambers of the human body, the King chambesarcophagus Resonance frequency created a resounding beat frequency matching the human heartbeat. Every site had a navel which resonate at 111hz which switched from left to right brain dominance assisting with holistic processing, leading to altered state of consciousness.
Hollywood comes from the Druid magicians whod make Wands outta wood from the Holly tree to cast spells on the unsuspecting. Sounds like Op Mockingbird to me. To disconnect as much as possible the functions of these two distinct parts of the brain so we can be manipulated through the right brain while only being conscious of the left.They plant thoughts, responses, and images through the right brain (the dream-state, the non-conscious, through symbolism and subliminal imagery) while imprisoning the human conscious level in the left brain - the world of can I touch it, smell it, taste it, see it, hear it, OK it must exist. This is why the "education" system, and "science" is designed to talk to the left brain.
No architectural element of antiquity (excluding bearing elements), was just a decoration. Everything had a function. Even the vases, and doorknobs. The doorknobs would be made of copper to kill bacteria & infections. So, at the correct frequency there were regenerating concert halls, where people recharged themselves with pleasant music while buildings collected the energy of the ether. They stigmatized the ether & removed it as well. If zero-point energy machines were developed on the biological model of the caduceus coil and central ion channel then our energy generation could actually enhance human evolution rather than harming ourselves and the planet as it does now. Similarly if we construct superconducting solar architecture with a monoatomic lattice in manmade stone, then the energy emanating from this energy generator will also enhance the consciousness of life around it
submitted by Adventurous-Ear9433 to AlternativeHistory [link] [comments]
Remember Venom, the parasitic alien life form that is attached to spiderman & a massive church bell isused to get rid of em? Venom was basically an Archon that the gnostics & Thoth talk about. Symbiotes are symbiotic alien life forms which feed on the emotions of their hosts, particularly negative emotions. Bells
Its been reported for ages that the plague would skip over the areas in Russia where they had larger concentrations of church bells. Many Soviet researchers determined the amazing healing properties of bells and found that the oscillation of the ultrasonic range of church bells repels bacilli, viruses, and other infectious diseases that are transmitted through the air, and even cures many other diseases. Bells Healing Study
The Apkalu who introduced the Me, brought arts/crafts, agriculture, writing, magic & music. Enki was god of music. See the golden age ancient civilizations sound, frequency & harmonics was widely understood to be the greatest method for healing the body.
To be clear, the cathedrals that you see around the world were never meant to be churches, they were centers used for healing. Cathedrals Healing Centers Everything the church had was pirated.. In sixth century, Pope Gregory, in a letter to those who were to carry Catholicism to Britain, cautioned these missionaries NOT to destroy the ancient sites. Gregory wanted them to destroy their idols, but insisted they kept the architecture as it was thereby automatically linking alignment to the ley lines and maintaining the power source. Egyptian concept of Maat(Harmony) was of the utmost importance, the reason the discipline that the church created to study Egypt has more questions than answers is because they don't understand this.
In the campaign to disconnect us from our true selves, the most detrimental action theyd take involved musical theory principles, suppression of the tritone in music was a central theme for hundreds of years. Canon laws were passed to mandate rules for how to construct scales, how to handle voice leading, what was considered consonant and dissonant, how contrary motion should be handled, what tones should and should not be emphasized in rhythm, which rhythmic patterns were acceptable and specific instructions for how music should be written. Megalithic monuments were built using acoustic HARMONIC Resonance, one will never understand Pyramid, temples, etc disregarding Harmony with nature.
History repeats itself, this 1939 Nature article wouls lead to the change by International Standards Association (ISA) from 432hz to 440hz & still today they have no true understanding of sound & its many benefits. A=440Hz tuning disassociates the connection of consciousness to the body and creates anti-social conditions in humanity. Music -Double Blind study In preliminary research, analysis, and professional discussions by Walton, Koehler, Reid, et al., on the web, A=440Hz frequency music conflicts with human energy centers (i.e., chakras) from the heart to the base of the spine. Alternatively, chakras above the heart are stimulated. Theoretically, the vibration stimulates ego and left-brain function, suppressing the "heart-mind," intuition and creative inspiration. Interestingly, the difference between 440 and 741 Hz is known in musicology as the Devil's Interval.
For maximum suppression of human consciousness, the frequencies we naturally resonate with, and which are the most biologically and psycho-spiritually enhancing, must be maximally suppressed.Ancient Egyptian and Greek instruments have reportedly been found to be tuned to 432 Hz. 432Hz is consistent with the natural resonance of the UNI-VERSE and all of NATURE, that the pitch is more HARMONIOUS and that when our atoms and DNA resonate in harmony with nature's SPIRAL pattern, our sense of connection to nature is said to be AMPLIFIED. Previously I cited the recent discoveries showing DNA being repaired by use of sound frequencies. Priests of Horus meant that they maintained the knowledge of harmony.
The great pyramid Acoustic chambers matched the harmonic chambers of the human body, the King chambesarcophagus Resonance frequency created a resounding beat frequency matching the human heartbeat. Every site had a navel which resonate at 111hz which switched from left to right brain dominance assisting with holistic processing, leading to altered state of consciousness.
Hollywood comes from the Druid magicians whod make Wands outta wood from the Holly tree to cast spells on the unsuspecting. Sounds like Op Mockingbird to me. To disconnect as much as possible the functions of these two distinct parts of the brain so we can be manipulated through the right brain while only being conscious of the left.They plant thoughts, responses, and images through the right brain (the dream-state, the non-conscious, through symbolism and subliminal imagery) while imprisoning the human conscious level in the left brain - the world of can I touch it, smell it, taste it, see it, hear it, OK it must exist. This is why the "education" system, and "science" is designed to talk to the left brain.
No architectural element of antiquity (excluding bearing elements), was just a decoration. Everything had a function. Even the vases, and doorknobs. The doorknobs would be made of copper to kill bacteria & infections. So, at the correct frequency there were regenerating concert halls, where people recharged themselves with pleasant music while buildings collected the energy of the ether. They stigmatized the ether & removed it as well. If zero-point energy machines were developed on the biological model of the caduceus coil and central ion channel then our energy generation could actually enhance human evolution rather than harming ourselves and the planet as it does now. Similarly if we construct superconducting solar architecture with a monoatomic lattice in manmade stone, then the energy emanating from this energy generator will also enhance the consciousness of life around it
2024.05.13 19:15 straycanoe Complicated feelings on Mother's Day
(This began as a comment on the daily check-in thread and quickly morphed into a long tract of writing therapy. I know the DCI isn't the place for that kind of thing, so I decided to make it a separate post. Read on if you like, but be warned, there's a lot of negativity and navel-gazing, but if you have trauma caused by an emotionally abusive family member, maybe you'll find it helpful.)
I've had some very complicated feelings this Mother's Day.
As part of getting sober and addressing my mental health issues, I've been doing a lot of work to try and properly heal the childhood trauma that I used to medicate with alcohol. Unfortunately, a lot of that trauma was caused by my mom's drinking and mental health issues.
Now that I'm not poisoning my brain on a daily basis, my memory has become a lot clearer, and I'm having to take a fresh look at events from the past. As a result, I'm now dealing with a lot of valid and justified anger that I was never allowed to express when I was growing up. Not only that, but my mom still only reacts with anger herself when I try to have conversations about some of the awful situations she put me in as a child, so I'm realizing that if I'm to move on and truly heal these scars, I'm going to to have to do it on my own without reconciling things with her. She simply isn't capable of talking about these difficult things without lashing out and will never be able to tell me what I need to hear from her, which is that she takes responsibility for her actions and that my feelings of anger and resentment are valid and understandable.
We had a fight in January where she displayed a degree of gaslighting and other emotional manipulation that absolutely floored me. With my fresh perspective on things, I realized that she'd been doing this to me and everyone else in her life all along, but that it was so "normal" to me when I was growing up that I didn't understand how bad it was until I started doing this work and developing my understanding and vocabulary around mental health and relationships. After the argument, I had a good, long conversation with my somewhat-estranged older sister, who had previously gone no-contact with our mom, but then reconnected with her after getting a lot of therapy and now keeps her at arms length with a lot of healthy boundaries.
My sister and I compared notes and corroborated a lot of experiences that we had, and after that, I felt that it would be a good decision for me to not speak to my mom for a while, and my sister agreed. After my mom sent one of her standard passive-aggressive texts implying that she was a lonely wreck who would surely die alone if I didn't come and visit her, I replied with a brief message saying I needed space and didn't want any contact with her right now. It felt weirdly like I was breaking up with her. (paging doctor Freud, lol)
It's been a huge load off my shoulders, and I've been able to make real progress in undoing some of the damage I've been carrying all these years, but I also feel guilt about cutting off contact with my mom. One of my core values is that it's important to try to be a decent, helpful, and honorable person, and to my mind, that kind of person ought to look after their parents as they age, even if they're awful. But, I did exactly that for years and it only led to me being periodically re-traumatized and subjected to further emotional manipulation, so I'd say a reassessment of that core value is in order. Writing this out has helped me re-center my thinking and taken away some of that guilt, and I now feel with more certainty that I've made the right decision at this time.
submitted by straycanoe to stopdrinking [link] [comments]
I've had some very complicated feelings this Mother's Day.
As part of getting sober and addressing my mental health issues, I've been doing a lot of work to try and properly heal the childhood trauma that I used to medicate with alcohol. Unfortunately, a lot of that trauma was caused by my mom's drinking and mental health issues.
Now that I'm not poisoning my brain on a daily basis, my memory has become a lot clearer, and I'm having to take a fresh look at events from the past. As a result, I'm now dealing with a lot of valid and justified anger that I was never allowed to express when I was growing up. Not only that, but my mom still only reacts with anger herself when I try to have conversations about some of the awful situations she put me in as a child, so I'm realizing that if I'm to move on and truly heal these scars, I'm going to to have to do it on my own without reconciling things with her. She simply isn't capable of talking about these difficult things without lashing out and will never be able to tell me what I need to hear from her, which is that she takes responsibility for her actions and that my feelings of anger and resentment are valid and understandable.
We had a fight in January where she displayed a degree of gaslighting and other emotional manipulation that absolutely floored me. With my fresh perspective on things, I realized that she'd been doing this to me and everyone else in her life all along, but that it was so "normal" to me when I was growing up that I didn't understand how bad it was until I started doing this work and developing my understanding and vocabulary around mental health and relationships. After the argument, I had a good, long conversation with my somewhat-estranged older sister, who had previously gone no-contact with our mom, but then reconnected with her after getting a lot of therapy and now keeps her at arms length with a lot of healthy boundaries.
My sister and I compared notes and corroborated a lot of experiences that we had, and after that, I felt that it would be a good decision for me to not speak to my mom for a while, and my sister agreed. After my mom sent one of her standard passive-aggressive texts implying that she was a lonely wreck who would surely die alone if I didn't come and visit her, I replied with a brief message saying I needed space and didn't want any contact with her right now. It felt weirdly like I was breaking up with her. (paging doctor Freud, lol)
It's been a huge load off my shoulders, and I've been able to make real progress in undoing some of the damage I've been carrying all these years, but I also feel guilt about cutting off contact with my mom. One of my core values is that it's important to try to be a decent, helpful, and honorable person, and to my mind, that kind of person ought to look after their parents as they age, even if they're awful. But, I did exactly that for years and it only led to me being periodically re-traumatized and subjected to further emotional manipulation, so I'd say a reassessment of that core value is in order. Writing this out has helped me re-center my thinking and taken away some of that guilt, and I now feel with more certainty that I've made the right decision at this time.
2024.05.12 06:51 Mikron_Labo The Apology Of Chris To The World Of Placebo
 | Months ago, I wrote this post (Why Do Non-fans Hate Placebo & The Soulmates?). In it, I related my kean observations on how the outside world hates Placebo so much. For they indeed hate Brian, Stefi, the band, and the Solemates. They cast such fowel names upon us and say we are mentally untested, dirty, pale, unwell, et cetera. Because of Brian's Nancy-boy days, they assault him still, claming he is a sexy, sweaty girl who masquerades as a man with a ridiculous false mustache; and for Steff, they make him out to be the Swedish Elephant-man, although in reality, Stef is merely real tall and nothing unusual. submitted by Mikron_Labo to placebo [link] [comments] The enemies of Placebo compartmentalize Brian in a clear box I then shared a story about what recently happened to me. I was at the pub in Smolensk, Brussels, where I got into a big debate about Placebo with these two nasty Englishman. They insulted the Soulmates and Brian. I, in turn, insulted their prefered hero-band, Oasis. We then had harsh words. And later, they caught me alone in the bathroom and took my body apart. It was a massive attack. I had stood alone at the urinal when these two Englishmen quietly entered and got me. One man held me from behind, while the other man burnt my sideburn with his lit cigarette. He cupped my mouth to stiffle my scream, then knead into my balls many consecutive times. He followed with a headsbutts, right between my eyes. And then he and the other brute headbutted me back and forth as though I were but a ping-pongs ball. This went on until blood erupted from my every pores. I bled so much and cried so much. Delusional, I shouted for Steff, "Brian's Champion," to explode from the tiled wall and kill these men. But Stef did not come because he could not hear me. (He was probably out with Brian somewhere, doing some fun activity.) When I finally collapsed down into the toilet seat with my pants pulled down, these cruel guys glassed my abs with their broken beer bottles. I firmly resisted the urge to fight beck, and so I just kept my arms by my sides to fully receive the stabes. The pain was incredulous. Much blood and urine fell into the water below, and the tension was feverish. I screamed into the heavens with a sexy voice -- not unlike Rian Molok's voice. Because of the cuts, I had lost quarts of my fluid, and I thought I was to die. At this point, the men were satisfied with their handiwork and left me face down in the plastic basin -- a shell of a man, beaten within a milliliter of his fife. https://preview.redd.it/pbe4vtgmdxzc1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7de83277f9522b87941bb98b87bc875f7a9d46de Indeed, it was a thoroughly wicked battle-scenario that nearly closed my books. If not for the encourgament of Placebo, whose songs had sounded in my mind, I certainly would have died that day. Some might see art in this merciless beating: a tragic beauty with the aroma of funerary flowers. Others might see grim eroticism in it: the homoerotic sensation of beefcakes musclemen banging up some poor French guy in a filthy bathroom. Certainly, the fight captured all these things and more. Indeed, my ordeal was a scenario worthy of Placebo. Truly, there was an honor to be had -- to get publicly beatinged in the name of Brian, Stedd, and this and that. (Truthfully, I say: I would gladly take the beat-off again in the name of Brian, the Steves, Steff, or even Robert S. I would surely die in the defence of Placebo, and with relish.) And so, when I came on this subsboard and related this heinous shit to you, lots of you Soulmates said I was in fact wrong and that the English blokes was right. You also hershly criticize my words and called me "a stupid, a kinase," and this and that. Indeed, I was pushed hard by some of the Soulmates. In return, I pushed back harder -- the culmination of which was my self-dismissle from this subsboard. It was a powerful statement, to be sure, and it shooked many of you people to the cord (Goodbye Placeboard. I Must Leave Forever). Immediately after this events, I maintained the radio silence and went away as promised. However, there is more to the story. I, Chris, have now come to tell you about what had happen to me in the aftermath of our disastrous breakup. The strain almost killed me dead. The Almost Death of Chris, Thanks To YOU Solemateshttps://preview.redd.it/4mwk31iqdxzc1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0321b5c860845a06a8f5a1ef5a1b0d31223b6b33After our big fight, I did not felt so good. Indeed, I felt so guilty -- dirty, naked, and ashmed. Truly, I felt as though I had been skinned alife and reduced to mothing but raw nerves. I fled the town, a man on the edge of time. Without hope, I sought refuge at the derelict's pub. Therein, I consumed fart too much, and as the result, I nearly died. I found myself lying at the bottom of the bottle. I had drunk all of its contents and then fallen within it. When a man consumes too much alchocohol -- and adds highly concentrated powder (inhaled through the nose) -- the results is explosive. And in my case, it brought on the near-death scenario. Truly, I felt like Brian in “Special K,” “Just like I swallowed half my mustache. Never ever gonna crash.” \"The End Of Chris\" I was found unconscious in the alley of the pub. I had a bottle in one hand; and in the other, I had a little Placebo comic from 1999 (a rare issue). On the back of it, I had written a little notice in black marker: "I am dead now; leave me alone." But whoever found me did not listen. They instead called the paramedic services. After I was collected by these paramedics, they took me to the clinic of rehabilitation in Poultice Marsala, Charleroi, Brussles. I would remain in this reccoperation facility for the next 48 hours. "You are most lucky you are still alife, Monsieur Chris." said the doctor. "For you were nearly without clothing and had consumed fat too much alcohol beverages. Certainly, the process could have killed you. Luckily, the curious memo you held in your hand (the Placebo comic) roused the suspicions of the constabulary. He in turn called the paramedics, who, in turn, picked you up and took you here: to this state-of-the-art Belgium Detoxification Center.” Yes, my friends, I, Chris, was almost killed by alcohol and exposure to cool weather as I lounged, half-undressed, in the filthy alley in Belgium. If not for that Placebo comic, no one would have ever noticed my wilting body. For it was the comic, with the cover featuring the sexy art of Brian, which caught the eye of passersby, and this kind sole then called the paramedic. So, indeed, again, Placebo has saved my life. I am thankful to you, Brian & Stefan. Bless your souls. Now, you might think that I must be pretty mad -- mad at the solemates who drove me to do bad upon my person and then almost die. No, my friends. On the contrary, I, Chris, take full responsibility for my almost undoing. It was my fault, and nobody elise. So, I have not come to solicit your apologies for almost killing me. Instead, it is the reverse. To You, My Solemates, I apologies (just as Brane Molko profusely apologizes to the Lady of Flowers). I am sorry for the hatesful words that past between us and led to our disastrous breakup. It all fills me with regret (much like Brian, after he views his pornographic memory sex tapes in “Forever Chemicals.”) And now that I have apologized and have been forgiven, I hereby fully resume my place on Placebo bored of directors. And now, I am hereby re-assimilated – fully reintegrated once again – into the world of Palcebo. Indeed, my name is back in the cards. I am most glad to be back. I accept your rapaciousness, Solemates! Thank your for taking me back into the boards again! You all have my true respect and gratitute! Oh! Merci, âme sœur! Chapter II: Chris Praises The Good, Real, True SoulmatesMy dear friends, I am constrain to be among you. Placebo is in my blood, like the disease -- but a good disease. It is shooting forth through the vain, spreading always nonstope. (It is rather like Brian’s song about his “hemogoblin,” which compels him to be a total maniac. Is it not?) My love for the Placebo and the Soledmates is just too strung to deny. This you must believe and rely upon, always.However, there is just one thing, and it pains me to say these: not all of you guys are for real. In others words, some of you guys are scumbag enemy spies who not only hate me, Chris, but secretly hate Palcebo and the other S. mates. Now, I have paid attention. Must of you guys on this board are indeed “goodguys.” There are so manay Soulmates whom I love. I cannot nameth you all, but here are some good guys, in no particular oder, who have helped me in many ways. You are all quite kind. I shout out to you: u/PlasticeEuropa- Some nice girl who speaks to me in French and tells me encouraging mantras, urging me not to use chemicals, and other positive stuff such as this. u/She'saCupCake - Some nice girl who oncogenes me when the going gets tough. Very wise; she also taught me "The Riddle of Molko" and the very simple key to lock it. And it blew my mind. I am grateful for this valuable lesson. u/Silver_Trainer_4836- This person is a good-guy 100%. He urged me not to kilt myself when the action got too hot in Brussels. "Chris, you mustn't die," he said. "Soulmates cannot die. Go, visit your grandmother in Marseilles, and rest on her cot. Then return to Brusshles after the noises in your head die down." And so, his reports made me become strong once more. Bless you. u/TheJFKSociety- You helped me greatly, man. With your comments and nice things. Oh, and: u/Ziggystardusts- You have the nomenclature of Bowie, so this makes you a superlative chap. Plus, you tried to help me when I cosidered jumping off the tower like Brian in the Pure Morning music video. u/TheLiving Master- Not too long ago, I was in jail for a month, awaiting arraignment for some false charge -- the possession of some pill (it was legal, rest assured). And when I was confined in the penal colony, this kind woman (i am somewhat shure it was she) sent me a little hand-held game. Tiger electronics. A Game about a Ninja. And this little toy kept me well while I was in jail. It kept me healthy and bodily focused. And then, at my hearing, when I stood before the judge in the Salles de Justice, I proclamed her genuine act of kindness. And this judge was thus heartwormed and dropped the charges forthwith. So I am gretefuil to all the parties concerned. u/Brian Swervo- This guy has zero relation to Molko, but he is A cool guy anyways. A jazz musician and very new-wave French. He sent me clove cigarettes, and sometimes he defends me in this subarea. MErci, monsieur Swervo. There are such much more people. However, I cannot be naming all the friends here because I am contrived for time. But you are all such great people. If Brian should happen to see you all, I guarantee you that it would melt his heart. And I say this with serenity. Chapter IV: Chris Excoriates The False SoulmatesBizon Looks Upon The Enemies of Chris With Scorn and ContemptAnd now, having said some nice things, I must tell you about the bad thugs. For there are enemy spies amongst us who must be dealt with, with a serious hand. I shall get into this now. These pretendos claim to be "Soulmates," but they ain't, and they attack Chris with a regretful passion that rivals Hitler at the height of his pressure-gasm. These are the ones Brain complains about in his song, "Surrounded by spies." There are two Sole mates of this subsboard whose names I will no say, but they are the worst critics of all. One guy, I know, is a powerful enemy Shaman (a huge black guy from Jamaican who works in West London). This man not only made fun of me on the subsboard but also sickened me with a demonic attack he issued from the airwaves. Devil ghosts shit from my private JVC stereo receiver at home, and the pestilence caused the UTI that I still cannot shake. And truly, I feel like I nearly was killed by this sadistic gentleman -- this spearmint voodoo tactician, who is cowardly, too. I add this because when I challenged him to hand-to-hans combat in a mutual setting, someplace unspecified in Europe, this guy just smiled wickedly. Although he is supposedly a Placebo fan, he is immensely wicked. I tell you this: Do not engage this man. The other bad guy of whom I speak identifies himself as "a nice teacher from Kent and LGBT activist." He wears sweater vests and pretends to be kind to all; he is also quite smug and brags about his "little, modest house," which ain't modest at all, but real big. But he ain't a good guy. He is a psychopathic liar. He attacked my writing something awful. And when I said I would meet him at his house in Kent to discuss your differences, he told me to "GO Fock Yourself." (He is CLEARLY a racist pig against the French, and he is still mad about the wars between the English and French, which took place eons ago. What a dickshead!) Hey, you -- the Jamacian and English teacher. I had brought you nothing but friendships, and you have indeed push a sharp pencil into my navel (for that is how your disrespect felt to me). You then attacked me, slandering me in these boards like there is not tomorrow. As a result, I nearly died of alcoholic drinking attack. I swear, if Brian heard this shit, he would issue forth his helper Stefan, who would make nothing out of you both. You are the real disease to the Placebo. I have my eyes on both of you at all times, and do not think you will get away with the evils you have done to me, Chris. The fates will get you one of these days. And that is all for now. But please know that there are other, lesser enemies whom I do not mention here. These two are like the bosses, whereas the others are underlings of lesser importance. It is up to you, Soulmates, to find these people. First, I ask that you chastise them. Give them the chance to reform. However, if they ignore the admoistation, I charge you to eliminate these men. No, no, I did not mention the use of violence. Did I imply it? I cannot say. It is up to you to interpret my words, then use the apropos leveler of action. Do not restraint yourself. Do What you feel is right. LEt Placebo guide your hands and "Come Up on Infra-red" on their ass. Brian, Coming Up On Infra-Red To Obliterate The Foes Chapter V: The Conclusion of ChrisAnd last week I finally left Brussels. In the words of B. Molko, I too needed “a change of environment – to get the fucke out of here” (Brian, Chem Trials).I put all my stuff into the storage prison and caught on the plane to Canada. So, yes, I am now in Quebec, working as a fisherman with my cousin Philippe, and the sea-air has helped to purge my sinus; I have found peace and enjoyment in my live once more -- something I have not felt since I cannot remember when. I am working from the piers and catchup with the crabs on the sting line, and I feel quite alright, so no worries. In my next post, I will tell you of this fishing business and its relation to Placebo -- because, indeed, I have discovered a very startling connection between the sea animals and Placebo: the music. Also, I will be giving you other reconciliations, and little mummers of things relative to Brian, Steff, Stefard, and Sweetie Steve. I Love You Guys – This You Must “Breathe … breathe ... breathe ... breath ... believe." Du Québec avec amour, Chris |
2024.05.12 05:07 UrgeofGod I seem to breathe too quickly whenever I meditate and it causes pain and pressure throughout my body. What can I do to slow down my breath?
I was reading online that sensations of pressure/weight and even pain are common during meditation but I have heard different insight about it which seems contradictory. Some people have told me that this happens due to energy blockages and that I need to clear the blockages, and other people have claimed that anything that happens to the mind and body during meditation is ultimstely good, and that pain and pressure in the body is the body releasing trauma. I also hear people say there's no wrong way to breathe during meditation, and other people say that there is a right and wrong way, and that I need to train myself to breathe correctly. I have been able to slow down my breath and focus on the navel at times, other times I cannot slow it down and it is too fast and pain and pressure occurs mostly in the chest but in basically every limb in my body.
submitted by UrgeofGod to Meditation [link] [comments]
2024.05.12 02:58 Boring-Taro9600 Should I change my jewelry?
 | Hi everyone. I got my navel pierced 5 days ago and I’m really happy about it. I saw a good piercer, and I initially went in asking for a floating navel because I figured I didn’t have the anatomy for a regular navel, but my piercer told me I did have the right anatomy for it so we went ahead and pierced the lip of my belly button. Immediately, when I looked in the mirror, I saw the top bar was sticking out and I said “is the top bar supposed to stick out this way?” And she told me it was to accommodate the swelling. That made sense to me so I didn’t argue. I’ve had absolutely no pain throughout this entire process, my only complaint is that it’s a little itchy, but nothing alarming. Everything else I’ve had pierced have itched as well and turned out just fine so I’m just gonna assume that’s no reason for concern. submitted by Boring-Taro9600 to Legitpiercing [link] [comments] What I am concerned about however, is if the jewelry isn’t right for me. Three days in, I saw another piercer about it, and they told me it was fine since my belly button doesn’t collapse when I sit, but I’ve developed a scab around the top bar and I have no idea if that’s normal healing or if it’s from irritation because the gem is pushing the bar around. I haven’t noticed the bar moving to stick out when I sit down, but I think it gradually moves around throughout the day because sometimes I’ll look at it and it will be sticking out, and then other times I’ll look at it and it’ll be sticking out at the bottom like I assume it should be. Am I being paranoid? I hope I am. I love this jewelry, and I like the way the bottom gem looks a lot. Obviously I’ll change it if I have to, but I really don’t want to. Some extra info: I’ve been good about cleaning, but I suspect I may be over cleaning it. I soak it with a shot glass in saline solution 2x a day, and then sometimes I wash it with gauze and saline if I feel like it needs it. I’ve definitely cleaned it up to 4 times in one day before, and that could be another cause of the irritation. Any ideas? |
2024.05.11 21:37 Designer-Tomatillo98 Cheap jewelry gives me a bad reaction 😕
Hey all! I have three piercings right now (tongue, septum, and navel). I put a spencer’s ring in my septum and unfortunately, despite it being healed for roughly 2 years, i had a bad reaction. It was a clicker style of jewelry so I had to wait until i got my tongue pierced for my piercer to remove it. My septum became super sensitive and irritated (it hurt to move the jewelry) as well as it felt like i couldn’t breathe until it came out. My piercer recommended that I don’t use cheap jewelry anymore because of that incident. Now, here comes the question. I learned that the top bead can be screwed off of my tongue piercing and i was wondering if i could buy cheap jewelry but only put on the top bead? I currently have the beads downsized as they were bothering my bottom teeth and im thinking about downsizing the bar again since it is a bit long for my tongue size. I didn’t want to ask my piercer this question and was just wondering if anyone had some input.
TL;DR Cheap jewelry gives me a bad reaction and my piercer recommends that i don’t use it. Would it be possible to buy cheap jewelry for my tongue bar and just put on the top bead but keep the piercers bar and bottom bead in? I currently have downsized beads so i don’t know if that would interfere.
submitted by Designer-Tomatillo98 to piercing [link] [comments]
TL;DR Cheap jewelry gives me a bad reaction and my piercer recommends that i don’t use it. Would it be possible to buy cheap jewelry for my tongue bar and just put on the top bead but keep the piercers bar and bottom bead in? I currently have downsized beads so i don’t know if that would interfere.
2024.05.11 21:28 sdey14 Just mine and mine forever Kanna.
 | www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/118050766 submitted by sdey14 to SenseisKitchen [link] [comments] It has been two weeks since I asked her out. I was spacing out and not thinking about much when I suddenly asked Kanna a blunt question. "Everyone calls you the feral hound, but in my opinion, you are actually quite sweet... If only I had someone like you..." When I looked over I found Kanna was beet red in the face. I realised what I had said but before I could say anything she shyly replied, "T-The idea of a teacher and a student having a r-romantic relationship is not a crime in Kivotos... or so I have h-heard. You d-dont have to wish for something like that if I am w-with you." That was perhaps the first time I had seen her so flustered, her cheeks, bright red. Usually she kept quite a serious, calm and composed demeanor but today it was a lot different. I always imagined her to be the dominant type. I mean, the title of 'feral hound' was something only the most ferocious of police officers received. She certainly was quite skillful at interrogation. And that was it. I guess there was no going back. Now that I think about it, it was a really awkward way to ask out someone. I might have played it as a joke but I was too enthralled by her shy, yet bold reply. And so I asked her to be my girlfriend. Its too late now to back off. Both she and I have been so busy with work that we have not been able to spend much time together. We might have only exchanged a few calls but that was it. No lovey-dovey talk, no playful dates, no such things. Well, she did give me a spare key to her house though which was quite a bold move, but I am not going to lie, her dominant persona awakens certain feelings in me... And that brings us to the present day. I have already completed my work at Schale early and asked Rin-chan, if could go home early for today. I wanted to surprise Kanna with something. So I decided to head to her home and cook something for her. After all, everyone yearns for a home cooked meal after a long day at work. I opened the door and went in. It was my first time inside a girl's room. It was not quite what I was expecting. Her work is usually flawless but her house was, by no means, tidy. "Well... she might not have wanted me to see that..." I took a deep breath "what can be done now? I should help tidy it up a bit" She actually comes back quite late from the Public Peace Bureau, and I would be surprised if she had anymore energy left to do all the household chores after all that. She already overclocks her body on dubious amounts of coffee. It would not be good for her to exert herself anymore. She is so young yet such a responsible girl... Thinking about various things I clean up her room and entered the kitchen to make her something. While watching the water boil I suddenly had a realisation, "What's with this scenario? It's like I'm a househusband waiting for my wife to arrive... So this is what a married life feels like?..." It was quite a strange feeling to be honest. I never understood the entire prospect of love and marriage, the lack of it was quite evident throughout my life and I never bonded strongly with many people my entire childhood. I might be delusional but at this moment, I feel myself as the happiest person in this world. It was at this moment I heard the door lock clicking. Kanna is already here. I poke my head out of the kitchen and said "Welcome home Kanna." She was started to see me here "Wha-huh? S-sensei? Wha... Why are you here?" "To give you a surprise silly" "A surprise?" "I mean, you are always so busy with your work. You don't even get the chance to properly have your meals. So I decided to help you today by cooking you a meal full of love!" Although she tried to hide her ears twitching, it was quite evident that she was very happy. "Oh and I also cleaned your ro-" I realised I should not have said that. She walked up to me and firmly placed a finger on my lips and said, "You never saw any of that." "Y-yeah..." Apart from the topic of me cleaning her 'not-untidy-at-all' room, we talked quite a lot about various things. Throughout our conversation, I could not help but notice her smile across her face, as constant as the pole star. I have never seen her like talk like this before. I wished this moment would last forever. Just her and me, talking to each other. If I am ever faced with the choice to repeat a day for the rest of eternity, I would choose this day, for I have absolutely fallen head-over-heels for her. It is now that I notice the time... Well it was my fault for noticing it sooner. Its 10.51 p.m. already. The last train leaves at 11 p.m. and no matter how hard I try, there was no way I was catching that train. I am in a real pinch now. Asking her to stay the night with her. But her room is really small. She and me? In one bed? Okay... now this is not good. I am getting nothing but impure thoughts. Kanna seems to have been thinking the same thing as me. However she actually asks me this time. "Well Sensei, it's quite late now. Even if you tried to catch the train, I don't think you'd make it. So...", She turns a bit fidgety, "why don't you stay the night with me?" She asks with a smile. My mind goes completely blank. And without much thought I let out the words "But I don't have any protection on me..." "..." "..." A moment of silence ensues. We both take a moment to process what was said. "Nh! B-baka w-what are you saying?" "I solemnly apologise for my words miss Ogata Kanna", I was quick to follow it up with an apology. ‘Come on dude what the hell... she definitely did not mean that when she asked you to stay’, I thought to myself. I am have totally messed up everything. But just as every storm runs out of rain and every dark night turns into day, she was sitting there, her gaze not meeting mine, embarrassed yet shyly making an offer I could never refuse. “I knew it would come to this eventually. I am… uh… how do I say this…”, she pauses briefly for a second, “To tell you the truth I am not quite experienced with these things, if possible, I would like you to teach me sensei.” This was it. Then something just snapped inside me. Some hidden feeling, some hidden emotion, which I did not even know, I had. How could any sane person say no to such an offer. In fact, I were to be made such an offer in exchange of manually counting every number up to the Avogadro’s number in tally marks, I would do it. Or perhaps it was fate that led me to this fateful event. It was perhaps the will of the almighty lord that this would happen to me. But I did not care anymore for such things. For there she was, Miss Ogata Kanna, sitting, with all her magnificence, her beauty unrivalled by heaven itself. “As for that…”, She intervenes my monologue, “Today is actually a safe day for me. So you won't have to worry about wearing any protection” This. This was the moment the five red lights went out, and I might have had broken the fastest reaction time world record if I were in a motor race by now. Rather than the ear shattering roar of V8 engines, it was a light, muffled moan. I pounced upon her, just as a wolf pounces upon an innocent and unsuspecting lamb. She might have been the hound, but now, I was the predator and she was the prey. It was quite odd seeing her suddenly submit to my advances, but it was something I didn’t mind at all. I started undressing her, opening up the buttons of her short holding her soft yet massive breasts. And just as a coffin in buried in the ground, I buried my face within the two mounds of heaven. My fingers started to explore her whole body. I licked down her entire body. At that moment, I was nothing less of a dog. I licked down her toned abdomen muscles down to her navel and then reached her thighs. If she was to bite me, she could have really torn of my arm for that is how sharp a hound’s teeth are, but right now my teeth were no less sharp than a blamite shard and it certainly did not take me long to tear through her black tights. I now bore witness to her bare thighs. It certainly was charming. There was an elegant yet erotic aura around her. I certainly could not wrap my head around the entire thing but there was nothing that could stop me now. Even if a galactic scale superweapon were to be fired against me and me alone I would just tank it like an insignificant drop of rain and not even be inconvenienced in the slightest, for that was how hypnotised, I was, by the beauty of her bare body. “D-don’t just stare at my blankly… its e-embarrassing”, her voice brings me back into this world. I regain my senses and just continue to lick her. “Sclurp… slurp… shlip…”, the room was filled with such lewd sounds and her soft moans. At this very moment, if there was a place better than heaven, it would be this room. She gets up, still shaking from her climax, and replies with her euphonious voice, “Its not fair, only I feel so good… You should let me take care of you as well” And so, she wraps her tongue all around my Binah, which might have towered even the Sanctum Tower if I were to view it side by side. “Hff…haw ish ifth shemshei” She asks in a muffled voice. I could have answered if I were thinking with my actual head. But now I realised her true potential. Why do I admire her so much. She just has this natural, inborn talent like no other. Her versatility, her ability to adapt to new things, her quick learning skills like no other just complements her skills and charms by a massive margin. I could only ever wish to be half the person she is. While I was lost in deep contemplation I felt pleasure, a great pleasure, pleasure like no other. I might have not had any alcohol, but I certainly was drunk on her sweet love nectar. Still tipsy from the feeling of climaxing, I just pushed her onto her bed and climbed atop her. “Kanna, would you let me-” “Yes Sensei, please be teach me everything you know... I wish to know it all” I could not contain my lust any longer and I plunged myself deep inside her. The air was suffused with the sound of our love. I was now the mythical sword Excalibur, they who would be able to lift me out shall be crowned the next ruler of Birmingham. For the next few hours, I truly came to know a few truths about the wild. Just as an alligator twists and turns its prey before biting down upon it with tremendous force, I continued ‘plapping’ her in a couple of dozen positions, doing my best as the teacher I am in educating my dear student in the various arts of lovemaking. “Plap Plap Plap” I ravaged her until who knows how long but It certainly was something I would never forget. I believe she must’ve had the same feelings for me. Rays of sunlight lit the room now, I did not care to look at the clock for I knew I would have a snowball’s chance in hell of reaching Schale today on time. “Well. I don’t care anyway. I will tell Rin something like I sprained my ankle or some shit… For now I would love to spend some more time with her.” I saw Kanna sleeping soundly by my side. She must have been quite exhausted after what we did yesterday. I got up and poked her cheek with my finger and murmured “I truly admire you Kanna, I just wish you were just mine and mine forever…” My murmurs were interrupted by a pair of open eyes and a sweet giggle. “Huh?...You were awake this whole time?” Kanna just smiled and replied “If you admire me and love me so much, why don’t you make me yours forever?” ~THE END~ (Preparation time=11 hours. Ingredients: People who do not have the same opinion as me and a few years off my lifespan) Thank you to all the talented chefs here for inspiring me to cook. This is My manifesto, My Propaganda and my argument to all who still aren't convinced of Kanna's true beauty... "I love you Kanna..." |
2024.05.11 17:07 Doccit An SP Guide to Crushing Germany & the USSR as Democratic Poland
Here is a guide on how to fight and defeat Germany and the USSR with Poland, using the left sanation path. But first, why would you want to do this?
Ok! So now onto the guide.
Intelligence Agency
You’ll want an intelligence agency as Poland that has Psychological Warfare, and army department. This is used for two important tasks.
You want 6 armies of 18 width infantry, with engineers, artillery, and anti-air support companies. Remember to train them to regulars - this makes a huge difference in their combat effectiveness! You also really want the 1939 engineer technology for the +50% entrenchment. This, plus grand battleplan, will make it so you can hardly be pushed.
2 armies go on the main German boarder, between Slovakia and the Baltic coast. 1 army goes on the Konigsburg pocket border. 1 army goes on the Slovakian border. 2 armies can be held in reserve around the capital to provide additional support where needed and plug gaps, and they will go to the USSR to latvia border a few months befure the USSSR declares war.
So you will need to produce: lots of guns, support equipment, anti-air, artillery, trains, and trucks, before the war.
After the war starts, you will want to focus on winning the air war. Swap to producing fighters (as many as it takes), getting 200 transport planes, getting an army of 10w paratroopers with support artillery, and getting an army of 10w port guards with support artillery to stop soviet navel invasions
Technology and Doctrines
Focus on industrial tech, of course. Here are the strategically important technologies for our strategy
You will need political power to crush resistance in Danzig, so save up initially for that. Aside from that I would prioritize as follows:
NOTE: Get a military theorist before you start buying land doctrines, but remember that you don’t need them before the start of the war, so put off the military theorist as long as possible and just bank the xp.
Focus Order Phase 1: Danzig & Agrarian Reforms
(the first number in brackets is whether it is a 35 day focus (0.5) or a 70 day focus (1), the second number is the total number of 70 day focuses done to that point)
These focuses give you all of Danzig’s factories, 3 civs and 4 mills, gets you off embargoed economy, and takes care of the peasant’s strike just in the nick of time.
Focus Order Phase 2: Industrial Development
Focus Order Phase 3: Political Tree
Military Strategy when Germany Invades
Military Strategy When the Soviets Invade
Hopefully when the soviets invade, you have level 3 forts along the whole border. This should make it easy to hold with 2 armies.
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- If you play as Poland on historical and don’t give up the east or Danzig, it is you plus the allies against the Axis and the Comintern. Also, you are pretty isolated from the allies. This is an incredibly challenging scenario, and one that I personally find very fun.
- Second, the Sanation left path is very underappreciated that needs some appreciation! In my opinion, this is *kind of* Poland’s strongest path. There are plenty of paths for Poland that are stronger after the war - the Slavic Union comes to mind. But you don’t need to be strong *after* the war, you need to get strong *before* the war, and this is where Sanation left excels.
- LARP lol. Defeating both the Nazis and the Soviets as Democratic Poland?? That is cool as hell.
Ok! So now onto the guide.
Intelligence Agency
You’ll want an intelligence agency as Poland that has Psychological Warfare, and army department. This is used for two important tasks.
- As early as possible, you want to start boosting ideology in Hungary. Hungary gets the “strengthen fascists” spirit, giving them +0.03 daily fascism support until Dec 6 1938. If you can stop them from getting more than 40% fascist support, they can never renounce the treaty of trianon and join Germany. But Germany still gives them carpathian ruthenia. So you can use Hungarian neutrality to block troops moving from the USSR-Romania side to the Germany-Italy side, and this makes a huge difference in making the war manageable.
- Secondly, use spies (probably after dec 6 1938) to infiltrate the German army. This will help you see where their troops are behind the front lines, which will be important to our military strategy.
You want 6 armies of 18 width infantry, with engineers, artillery, and anti-air support companies. Remember to train them to regulars - this makes a huge difference in their combat effectiveness! You also really want the 1939 engineer technology for the +50% entrenchment. This, plus grand battleplan, will make it so you can hardly be pushed.
2 armies go on the main German boarder, between Slovakia and the Baltic coast. 1 army goes on the Konigsburg pocket border. 1 army goes on the Slovakian border. 2 armies can be held in reserve around the capital to provide additional support where needed and plug gaps, and they will go to the USSR to latvia border a few months befure the USSSR declares war.
So you will need to produce: lots of guns, support equipment, anti-air, artillery, trains, and trucks, before the war.
After the war starts, you will want to focus on winning the air war. Swap to producing fighters (as many as it takes), getting 200 transport planes, getting an army of 10w paratroopers with support artillery, and getting an army of 10w port guards with support artillery to stop soviet navel invasions
Technology and Doctrines
Focus on industrial tech, of course. Here are the strategically important technologies for our strategy
- Fighters. You want Improved Small Airframe as fast as possible, and you want to make sure that the moment you unlock it you already have survivability studies, heavy MG, range improvements, and engines 3.
- Radar. Make sure your radar is at least up to date, and ideally ahead of time! Coordination helps on the defence a fair bit, but more importantly, radar helps you win the air war in a huge way, and having overlapping radar helps you see where your enemies are behind the front line. This is very very helpful for paradropping. I like to have maxed out radar stations in Warszawa, and Plock.
- Paratroopers. You really only just need the first paratrooper tech. But don’t forget it!
- Grand Battleplan. Go for infiltration. The main reason we want grand battleplan is for the entrenchment. You need that early in the war. Once you survive Germany and the USSR banging their heads against your trenches for a while, you have won. Superior firepower, in my opinion in this scenario, will help you ‘win more’ if you would have already won, but Grand Battleplan helps you *not lose* on the day Germany declares war, which is the most important day of the playthrough.
- Paratrooper Special Forces Doctrine - Combat Insertion. This is critical to the strategy - make sure you have 100 air XP saved up to get the first two doctrines in this special forces doctrine before you win the air war.
- Operational Integrity - The best doctrine for fighters, and you will be focusing hard on fighters.
You will need political power to crush resistance in Danzig, so save up initially for that. Aside from that I would prioritize as follows:
- Partial Mobilization
- Limited Conscription
- Defence expert army chief (start building that XP early!)
- Air reformer airforce chief (you need air XP for those paratroopers!)
- Improved working conditions. Get that stability! Using this earlier hurts less than using it later.
- Illusive Gentleman! You need to keep Hungary from going Fascist!
- Wallery the political advisor for +10% stability.
- The Leftist Legionary. Extra democracy support is nice, and +15% attack and defence for paratroopers will come in handy when you start going on the offensive.
- PKP industrial concern. +15% industrial research is nice!
- Infantry expert & air superiority expert. You don’t need these before the war, of course.
NOTE: Get a military theorist before you start buying land doctrines, but remember that you don’t need them before the start of the war, so put off the military theorist as long as possible and just bank the xp.
Focus Order Phase 1: Danzig & Agrarian Reforms
(the first number in brackets is whether it is a 35 day focus (0.5) or a 70 day focus (1), the second number is the total number of 70 day focuses done to that point)
- Clamp down on Danzig (0.5-0.5)
- The Four Year Plan (0.5-1)
- Central Region Strategy (0.5-1.5)
- New Polish Industry (0.5-2)
- Ban the Nazi Party (0.5-2.5)
- Integrate Gdansk (1-3.5)
- Invest in the Old Polish Region (0.5-4)
- Fill the Railway Gaps (1-5)
- Agrarian Reform (1-6)
These focuses give you all of Danzig’s factories, 3 civs and 4 mills, gets you off embargoed economy, and takes care of the peasant’s strike just in the nick of time.
Focus Order Phase 2: Industrial Development
- Expand the university of warsaw (1-7)
- Invest in eastern poland (1-8)
- Modernize congressional factories (1-9)
- Expand Krakow industries (1-10)
- Modernize Galician industry (1-11)
- National Defence fund (1-12)
Focus Order Phase 3: Political Tree
- Complete the april constitution (1-13)
- Polish Militarism (0.5-13.5)
- Consolidate the Sanation Government (0.5-14)
- The Sanation Left (0.5-14.5)
- The Sanation Right (0.5-15)
- Support Right-Wing Paramilitarism (0.5-15.5)
- Department of Home Defence (0.5-16)
- The Left Chairman (1-17)
- Common Organization of Society (0.5-17.5)
- A New King in the Castle (0.5-18)
- Prepare for the Next War (0.5-18.5)
Military Strategy when Germany Invades
- Keep the air contested and try to win the air war with the Nazis. They will bang their heads against your position, and that’s great. If you've followed this guide and you actively manage your defence (moving adjacent troops to reinforce weak tiles under attack) they shouldn't be able to push you a single tile.
- In my experience, the germans (and eventually Italians) are so busy trying to overcome your defence that they aren’t able to make it through Belgium to capitulate france. This is a huge win.
- The first thing you should do, when you are ready to advance, is to close the Konigsburg pocket. Ideally, try your best to do that before the soviets invade. Try to push here even in yellow air, using the huge planning bonuses from grand battle plan doctrine. It may be costly, but it is necessary.
- When you close the Konigsburg pocket, send that army to the border with Lithuania so that you won’t get a nasty surprise when the soviets annex them. If you like, set them up with an order to advance to Riga and execute it, so that they rush in when the Soviets annex lithuania.
- Try to build up level 2 forts on the entirety of the border with the Soviets. You will be taking focuses that upgrade these fort levels, so getting them to level 2 before these focuses fire off will help immensely. These forts allow you to basically ignore the soviets until the Germans are defeated.
- After you can get green Air, put out your transport planes and get ready for some paradrops. Find opportunities for paradrop-encirclements. Start by looking at the baltic coast: find a weak tile, and while paused order your adjacent units to attack it, and order a paradrop on that tile to help it break.
- Don’t forget to attack adjacent tiles if they are trying to reinforce the weak one, to slow down their reinforcement.
- When it looks like your units are about to win the battle, pause the game because it is time to order a lot more paradrops. You want to order a single unit to drop on a continuous stretch of tiles between the breech you are about to create and the baltic coast.
- Then order some redundant paradrops on tiles next to your line of tiles, just in case any of them are secretly occupied. It will take time for your paratroopers to lose, and if any of the adjacent tiles are occupied by you, the unit will retreat there instead of being deleted, so make sure that even if the encounter resistance, they will have a title to retreat into!
- Feel free to leave ports inside of the encirclement. Thanks to the royal navy, those ports won’t be of much use in getting supply to the enemy. But you can also, sometimes, feel comfy paradropping on ports that seem lightly guarded, as long as you paradrop many adjacent tiles as well to further de-org the port and ensure that even if you lose your paratroopers have somewhere to retreat to.
- Then, unpause, and watch the chaos. Order your regular units to attack the pocket. Manually order around your dropped paratroopers to hog as many tiles as possible before the enemy is able to reorganize itself.
- Eventually the lines will re-solidify (but with many encircled units destroyed) and you can repeat the paradrop on a new weak spot. I would focus on advancing along the baltic coast. It is easier here thanks to the royal navy, robs germany of important industry, is much nicer than trying to go through the Sudaten forts, and when you do link up with the French/UK lines, you will be in great shape (though don’t expect to do this before the soviets invade).
- I find that by the time that take the baltic coast and link up with France, Germany is so weakened that you can just mass paradrop on their victory points to capitulate them. But it is a very risky maneuver.
- Central Defence of Poland (1- 19.5)
- Plan East (1-20.5)
- Fortify Ukraine (1-21.5)
- Fortification of the North (1-22.5)
- (After this: whatever. Consider ‘local western plans’, polish school of mathematics, air production)
Military Strategy When the Soviets Invade
Hopefully when the soviets invade, you have level 3 forts along the whole border. This should make it easy to hold with 2 armies.
- Don’t be caught off guard by Romania invading! Make sure to send a few divisions with a fallback line by the Romanian border, and ensure that the rail network is good enough that division there won’t starve.
- Don’t be caught off guard by the soviets suddenly annexing Lithuania! Gets some kind of army there before they do - ideally the army that took down the Konigsburg pocket.
- Don’t be caught off guard by soviet naval invasions! They will straight up invade places as far afield as Stettin if you don’t guard your ports! Use an army of 10w infantry with artillery - that should be good enough.
- I would not try to advance against the Soviets until Germany and Italy have capitulated. Make good use of those level 3 forts.
- After the axis capitulates, try to make big encirclements, but it won’t be as effective on them as it was on Germany. You can also use paratroopers to capture and camp out along the railway lines. Paratroopers can act like ultra-fast motorized divisions, instantly exploiting a gap in the line to rush forward and capture supply hubs. Make sure to keep building airports and radar stations as you advance.
- It will be slow, but by the time the axis capitulates victory is certain.
2024.05.11 13:13 SirAwesome38 EPI or cancer?
I have severe health anxiety ever since getting the COVID shot and I’ve had all sorts of health issues crop up out of no where. For a year and some change I’ve been seeing a rheumatologist for Lupus markers but also a GI because I’ve had pretty near constant loose stools and sometimes just straight liquid. I did a fecal elastase test and got 183, I’m struggling here, I’m not sure if this is EPI, PC, or still something else. I also have vague abdominal pain, it’s usually right above my navel but has been lower in my gut as well. Other labs that have been off are creatinine (1.38) and recently my liver enzymes have come back slightly elevated. How concerned should I really be? I have a follow-up on May 30, I’m going to ask for an EUS and MRI. Of note over the last two years I’ve had two CT scans that were normal but I’m also worried they could have missed something.
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