Hey! Today I am doing my largest ancients coin sale yet! I love collecting and spreading the hobby to fellow collectors.
I try to bring the best prices based on other sites. I guarantee I have the lowest prices available, if not I can try to do better!
Add on $5 for shipping, tracked. I can offer untracked shipping in an envelope for smaller coins for $1 as well.
All coins are guaranteed to be authentic, 100%. Feel confident buying my coins.
Coins are in the same order in the photos as listed here.
PROOF - https://imgur.com/a/NclkehC
1-17 pics - https://imgur.com/a/CPlgK1h
Ask me for more pics if needed!

1. Mysia. Attaia. Trajan AD 98-117. Demos rev. - $50
2. ~~Aiolis. Elaia. Marcus Aurelius, as Caesar AD 139-161. - $48~~
3. Caria. Antiocheia ad Maeander. Pseudo-autonomous issue AD 253-268. - $29
4. Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. Trajan AD 98-117. Winged caduceus rev. - $79 (nice!)
5. Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. Hadrian AD 117-138. - $32
6. ~~Moesia, Viminacium. Gordian III, 238-244 AD. "Dupondius". - $30~~
7. ~~Caracalla, 198-217 AD. Eros rev. - $35~~
8. Bithynia, Nicea. Gordian III, 238-244 AD. Legionary standard rev. - $23
9. Serdica, Thrace. Caracalla, 198-211 AD. Serapis reverse. Æ29 mm. - $55
10. Moesia, Markianpopolis. Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD. Tyche rev. - $47
11. ~~Gordian III AD 238-244. Antoninianus. Rome. Roma rev - $55~~
12. Volusian AD 251-253. Antoninianus. Rome. Pax rev. - $49
13. Lucius Verus, 161-169 AD. Rome. Sestertius. Victory rev. - $80
14. Sicily, Syracuse Timoleon 334-336 BC. Æ 24mm. - $165 OBO
15. Unidentified Greek Æ - $35
16. Thrace. Geta, (bearded) 198-212 AD. Æ 3. Hygieia rev. - $155 OBO (I could only find one sold on recent auctions, and could not access the price.
17. Lot of 2 small bronze ancients (one has Septimius Severus) - $24 for the pair, shipped (risky)

NEW STOCK
Greek coins pics - https://imgur.com/a/greek-SNGx7O3?s=sms

1. Macedon. Amphipolis circa 148-131 BC. 15mm, 4.27 g. Athena - $15
2. Kings of Macedon. Uncertain mint. Antigonos II Gonatas 277-239 BC. 15mm, 2.71 g. Athena.- $15
3. Kings of Macedon. Time of Philip V - Perseus 187-168 BC.m 20mm, 9.00 g Zeus.- $15
4. Pontos. Amisos. Time of Mithradates VI Eupator circa 120-63 BC. 20mm, 8.85 g. Zeus - $19
5. Pontos. Amisos. Time of Mithradates VI Eupator circa 120-63 BC. 21mm, 8.34 g. Aries / sword.- $20
6. Mysia. Gambrion circa 400-300 BC. 11 mm, 0,88 g. Apollo.- $15
7. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 9 mm, 1,15 g- $39 (left)
8. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 10mm, 1.17 g.- $39 (middle)
9. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 9mm, 1.09 g.- $39 (right)
10. Tetartemorion. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 5 mm, 0,22 g. - $35 (bottom left)
11. Tetartemorion. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. - $20 (bottom right)
12. Caria. Alabanda circa 200-0 BC. Lyre / horse. Free gift with first $100+ purchase
13. Phrygia. Apameia circa 100-0 BC. 21 mm, 6,98 g. Athena.- $25
14. AR Drachm. Kings of Cappadocia. Ariarathes VII Philometor 116-101 BC. 18 mm, 3,89 g - $45
15. AR Drachm. Kings of Cappadocia. Ariobarzanes I Philoromaios 96-63 BC.18 mm, 2,98 g - $65
16. Seleucid Kingdom. Tryphon 142-138 BC. 17 mm, 4,68 g. Laureate head. - $50 (sharp details)
17. Seleukid Kingdom. Antiochos VII Euergetes 138-129 BC.19 mm, 6,54 g- $25

These 4 coins - https://imgur.com/a/jU37IHk?s=sms

1. Thrace. Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD. Æ25 mm. Eagle rev. - $50
2. Hadrian, 117-135 AD. Æ As. Rome. 25mm. Alexandria, lying rev. Few comps online. $50
3. Nero, 54-68 AD. Billon Tetradrachm, Alexandria, 24mm. $19
4. Unidentified coin, maybe Rhoemetalkes, standing reverse? Roughly 36mm. - $16

Take this interesting batch for $115 shipped!
ROMAN PT. 2
Roman coin pics - https://imgur.com/a/roman-SxKpTVt?s=sms

1. Vespasian AD 69-79. AR Hemidrachm. Cappadocia. Caesarea - Eusebeia. - $49 (oxidization)
2. Elagabalus AD 218-222. Billon-Tetradrachm. 24 mm, 11,98 g. Antioch. Eagle rev. - $39
3. Philip II AD 247-249. Billon-Tetradrachm.26 mm, 12,66 g. Antioch. Eagle rev. Some blue toning on obv. -$95
4. Domitian AD 81-96. Rome. Denarius AR. 19 mm, 2,73 g.- $80
5. Septimius Severus AD 193-211. Rome. Denarius. 17 mm, 2,74 g. Great details! -$69
6. Caracalla AD 198-217. Rome. Denarius. 20 mm, 2,10 g. Interesting reverse! -$55
7. Herennia Etruscilla AD 249-251. Rome. Antoninianus. 23 mm, 3,35 g. -$42
8. Gallienus AD 253-268. Rome. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 2,04 g. Providentia rev. Slight silvering left. -$9 (oxidization)
9. Gallienus AD 253-268. Rome. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 2,73 g. Securitas rev. Nice brown color. -$12
10. Valerian I AD 253-260. Antioch. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 3,72 g. Orient crowning emperor. -$25
11. Aurelian AD 270-275. Serdica. Antoninianus, much silvering preserved. 23 mm, 3,94 g. Sharp rev. details. -$45
12. Galerius Maximianus, as Caesar AD 293-305. Heraclea. Follis. 28 mm, 8,72 g. Genius rev. - $17

I have a relationship question?
Issue with new girl
Okay here’s the story. I can’t figure out what to do with my relationship because early on somebody warned me that this woman was no good and has been ran through and can’t be trusted. I get people have a past but I can’t get what I’ve heard out of my head. If she’s had a extensive sexual past I don’t know if I can really have an issue with that I think any problem with that would be stemming from my own insecurities about my small sexual history. But one of the things that was said was homie hopping (sleeping with entire friend groups). If that has taken place I don’t know what I could do beside just have a issue with that kind of conduct. But I think the only way I can get some kind of clarity about the situation is if I talk to her about it. Problem is you can’t look a woman in the face and tell her all of this. I think the statement I’ll make is basically “if you are still interacting and keeping contact with previous sexual partners and if I inevitably will be around them in social situations that’s a deal breaker for me.” Does that sound reasonable? I kind of don’t feel all too good about myself having bad feelings about something that I have no control over and is in the past but at the same time I don’t feel good about being with somebody who is excessively slept around. Indicators are she snaps people constantly and has stated “I have allot of guy friends” but in my mind that just seems like allowing past or potential suitors to basically wait on the sidelines for an opportunity. My point may not be the clearest and im open to questions because I may not have explained this the best. Any advice or personal experience is appreciated.

Hey! Today I am doing my largest ancients coin sale yet! I love collecting and spreading the hobby to fellow collectors.
I try to bring the best prices based on other sites. I guarantee I have the lowest prices available, if not I can try to do better!
Add on $5 for shipping, tracked. I can offer untracked shipping in an envelope for smaller coins for $1 as well.
All coins are guaranteed to be authentic, 100%. Feel confident buying my coins.
Coins are in the same order in the photos as listed here.
PROOF - https://imgur.com/a/NclkehC
1-17 pics - https://imgur.com/a/CPlgK1h
Ask me for more pics if needed!

1. Mysia. Attaia. Trajan AD 98-117. Demos rev. - $50
2. ~~Aiolis. Elaia. Marcus Aurelius, as Caesar AD 139-161. - $48~~
3. Caria. Antiocheia ad Maeander. Pseudo-autonomous issue AD 253-268. - $29
4. Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. Trajan AD 98-117. Winged caduceus rev. - $79 (nice!)
5. Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. Hadrian AD 117-138. - $32
6. ~~Moesia, Viminacium. Gordian III, 238-244 AD. "Dupondius". - $30~~
7. ~~Caracalla, 198-217 AD. Eros rev. - $35~~
8. Bithynia, Nicea. Gordian III, 238-244 AD. Legionary standard rev. - $23
9. Serdica, Thrace. Caracalla, 198-211 AD. Serapis reverse. Æ29 mm. - $55
10. Moesia, Markianpopolis. Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD. Tyche rev. - $47
11. ~~Gordian III AD 238-244. Antoninianus. Rome. Roma rev - $55~~
12. Volusian AD 251-253. Antoninianus. Rome. Pax rev. - $49
13. Lucius Verus, 161-169 AD. Rome. Sestertius. Victory rev. - $80
14. Sicily, Syracuse Timoleon 334-336 BC. Æ 24mm. - $165 OBO
15. Unidentified Greek Æ - $35
16. Thrace. Geta, (bearded) 198-212 AD. Æ 3. Hygieia rev. - $155 OBO (I could only find one sold on recent auctions, and could not access the price.
17. Lot of 2 small bronze ancients (one has Septimius Severus) - $24 for the pair, shipped (risky)

NEW STOCK
Greek coins pics - https://imgur.com/a/greek-SNGx7O3?s=sms

1. Macedon. Amphipolis circa 148-131 BC. 15mm, 4.27 g. Athena - $15
2. Kings of Macedon. Uncertain mint. Antigonos II Gonatas 277-239 BC. 15mm, 2.71 g. Athena.- $15
3. Kings of Macedon. Time of Philip V - Perseus 187-168 BC.m 20mm, 9.00 g Zeus.- $15
4. Pontos. Amisos. Time of Mithradates VI Eupator circa 120-63 BC. 20mm, 8.85 g. Zeus - $19
5. Pontos. Amisos. Time of Mithradates VI Eupator circa 120-63 BC. 21mm, 8.34 g. Aries / sword.- $20
6. Mysia. Gambrion circa 400-300 BC. 11 mm, 0,88 g. Apollo.- $15
7. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 9 mm, 1,15 g- $39 (left)
8. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 10mm, 1.17 g.- $39 (middle)
9. Diobol. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 9mm, 1.09 g.- $39 (right)
10. Tetartemorion. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. 5 mm, 0,22 g. - $35 (bottom left)
11. Tetartemorion. Ionia. Miletos circa 525-475 BC. - $20 (bottom right)
12. Caria. Alabanda circa 200-0 BC. Lyre / horse. Free gift with first $100+ purchase
13. Phrygia. Apameia circa 100-0 BC. 21 mm, 6,98 g. Athena.- $25
14. AR Drachm. Kings of Cappadocia. Ariarathes VII Philometor 116-101 BC. 18 mm, 3,89 g - $45
15. AR Drachm. Kings of Cappadocia. Ariobarzanes I Philoromaios 96-63 BC.18 mm, 2,98 g - $65
16. Seleucid Kingdom. Tryphon 142-138 BC. 17 mm, 4,68 g. Laureate head. - $50 (sharp details)
17. Seleukid Kingdom. Antiochos VII Euergetes 138-129 BC.19 mm, 6,54 g- $25

These 4 coins - https://imgur.com/a/jU37IHk?s=sms

1. Thrace. Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD. Æ25 mm. Eagle rev. - $50
2. Hadrian, 117-135 AD. Æ As. Rome. 25mm. Alexandria, lying rev. Few comps online. $50
3. Nero, 54-68 AD. Billon Tetradrachm, Alexandria, 24mm. $19
4. Unidentified coin, maybe Rhoemetalkes, standing reverse? Roughly 36mm. - $16

Take this interesting batch for $115 shipped!
ROMAN PT. 2
Roman coin pics - https://imgur.com/a/roman-SxKpTVt?s=sms

1. Vespasian AD 69-79. AR Hemidrachm. Cappadocia. Caesarea - Eusebeia. - $49 (oxidization)
2. Elagabalus AD 218-222. Billon-Tetradrachm. 24 mm, 11,98 g. Antioch. Eagle rev. - $39
3. Philip II AD 247-249. Billon-Tetradrachm.26 mm, 12,66 g. Antioch. Eagle rev. Some blue toning on obv. -$95
4. Domitian AD 81-96. Rome. Denarius AR. 19 mm, 2,73 g.- $80
5. Septimius Severus AD 193-211. Rome. Denarius. 17 mm, 2,74 g. Great details! -$69
6. Caracalla AD 198-217. Rome. Denarius. 20 mm, 2,10 g. Interesting reverse! -$55
7. Herennia Etruscilla AD 249-251. Rome. Antoninianus. 23 mm, 3,35 g. -$42
8. Gallienus AD 253-268. Rome. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 2,04 g. Providentia rev. Slight silvering left. -$9 (oxidization)
9. Gallienus AD 253-268. Rome. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 2,73 g. Securitas rev. Nice brown color. -$12
10. Valerian I AD 253-260. Antioch. Antoninianus. 21 mm, 3,72 g. Orient crowning emperor. -$25
11. Aurelian AD 270-275. Serdica. Antoninianus, much silvering preserved. 23 mm, 3,94 g. Sharp rev. details. -$45
12. Galerius Maximianus, as Caesar AD 293-305. Heraclea. Follis. 28 mm, 8,72 g. Genius rev. - $17

Context: Im a secondary ECT 2 and I've been at my school nearly 2 years. If you asked me a year ago, I'd have categorically told you I'd have handed in my notice by now. Absolutely hated it. A year on, I have settled at last, had lots of support with that, got lovely classes, and found my confidence as a teacher.
Ive had a very lucky (but sad due to the loss of a family member) financial opportunity where I'm now in a position of thinking to buy property. I was chatting with my parents about this and my dad (who is a recently retired teacher) said that I shouldnt buy because I'll be moving in a year. I asked why and he said that no ECT should ever stay longer than 3-4 years because it kills progression and if I want to be a 2nd in department or HOD in 15 years, I'll need to have been at 3 or 4 different schools by then.
I honestly dont even know if I want to be a HOD or in leadership. But I am known for being an eager youngster chomping at the bit to get involved, and already have a small TLR in school (activities based).
I feel settled at my school at last and we have had two amazing experienced teachers join this year who have taken me under their wing. Ive been so happy to learn from them. So I'd had it in my head Im not ready to leave yet. But my dad has really gotten in my head that if I stay longer then I'm essentially killing off my career options if I decide to pursue that in the future?
Honestly all this started over a late night tea chat about me wanting to view a flat close to school and it seems silly but I'm worried now.
Is it bad to stay more than a few years at a school as an ECT?

Hi folks,
I'll appreciate any feedback on the query letter. Have also included the first 300 words - thoughts?
Dear [agent name],
LIKE MOONLIGHT is a queer (m/m) adult fantasy romance novel. It is 80,000 words and stands alone with series potential. Fans of the cosy worldbuilding in Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes and the fluttering queer romance and remote forest setting in Emma Denny’s One Night in Hartswood will enjoy this book.
After centuries of fighting, witches and werewolves call a ceasefire to negotiate a peace treaty. Paxton – an ambitious witch as arrogant as he is talented – and Callum – a renowned though reluctant werewolf warrior – are given an important job: traverse the wolf pack’s territory borders to create an enchanted map to bind the treaty.
Though thrilled to be trusted, Paxton is dismayed: beastly werewolves might enjoy weeks in the wild, but Paxton is only comfortable with metaphorically dirty hands. Conversely, Callum is eager to leave pack politics behind and enjoy an assignment in the tranquillity of nature… until he meets pampered Paxton, whose misconceptions about the barbarity of werewolves and endless whining about his blisters threaten Callum’s famous cool.
Under the leaves of the enchanted forest, Paxton and Callum save an injured unicorn, confront vampires, battle a wyvern, and – hardest of all – learn to work together. As they move past old prejudices and hasty first-impressions, their feelings for each other blossom into a magic of its own. But while steamy nights and soft hearts might flourish in the wild, away from prying eyes, out of the forest things won’t be so simple. With a tenuous ceasefire hanging in the balance as the peace negotiations progress, a cross-species romance might be the thing to sink the treaty… or save it.
I live in [country] with my wife and two very cute, very round cats, and spend my spare time powerlifting competitively, though mediocrely. I have a PhD in [discipline] and regularly publish academic research on [field] in scholarly journals.
Thank you for your consideration,
[name] (she/her)
First 300 words of manuscript:
Paxton strode up the wide, stone steps leading to Raedeon City Hall. It was the middle of the night, but the city was bright as always. One moon hung low in the sky and the other sat high. Both were full and radiant. The flickering torchlight lining the stairs reflected off his polished dragon-leather boots, and his heels clacked commandingly with every step. With his purple cloak and puff sleeved blouse, he cut exactly the kind of figure necessary to accomplish his mission: respectable, debonair, and, most crucially, handsome.
There was no room for error. He’d schemed and sleuthed for an entire week and devised a fool-proof plan, all by himself. What he was doing was risky, and he hadn’t been promised a reward. He’d likely get a little something if he succeeded, a small boon or a paltry sum of gold, maybe even favourable assignments for the next decade. While a material reward would be nice, that wasn’t why he was taking the risk. Succeeding in this mission would do immeasurable good for his reputation. He’d stand head and shoulders above his peers and be the obvious choice for promotion, and he wanted the recognition of his greatness like air.
They’d all realize what he was capable of soon. He could hardly wait.
He pushed open the heavy wooden doors and stepped inside. The foyer was brightly lit by a mixture of flaming sconces and magical glow stones purchased from the local witch coven some centuries ago, casting the entryway in warm tones of flickering yellow and green. Paxton scanned the room until his eyes alit on his first target. She was hard to miss. Her glowing pink wings fluttered idly behind where she sat at an ornate wooden desk. Fixing a charming smile onto his face, Paxton patted down the non-existent wrinkles on his tunic, flicked the lock of hair resting over his forehead so that it lay at a more rakish angle, and sauntered over.

Having been a lifelong bethesda fan, I know saying things like "The mods will fix it" is not a good pitch, so what I mean by the title is that while the actual content of the mod is at beast alright, and at worst lackluster, I want to try and make the point that in a year once people have really settled in and some big mods come out to support it, Anomaly will be looked more favorably on just for what it enables.

New Research Methods

This is something I'm very interested to see people playing with. Entirely new ways of gaining research techs and getting access to new things with something besides a genie standing behind a table for 30 years. Just being able to add new and interesting ways to advance a colony without having a "research" focus is interesting.
I can imagine a mod taking advantage of the framework to enable playstyles based around entirely different ideas. Imagine if we got an expansion of Hospitality where you leveled up and gained more access to new interaction features by recieving good will from your visitors. Not just new furniture, but new types of quests or people being able to join you super easily because of your good will. It might even be possible to leverage your good will to stop raiders from attacking because they don't want to put a target on their back by attacking the best hotel on the rim.
Another idea might be an expansion on the woefully undercooked caravanning system, where you slowly gain access to the ability to set up camps, create packable storages, move faster on the map, and gain trade bonuses all through "research" based on actually travelling
Lastly, if you are familiar with the Vanilla Expanded teams latest vehicle mod, you'll know that you can only access some researches by finding the vehicles in the world first before building them yourself. With a more indepth system it could be that you'd have to actually prod and discover cars more minutely to get better performance, or new upgrades like I know they're planning.
All of this to say, I think that enabling new gameplay vectors that are just as effective as having a dedicated researcher is very interesting. Like, imagine the kind of mental perspective one might have if they genuinely, with no sense of irony or roleplaying at all, favored their 20 social Highmate Concierge for building the colony around as we currently do for kill boxes or research rooms currently.
Also, I know that to a certain extent we had the ability to do some of these things already, but the idea being planted so firmly means that everyone has the idea now, rather then just the few who think to go that far.

Rituals with actual effects

Ideology walked on this point so that anomaly could run, and I think with some integration with base game mechanics and concepts, its a really interesting idea. Currently we just have some really messed up cultish stuff, but imagine if rituals were more integrated into stuff like psycasts or sanguophages, or hell, dryads.
Off the top of my head, some of the stuff at the highest tiers of Vanilla Expanded's Psycast trees might fit better as rituals with high cost then passive abilities, but at the same time I see no reason why they couldn't expand on what they already have for even more powerful end games.
Another idea I had was some kind of method for someone to potentially be turned into an awakened Android from VRE Androids, and it might even be a cool idea for a transhumanist colony.
Lastly, I think that for a tribal colony, some kind of expansion on rituals could be immense, like imagine if you could do something along the lines of "praying to a god" to summon a great storm that kills raiders, or imbues one of the random colonists with immortality, or causes the crops to grow faster for a while.
At that point you'd be doing rituals near constantly and there'd be a major focus on making sure they go through quickly, you might even develop a inner circle of super good ritualists that can make the impossible a reality through sheer dedication alone.

Anomalies

One thing rimworld was missing for a while was subversive forces that weren't just more bodies flying at your uranium slugs. While they can be annoying in some cases, more specific anomalies that target specific features of a colony might enable more interesting playstyles.
One might be a virus invading your network, with no alert your mechanoids might start losing their batteries really quickly, or exploding, or even randomly attacking a colonist for a moment. Maybe bionics start failing and dropping colonists due to the pain. To stop it, you'd need to find whatever the "Patient 0" of the virus was and destoy it, and depending on what that is it could be as small as a hauler, or as dangereous as your terror cyborg Boris The Destroyer with 20 in shooting and a mechsuit..
Another cool idea could be a royal imposter, claiming they are visiting on routine inspection, only to have the real royal appear latter and start a big fight over it. You might have to decide which is real by watching them, and if you get it wrong, you're gonna have issues.
The general idea here in my opinion is to make people actually think about their colonies beyond the snowballing they can do with them. Not everything needs to be a proper Anomaly anomaly if you catch my drift. But something more then a casual event, more subversive and not telling you the answer to the question before you suffer its effects.
While I enjoy Anomaly for what it is, I think that the greatest strength the DLC/update brought is the platform it provided for new ideas rather then just its content. With some TLC and a year of updates I do genuinely think that the community is gonna snowball massively with it in ways we never expected before.

Hi,
I'm having trouble wearing my new bifocals with my 65 inch TV. I only have mild myopia (0.5) but I do have a lot of strain with this OLED tv, even on low brightness (especially with small white text on black background). Unfortunately, since the edges of the bifocals lens are distorted, I have to turn my head to wherever my vision is facing on the TV. This is incredibly inconvenient when gaming.
Any solutions? Just simple distance glasses? The TV is 8 ft away from me.
Thanks!

Hi,
I'm having trouble wearing my new bifocals with my 65 inch TV. I only have mild myopia (0.5) but I do have a lot of strain with this OLED tv, even on low brightness (especially with small white text on black background). Unfortunately, since the edges of the bifocals lens are distorted, I have to turn my head to wherever my vision is facing on the TV. This is incredibly inconvenient when gaming.
Any solutions? Just simple distance glasses? The TV is 8 ft away from me.
Thanks!

I (22m) started working at this company about a year ago where I met the girl (23f) in question.
When I first met her I thought she was very pretty but in the year that followed I discovered there is much more to her than her good looks. She's smart, funny, very sociable and just overall a good person to be around.
In the recent months, around the time I started to get feelings towards her, I noticed she sometimes does key signs girls usually do around guys they like. Every time we see each other she gives me a big, beautiful smile along with saying a high pitched "heyyyyyy" and other times she gives me a smile and a very high energetic wave, if we meet each other at a distance. She laughs at my jokes and a few times she even said my name out loud in a high pitched tone when I passed by her, just to get my attention. She's also playfully touched me on a few occasions. Nothing serious, just usually a light slap on the shoulder followed by something along the lines of "oh you...". But one time she asked me to touch her forearms to feel how swollen they were because she had to lift some heavy stuff at work. And usually these signs would definitely mean a girl likes me, but the problem is she's very sociable and wants to be good with everyone at work. So I'm very torn between "she likes me" and "she's just friedly".
But last weeks events only made my situation even more confusing.
We both showed up early to work one day and had an hour to waste so I treated her to coffee and had a conversation with her that felt like it lasted a few minutes when in reality a whole hour had passed by. During the conversation I noticed she swiped all her hair on one side and started playing with it, straightening it etc. all the while keeping consistent eye contact. I even threw in a few flirts into the conversation, which she responded to back flirtingly. Another thing I notice is when I first approached her that day, as soon as I said "hi", she immediately put down her phone away from her and focused purely on me. Now normally people would call this common curtesy, but in today's day and age, people seem glued to their phones 24/7.
Anyway, the next day we talked a little bit before work because we both showed up a little too early again, but the main event happened later on in the day.
There is this room at our work which we call the "office", and it's used just for the few employees that work in my position and generally no one else is allowed in, except for a few exceptions. It's nothing fancy just a very small room with two chairs, an armchair, and a table with a computer that we mainly just use to watch movies or play music, when we have some free time.
So her and her friend (24f), with whom I get along well too, came and visited me in the office, which she usually doesn't do unless she needs something or her friend is accompanying her (her friend hangs out at our officr all the time) and we all got into a conversation. We were joking around when her friend jokingly said I'm too much of a "wuss" because I always help people out at work (for context me and her friend always tease each other by demeaning each other, so she didn't really want to offend me). And as soon as she said that the girl I like interrupted her mid sentence saying "hey don't call him a wuss, he's just a nice person", and how I should work on being not so nice towards everyone.
I generally try to be nice with everyone and can be very patient, even when maybe I shouldn't be, but the biggest problem I have with her saying I'm a nice guy or too nice in general, is that women often say that to guys that they see as friends. But then again maybe she meant it as a compliment?
The thing that really confused me was a few minutes later when she complained to me that the guys at the company we work at, don't have the balls to ask her out on a date in person, all the while looking at me.
In the moment I thought she was dropping me a hint, to aks her out. And I was so so so so close to asking her out then and there but I remembered her friend is with us so I didn't want to make it awkward.
This all happened a few days ago, and since then I've been banging my head against the wall, trying to figure out what she actually meant by this. Is she saying I'm too nice and only sees me as a friend or wanted to compliment me? Is she giving me hints by saying no one wants to ask her out, or just consulting in me as a friend?
I genuinely like this girl, and every time we interact with each other I feel butterflies in my stomach and generally very much enjoy her company.
So, what's your verdict reddit? Does she like me or not? I would ask her out but I am genuinely interested in her and don't want to risk it, especially if she rejects me and we still have to work together. It would make the whole situation veeeeeery awkward.
Obviously if I was to ask her out, I'd ask her out in person. And I kind of get the feeling she likes when people are more honest so I would probably say something along the lines of "hey, I think you're absolutely gorgeous and I like you, and I would love to get to know you better over coffee"

I (22F) was at the park today and this old guy (45+) scared the shit out of me. I was journaling and doing some work on my phone and didn't notice him near me because I had my headphones on. He tried making small talk and complimented me on my voice (I was singing under my breath when he sat down) but I kept things short. We literally sat there for like 10 minutes in silence before he got up, told me to have a good day and disappeared. Not even 5 minutes later he came back and asked me for my number. At this point I was really scared because I hadn't seen any other people around for the past 20- 30 minutes. I told him no and he just looked at me and headed towards the parking lot. I was ready to go home but he somehow was parked right next to my car??? I walked in the opposite direction and thankfully ran into a group of teenagers and their parents and they walked me to my car. I know this may sound dramatic but it was scary in the moment. That park is kinda my escape and now I'm feeling nervous about going back there and running into him. Another thing is, I look young for my age and that guy had to have know he was at least 20+ years older than me so the fact he was so open with approaching me was so creepy to me. Idk that's it.

i (f20) have developed a fleeting crush on my friend (m22) but I have a boyfriend who i’ve been with for over four years now. I feel like a terrible person.
my boyfriend and I have had extreme ups and downs over the years. But the last two years or so I was absolutely head over heels for him, like we had just dated kind of butterflies whenever I was with him. Few months ago he broke my trust by emotionally cheating in a sense and i was absolutely broken. I decided to forgive him and all is good now but the lingering trust issues still come up for me whenever we fight.
Recently I’ve developed a small crush over the course of a few days after a trip with friends to arrowhead. Idk how or why it suddenly came up for me. I don’t think this friend is interested in me at all he just really cares for me. Maybe some of it had to do with how affectionate he is when he’s drunk but he’s not like that or shows any interest when he’s sober.
Idk if these feelings are developing because there’s a hole in the relationship or if i’m thinking too much into it but I just want to make it go away.

I have a relationship question?
Issue with new girl
Okay here’s the story. I can’t figure out what to do with my relationship because early on somebody warned me that this woman was no good and has been ran through and can’t be trusted. I get people have a past but I can’t get what I’ve heard out of my head. If she’s had a extensive sexual past I don’t know if I can really have an issue with that I think any problem with that would be stemming from my own insecurities about my small sexual history. But one of the things that was said was homie hopping (sleeping with entire friend groups). If that has taken place I don’t know what I could do beside just have a issue with that kind of conduct. But I think the only way I can get some kind of clarity about the situation is if I talk to her about it. Problem is you can’t look a woman in the face and tell her all of this. I think the statement I’ll make is basically “if you are still interacting and keeping contact with previous sexual partners and if I inevitably will be around them in social situations that’s a deal breaker for me.” Does that sound reasonable? I kind of don’t feel all too good about myself having bad feelings about something that I have no control over and is in the past but at the same time I don’t feel good about being with somebody who is excessively slept around. Indicators are she snaps people constantly and has stated “I have allot of guy friends” but in my mind that just seems like allowing past or potential suitors to basically wait on the sidelines for an opportunity. My point may not be the clearest and im open to questions because I may not have explained this the best. Any advice or personal experience is appreciated.

My husband and I (30s) are heading that way next month and I want opinions/tips on our loose restaurant plan. We won't make it to all of these places, but I do plan on doing Happy Housmall plates + dinner several nights. We value restaurant character and innovation over perfection, so we’re trying to find things we can’t find just anywhere. Also we're not fancy.
Lunch: Nor Joe’s (I want a warm muffuletta and don’t eat beef, so Napoleon is out for that), Restaurant Reconcile, Fradys, Mr. B’s, Toups, Napoleon House, Lil Dizzy’s
Happy Hour: Maypop, Restaurant R’evolution
Dinner: Peche, Rosedale, Johnnys Poboys (right next to our hotel) Fritai, Queen Trini, Crepe Nanou, Felix’s (just for oysters), Brigsten’s, Appetite Repair Shop
Late night/ bars with food: Latitude 29, Killer Poboys, Verti Marte
Bakeries/dessert: Loretta’s, City Park Cafe du Monde, Ayu Bakehouse, Angelo Brocato, Hansen’s
Thanks! Y’all have been so amazing!!

It’s now been six months since my ex broke up with me, for reasons that seemed so unclear to me at the time that I simply stopped wondering about it. Now that so much time has passed, I feel much better, I don’t have the anxiety I experienced during the first months, and I don’t think about the experience too much. However, I am still hoping for him to come back. Now, circumstances make it so that we are not as busy anymore, but I haven’t seen any sign from him and I don’t understand why I can’t get it in my head that it is officially and irrevocably over.
He tried to remain in contact with me and have a sort of open relationship with me for the first month of the breakup, and would tell me things like he didn’t wanna lose me, that I was all he dreams of… I had to cut ties by ignoring him, because I just didn’t know how to behave and react. Eventually, 3 months ago, I sent him a goodbye message. He responded that he still felt like he wasn’t ready to be with me, but that he cared so much, that he can’t bear what he’s done to me, etc. I just ignored that message, with a heavy heart, and kept on living.
Ever since that last contact, I’ve bumped into him twice at school, and completely ignored him out of instinct. And yet, with me avoiding him and not crying over him anymore, I still expect him to text me everyday. I just don’t get why I can’t fully move on. It’s been such a long time after all…

TW: Emotional Abuse, Abandonment, Suicide
I'm 31 and disabled. Not so much that I couldn't work, but after a life that's torn me down, and made me figure everything out from the start, I can't take care of myself at this moment. So I live with my.. mother…
Growing up she was my hero. Looking back that was mainly by default. Daddy was scary so the bar was pretty low, and she had this “bubblyness” to her that I didn't see from anyone else in my life. I eventually found it was completely inauthentic, but an abused and neglected child didn't know any better at the time.
That bubblyness was intoxicating. I could tell myself it felt like love, and I would patiently wait for the next time I got to experience it. And wait.. I did… When I was 7 years old, she abandoned us with our dad.. and never owned up to it… For a time she tried to do the every-other-weekend thing, but over a few years she had given up entirely and settled into her routine. Four or five times a year, she would pick us up, and take us to her sister's for some holiday gathering. She was already going there anyway, and it only added about another 30min each way to pick us up. So for a meer 4-5 hours a year, she never has to admit she abandoned us!!!
That's what I thought a mom was. Someone you saw on the holidays. Someone you liked not because she took an interest in my life (no one in my family did), or taught you anything (no one in my family did), or helped me with my problems (no one in my family did), but just because she pretended to be nice to me. At the time I thought Mommy was just an addition to my life. I didn't think I was paying anything for those scraps of attention. But I did, didn't I? Instead of spending the rest of my childhood looking for the love I was denied, I threw it all away thinking I had what I needed. Mommy said she loved me? That means something right? She was just too busy, always working. I can know that for certain because she told me.. right? I didn't need any more love, I just needed to wait, and one day.. Mommy will finally have time for me.. right?
This continued until I was about 20. My father conceded the house to my stepmom, and not feeling safe alone with her, I moved in with my mom. I was so excited! It wasn't as comfortable as accommodations, but I finally got my Mommy back! Right? Now she won't need time for me because I'll be right there! I can't remember how long it took to hate it there. Probably not long, but realizing it did. At first I noticed how everything sucked, and she was kind of annoying. House is a mess, we're quite poor, but despite that she refuses any significant help. I think nothing of it. I also noticed a lot of her talking AT me. I feel wrong for finding her annoying.
Eventually I get a medical condition, and afterwards I think things are different. Mommy is taking care of me and it feels like love again! And after moving in with her, this is when I made my next biggest mistake. Looking back I can see I was being infantilized. She wanted to “take care” of everything for me. She wanted to keep me fed and housed and.. drive me places. Ooh and she gives me cannabis too! What more could I ask for? I sat on my computer for a year or two straight, until I eventually messed up both of my wrists (permanently I think?). And my mental health has tanked after literally playing video games for a year straight. So now I'm extra disabled and I've never felt like more of a burden. Every day I waited for my mom to get rid of me.. but it never happened…
Things shift around a bit, but eventually something happens to establish how things are now. My brother takes his own life, and I start to make sense of things… For the months following, she's the center of everyone's attention, including mine. Everyday I try my hardest to keep her together, as do all her friends. I didn't have friends at the time, still don't. Everyday she drinks and smokes all her problems away, and leaves what's left for me to address. Then she just puts the grief away. She got all she needed, so who else would need any?
By the time that happened, I had begun to realize what was up around here. It started with hearing how she screamed at, and blamed my brother's closest friend for his passing. Something I remember her admitting proudly. She also mentioned some pretty obvious signs of depression in my brother (I wasn't around at the time), specifically so she can dismiss them as completely normal. She also mentioned how as soon as he moved into his house, he invited her and told her she could stay as long as she needed (was staying with friends at the time), and how she made sure he knew she'd be gone as soon as she could.
Then.. she finally said something about abandoning us… “You don't know how worthless he made me feel”. ‘He’ being my father. The one I was raised by for like 20 years. Since then she's periodically brought the subject back up so she can complain about how hard it was for her, and how sorry she feels for him, all while having no interest in hearing anything I have to say about any of it. Not about how being abandoned feels. Not about growing up with my father. Not about my disabilities. Not about my brother. Not about my lack of friends. Not about my dreams. Not about anything.. Just like always…
She also drove me home drunk twice during this time. I was 28 at the time so I guess I should have been able to get myself around. But like.. I was 28 and if you're too drunk to give me a ride.. I can just figure something out. The second time, the whole ride she said “I'm a good driver” over and over again, while constantly veering to the right…
Eventually things “go back to normal”. Except now I kind of hate her. She admitted to my face that she's never thought about me in any way at all. That should be enough to turn me against her. But it's not. Nothing is… I'm so much more aware of how she always gets to say what's on her mind but acts like she's doing me a favor when she never gives me space to talk. “I don't want to pry”, she says. I notice how when she has a problem, she can cry hysterically until someone takes care of it for her.. and when I have a problem, she can cry hysterically until I bottle it up for her. Everything she says is the kind of small talk she could make with anyone, trauma dumping, or just being insecure. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry, she wants everyone to know.
Her life is miserable, she's miserable, I'm miserable, my siblings have always been miserable when they were around (one of em ded). At this point it's mainly just the two of us, with a younger sibling stopping by from time to time. But no matter what, no matter how bad things get, no matter how much free time I have, she's never once accepted any substantial help, and after getting my physical disabilities, she's literally rejected every bit of help I've ever offered. “No it's too hard for you”, “No you don't want to”, “No I have to do it”. Every single time. And when I offer to not just help with a task, but to take over a responsibility (like doing the dishes) she gets literally upset with me. Like I'm just telling her she's not good enough.
The house is a mess and things keep falling apart. We've needed a new fridge for months. I mentioned looking into finding one, she tells me her friends offered to get her one for her birthday. The very next day she says she's just going to have her friend get her something small, and she'll just get a miniature fridge herself. A month later still no fridge (after months prior of no fridge). It always plays out like this. She IS NOT doing the things, and if ever pressed she'll just say she's worthless and can't do anything. She DOES NOT want help with the things, and if ever pressed she'll just say she has to do everything. But the only way the problems get resolved is by other people taking care of them for her. It's like she's just creating plausible deniability for when people eventually take care of her. Her mother spent her final 10-15 years a complete burden on the family…
I can't have any wants or needs or hopes or dreams, because my mother decided she's the only one that can provide for me (remember it's too hard for me), but she can't provide for me (remember she keeps saying she's worthless), and so if I ever want anything more than the nothing she offers me, I'm just attacking her for not being good enough. Even though I don't want her to do anything other than let me have responsibilities so I can learn responsibilities so I can eventually learn to take care of myself. Or just don't discourage me, just leave me alone lady!
Every time I want a job she has to discourage me. When I moved out for a few months she discouraged me the entire time, and when I moved back in, the first thing I heard was “I'm so glad your back, I was so lonely”. I've asked her to not buy me junk food because it's bad for my illness and I have self control problems. “If you didn't eat junk food you won't get enough to eat”, she says, never once researching my illness (Junk food is basically negative calories for me). And I'm just wrong. Always wrong. Every idea I have, every suggestion I have, every thought I have, every feeling I have is wrong.. unless it's the one she wants me to have.
The only time I get to talk is when I'm playing along with what she's talking about. If not, she'll just shut me down, or wear her disinterest on her sleeve. I almost never respond when she talks at me, but that just means she has permission to talk as much as she wants. And if I try to say something about any of this she'll just cry. The only thing I can do is avoid her, when my life completely depends on her right now. And the moment I'm in the room with her, she just dumps out the contents of her head until I hide back in my room. Luckily she's not here most of the time, but the beginning and end of every day.. I can just feel her presence through the walls.
There's not much left to say at this point. What makes things worse is I live in a town that's a logistical impossibility for me, and the only way I could better myself here, is with the help she prides herself on denying me. It feels like she wants to just trap me here. To use me as her therapist to take care of her feelings, and to tell herself she's oh so important for taking care of me, when every day my physical and mental health is worse than the last, while she thinks I can just live off scraps and stare at the wall all day every day. Like it has been every day since I've moved in with her.
She's always the victim. She's always doing as much as she can. It's always impossible for her to take care of the important things (like raising her kids) but actually that's a good thing because they can figure it out, and besides, she doesn't want to pry. Everyone makes her feel worthless by listening to her when she says not to help her or spend time with her, instead of reading her mind and figuring out what she really wants. The only consistency to her, is everything can be traced back to the ego, but always in the worst ways. Protecting the ego isn't protecting your children from their abusive father, it's acting like it never happened to she never has to feel shame. Everything that feeds her ego is bad for everyone, and I can't take it anymore…
I plan to be homeless. I need to get better to be able to take care of myself, but I need to get away from her and here before I can get better. I have nowhere else to go, no one to turn to, probably too old to be a live-in twink for some friendly pervert (transfem but I'm early in my transition so I'm still pretty boymode), although literally everyone tells me I look a lot younger…
I need to get away from her, if it's the last thing I do. Even if I don't make it, it'll be worth it. But ya know what? I'm probably a boss ass baddie and she's just threatened by me. I bet as soon as I get away from her I'm gonna start realizing my potential. Because SHE'S the one that's always been wrong.. Not me…
Thank you for your time! Feel free to respond in any way that isn't mean!

Does my job sound bad or am I overreacting?
I’m not sure if this is the right sub. Idk if this a good flair to use.
I work for small business. I honestly do enjoy my job but my I’m not sure about my employer.
I started off as hourly. Since then, I’ve become full time.
The beginning of my employment was a little odd. My employer confided in me about some employees he wanted to fire and asked me how to go about doing that.
I was taken aback by that question but didn’t think anything of it. I now know that’s seriously wrong.
I was offered a salary later on and I took it. I also got health insurance.
I am the only employee that works full time. I am the head of a department. I take on A LOT more hours than everyone else including my employer. I work 6 days a week.
He also like to contact me on my one day off.
When things are swamped, my employer refuses to help out and will come up with an excuse for why he can’t do it.
I recently found out that I’m making the same as everyone else in the business. This made me upset but I haven’t said anything since I’m sure I’m overreacting.
Recently, my employer called me to tell me about adding more work. Instead of telling me right off the bat, he decided to start off with everything he pays for. My taxes, my health insurance, my pay, my parking spot, etc. I felt like I was being coerced. It was like he was saying I owe him for paying for all this stuff. But I’m thinking, isn’t that the cost of doing business? If you don’t want to pay for an employee, then don’t hire and don’t offer a salary and don’t offer a parking spot.
He has a high turnover rate with employees. He’s constantly scrambling to find new hires because he can’t keep anyone. Since I’ve been there (less than a year), 5 people have started and quit.
It was the coercion conversation that’s made me rethink this job. I feel like it’s only going to get worse.
The thing is, I work with clients at this job. I care about all of them. I’d feel bad for leaving. I’m also the last person standing at the business besides one other person who only works one day a week. My employer depends on me. If I quit then I’m not sure what would happen. But I also feel that that’s not my problem.
My friends tell me to get out of there. But I feel like I’m just not the kind of person to just up and leave everyone to fend for themselves.

Not finished yet but nearly done just need to know if it's decent.
Spider-Man VS The Punisher
A man walking his footsteps sounds like mini explosions as a row of computers with people typing on them. The man stops upon a window looking down to a glass cage with yellow electricity emerging from it.
“He's here, he's taking us all out. We need back up. Noooo.” The man looks at one of the scientists saying “wait for him to get here.” The man cleans up his suit and tightens his tie.
“Ohhh you're getting dressed up just for me. I shoulda brought flowers.” The man looks up where he sees a man in a red and blue webbed suit. “I should have killed you years ago. Well after today you will be.” “We both know that's not going to happen Willy. I'll arrest you and you'll escape, Rinse and repeat, it's always been like that.” The man grinds his teeth and grips his hands. “Unleash him.” the scientist looks at him and then at the computer pressing a button.
“Unleash him Fisk are you cheating on me with another hero.” as he says this a bolt of lightning strikes through the glass levitating in front of him. “You must be Spiderman. I'm electro, the man that's been tasked to kill you.” Spider-Man whispers to himself. “This guy's making my spider sense go crazy. I don't think this will go well.” he coughs then says. “Shouldn't you be at the circus.” Electro looks at Fisk and says “Leave Mister Fisk now.” Fisk and the scientists walk out into an elevator. “Don't disappoint me Max.” The elevator goes up with Spider-Man and Electro looking at each other “So electricity man are we gonna start.” He looks down to his hands where they start to glow brighter with electricity shooting out. BANG electricity shoots out his hand Spider-Man just dodging it. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG Spider-Man narrowly dodges the bolts. He creates a continuous line of lightning towards Spider-Man. Cracking Peter tries to dodge it but fails on the ground Peter feels his muscles shut down. Electro walks over to him, shocking him again. “Ahhhhhhh.” He stops Spider-Man trying to crawl away BANG “AHHHHHH.” An alarm goes off as sprinklers also go off hitting Electro causing him to grunt.
Spider-Man using this crawls up a wall into a vent leaving the building Spider-Man takes off his mask feeling the rain hit his face. He hears Fisk talking to Electro below. “Is the job done.” “No, he escaped. The sprinklers set off burning my skin.” “You let him escape. I gave you one job and failed me." Electro looks at him sternly saying “Mister Fisk you gave me these powers and you want me to kill Peter I will. You know where he lives, I can go over there and kill him and his family.” “You will do no such thing. He will not try to kill us if we just go after him he won't understand.” Electro nods and walks away with an umbrella.
Spider-Man looks at his web shooters. “Great, they're gonna have to get the train. May's gonna kill me when I get back.”
Brooklyn, New York, 21:32
“PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T DO IT. I HAVE A FAMILY LOOK. PLEASE I'LL DO ANYTHING. WHAT DO YOU WANT MONEY, POWER.” A man shouts breaking down in fear of whoever is trying to kill him. “I want to know why you do it. Why commit crime when there's hundreds of heroes. I think I know why though. They won't kill, they won't just take the godam leap and end you scumbags. So I chose to do it myself.” The man says in a deep voice wrapping a cord around his neck. He picks him up, showing him a fifteen floor drop. “No, no, please don't do this.” He starts to cry as looks at him blankly, throwing off the building with him screaming for about three seconds till the man hears a snap. “Good Riddens.”
Queen's, New York, 9:29 pm
Walking into a house a teenager walks in “Peter where have y- My god what happened to you?” Peter looks at his aunt and says “Some people tried to rob me, it's alright May.” “Did they take anything? Did you call the police.?” “No and no May I'm fine May.” He looks at May. “I'll call the police.” “DON'T. I never saw what they really looked like, you'll just waste their time.” She looks at him saying “From now on you'll be back before it gets dark.” Peter nods “Now Peter time for your cake Happy Eighteenth Peter.” Peter looks at a cake with candles on it. He blows them out “Thanks May I'm just gonna go to my room I've had a ruff day.” May looks at him. “Are you sure you don't want some cake I've made? It's your favourite.” “I'll have some tomorrow really.” Peter walks up to his room turning on the TV playing the daily bugle. “Today Spider-Man failed to capture this so-called Lizard. I think he's just too lazy to put in any work. When the police lose a suspect their back on the streets trying to find him but Spider-Man swip swap swoops his way down and destroys peoples properties.” Peter looks at it in a rage “People would have died if i wasn't there yet I don't get thanked but hated. Why do I do this?” He looks at the picture next to his bed of him and uncle Ben. The time when he didn't worry if Aunt May would see him tomorrow. If she'll be targeted by villains. “Ben would call me stupid for doing something like this. Even more stupid I was responsible for his death. I couldn't just tell him where I was, I just had to storm out. He goes looking for me and ends up getting shot. I'm sorry Ben.”
Manhattan, New York, 06:34
“What will it be?” “Coffee, milk and two sugars.” She turns around and the man looks at his watch as he checks the time. “06:36 still have seven.” “It's ready. Have an amazing day.” he hands her a ten and leaves. He walks to an old burned building. Walking in he goes up five floors and goes towards a sniper pointing out a window. He takes a sip of his coffee checking his watch. “06:42 one minute.” A minute later a limousine drives up to a small building. A man dressed in a white and gold suit walks. “Gotcha.” BANG, a single bullet from the sniper shoots the man in the head obliterating the back of his head. He walks away with screams of people running and people shouting. “It's him, Punisher, he's here.” Pointing their pistols in the air looking where the shot came from.
Queen's, New York, 7:45 am
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BE-. Bang Peter hits his alarm destroying it. “Uhh, great way to start the day.” Peter goes to the bathroom brushing his teeth. He leaves the bathroom getting changed into his new clothes then goes to check on his web shooters. “Thank god for the science lab.” Checking his costume he sees it burnt and destroyed. He messages MJ to ask her to bring his spare costume she's working on. He gets his bag and web shooters going downstairs. “Hey Aunt May I'm off to school.” “Not so fast, I've got some cake for you to take.” Petter goes up to May and takes it. “Thanks May love ya bye.” Peter walks out to the school bus.
On the bus he sits next to his girlfriend Mary Jane. “My god Pete what happened to you. Also you suits in my bag.” Peter looks at her saying “New villain in town calls himself Electro.” “You've got to stop doing this Peter really you're going to kill yourself. How many villains do you have?” Peter looks down and says “Well Theirs the lizard, Shocker, Electro, Fisk, Otto Octavius and sin eater. Don't forget about the small time.” She looks at him saying “God why do I put up with you.” “Because I'm irresistible.” She smirks.
A couple hours later Peter only had two lessons left. Peter in the back of his English class looked at his web shooters making sure they still aren't broken and that he fixed them during science. Peter looks at his phone where he sees a notification from the daily bugle saying that sandman is robbing a bank. “Can I go to the bathroom?” Peter shouts. “Sure Mister Parker uh just take the pass.” Peter takes it and leaves. He goes to the janitor's closet putting on his Spidey suit and web shooters jumping out of the window. He looks at his phone while swinging. “Sometimes I wish I had a GPS in my suit instead of needing to use Oscorpe maps.” He swings wondering why sandman is robbing a bank. “He's stupid but not this stupid to rob a bank, especially during the day.” He swings across Queensboro into Manhattan.
When he arrives the swat team surrounds the area with Captain Stacey on standby. Spider-Man drops down in front of him. “Hey.” Looking up Captain Stacey talks to Spider-Man. “Spider-Man good thing you're here we need your help. Sandman has taken over the bank and he has three hostages.” Spider-Man looks at him saying. “Guess you can say things are getting out of sand.” “Sure just when you go in don't destroy much will you.” “I won't captain you know me, just get your officer's to sand back.” Spider-Man does finger guns at Captain Stacey swinging in. “Everyone shut up. I'm gonna pay it off with this score.” Spider-Man slowly swings down “It's ironic that you're named Flint. You know because flint and steel create fire and fire turns you into glass.” “WHAT.” Spider-Man sighs as he launches a kick towards him. He kicks him with Spider-Man going straight through him as this happens he webs his feet and pulls causing him to fall. He goes to punch sandman but punches him through the glass into a police car. CRASH, the police start firing at him but they do nothing. “SPIDER-MAN GET UP.” Captain Stacey shouts at spider-man. Spider-man jumps in slingshotting himself into sandman. He goes straight through him knocking sandman back as well. “Stop this Flint, think of all the good you've done.” He jumps onto the wall looking at a fire hydrant. “Like you've no that won't cut it. Ok you haven't done anything good but that doesn't mean I have to kick your ass again.” Sandman gets up. “You think you can kick my ass again. Not happening.” Spider-Man sighs. “Ok.” Spider-Man jumps down and grabs the fire hydrant and pulls. CRACK, the fire hydrant breaks splashing water all over sandman. “I told you Flint, I always win.” Flint starts to turn into a pile of wet sand. Spider-Man webs the hydrant to stop the water then walks over to Flint. Barely able to keep your normal form. “Screw you.” Spider-Man looks over at the captain. “He's all your captain enjoy.” Spider-Man jumps onto the side of a swat van. “Where do you go when you finish?” “School, besides I'm only missing one class.” Peter says this jumping and swinging away. “About ten minutes getting there. HEY I'M SWINGING HERE. Five minutes there and ten back is enough to miss english.”
Last lesson goes pretty boring for Peter. He's thinking about the lizard and how he escaped yesterday.
Bronx, New York, 15:45
“Nah he'll be here soon. The boss says after today's shipment the police are going to leave the Bronx alone.” An unknown man, clearly a gangster in a suit, is talking to another man in a suit. “Yeah, isn't he worried, though I mean what happened yesterday? You know Freddy.” One of them says “Nah, his new guy almost killed Spider-Man yesterday. He was talking about how he was crawling to escape only got away because of the sprinklers.”
BANG, BANG, The Punisher walks into a restaurant with seven men in suits in it. “HEY WHO LET THIS GUY IN.” The Punisher grabs his M4 and start to spray into a crowd killing three of them. Two of them pull out micro uzi's shooting at him. The Punisher grabs a grenade and throws it at the bar. BANG, The grenade goes and kills the two of them. The other two put their hands up and surrendered. Frank drops his AR. BANG, BANG, He shoots them with his pistol. He walks upstairs where five line a wall of AK's. The Punisher pulls out a stun grenade throwing it at them. BANG, they all drop their guns blind and staggering The Punisher walks in picking up one of their guns firing on them all. He walks to a door with the dead piled up next to it. He kicks it open to see a man in a suit. “I wondered how long it would take for you to find me, Frank. Now I have some you want and in return you'll let me go, unde-.” BANG, “No deal.” Frank starts to pack a duffel bag with money. Once he's done he lights the office on fire and leaves.
He walks to a van getting into the driver's seat. He drives for about thirty minutes to a small house. Walking in he puts the money in the pantree where about fifteen of the same bags are. He puts on the TV playing the news and works on making bullets. “Spider-Man today was responsible for the destruction of one bank. One I go to, when i wanted to go there today I realised I COULDN'T BECAUSE SPIDER-MAN HELPED SANDMAN DESTROY IT AND WHEN THE COPS SHOWED UP HE THREW HIM UNDER AND PRETENDED TO BE THE HERO. Now why do I have to pay for it? Why doesn't he? We know who Captain America is and he destroys a bank because he's civilised and not a maniac.” Frank looks at the TV turning it off and continues working.
Manhattan, New York, 4:21
“PARKER, PARKER, these photos are blurry I'll give you fifty.” Peter looks at him “Mister Jamerson I need a hundred and twenty.” “I need better pictures.” A man walks in “We need pictures Jonah.” He looks at Peter. “Ok one twenty.” He sighs a check giving it to Peter.
Peter leaves and goes to the woman working at the desk in front. “Hey Betty.” Peter gives Betty the check to Betty who gives him the money. “Thanks.” Peter leaves the daily bugle checking phone. He sees that he's missed a call from Captain Stacey. He calls him. “ you at the station up town.” “Ok but which one?” He runs into the alley next to the bugle changing into his costume swinging away. “So which one.” “You won't miss it kid really.” The call ends. “Ok, quite weird but he didn't even say why he needed me.” It takes him about thirty seconds to realise what he's about. In the distance he sees a giant ball of electricity. “Oh no.”
“Where is it?” CRACK, BANG, Electro kills three police officers. Captain Stacey tells all the police officer's to get into the building. “YOU CAN'T HIDE.” Spider-Man swings down checking the pulse of one of the dead police officers. “no. SURRENDER NOW.” Electro flies in front of him. “Or what. At least I'll get to kill you now. Peter.” Peter feels nervous looking around and Captain Stacey shouts for him to get in. “STAY INSIDE CAPTAIN.” The captain goes to one of his men. “Is it ready?” “yeah” Electro shoots electricity at spider-man. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG. Spider-Man webs a man hole throwing it at him. Electro catches it, Spider-Man using this moment slingshots himself punching Electro multiple times. “I'M DONE PLAYING. YOU KILLED COPS I'M NOT GOING EASY.” Electro smirks at Peter creating an emp knocking Peter down. Electro drops to the ground, shocking him. “AHHHHHHH. BANG, AHHHHHHHH. BANG, AHHHHHHHH.” Electro walks up to Spider-Man who is crawling away. “Poor little Peter Parker. Once I'm done with you I'll deal with the ones you love. Rest in piece Peter Parker.” Electro charges his hands then. BANG.
Manhattan, New York, 16:23
Punisher loads his sniper talking to himself. “Really, they would kill me immediately. At least I'll kill this freak.” He toggles with the scope. “SURRENDER NOW.” “He won't do that kid” he waits for a clear shot. “YOU KILLED COPS I'M NOT GOING EASY.” he waits for his moment. Bang “AHHHHHHH.” Electros hands start to charge he lifts them. “bang.” BANG. A single bullet goes through the chest of Electro. Frank picks up his sniper and walks downstairs.
Walking down he sees Electro holding his chest on the ground and Spider-Man next to him barely alive. The Punisher walks up to Electro with a knife. “No please d-dont do this.” He gets close to Electro as tries to crawl away. The Punisher grabs him and turns him around. Fear in Electros eye's “Once I'm done with you I'll deal with your loved one's.” “No please.” The Punisher stabs him in the throat, killing him. “You know kid stay away from fisk for the next couple of days you understand. Deal with that giant lizard terrorising the city. Got me Parker.” Peter just looks as he starts to lose consciousness. “Good.” Gorge Stacey and his men leave the building telling The Punisher to surrender. He walks away as no one dares goes to arrest him. Gorge gets his men to help Peter.
Manhattan, New York, 7:32 pm
“You've got to take it easy kid. The doctors said you could have died.” Peter listens to Captain Stacey saying. “I know but with this guy out there, bloods gonna spill in the streets.” The Captain sighs. “So what are you going to do.” Peter coughs “I'm going to try and find the lizard first.” “Stay safe kid.” Peter jumps of the empire state building swinging through the city calling MJ to tell May he's staying at hers tonight.
Thirty minutes Later Peter hears on the police radio that a giant lizard is destroying Oscorpe. Swinging over he feels the stitches in him starting to rip.
When he arrives he sees a fire and a chunk of the side of the building gone. He swings in where fire and dead security guards are. “W-who is he?.” He hears a continuous clicking sound. “There aren't any alien space hunters down there, ha ha.” He laughs nervously. Suddenly a human sized lizard runs towards him trying to eat him. He dodges jumping on a wall “Hey I'm from the zoo, they said a lizard needed to be put down. That doesn't make sense. I don't kill. Hey no bitey.” He sees on the lab coat he's wearing it says Dr Connors. Still dodging “Connor's wait Curt Connors how did you. AHHH.” The Lizard scratches Spider-Man across the chest leaving a claw mark. Spider-Man looks up and sees him jumping to bite him. Spider-Man cartwheels backwards into a jump webbing his head and face planting him. “If you chill out I'll give you a box of insects to eat.” The Lizard gets up. “AHHHHHHHH.” Spider-Man looks at him. “Uh I don't know what to say to that. Raw maybe." As Spider-Man gets ready to attack, the Lizard's left arm starts to turn grey. It looks at it and runs away. Spider-Man swings after him through the streets of Manhattan “YOU MIGHT UGLY BUT I'M FINE WITH IT YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUN.” As he swings the lizard throws a hotdog stand at him. He webs it to a wall and keeps swinging. “SERIOUSLY A HOTDOG STAND IF YOU DON'T STOP I'LL TURN YOU INTO A LIZARD DOG. WELL I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY.” The lizard goes into an alley into a sewer. Spider-Man follows him slingshotting himself in shouting. “YEAAAAH.”
Inside of the sewers Peter looks around and sees only one way forwards. He crawls ol the walls seeIng the destruction Connor's did. “UH MISTER CONNOR'S, CURT, LIZARD, ANYONE. AM I JUST TALKING TO MYSELF, YES, why did I shout that.” He keeps crawling till he hears shouting. “PLEASE I DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.”
Manhattan, Sewers, New York, 19:28
“Where is this freak? This vermin to society.” The Punisher walks through the sewers trying to find the rat killing innocent people. “HISSSS.” He hears a hiss and feels something watching him. “SHOW YOURSELF YOU FREAK OF NATURE.” A black figure crawls out from the shadow. “Tries to hurt me, hurt Edward. AHHHH.” He hisses and screams at him. He goes to attack him but The Punisher unloads bullets from his M4. Vermin shouts in pain “AHHHHHHHH.” Frank slowly followed him. “YOU CAN'T RUN VERMIN. I'LL KILL YOU MATTER WHAT. I'LL DO WHATEVER, YOU'RE COWARD THAT PREY ON THE WEAK.” “Vermin doesn't prey on the weak. I DON'T HAVE CONTROL, AHHHH. Vermin needs to eat, Edward needs to live.” he scurries away. After a minute of walking he arrived in a circular area where Vermin threw him in. “AHHHHH. Vermin will kill you now.” Frank picks his M4 up again, shooting him. He screams crawling up the wall. The Punisher pulls the trigger when vermin is above it and doesn't do anything. He checks the mag to see it's empty. Vermin drops down Scratching Frank across the face. He pulls out his pistol shooting him in the eye. “AHHHHHH, AHHHHH.” Frank goes up and shoots him on the head, killing him.
He hears a scream further down. Going down the tunnel he sees lab equipment and a lizard transforming into a person. “The Lizard, perfect timing.” Limping, he goes over to The Lizard waiting for him to transform. “AHHHHH, AHHHHHHHHH, HELP PLEASE, AHHHHHHH.” Frank just stands there till he transforms. He pulls his pistol out and points it at Connor's. “You're the lizard. What's your name? WHAT YOUR NAME?” “Connor's. Dr Curtis Connors.” Frank starts to pull the triggers. “PLEASE I DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.”
Peter drops down in front of him webbing his pistol. “We don't kill people, understand.” The Punisher grits his teeth “Back off kid really.” “So you can kill him. Like you did Electro. You told me you were going against Fisk, why are you going for The Lizard.” The Punisher smirks at Peter, making nervous. “I wasn't here for him. It's just a coincidence.” Peter stands there wondering what's next. The Punisher runs towards him Peter jumps over him kicking him in the back. The Punisher hits his head knocking him to the ground Peter uses this to web him up.
“Ok we need to get outta here understand.” Connor's nods and starts to pack his stuff. “I won't kill you kid.” Peter looks at him. “Good because neither will I.” “I'm ready Spider-Man.” Curt says to Peter “Alright let's get outta here.” Peter swings Curt Connors out of the sewers
Manhattan, New York, 8:53 pm
“Ok you need a cure. Uhh, I've got it. I'll take you to the Baxter building. Reed can help you.” Connors thinks. “What if he finds me?” Peter sighs. “It's probably got more security than the raft and it's got four of the best heroes in the world in there.” Connors agrees and Peter swings him there.
When he gets there they walk in. Peter shouts. “REED YOU HERE. REED RICHARDS.” “Peter.” They turn around to see Sue. “Hey Miss Richard's I need your help.” She looks at Peter then at Connor's “What's wrong Peter are you in trouble.” Peter looks at her then Connors. “Not me. Have you ever heard of The Punisher?” She looks confused. “Uhh no why.” “He's trying to kill him. He needs a secure place to stay. And he needs a cure to stop him from turning into a lizard.” She looks. “What about you? Will he kill you?” He sighs “No he won't. He just wants to kill villains.” She looks at Connors saying “Reed is out but he'll be back soon he can make you a cure. Be safe Peter this stuff doesn't end well.” Connor's looks at Peter “Thanks Parker I would never expect you to be a superhero. Miss Richards, can you get my family?”
Peter leaves, going to the top of the Baxter building for some peace. “I'm too tired. I just want to go home but I need to find Fisk.” He checks the wound Connor's left. “I'm losing too much blood. My costume is destroyed and I helped the guy escape death. How am I going to explain this to May my wounds? I can't believe it. First day as an adult and I might not live to see the second. Uncle Ben must think I'm stupid.” He shakes his head. “I've got to go to Fisk tower and warn him.” Peter swings to Fisk tower.
Manhattan, New York, 9:01pm
Spider-Man arrives feeling light headed. He swings up to the office where Fisk and his men are sitting. He opens the door, his men immediately pointing their guns at him. “DROP YOU WEAPONS.” Fisk tells his men. Reluctantly they do Peter Limping towards him. “I need to warn you. A guy, a guy is uh is uh going to kill you.” His voice started to slur and he was barely able to keep his eyes open.” Fisk walks towards him. “You two get the medics now.” Peter falls unconscious.
Waking up Peter wonder's where he is looking around and he sees medical equipment. He gets up and walks through a pair of doors into a room full of men and Fisk working at a desk. “You're awake. You've been out for nine hours.” Peter realises that his face is exposed and Fisk notices this. “We all know who you are, Parker.” Peter walks up to him. “Why did you save me? You're goon tried to kill me yesterday.” Fisk calmly got up saying. “Yesterday you came to warn me. I knew why because of the Punisher. When you came here you were close to death. I saved you because. I need you to defeat the Punisher. I've asked every mercenary in this city and it's the same answer. No before Punisher was a myth but now after the men he's killed. The only one who can defeat him is you.” Peter looks at him. “Who's to say I'll stop him.” “Because yesterday you came here to warn me. The only one who wants me dead that can do anything is him.” Peter looks at him. “Where's my stuff.” Fisk clicks his Fingers and one of his men comes over to Peter giving him his phone, suit and web shooters. Putting them on Peter goes to the window telling Fisk. “Thanks Fisk. You really should leave the city.” Peter swings away.
Queen's New York, 6:09 pm
Peter swings through Queens arriving at his girlfriend's house. He goes to her window knocking on it. She wakes up opening it. When Peter enters he takes off his mask. “I can't do it anymore Peter last night you never showed up. I thought you were dead. This Electro almost killed you and the lizard. Peter I ju- AHH.” She screams seeing Peter's face covered in stitches. “I'm not that ugly.” Peter jokes but MJ says. “What happened yesterday.” Peter sits down “It's a long story.”
Manhattan, New York, Sewers, Time Unknown
“DOWN HERE, THERE'S A LAB.” Two police officers walk down the sewers seeing a lab. They both walk into Connor's lab looking around. “What the hey Chris, what is this place? Chris.” Click the police officer feels a gun to the back of his head. “I'm going to take your gun and handcuffs. And Chris is alright just incapacitated.” Frank takes the cop's gun and handcuffs him to a metal pole.
Leaving the sewers Frank feels the cold air on his face. Checking his watch he realises it is broken. He goes to his van and drives off to his house.
When he gets inside he goes to the kitchen checking the clock. “Wasn't down there for long.” He puts on the TV while he makes shotgun shells. “Breaking news this morning we have word that Spider-Man and the Lizard destroyed Oscorpe hours ago, fleeing in the sewers. They also found the cannibal serial killer known as Vermin dead. They say it's a man dressed in black wearing a white skull on his chest. Now I don't condone murder but I want to personally thank this heroe for dealing with someone Spider-Man probably thinks isn't worth his time.” Punisher looks at the TV and at his shotgun loading. “That's all for now J, Jonah, Jamerson signing off.”
Frank goes into his pantree grabbing a bag of cash. He looks in it seeing about hundred and fifty grand. He takes it to his van with him driving off.
Manhattan, New York, 04:41
Frank walks into a small café and enters. “Mister Castle, quite a busy night was it.” Frank walks up giving him the bag of money. “Do you have the thing?” the man clears his throat. “Yes, your coffee is ready. Hot, two sugars and no milk. That'll be one dollar fifty cents.” Frank looks at the bag and at the device he's buying. He picks it up and leaves. “Keep the change.”

Here is how I started my campaign, I designed an encounter involving a simple choice, outcome that lets the rivalry between players and Ayo team begin naturally, and a way for rudium to show up early (my players were really interested to find out more about it). I'm now 14 (5-6h long) sessions deep in the Call of the Netherdeep, during the faction quests in Ank’Harel.
My party started at level 3, on session zero (with roleplay only) they decided how they met and formed a team. Proper campaign started when they were on their way to Jigow, to prove themselves in the Festival of Merit.
Let me know what you think, this is my first real contribution to this subreddit and I've used so many other wonderful things that were posted here! :)
They arrive in Jigow, the town is in festival preparation mode, but there have been problems. Outside the town we find a caravaner (blonde, richly dressed elf) Estelar Naeharice that is arguing with a (bald and half-naked goblin) Briord'e. Aurora Watch officer Durth Mirimm is trying to calm them down. Durth asks the team that is waling by for help.
Turns out that the goblins, while excavating at the foot of a small 'Bald' mountain in the north, came across a strange red ore. As they began to excavate it, they heard a strange, masculine scream (Alyxian's hurtfull memory trapped in the stone) and after a moment something attacked them (I described it as a sand worm, using bulette statistics. One goblin was killed and the rest fled towards the road where a circus caravanner with two carriages happened to be travelling, one carriage contained a trained (circus attraction) mother owlbear and the other her baby owlbear. The goblins managed to escape because the monster threw itself at the cage with the baby, gobbled it up and took it underground. After that the mother owlbear ripped open her cage and fled into the forest in a rage.
Briord is willing to pay 200 gold pieces to kill the sand worm. Estelar Naeharice blames the goblins for bringing the sand worm towards his caravan. For bringing the mum owlbear back alive, he also offers 200 gold pieces. Despite the team's offer to help, the elf and the goblin continue to argue and shout. After getting angry, the goblin suddenly offers 300 gold pieces for... a dead owlbear to roast the beast for dinner. The elf, in response, decides to offer 300 gold pieces for a live worm, which he would train and make into an attraction.
So now players think they can kill/bring two monsters and can decide what to do with each, with more money being offered by one quest giver to spite the other one.
They heroes go to the nearby forest (which I described as a thicket of trees with bloody-red leaves) to find the ruined cages and the caravan. There are indeed traces of a battle there. The worm escaped to the north where it eventually hid underground and the owl-bear, although chasing it at first, later turned back and headed south from the caravan.
The trick here is, that chasing or tracking the monster will take a long time, and in the meantime Durth will ask Ayo and her team to do the same thing. When players return to the ruined caravan with one of the monstera caught/killed, they will find tracks of someone else being here, and can spot from the distance their rivals returning to Jigow dragging a corpse of the other beast.
This can spark their interest in that other group and allow for fun roleplay encounters during or before the festival.
As for the monsters themselves. Owlbear: Beast is corrupted with rudium from contact with corrupted sand worm. This section involves survival checks and later a chase, with finally a battle among the trees that the owlbear will use to protect its rear end, to not allow them to flank it. I also gave +2 to its AC and rolls and some HP boost. You can add legendary actions like additional attack or her attacking the tree to make it fall on the character. Players will need to provide a solution for taking the furious beast alive.
Sand worm: Beast is also corrupted with rudium. Following the tracks, they make their way through the dense forest to the mine where the beast has made its lair. If they battle outside, it will be easier, but they need to figure out how to draw the beast out. If they fight inside, the mine is a small cave with a couple sources of rudium in the walls. The beast can use legendary actions to explode the rudium, or to attack walls, trying to collapse the mine with heroes in. Players will need to provide a solution for taking the furious beast alive.
How did the corrupted sandworm get here? That's the riddle that the players will maybe much later figure out. Mine explanation was, that the summoning of the Jewel in Jigow also transformed some of the rudium and Alyxian influence to Wildemount, with the sandworm being in a wrong place, and getting corrupted.
Enjoy!

Huge shout out to u/ryguy637 & u/-Eterox for helping with Brainstorming and Co-Writing this.
As always, all credits for the original Nature of Predators and it's content goes to Space Paladin15, thank him for allowing artist and writers to use his original work of art for their own uses.
Gaian Ref Sheet-Here, Done by the artist u/Roddcherry
As well as a *Huge* thank you for Julian Sky's for filling in for being an editor again for this chapter! This chapter will be pulling away from the subject memory transcription, instead exploring one of the new regions within the Venian Commonwealth. The "Dark Corner"
[FIRST] [PREV] [NEXT]
"This program is a special update to the Thafki Advocacy’s situation on their new home world, Ayzife. Originally we here at WTWN had done a piece a couple of years back towards the last days of the War, and now we wanted to send one of our reporters to find out- has anything changed? With that, we'll let Rux Limpbut take it away for this one. And please do be aware, user discretion is advised.”
The date of my arrival to Ayzife, the new Thafki homeworld, had arrived. It was a part formally called by our government the “New Re-Seeding Sector”, but It had gained a painful nickname as quickly as it was given its government one. “The Dark Corner”.
A group of Thafki, listless and confused, is shown, as a small group of Gaians seem to herd them back into a recently finished project. A Gaian man is showing us around, telling us of the hardships, his face has been blurred for their safety.
“What am I to do?” The thick Mountaineer accent rang out from the man’s scarred face. He was one of the first officers that had come across the cattle ranches and the true extent of the horror that laid within them. “The adults can't speak, they can't learn. The children are really the only hope…” his accented voice trails off as he checked within some of the residences, some of the seemingly adult Thafki, stunted and confused, are being hand fed. They do not respond to any orders, at least not to ones in any other language except that of the prey killers, or that of our Horned and able bodied Sister species.
The children are crowded around their parents, speaking in a mix of Thafki and a Piggish- like squealing imitation of Arxur. One approaches me and the cameraman, asking us a question.
“Savageness?” They eek out. Compared to the parents, the children seem blissfully unaware to what they or what their loved ones went through, their eyes shining brightly, even if they're glazed over in a mountain of unrealized horror. Our guide calls over a shabbily dressed Thafki, in an overly large uniform. Hand-me-downs from our sister species. It has been hemmed to solgalik and back, but it was still painfully apparent that it barely fit comfortably.
The Thafki, as I was to learn later, “Guzifi” or police, takes the child away and back into the building we peered into. Our cameraman zooms into the back of their necks, a painfully visible barcode and scratched in number can be seen. I stand aghast, before our guide comes back to us, his eyes sullen and shrunken into his head, hammered with fatigue.
“As I was saying…*most* of them can't do anything. But the ones like Curzix there-” he gestures to the man, who is now knelt down, stroking the child's hair, a faint giggle echoing in the sparse abode “-He escaped early into his stint, it hardened him. He was one of the first to sign up once we finished the terraforming process at the beginning of this year.”
We are hurried on, “Curzix” soon rejoins us as we continue to inspect and report. Only months ago this entire section we were in was a barren wasteland, only recently finished terraforming. Now? It's crammed with tightly knit buildings, services, and other amenities. But it's not enough. “Reservists” from our Sister species, as they called them, are the majority of people dealing with the Thafki here, only a handful of Guzifi are to be seen amongst the crowds and herd of broken.
Soon we find ourselves in a “rehabilitation” facility, so to speak, the local baker is the first to greet us, head to toe in traditional thafkian garb, and a small basket of baked goods they had made earlier this morning. She gestures for us to take some, which me and the cameraman do.
“And this-” the Provincial-Governor who had been tailing with us begins, before the Thafki finishes for him
“I'm Zaifi.” She sticks her hand out, and I do the same in kind. I quickly noted that she seemed to be the only light in this icker of dark, bitter sadness that assuaged us. She turns around and begins to wander through the halls as we begin to trail behind her, questions outpouring.
“Are you one of the Free Thafkis that came here?” I ask, she nods in response while clearing her throat..
“Yes. I might be one of the few to even go so far as to say my life's been better since I came here.” She responds. I nod along, taking her words in as I take a bite of the customary “Cionn” bread.
It's one of the signs of the Thafki Advocacy's-now Thafki Republic-Efforts to Re-Seeding their culture and themselves. I'm later told it's an offshoot of a more savory dinner bread, softer and less sweet called Uniffin'Dath, although I'm also told that that type of bread is used in conjunction with Striou (not Strayu) soup.
While I do so, however, I take glances behind me and to the sides of me. Behind me, the Gaian Sector-Governor, Halim and the Thafki Republic’s first Councilor, Ralikenn are having a heated discussion. Something our camera notices as he increases the sensitivity on the recording equipment.
“...I can't believe you all….a junta that…” are the words picked up from Ralikenn, as Halim begins to frown heavily, and begins to speak back.
“... Can't you… supplies arrived…” The discussion continues as Zaifi grabs my attention, the cameraman I'm with peering into the doors we pass by.
The camera pans to Thafki children, in various states of appearance, are sat down in school desks. At the front of their rooms either a Gaian or Thafki teacher can be seen, teaching anything from their language, their dress code, etiquette and more. Soon the camera pans back to Rux and Zaifi.
“So while I serve the food here, I also try and show them the history of us and our resilient culture through it. The background of it, how it came to be and how it weaves with us.” Zaifi continues as we walk down the hallway, she veers off into one of the rooms, and hesitantly I follow.
The inside was quite well worn for how new the building was, already indentations, marks, and other scratches and scuffs could be seen. Signs of hard work and labor, something that is unsurprising considering Zaifi and her duties. As she begins to work, it's time for me to ask her about her thoughts on the situation.
“Compared to the last couple of decades, where do you think your species is at now? I mean, a lot has changed. From being a species with the large portion of your population being cattle to now having a government and world handed to you, it's got to be a bit jarring?”
Zaifi nods, the trademark pearls on a brooch around her neck click and clack gently together, the synthetic pearls a sign of what the Advocacy group had been able to hold on to throughout the centuries.
“Well-” she starts off, as she begins to knead a greenish-blue dough on the distinctly brown work surface, the faint smell of Saltwine being smelt from where I was standing. “I wish we got a welcome, as good as the Paltans and the Gaians gave us. I mean, they split half and half on things here and there around the village!”
The camera pans around the room, bits and baubles of Zaifi’s own life being dotted around it. A bottle or two of sea wine, a basket of synthetic pearls, hints of oceanic theming bedazzle the room.
Zaifi begins to portion out the Bread-a serving of Cionn. A serving of the more savory Uniffin'Dath. Both are seasoned with a spice that is only rarely mentioned in some cookbooks, “Izuzdath.” The process is lively, a stark contrast to last year's report at a holding world as they finished terraforming here.
If you were to have told me that a Thafki would be smiling while knee deep in this grime that is misery, I would've called you a liar. But apparently…
“So how long have you been around here? Or rather should I say, with the herd?” I ask. It causes Zaifi to stop and look at the basket of pearls. Each of them are inscribed with a loved or close one that died, and the date on which they did so. Many of them aren't her relatives, rather they are the few Thafki she has bonded with while staying here.
“Physically? Only…a year or two. But mentally-” The dull sound of the bread being put upon a pre-oiled stone, an smoothed coral stone no less, echoed softly while the grinding of such a stone sliding into one of the waiting ovens as it did so was a stark contrast. The clasp of the oven door closing caused her to turn back to us. She sighs as she pats down her apron.
“Centuries. I guess we grew accustomed to being the odd ones out. Now that my herd- my people, have a place to call their own…” She is sullen for a moment, before her eyes meet the window, overlooking a courtyard. The smile reappears just as quickly as it disappeared.
“Ya know. I'll take this for now, the funniest thing ya know-” she gestures to me to come over and look. The courtyard has a simple watery filled pit. A “pool” as our sister species had dubbed it, seemed to be the eye and star of this little facility, at least for the attendee's. A whole gaggle of Thafki children, in a wardrobe of mismatched, shabby clothing suited for the water could be seen as they ran about it. What I could only assume was their teacher watched over them.
“Your saplings are quite the good match. Even they seem to want to bring the water to themselves sometimes.” She says to herself now in a far more reassured tone. As I begin to smile myself, just a little, a tap is felt on my shoulder. It's Curzix, the Guzifi that has been assigned to us.
The camera now zooms out from the pool and the other recreational activities happening in the center of the U-shaped facility, and turns around quickly, now focusing on Rux and Curzix.
“We'll we're ready to go when you are, you all wanted to get the full experience yeah?” Curzix stuffs his paws into the oversized and hemmed coats pockets, the armband with the symbol of Guzifi. He meanders off as we begin to follow him, I say my goodbyes to Zaifi, and she returns them in kind as we are led back out of the hallway.
We start off now checking the facility in depth, taken into one classroom in particular. It is here that our cameraman points out something peculiar. The extreme range of coloring in the Thafki children here. Looking past numerous ranch markings, numbering, and a word inscribed on the arm of each in the Ruinous Lizards language, the Thafki children are striking.
The camera makes cuts to each of the Thafki children in the room. The variety of blues is numerous. Some are in a vibrant luscious blue, other ones have a dull, greyer one. And yet these are the least eye-catching ones. Some have sporadic spots. Some have a sickly greenish blue hue. And yet some are completely devoid of their regular blue, replaced with a dull brown. The camera now returns to overlooking the entirety of the room from the doorway.
As I entered the room the teacher, who had requested that their face be blurred, comes to me and shakes my hand. They gesture to the Thafki pupils, who are in varied state of affairs. Some of them are paying attention, while others are far more focused on their desks or some portion of the wall.
“You came in at a good time, we're trying to teach them Thafki. It's been a bit of a struggle, but we've been making some slow and small progress.” the teacher comes alongside one of the brightly colored pupils, resting their hand gently on their shoulder. The child flinches for a bit, expecting something as they tense up, before they relax.
“Are they a handful?” I ask to the teacher as they themselves point onto a piece of paper in front of the pup, pointing something out
“From time to time. But whenever the horned fellows come along they calm down quite a bit.” the Thafki’s eyes dart occasionally from the paper on the desk to the doorway behind us, looking back shows the Sector-Governor that has been with us this entire time.
The last time we had visited a rehabilitation center-albeit it was just after the war had wrapped up-the facility was in a far more ramshackle situation compared to now, but while the situation is improving, there's still more to do.
With our little visit to the center done our entourage made our way outside. As we did so a rumbler, an armored vehicle used by our other half, came rolling by. A gaggle of Thafki on it, a Gaian within the group giving us a glance as they went by.
It's here where the uncomfortable nature and scandalous portion of the Re-Seeding comes in. The Laborer gangs, seen as a solution to perceived laziness on Ayzife from some of the Ex-Cattle. The concept is basic and rudimentary both in premise and execution, anything simple is offered up to the gangs first, before giving up to the more general labor sections assigned to the planet.
We keep trudging along, the plethora of buildings being assembled or constructed is numerous along the trail we're taking. Along our way, Ralikenn begins to talk about how far they've come in such a short time span. He gestures to the buildings before he begins to speak.
“All of this-” Our cameraman moves and angles his camera to the row of unfinished buildings, in various states of construction. “In just about a year, it's nearly unbelievable to be honest. I had, tearfully, resigned myself to a forgone conclusion to our species. But now?-” They begin to tear up clearly overwhelmed at this point, they attempt to speak but all that happens is their mouth staying agape for mere moments, before closing and just shaking their head.
And yet there's still more to see. More to do and more to make right. I only hope we can do it in time, as a herd.

I always knew I was different. I was always fascinated with death and the macabre. I remember when I was younger I would perform experiments on animals and insects. I would maim animals then starve them for a few days before putting them in pits to fight for their survival. Although the winners usually met a grizzly end just the same. I was often distracted when talking to people wondering how they would look like in their final moments.
When I was eleven my parents took me on a road trip holiday. They packed the car up and we set off across the country, the idea was we would visit several of the states and see the lesser known treasures that they held. I’d fallen asleep in the back of the car. I was woken by sound of horns and metal crunching into metal. Glass exploded all around me and the smell of gasoline and other oils filled my nostrils. My dad and the other driver were killed instantly. My mum held on a bit longer probably scared to leave me alone. We were on a country road and it was a time before mobile phones. I was alone with the dead and dying and other than a few bumps I was in good shape. I sat in the back of that car surrounded by destruction and listened as my mother took her final breaths. The strangest thing was I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t sad or angry, I had no emotion for the events that had made me an orphan, but as I sat listening to my mother gurgle and gasp I could feel my cock getting harder. Slowly I began to stroke myself to the sounds of my mother dying. I don’t know if it was prepubescence but I didn’t finish it just felt good.
I’m not sure how long I sat in the car for before I decided to get out and look at the other bodies. The man driving the other car had veered into our lane and hit us head on. The sudden impact had ejected him from his seat, his face was half sticking through the glass, I could see white from his skull in places as his face had essentially been peeled back. I looked back at my parents who sat in their metallic coffin crumpled around them. By the time the police arrived it was dark. After the accident I was awarded some money by the state and sent to live with my aunt until I matured enough to collect it.
I continued with my fascination of death using animals and bugs but I had also found a new thrill, car wrecks. I bought a scanner radio so I could listen for any accidents local enough that I could ride to them. But they didn’t hold the same excitement as being there when they happened. Being alone with the person as their life ebbed away was something very special. It wasn’t long before I started trying to stage accidents. I would place things in the road trying to cause vehicles to swerve or have a blow out in the hopes that they would crash in front of me but they never did.
I wouldn’t say I have an endless pot of money but I have enough that I don’t need to work yet can still afford to buy certain things and not worry. I bought an old wreck, fixed it up and modified it so I could take the impact of a head on smash, then I would cruise dark roads looking to fulfil my needs. There’s something mystical about those last few moments when a person passes, the air feels colder yet more alive, electrical almost, it’s hard to explain unless you feel it for yourself. I suppose it’s like when the air is charged right before a lightning strike. You can taste it in the air, its smell hangs heavy around you.
I witnessed many people passing, I had to help one or two but that’s not the same, it’s exhilarating don’t get me wrong being the direct cause as their life slips away, but it’s not the same, it takes away the focus. This was my drug, my ecstasy, it was all I could think about day and night. The trouble with highs is you’re always chasing them and at some point catching them isn’t enough. They become stagnant. Now the itch required a different way to scratch. I tried many different things including torturing one guy who seemed pretty unscathed from the accident, maybe he’d fell asleep. I even had sex with a woman as she passed but nothing scratched that itch I needed more, I needed….. something.
It happened by mistake, a happy little accident. I hit the car as I usually did , but this time it ignited! A spark from underneath just lit it up. The driver was unconscious but the passenger oh! how she screamed. I had found the backscratcher to my itch. I started keeping gasoline and matches in my car so I could finish it by flame every time. I think I had done three or four when I saw her. She was naked and she was dancing but there was no denying the image in the flames were my mother in all her glory beckoning for me to come and dance with her. We could be together again as a family if I just took her hand. I sat and I watched her dancing in the flames longing to be with her again but fearing the pain of her touch. For now my itch is forgotten, I have a new desire, I want NO! I need to see her again. I need to see her dancing. That’s where you come in. You are going to help me get back to her. Through you her vision can be released. It’s ok if you scream, it can be the song to which she dances.