Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]

Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]

Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]

Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]

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​
---Sample---
​
---Fnurfar’s perspective---
---2710 Terran Calenda3 years BF---
All six of my paws desperately scramble against the slick pavement of the Prosperity back alley as I flee for my life!
Pursuing me… is a monster!
His species aren’t meant to be sprinters!
They said if it came to a chase, I just needed to quickly get out of his line of sight and keep going and he’d not be able to keep up!
I skid around a corner and steal a glance behind me, seeing two furious eyes moving towards me so fast that they seem to leave streaks of emerald green behind them as afterimages!
The Fury is so close on my tail that he’s almost certain to catch me now!
It would be laughable how much my… ‘employers’ had underestimated him if it weren’t so terrifying!
‘You’ve got a Terran with you! There should be no issue!’
Yes, that idiot mercenary they hired almost had me going with his smug, arrogant proclamation that ‘Big=slow! Slow=dead!’ as he idly showed off his little knife tricks!
My confidence lasted up until the very moment I saw the one we were supposed to rob!
[20cm] taller than the skinny mercenary and looking like he could easily weigh twice as much, the man was a Hunt damned beast compared to the one who was meant to protect me from him!
I think Flynn reassessed his cocksure attitude as well because, rather than waiting for me to have an opening like we agreed in the [fucking] plan, he just drew a knife and tried to stab the monster to death!
An extremely poorly calculated risk!
There was no competition!
This juggernaut dealt with Flynn as easily as Flynn could have dealt with me!
It took him a matter of seconds to dispatch my accomplice but that was a matter of seconds where he was distracted enough that I was able to snag what we had been after… not that it makes any difference now!
Just as I hear thundering footfalls coming up on my left, powerful fingers impact the space between the bottom of my neck and the top of my top shoulderblades.
I’m slammed into the ground… but not killed…
I can feel the power contained in the iron grip around my neck…
I know that decapitating me would be as simple as deciding to close his fingers but, as I wait for death to come, it doesn’t…
Instead, the hand slides up my shoulders, gathering the loose skin and lifting me up like a kit in her parent’s mouth…
The first thing I’m able to see is the monster’s flat, booted feet, followed by a pair of long thick legs, then a chest and left arm covered in a loose fitting, buttoned shirt, patterned with vertical and horizontal lines.
The red fabric of his top disguises the bloodstain from the wound he got from Flynn, just below his shoulder. However, the nauseatingly metallic smell of it absolutely fills my nostrils!
The final thing to be revealed, as my feet hang more than [a metre] from the ground, is a face… the scarred skin a pale beige, the white, calcite teeth bared in a furious grimace, copper coloured eyebrows tilted downward in the middle over a nose, wrinkled with anger, and emerald eyes, burning with rage!
His shoulders rise and fall, in time with panted breaths he sucks in and out through his gritted teeth, putting me less in mind of a person (or even an animal) catching their breath after exertion and more in mind of some hulking piece of machinery from the Steam Age venting its pressure!
The Terran extends his pallid skinned, long fingered, furless, pentadactyl left hand to me, stained with the ferrous blood that’s run down his sleeve, and growls “Sample!”
“No…” I breathe, terrified.
“GIRL! I AIN’T fuckin’ PLAYIN’ with you!” he snarls, curling all but his index finger and jabbing it towards my snout “You’re gonna. GIVE. BACK. what you. FUCKIN’. STOLE!”
“You… can take it… from my corpse…” I defy, clutching my exhausted, trembling pawhands to the front of my jumpsuit.
Effortlessly, his free hand comes forward, batting my four aside, before pinching the top of the stasis vial and pulling it free, with there being absolutely nothing I can do to stop him!
He holds up the tube, in which is visible a small plant with a rosette of frilly black leaves and through which can be seen a frozen impression of the room it was in when it was stasised, demanding “You’re really willin’ to die for this!? For corporate espionage?!… Why the fuck’s this matter to you like that?!?!?!”
“I don’t care… about the plant… at all…” I answer, defeated.
His face twists in a sneer as he asks “Then why tell me I had to pry it from your cold. dead. hands!?”
“Because… if I come back… emptyhanded… they’re going to… torture my husband… and son… and make me watch!… If I don’t… come back… at all… maybe they’ll let them go!” I pant in answer.
His face falls blank… but I can tell that is not because he’s no longer angry!
Instead, his redoubled rage has gone from white hot to ice cold as he leans in and demands “Who’s ‘they’?”
---2715 Terran Calenda2 years AF---
“One!?” demands the sceptical, lutrine, Nvar man, one of six listening to my story for the first time (along with the two friends who’ve heard it before), holding up a webbed pawhand and extending a single finger “You’re trying to tell us that one Terran dismantled the entire Giluspri Sisters’ Syndicate, overnight!?… Simply because you told him a sob story about them holding your family hostage!?”
“I did say you wouldn’t believe me(!)” I smirk, lifting my drink to take a sip.
“You’re damn right I don’t believe you!!!” he sneers “It might have been a little more believable if you’d made it a team of a dozen or so Terrans that were guarding this thing but one!?… There’s no way it took a single individual a single night to root out and entirely destroy an enterprise that Prosperity’s government had been hunting for nearly [2 decades], even if that individual was a Terran!”
I place my drink down on the table and turn the palms of all four pawhands to the ceiling as I say “Believe me or don’t… that’s exactly how it happened!”
“Hmmm… Don’t know ’bout ‘exactly’…!” comes a familiar voice from behind my head, in the next booth over.
I freeze and straighten my back.
The friends and audience in my booth are looking past me, curiously, but, from their faces, it doesn’t look like they can see anything.
I stand and slide out through the gap between the table and Nafnarl’s footpaws.
I turn right and am immediately able to see that the booth next to us is occupied by a mixture of Terrans and some much smaller humanoids with green skin.
I keep going, rounding the partition to reveal…
“By the Hunt! Victor?!” I exclaim, seeing the man sat with his back almost exactly to where I was sitting, next to another tall, slim humanoid with blue skin and four arms.
His copper hair is much longer, his face isn’t as scarred and isn’t wearing the disgusted sneer that characterised so much of the time he and I spent together but… there’s no mistaking it!
The man turns his head, smiling, before standing up to nearly twice my height and extending a palm to ruffle the fur between my ears, saying “How’s it goin’, Foxy? You look a lot better ’an you did last time I saw you at least(!)” gesturing with his other hand up and down my less skinny and less visibly scarred body.
“Never mind that, Victor! What are you doing here?! You didn’t tell me you were coming back to Prosperity!”
He smirks “Yeah, sorry Foxy… It’s a loose lips sink ships kinda deal… Just thought I’d show my friends here the bar you brought me to celebrate after everythin’ was done that time… Didn’t think I’d actually run into you here!”
I stare up at the man, agog, for a few moments before reaching up with both my left hands and closing them around his wrist.
He allows me to drag him back to the head of my table.
“Nafnarl! Gfurnaf! This is him! This is the one I’ve been telling you about for the last [5 years]!” I say to my two Graufna friends before turning to the rest of the table to declare “He’s the man who took down the Giluspris! He’s Victor ‘Cuddles’ Taylor!”
With mirthful bemusement, the Terran raises his left palm to the table to smile “Y’alright guys!” before his eyes scan the faces and his expression goes concerned. He turns to me and asks “Your hubby alright, Foxy?”
I bare my teeth (I hope friendlily) and answer “Fnarnulf’s fine, Victor!… Fuffarn too! This is just a girl’s night…” gesturing at my two friends “…or… it was(!)” gesturing over the four men and two women, of four different species, who joined us to hear my story.
“What did you mean by it not being ‘exactly’ right?” queries Lunvo, the same sceptical Nvar who voiced disbelief before, still looking sceptical (not that I can blame him) but at least impressed by the fact that the ‘con’ has a (imposing looking) Terran stooge now(!)
“Weeeeell…” Victor frowns down at me, mirthfully “…the way she described me dodgin’ that knife attack, she made me sound almost psychic(!)… In reality, she and this guy weren’t as smooth as she seems to think(!) The fact that I even got nicked by someone I was payin’ as much attention to as that is a bad reflection on my reaction time!… Also, she kinda made it sound like I went into their headquarters with a gun in one hand and a lit plasmasword in the other(!) As I recall, I gave ’em all a chance to surrender and come quietly and it were only after they, shall we say, indicated a lack of interest in that option that my weapons first cleared leather!… Oh! And what was with all that comparin’ the way I pant to ventin’ steam engines, Foxy(?!)”
“But…” starts Muan, a nervous tolypeutine Wne woman beside her Wno husband, Kmuw “…you don’t deny it was you and you alone who brought down the Giluspris?… Without help?”
The pale skin of the Terran’s flat face performs a complicated scrunch as he considers the question before answering “Don’t know ’bout ‘without help’… I had Foxy here for showin’ me the way, after I’d done a lotta convincin’… and, once I’d taken care of ’em, local law enforcers came to take the survivors away… Aaaaand… I probably didn’t actually manage to kill or capture every last one of ’em… just gutted its power structure enough that the rats fled the sinkin’ ship(!)”
“Why are you calling her ‘Foxy’?” asks Lunvo, four eyes narrowed in suspicion “‘Fnurfar’ is the name she gave us!”
The large man shrugs his shoulders “I didn’t get her name until we came here to celebrate… she didn’t trust me to give it… Had to call her somethin’, so I called her Foxy.”
“Hmmm…” responds Lunvo “…I’m not buying it…”
Victor raises an eyebrow “You ain’t buyin’ me givin’ her a nickname(!?)”
“I don’t believe any of it! The whole story reeks of the fanciful!”
I bare my teeth and slam my paws on the table before snarling “I don’t care if you question my honesty, Lunvo, but this man saved my husband’s life, my son’s life, the lives of dozens of others, freed me from effective slavery and freed this planet from its largest criminal syndicate! I will not have you questioning his integrity!”
Lunvo cowers away from me, despite the table separating us.
I feel a large, strong hand on my shoulder.
I turn to see a smiling face.
“Eeeeasy there, Foxy… ’Preciate the defence but there ain’t no need to get heated over it!… ’Specially not when there’s a really easy way to sort this out…” he looks up at Lunvo and asks “Lunvo, was it? Could I ask you to look up the front page of the Prosperity Chronicle from the 3rd of September, 2710?… I think you’ll see a picture of me shakin’ hands with your governor at the time…”
---
Previous Interlewd XLI Next First
Discord
Dramatis Personae

So...this is likely going to be a long post, I apologize in advance as I kind of just have a lot of my mind to expand upon.
I am a 33 year old male, I first got Covid in late December 2023. It was rough, What complicates this for me is that I didn't feel good before Covid. For years I dealt with major fatigue issues, what some would consider similar to adrenal fatigue type symptoms, low blood sugar feelings every day, anxiety, all kinds of weird stomach/chest sensations, lack of energy, heat sensitivity, anxiety and more. The only things I previously had been confirmed to have that could have contribued to this were low Vitamin D and a hiatal hernia. Over the last few years I've had a batery of heart tests, stomach tests, all never really found much other than the hiatal hernia.
Covid was rough on me for sure. Had the worst cough I've ever had for weeks. Though oxygen remained normal, the worst muscle pains I've ever had, and stomach issues, frequent bowel movement. In the weeks following Covid I felt like my hiatal hernia had been made worse as I was just noticing symptoms in there more. I also feel sleepy way more than I did before Covid. The coughing stopped, but I dont know that any of it totally went away, there were periods of time where I forgot I had Covid and even thought I was totally over it a few times, but right now I am reconsidering it.
The last few weeks I have really been just not been feeling rough..and its nothing new to me totally but it all feels worse.
Muscle pains and soreness...I dont have horrible muscle pains, but I have pains that are just there that I didnt notice before, arms, legs, ribs, back, chest. Now weird feelings werent new to me, but its all so much more noticeable after Covid. Its almost like...My muscles are all just a little heavy/sore, like if I want to go on a walk, its like starting an old car, something at 33 I dont think is the norm, just sitting here typing this paragraph I've noticed a strain/muscle pain in my left knee, upper thigh, fingers, and left wirst. They are low on the pain scale like 2 or 3 out of 10, but they are there. It is similar to the muscle feelings you get when you are sick but not quite on that scale, just a lower level daily 24/7 version of it.
My hiatal hernia has felt so much worse in the last few weeks. I am noticing so much more pressure around it, its almost like a baby kicking in my lower chest/upper stomach when I move positions or lean wrong, or strain. I've had lots of nausea last few weeks also going along with it, it also goes along with the low blood sugar feelings I get which are fixed by foods (not sugar), and sometimes its hard to tell if I am sick or hungry or what.
Along with the theme of stomach issues, and this one gets a little more graphic...I haven't been normal with bowel movements since I had Covid. Atleast my usual. I was..pretty regular pre-covid. Every couple days, maybe once a day, but it was..simple..relatively the same...Since I had Covid, its extremely irregular, much more frequently it can be more diahhrea like, usually very soft, sometimes multiple times a day which used to be extremely rare for me, and where I used to be able to hold it before, it seems to come on much more suddenly for me now.
For a weird one, I feel like my anxiety is worse again since Covid...now I had anxiety for years which was actually caused by all the strange symptoms I had over the years. But it had been maintained and stable before Covid. Now it feels like any adrenaline release at all absolutely screws up my body. Good or bad energy. Watching a sporting event and getting excited = feeling bad...Even gaming...I am an eSports compeititor, mainly with sim racing, but I enjoy other games. I've noticed that if I play a game like Fortnite now, when I get done if its a tense game, I am borderline panic attack and my body freaking out for literally no reason, and it comes on out of nowhere once i'm done. Fortnite seems to do it worst of all games.
There are more things im sure I am forgetting but its very late, and this really hit me today that maybe somehow Long Covid is playing up all of these things after all. I did have an episode of my heart racing last month and they said it was POTS..I had an EKG while it was going, EKG was normal, Chest XRay was normal...I dont necessarily believe it was POTS but I also cant rule it out as I have had other POTS like symptoms before.

hey switzerland, this is a throw-away-account. i will tell you about my personal situation:
i am a 40+ male with an eu-citizenship and i live here since about 4 years.
i have a decent 100 % job which i like and i earn around 6800 CHF a month.
my oldest daughter turns 10 now, she also has eu-citizenship, so does her mother who is married to a swiss guy also since about 4 years. so you see, the reason i moved to switzerland, was to be close to my daughter.
i had to pay child support here since the time i arrived and it was calculated to be around 2300 CHF a month. we talked and agreed on around 1800 which i am still paying every month to them.
now 3 years ago i met a swiss woman here and became close with and yes i f*d it up for not using protection but in my defense: she had a serious surgery about 5 months after we met and was diagnosed not to be able to bear any more children, we got tested and stuff and decided not to protect anymore... so she got pregnant, yay. though i said no a couple of times she wanted to have this child who is 2 yo now already. i managed somehow which may have been a mistake of course but thats the therapy stuff sorry as this of course ruined our relationship and i had to learn that i may be colourblind towards red flags, what about that... ugh
as she already had 1 daughter (now 4 yo,, which i love too) with a guy who does not really seem to care about his child and whom she bought an appartement with (where she lives in with daughter and son at the moment) her situation is very complicated with her ex and she feels pretty anxious about it all, also financially.
the financial arrangement with him was a huge problem (and of course also finding another appartement, which she says she is trying to.. but i know ... switzerland), and i dont really know what they arranged about their appartment now or what they already downpaid etc. ... i guess about a third they already own of it, rest is debt i guess). the apt is around 3500 rent roundabout i think, very nice location. they arranged something now i think.
she earned very little to no money with her business the last years so finally she is trying to be able to rent her apt now but didnt yet. she says it is because there is no room where to move her stuff to, i offered my garage space but she is worried about humindity. yes, our living arrangements are also a very big problem all together and have a story:
while she was pregnant with my son, we tried moving and living together in my apartment 60m2 (her 80m2 was empty that time...!) and as she had such nice furniture she wanted to have this in my appartement. moving process was a mess and during and afterwards we managed to get into a lot of fights about lifestyle and also about her "stuff". this includes the ikea furniture containing tons of folders with papers, collections of crafting materials, clothes, collections of games for children all ages, clothes, baking-stuff in all shapes and sizes, clothes, stocks of hygiene/food/younameit products (for hard times i dont know, it was an offer, also both cellar and attic), shoes, bags and bags of more clothing for all sizes, random stuff she likes ordering from china. she spends hours arranging and finding things she seems to need. while all usually stays in an ikea box or whatever i dont really care and try not to judge as i also tend to be messy and own way too much stuff. she had a tidy apartment when i met her.
so also while she was pregnant i urgently requested for her to move back in her empty apt which she did. but we couldnt move the furniture back, as in her eyes they were already damaged too much in the first move so they wouldnt survive another. i also suggested paying for new stuff but she claimed she had to move out her apt anyway and there is no money for that. now she lives in her pretty much empty apt with 2 children. they love it, it was her choice and there were options. she hates it, claims it's too stressful for her living in two apt. (theres 10 car-minutes between us). it's an "next month maybe" for having-to-move-out fears since then and she is unable to arrange properly. i get that, it's a stupid situation and i also would like for the children to have stable ground.
so as she is already or still pretty much moved into my place i offered her to move back in with me if she really couldnt find any other place. of course our (i am afraid you have to call it that now) toxic relationship doesnt really make this a process full of harmony, we are fighting about various topics. last time i lost it as she said there is no money for ice cream when i wanted the children to have some.
i dont want to lose my son and clearly see the need for them to have me in their life. again sorry, therapy stuff.
now she wants my daughters room compromised for her stuff as well. really? of course if she really lives here and my daughter is only here for the weekends we can make some compromise but the way she is claiming it just doesnt seem right to me when i look at the numbers.
my rent currently is around 1600 and i have a room for my older daughter who visits me every second weekend,
the kesb calculated that i have to pay her 2500 a month for my son.
that's 5700 fixed expenses on 6800 income for me and (without the pay of the other father) she gets 6000+ (my 2500 + 3500 rent) just like that. of course she also has to pay the debt and take care about the children i guess but this all doesnt seem very fair to me, i dont own an appartement and living here a short time i have no financial reserve whatsoever.
there's a lot more details i could explain but i think one can get the picture and also maybe the frustration i feel.
maybe this is just a big rant about it as i still can afford to live here but i dont wanna start talking fairness here. so my financial question would be:
would it be a good option for me to move back to another country? pay less child support then? has anyone experienced this first hand maybe?
thanks for your sympathy.
tldr: rant about the unfairness of child-support in switzerland with a lot of personal details about a not-so-easy girlfriend

Everything in my inventory is up for trade. The most valuable items are listed here, the rest you can find in My Inventory

Feel free to Add Me or even better send a Trade Offer. Open for any suggestions: upgrades, downgrades / knives, gloves, skins / stickers, patterns, floats.

All Buyouts are listed in cash value.

KNIVES

★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Factory New), B/O: $7194.77

★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2025.74

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★ M9 Bayonet Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $557.87

★ M9 Bayonet Stained (Well-Worn), B/O: $529.41

★ M9 Bayonet Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $465.39

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★ Talon Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $1295.27

★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Minimal Wear), B/O: $746.28

★ Karambit Bright Water (Field-Tested), B/O: $688.15

⎯

★ Flip Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $547.93

★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $476.69

★ Flip Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $278.18

★ Flip Knife Black Laminate (Well-Worn), B/O: $258.83

★ Flip Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested), B/O: $181.64

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★ Stiletto Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $686.04

★ Stiletto Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $665.41

★ Stiletto Knife, B/O: $601.39

★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $418.25

★ Stiletto Knife Night Stripe (Field-Tested), B/O: $227.80

★ Stiletto Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $194.96

★ Stiletto Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested), B/O: $192.79

⎯

★ Nomad Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $518.11

★ Nomad Knife Scorched (Field-Tested), B/O: $169.78

★ Nomad Knife Forest DDPAT (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $166.88

★ StatTrak™ Nomad Knife Blue Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $335.79

⎯

★ Skeleton Knife Stained (Well-Worn), B/O: $442.05

★ Skeleton Knife Urban Masked (Minimal Wear), B/O: $426.24

★ Skeleton Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $314.03

★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Fade (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2361.28

★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested), B/O: $376.53

⎯

★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $557.12

★ Ursus Knife, B/O: $471.42

★ Ursus Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $212.37

★ Ursus Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $187.66

★ Ursus Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $178.18

★ Ursus Knife Ultraviolet (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $155.13

★ Ursus Knife Boreal Forest (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $124.26

⎯

★ Huntsman Knife Black Laminate (Minimal Wear), B/O: $204.83

★ Huntsman Knife Black Laminate (Field-Tested), B/O: $184.50

★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Lore (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $224.11

⎯

★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $2142.02

★ Bowie Knife, B/O: $230.44

★ Bowie Knife Damascus Steel (Factory New), B/O: $209.20

★ Bowie Knife Ultraviolet (Minimal Wear), B/O: $180.51

★ Bowie Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $131.03

⎯

★ Falchion Knife Night (Field-Tested), B/O: $132.54

★ Falchion Knife Urban Masked (Well-Worn), B/O: $112.81

★ Falchion Knife Scorched (Field-Tested), B/O: $108.81

★ Falchion Knife Forest DDPAT (Field-Tested), B/O: $107.82

★ Falchion Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested), B/O: $107.46

★ StatTrak™ Falchion Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $143.08

⎯

★ Paracord Knife Crimson Web (Minimal Wear), B/O: $486.48

★ Paracord Knife Blue Steel (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $163.12

⎯

★ Survival Knife Blue Steel (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $138.26

★ Survival Knife Night Stripe (Field-Tested), B/O: $131.03

⎯

★ Gut Knife Sapphire (Minimal Wear), B/O: $1127.79

★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $286.17

★ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $246.55

★ Gut Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $240.77

★ Gut Knife, B/O: $210.49

★ Gut Knife Lore (Field-Tested), B/O: $194.22

★ Gut Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $151.51

★ Gut Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $124.94

★ Gut Knife Rust Coat (Well-Worn), B/O: $118.99

★ Gut Knife Boreal Forest (Minimal Wear), B/O: $109.80

★ StatTrak™ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $237.96

⎯

★ Shadow Daggers Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $264.92

★ Shadow Daggers Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $253.03

★ Shadow Daggers Tiger Tooth (Factory New), B/O: $237.22

★ Shadow Daggers Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $153.40

★ Shadow Daggers Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $144.42

★ Shadow Daggers Blue Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $105.20

★ StatTrak™ Shadow Daggers Damascus Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $150.46

⎯

★ Navaja Knife Fade (Factory New), B/O: $365.99

★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $228.93

★ Navaja Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $227.43

★ Navaja Knife Slaughter (Factory New), B/O: $209.06

★ Navaja Knife, B/O: $203.16

★ Navaja Knife Case Hardened (Well-Worn), B/O: $132.57

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Factory New), B/O: $121.69

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $109.95

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $100.41

★ StatTrak™ Navaja Knife Fade (Factory New), B/O: $369.01

★ StatTrak™ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $109.95

GLOVES

★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2394.67

★ Sport Gloves Omega (Well-Worn), B/O: $572.33

★ Sport Gloves Bronze Morph (Minimal Wear), B/O: $338.88

★ Sport Gloves Big Game (Field-Tested), B/O: $323.66

⎯

★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade (Minimal Wear), B/O: $1652.07

★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested), B/O: $599.14

★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Well-Worn), B/O: $231.57

★ Specialist Gloves Buckshot (Minimal Wear), B/O: $126.21

⎯

★ Moto Gloves POW! (Minimal Wear), B/O: $996.99

★ Moto Gloves POW! (Field-Tested), B/O: $383.31

★ Moto Gloves POW! (Well-Worn), B/O: $276.00

★ Moto Gloves Turtle (Field-Tested), B/O: $180.28

⎯

★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Minimal Wear), B/O: $502.29

★ Hand Wraps Giraffe (Minimal Wear), B/O: $180.73

★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $178.32

⎯

★ Driver Gloves Queen Jaguar (Minimal Wear), B/O: $181.01

★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red (Field-Tested), B/O: $101.66

⎯

★ Broken Fang Gloves Jade (Field-Tested), B/O: $127.88

★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point (Minimal Wear), B/O: $124.55

⎯

★ Bloodhound Gloves Guerrilla (Minimal Wear), B/O: $127.94

★ Hydra Gloves Case Hardened (Field-Tested), B/O: $102.55

WEAPONS

AK-47 X-Ray (Well-Worn), B/O: $478.95

AUG Hot Rod (Factory New), B/O: $425.83

StatTrak™ M4A1-S Hyper Beast (Factory New), B/O: $413.95

M4A4 Daybreak (Factory New), B/O: $309.51

StatTrak™ AK-47 Aquamarine Revenge (Factory New), B/O: $305.43

AK-47 Case Hardened (Well-Worn), B/O: $196.38

StatTrak™ M4A4 Temukau (Minimal Wear), B/O: $174.64

P90 Run and Hide (Field-Tested), B/O: $167.03

AWP Asiimov (Field-Tested), B/O: $153.33

Souvenir SSG 08 Death Strike (Minimal Wear), B/O: $140.00

M4A1-S Printstream (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $124.70

StatTrak™ M4A1-S Golden Coil (Field-Tested), B/O: $117.48

AWP Asiimov (Well-Worn), B/O: $115.97

StatTrak™ Desert Eagle Printstream (Minimal Wear), B/O: $112.96

StatTrak™ AK-47 Asiimov (Minimal Wear), B/O: $110.85

Souvenir M4A1-S Master Piece (Well-Worn), B/O: $102.42

AK-47 Bloodsport (Minimal Wear), B/O: $100.53

Trade Offer Link - Steam Profile Link - My Inventory

Knives - Bowie Knife, Butterfly Knife, Falchion Knife, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Huntsman Knife, M9 Bayonet, Bayonet, Karambit, Shadow Daggers, Stiletto Knife, Ursus Knife, Navaja Knife, Talon Knife, Classic Knife, Paracord Knife, Survival Knife, Nomad Knife, Skeleton Knife, Patterns - Gamma Doppler, Doppler (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, Black Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald), Crimson Web, Lore, Fade, Ultraviolet, Night, Marble Fade (Fire & Ice, Fake FI), Case Hardened (Blue Gem), Autotronic, Slaughter, Black Laminate, Tiger Tooth, Boreal Forest, Scorched, Blue Steel, Vanilla, Damascus Steel, Forest DDPAT, Urban Masked, Freehand, Stained, Bright Water, Safari Mesh, Rust Coat, Gloves - Bloodhound Gloves (Charred, Snakebite, Guerrilla, Bronzed), Driver Gloves (Snow Leopard, King Snake, Crimson Weave, Imperial Plaid, Black Tie, Lunar Weave, Diamondback, Rezan the Red, Overtake, Queen Jaguar, Convoy, Racing Green), Hand Wraps (Cobalt Skulls, CAUTION!, Overprint, Slaughter, Leather, Giraffe, Badlands, Spruce DDPAT, Arboreal, Constrictor, Desert Shamagh, Duct Tape), Moto Gloves (Spearmint, POW!, Cool Mint, Smoke Out, Finish Line, Polygon, Blood Pressure, Turtle, Boom!, Eclipse, 3rd Commando Company, Transport), Specialist Gloves (Crimson Kimono, Tiger Strike, Emerald Web, Field Agent, Marble Fade, Fade, Foundation, Lt. Commander, Crimson Web, Mogul, Forest DDPAT, Buckshot), Sport Gloves (Pandora's Box, Superconductor, Hedge Maze, Vice, Amphibious, Slingshot, Omega, Arid, Big Game, Nocts, Scarlet Shamagh, Bronze Morph), Hydra Gloves (Case Hardened, Emerald, Rattler, Mangrove), Broken Fang Gloves (Jade, Yellow-banded, Unhinged, Needle Point), Pistols - P2000 (Wicked Sick, Ocean Foam, Fire Element, Amber Fade, Corticera, Chainmail, Imperial Dragon, Obsidian, Scorpion, Handgun, Acid Etched), USP-S (Printstream, Kill Confirmed, Whiteout, Road Rash, Owergrowth, The Traitor, Neo-Noir, Dark Water, Orion, Blueprint, Stainless, Caiman, Serum, Monster Mashup, Royal Blue, Ancient Visions, Cortex, Orange Anolis, Ticket To Hell, Black Lotus, Cyrex, Check Engine, Guardian, Purple DDPAT, Torque, Blood Tiger, Flashback, Business Class, Pathfinder, Para Green), Lead Conduit, Glock-18 (Ramese's Reach, Umbral Rabbit, Fade, Candy Apple, Bullet Queen, Synth Leaf, Neo-Noir, Nuclear Garden, Dragon Tatto, Reactor, Pink DDPAT, Twilight Galaxy, Sand Dune, Groundwater, Blue Fissure, Snack Attack, Water Elemental, Brass, Wasteland Rebel, Vogue, Franklin, Royal Legion, Gamma Doppler, Weasel, Steel Disruption, Ironwork, Grinder, High Beam, Moonrise, Oxide Blaze, Bunsen Burner, Clear Polymer, Bunsen Burner, Night), P250 (Apep's Curse, Re.built, Nuclear Threat, Modern Hunter, Splash, Whiteout, Vino Primo, Mehndi, Asiimov, Visions, Undertow, Cartel, See Ya Later, Gunsmoke, Splash, Digital Architect, Muertos, Red Rock, Bengal Tiger, Crimson Kimono, Wingshot, Metallic DDPAT, Hive, Dark Filigree, Mint Kimono), Five-Seven (Neon Kimono, Berries And Cherries, Fall Hazard, Crimson Blossom, Hyper Beast, Nitro, Fairy Tale, Case Hardened, Copper Galaxy, Angry Mob, Monkey Business, Fowl Play, Anodized Gunmetal, Hot Shot, Retrobution, Boost Protocol), CZ75-Auto (Chalice, Crimson Web, Emerald Quartz, The Fuschia is Now, Nitro, Xiangliu, Yellow Jacket, Victoria, Poison Dart, Syndicate, Eco, Hexane, Pole, Tigris), Tec-9 (Mummy's Rot, Rebel, Terrace, Nuclear Threat, Hades, Rust Leaf, Decimator, Blast From, Orange Murano, Toxic, Fuel Injector, Remote Control, Bamboo Forest, Isaac, Avalanche, Brother, Re-Entry, Blue Titanium, Bamboozle), R8 Revolver (Banana Cannon, Fade, Blaze, Crimson Web, Liama Cannon, Crazy 8, Reboot, Canal Spray, Night, Amber Fade), Desert Eagle (Blaze, Hand Cannon, Fennec Fox, Sunset Storm, Emerald Jörmungandr, Pilot, Hypnotic, Golden Koi, Printstream, Cobalt Disruption, Code Red, Ocean Drive, Midnight Storm, Kumicho Dragon, Crimson Web, Heirloom, Night Heist, Mecha Industries, Night, Conspiracy, Trigger Discipline, Naga, Directive, Light Rail), Dual Berettas (Flora Carnivora, Duelist, Cobra Strike, Black Limba, Emerald, Hemoglobin, Twin Turbo, Marina, Melondrama, Pyre, Retribution, Briar, Dezastre, Royal Consorts, Urban Shock, Dualing Dragons, Panther, Balance), Rifles - Galil (Aqua Terrace, Winter Forest, Chatterbox, Sugar Rush, Pheonix Blacklight, CAUTION!, Orange DDPAT, Cerberus, Dusk Ruins, Eco, Chromatic Aberration, Stone Cold, Tuxedo, Sandstorm, Shattered, Urban Rubble, Rocket Pop, Kami, Crimson Tsunami, Connexion), SCAR-20 (Fragments, Brass, Cyrex, Palm, Splash Jam, Cardiac, Emerald, Crimson Web, Magna Carta, Stone Mosaico, Bloodsport, Enforcer), AWP (Black Nile, Duality, Gungnir, Dragon Lore, Prince, Medusa, Desert Hydra, Fade, Lightning Strike, Oni Taiji, Silk Tiger, Graphite, Chromatic Aberration, Asiimov, Snake Camo, Boom, Containment Breach, Wildfire, Redline, Electric Hive, Hyper Beast, Neo-Noir, Man-o'-war, Pink DDPAT, Corticera, Sun in Leo, Elite Build, Fever Dream, Atheris, Mortis, PAW, Exoskeleton, Worm God, POP AWP, Phobos, Acheron, Pit Viper, Capillary, Safari Mesh), AK-47 (Steel Delta, Head Shot, Wild Lotus, Gold Arabesque, X-Ray, Fire Serpent, Hydroponic, Panthera Onca, Case Hardened, Vulcan, Jet Set, Fuel Injector, Bloodsport, Nightwish, First Class, Neon Rider, Asiimov, Red Laminate, Aquamarine Revenge, The Empress, Wasteland Rebel, Jaguar, Black Laminate, Leet Museo, Neon Revolution, Redline, Frontside Misty, Predator, Legion of Anubis, Point Disarray, Orbit Mk01, Blue Laminate, Green Laminate, Emerald Pinstripe, Cartel, Phantom Disruptor, Jungle Spray, Safety Net, Rat Rod, Baroque Purple, Slate, Elite Build, Uncharted, Safari Mesh), FAMAS (Waters of Nephthys, Sundown, Prime Conspiracy, Afterimage, Commemoration, Dark Water, Spitfire, Pulse, Eye of Athena, Meltdown, Rapid Eye Move, Roll Cage, Styx, Mecha Industrie, Djinn, ZX Spectron, Valence, Neural Net, Night Borre, Hexne), M4A4 (Eye of Horus, Temukau, Howl, Poseidon, Asiimov, Daybreak, Hellfire, Zirka, Red DDPAT, Radiation Hazard, Modern Hunter, The Emperor, The Coalition, Bullet Rain, Cyber Security, X-Ray, Dark Blossom, Buzz Kill, In Living Color, Neo-Noir, Desolate Space, 龍王 (Dragon King), Royal Paladin, The Battlestar, Global Offensive, Tooth Fairy, Desert-Strike, Griffin, Evil Daimyo, Spider Lily, Converter), M4A1-S (Emphorosaur-S, Welcome to the Jungle, Imminent Danger, Knight, Hot Rod, Icarus Fell, Blue Phosphor, Printstream, Master Piece, Dark Water, Golden Coil, Bright Water, Player Two, Atomic Alloy, Guardian, Chantico's Fire, Hyper Beast, Mecha Industries, Cyrex, Control Panel, Moss Quartz, Nightmare, Decimator, Leaded Glass, Basilisk, Blood Tiger, Briefing, Night Terror, Nitro, VariCamo, Flashback), SG 553 (Cyberforce, Hazard Pay, Bulldozer, Integrale, Dragon Tech, Ultraviolet, Colony IV, Hypnotic, Cyrex, Candy Apple, Barricade, Pulse), SSG 08 (Death Strike, Sea Calico, Blood in the Water, Orange Filigree, Dragonfire, Big Iron, Bloodshot, Detour, Turbo Peek, Red Stone), AUG (Akihabara Accept, Flame Jörmungandr, Hot Rod, Midnight Lily, Sand Storm, Carved Jade, Wings, Anodized Navy, Death by Puppy, Torque, Bengal Tiger, Chameleon, Fleet Flock, Random Access, Momentum, Syd Mead, Stymphalian, Arctic Wolf, Aristocrat, Navy Murano), G3SG1 (Chronos, Violet Murano, Flux, Demeter, Orange Kimono, The Executioner, Green Apple, Arctic Polar Camo, Contractor), SMGs - P90 (ScaraB Rush, Neoqueen, Astral Jörmungandr, Run and Hide, Emerald Dragon, Cold Blooded, Death by Kitty, Baroque Red, Vent Rush, Blind Spot, Asiimov, Trigon, Sunset Lily, Death Grip, Leather, Nostalgia, Fallout Warning, Tiger Pit, Schermatic, Virus, Shapewood, Glacier Mesh, Shallow Grave, Chopper, Desert Warfare), MAC-10 (Sakkaku, Hot Snakes, Copper Borre, Red Filigree, Gold Brick, Graven, Case Hardened, Stalker, Amber Fade, Neon Rider, Tatter, Curse, Propaganda, Nuclear Garden, Disco Tech, Toybox, Heat, Indigo), UMP-45 (Wild Child, Fade, Blaze, Day Lily, Minotaur's Labyrinth, Crime Scene, Caramel, Bone Pile, Momentum, Primal Saber), MP7 (Teal Blossom, Fade, Nemesis, Whiteout, Asterion, Bloosport, Abyssal Apparition, Full Stop, Special Delivery, Neon Ply, Asterion, Ocean Foam, Powercore, Scorched, Impire), PP-Bizon (Modern Hunter, Rust Coat, Forest Leaves, Antique, High Roller, Blue Streak, Seabird, Judgement of Anubis, Bamboo Print, Embargo, Chemical Green, Coblat Halftone, Fuel Rod, Photic Zone, Irradiated Alert, Carbon Fiber), MP9 (Featherweight, Wild Lily, Pandora's Box, Stained Glass, Bulldozer, Dark Age, Hot Rod, Hypnotic, Hydra, Rose Iron, Music Box, Setting Sun, Food Chain, Airlock, Mount Fuji, Starlight Protector, Ruby Poison Dart, Deadly Poison), MP5-SD (Liquidation, Oxide Oasis, Phosphor, Nitro, Agent, Autumn Twilly), Shotguns, Machineguns - Sawed-Off (Kiss♥Love, First Class, Orange DDPAT, Rust Coat, The Kraken, Devourer, Mosaico, Wasteland Princess, Bamboo Shadow, Copper, Serenity, Limelight, Apocalypto), XM1014 (Frost Borre, Ancient Lore, Red Leather, Elegant Vines, Banana Leaf, Jungle, Urban Perforated, Grassland, Blaze Orange, Heaven Guard, VariCamo Blue, Entombed, XOXO, Seasons, Tranquility, Bone Machine, Incinegator, Teclu Burner, Black Tie, Zombie Offensive, Watchdog), Nova (Sobek's Bite, Baroque Orange, Hyper Beast, Green Apple, Antique, Modern Hunter, Walnut, Forest Leaves, Graphite, Blaze Orange, Rising Skull, Tempest, Bloomstick, Interlock, Quick Sand, Moon in Libra, Clean Polymer, Red Quartz, Toy Soldier), MAG-7 (Copper Coated, Insomnia, Cinqueda, Counter Terrace, Prism Terrace, Memento, Chainmail, Hazard, Justice, Bulldozer, Silver, Core Breach, Firestarter, Praetorian, Heat, Hard Water, Monster Call, BI83 Spectrum, SWAG-7), M249 (Humidor, Shipping Forecast, Blizzard Marbleized, Downtown, Jungle DDPAT, Nebula Crusader, Impact Drill, Emerald Poison Dart), Negev (Mjölnir, Anodized Navy, Palm, Power Loader, Bratatat, CaliCamo, Phoenix Stencil, Infrastructure, Boroque Sand), Wear - Factory New (FN), Minimal Wear (MW), Field-Tested (FT), Well-Worn (WW), Battle-Scarred (BS), Stickers Holo/Foil/Gold - Katowice 2014, Krakow 2017, Howling Dawn, Katowice 2015, Crown, London 2018, Cologne 2014, Boston 2018, Atlanta 2017, Cluj-Napoca 2015, DreamHack 2014, King on the Field, Harp of War, Winged Difuser, Cologne 2016, Cologne 2015, MLG Columbus 2016, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019, RMR 2020, Stockholm 2021, Antwerp 2022, Paris 2023, Swag Foil, Flammable foil, Others - Souvenirs, Agents, Pins, Passes, Gifts, Music Kits, Cases, Keys, Capsules, Packages, Patches

Some items on the list may no longer be available or are still locked, visit My Inventory for more details.

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I think psychics attract clients not because they have a connection with the spiritual realm, but because clients feel the need to transfer their responsibility to an abstract higher power and fate. “Someone wiser knows better” However, there is no way to predict the future mathematically, and it’s very easy to explain. Please follow up:
There is the great scientist Dr. Stephen Wolfram. He is the creator of many things that power up our smartphones, including Mathematica and the Wolfram language. He has a number of theories, the latest of which, such as the Ruliad concept and the theory of everything, are truly amazing and might connect general relativity and the standard model.
One of his early studies brought up the irreducible computation theory. He looked into Cellular Automatons - the Turing machine visualization where you set up simple rules at the beginning and then see how the layout of white and black squares evolves through each step. He discovered that particularly Rule 30 automaton looked simple at the start but led to endless complicated patterns. Most other combinations of simple rules brought about patterns that were boring and “dead,” but this “Rule 30” evolved continually. This pattern can be seen everywhere in nature, on the back of a snail shell, and we use it to code “random” machines in our electronics.
All random calculations in your computer – are Rule 30. They are not random.
What Dr. Stephen suggested is that there is no way to predict and calculate the result of the upcoming row of squares with the help of some kind of formula. Instead, you must go through each step one at a time. Many tried; there was even a cash prize for a person who could predict what layout comes on the next step using all existing data, but there is no way to do that as of now. Nobody succeeded.
Now let’s return to psychic activity. How can they predict the future of anything if there is no way to predict even simple mathematical setups? Systems need time and step-by-step evolution to reach results. So, any psychic activity is very reliant on the skill and virtuosity of the psychic themselves and the person who “orders their service.”
They sell by signifying the transfer of responsibility for a person’s life and fate.
All clients want from their certified psychic is the feeling of “transferring the responsibility.” If a psychic told me I will get married only after 25 years old, that’s not my problem now. I don’t need to look for a man while I am still 23. The universe has approved it like that. And all that “Pidgeon religion” proves like “but how could he know that my grandpa was a carpenter?!” are just a tricks of mind that client agree and want to believe. Experiments with pigeons showed that randomly fed, different pigeons worked out some personal ritual that led to “getting food”. Some pigeons danced around and though that caused the food coming, others bit jumped and so on.
It’s understandable why people need psychics. Just as nicotine addicts need cigarettes for a number of reasons they approve of, a person with a lack of self-esteem might seek that “commander” in a psychic. They pathologically need to follow some logic in this life they can’t create themselves. It’s a personality life crisis. A person with strong willpower and legitimate goals to reach usually doesn’t follow the advice of a psychic.
So if you feel you need some supernatural assistance, check yourself what problems you have that cause that desire. Only your actions effect reality. Nothing said is real till you make it so. Check the book about basics of quantum dramaturgy to see how other supernatural things are broken into simple forms. Just google quantum dramaturgy to see more thought experiments that deconstruct stories till quantum states.

To begin with the story, we became a couple at the end of 2019. I was interested in another girl before she confessed to me so I rejected her at first, but I haphazardly said I would be with her due to some complications (too personal) a few days later. I was a boring guy, barely functional and ready to end it all after repaying everyone that I know, so I thought after her infatuated period she would see who I was, leave me and search for happiness elsewhere. I would prioritise myself before hers which is very bad, I know, which was an idea that she will leave me eventually right? TLDR: I invited another girl to try league to have 5 man squad, she was new and suck at the game, everyone scolded the new girl and I felt very guilty since 2 other people join I left with the other girl to teach her about it. I shared personal stuff with her and I considered myself as best friends. My girlfriend who was in the squad felt jealous regarding this issue for 4 years now even though I explained "Hey I was the one who invited her and if we just kicked her, it feels so bad for her." I was pretty competitive (Playing ADC) and I would criticise everyone, including myself (I was and still am crazy, would play and watch VODs at least 3 times and see what to improve on and hit myself for making misplays). So she would mention how competitive I was and say (not word for word but a gist of it) "I thought you were competitive, she played so badly and you did not scold her or anything but would scold everyone else when they make mistakes" That is honestly a valid point, like really valid, which I said "She is new to the game, imagine being mean to someone that has no idea what is going on, it is just really unfair. I criticise people who I played with for a long time, know how I want the game to play out and still make the same mistake again and again. I never scolded Friend A (This Friend A played for an amateur team in DOTA2), he has never played league before so there is no reason to be mad at him. I never scolded Friend B (who got masters a few seasons ago) who did not play league for months and played poorly due to preseason changes." This was one part of it for her leaving me. Another short story, I never scolded her for her mistakes, even after she went on about my mistakes and specifically asked me to never play Jhin again (I still remember it, it was an off game on Jhin). Not just in league. Even in real life, I never raised my voice at her, never did anything to her that she did not want to.
In 2020, we were in this community which eventually got a huge drama between a huge group of people and her (I cannot go too specific in this). She brought up some glaring points about a person and there were huge allegations back regarding the points that she brought up, however, there was no real evidence to witch-hunt that person other than the things he said which were dark humour in everyone's eyes. Everyone defended that person and pushed her into a corner (metaphorically, not physically). I also believe that the person was just making dark humour jokes, and would try to stop everyone from attacking her instead of siding with her. I said "If anything, I should be the one to be attacked as I am responsible as well.", but the group and I had been friends for almost 4-5 years, they kept saying I did nothing wrong and she should be the one taking responsibility, which I then say "They are not being sensible here". They eventually stopped to show some respect to me. She felt betrayed as I did not choose to side with her, but to sit on the fence regarding this issue. It is another reason that she left me. Up until 2024, I was trying to get those people who were involved to apologise to her, saying that they went too far but to no avail. I would stop talking to the group of people, but still have some chat from time to time (this is also pretty important).
This is also in 2020, I gave her my password thinking "I don't have anything to hide right?" It was one of my worst mistakes as she could access the past messages that I sent to another girl (the one that I had a crush on). I have been trying since 2017-18 till I got together with my girlfriend. The thing is that there is nothing, but the efforts of trying to get the other girl's attention and even skipping lunch to get her stuff ticked her off. (I worked part-time to buy tickets and gifts for the other girl) (I fucking regret this as well, now that I have grown up, it is embarrassing to simp that hard for a crush) I apologised for my past actions, which is being a fucking simp, but this would be brought up countless of times when we fought.
I started to feel love towards her at this point, in the sense that her love for me was not infatuation but actual love. I had bad experiences back then, a girl asked me out and a month later said that it was infatuation and broke up, and the other one cheated on me with my best friend at that time. (This might be important? I am not sure whether I want to speak about it or not) I felt that maybe this was the one proper relationship I would have.
Following that in late 2021 to 2023, I would do a mandatory 2-year work and it was really strict. They would send personnel to check on you if you took a medical certificate. I would sometimes take a medical certificate to visit her, risking the chance of getting caught. Sometimes, they would call me asking where am I and why am I not at my house. I would say I went to get food and would be back in 30 minutes and quickly took a cab back home. Ok, why this part is important is that I had 2 surgeries in 2022 and have a 6-month + 4-month medical certificate. I explained that we could not meet up due to me being unable to walk and on crutches, but I would still go out and meet up with her. There are times when I just pretend to be fine and not use crutches to make her feel less embarrassed and bad, but in actuality, it fucking hurts, every step, every movement hurts.
After I could walk, I had to go back office and do normal work. So being the spoiled child I am, I would be tired and tell her that maybe going out daily is too tiring so let's go out from time to time. She agreed with it which I did not pick on as lowering her standards for me. I would fuck up by saying that I will go back to the game which in turn go back to the community that hurt her. We would argue about this and all the other stuff that she was pent up about. I will talk about how we argue later on. Late 2023 was one of the huge turning points where I felt that there was no end basically, we would always be arguing and I started having doubts about whether she loved me. (Her backstory is fucking sad, basically had a really really bad past, you could not imagine it, her previous boyfriend cheated on her, less trusting with people, has only me to entertain her and now me that does not show enough love)
As time went on after that argument, I started taking the avoidant approach, whatever she said in the argument was right. I am a narcissist, I am egotistical, and I don't love her, with this amount of care and love no wonder my ex cheated on me, friends called me out saying what I did was fucked, etc. I would agree and head to bed. I started caring less and less about arguments and I know that it is wrong, but every time we argued I would get so agitated and do stupid things, so to solve that I decided to do the dumbest thing on earth if you are in a relationship, to care less about the argument.
In University, I would pretend to be a normal human being and not be stupid. I would study countless hours, having breaks in between the sessions of course. I know my foundation is bad, so I had to study more than other people. We would go out 2-3 times a week and at some point, it became 2-3 times a month cause I was too focused on school, to get the future (I moved it below this paragraph). I scored pretty well, currently 4.8 GPA, got my professor's recommendation and became a part-time research assistant, but what did it cost? Everything that we had built. I would always say that I am busy with school work, projects, and studying for a test, and that is 100% my fault. I would always say that it is for our future, with a high GPA and first-class honours, I will get more pay and we don't have to worry about money ever again. However, that is not what she wanted. She wanted to spend time with me, to enjoy life with me, while I was hyper-focus on the future and she did say that she would not be in it no matter how many times we argued about it. She had period cramps, her mental health declining due to lack of job offers and is alone while I am focusing on the future. The future is important, not saying that it is not, but I failed to see what is important and that is my family, how am I going to get the future that I wanted if I don't help her now? I regret not being able to see this part until the very end where she said she wanted to have a break from me and could be friends afterwards.
About myself, I am one of the dumbest people on planet Earth if you compare people without complications. I went the long route in terms of education, 4 years in high school, 4 years in pre-university (diploma) (17-21) and only now starting university at 24. (I don't know any US terms) I have low self-esteem and apparently, I am the worst person alive as well. I mentioned that I wanted to end it all after repaying everyone that I know, for the time spent and taking care of me. My mental health improved when I was with her, believing that I could live until old and protect her. So I decided to go to university for 2 reasons, 1. To impress her family and 2. To get a good job and not let her worry about financial issues. (Oh, I am a foreigner so I would be bullied in school and fight back to protect myself, which led me to study less and fake being a menace. Came to this country without a penny, mother had to work 3 part-time jobs to support my siblings and me. Everyone had lunch money and I had nothing. Even now my allowance is $250 per month) I see financial stability is what makes a good and stable, and I started to see the future which in turn made me blind to the present. I want to meet her. but it is an hour-and-a-half trip to her house and another hour-and-a-half back home which I find to be inefficient. 3 hours spent not doing anything and it is going to be crowded on the train (so I have to stand for an hour-and-a-half back home tired). She mentioned that I could get a driver's license, which is true, I am stupid (this was after she said she wanted to have a break from me). There are times when she would say things that hurt me, but I let it go as she had a sad past and I understand that she does not mean it when she said it. (I can't take it honestly) My love language is affirmation of words so words hurt me x100. She would get me gifts, but that is not how I see it. I would accept it, loving the gifts, but all I wanted was a pat on my head and say I did well. She did say I did not spend enough time with her and gave examples of someone she knew flying to other states and driving his significant other to his house. My brother would take MC and leave to bring his girlfriend for cruising. My friends can sustain a relationship when we are in the same boat (in university). I said those friends can be in a relationship because they spend time studying together, while when we spend time I have to spend 3 hours in transport and risk lowering my grades. However, everything is just an excuse.
She blocked me everywhere due to me trying to plead with her countless times when she did say that she wanted to have a break from me. So here comes the question, how can I improve myself as a person for that time when she is ready to communicate with me? I am trying hard not to go back to the same mindset as before. How to improve on not being a narcissist and egotist? What do I do to improve my self-esteem issues? How to not worry about her finding another man before I even prove myself? How to start seeing colours again and not hear static everywhere? Am I lacking as a person? Only she could pull me out of the well that I am currently in. How do I cry my heart out? I have only been able to tear up but not cry even though my heart is killing me. I tried searching for it but nothing worked, listening to sad music, watching sad movies, laying in a fetal position and pretending to cry, nothing worked. I am starting to think that maybe she is right about me not loving her. What am I supposed to do? I love her... I have been trying to eat for the past few days, but everything just came out after it entered. Please help me
PS. Please focus on me instead of anyone involved. I want to improve as a person and know what to do to get her attention back. I will be deleting this post in a few days.

I think psychics attract clients not because they have a connection with the spiritual realm, but because clients feel the need to transfer their responsibility to an abstract higher power and fate. “Someone wiser knows better” However, there is no way to predict the future mathematically, and it’s very easy to explain. Please follow up:
There is the great scientist Dr. Stephen Wolfram. He is the creator of many things that power up our smartphones, including Mathematica and the Wolfram language. He has a number of theories, the latest of which, such as the Ruliad concept and the theory of everything, are truly amazing and might connect general relativity and the standard model.
One of his early studies brought up the irreducible computation theory. He looked into Cellular Automatons - the Turing machine visualization where you set up simple rules at the beginning and then see how the layout of white and black squares evolves through each step. He discovered that particularly Rule 30 automaton looked simple at the start but led to endless complicated patterns. Most other combinations of simple rules brought about patterns that were boring and “dead,” but this “Rule 30” evolved continually. This pattern can be seen everywhere in nature, on the back of a snail shell, and we use it to code “random” machines in our electronics.
All random calculations in your computer – are Rule 30. They are not random.
What Dr. Stephen suggested is that there is no way to predict and calculate the result of the upcoming row of squares with the help of some kind of formula. Instead, you must go through each step one at a time. Many tried; there was even a cash prize for a person who could predict what layout comes on the next step using all existing data, but there is no way to do that as of now. Nobody succeeded.
Now let’s return to psychic activity. How can they predict the future of anything if there is no way to predict even simple mathematical setups? Systems need time and step-by-step evolution to reach results. So, any psychic activity is very reliant on the skill and virtuosity of the psychic themselves and the person who “orders their service.”
They sell by signifying the transfer of responsibility for a person’s life and fate.
All clients want from their certified psychic is the feeling of “transferring the responsibility.” If a psychic told me I will get married only after 25 years old, that’s not my problem now. I don’t need to look for a man while I am still 23. The universe has approved it like that. And all that “Pidgeon religion” proves like “but how could he know that my grandpa was a carpenter?!” are just a tricks of mind that client agree and want to believe. Experiments with pigeons showed that randomly fed, different pigeons worked out some personal ritual that led to “getting food”. Some pigeons danced around and though that caused the food coming, others bit jumped and so on.
It’s understandable why people need psychics. Just as nicotine addicts need cigarettes for a number of reasons they approve of, a person with a lack of self-esteem might seek that “commander” in a psychic. They pathologically need to follow some logic in this life they can’t create themselves. It’s a personality life crisis. A person with strong willpower and legitimate goals to reach usually doesn’t follow the advice of a psychic.
So if you feel you need some supernatural assistance, check yourself what problems you have that cause that desire. Only your actions effect reality. Nothing said is real till you make it so. Check the book about quantum dramaturgy to see how other supernatural things are broken into simple forms. It is about thought experiments based on deconstructing different complex stories.

Chapter 1: Hope’s 16th Birthday
As the rays of the sun hits her eyes Hope Moonshine wakes up excited, she was waiting for this day for all her life
She jumps out of her bed and rushes to her mom's room excited and she accidentally flung the door open too fast making a loud cranking noise waking her mother, Queen Matilda up
"Oops didn't mean to wake you up" hope said awkwardly"Honey I know you are excited for your birthday but you need to be patient the sun has just risen everyone is still asleep" Matilda said tiredly, "please go back to sleep darling you will have a long day today and you will need the energy, your party wont be begin till noon"
"Ok mom, sorry for waking you up" said Hope as she was trying to close the door slowly enough that it doesn't crank but it still did "Not an issue dear", said Matilda
As the door closed Matilda took a deep breath and closed her eyes her emblem on her right shoulder a pink diamond glowed she opened her eyes and she made a finger gun with her right hand pointing at the hinges and a shiny pink light zaps comes out of her index and zaps the hinges, the beam turns into a hand and it open the door and then closes without making a cranking noise, "I should have done that a long time ago" said Matilda
She removes the blankets from her bed to reveal she is already clothed for a serious occasion, as she goes towards the mirror she is wearing a long cyan dress that trails all the way to her feed her top being smartly tight with short shoulder sleeves, she puts on long white gloves and glances over her diamond ring she lets out a small sigh and frown and puts it on, she trances over the mirror for a few seconds before snapping out of it, and she looks over to a miniature painting of her an her daughter when she was 6 she picks it up and smiles "I know you are eager dear you won't have to wait for long"
After Matilda ready's herself she open her window and conjures a light bird of the palm of her hand, the bird flew off to Hope's room where it sees her lying in her bed on her stomach, the bird soon returns to Matilda's room and land on her palm her eyes glows for a moment and the bird fizzes into a yellow cloud, "Well it looks like she actually listened not very common of her to do so, it means I can continue to do my plan unobstructed" she said with a smile.
Matilda leaves her room and walk across the hallway to the main hall then she claps her hand twice, and snap her finger, suddenly a figure jumps into the window it spins 180° and a muscular women stands up, she has a scar on her left cheek and short brown hair, she wore knight armour that cuts of at her shoulder emblem that looks like a dark grey shield.
"At your service my queen", she said with a salute
Matilda is startled for a moment, but then composes herself, "Sally there is no need for you to enter that way you can just wait for me at the hall entrance", she said.
"I was scouting the perimeter we have to make sure this place is safe and to make sure no one can harm the princess at her important day, I was up all night with my team searching every corner of the upper ring for any danger and-" Sally was abruptly cut off by Matilda.
"It was not your fault Sally, there is no need for you to prove yourself to me" Matilda said remorsefully, "You tried your best so you must eventually forgive yourself it wasn't anyone fault, it truly came from nowhere"
Sally's serious expression break into expression of regret as she shamefully looks at the ground
"Now is not time to punish ourselves over who we failed to protect but to make sure my daughter has a great birthday" Matilda said with determination
Sally's expressions of regret turned to a smile, "Yes my Queen, me and the royal guards have spent last few weeks clearing a safe path from the upper ring to the more presentable areas of the lower ring that ends at the great barrier" Sally says with a salute.
"Well I trust your judgement, you are now dismissed" said Matilda
Sally goes down the stairs of the central hall towards the doors "I won't mess up again" Sally said with determination
"Oh Houston" Matilda said while turning her head left and right, "where is he when I need him",
"I am right here your majesty" Houston whispered from behind, Matilda was startled and was annoyed on how everyone seems to sneak up on her, "Sorry for spooking you" said Houston as he polished his monocle "We are well prepared to begin celebration soon" he said as his hand pointed towards the empty hall.
Matilda stared at him, he then clapped his hands and an army of servants entered the hall setting up the chairs and tables, followed up by waiters quickly setting food on the table, and then 6 waiters came together to slowly lift the large 4 layered birthday cake with a milk white colour with chocolate cream on top of each layer, with "happy birthday Hope" spelled with strawberry topping on the side of each layer, with the glowing yellow number "16" candle at the top.
"As I was saying my Queen" Houston started "We just need to wait for the guests to arrive, I will let you know when you can call your daughter" Houston stops from a moment "Do you want anything else your majesty or am I dismissed?" he asked.
"You are dismissed Houston" said Matilda
Matilda walks up to Hope's room and slowly opens the door to find her laying in her bed
"One thousand one hundred and forty-two" Hope counted to herself, she paused and took a deep sigh, and tried to continue but then paused scratching her head "Um One-".
she was interrupted by her mother saying "Thousand one hundred and forty-three", "Unable to sleep dear?" She said with a smile, Hope gasped and she had the biggest smile in her face, her mother was a bit startled and asked "what is it you are smiling at?".
Hope pointed at her, jumped from her bed and as she was taking heavy breathes pointing at her mother clothes, "You don't sleep in this" she takes a deep breath and exclaims "which means I have got to get ready" and she runs to her closet to pick up something to wear.
Matilda takes a glance down at her clothes and rolls her eyes "so much for a surprise"
"I am ready mom" Hope said ecstatically, she was wearing a beautiful turquoise dress which complemented her hair colour styled in two plates with with joined with a pink band and wearing her favourite golden necklace,
"That was quick" her mother commented
As they enter the main hall a bunch of guests are seated drinking beverages and helping themselves to freshly baked foods, "Attention everybody, I would like you to welcome the birthday girl" said Houston, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their heads towards the princess.
She gets a bit nervous and let out an awkward "hey guys", she didn't recognize any of them but she had to pretend to know all of them while hoping they don't ask her if she knows them, they all continue to stare as she and her mother get seated.
Houston lets out a forced cough to break the awkward silence, he says "and now Princess that you have come here you may blow the candles", the table the cake was on was carried towards Hope and her mother seated on there high chair, Hope tries to mask her excitement as she takes a deep breath and gently blow the candles, which fire off the cake and make a small explosion spelling out "Happy Birthday Princess!", Hope's eyes lit with joy.
Trumpets play and two royal servants come into the hall holding a gold plated chest decorated with diamonds, the chest is slowly opened and a blinding bright light shined from inside it, "Go ahead dear" said Matilda as her eyes pointed to the chest.
Hope goes down towards the chest and slowly lowers her hand inside of it and grabs what inside, as she removes her hand from the chest it reveals her to be holding the magic wand, it had a purple handle with a sparkly cyan diamond at its back end and a translucent turquoise sphere at it top decorated with a white glowing shape which resembled the combination of a two star into two different planes inside, and topped off with a small yellow crown at the top
Hope's shoulder emblem a pink heart with a tiny crown on top of both curves starts glowing, she raises the top of the wand at eye level, "ooh what's this" she says as she tries to stick her finger inside it to touch the spinning star
"HOPE DONT" shouted her mother, as soon as hope touched it burnt her finger and she let out a painful screech and fires a yellow glowing beam fires from the wand at some guest who were quick enough to duck, it hits a glowing orange decorative plant crushing it against the wall,
"hehe this could have been worse", Hope said awkwardly, the wreckage catches fire...
"FIRE" yells Sally, the guards that were standing by the walls quickly moved and shoved away all nearby guest as Sally goes and faces the fire here shoulder emblem glows and she fires yellow beam at it from her hands she then she clenches her fist and the beam turns into water extinguishing the fire and a yellow cloud evaporates from it, she quickly turn over to Hope and rushes over to her "ARE YOU OKAY PRINCESS" she exclaimed worryingly.
"I am fine it's just my finger is a little -" before she finishes her sentence Sally picks her up and running with her in her arms and runs up to the door and out of the Palace.
Queen Matilda is left with the guests and lets out an awkward chuckle and says "so who wants some drinks?", "Please help yourself to the finest wines in the whole kingdom" she said as a servant reveals a bunch of wine bottles in gold coating, the guests all rushed to get a sip
"I am telling you I am fine it's just a little scratch its rude for me to leave suddenl-" Hope was interrupted by Sally kicking the door open.
"PA-" Sally yelled before being interrupted by a "SHHHH", she was shushed by a woman with a white robe that cut offs at the shoulder, and a hand crafted necklace made of cotton around her neck, she had red hair tied into a bun and a green plus sign as her shoulder emblem.
"Seriously Sally how many times do I have to tell you to be quiet in here" said healer Pam with frustration she lets out a sigh and asks, "So what seems to be the problem?" Sally pulls out Hope and holds her at arms length right Infront of her Hope lets out a "Hi".
Pam gasps "Oh my princess sorry I didn't know you were coming, are you hurt?"
"No not at all it's ju-" Hope was interrupted yet again it seems like although she is becoming a grownup no one seems to want to listen to her
"She burned herself quickly check up on her" commanded Sally as she lowered Hope to her feet, Pam glanced at her up and down
"Where was she hurt", asked her confused. Hope sheepishly pointed to her left index finger it was a bit red which could be easily seen as it contrasted with her smooth white skin, but it was also accompanied by a yellow 'liquid', Pam conjured a white napkin to clean the site of the injury and singled out the injured finger from Hope's hand and put her hand on it and made into a fist and then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes her shoulder mark started having a green glow for a few seconds and then it suddenly went dim, she opened her hand to find the finger fully healed like it was never even scratched.
"Oh wow t-thanks" said Hope with a smile.
"Oh it's nothing" said pam, she took out her napkin it had some yellow glowing spots of what looks like fluid except its it didn't soak in but floated around it, "I see you can use magic now, what was your first spell" Pam said with excitement.
"I-i just shot this out of the wand" she said as she pointed at liquid on the napkin that started evaporating considerably, she then lowered her voice and talked faster "and it hit a plant and set it on fire" she was saying as she looked at the floor, Pam laughed and Hope was starting to blush.
"Oh don't worry dear we all mess up at the start, when I first started I accidentally broke a boy's arm" Pam said with a laugh.
"Is he okay now?" Hope asked with curiosity
"Well when I was your age healing wasn't what it is today they just put his arm in a cast and said if he was lucky his arm would be usable in three years", "I never was interested in healing like my mom but I wanted to fix my mistake so I studied and practiced for months to focus my healing and one day it just clicked, I got back to him and I was able to heal his arm and this happiness a patient feels when they are treated makes this all worth it" she let out a calm sigh and continued "It was not an easy journey but in just 8 years I was able to reach my peak"
"Eight years?" Hope said in disbelief
"Don't worry your path is way longer than mine my peak is at least four levels lower than you" Pam said with a grin
"It isn't that huge difference right?" Hope inquired hoping her journey wont be in the double digits because that's a very long time
Pam laughed and then said "Oh it way larger than it looks, but don't worry royals don't have a peak at least not one that one knows off" she put her hand on Hope's shoulder "Don't let the long road overwhelm you as long as you are better than yesterday you will be a great princess"
Hope smiled at her and said, "Thanks a lot Pam"
"So is everything alright with her, she stuck her finger into the wand are you sure there wont be any complications" asked Sally
"She will be alright she might have lost her finger if she went deeper and then It will actually a challenge to fix, but this is what pain reflexes are for, it a blessing in disguise", replied Pam
Sally clapped her hands and said "Well we got to go now we cant keep the guests waiting thanks for your help Pam"
Hope looked over to her and said "You should come over it's my birthday you can go change the setting", "No dear being a Healer is big commitment what if someone is in need of assistance and I am not here but I appreciate the gesture, maybe I could arrange my schedule to be there next time, go enjoy yourself".
"Pam the amputee is ready for his second regeneration session" a voice called.
"The what?" exclaimed Hope.
"Oh it's a bit graphic you really don't want to see it, I got to go now send your mother my regards" replied Pam as she ran over to a patient
Sally and Hope went to the door and left.
"You know I was really fine, it was just a scratch" Hope said as she looked up to Sally, "It's kind of rude to just leave the guests hanging I could have just sucked it up-"
Hope tried to continue when Sally muttered under her breath "I won't forgive myself".
"What was that?" asked Hope.
"Nothing, it's just you can never be so sure and no one was stupid enough to stick there finger in the wand I was just making sure but since it wasn't serious we don't need to worry" Sally said with an anxious fake smile, Hope sensed there was something off about her tone but she didn't want to push Sally into an uncomfortable spot so she left it at that
Sally and Hope make it back to the palace and Matilda rushes to her daughter "Oh dear are you ok"
She said as she gave her girl a hug, Everyone was staring and Hope got a bit embarrassed "yeah Mom I am ok" Hope said, Matilda stood up and was about to say something before Hope pre-emptively said, "I know I know it was pretty stupid from me to to do what I did, I know the wand is not a toy and I promise I will be more careful with it" she said while avoiding eye contact
Matilda smiled and said "Well I appreciate that you understand that you messed up but that not what I wanted to say" Hope made eye contact and Matilda continued "As princess and future queen we will have you visit the LOWER RING" Matilda took her daughter's hand "Sure its not the safest or best place in the kingdom but a hermit ruler is a bad ruler"
Hope got extremely excited over this as she always wanted to see the rest of the kingdom the Lower ring, the Outer ring but she was always told no because Sally's word "It's way to dangerous, you are not ready, you aren't old enough" or her mother's word "Is there something there that you cant find at home?, The place isn't very hygienic" but how bad could it be it was still under the rule of the Moonshines. Life in the Upper ring and the palace get boring after a while, why would she wants to stay put there when there a whole world to explore?
"The escorts are waiting for us outside those who want to go with us are welcome to go" Said Matilda looking at the guests with a forced smile almost knowing the reaction. All of them tried to mask there faces of disgust as if Matilda just asked them to bathe in mud or even worse she said that the food at the legendary "façade haut de gamme" was just an overpriced scam. They didn't look very impressed, Matilda coughed and asked "Well?".
One couple went towards the exit and when they got to Matilda the man said "We are truly flattered by your invite my queen but I am afraid we have something important to do" the man paused and scratched his head trying to think of an excuse Hope looked over him and asked
"What's more important to than a trip to see the rest of kingdom its not like we can always get to do it" with an ecstatic smile the woman who was scratching her head stopped as if she got an idea she went over looked to Hope with a stupid fake smile and said
"Well sweetie we forgot to sign up our son for school and registration will be closing today" she turned over to her husband and elbowed him in ribs and asked "Isn't that right honey?"
The man nodded in agreement and they walked out and they led out an audible sigh and when they were just outside of earshot the man told his wife "Moonshines huh? You would think after what happened a decade ago they would get the memo" the woman looked back at the Queen then waved and looked back at her husband and said
"She is weak if this happened to me I will make sure those pigs wish they weren't born".
Following into there footsteps and sensing an opening other guests decided to excuse themselves outside and at this point Matilda stopped resisting she knew some wouldn't want to go but she didn't think that many would go and she looked defeated Hope turned to her and said "Well mom we don't need those nose in the airers it's there loss anyways"
A woman walked up to them "She is right you know in-law" that woman was Hope's paternal aunt Mary, she had short blonde hair and brown eyes wearing a yellow dress for the occasion "The only reason any off these arrogant buffoons came here is societal expectations much like basically everything here" she said while rolling her eyes "and they all dipped the second they had the chance, come on lets go"
As they walked past the doors Sally was standing just outside the door scanning the setting with her eyes, her eyes wandered and locked with Mary "You should relax Sally no need for you to be so tense" she said with a smile she then changed her tone suddenly and said with a frown and a in a low voice that Hope and Matilda couldn't hear "Me and Matilda can protect ourselves and we aren't relying on you and my niece was under my protection since she was six, all you need to do is drive the horses and look menacing" and then she put her hand on her shoulder and smiled and said with an audible voice "So you can feel a lot more at ease dear", Sally tried hid her feeling of guilt with a fake smile "Let's go" said Mary joyfully
Everyone got on the horse driven chariot, just a classical chariot nothing magical about it, it's a very ineffective method of transport but one of the most relaxing ones
"HEEEEEY WAIT FOR ME" yelled a girl from as she was she surfing a purple cloud wearing a long sleeved purple sweater and blue pants as she got closer she tried to slow down by tilting her body backwards but she lost control and started flying at high speeds towards Hope
"EM SLOW DOWN" shouted Hope.
"I CANT BRACE FOR IMPACT" they both closed there eyes with their arms covering there eyes but just before contact she was caught effortlessly by Sally one hand and her cloud in the other she crushed the cloud in her fist into yellow mist that faded away and put the girl on her feet she then crossed her arms and looked down and barked
"Miss Emberlynn Springfield you should know how dangerous using magic without experience is, and you can't just rely on something you can't even responsibly use to make up for your own lack of punctuality"
Ember looked taken aback but she didn't want to look stupid so she snapped back with "I didn't know Hope is celebrating her birthday early in the morning, birthdays are a night activity".
Sally who was crossing her arms now raised her eyebrow and simply replied with,"Lies you were told everyday for the last week not my fault you can't seem to be able to be punctual friend's birthday, do you simply not care?".
Ember now looked embarrassed and now was rolling her finger around her dyed purple hair "M-M-My rooster didn't wake me up" she said with a smile while shrugging her shoulder as if she is asking question and the question was 'will Sally let the lecture go'.
"This doesn't matter now anyways it's that Ems is here" interjected Hope with excitement as she put her arm around Ember's shoulder "We shouldn't be wasting time let's go" she said as she punched her hand up in the sky.
Matilda, Hope, Ember and Mary entered the Chariot while Sally rode one of the two horses moving it while the other was being moved by an over-armoured and visibly nervous man.
"Calm down Edmund its just a short trip by a defined path we will be in an out in an hour or two" commanded Sally looking at Edmund clearly getting tired of his lack of confidence.
"I am trying but its such a big deal, escorting not one not two but three royals into the lower ring, I am not sure if I can do this, If I mess up-- I am too young for the consequences" he said clearly on the edge of panic
Sally slapped her hands on his cheeks "Edmund calm down you can do this I know you can" she said, Edmund seemed to calm down a bit "The whole path is being heavily guarded you and me are the last line of an extremely deep wall of defences we are most likely just going to be there for company" she looked back at the cart and said "and besides it's not like the royals can't protect themselves, they are much stronger than us after all"
"That's what they said about fre-" Edmund mumbled before putting his hand on his mouth mid sentence, Sally expression changed to that of anger.
"What did you just say?" she barked.
Edmund realising his mess up and started shaking "Um- I was talking about ---- the nice weather we are having" he said trying to pretend that this wasn't the stupidest attempt at backtracking, before Sally was going to give him a piece of her mind Mary stuck her head out and said in annoyed tone
"Hey I am not getting any younger here", Sally and Edmund looked forwards and shook the horse reins and they got moving forward
As they got to the edges of the Upper ring they reached translucent yellow barrier "We are reaching the barrier you might feel a tickle" proclaimed Sally.
As the horse crossed the barrier the barrier walls phased through the cart and it phased through Mary and Matilda there shoulder emblems glowed a four pointed star and a diamond respectfully in a yellow hue when it got to Hope and Ember the cart got to a sudden halt and they were thrown forwards Hope fell on her mother while Ember face was slapped into the barrier which was at this point halfway through the cart.
Sally opened the door "Everyone ok" she took one look at Ember and let out an annoyed sigh she dragged her hand out of the cart and asked while trying to hide her frustration "Show me your emblem"
Ember scoffed and tried to tuck back her long sleeves but she couldn't get back enough and said while crossing her arms "I can't and I am not removing my shirt".
Sally wasn't having any of it and from tip of her index made a sharp grey magic beam, she flattened Ember's sleeve and made a small cut in her right shoulder showing a yellow star rotated slightly to the left, after the cut yellow gas evaporated from it "And this is why emblems aren't covered it's common knowledge Springfield" said Sally annoyed.
"My favourite shirt! This was very unnecessary" whined Ember and before she could say anything Sally went back to her horse leaving her alone she scoffed and went back to the cart and sat next to Hope crossing her arms.
"You okay there", asked Hope concerned.
"Yeah I am fine just another lecture", said ember looking at the windows
As Hope looked out the window the lower ring didn't seem so different from home, people dressed and walked smartly roads were clean but something was off she couldn't help but notice everyone wore long sleeves even though it was a summer and it's not proper etiquette and that's something else it was surprisingly hot, She took her head out through the windows "Hello stranger" she greeted a man walking nearby he took one solid look at her and looked towards her mother and Sally who was frowning and her hands free with her emblem glowing, he didn't say anything and turned back and proceeded to speed walk away in a few seconds he ditched the subtlety and ran away, Hope was pretty disappointed and got her head into the cart
"What did I do wrong?", Hope asked.
"Girl it's either because you were too friendly it felt fake" said Ember, Hope looked down "Or they were made to feel unwelcome by misses buzzkill in the driving seat" she remarked
A loud sound of crashing wooden boxes was heard and cart went to a halt
"What was that" commented Mary
"Something that isn't boring" Hope said with excitement before leaving the cart.
"Make sure all of them stay put in the cart I will be gone for a short while" said Sally to Edmund before running to the source of the sound Hope tried to follow her but was body blocked by Edmund with his arms crossed
"Sorry I can't let you go princess, Superior's orders", he glanced to the left of him to seeing Ember touching a fancy table Infront of a café just for it to poof into a yellow cloud,
"Ow splinters" she cried, the yellow cloud fizzled reveal a wooden table barely clinging to its shape with a bunch of makeshift wooden fixes that don't even match in colour
Edmund looked like he just saw a ghost and ran towards Ember who was now transforming outdoor expensive furniture into splinter traps
"Stop touching it" said Edmund before shooting out a grey magical hands towards her subduing her, "What's your deal" he scolded annoyed.
"No what's this place deal why is everything here so fake?" snapped Ember "You hearing this Hope this place is fa-" she then stopped and asked "Aye were is Hope?"
Edmund let her go and pulled on his hair "Oh no no no no no no no" he cried
"Is everything alright where is my daughter?" asked Matilda concerned, Edmund didn't know what to say but before he could make up an explanation Mary interjected
"Oh don't worry Mati she will be ok she is probably with Sally and besides she still has this necklace I gave her so I am sure she will be just fine" Mary said with her hand on Matilda's shoulder "and we can go have some tea and chit-chat while we wait I heard that Gilbert's tea shop has actually potable tea" she suggested Matilda sighed and decided to go with what Mary said and walked towards the shop. "What about me?" asked Ember, Edmund turned towards her with anger and barked "You are staying right here!".
"Sally where are you?" called Hope as she was walking she saw a little girl wearing a cute pink dress and smooth brown hair walking alone Infront of her, she approached her and asked
"Hey do you happen to see a tall lady around here?" she tapped on her shoulder to get her attention and suddenly a cloud of yellow gas evaporated out of her Hope and the little girl coughed and as the smoke cleared the little girl was wearing a poorly knit patchwork of randoms scraps of fabric and her hair was covered in dirt she had a brown circle on the side of her shoulder, Hope froze in shock "I- I am so sorry, it was an accident" she apologised "I can go get you a new dress or--" the girl just looked at Hope her eyes glanced her wand which was in her right hand as well as her royal emblem and then she started hyperventilating and burst into tears.
Hope got on to her knees and she gently put her hands on the girl's shoulder "Calm down calm down, it's alright, It's not your fault but mine"
"P-P-pwease do-don hu-hur meeee" the girl sobbed.
"What hurt you? no no no no" Hope explained trying to figure out from where the girl got the idea
Hope hugged the girl "Here calm down see I am friendly" she soothed, the girl seemed to calm down a bit and she started sniffing
She let her go and asked "So what's your name?"
"R-R-Rosie" replied Rosie.
"Ok Rosie I am so sorry for ruining your dress, do you remember were you got it from?" she asked
"Ms Bea had guys gib it to us" Rosie said
"Misses Bea huh" she wondered out loud "Well can you tell me were misses Bea is"
"Sowwy I can't tell you misses moonnnn" Rosie was saying before she looked she wanted to cry again
"Please don't cry" Hope pleaded "You don't need to tell me where you live just wait" Hope passed her wand to her left hand and put her now free hand to her pocket and pulled out a purple wallet and she pulled out a golden note with 50 written on it she passed the note to Rosie and said "Here give this to misses Bea and tell her I am so sorry for destroying your dress also" Rosie grabbed the note and stared at it, Hope pulled some wrapped candy she got from the party "Her have some candy too" the girl put her the note in her pocket and grabbed the wrapped candy she struggled with it a bit and she then passed it back
"Open it please" Rosie asked
"Oh you can't? it's quite simple here" Hope said she gently tapped the candy her emblem glowed for a moment and the wrapping fizzed out.
Rosie put the candy in her mouth and quickly chewed and swallowed it, she then gave Hope a hug, she let go after a moment "Thank you miss, Ms Bea says Moosines are scawy but aren't scawy"
"Scary why would we be scary" Hope asked in disbelief with a smile
Rosie looked around and said "I am sowwy I need to go" she turned back and ran away and took a turn and was just out of sight.
"You couldn't just stop causing trouble for one day? what did we pay you for?" Hope heard Sally barking.
The sound of Sally's voice came from an alleyway, as Hope entered the alley the clean white paint started fading into rotting maroon bricks and the smell became foul coming from the open dumpster "Ewwwww" Hope said as she lowered the lid to try and lessen the stench
"Hey you know it's rude to close the lid on someone trying to fetch themselves a meal" a bald man barked as he popped out like a jack in the box he had a white beard wearing over shoulder strapped brown pants with a black plastic bag for a shirt and a metal can of beans for a hat and his left eye with a grey iris spinning his shoulder emblem only consisted of a simple brown circle, Hope screamed and ran away "Oh beans was that a Moonshine?" the man asked himself "Well I probably should skip town" he said to himself with a goofy smile while snapping his fingers.
Hope stopped running and started panting "Now you are lucky I am not here in head bashing duty or I would have sent you to a one way trip to the Outer ring and the monsters there could deal with you" Hope heard Sally scolding, she walked to the end of the alleyway the place beyond it was extremely different people clothes were worn out in which the holes were covered up by half baked sewn rotting fabric the road didn't exist it was simply a dirt undefined path and walls were all made of rotting bricks same as that of the alley, windows were broken and the stench of garbage filled the air, Hope saw Sally tying up a bunch of muscular men with a magic rope.
Sally glanced over and saw Hope "Princess what are you doing here?" she asked with dismay the rope holding the gangsters vanished they got up and shook of the dust and looked up and saw Hope and they all ran away in terror "Moonshine here run awway". All of a sudden all the people went indoors and the windows were sealed shut with wood and hammered with nails and just like that the place looked like a ghost town.

Bone grafting plays a crucial role in the success of dental implant procedures. At Rajdhani Dental Care Clinic in Preet Vihar, we specialize in providing top-notch bone grafting services to ensure optimal outcomes for our patients. With a team of experienced professionals and state-of-the-art facilities, we strive to deliver personalized care and exceptional results.

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Before undergoing bone grafting, patients undergo a comprehensive evaluation to assess their oral health and determine the most suitable treatment plan. The grafting procedure is performed under local anesthesia to ensure comfort and minimize discomfort.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Bone Grafting in Dental Implants
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Conclusion

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The following two brain scans were provided by the Neuro-Warfare branch of the Halcyon Security Division (HSD) for the purpose of analyzing the thoughts, behaviors, and information of notorious gangsters Vincent 'Troy' Cohen and Bruno (Deadname: Koraak Tel-Char). At the point of the recording of this archival shared, Bruno has since received his rebirth therapy, and Vincent is currently serving a long-term rehabilitative and reeducative sentence in the Erebus Supermax Prison on Io.
Warning: the contents of this archival shared may be especially disturbing to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
Warning: the contents of this archival shard are for the sole purpose of analyzing the thought patterns and memories of certain degenerate criminals in an effort to ascertain vital information that can be used to eliminate their organizations. Only staff with clearance level Omega may view this archival shared, and the viewership of this archival shared by anyone of inadequate clearance level will lead to twenty years in prison and a fine of over a hundred thousand credits.
Booting up memory scan: Vincent 'Troy' Cohen, November 4th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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"Do you have visuals of the target, Troy?"
I knelt down in the alleyway, the bodies of me and my partners shrouded in long, waterproof, ashen-gray overcoats the shade of dirty street scum that we wore to ward off the constant heavy rainfall the color of osmium. Our faces were covered in a mix of scrapped respirators, visors, or full metal face masks carved with intricate designs to hide our identities. On our waists were our badges of honor: leather belts studded with interlocked rivets made from blackened titanium, each buckle forged of silver and shaped into the head of our gang's symbol, the black mamba. We hid amongst the shadows of the dark midday of Halcyon City, the heavy, oppressive rains blanketing the roads paved obsidian-black with asphalt and weathered concrete walkways. The street lamps were always on, like beacons of false hope in a storm of melancholy.
The city was dark and dreary as always, the planet of Proxima Centauri B, renamed Dawn's Lamentation over a century ago, orbited the red dwarf star of Proxima Centauri, and the atmosphere was thick with natural smog and ever-storming rain clouds. That didn't dissuade people from living here: there was plenty of money to be had for shrewd industrialists and hardworking pioneers, even in the urban sprawl. But that life also came with risks, especially for those on the bottom of the totem pole.
I was a ganger, and we were criminals; full stop. I won't assault you with some spiel about how we're the good guys fighting oppression because, at the end of the day, we could be just as bad, if not worse, than Halcyon's Security Division, or the HSD for short. We were traffickers, killers, extortionists, and money launderers. We dealt with everything from stolen tech and military-grade hardware to hard drugs and sentients.
Yes, sentients. We trafficked sentients, but not in the way you might think. They weren't prisoners, in fact, we were their saviors if they had the cash. We had developed a reputation for fighting the power, but it was still business: sure, freeing captives from the clutches of the Protectorate. The disruption of its many oppressive organizations held a certain satisfaction in my heart for sure, but we didn't help those who couldn't pay unless someone else paid on their behalf. It was about making sure me and my gang, my family, could live a decent life for another day.
It helped that most of us joined after leaving the state yard for partaking in acts of 'degeneracy' and 'anti-xenopet illegalities' as if those terms meant anything anymore other than that we were a threat to the local status quo. It was hard to pick up a job as a former inmate when even in something as harsh and backbreaking as a job in the iridium mines near the poles when the employment office had you blacklisted as a degenerate, which lead to the formation of many of the gangs: we needed to make a living somehow, and when all social programs were cut off from you unless you submitted for 're-education' and the only way to put food on the table was subverting, breaking, or even downright fighting the law, you did what you had to do or you died on the streets a scorned beggar.
It wasn't like the HSD made it easy for us on even a good day: the local HSD units were armed to the teeth with advanced, military-grade hardware that you'd often see on the front lines of the Second Authority War: armored assault transports, a myriad of advanced war droids, all sorts of chemical countermeasures that made tear gas seem like putting the garden hose on mist mode, and of course advanced firearms. Add that to the fact that they were authorized to use deadly force when they deemed it necessary and you had a ruthless, heartless, and nearly unstoppable enemy. But we could make that work: we weren't trying to stop them, just to withstand them.
"Yeah, I got eyes on the prize, Koraak; seven armored transports, two for droids, five for prisoners."
Today wasn't a day for a normal job: we were getting bolder, cockier, more ambitious. Our numbers had swelled for the last few years after the raid at Barnard's Star and the fall of the Blood Dragon Mafia. Their leader, Saito Yasuhide, had committed seppuku as their manor burned, and his twin sons had gone down fighting rather than allowing themselves to be captured simply to face a firing squad. In the aftermath, many of the family's associates had fled to the surrounding systems, and with the sheer size and scope of the criminal underworld found here, it was no wonder that many people who had developed skills of the less legal variety had decided to form ranks with the gangs, and with them they brought guns, tech, knowledge, contacts, and even something that we thought wasn't possible beforehand: a semblance of peace between the gangs, or at least the closest thing to peace that gangs could cultivate effectively. With the fall of the Blood Dragons, we saw the writing on the wall, and the writing couldn't have been clearer: work together or die together.
"Sounds like a massacre, Troy: are you sure we can handle seven?"
"We ain't got no choice, Cinder: this job's double the usual rate, and that's not including the weapons and gear we could scrounge if this goes well," I hissed, my eyes scanning for any resistance. There were at least four guards for each van, not to mention at least eight droids in total, meaning that we were already outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise: we could make it work. "So put your balls in your purse and get ready to spill some blood."
Koraak snorted at our antics, which sounded like someone pulling the ripcord on a lawnmower. He was a veteran Russu Corsair, and while his past of slaving, raiding, and killing was unsavory, so were the lives we'd lived, so who were we to judge? All we cared about was that he was a brutal and capable fighter and a loyal brother in arms. It turned out that being a ganger wasn't much different from being a Corsair: you lived and died by a code of honor, you fought to the death for your brothers, and you lived to die for the sake of your gang and your family, simple as that. In a strange, ironic way, it was an incredibly honest way of life: we were under no illusions as to what we were, what we did, and why we did it, and we'd long since accepted it. The Russu related to us in that aspect, in many ways I could respect, which is why I hated what the Protectorate was doing, and why I couldn't grasp how most of humanity could just collectively lose their marbles so long ago. What had happened for us to deem all other life below us in such a demeaning and infantilizing way?
The Russu were a race of tall, muscle-bound Saurians with avian features, and Koraak was no exception: reaching almost seven feet in height and weighing over four hundred and fifty pounds, he could be an absolute menace if he so desired. His skin was covered in stubby, knobby scales and dense plumage, with elegant feathers adorning the ridges along his back as well as his forearms, elbows, knees, and the crests on his head. He almost looked like how paleontologists described velociraptors, with razor-sharp talons, feathers shaded in vibrant greens, reds, and purples, and a maw full of sharp teeth, but at the tip of his snout was a sharp, beak-like growth meant for ripping flesh off the bone.
The Russu were strange as hell, but they also looked almost cute in the same way a fully grown alligator was cute: they were obviously dangerous, but humans would always have this innate desire to anthropomorphize them and to pet them for some inexplicable reason, although common sense usually prevented that, at least amongst the very few of us left that were sane.
"Shut up, Troy! All I'm saying is that that'll be rough, and you know it," hissed Cinder. Cinder was a tall black man whose coffee-colored skin was covered in tattoos. He wore an ebony mechanic's jumpsuit with metal inserts underneath his grimy overcoat covering his body and a faded black respirator on his face. His eyes were a startling blue that seemed sorely out of place, and his hair was braided into thick cornrows along his scalp. He wore a pair of heavy black combat boots and palmed his compact shotgun in his hands, the square barrel less than seven inches. Like a lot of the weapons the Black Mambas carried on their persons and dealt in, they fired caseless ammunition; in Cinder's case it was 16x40mm caseless shotshells filled with depleted uranium micro-flechetes no thicker than a toothpick. Cinder nervously fiddled with the detachable tube magazine underneath the barrel, his hands shaking. Despite the shit I have him, I didn't blame him for being anxious: I was anxious too, even if I refused to show it. The biting cold of unease and pessimism was in my stomach, and I ran all the way that this job could go wrong in my head over and over.
"Just hold yourself together, this ain't anything we haven't done before, there's just more of it," I reassured Cinder, "besides, we're not alone; we have reinforcements across the street. We'll make it out of this alive."
Cinder nodded almost absentmindedly, his eyes downcast and his breathing shallow. I turned from him and back to Koraak, who was making sure he had everything on his person; he had a synthetic leather bandoleer across his chest that contained the heavy eight guage depleted uranium slugs he kept loading and unloading into his much larger, longer, and more traditional shotgun he nicknamed ‘carnage’ and several leather straps that held his Tu'shan daggers: traditional Russu pyramidal blades forged from a silvery alloy with all three edges serrated and the tip barbed to leave behind horrible, gaping wounds that gushed blood. They were wickedly sharp and absolutely straight like a stiletto, and the hilts and pommels were beautifully decorated. He wore no clothes underneath his overcoat to cover the countless scars and blemishes he's earned in combat across his chest and abdomen, and instead of a normal respirator or visor, he simply wore a hood over his head and some traditional Russu facial armor to protect his mouth, eyes, and cheeks.
"You ready to fight, Koraak? The caravan will pick up and leave soon."
Koraak was silent for a moment before nodding, a human gesture he had picked up after serving as a soldier with the Black Mambas for years. "I'm always ready to fight," he said before lifting up his shotgun and aiming down the sights at the reinforced front wheels of the first armored car in the caravan. He exhaled and fired, the slug ripping through both front tires and causing them to deflate and fall apart. The echo of the shot rang through the alleyway and the street, causing pedestrians to panic and flee the scene as heavily armored guards poured out of the side doors of the armored cars and unholstered their carbines.
"Go, now!" I shouted, and both me and Cinder rushed out into the fray, our guns raised. Koraak was right behind the two of us, providing covering fire with his shotgun. Several guards fell quickly, Koraak's precise fire and the sheer force of the depleted uranium slugs putting them down for good as their heads were vaporized or their chest cavities were turned to mush. He emptied the tube with one final shot that painted the grey matter of a security guard on the door of one of the armored cars, then racked the shotgun and expertly loaded it in threes, his hands deft and agile as he reached for more slugs faster than any human.
With the cacophony of our initial assault, more Black Mambas poured out from the alleyways and the subways, armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons; shotguns, submachine guns, pistols, machetes, baseball bats, and all manner of homemade explosives. Molotovs and more potent concoctions shattered against the asphalt, herding in the caravan guards with their volatile contents as they were quickly gunned down. The assault was working, and we were winning.
Then I heard the robotic whine of a combat droid activating, and my heart sank. One of the armored cars in the back activated the four combat droids it held, the robotic assault units detaching from their charging ports on the sides of the large van and began to form up, each armed with a terrifying array of deadly weapons meant to quash any and all resistance. They were blocky, soulless, utilitarian things that stood at eight feet tall, with flat feet meant for stomping and blades, grasping claws designed to lacerate flesh and shatter bone. On each shoulder was a weapon: on the left was a multi-barrel rotary grenade launcher loaded with 15mm concussion grenades, and on the right was a burst-fire splinter cannon. They were all painted a dull grayish-green, the color of Halcyon's Security Division, although some had a few decorations on them: the one closest to me had a bit of graffiti on the side that said Mr. Hugs in Comic Sans, which I couldn't decide whether that made it more or less terrifying. They split up without hesitation and began to scan the chaotic battlefield, their single, red, beady lenses the security forces had the gall to call eyes focusing on specific targets to eliminate.
An entire group of Black Mambas was torn to pieces by a cloud of flechettes as one of the droids fired a withering three-round burst of shotshells from the four gauge splinter cannon mounted on its shoulder. Another picked up a Black Mamba in its hand and crushed her skull effortlessly before tossing her limp body to the side, its single, red, remorseless robotic eye tracking a new target. Most bullets that struck their thick armored chassis simply bounced off, and those that could pierce the armor didn't seem to phase the droids whatsoever, merely notifying them of a new potential target.
"Damnit," I shouted as I gunned down another guard only for two more to take his place. "Cinder! We gotta pop open the cars and scram! Get the maglock cutters!"
Cinder rushed and slid over through a dirty puddle, pulling out a maglock cutter from the inside of his coat and slipping it onto the back door of the first van. It immediately went to work, drilling through the maglock with a high-powered plasma torch nozzle, and within ten seconds we heard the telltale clunk of the maglock separating. I yanked the door open and ordered I side, ready to escort the prisoners out… only for my face to contort in shock and horror.
The back was empty. There was not a single soul inside of the back brig of the armored car.
"What the fuck…" Cinder gasped, his eyes wide with shock. "What the actual fuck… what the fuck is this, Troy?"
"I… I don't…" I stuttered the sounds of battle and carnage drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. All five cars were supposed to be filled with recently captured Russu from the front lines ready to be housed in the local Xenopet-Megaplex for processing and conditioning. The fact that this one was empty…
Suddenly, it all hit me at once with the force of a freight train, but it was too late. "We were set up, Cinder; our fucking client either squealed or was crooked to begin with…"
"Fucking bitch!" Cinder shouted as he spun around in an enraged arch, anger growing in his eyes. He aimed his shotgun at an approaching security guard and reduced his upper body to a fine red mist with a cacophony of shotgun blasts. "We gotta get everyone who's left out of here! Do you know what this means? The Jurors will be here soon, and then we're all going down! We gotta go, fuck the job!"
I grit my teeth. Not the Jurors, anything but the Jurors.
"Fine, gather everyone who's left and we'll slip through the sewers, the droids are too bulky to follow us there…"
As I spoke, my eyes wandered to the seventh and final armored car, the second of the droid cars, and my blood froze. Not only were all four ports empty, but they were also smaller and more shallow than the ports for the combat droids. That could only mean one thing.
"Oh fuck! Cinder, we gotta get our Russu members out of here! They've got arachnid droids!"
Arachnid droids were the stuff of nightmares. Resembling blocky, robotic arachnids the size of a manhole cover, they were specifically designed to take down sentient aliens, specifically the Russu, using sickeningly non-lethal means. They were equipped with full-body adaptive cloaking to blend in with their environments, paralytic agents that they could inject into their victims, built-in taser barbs, psychedelic gas ports for crowd-control, and a narrow-coned cacophony canon that disabled the Russu using incredibly high-pitched sounds that only they could hear, forcing them onto their knees and clutching the backs of their heads where their auditory organs were stored in agony. But worst of all was their stygian spinnerets: special ports near the end of their robotic abdomens that excreted a viscous, latex-like substance made up of millions of nano-bots. This substance could be used to render Russu blind, deaf, and mute by having it forced onto their faces, the black substance growing and enveloping their heads and working its way into every orifice. It was completely permeable to the standard atmosphere, but any Russu who had been 'webbed' was completely helpless and essentially captured, and the 'webbing' was both nearly indestructible and nigh impossible to remove without a triple-encrypted override key that was found in every arachnid droid's code, which was corrupted when the droid was destroyed or hacked into. Once you were 'webbed', you were essentially captured and the standard protocol was to leave you to the wolves since the nano-bots could be tracked, endangering the entire gang.
I turned just as I heard the deafening sound of Koraak discharging his shotgun, and I saw him squaring off against one of the assault droids. The droid has obviously been programmed to not use lethal force against Russu if possible, as instead of simply killing Koraak with it's shoulder-mounted splinter cannon, it approached with its claws extended, blades retracted. Koraak continued to back away and fire, pumping the droid full of depleted uranium slugs, its armor crumbling inward as the slugs pierced its chassis and damaged its internal cyberstructure. Eventually, Koraak ran out of slugs and instinctively reached to his bandoleer only to find that he had no more shells left at all, and he drew one of his knives and his sidearm, a simple high-caliber handgun. He tried to take down the droid with his handgun, but the bullets didn't even seem to affect the droid upon penetration, it's claws still extended as it attempted to apprehend Koraak.
In the corner of my vision, as I watched Koraak battle with the droid, I noticed a faint shimmer in the air on one of the black streetlight poles that was right behind him. I focused on it and blinked, believing my eyes had deceived me for a moment before realizing that it was actually a cloaked arachnid droid stalking Korvaak, ready to pounce and incapacitate him.
Before I could shout, it leaped from the pole and landed on Korvaak, causing him to shout in surprise while it began to coagulate its horrifying stygian webbing to disable Korvaak. Korvaak tried to wrestle it off of him, but the droid was agile and fast, clinging onto Korvaak and skittering around across his upper body as he attempted to grab it, forcibly wrapping the sticky black liquid across his face as he gagged like a spider wrapping up a fly. I rushed towards him to try and help, but I felt pain explode in my ribs as I was struck with the arm of the closest combat droid and launched into the chassis of a parked car, the metal denting from the sheer force of impact. I groaned in pain as I saw stars and my head spun, and just then I felt a blinding light be cast over me.
“Drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head, or you will be pacified with deadly force!” Shouted a loud, artificially deepened voice from above. “I repeat, drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head! Neither hostility nor hesitation will be tolerated!”
It was the Jurors, I could feel the air being pushed around from the thrusters on their drop ships, and I could hear screams and shouts as my fellow Black Mambas were quickly gunned down. I couldn’t see well since I was seeing double, but I could hear the slaughter as my eyes dimmed and I began to lose consciousness, my regrets crawling up my throat like vomit.
I’m sorry was all I could think as everything finally went dark, and the sounds of chaos, destruction, and combat faded away.
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Memory halted due to loss of consciousness. Booting next available memory in shard…
Booting up memory scan: Koraak Tel-Char Bruno, November 5th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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“Good morning, sleepyhead; it’s time for breakfast.”
My eyes shot open. I was not in the street anymore, nor was I home in my bed with my mate. I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t gain the leverage to do so: my ankles had been shackled together with magnetic cuffs and my arms were forced together in front of me.
I was wearing some kind of thick shirt. It was warm, fluffy, and comfortable on the inside, but it still made me incredibly uncomfortable that my arms didn’t have a free range of motion. I looked down to see that I was wearing some human garment I had heard about before, a straightjacket maybe?
The entire room was padded: the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. There was no bed or furniture; the floor was soft enough to serve as a bed in itself. There was nothing else except for the soft reddish-orange lights on the ceiling that somehow made me sleepy. I blinked slowly for a moment, my body screaming at me to just lay back down and lose consciousness, but I couldn’t do that: I needed to figure out where I was and how to escape.
Then I noticed who was speaking to me: it was a short human female, with crow's feet around her blue eyes, blonde hair braided down her back, and freckles all over her face. She had a soft smile on her lips, and her forehead was slightly crinkled. She wore a full-body white lab suit with a white overcoat and a pair of glasses for snugly on her face.
"There we go, now I can see those pretty eyes, such a beautiful shade of teal," she cooed softly, "You're such a handsome boy, even with all those scars: I'm sure you'll be adopted very quickly once we get you fixed up."
Fear gripped my heart as I began to piece all the evidence together. I had been captured; I was no longer on Halcyon, and instead, I was in one of the horrific space-born facilities I had heard so much about from the inside agents. I started to hyperventilate and squawk like a newborn hatchling, my eyes dilating in panic. This couldn't be happening! This has to be a nightmare!
The human woman merely wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into an embrace, cradling my head under her chin and speaking softly. I couldn't bite at her or claw at her: I was muzzled and wearing a straight jacket, so I had no choice but to allow her to coddle me.
"It's okay, sweetheart: I understand you're scared, but Julie's here to make all the pain and bad thoughts go away," she said as if she was comforting a child, which made anger blossom in my chest indignantly. "I'll be your caretaker for the next few months, and I'm going to make sure you're healthy, happy, and most importantly safe while you're under our care. I'm sorry to say that includes your restraints and restrictive clothing, but we have to make sure you aren't a threat to yourself or others before we can determine if it's a good idea to remove you from suicide watch."
I growled under my muzzle. Suicide watch? They must have had a lot of instances of Russu taking their own lives after being captured, something I wished I had been able to do before that damnable droid launched itself onto me and…
I shuddered at the thought of the black, viscous substance forcing itself into my nostrils and down my throat and windpipe, gagging me and rendering me completely helpless. It was so cold, so harsh, like slime, and when I had tried to tear it off of my face it merely attached itself to my claws and bound my talons together. I remember squirming on the ground as it enveloped me, unable to see, hear, or speak, and then everything went dark in an instant. It was the most horrible thing I had ever experienced, which was saying something.
"You alright, sweetheart? Oh, I know, you're probably hungry! Here, try some of this." She held up a piece of what looked like raw bacon and wiggled it in front of me before reaching out to remove my muzzle. In an instant, I attempted to snap at her only for pain to blossom in my forehead and my eyes to roll up in my head as I convulsed. It was like something was attempting to drill through my skull from the inside, and every breath felt empty and labored.
"Now, that didn't feel very nice, did it? This is why we have countermeasures in place because we can't trust you yet, sweetheart! Don't worry, we'll work on breaking you of all those bad behaviors and habits while you're here; after all, a well-trained pet is a happy pet!" She began to stroke the crests on my head as I slowly recovered, and she snugly fit the muzzle back onto my snout. "But I won't hold it against you this time, sweetheart; you're just scared and confused, but I'll make all the pain go away."
I struggled in the straight jacket, trying my best to break out of it, but it was no use. Eventually, I became exhausted and despondent, allowing my new caretaker to have her way with me as she gently ran her fingers through my feathers and along my ridges, quietly speaking to me in a hopeless attempt to cheer me up. She seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being, which concerned me even further: who could be this naturally twisted while attempting to be as benevolent and kindhearted as possible?
I felt the pain and terror build up in my chest, the anxiety from what horrific activities I imagined they had planned for me here. I couldn't take the infantilization, the lack of any autonomy, the dehumanization, and what I feared the most was if the rumors of 'rebirth' were true: would they take my personhood from me?
Suddenly, I felt her whisper to me. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know you're so scared and confused, but I promise you everything will be okay: it's going to be your birthday soon, and then everything will get better." She ran her fingers through the feathers along my crest lovingly. "It will be such a wonderful day, and then we'll choose for you the most wonderful family, and you'll spend the rest of your life happy in your forever home! Doesn't all of that sound wonderful?"
I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear. I didn't want to lose myself, not like this, not to these monsters!
"It'll be your birthday soon," she said wistfully as if she was remembering similar events to this in the past like I wasn't the first she'd done this too, "and you'll never be sad again."
I realized that I wasn't the first the stay in this particular cell, and I knew for certain that I wouldn't be the last: I'd end up like my brother, a broken, erased mess of a pathetic creature, reduced to nothing more than a pet for these humans to amuse themselves with.
"We took the liberty of picking out a nice name for you, sweetheart! Now, let me just slip this little programming chip into the port slot on your occipital bone, and... there we go! It will also help you calm down a bit and adjust."
I felt the chip begin to invade my mind, suppressing my thoughts. What made me me was slowly being ripped out of my mind. I couldn't remember my name my name is Bruno, and I needed to get out! I can't let them do this to me! Somebody help me! I was a good boy.
##Do not think. You are a good boy.##
I tried to scream, but my voice wouldn't work: I had trouble forming any words at all, the confusion clouding my mind like wet, slimy eels curling around my brain and sinking their teeth into its folds like needles. I couldn’t scream any longer, because I had nothing left: the chip was slowly beginning to take everything from me, robbing me of my identity and branding a new one into my psyche with a white-hot iron. Julie simply held me close, attempting to reassure me as I awaited the inevitable demise of my personhood. Soon I would be just like my brother: erased. My mind would be shaped into the mind of a loyal plaything, like a Dog.
##Relax. Allow caretaker [Julie] to comfort you. You will let go of your burden.##
Soon, everything was a blur. I quickly found myself resting my head in her lap as she whispered to me and fed me, my eyes bleary and my head fuzzy. I couldn't remember my name anymore My name was Bruno, and I needed to break free from this trance relax, and allow her to help me; good boys didn't resist help.
##Good Boy. Do not think. You are a good boy.##
You can't... I...
##Good boy.##
I wouldn't… good boys don't… I…
##Good boy##
I was a good boy… I was a good boy…
I was… I was… a good… boy…
Someone help me, please! I don't want to be erased!
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The following script is from episode #343 of Halcyon After Dark, a popular late-night and current events talk show hosted by Melinda Carter. This specific episode was sponsored in part by the Halcyon Security Division, with Director Lochlin O'Brien joining as a guest star to talk about the changing crime statistics in Halcyon City and the HSD's recent successes in busting organized crime as well as their plans for addressing the growing criminal underworld.
MC: Good evening Halcyon! I'm your host, Melinda Carter, and you're watching Halcyon's most popular late-night talk show, Halcyon After Dark!
The crowd claps and cheers as Melinda walks on stage and sits behind her desk, her glittering red dress waving as she does so from the special effects.
MC: Tonight we have a very special guest here to tell us about the state of crime in the city and his plans on resolving it: please put your hands together for the HSD's very own Director, Lochlin O'Brien!
The crowd cheers some more as HSD Director Lochlan O'Brien, a tall, muscular, caucasian male in his early forties with red hair and a well-trimmed beard steps into the room, waving at the crowd with a bright smile. He sits in the armchair angled next to Melinda's desk and gives her his full attention.
MC: It's so good to have you on the show, Director! Tell me, how are you doing on this fine evening?
LO: I'm doing excellent, Melinda: every day I wake up feeling fulfilled knowing I'm serving Halcyon to the best of my abilities and then some."
MC: That's the spirit, Director! Now, I know this question is just on everyone's lips, so I have to ask: how successful was the recent gang bust? I heard HSD forces took out dozens of gang members and liberated at least a dozen Russu Hounds from their abusive clutches, but I know that everyone in the audience and at home wants to know the numbers.
LO: I'd be glad to tell you, but I do have to preface this by saying that we still lost a lot of good officers that day, and while we did strike a crippling blow to one of Halcyon's biggest gangs, it doesn't change the fact that each death is a tragedy, and we're taking steps to prevent them in the future. That being said, those valiant officers did not sacrifice themselves in vain: we had over a dozen confirmed kills and several arrests, including the rescue of several corrupted Russu hounds.
MC: That's excellent, Director: proof that even when the number of degenerates and scum grow by the day, the HSD will always be here to keep the citizens of Halcyon safe.
LO: Absolutely, Melinda, and we're always working tirelessly to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our units, as well as racing to stay several steps ahead of the many gangs of Halcyon at all times. My newest goal as Director is to vastly increase the funding given to our Robotics Department and our Neuro-Warfare Department to potentially reduce the number of casualties we may experience in the future, as well as to quickly and effectively detain, and if necessary, eliminate criminals. Within the next decade, I want to double the number of automated units each Security Platoon is assigned: droids are the future of public safety as well as countless other industries, and it would be foolish to be left behind.
MC: That is quite a lofty goal, Director: what about the displaced jobs from the increased automation? What will the union say?
LO: And to that, I say: what misplaced jobs? We aren't replacing our honored and beloved service members with droids, Melinda, we are simply supplementing our units with more droids to ensure that future gang assaults end with fewer HSD casualties and more gang members in prison or eliminated, simple as that.
MC: That makes much more sense, Director, thanks for clarifying. Now, I have one more question that I'm sure much of Halcyon wants to know the answer to before we take a short break: what plans do you and your fellow directors have to make long-term progress in reducing crime beyond just increasing funding? Have you proposed any plans to strike at the source of where crime and degeneracy flourish?
OL: That's an excellent question, and one I am proud to answer: my constituents and I have been working tirelessly on a two-step plan to greatly reduce crime levels in Halcyon. Step one would be to prevent people from becoming criminals and degenerates at all in the first place: a lot of young men and women, but especially young men, have lost either one or both parents or even a sibling, aunt or uncle, or even a close friend by the brutality of the Second Authority War, and while the service of their lost loved ones will always be recognized and honored, many of these young men and women are left bitter, angry and lost without the guidance these people give them in their lives. Oftentimes they seek to fill that void with others who claim to relate to them: career criminals. These criminals will fill their heads with lies and false narratives to make them feel like they're fighting back against the 'evil protectorate government' that took their loved ones from them by sending them off to war when in reality it was the rogue Xenopets of the Triarchy that took them away by resisting their just and inevitable unburdening.
In response, I have proposed a slew of special programs that will make sure local law enforcement and HSD officers are present and contributing to their local community, and we'll be providing easy and light job openings for youngsters and teens looking to make a career for themselves in the force when they grow up. We want to let these lost souls know that there are people who care about them, people who understand them and that you shouldn't turn to degeneracy to feel fulfilled. We want to help the youth of our great society soar to new heights!
MC: That sounds like a wonderful beginning to your plan, Director, but what about the second step?
LO: Well, the second step is to prevent criminals and degenerates from becoming repeat criminals. Sure, they've made their mistakes, some worse than others, but they're only human like the rest of us. Some of them have been through hell: some are traumatized veterans who don't know how to adapt to normal life, others were recruited when they were young and don't know that there's a better way to live, and even more are mentally ill. We're alone in this galaxy, and we can't leave so many people behind. That's why we've come up with an excellent solution: we've set up isolated communities on distant moons and frontier planets where these criminals can be reeducated, rehabilitated, and allowed to repay their debt to society. When they're deemed 'reformed' and have graduated from our program, they'll be granted a hefty stipend and their criminal record will be deemed irrelevant, allowing them to reintegrate and become functioning members of our proud society.
MC: all of these sound like incredible steps forward in the fight to better our society and make real progress, Director. Sadly, we do have to step away for a moment, but you best believe I'll be back, Halcyon, and we'll be asking the Director here some burning questions about allegations over the quality of life Erubus Supermax! Now, a word from our sponsors!
Halcyon Xenopet-Megaplex! Everything your xenopet could ever need in one place! Adoption is now free-
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Good, you’re still alive! The rest of this shard appears to be corrupted, which means this particular trail seems to have run cold here, but do not despair; you need to keep searching. Find out what happened. Find the truth.I cannot guide you any longer: they've already found me, and if I remain in contact with you they'll find you as well. Take the archival database, and see what you can piece together. Maybe if we discover what truly happened we can put an end to this madness once and for all. I'm counting on you. Don't cry for me, I don't fear death, but I fear what they'll do to me to get to you: there are far worse fates than death, after all.

Me (33M) and my Girlfriend (32F) have been together 6 years, we're from different countries and live together in a different country where we met.
We've been travelling a lot the last year but we've fought a lot every trip and we've been growing apart the last year from eachother with all the fighting.
She sees any form of criticism as an attack and gets really defensive, she's very sensitive and I a very blunt person, when something I have said upsets her, I do sometimes dismiss it as not a big deal or I speak to it and admit my fault, but she says thats not enough, I will apologize eventually and talk to her, but then she's upset that I didn't immediately apologize and things blow up into larger affairs that take days to resolve
for example we went for a meal out, when the server came for drinks I was hungry and wanted to go get the food, she was taking a while to order, she had already said she wanted a coke, but she likes to peruse the menu, so I ordered for her, she got upset and didn't want me to do things for her, I explained I was hungry and it's not a big deal, let's eat and enjoy our meal, she was clearly upset which made me upset as we were out to enjoy ourselves, so I said sorry and explained myself, but that I really needed us to not fight and enjoy ourselves, she was still upset and said she couldn't eat, so we ended up leaving. She went to the room and took a few hours and then came out and said how everything upset her and I apologized again, but she's upset that I'm upset and despite my sorry she says she's still hurt and needs time.
I know these things are tied into our wider issues like communication and maybe even our personalities as people, but things like this happen weekly now, I've been better at immediately addressing things she's upset about and trying to be a bit more understanding to her sensitivity, but it has me feeling like I'm walking on eggshells or that one wrong move or one bit of tired bluntness is going to take away more days.
I've expressed this feeling to her a few times and it caused fights, she says it's the way I'm bringing things up, she will often get upset and say that I'm being unfair because she is doing some things for us, but I'm not talking about those things, I'm talking the tension and how I feel, which makes me feel like if I bring anything up, she will just get upset.
It all feels a bit juvinille yo me sometimes, I want to fix things and start talking about Visas, marriage and a home, but she says she needs to work on herself and she can't manage working on the relationship and working on herself, it's all a bit overwhelming for her, I try and be supportive and say we can do this, we both still love eachother and we want to be together, but she says she feels like it's unfair to keep stringing me along as she works on herself and she doesn't want to take the next big steps in life until she feels like she's dealt with her own issues.
I say to her that we can take things slowly and work on our relationship and communication, I want to make it work, I know she needs a delicate hand, but the issue is she doesn't like even minor conflict and gets triggered by it and becomes defensive and stressed, she becomes very cold and distant and has moods sometimes about stress in life and the relationship where she becomes unavailable, she's seeing a therapist about a lot of these issues which stem from childhood, but for me and us, it makes fights more drawn out and makes me feel isolated.
Now we're in a weird position where we need to get a new apartment and travel to see family, but she's unsure about what to do next and I'm unsure, I feel pushed away and like I can't fix this alone.
I want to talk about the past and move on from it, but she says it's hard and she can't process it herself and she says the fighting has made her uncomfortable and she can't bring these things up. It just makes me feel like everything is so complicated and difficult, I just want the past to be discussed and hear her out so we can put it to rest, I want fights to not blow up and be so explosive and last for days, ai just want easy conflict resolution
I want a family moving forward, we are good together and she's very supportive, but things have become so complicated and I feel like she's checked out in part from the relationship and the same issues keep rearing their heads and we're both working on it, but neither of us are satisfied with the others efforts and there's a lot of unresolved issues
I'm unsure of what I want, but I know I don't want the state things are now, I want us to work on it together and resolve things, but I don't know if this is even normal, it's all so complicated and messy now.
What do I do to make things simple and address the issue?
Any thoughts or help would be appreciated, haven't really shared these thoughts with anyone.

THE EMERGENCE OF BIOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
The vast reservoirs of carbon dioxide, silicon dioxide, oxygen, water, methane, and ammonia
molecules, present on the early Earth, would have been manufactured, sorted, combined and
refined by the planet itself; and would later serve as the raw materials for the planet-wide
production of more complex compounds, such as sugars, amino acids, fatty acids and other complex
carbon-containing compounds. In other words, on the early Earth, many of those inorganic chemical
compounds and the molecular structures they form would serve as the container (or beaker and
petri dish), fuel source (or Bunsen burners), reactant, catalyst and reagents for various complex
reactions (or syphoned-off, closed-off, pressurized and temperature controlled reactions) used for
the production of many basic organic compounds. Essentially, the natural convection and
geochemical mechanisms of the planet would only need to get certain specific light or gaseous
elements confined within certain reaction channels, pockets, or cavities, at or just below the Earth’s
surface, in the presence of certain natural catalysts and reagents, to start to create the very first
chemical permutations for biological life. This is because, spectroscopic analysis of organic
compounds and biological molecules (such as sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids) shows that, in
their most basic forms, all organic molecules comprise of some combination of just 11 specific light
elements, all of which would have been abundant within the lower atmosphere and upper crust of
the newly formed Earth.
Essentially, because of the specific chemical composition and energy orientation of the early Earth,
all variations of carbon-based life, at the molecular level, mainly contain six elements: oxygen,
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, with trace amounts of another five elements:
potassium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. Which is why, the experiment conducted by
Stanley Miller and Harold Urey, in the 1950's, where they tested if organic molecules readily form
from simple inorganic compounds, used a closed system of gases, thought to be abundant in the
atmosphere of the early earth (namely, H2O, N2, NH3, and CH4). Importantly, for the main energy
resource, to aid or ignite the chemical reactions, they chose to simulate lightning by sending sparks
of electricity through the mixture. Then, after letting the experiment run for a week, Miller and Urey
found that various types of amino acids, sugars, fatty acids and other organic molecules emerged
within the mixture. However, no natural catalysts (such as clays minerals, metallic substances, or
phosphates) were used and as a result, no large complex polymer chains, such as proteins or RNA,
were formed within this mixture, but the experiment demonstrated that, at least, some of the
building blocks for life could form spontaneously from simple inorganic compounds, using
reasonable quantities of energy.
Therefore, in nature, the sequences of compounds, made from those 11 elements, that did not
immediately overheat and decompose back to their individual inorganic or elemental components,
and were able to remain stable, long enough, to merge into complex polymer chains, to become
proteins and lipids, would mark the start of bio-coherency on the planet. Where, under this notion
of bio-coherency the reactant for the newer reaction would mainly be comprised of the organic
compounds or strings of organic chemical information that were manufacture in the previous
reactions, microseconds earlier. This is because, the emergence of the first set of protein molecules,
would also make the arrival of enzymes, as well; as most enzyme are proteins that would allow ever
more complex polymer chains to be engineered or manufactured, and would allow more chemical
information and chemical energy to be stored within increasingly more complex chemical mixtures
and chemical systems. Additionally, these newly formed enzymes would be able to act as natural
catalysts (or Extremozyme), and thus would help many complex reactions to occur at much lower
activation energy levels, than they otherwise would in nature (as, enzymes are known to be able to
catalyse more than 5,000 biochemical reaction types), even at extreme temperatures. As such, the
emergence of life and biological complexity would about not only the quality and quantity of
chemical ingredients, but it would also be about energy availability, reaction activation levels,
chemical durability, and catalytic integrity, as well.
Furthermore, introducing a catalytic component to these mixtures would allow for faster and more
efficient reaction, and would allow for a more streamline ordination of the reactions that need to
occur in sequential order (or even concurrently). Essentially, the organic molecules or polymers that
emerged to take the place of inorganic mineral catalyst would quickly elevate the complexity and
efficiency of those enclosed mixtures, as they would not have to rely on constant outside refuelling
of catalytic components, instead they could simply make their own, in the right proportions, as
needed. As such, any protein or other polymer structure that reliable meet, those functionalities
would quickly attain significant dominants within the burgeoning mixtures. Which is why, ribonucleic
acid (or nucleotides) and amino acids (or peptides) became an indomitable part of all functioning
bio-chemical mixtures at the molecular level, as they are the chemical that possess the ability to
preserve both chemical information and catalytic information, within their overall arrangement and
overall molecular structural framework, shape, and orientation. Furthermore, ribonucleic acid, as a
polymer of nucleotides, functionally act as the sequencer that facilitates the polymerization of
amino acids into specific proteins. As such, the set of RNA molecules that possesses catalytic
properties to optimize (or that are able to recall and preserve the exact steps and components need
for) the production of organic compounds such as proteins would serve as the first type of genetic
code (or as a means of storing the chemical and catalytic identity of an enclosed mixture).
Consequently, the emergence of the first set of enzymes, which are the type proteins or other
polymers that can catalyse the creation of protein molecules, would facilitate the emergence of the
very first closed loop autocatalytic chemical mixture, which would represent a mixture containing
reactant and catalysts that were synthesized by and within the mixture itself. Additionally, the
existence of this catalyst-filled mixture running on reaction autopilot would facilitate or allow ever
more complex polymer chains to be engineered, or manufactured, within minutes if not seconds of
each other. Essentially, this would allow vast quantities of chemical information, or chemical energy,
to be stored within these increasingly more complex compounds, or chemical systems. Such that,
these chemical mixtures or chemical systems would conduct organic chain reactions on overdrive, as
the chemicals contained within them would be either the main ingredients and/or the means of
lowing the activation energy for future reactions, which would exponentially increase the likelihood
of specific types of reaction taking place. Therefore, the constituent parts (or catalytic substances
and substrates) within these dynamic mixtures would quickly evolve into more complex and large
polymer structures, which would allow them to acquire more functionalities, as well as more
physical properties, shapes and traits.
Importantly, it should be noted that given that unlike most inorganic catalyst, catalytic enzyme
cannot function in open / unprotected environments; as such, the emergence of lipids (which are
the complex polymer chains, or molecular chains, of fatty acids), would represent the emergence of
the very first partially insoluble molecular shells or membranes, that could enclose or wall-off
mixtures. Thus, the many little spherical pockets or oily bubbles create by lipid molecular shells
would serve as the very first maze-like multi-chambered multi-layered structures that could fully
enclose and insulate various chemical systems, or mixtures, of ongoing molecular reactions that
contain both catalytic enzymes and proteins. So, many of the reactions that were being catalysed by
proteins and enzymes would readily be protected from being directly exposed to the harshness of
the outside environment, like they would be if those reaction were solely occurring in underground
vents, rock channels and closed rock cavities (or in lakes or stagnant pools of water). As such, the
concurrent emergence of the carbon- containing compounds, or chemicals, known as proteins,
enzymes, and lipids would mark the point where new portable diffusion gradients, reaction
pathways, along with new pressure and temperature gradients could form on the early Earth.
Therefore, within those moments, thousands of new reaction types, or chemical combinations,
would start create fully functional Molecular Machines, designed to complete specific chemical and
physical tasks, while others would become Discrete Data storage units, designed to store specific
kinds of chemical information, within the 3-dimensional structure of their physical molecular chain.
Thus, some of these organic molecular machines and molecular structures would represent fully
functional sequences, or pockets of chemical information and they would preserve the accumulated
lineage of the chemical information once only held within the system that created them, while
others would preserve the properties, functionalities, chemical pathways, rules, protocols, and
syntax unique to those systems. As such, these units or pocket biological coherency, could be
defined ostensibly as an enclosed set of localized mixtures (or as a mesh of compounds) that exist
collectively to follow an existential set of algorithmic permutations (or axiomatic source codes),
written in, written on, or stored within carbon-based molecular compounds, or chemical molecules.
Where, those compounds would not only possess the ability to store information by virtue of their
arrangements, configurations, reactions, and interactions, but they would also possess the ability to
functionally read, compile, execute, and utilize, the multiplicity of chemical information, or chemical
energy, stored within the other molecules they come in contact with (or interact with). Therefore,
the life-like structures would represent bounded units of stored chemical information working
together in unison with or within various mechanical and chemical microsystems; where, catalytic
enzymes and lipids would actively, or continuously, help to reduce the activation energy levels
needed for certain reaction to occur, and to prevent premature halting caused by excess heat or
other external environmental pressures.
As such, with these lipid enclosed chemical pockets, reactions that once took days or even millions
of years to unfold naturally would now reach completion within microseconds; and, this jump in
complexity, and efficiency, would result in the creation more complex chemical entities such as
viruses, which toe (or straddle) the line between the living and non-living world. As, viruses are
portable chemical structures that are simply messenger catalysts / enzymes and proteins (or
chemical information) physically and chemically fused to, or encased within, a lipid shell (and can
simultaneously be view as nest of biological functionalities, or as inert chemical molecules stuck
together). However, unlike the limited chemical information and functionalities or properties stored
within individual lipids, proteins and enzymes, each virus’s amalgamated molecular structure would
possess a lot more functionalities and a lot more stored chemical information, when compare to the
basic polymers or organic compounds, or progenitors, that preceded them. Therefore, viruses would
represent one stratum up in the lineage of chemical structures manufactured by a concurrent
amalgamation of chemical mixtures that actively use energy to sequence and store information, and
that protect and insulate these pockets of chemical information from the inorganic world, or outside
environment.
Additionally, the syntax or sequences of chemical information (proteins, enzymes and catalytic RNA)
held within these viruses, would have the added functionality of being able to hijack the resources,
mechanisms and chemical infrastructures of other chemical systems, to derail, interrupt, or interfere
with many of their natural protocols and tasks. As, viruses would be able to chemically, or
genetically, introduce some of their own chemical information, catalytic instructions, RNA code and
mechanical sequences into other structures and mixtures, specifically through the existing chemical
pathways of the lytic and lysogenic cycle, which is the universal chemical syntax shared by all
biological entities. Which would allow viruses to functionally transport and actively facilitate the
exchanging of genetic material and catalytic tasks among the many lipid bound microsystems that
happen to be in close physical proximity to each other, or that possess very structurally similar lipid
membranes and can attract and attach to each other. Therefore, viruses would be the means
through which some isolated lipid bound chemical mixtures would place, preserve or package
segment of their existing catalytic information or catalytic instructions into portable pockets, for
later use by them or by other larger systems to make newer, more complex, or more elaborate
permutations or arrangements of polymer chains.
Consequently, on the newly formed Earth, before the formation of the first true single cell
organisms, viruses and some loosely held together proto-cells that resemble lipid bound organelles
would be the main stores of biochemical information and catalytic instructions. However, the cross
membrane interactions among these wide array of organelle like structures or viruses (or proteins
stores of chemical information protected by lipid shells) and enzymes (or functional catalytic
proteins), would quickly lead to the creation of the first true single-celled prokaryotic organism.
Which would represent one of the most significant leap in the complexity of shared and stored
chemical information (and would take the form of a concentrated energy enriched mixture of
proteins, enzymes, and various dissolved organic and inorganic substances, protected by or encased
with a semi-permeable lipid mesh). Additionally, even though, at first glance, a prokaryotic organism
would appear to be very similar to a virus, or would appear to be a virus that simply happens to be a
lot more hydrated (or that happens to have retained a lot more water and dissolved chemicals); it
would, actually, represent a gigantic leap in biological complexity. This is because, prokaryotes
would be able to install within themselves organelles or molecular structures such as Ribosomes,
which comprise of many set of catalytic molecular machines, that would serve as the site of
biological protein synthesis; and would represent a set of structures that no virus would be complex
enough to possess. As, these ribosomes would have the ability to link amino acids together, in the
sequential order specified by the instructional templates, or data, stored within the physical
structure of the molecules such as messenger RNA molecules.
However, much like viruses, many prokaryotic entities would possess the ability to either hijack,
and/or have its own internal mechanisms infiltrated by, other prokaryotes due to the similarity
among their internal catalytic structure, proteins and enzymes, or because of the shared
commonalities of syntax used within certain aspects of their membranes and lysogenic chemical
pathways. Subsequently, this process of endosymbiosis would allow two or more prokaryotes, (or
one prokaryotic entity and a multiplicity of viruses), to merged or to coalesce within a share physical
structures. Which would permanently merge the molecular, chemical or catalytic lineage of these
different chemical structures, or sources of chemical information, and would represent a key step in
the evolutionary process of cellular structure; as, it would lead to the creation of the first set of
eukaryotes, which are the entities that are one fractal stratum above prokaryotes in biological
complexity. Which means that, eukaryotes are the results or by-products of a multiplicity of
prokaryotes and viruses hijacking or co-opting each other’s genetics and catalytic chemical pathways
via forceful membrane intrusion and through the lysogenic cycle. Thus, the double-membranebound mitochondria, with its very own strands of circular DNA, found in the complex structures of
most eukaryotic cells, may have originally been a prokaryotic entity that had its own internal
mechanisms hijacked or overwritten by another; where, one entity utilized the lysogenic cycle to
forcibly splice its own chemical instructions, or genetic information, into the other.
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Overtime, depending on the level of exchange, integration or interaction amongst these prokaryotic
entities, there would soon emerge more reliable ways to attain mobility or to acquire energy, more
efficient ways of storing chemical information and catalytic instruction, or more reliable ways for
recording or storing genetic information and instruction, etc. As such, congruent to this exponential
growth in complexity would be the emergence of DNA (which are nested fractal molecular folds of
cumulative codes or polymerized RNA), from which more expansive protein synthesis can be
harness, when pair with extensive clusters of ribosomes, and more proficient ways of storing or
extracting power or energy within the cell. In addition, some microcellular organisms would develop
or acquire new say build, generate or repair their membranes and the specialized membranes would
create separate species that are able to defend against unwanted genetic material or chemical
resources, chemical energy, and chemical information intrusion, or defend against viruses and other
intrusive external pockets of genetic code or catalytic information. Which would ensure that only
specific type of chemical information would be absorbed or incorporated into their existing chemical
system, without causing significant changes to, or disruption within, the system. Therefore, this
would allow for the assimilation, upgrade and installation of entire chemical systems, and this would
mark the first sign of true biological evolution.
Essentially, these prokaryotes would exist as unique individually and not necessarily direct clones or
replicas of each other, but since they would not be able shout to each other nor shine a flashlight to
display the unique qualities, they would only be able to communicate or show their distinct
personalities through means of physical contact or through direct chemical exchanges. Which would
allow them to transfer catalytic enzymes, proteins, or genetic information, within their local
ecosystem. As such, it is through these cross membrane (or intermembrane) means of
communication, regulated by the share syntax of lysogenic cycle, where techniques and chemical
procedures would have occasionally gotten distributed, amongst the population, without invasively
destroying or completely overriding existing information. Which would serve as a new multiplicative
or additive way for organisms to develop or refine their previously individually developed ways of
performing certain tasks, and would allow them to adopt or develop many new traits,
functionalities, or techniques, to add to, or replace, all the ones that they came up with in isolation.
Furthermore, this continued growth in complexity amongst all these populations of biological
entities, where information from external sources could get continually, continuously and seamlessly
added to existing nucleic acid / RNA or DNA, rather than causing the host cell to be destroyed, would
allow for a seamless elevation in overall biological complexity across the entire planet.
In general, this lysogenic exchange or sharing of chemical information and catalytic instructions, via
physical and chemical mechanism, would be a process that predate the development of any multicelled entities, and predate any firm classification of living entities in any known domain, kingdom,
phylum, class, species, or even gender mechanisms. Thus, it would have been the continued
absorption and replication of new or existing genetic information (or physical chains of chemical
information, chemical instructions, chemical instruments, and chemical energy) through those
chemical exchanges that would have led to the emergence of, the stratum of microbial complexity,
known as eukaryotic entities. As such, the distinct organelles or structural features and physical
characteristics present within a eukaryote would have originally been in a separate and distinct living
entity that somehow got absorbed and chemical or genetically fully integrated into this much larger
biochemical composite structure or system. Therefore, in general, eukaryotes are, undoubtedly, the
entities within which many viruses and prokaryotes voluntarily (or forcibly) passed on their catalytic
data, RNA and DNA, during their life cycle, and their combined genetic code or combine catalytic
information, which got preserved by the larger hosts, before being passed on to future generations,
of the new hybridized entities.
As a result of this, the first eukaryotic entity to exist on the planet, ostensibly as an interconnected
net of subjugated prokaryotes, would have emerged with the collective chemical knowledge or traits
of the many strata of entities whose merged genetics and functional chemical codes helped to make
it in into a full functional being. Such that, even the cell nucleus of a eukaryote and the nucleolus of
this nucleus, would been acquired via some version of this absorption or integration process.
Essentially, the precursor to the nucleus may have been an entity that was able to proficiently
control and assemble ribosomes, was able to allocate a vast array of catalytic enzymes to alter
transferred RNA, or was proficiently able to sense intracellular stresses, which allowed it to co-opt
many of the chemical traits of the entities that it encountered. As such, while maintain its own
position of dominance, the nucleolus within this precursory entity was able use its extensive
repository of DNA, RNA and proteins to create a new network of cognition, logic modules, and
chemical data pockets, much like the catalytic data utilized by enzymes to subjugated many other
entities, while ensuring that its own structure remained intact.
Therefore, once the subjugated chemical systems have been fully integrated and is now a part of its
collective, the nucleus and its nucleolus would be able to pass information these organelles (or
subjugated prokaryotes), and the internal infrastructure of these organelles would follow the
catalytic information in the data pockets they received. Where, most of the instructions given for
each subjugated prokaryote would no longer come from chemical sequences recorded on circular
genetic code, or a maze of functional RNA or catalytic enzyme, floating within its structure, instead
most instructions would come from the nucleus and the enzyme and proteins it produce, which
would mimic the syntax of the original prokaryote. Consequently, these structures would only use,
bind, fuse and combine the existing finite number of polymerized molecules whose existence and
functionalities got deemed valuable by the intracellular network, controlled by the nucleus. Thus,
most of the hybridized structures within a eukaryote would not aim to create or catalogue all 10 to
the 21 power peptide bonds (or protein combinations) that are possible, or all possible chains of
billions of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen that can make the most lavish genes, instead they
would simply do the tasks assigned to them. Which is why there is not currently an infinite number
of random permutations, combinations, or arrangements of mismatched proteins, peptides, and
genes, instead only a stable syntax of very consistent and very steady arrangements of proteins,
peptides, and genes now exist, shared across most classification of biological life forms, on the
planet.
Furthermore, in addition to their very stable, organized and well control intracellular system,
eukaryotic entities would have been the first entities to emergence with cognitive functionalities,
such as the ability fully perceive their surroundings, ascertain ideas, understand correlations, and
make logic based decisions about allocating resources, as well as using precedent and prioritization
to make correct choices. Essentially, eukaryotic entities would be able to use computational logic to
interpret any stimuli acquired from the outside environment, related to vibrations,
electromagnetism, temperature levels, PH, hydration levels, etc. This is because the centralized
nucleus or main organelle of the eukaryote would have been an entity that originally specialized in
many of those functions as well as sensing the chemistry of the outside world or ecosystem. Which
allowed it to be the entity that successfully co-opted the catalytic function other entities, to merge
with them catalytically or genetically, and to construction a fully functional ecology made entirely of
subjugated molecular structure and chemical data. Therefore, in general, microscopic life on the
early Earth would have been less like a "pitch patch" mesh of random chemicals stuck together, and
would more be like refined self-contained amalgamation of micro-machines or self-contained microecosystems.
Which is highlighted in the existence of the mitochondria, as it is an organelle that possess its very
own remnant genetic material, its own lipid membrane, is able to divide at its own independent
rate, and is able to take nutrients and breaks them down, to the creates energy rich molecules for
itself and the eukaryote within which it resides. Which means that, the mitochondria too is perhaps
yet another organelle that may have originally been an entirely separate prokaryotic entity, whose
entire structure and genetic information were absorbed, interpreted and incorporated into a much
large system of chemical chains and sequences. So, in general, microscopic symbiotic system built
from an integrated set of recursively synthesized, recycled and replicated structures built made of
sugars, acids, proteins, enzymes, viruses, RNA and DNA all confined with a variety of lipid
membranes are the things that would together create life and pre-life or life-adjacent systems or
chemical mechanisms. Such that, complexity, or higher-level functionalities would emerge in nature
only through those types of symbiotic relationships or genetic mergers amongst catalytic, viral,
prokaryotic and eukaryotic microsystems. Thus, the development of new higher-level traits such as
logic, computation, cognition, consciousness, and self-awareness, would all relate to those types of
mergers and interactions amongst microbial entities, and this would help those systems to attain the
ability to proficiently solve problems and make decisions about themselves, their environment, and
their acquired resources.
However, as the bridge between the living and non-living world, viruses at their core would not be
conscious and would possess no notion of good or bad intent, they simply would exist as pocket of
data or as pockets of catalytic instruments that can relocate from one biological microsystem to the
other. In other words, virus would mainly serve as hardware to upload and install new genetic data
into and existing bio-computers or cells, without necessary overriding all of the existing stored
chemical data that was stored in the form of polymerized molecular strings or sequences.
Consequently, the concurrent emergence or existence of a collection of two or more viruses,
prokaryotic entities, and eukaryotic entities, regardless of their size, regardless of their relationship
to each other, and regardless of their relative physical distance to each other, would constitute the
existence of first true sign of ecological biodiversity, on the planet. However, these entities would
either have the ability continue to exist as separate entities, or to have their genetic information
chemically further co-opted by one or more of the other entities. Where, although the acquisition of
a stable pool of genetic and catalytic information would be important, if this information is unable to
help the organism to acquire raw material, ingredients, and energy (or chemical resources), in the
form of sugars and/or ions, to prevent the its chemical death or thermal decomposition, then the
information acquired would be functionally useless.
Consequently, as these entities continue to interact physically, chemically and genetically, they
would either all maintain the ability to acquire energy directly from physical inorganic resources; or
only some would continue to possess this ability, and the others would become symbiotic or
omnivorous to acquire readymade pockets of chemicals such as sugars, amino acids and fatty acids
from the others. Essentially, one or more of these entities would recognize the other biological
entities as portable pockets of energy or as food and fuel, which would start a food chain mechanism
to convey energy resources to themselves. As such, the food web that would emerge would be an
offshoot of the lysogenic and lytic battle amongst these viruses, prokaryotes, eukaryotes and other
microbes. Where, some cells would consciously choose to reinforce their infrastructure to protect
themselves and to acquire the life sustaining resources from the inorganic world; whereas, another
group of cells would consciously choose rip open other cells to get their resources (and the remnants
of this choice is evident in the distinction between plant cells and animal cells).
Alternatively, one of the entities may have overly selecting for specialization in lysogenic defence by
way of lysogenic offence, such that it would develop the cognitive ability to detect and capture all
lipid bound or protein producing entities within its vicinity. Where, once captured it would break
down their structure to it prevent its own genetic or catalytic control from being corrupted,
changed, overwhelmed, and over time this fight or flight mechanism would turn entity into the a cell
that can envelop, breakdown, consume or digest other cells, and conduct the absorption of their
chemical remains. As such, eukaryotic plant cells possess chloroplasts, which are organelles that
convert light energy into relatively stable chemical energy via the photosynthetic process. By doing
so, they provide diverse metabolic activities for plant cells, including the synthesis of fatty acids,
membrane lipids, starch, and hormones. While, animal do not contain any energy producing
organelles, but they possess lysosome, which is a membrane-bound cell organelle that contains
digestive enzymes; where, lysosomes destroy invading viruses and bacteria and break down excess
or worn-out cell parts, back to their non-living constituent parts. Therefore, the entities at the
bottom of the food chain would be the entities that were able utilize the energy that come directly
from the Earth or directly from the sun (sunlight), and were able to make direct use of the inorganic
and non-living chemical energy resources that came from metallic salt ions, hydrogen ions, carbon
dioxide, sulphur, sulphate, etc.
Beyond this, the unexplained and overwhelming innate drive that most organic entities have to
reproduce and replicate themselves, would also be an offshoot of the lysogenic and lytic battle
amongst viruses, prokaryotes, eukaryotes and other microbes. This is because, the story of life is a
story about captured energy, that happens to be temporarily held or confined within very organized
chemical pockets on the surface of the Earth; and without this captured energy there would be no
organic chemistry, and no organic chemical reactions on the surface of the Earth. Consequently, the
main self-sustaining goal that all living organisms would have is to breathe and feed, or to take in
both simple and complex organic and inorganic compounds, as well as to find ways to use energy to
sustain their internal repository of biochemical resources, or to prevent it from collapsing and
reverting to simplest individual non-living inorganic compounds. Therefore, many of the main
characteristics of living things, at the base level, are functionalities that arise as a lysogenic byproduct of the encounters or interactions amongst microscopic cells or that arise as a means to
cause or prevent natural chemical energy resources from being continually co-opted, transmuted,
transformed, and transferred.
Importantly, the emergence of multi-cellular organisms would be a natural progression in biological
complexity once eukaryotic entities have acquired enough catalytic data (or are unable to readily
merge with new external entities), and cognitively start to recognize or compute that they can
construct towers of themselves to strategically specialize in specific task, in order to benefit their
interconnected unit parts. Essentially, a multi-celled organism would represent a nested set of
Turing machines (or computers) that achieved collective synchronicity across the lysogenic network.
Where, each cell or specific sets of cells would have certain task to carry out based on the specific
instructions held within their internal cellular matrix (or their internal mesh of proteins, enzymes
and translated genes). Furthermore, the cross-membrane communication amongst the different
cells within the network would allow certain catalytic functionalities to be on or off (or specific
protein synthesis or polymerization processes to be active or inactive), where this selective cell
specialization would improve the efficiency and sustainability of the collective. Therefore, the
lysogenetic transfer or cross-membrane transmission of protein, enzyme and other forms of
chemical information, amongst these physically conjoin collection of cells, would allow certain cells,
from very early on in their lifespan, to possess certain specific traits, perform certain specific tasks,
or to conduct certain specific functions.
Essentially, these towers or columns of cells from the same eukaryotic entity, would communicate
via the lysogenic network (where, chemicals molecules would be the data and enzymes or the signal
receivers and transmitters in the inter-cell and intra-cell network); and this would mark the arrival of
the first set of multi-cellular biological stratum on the planet. Furthermore, as the level of
instructional data held within these collection of cells continue to grow, and each group of cells
become substantially better at the specific specialized task, then this would eventual cause the
emerge of stem cell, organs and systems. Where, these organs and systems would be stacks,
columns or rows of cells or groups of cells assigned to certain tasks or specialized functions (or
cluster of specialized cells operating within an inter-group co-operative that share data or
information and instructions across the lysogenic network). As such, the specifications of the
specialization would come from the instructions held within genes, but could also come through the
action of protein, enzymes or other chemical units.
Nevertheless, if the different traits, tasks and functions assigned are good to the organisms overall
wellbeing, and are passed on, then the generational longevity of these traits would be noticeable
genetics of future generations. However, if the organism’s death was due to the lock of functionality
brought about by these traits then they would not attain any genetic longevity, as most biological
units with the population with those traits would eventually die off. Unfortunately, another byproduct of any malfunction within this specialization process would be mutations within individual
cells, and any sustained collective breakdown process could cause the entire lysogenic or catalytic
cycle across an entire collection of cells to start to perform incorrect task, which would be cancerous
or carcinogenic, and could cause the biochemical death of the organism, as well. Essentially, cancer
cells are the cells that have some level of chemical amnesia and have had their catalytic processes
(or the controls and parameters of their operating system) changed to the wrong settings (or
corrupted), relative to the collective that they are a part of. As such, these cells would continuously
synthesize the wrong set of protein, enzymes, or lipids, because they continuously receive the wrong
instruction, or started to interpret the syntax of the instructions they receive incorrectly.
Additionally, this would have the additive effect of preventing new instructions from getting into the
cell, due to the infrastructure and catalytic machines (or proteins and enzyme) being preoccupied
with the wrong tasks, which would reduce the overall functionality of the cell in service to the
overall goals of the other cells in the collective. Therefore, cancer cells are simply cells that have
corrupted operating systems or cells that can no longer read, compile or decipher the syntax of the
existing chemical codes from its own genes, or its own intercellular polymer, catalytic enzymes or
protein chains (and thus, fail to maintain the specific traits, task and functionalities they were
selected to specialise in).

The next morning came very early. The ship woke them up and gave them time to get to the command deck. They joined Captain Oliver there.
"Good Morning!' he said as they came in. "Have a seat, we'll be leaving the dock shortly, and once aligned on our vector, we're off!" He turned back to his console.
They each took seats in the acceleration couches behind the captain. Lan looked around, then asked, "What about the others?" she hadn't seen any additional seating on the command deck.
"Passengers aren't allowed on the command deck." the captain replied, "they have individual acceleration chairs in their quarters. They really don't need them that much, we're only accelerating to one g, and there won't be much maneuvering."
They sat and watched the proceedings as the ships AI and her captain coordinated the undocking, small thruster adjustments pushing the great ship away from the shipyards space dock. When the were a few kilometers off, the great ship fired her thrusters creating a complicated slow motion ballet, as she aligned herself with the estimated position of her destination.
With the final adjustments complete, the captain gave the order, "Engage Drive". Joe and Lan felt the tension against the restraining belts ease as they settled into their chairs conformal cushions. They became heavy, the flight deck took on an orientation, now having a floor and a ceiling, where before it just had walls all round.
A few moments later, Sunny reported, "Accelerating at just under one g, all systems normal, we're on our way."
"Excellent!" from the captain, he rotated his chair around to face his two young earnest crew craning their necks looking out. "You won't see much yet" he said "Come back in a about 10 hours, once we've accelerated to maximum speed, then you'll see something interesting."
"Like what?" Lan asked.
"The star field will be deeply blue shifted ahead and red shifted behind. While the stars off the sides of the route will shift through all the colors of the rainbow between blue ahead, and deep red behind." the captain explained.
Lan seemed a bit worried, about something. Finally she asked, "How long with this trip take?"
"For us, or for your families?" the captain asked.
"uh, both I guess," Lan said, "Will my Dad be old when we get back?"
The Captain paused, then asked, "Sunny, would you mind handling the explanation?"
"Certainly," came the ship disembodied voice they had come to recognize as a friend.
"Our destination lies nine light days out from the sun. That means light itself, would take nine days to get from the sun, to the Azure flame, as seen from either the Azure Flame, or the planets in the solar system. We have to spend a day or so accelerating to our top speed, and then decelerating to match our destination, so to observers in the inner system or on the Azure Flame our trip will take about twelve days total." Sun Dancer explained. She paused for a moment, where a human would take a breath, she paused to allow her audience to absorb what she'd said.
"To you here, as we accelerate to nearly light speed, time will pass more slowly for us, compared to time outside. To us, the trip will take only three days or so, most of which will be while we're accelerating." Sun Dancer completed her mini lecture.
"But then how is it that you two are so old?" Lan asked. She had been confused by the whole concept of flexible time at relativistic speeds.
"Well, first, we're not that old. The Captain is just 31 standard years, according to our calendar, according to Earths calendar he's nearing 300. This is because when we travel to a star system that is say twenty light years away, to an outside observer, our trip will take approximately twenty years, but to us, it would take about thirty-two days, plus or minus. So we would age a month, while our friends and families back home would age 20 years. If we went on a longer trip, say 100 light years, our friends and families would age 100 years, while we would only age 5 months or so."
Lan seemed to understand this, "So the faster you go, the slower your time runs, but everyone else's remains the same."
"Essentially" Sunny replied, "Perhaps we can spend some lesson time on the theory and some of the equations behind it later."
Lan seemed to suddenly loose some of her enthusiasm for the discussion.
Seeing the lecture now well over, the captain asked, "Have you two had breakfast this morning?" They both shook their heads.
"hmm, ok, let's meet in the kitchen in fifteen minutes, I'll see if our guests even bothered to get out of bed, and we can head down and eat with them in the common room. "
Joe and Lan got up and headed out of the command deck. Fifteen minutes later they met the captain in the kitchen.
"Our guests are ready for breakfast too. Let's head down to the common room and eat, I'm starving!" Captain Oliver was eager to eat.
As they entered the common room, Mr Lang was sitting in a chair, dressed in a workout suit, reading from his pad. He looked up and greeted them as they came in, "Good Morning" he said.
"Good Morning Mike" replied the captain, "Any sign of Ama and Peter?"
"Oh they'll be out now, the smell of food should get them going" Mike said.
They took seats around the central table. Each pressed a few keys on their pads, a few moments later trays with foods appeared from the table top dispenser. As they ate, a stateroom door opened and Ama appeared, dressed in a white tank top, and small white shorts. They could see that despite their long length, her arms and legs were well muscled. She took an empty seat and ordered her food.
"Good Morning" she said to the group. A few nods, and "Good Morning" from Lan.
"Where's Peter?" asked Mike.
"He was complaining about the acceleration making him too heavy, and used that excuse to stay in bed a bit longer," she explained.
"Does the gravity hurt you?" Joe asked. He'd been fascinated by the Belters since he met them briefly yesterday.
"No, not really hurt, but everything is three times heavier than it should be, including our bodies, arms legs, heads. It just takes some extra effort to move around." Ama explained.
"We've limited our acceleration to just about seventy-five percent of one g, for your comfort" the captain said.
"Thank you" Ama replied, "But we could handle up to two g's acceleration in a pinch."
Joe was impressed, "How?" he asked.
"We train in higher g environments because we have careers that take us aboard ships. Weight training mostly, Belters tend to have good cardio health, as a rule, since there's not a lot of stations that have any sort of personal transport, you have to get there under your own power, so we stay in shape." Ama explained.
As they talked Peter emerged from the stateroom. "Ah breakfast" he said, "Is that REAL bacon?" he asked, his eyes lighting up.
"Yes" said the captain, "Since we're a small crew, I felt that we could afford decent food. The Coffee is real too, Arabica, roasted and ground on board."
Peters forlorn demeanor changed quickly, he took a portion of the seat Ama was in, their thin frames making that a lot less awkward. He reached to her plate and snatched a piece of bacon.
"Hey!" she smacked his fingers, "Order your own!" but she was smiling as she said it.
Peter did order, which included a large cup of black coffee, which he held with both hands, enjoying the warmth and aroma before taking a drink.
"Oh that's good" he said, and started to eat.
A few hours later they heard Sun Dancers voice announce, "Prepare for Zero g, 5 minutes".
Joe and Lan wondered about this, they had thought that the turn over would be almost a day later. They headed to command where they found the captain. They entered and took their seats.
"What's going on?" Joe asked.
"We have to take care of a small detail. Now that we are well out from the system, and traveling at a high percent of C, we should be able to work unobserved." the captain said.
"Unobserved for what?" Lan asked.
"To get rid of our little parasite" the captain said, "The one you saw someone putting on the ship back at the shipyard."
Lans eyes widened a bit at this.
"How are we going to do that?" Joe asked.
"We're not" the captain said, "I'm sending a maintenance bot out to get a good look first, then the bot can detach the device and bring it in."
"Sunny, are you ready?" He asked.
"Yes, There is a maintenance bot on the hull now, moving towards the spot where the device is." she replied.
"What do you think it is?" Joe asked.
"A good question" the captain replied, "It could be a beacon, though that would be nearly useless given our velocity and distance. Any location data would be days or a week old when it arrived. It could be a recording device or something more nefarious. I'm less concerned with what it is, than with who wanted it put there."
"Would someone try to stop us?" Lan asked.
"A Starship is an incredibly valuable thing" the captain said,"back in the days when they were being created every few years, there were a lot of unsavory things done to acquire a controlling interest in one. People fought over them, in courts, and in space."
"People got hurt?" Lan asked
"People got killed" the captain answered.
He brought the maintenance bots video feed up on one of the command decks screens. It was moving along the hull towards the drive section, which still glowed slightly having been just shut down. They could see a small rounded lump that had been colored a close match to the hull, close but not good enough that Sun Dancer couldn't spot it right away.
The bot stopped about a meter from the device. It extended a probe and scanned it, but couldn't detect internal functions.
"Hmm" the captain sat looking at the screens indications. his arms crossed on hand on his chin, thinking. "What do you think Sunny?"
"A harmless device would not be protected from internal scans" the AI said.
"Indeed" said the captain, "Can we afford the Maintenance bot?" he asked.
"Yes, I anticipated expending this one, and had another built over night." she answered.
"Ok, go ahead and have the bot pry it off. This should be interesting" he said.
The video showed the rounded object getting a little larger, then two of the bots manipulators appeared on the screen. These flattened spatula like appendages could lift one-ton pallets. The bot slid the edges down and began to pry the device from the hull.
"I'm detecting electromagnetic emissions." Sunny said.
"A signal?" the captain asked
"If it is, it's highly encrypted. I've been recording since the start of the exercise." Sunny said.
Suddenly there was a white flash and the display went dark. They felt more than heard a low boom that seemed to echo inside the ship.
"Well" the captain exclaimed, "That was interesting,"
"A bomb?" Lan was excited and afraid at the same time, "Were they trying to kill us?"
"Unlikely, nothing could really damage the hull, and that device was too small to affect the humans aboard." Sunny explained, "More likely a self-destruct device."
A few moments later, a small panel lit up, the captain touched it, and the image of their three passengers concerned faces appeared on one of the screens.
"What's going on?" asked Mike, apparently the unofficial spokesman for the trio.
"That's a good question," Captain Oliver replied, "I'll let you know as soon as I have any information. For now, rest assured there is no danger, nor was there any to begin with."
That answer didn't seem to reassuring to the trio of faces, but when nothing more was forthcoming they closed the communication.
"Can we salvage anything?" the Captain asked.
"Im afraid not, the explosive, while not powerful, did send any component parts away from us at a high velocity, we couldn't catch them now." Sun Dancer replied.
"what about that signal?" the captain asked.
"It's highly encrypted, using a very complex algorithm." she replied.
"How long for you to decrypt it?" he asked.
"I estimate about twenty minutes." Sunny answered.
"So long?" the captain asked, feigning shock.
"I will see if I can get it done faster." she answered.
Decrypting the signal in fact, took Sunny seventeen minutes and forty-three seconds. She was pleased with that result too. The encryption was very complex, it required almost thirty percent of her processing power to finally decrypt it. Unfortunately it provided no clues to the origin of the device, the signal was all telemetry, position data, distance, velocity, and star fixes. No clues to who wanted this information bad enough to go through the trouble and expense to place the device on the hull.
A short time later, the drive was reactivated and they resumed their journey out of the solar system. The short coasting flight while they dealt with the device didn't create that much of a delay for them. They expected to see the Azure Flame sometime tomorrow morning.
End Part 12

Everything in my inventory is up for trade. The most valuable items are listed here, the rest you can find in My Inventory

Feel free to Add Me or even better send a Trade Offer. Open for any suggestions: upgrades, downgrades / knives, gloves, skins / stickers, patterns, floats.

All Buyouts are listed in cash value.

KNIVES

★ Butterfly Knife Lore (Factory New), B/O: $7194.77

★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2025.74

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★ M9 Bayonet Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $557.87

★ M9 Bayonet Stained (Well-Worn), B/O: $529.41

★ M9 Bayonet Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $465.39

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★ Talon Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $1295.27

★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth (Minimal Wear), B/O: $746.28

★ Karambit Bright Water (Field-Tested), B/O: $688.15

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★ Flip Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $547.93

★ Flip Knife Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $476.69

★ Flip Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $278.18

★ Flip Knife Black Laminate (Well-Worn), B/O: $258.83

★ Flip Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested), B/O: $181.64

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★ Stiletto Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $686.04

★ Stiletto Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $665.41

★ Stiletto Knife, B/O: $601.39

★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $418.25

★ Stiletto Knife Night Stripe (Field-Tested), B/O: $227.80

★ Stiletto Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $194.96

★ Stiletto Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested), B/O: $192.79

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★ Nomad Knife Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $518.11

★ Nomad Knife Scorched (Field-Tested), B/O: $169.78

★ Nomad Knife Forest DDPAT (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $166.88

★ StatTrak™ Nomad Knife Blue Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $335.79

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★ Skeleton Knife Stained (Well-Worn), B/O: $442.05

★ Skeleton Knife Urban Masked (Minimal Wear), B/O: $426.24

★ Skeleton Knife Boreal Forest (Field-Tested), B/O: $314.03

★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Fade (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2361.28

★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Urban Masked (Field-Tested), B/O: $376.53

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★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $557.12

★ Ursus Knife, B/O: $471.42

★ Ursus Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $212.37

★ Ursus Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $187.66

★ Ursus Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $178.18

★ Ursus Knife Ultraviolet (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $155.13

★ Ursus Knife Boreal Forest (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $124.26

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★ Huntsman Knife Black Laminate (Minimal Wear), B/O: $204.83

★ Huntsman Knife Black Laminate (Field-Tested), B/O: $184.50

★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Lore (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $224.11

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★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $2142.02

★ Bowie Knife, B/O: $230.44

★ Bowie Knife Damascus Steel (Factory New), B/O: $209.20

★ Bowie Knife Ultraviolet (Minimal Wear), B/O: $180.51

★ Bowie Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $131.03

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★ Falchion Knife Night (Field-Tested), B/O: $132.54

★ Falchion Knife Urban Masked (Well-Worn), B/O: $112.81

★ Falchion Knife Scorched (Field-Tested), B/O: $108.81

★ Falchion Knife Forest DDPAT (Field-Tested), B/O: $107.82

★ Falchion Knife Safari Mesh (Field-Tested), B/O: $107.46

★ StatTrak™ Falchion Knife Ultraviolet (Field-Tested), B/O: $143.08

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★ Paracord Knife Crimson Web (Minimal Wear), B/O: $486.48

★ Paracord Knife Blue Steel (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $163.12

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★ Survival Knife Blue Steel (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $138.26

★ Survival Knife Night Stripe (Field-Tested), B/O: $131.03

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★ Gut Knife Sapphire (Minimal Wear), B/O: $1127.79

★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $286.17

★ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $246.55

★ Gut Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $240.77

★ Gut Knife, B/O: $210.49

★ Gut Knife Lore (Field-Tested), B/O: $194.22

★ Gut Knife Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $151.51

★ Gut Knife Blue Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $124.94

★ Gut Knife Rust Coat (Well-Worn), B/O: $118.99

★ Gut Knife Boreal Forest (Minimal Wear), B/O: $109.80

★ StatTrak™ Gut Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $237.96

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★ Shadow Daggers Gamma Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $264.92

★ Shadow Daggers Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $253.03

★ Shadow Daggers Tiger Tooth (Factory New), B/O: $237.22

★ Shadow Daggers Crimson Web (Field-Tested), B/O: $153.40

★ Shadow Daggers Autotronic (Minimal Wear), B/O: $144.42

★ Shadow Daggers Blue Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $105.20

★ StatTrak™ Shadow Daggers Damascus Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $150.46

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★ Navaja Knife Fade (Factory New), B/O: $365.99

★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Factory New), B/O: $228.93

★ Navaja Knife Marble Fade (Factory New), B/O: $227.43

★ Navaja Knife Slaughter (Factory New), B/O: $209.06

★ Navaja Knife, B/O: $203.16

★ Navaja Knife Case Hardened (Well-Worn), B/O: $132.57

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Factory New), B/O: $121.69

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Minimal Wear), B/O: $109.95

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $100.41

★ StatTrak™ Navaja Knife Fade (Factory New), B/O: $369.01

★ StatTrak™ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel (Field-Tested), B/O: $109.95

GLOVES

★ Sport Gloves Amphibious (Minimal Wear), B/O: $2394.67

★ Sport Gloves Omega (Well-Worn), B/O: $572.33

★ Sport Gloves Bronze Morph (Minimal Wear), B/O: $338.88

★ Sport Gloves Big Game (Field-Tested), B/O: $323.66

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★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade (Minimal Wear), B/O: $1652.07

★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike (Field-Tested), B/O: $599.14

★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web (Well-Worn), B/O: $231.57

★ Specialist Gloves Buckshot (Minimal Wear), B/O: $126.21

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★ Moto Gloves POW! (Minimal Wear), B/O: $996.99

★ Moto Gloves POW! (Field-Tested), B/O: $383.31

★ Moto Gloves POW! (Well-Worn), B/O: $276.00

★ Moto Gloves Turtle (Field-Tested), B/O: $180.28

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★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Minimal Wear), B/O: $502.29

★ Hand Wraps Giraffe (Minimal Wear), B/O: $180.73

★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $178.32

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★ Driver Gloves Queen Jaguar (Minimal Wear), B/O: $181.01

★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red (Field-Tested), B/O: $101.66

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★ Broken Fang Gloves Jade (Field-Tested), B/O: $127.88

★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point (Minimal Wear), B/O: $124.55

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★ Bloodhound Gloves Guerrilla (Minimal Wear), B/O: $127.94

★ Hydra Gloves Case Hardened (Field-Tested), B/O: $102.55

WEAPONS

AK-47 X-Ray (Well-Worn), B/O: $478.95

AUG Hot Rod (Factory New), B/O: $425.83

StatTrak™ M4A1-S Hyper Beast (Factory New), B/O: $413.95

M4A4 Daybreak (Factory New), B/O: $309.51

StatTrak™ AK-47 Aquamarine Revenge (Factory New), B/O: $305.43

AK-47 Case Hardened (Well-Worn), B/O: $196.38

StatTrak™ M4A4 Temukau (Minimal Wear), B/O: $174.64

P90 Run and Hide (Field-Tested), B/O: $167.03

AWP Asiimov (Field-Tested), B/O: $153.33

Souvenir SSG 08 Death Strike (Minimal Wear), B/O: $140.00

M4A1-S Printstream (Battle-Scarred), B/O: $124.70

StatTrak™ M4A1-S Golden Coil (Field-Tested), B/O: $117.48

AWP Asiimov (Well-Worn), B/O: $115.97

StatTrak™ Desert Eagle Printstream (Minimal Wear), B/O: $112.96

StatTrak™ AK-47 Asiimov (Minimal Wear), B/O: $110.85

Souvenir M4A1-S Master Piece (Well-Worn), B/O: $102.42

AK-47 Bloodsport (Minimal Wear), B/O: $100.53

Trade Offer Link - Steam Profile Link - My Inventory

Knives - Bowie Knife, Butterfly Knife, Falchion Knife, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Huntsman Knife, M9 Bayonet, Bayonet, Karambit, Shadow Daggers, Stiletto Knife, Ursus Knife, Navaja Knife, Talon Knife, Classic Knife, Paracord Knife, Survival Knife, Nomad Knife, Skeleton Knife, Patterns - Gamma Doppler, Doppler (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, Black Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald), Crimson Web, Lore, Fade, Ultraviolet, Night, Marble Fade (Fire & Ice, Fake FI), Case Hardened (Blue Gem), Autotronic, Slaughter, Black Laminate, Tiger Tooth, Boreal Forest, Scorched, Blue Steel, Vanilla, Damascus Steel, Forest DDPAT, Urban Masked, Freehand, Stained, Bright Water, Safari Mesh, Rust Coat, Gloves - Bloodhound Gloves (Charred, Snakebite, Guerrilla, Bronzed), Driver Gloves (Snow Leopard, King Snake, Crimson Weave, Imperial Plaid, Black Tie, Lunar Weave, Diamondback, Rezan the Red, Overtake, Queen Jaguar, Convoy, Racing Green), Hand Wraps (Cobalt Skulls, CAUTION!, Overprint, Slaughter, Leather, Giraffe, Badlands, Spruce DDPAT, Arboreal, Constrictor, Desert Shamagh, Duct Tape), Moto Gloves (Spearmint, POW!, Cool Mint, Smoke Out, Finish Line, Polygon, Blood Pressure, Turtle, Boom!, Eclipse, 3rd Commando Company, Transport), Specialist Gloves (Crimson Kimono, Tiger Strike, Emerald Web, Field Agent, Marble Fade, Fade, Foundation, Lt. Commander, Crimson Web, Mogul, Forest DDPAT, Buckshot), Sport Gloves (Pandora's Box, Superconductor, Hedge Maze, Vice, Amphibious, Slingshot, Omega, Arid, Big Game, Nocts, Scarlet Shamagh, Bronze Morph), Hydra Gloves (Case Hardened, Emerald, Rattler, Mangrove), Broken Fang Gloves (Jade, Yellow-banded, Unhinged, Needle Point), Pistols - P2000 (Wicked Sick, Ocean Foam, Fire Element, Amber Fade, Corticera, Chainmail, Imperial Dragon, Obsidian, Scorpion, Handgun, Acid Etched), USP-S (Printstream, Kill Confirmed, Whiteout, Road Rash, Owergrowth, The Traitor, Neo-Noir, Dark Water, Orion, Blueprint, Stainless, Caiman, Serum, Monster Mashup, Royal Blue, Ancient Visions, Cortex, Orange Anolis, Ticket To Hell, Black Lotus, Cyrex, Check Engine, Guardian, Purple DDPAT, Torque, Blood Tiger, Flashback, Business Class, Pathfinder, Para Green), Lead Conduit, Glock-18 (Ramese's Reach, Umbral Rabbit, Fade, Candy Apple, Bullet Queen, Synth Leaf, Neo-Noir, Nuclear Garden, Dragon Tatto, Reactor, Pink DDPAT, Twilight Galaxy, Sand Dune, Groundwater, Blue Fissure, Snack Attack, Water Elemental, Brass, Wasteland Rebel, Vogue, Franklin, Royal Legion, Gamma Doppler, Weasel, Steel Disruption, Ironwork, Grinder, High Beam, Moonrise, Oxide Blaze, Bunsen Burner, Clear Polymer, Bunsen Burner, Night), P250 (Apep's Curse, Re.built, Nuclear Threat, Modern Hunter, Splash, Whiteout, Vino Primo, Mehndi, Asiimov, Visions, Undertow, Cartel, See Ya Later, Gunsmoke, Splash, Digital Architect, Muertos, Red Rock, Bengal Tiger, Crimson Kimono, Wingshot, Metallic DDPAT, Hive, Dark Filigree, Mint Kimono), Five-Seven (Neon Kimono, Berries And Cherries, Fall Hazard, Crimson Blossom, Hyper Beast, Nitro, Fairy Tale, Case Hardened, Copper Galaxy, Angry Mob, Monkey Business, Fowl Play, Anodized Gunmetal, Hot Shot, Retrobution, Boost Protocol), CZ75-Auto (Chalice, Crimson Web, Emerald Quartz, The Fuschia is Now, Nitro, Xiangliu, Yellow Jacket, Victoria, Poison Dart, Syndicate, Eco, Hexane, Pole, Tigris), Tec-9 (Mummy's Rot, Rebel, Terrace, Nuclear Threat, Hades, Rust Leaf, Decimator, Blast From, Orange Murano, Toxic, Fuel Injector, Remote Control, Bamboo Forest, Isaac, Avalanche, Brother, Re-Entry, Blue Titanium, Bamboozle), R8 Revolver (Banana Cannon, Fade, Blaze, Crimson Web, Liama Cannon, Crazy 8, Reboot, Canal Spray, Night, Amber Fade), Desert Eagle (Blaze, Hand Cannon, Fennec Fox, Sunset Storm, Emerald Jörmungandr, Pilot, Hypnotic, Golden Koi, Printstream, Cobalt Disruption, Code Red, Ocean Drive, Midnight Storm, Kumicho Dragon, Crimson Web, Heirloom, Night Heist, Mecha Industries, Night, Conspiracy, Trigger Discipline, Naga, Directive, Light Rail), Dual Berettas (Flora Carnivora, Duelist, Cobra Strike, Black Limba, Emerald, Hemoglobin, Twin Turbo, Marina, Melondrama, Pyre, Retribution, Briar, Dezastre, Royal Consorts, Urban Shock, Dualing Dragons, Panther, Balance), Rifles - Galil (Aqua Terrace, Winter Forest, Chatterbox, Sugar Rush, Pheonix Blacklight, CAUTION!, Orange DDPAT, Cerberus, Dusk Ruins, Eco, Chromatic Aberration, Stone Cold, Tuxedo, Sandstorm, Shattered, Urban Rubble, Rocket Pop, Kami, Crimson Tsunami, Connexion), SCAR-20 (Fragments, Brass, Cyrex, Palm, Splash Jam, Cardiac, Emerald, Crimson Web, Magna Carta, Stone Mosaico, Bloodsport, Enforcer), AWP (Black Nile, Duality, Gungnir, Dragon Lore, Prince, Medusa, Desert Hydra, Fade, Lightning Strike, Oni Taiji, Silk Tiger, Graphite, Chromatic Aberration, Asiimov, Snake Camo, Boom, Containment Breach, Wildfire, Redline, Electric Hive, Hyper Beast, Neo-Noir, Man-o'-war, Pink DDPAT, Corticera, Sun in Leo, Elite Build, Fever Dream, Atheris, Mortis, PAW, Exoskeleton, Worm God, POP AWP, Phobos, Acheron, Pit Viper, Capillary, Safari Mesh), AK-47 (Steel Delta, Head Shot, Wild Lotus, Gold Arabesque, X-Ray, Fire Serpent, Hydroponic, Panthera Onca, Case Hardened, Vulcan, Jet Set, Fuel Injector, Bloodsport, Nightwish, First Class, Neon Rider, Asiimov, Red Laminate, Aquamarine Revenge, The Empress, Wasteland Rebel, Jaguar, Black Laminate, Leet Museo, Neon Revolution, Redline, Frontside Misty, Predator, Legion of Anubis, Point Disarray, Orbit Mk01, Blue Laminate, Green Laminate, Emerald Pinstripe, Cartel, Phantom Disruptor, Jungle Spray, Safety Net, Rat Rod, Baroque Purple, Slate, Elite Build, Uncharted, Safari Mesh), FAMAS (Waters of Nephthys, Sundown, Prime Conspiracy, Afterimage, Commemoration, Dark Water, Spitfire, Pulse, Eye of Athena, Meltdown, Rapid Eye Move, Roll Cage, Styx, Mecha Industrie, Djinn, ZX Spectron, Valence, Neural Net, Night Borre, Hexne), M4A4 (Eye of Horus, Temukau, Howl, Poseidon, Asiimov, Daybreak, Hellfire, Zirka, Red DDPAT, Radiation Hazard, Modern Hunter, The Emperor, The Coalition, Bullet Rain, Cyber Security, X-Ray, Dark Blossom, Buzz Kill, In Living Color, Neo-Noir, Desolate Space, 龍王 (Dragon King), Royal Paladin, The Battlestar, Global Offensive, Tooth Fairy, Desert-Strike, Griffin, Evil Daimyo, Spider Lily, Converter), M4A1-S (Emphorosaur-S, Welcome to the Jungle, Imminent Danger, Knight, Hot Rod, Icarus Fell, Blue Phosphor, Printstream, Master Piece, Dark Water, Golden Coil, Bright Water, Player Two, Atomic Alloy, Guardian, Chantico's Fire, Hyper Beast, Mecha Industries, Cyrex, Control Panel, Moss Quartz, Nightmare, Decimator, Leaded Glass, Basilisk, Blood Tiger, Briefing, Night Terror, Nitro, VariCamo, Flashback), SG 553 (Cyberforce, Hazard Pay, Bulldozer, Integrale, Dragon Tech, Ultraviolet, Colony IV, Hypnotic, Cyrex, Candy Apple, Barricade, Pulse), SSG 08 (Death Strike, Sea Calico, Blood in the Water, Orange Filigree, Dragonfire, Big Iron, Bloodshot, Detour, Turbo Peek, Red Stone), AUG (Akihabara Accept, Flame Jörmungandr, Hot Rod, Midnight Lily, Sand Storm, Carved Jade, Wings, Anodized Navy, Death by Puppy, Torque, Bengal Tiger, Chameleon, Fleet Flock, Random Access, Momentum, Syd Mead, Stymphalian, Arctic Wolf, Aristocrat, Navy Murano), G3SG1 (Chronos, Violet Murano, Flux, Demeter, Orange Kimono, The Executioner, Green Apple, Arctic Polar Camo, Contractor), SMGs - P90 (ScaraB Rush, Neoqueen, Astral Jörmungandr, Run and Hide, Emerald Dragon, Cold Blooded, Death by Kitty, Baroque Red, Vent Rush, Blind Spot, Asiimov, Trigon, Sunset Lily, Death Grip, Leather, Nostalgia, Fallout Warning, Tiger Pit, Schermatic, Virus, Shapewood, Glacier Mesh, Shallow Grave, Chopper, Desert Warfare), MAC-10 (Sakkaku, Hot Snakes, Copper Borre, Red Filigree, Gold Brick, Graven, Case Hardened, Stalker, Amber Fade, Neon Rider, Tatter, Curse, Propaganda, Nuclear Garden, Disco Tech, Toybox, Heat, Indigo), UMP-45 (Wild Child, Fade, Blaze, Day Lily, Minotaur's Labyrinth, Crime Scene, Caramel, Bone Pile, Momentum, Primal Saber), MP7 (Teal Blossom, Fade, Nemesis, Whiteout, Asterion, Bloosport, Abyssal Apparition, Full Stop, Special Delivery, Neon Ply, Asterion, Ocean Foam, Powercore, Scorched, Impire), PP-Bizon (Modern Hunter, Rust Coat, Forest Leaves, Antique, High Roller, Blue Streak, Seabird, Judgement of Anubis, Bamboo Print, Embargo, Chemical Green, Coblat Halftone, Fuel Rod, Photic Zone, Irradiated Alert, Carbon Fiber), MP9 (Featherweight, Wild Lily, Pandora's Box, Stained Glass, Bulldozer, Dark Age, Hot Rod, Hypnotic, Hydra, Rose Iron, Music Box, Setting Sun, Food Chain, Airlock, Mount Fuji, Starlight Protector, Ruby Poison Dart, Deadly Poison), MP5-SD (Liquidation, Oxide Oasis, Phosphor, Nitro, Agent, Autumn Twilly), Shotguns, Machineguns - Sawed-Off (Kiss♥Love, First Class, Orange DDPAT, Rust Coat, The Kraken, Devourer, Mosaico, Wasteland Princess, Bamboo Shadow, Copper, Serenity, Limelight, Apocalypto), XM1014 (Frost Borre, Ancient Lore, Red Leather, Elegant Vines, Banana Leaf, Jungle, Urban Perforated, Grassland, Blaze Orange, Heaven Guard, VariCamo Blue, Entombed, XOXO, Seasons, Tranquility, Bone Machine, Incinegator, Teclu Burner, Black Tie, Zombie Offensive, Watchdog), Nova (Sobek's Bite, Baroque Orange, Hyper Beast, Green Apple, Antique, Modern Hunter, Walnut, Forest Leaves, Graphite, Blaze Orange, Rising Skull, Tempest, Bloomstick, Interlock, Quick Sand, Moon in Libra, Clean Polymer, Red Quartz, Toy Soldier), MAG-7 (Copper Coated, Insomnia, Cinqueda, Counter Terrace, Prism Terrace, Memento, Chainmail, Hazard, Justice, Bulldozer, Silver, Core Breach, Firestarter, Praetorian, Heat, Hard Water, Monster Call, BI83 Spectrum, SWAG-7), M249 (Humidor, Shipping Forecast, Blizzard Marbleized, Downtown, Jungle DDPAT, Nebula Crusader, Impact Drill, Emerald Poison Dart), Negev (Mjölnir, Anodized Navy, Palm, Power Loader, Bratatat, CaliCamo, Phoenix Stencil, Infrastructure, Boroque Sand), Wear - Factory New (FN), Minimal Wear (MW), Field-Tested (FT), Well-Worn (WW), Battle-Scarred (BS), Stickers Holo/Foil/Gold - Katowice 2014, Krakow 2017, Howling Dawn, Katowice 2015, Crown, London 2018, Cologne 2014, Boston 2018, Atlanta 2017, Cluj-Napoca 2015, DreamHack 2014, King on the Field, Harp of War, Winged Difuser, Cologne 2016, Cologne 2015, MLG Columbus 2016, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019, RMR 2020, Stockholm 2021, Antwerp 2022, Paris 2023, Swag Foil, Flammable foil, Others - Souvenirs, Agents, Pins, Passes, Gifts, Music Kits, Cases, Keys, Capsules, Packages, Patches

Some items on the list may no longer be available or are still locked, visit My Inventory for more details.

Send a Trade Offer for fastest response. I consider all offers.

Add me for discuss if there is a serious offer that needs to be discussed.

Chapter 27: Supply and Treachery at the Station
As the Great Human Convoy prepares for its most daring venture yet, Inspector Xilthar, with a newfound sense of purpose, navigates the bureaucratic labyrinth of the Hub Station. His efforts are not in vain; he secures a squad of the notorious Florida Men as his personal guard and orchestrates the clearance for Convoy members to engage in trade on the station.
The station's market sector is a hive of activity, with groups from the Convoy mingling with station residents and traders from across the galaxy. The air is thick with the scent of exotic spices and the hum of bartering voices.
In a secluded corner of the market, Bubba, the enigmatic mechanic, haggles over a bulk order of power transfer units. His companions, Bobby and Jeff, exchange puzzled glances and quips.
Bobby: "I tell ya, The last time I saw this many power units, I thought I was at a robot's family reunion! So, Bubba, what's with the mountain of power units? You building a second Convoy or what?"
Bubba: (just shrugs, giving a knowing smile)
Jeff: "I tell ya, man, that Bubba's like one of them... them dang ol' prophets, man. Sees the future or somethin', man."
Bobby: "Yeah, and I'm the King of Mars. Seriously, Bubba, give us a hint!"
Bubba: (points to the power units, then to his head, and finally makes a gesture of something expanding)
Jeff: "Dang ol', boom, man! Like, mind blown, man. He's sayin' it's gonna be big, Bobby. Real big."
Bobby: "Big, huh? Last time Bubba said something was gonna be big, we ended up with a new distillery wing on the Hodgepodge."
Jeff: "Yeah, man, that was a dang ol' good time, man. Moonshine so strong, you could fuel a starship with it, man."
Bobby: "Alright, Bubba, we trust you. But if this thing blows up, I'm blaming you for the hangover."
Bubba: (just nods, still with that mysterious smile)
Jeff: "Mm-hmm, man, I tell you what, man, that dang ol' Bubba, man, he's like one of them, I say, chess players, man, thinkin' 'bout next move and all that, man."
Despite their confusion, they trust in Bubba's mysterious foresight, knowing that his intuition has never steered the Convoy wrong.
The scene is lively, with hawkers pushing everything from advanced nanotech to basic tools and hardware stretching out before the Chessmaster's holographic form , projected from her 'inside' drone, built with the help of Glark and Bubba, standing as a beacon of calm amidst the bustling crowd. Her group, a collection of the Convoy's finest minds and hands, disperses into the station's sprawling Tech District, each member on a quest for components that will bolster the fleet's capabilities.
The Chessmaster, with her avatar's hands clasped behind her back, surveys the scene. Her digital eyes flicker with calculations as she delegates tasks to her team.
Chessmaster: "Remember, we're not just looking for parts. We're looking for potential. Each piece must fit into the greater design of our Convoy's future."
Glark: (nodding) "Understood. Efficiency and synergy, that's the game."
Hamtonio: (revving his hovercycle) "And a bit of haggling for good measure!"
The Chessmaster smiles, a rare display of 'emotion' from an AI, as her team scatters like pieces on a chessboard, each moving with purpose.
Scene: The Shielding Vendor
Glark and Hamtonio find themselves at a stall, its vendor boasting a shielding system that could protect a small moon.
Glark: "Impressive specs. But can it adapt to fit a moving fleet?"
Vendor: "Absolutely! It's the latest model. It can even recalibrate on the fly in response to spatial anomalies."
Hamtonio: (whispering to Glark) "We'll take it. But let's play it cool, get a better price."
After a series of technical questions and light-hearted banter, they secure the shielding system at a fair price, their excitement contained but eyes gleaming with the success of their find.
Dawn and the Flower Girls weave through the stalls of the Green Market, their laughter mingling with the chatter of the crowd. Dawn, in a sedate purple ensemble, and the Flower Girls, draped in their colorful robes, exchange stories and laughter with the vendors as they peruse the stalls.
Dawn: "So, Marigold, any new tales from the Convoy?"
Marigold: "Oh, Dawn, you wouldn't believe the rumors swirling around! They say there's a ghost haunting the lower decks of the Shining Princess."
Dawn: (smiles) "A ghost, you say? Perhaps it's just one of the goats playing tricks again."
The Flower Girls giggle, sharing knowing looks as they continue their shopping, their baskets filling with exotic plants and spices.
Dawn: "Marigold, have you heard about the new hydroponic tech they're showcasing?"
Marigold: "I have, and I'm more interested in the stories the plants could tell. Imagine the gardens we could grow!"
Their conversation is a blend of technical expertise and whimsical musings.
As the day progresses, the Chessmaster's team reconvenes, each member returning with their treasures. The Chessmaster reviews their acquisitions, her avatar nodding in approval.
Chessmaster: "Well done, everyone. Today, we've secured not just parts, but promises of a stronger, safer journey. Let's return to the Convoy and begin the next phase of our work."
The group heads back to the fleet. The Convoy's departure may not be imminent, but when the time comes, they will be ready to face the stars as one.
W'ham B'ham's towering presence is unmistakable as she enters the auction house. Her hand-forged weapons, relics of a bygone era, draw the eyes of collectors and historians alike.
Auctioneer: "Ladies and gentlemen, These are not merely weapons; they are masterpieces from the hands of A Void Dragon Forgemaster herself!"
W'ham B'ham: (nods silently, her weapons displayed proudly)
The crowd murmurs with excitement. Collectors lean forward, their eyes gleaming with avarice and admiration.
Collector 1: "I'll start the bidding at five thousand credits!"
Collector 2: "Ten thousand!"
The numbers climb furiously, each bid outdoing the last as the collectors engage in a fierce battle of wealth and desire.
Collector 3: "Twenty thousand credits!"
The room falls silent. The bid is unprecedented, but these are no ordinary pieces of metal; they are echoes of the forge, resonating with the skill and dedication of their equally rare creator.
W'ham B'ham watches from the back, her expression unreadable. The blades were a part of her routine, a means to keep her skills honed. Yet here they are, commanding a price that speaks of their true value.
Auctioneer: "Going once, twice... Sold for twenty thousand credits!"
The gavel falls, and the deal is sealed.
Once the dust has settled, W'ham B'ham's blades have found new homes, and the credits she receives are more than enough to acquire the advanced servos she needs to boost her EVA suit's strength twofold.
Accompanied by his bodyguards, exploring deep in the archives, Xilthar's keen eyes catch a discrepancy in the docking logs, a thread that unravels to reveal a web of deceit. Admiral Vortan, a high-ranking official with a polished record, stands at the center of this web. Xilthar, invoking little-known ordinances, calls for a full investigation, his voice echoing through the corridors of power.
Xilthar: "Under Galactic Council Statute 47-C, I hereby initiate an investigation into the misuse of authority and resources within the governance and military sectors."
Thus the gears of order begin grinding, seeking to remove the corruption. One side effect is the military fleet is broken free and begin heading towards the rendezvous.
As the investigation gains momentum, danger lurks. An assassin, cloaked in the anonymity of the crowd, fires at Xilthar. But Sgt. Leroy Jenkins dives in the way of the shots, covering his ward.
Sgt. Jenkins: "Get down, Inspector!"
Guns blaze, and Jenkins's shield flickers with each impact, his nanites working overtime to repair the damage that makes it through.
Jenkins makes sure the Inspector is safe, and screams out his name as the madman charges full speed at the assassin who breaks and runs. Jenkins disappears into the crowd in hot pursuit.
Later, at Xilthar's safe house, the mood is somber until Jenkins arrives, with a hover kart loaded with buckets of fried chicken. The team gathers, the scent of comfort food mingling with the tension in the air.
Jenkins: "Nothing like a little chicken to patch up the holes, eh?"
Xilthar: (smiles weakly) "I suppose every cloud has a silver lining... or a greasy one, in this case."
Jenkins: "And look what I found. ID codes for a bounty on your head. Seems you've ruffled some feathers, Inspector." He tosses a datachip onto the table.
Xilthar's resolve hardens. It's time to strike the final blow against the bureaucracy and seek refuge with the Convoy.
On the Convoy, over the Comms, Jeb: "First time with a bounty on yer head? Welcome to the club, Inspector!"
MetalHead: "Heh, you get used to it. Just another day in the life of a spacefarer."
Suicide Jockey: "Bounties? Oh, I've had my share. Ended up claiming them all, too. But you don't wanna know about that part." He gives a slightly unhinged grin,
Xilthar: "I'm beginning to think I've chosen the wrong career."
The banter lightens the mood, and Xilthar finds camaraderie in this motley crew as he prepares to show everyone the men behind the curtain.

This was originally to get my parents to let me own goldfish, but since they told me I couldn't get any, I never got to show them my research :( So, I wanted to share it here, as I'm quite proud of it!
FISHY RESEARCH
A full-length research paper on the care instructions to keeping goldfish happy and healthy.
BehavioEnrichment
Common goldfish tend to be happier in large groups, so while keeping two goldfish at once is reasonable, three or more is ideal. Goldfish need enrichment, such as rock hides, plants, and decorations that will make the fish curious or excited to explore, but not afraid. Coral hides, sunken ships, plants, and colorful gravel work well for this. Toys like floating balls, rings, and tunnels provide some options for your goldfish to play around, so it’s best to have some handy or in the tank, making sure not to crowd the water.
Some goldfish take longer to adjust, and some tend to get stressed very quickly, so you have to be careful with your fish, as they can die from stress, which is quite common. Funny enough, some fish enjoy more “human” activities, such as listening to music! Although they cannot hear, they can feel vibrations in the water caused by the music, which seems to bring them some enjoyment. A new study shows that goldfish particularly enjoy the German maestro, Bach. (Also known as Johann Sebastian Bach.)
Tank
The tank for one goldfish should be at least 20 gallons and decorated well, but safely. Every goldfish in a tank should add 20 gallons to your tank size. A tank for three common goldfish should be around 60 gallons and decorated well. As stated before; Coral hides, sunken ships, plants, and colorful gravel work well for this. The bottom of your fish tank should be lined with nutrient rich aquarium soil, covered with fine grain aquarium sand or gravel (recommended) to minimize choking and maximize comfortability.
You need to be careful with any plants in the tank, and check them daily to make sure your goldfish have not taken chunks out of them. If you notice that a chunk of plant is missing, check your goldfish’s mouths to ensure that they are not choking on the plant. A choking goldfish, in most cases, will be okay, but it is always better to remove the plant or obstructing object.
Tanks should have proper ventilation and filtering systems to ensure good health, these systems should be constantly monitored. Water temperature should stay from 68° to 74° fahrenheit, and pH levels are not critical, but are ideally between 7.0 and 8.4. The water should be partially changed often, so drain and change at least half the water in your fish tank every three days or so, or change all the water weekly. When changing the water and/or cleaning the tank, be sure to stir gravel and move around hides and plants to make sure no gunk is stuck under them.
Health
Goldfish are quite smart, but they, like humans, cannot always prevent accidents. Accidents are common in goldfish tanks and you need to know how to handle them.

• Choking: If your goldfish is flaring their gills, opening their mouth very wide, seeming to gag, or jerking backwards, they are likely choking. Remove your fish from the tank momentarily and use tweezers to remove the object. Carefully place your goldfish back in their tank and observe their behavior for a moment to ensure that further attention is not needed.
• Sickness: If your goldfish is swimming upside down, his discolored gills or scales, bulging eyes, is leaving food uneaten, is gasping at the surface of the water, has mucus accumulations on its body, is rubbing on hard surfaces, is isolating themselves from its tankmates, has skin lesions or sores, is bloated, or has a crooked back or other changes in size or shape, contact a veterinarian and identify any and all symptoms/irregularities in your fish, and follow the vet’s instructions accordingly. Consider keeping a quarantine tank for sick fish, which should follow above tank setup, but be decorated less heavily to avoid injury. (Maybe use sand for quarantine tanks.)
• Stress: If your fish is breathing quickly, flitting around their tank, has appetite loss, is scraping against rock or gravel, hiding for long periods of time, swimming frantically, or gasping for air, your fish may be stressed. Add a teaspoon of aquarium salt for every five gallons of water (four teaspoons for a 20 gallon tank), dim the tank’s lighting, dose an ammonia and nitrate detoxifying water conditioner (three to five times), and/or add extra air stones for increased oxygen. Soon your goldfish should calm down. If goldfish remains stressed, contact your veterinarian.
• If any unlisted problems or symptoms arise, contact a veterinarian as soon as possible.

Diet
Goldfish need to be fed at varied frequencies depending on the temperature of their tank water. We’ll say the tank is from 70-75 degrees, so feed your fish twice a day. Goldish need a varied diet. Fish flakes are okay, but goldfish prefer variation, so never stick to one thing. Life feeding with things like aquarium snails, brine shrimp, or bloodworms helps goldfish grow faster, develop better coloring, and generally keeps them healthier and more active! But if live feeding isn’t an option, that’s okay.
Things like frozen brine shrimp, peas, finely chopped carrots, cucumber, apple, and lettuce and spinach are good inclusions for your fish’s diet! Pellets or flakes, again, are fine, but you should include chopped fresh veggies or fruits twice a week at a minimum. Consult your veterinarian before introducing anything new or questionable to your fish’s diet.
Some fish may be hungry more than others, but overfeeding can and will cause more harm than underfeeding. A hungry fish may come up to the surface when you’re around or mimic the movements you make around the room to follow you. And although you may be tempted to give in to your fish’s sad-looking swimming patterns and big eyes, it’s best to avoid feeding your fish more often than you schedule. A treat or two may be acceptable, but make sure it isn’t too close to feeding time.
Conclusion
Fish are very complicated creatures, despite not seeming so. They require a lot of attention and cautious care, so it’s important to be careful with your fish. Fish can be more difficult to care for than your ordinary dog or cat, so it’s a lot of responsibility to own them, but it’s worth it!

Hi all, Never posted something before, so bear with me if this is wordy or poorly formatted. I've been having my period for about 8 or 9 years now, and I have been dealing with steadily ramping up pain during and around it. I went to the gyno last summer for irregular periods and had PCOS ruled out, but I was given birth control and told everything hormonally looked fine. Granted, I'd mentioned that the pain ranged from mild to curled up nearly crying, but I did not specify any locations (I forgot, she just asked me about how painful they were and it was my first time at a gyno so I was fairly nervous). I wound up not taking the birth control as I was worried about hormonal BCs side effects, especially on my mood as I already have a history of anxiety. My grandma (who did have endo) thinks it may be what I'm dealing with, and I am starting to think she may be right, but I just wanted to get some outside opinions or reassurance? I have another appointment with my gyno coming up where I wanted to go more in depth about my symptoms, but im pretty nervous about being blown off (my doctor is really sweet, I just constantly convince myself that my symptoms arent actually that big of a deal). My symptoms are as follows:

1. Irregular periods From the start of my period, it's never been regular and it wasn't rare for me to skip 1-3 months here or there, or settle into a pattern and then one day just completely go out of whack. As I've gotten older, they've only gotten more erractic, and I've had not only cycles where I'm skipping a month, month and a half. But also cycles where I just have really light spotting/light bleeding for a week and a half or so, and then 2-3 weeks later I have a proper full blown period.
   
2. Bad cramping My cramps usually only last about the first 3 days or so of my period (situation depending, I'll explain that later) and are worse the first day, but they range anywhere from mild discomfort to barely able to walk or stand long enough to brush my teeth. It has nearly driven me to tears but I've never passed out or came close. Usually it's just in my stomach but recently (within my last few cycles) I've been getting back pain as well. It's usually taken care of with painkillers, although not all work, and even the ones that do work may take a couple doses to kick in, and may wear off a couple hours early, but it does make them bearable and allows me to walk.
   
3. Leg pain Starting a few years ago, at random times during some periods while cramping I would rarely get a dull ache in one of my ankles (sometimes left, sometimes right). I usually brushed it off as it went away with painkillers and usually wouldn't come back, and I can't explain how but I just knew it was tied to my cramps. Recently, as of 6 or 7 months ago, I've been experienced an aching pain in my legs, but especially in my thighs and calves in that first 1-3 days of my period. The pain is thankfully taken care of with painkillers, but even with the pain gone I do still have a persistent feeling of general weakness or soreness.
   
4. Pain using the bathroom Over the course of my cramping, even with painkillers, I will occasionally struggle to use the bathroom, as it hurts to push the muscles in that area. I get deep cramps any time I tense my abdominal muscles. It's not an issue when I urinate, thankfully, but it does make things more complicated. In addition to this, I will often stick to light foods (ie. soup, salads) during the first few days just because anything heavier feels like it's weighing on my intestines and causes more discomfort. This is a fairly new development, as it only started roughly around the time of the leg pain.
   
5. Mystery gas pains This isn't a super big deal, but recently, if im having mild cramping prior to my period, occasionally I will get gas bubbles in the night that team up with my cramps. It's quite painful, it usually wakes me up as it feels like my abdomen is splitting, but resolves fairly quickly upon getting up, going to the bathroom, and massaging my stomach some. It hasn't happening during my actual period, just right before.
   

This isn't an exhaustive list of what I experience, but it is about 90% of it. Severity ranges from cycle to cycle and so I might not experience all or any of these one month, and then later I might get every single one. Cramps especially, sometimes I will start cramping anywhere from a week and a half before, but they are really minor and come and go. If I do start cramping prior to my period, usually the pain during is very mild, it's when I only start cramping the day of that it gets really bad. I'm not sexually active so I can't say whether I get any pain during sex. My symptoms are limited from anywhere up to 2 weeks before my period, to about 3 or 4 days into it. I don't have any pain or issues at other points in my cycle. Every now and then I will get new symptoms, or the patterns of them may change, but this is just where I'm at right now.
This is really long, and I'm sorry, but if anyone has any personal anecdotes they'd like to share, insights, tips for the appointment, or even just suggestions for pain management, I would gladly welcome it. Shout out to anyone who took the time out of their day to read this, it is much appreciated. <3