Note: This concept has burden of Knowledge. But you might find it fun if you read his Mystic Shop (his own exclusive Shop).

Geraldo, the Mystic Shopkeeper

Geraldo is a Mustic Shopkeeper who wanders around Runeterra. Some say he was a merchant from long ago, some say he was a demon who abduct human by selling mystic Items and some say he is a legend.

Date:

19.05.2024

Image:

I do not own these image. It is served as a reference only.

Gameplay:

Geraldo is highly inspired by the Hero of Bloon TD 6, Geraldo.
Geraldo has No Abilities instead he use and activate a consumable Item from his own Shop.
For clarification , the PLAYER is the one who Buy Mystic Item from Geraldo NOT Geraldo buying his own Item.

Note:

All of spell damage/effect, scalings, amount, cost and cooldowns are roughly estimated. Numbers can be adjusted and it is only a representation.

Passive: Mystic Shopkeeper

GERALDO’s SHOP: Geraldo can open his exclusive Mystic Shop using his Ultimate. Its HUD is in the form of Shop which it pop up and can select Item to Buy. There are 18 types of Items which one by one unlocked as he Leveled Up.
After he buy a Mystic Item, his Q,W & E Spell act like an Item Slot to Activate the Mystic Item.
MERCHANTS PASS: Geraldo can Buy in the Base Shopkeeper anywhere on the Map.

Click this to See the Mystic Shop of Geraldo

Q: Mystic Item Slot

ACTIVE: Activate the Mystic Item.

W: Mystic Item Slot

ACTIVE: Activate the Mystic Item.

E: Mystic Item Slot

ACTIVE: Activate the Mystic Item.

Ultimate: Open Mystic Shop

This Spell is Available at Level 1.

ACTIVE: Activate to Open the Mystic Shop.

🕒Cooldown	(8-3) seconds based on Level

Hello,
First semester of Junior year I was taking a Vocational Technology class. It counted for 3 of my classes for that semester and was unweighted. My teacher told the class that each grade is leveled for the one above it, i.e. a D is equal to a C and a C to a B and so on The problem is that towards the end of the semester I had a 78% in her class. Right before school ended my grandfather passed away, incidentally while i was there. After that I was gone for the next week; I left on the Monday he passed and returned the following Tuesday after his funeral. While other classes allowed me to make up the work, this class didn’t. The problem is that I missed a large amount of projects and big assignments, which hurt my grade. I went from a 78% to a 69.28%. She would not let me make up any assignments and the school was not forgiving to my situation. Should I put in any extra information or let any colleges know why I had such a low grade. That I missed due to bereavement and they wouldn’t let me make up my grade that would have at least gave me a C or a B.

(Hi! This is the first time I've posted a long text about the society of keys. I hope you like it. It about Edward and Erin. I know long texts don't usually work here. But I made this from the heart and I wanted to share it with you. Without further ado, let's get started!)
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Society of Keys
The basement/clinic was completely silent, only disturbed by the occasional beeping of one of the Medical Teams. Suddenly the 5 members of the society entered, all carrying Erin, who was in a very weak state of health, black marks came out of her mouth, and spread across her skin.
Elizabeth: Leave her on the bed, carefully…
They gently placed her on her bed, while they hooked her up to monitors to view her vital signs. Which were at worryingly low levels. The 5 members left all their keys on top of Edward's desk. Next to a small black device similar to a wristwatch.
Eechiro: Damn, what did they inject herwith?
Eric: No idea, that guy came out of nowhere, although he left this syringe behind.
Elizabeth: We have more important issues right now. Her signs are stable but they are declining at a worrying speed, we have to find a way to cure her...
Edward moves away a little to lean against one of the laboratory counters. His mind was still racing, Erin's voice began to hit his psyche. Repeating her name over and over again. Until his mind decided to take him to THAT night. He could feel like Erin was hugging him...
"Please…"
His pupils shrank, turning into small black dots. His arms had the reflex of trying to hug the air in front of him. The only thing that could bring him back to reality was Eechiro's clicking noises. Which was in front of him, trying to get his attention, while he repeated his name.
“Edward! Edward! Richter!” Eechiro gave up and returned to the rest of the society, who were surrounding Erin “Nothing! "He's like in Shock, I can't get him out of there!"
Edelgard: “Leave it, we have to do something soon! If we don't find a way to cure her, she's going to die."
Those last words gave Edward the boost he needed, without saying a single word. He approached his desk and took 5 keys next to the strange clock. After this, he began to leave the basement. While he put the watch on his wrist.
“We have to make a plan to get into his base, Edward, do you have any ideas…?” Eric noticed that Edward was leaving the basement, and after a quick glance he also saw that he had taken the keys. “Get him, it’s trying to leave the house!”
The four members of the society followed Edward who walked determinedly towards the door to leave the society base. Just a few meters away, Elizabeth and Eechiro began to pull his arms. While Edelgard held him by the back of the neck.
Eechiro: “You're not leaving!”
Edward quickly crouched and performed a roundhouse kick to knock down the three who were trying to pin him down. Eric placed himself between Edward and the door to prevent him from leaving.
Eric: “Edward, No! We need a plan!" He said as he held on to the door frame to prevent Edward from pushing him.
“ERIC, I KNOW YOU HAVE GOOD INTENTION. BUT I ASK YOU TO GET OUT OF THE WAY” Edward said as he looked at the floor. Eric remained immovable in place.
“I can't do that Edward, I know you're angry. But going like this is…” Eric didn't finish his sentence, because Edward put his hand on his shoulder, after which he made eye contact with him. Eric looked closely into the eyes of forensic. It wasn't the look of someone angry, but of someone scared and determined. For the first time, he could see a look on Edward that wasn't one of indifference. But of absolute concern. After which, the young diver take his decision, getting out of the way. Edward just nodded his head and walked out the door. When Elizabeth, Edelgard and Eechiro stood up they went directly to face Eric.
Eechiro: “What did you do Eric? You went crazy. He ran away and take the keys!”
Elizabeth: “He didn't take everything… he lefts Erin's key. Although Eechiro is right, what were you thinking? Did you let him go alone to face an army? What were you thinking?”
Eric: “You didn't see it… that look was relentless. I'm afraid of what will happen..."
Edelgard: “If you were afraid, why did you let him go?”
Eric: “I'm not afraid for Edward... I'm afraid for whoever decides to stand in his way. Although that is secondary now, We have to make sure we keep her alive.... Come on, let's get moving!”
Universe 18-24-53: Lair of the Steelwater.
Edward arrived at the outskirts of a bar, from outside he could see multiple men sitting at the tables. Most of them had baseball bats or brass knuckles. At the centre table there were four men playing poker. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided to go inside.
“Look and cry gentlemen, I have Full House,” said a man as he slammed the table hard. Another responded to him, as he revealed his cards, “Very interesting, but…”
"What!? An R-Royal straight!? “That's impossible, you bastard,” said the first, while he looked at his partner's letters in astonishment. The lucky gangster was about to say something, until suddenly, Edward grabbed his sleeve, causing multiple hidden cards to fall out.
The gangster was surprised by the presence of Edward standing next to them. "Where the hell did it come from?" Wait… you cheated!?” The gangster replied, now addressing his partner.
“O-Of course not… and also who the hell is this blue-haired?” Said the other man who was still sitting. A dead silence was maintained until multiple windows were heard breaking. When Edward turned around he saw a man at another table, with the bat in his hand. He had dropped his beer on the floor in shock. “Idiots! That blue-haired is one of those multiverse travellers! The Forensic Killer! You let the enemy in!
"What!?" The Full House man lunged at Edward, who simply dodged him. Placing his leg to cause the gangster to fall to the ground, the man's forehead collided with one of the wooden chairs. The other men launched themselves at Edward, who limited himself to Dodge, and responded to them with the furniture of the place. He attacked them with chairs, plates. Even with the same poker cards. “Why don't you die!?” It was probably the phrase that was repeated the most in that fight.
When there were only two men left, they both decided to distance themselves from Edward, and tried to go to the back of the bar. Quickly, Edward took out a pair of sharp metal scissors from his pocket and threw them hard, aiming for the head of one of the men. Which remained nailed to the wall next to the door, while his companion managed to escape. Edward followed at a fast pace, but without running, maintaining unwavering composure. Which only generated more fear in the man who ran.
Edward followed the man to some underground warehouses. The contrast with the bar was clear, while the first looked like a stereotypical 80s movie, this was more like an apocalypse bunker. The man continued running down the long hallway, until he reached a huge room at the end. Due to the distance he had managed to get from the coroner. He had time to activate the Security system. Edward saw three huge metal doors close between him and the man. At this, Edward said nothing. He just approached and tapped the metal plate in front of him, after which he took out of his pocket one of the keys that he had taken from the base. It had a drawing of a dragon. And small burn marks. Edward took the key and inserted it into a small slot in the device on his wrist, suddenly a flash of orange light invaded the tunnel…
On the other side of the door the Gangster is celebrating — “Let's see how you get through that, Four Eyes!” Until he felt 2 presence behind him “What the hell are you doing?” The man turned around to see his boss, a man in a beige suit, with his hair combed back with gel. Next to him was a woman with red hair and green eyes. She dressed in a trench coat, shirt and black pants.
"Boss! Miss Octavia! “He is the coroner, he is here, and he has eliminated everyone in the bar!” The man said as his legs trembled. The boss hardly flinched. While the woman only managed to murmur a phrase, “I was already wondering when we would see each other again, Edward.”
The man guided his boss and the redhead to a screen, which showed the security camera in the hallway. “You don't need to worry anyway, there are three metal doors between him and us. Look… there is no way he can pass- WHAT?”
The three of them were stunned. The metal on the doors was melting. Edward, dressed in a black and orange kimono, shooting a burst of fire. Making a circle to melt the door. The boss rushed towards his minion, holding him by the shoulders. “You told me he was the coroner, not the arsonist!”
“He's the coroner, I don't have the slightest idea how he's throwing fire.” The boss released his minion and approached the redhead. “Listen to me, Octavia. You told me that if he eliminated one of those crazy people, The Guardians would fulfil a wish of mine. But you didn't tell me that they would come to try to destroy me.” The woman broke her silence and said, “Calm down, Tragliatore. Our pact still stands. The guardians will fulfil your greatest wish. You have my word as a Detective” The redhead said as she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Boss! He already went through 2 of the doors! Look” The henchman shouted at his boss, while he pointed at the door that was turning increasingly reddish. The boss removed Octavia's hand from his shoulder. “Quickly, you lazy bunch, everyone pointing at the door.” all the soldiers pointed directly towards the door. “I want anyone who walks through that door with more holes than a damn sieve.”
Multiple men stood at a safe distance from the melting door. Everyone was waiting for what was about to happen. The sound of the flame on the other side of the door invaded the environment, until suddenly... Brain. Causing chills to almost all the people present there. A yellow glow could be seen from under the door that was melting…
The silence was interrupted by the sudden ejection of the door, which was thrown directly towards the soldiers in front. A large amount of smoke came out of the hole that was left. And a couple of yellow dots lit up. Edward ran out of the smoke, wearing a black trench coat, the inside of which shone bright yellow. In his face there was a pair of Goggles, also yellow, which emitted an intense light.
"There is! “Shoot him!” He shouted loudly, as Octavia dragged him towards a door to get him away from the shooting. The henchmen fired volleys of bullets at Edward, who was blocking the shots with Edelgard's trench coat.
Edward tackled one of the men and took cover behind some wooden boxes. He took the gun from the anklet, knocked out the guard next to him and took his gun from him. To start responding to shots. Taking advantage of the lens aiming system. After several minutes, Edward realized that he needed to increase speed... He removed the key that was inserted into the device. Which had the symbol of a Sniper sight, I inserted another one that had the symbol of skates.
After this, he threw his pistol into the air, while a green light enveloped him. The gangsters were perplexed, watching as the gun transformed into a UZI with neon green markings. They were even more perplexed, when Edward jumped out from behind the box... Dressed in a black one-piece suit, with silver lines. In large white letters it was written "Ritcher" and a number 3 in large.
Edward caught the UZI out of the air, and it clicked on his heels. The white soles began to glow, and he levitated a few centimetres from the floor. The next thing the gangsters saw was this blue-haired boy attacking them while he fired with the UZI.
“Quickly, Tragliatore. Over here!” She told Octavia to the mafia leader, As she dragged him through one of the doors, and she kept crouched down so as not to be seen.
Edward continued to dodge bullets while he in turn returned fire. He quickly positioned himself in the centre of the room, and began to spin on its axis at high speed, while he continued shooting with the UZI and one of the gangsters' weapons. Generating a storm of bullets, which filled the room. When he stopped, Edward realized that he had made holes in all the walls, covers and enemies in the place. He began to walk towards the hallway that Tragliatore left down. With all the calm in the world, he removed the key from the device, and placed a different one with the symbol of an Oxygen mask and a Sickle.
“Come in! Come in! Quick!" Octavia shouted at Tragliatore, while holding the door of a small laboratory, which had a small window with a curtain, inside was another of the henchmen, dressed in a white coat. After entering, Octavia's attention was quickly caught by a shelf with some books. Tragliatore watched as his protector began to search the bookshelf. “What's happening, boss? I heard a lot of gunshots and-” Quickly, the scientist's words were interrupted by the screams of their leader. “That doesn't matter now! We are under attack, scan the bunker. I want to see how many of my men are still alive!” The henchman typed something on a nearby computer. While Tragliatore was still confused by what Octavia was doing. He was about to ask her, when his employee's surprised moan distracted him. “Bo-boss, there are only four living beings left in the Building…” Tragliatore raised his hands to his face, passing them all over his face, while he let out a long sigh through his mouth.
“Okay, okay, it's manageable, it's manageable… Octavia, we need a plan, can you think of it… Octavia!?” The gangster was surprised when he saw the red-haired girl, with a book from which a white glow came out. And a white circle surrounded her. “I'm sorry, boy, but our deal is going to have to end here…” When Tragliatore tried to stop her, he realized that he couldn't get through the circle. “This was not what was agreed upon, you said that The Guardians were going to fulfil my wish…” Octavia tore the pages from the book, and held them up. “I told you that they were going to grant your wish…” He released her leaves, which began to orbit around her. “If you survived…” Tragliatore was about to reply, until his minion shouted at him, with a tone of perennial terror in his voice. "MISTER! “She's coming down the hallway, she's coming this way.” Tragliatore's shock was evident in his eyes. And when he turned around to look to Octavia for a solution, he saw that she had disappeared, and the circle on the floor was on fire.
The scientist quickly approached Tragliatore, holding him by the shoulders, his body aligned with the door. On the other side of which footsteps could be heard in the distance. “What do we do now, boss? There are only the two of us left, I don't want to die! My notes are still on the table, if he finds out that I designed that poison, I don't know what he'll do to me!” Tragliatore quickly slapped the soldier away from him. “We're not going to give up, listen this is what we're going to-”
Before Tragliatore could finish the sentence, a metal sickle came flying through the door window. The sickle hit the scientist directly and stuck into the wall. Blood began to drip from the inert body. Tragliatore recoiled in shock, blood had splattered on his face.
The bottom of the Sickle opened and a small stream of water came out, which floated forming a hand. Which I grab the sickle and take it out of the wall. Causing the man to fall to the floor, Tragliatore watched in shock as his hand stopped in front of the door and slammed hard against the handle. Causing the door to open.
Edward entered through the door, dressed in a black jacket with grey sleeves, accompanied by black neoprene pants. The footsteps of his boots broke the silence of the room like thunder in the night. His face was covered by a hood, accompanied by a black oxygen mask. Tragliatore tried to pull the gun from him, but was quickly restrained by Edward. Which he held against the wall.
“What the fuck do you want? If you're going to kill me, do it now! Tragliatore tried to say with the most threatening tone he could. Edward remained silent, taking one of his scissors out of his pocket, beginning to run it across the neck of his mafia leader. "Wait! Wait! You want money? “I can give you money.” At the offer, Edward stuck the scissors into Tragliatore's leg. Causing blood to flow out, along with a gasp of pain “Uh… Okay, Okay, no money. What do you want?"
Edward took out the syringe with a black liquid from his pocket. And he shook it in front of him. "The poison? Do you want to know how the poison is made? Why do you think I would tell you?” Tragliatore said, finishing his sentence by spitting at Edward. Which was Stoic, took another scissors from his pocket, and stuck it in Tragliatore's hand. Leaving it nailed to the wall. The scream of pain was even louder. “Ugh! In the table! In the notebook on the table!” Edward alone tragliatore, letting the scissors support him. While he went towards what he had come for. He took the leather-bound notebook, and opened it to the page that was marked with a red ribbon. On the same page, the process with which the poison had been made was detailed.
After seeing this, Edward began to walk towards the exit door. A white glow enveloped him and his clothes returned to his usual trench coat. Tragliatore couldn't contain his frustration and shouted at Edward, “Really? You entered my base, you killed all my staff, that's why? All this for that Bea-” Before he could finish the sentence, Edward turned on his heel. Throwing a pair of scissors directly at Tragliatore's forehead. The scissors remained stuck in the wall. Leaving a hole in Tragliatore's face. “DON'T INSULT HER AGAIN, NEVER!" After this, Edward adjusts his bangs, and begins to walk out of the underground base. Willing to achieve it.
Out of Continuity: Lair of the Key Society / One week later…
Erin woke up on the morgue gurney, her eyes slowly opening as her senses began to return. She looked around her, recognizing the medical equipment and monitors that were still beeping softly. She sat up on the bed with some effort, and her gaze fell on Edward, who was sitting next to her.
Edward was completely disheveled, with deep circles under his eyes that marked his tired face. He tapped his foot on the floor at high speed, clearly nervous. Next to him, the table was littered with empty coffee cups and a stopwatch
"Edward?" Erin asked in a weak voice. Edward looked up quickly, his eyes filled with a mix of surprise and relief. Realizing that he hadn't imagined the sound of Erin's voice, he jumped up and hugged her with all of her strength.
"Are you OK!" he exclaimed, her words filled with her emotion. Edward moved away from her a little, holding Erin's face with her hands under her cheeks.
"Yeah...I'm fine," Erin responded, still a little disoriented. She noticed the black marks under Edward's eyes and frowned in concern. "My God...Edward, are your eyes okay?"
Edward couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You wake up from a coma, and the first thing you ask me is if I'm okay?" After that, Edward hugged her again, resting her jaw on top of her head. Erin just enjoyed the hug, feeling the warmth and security that she gave her.
Suddenly, she felt drops falling on her head. Erin looked up and saw the tears falling from Edward's eyes. "Edward? What's wrong?" she asked in a soft voice.
Edward grabbed her chin again and brought her face closer to his, causing Erin to blush. "What's going on?" Edward moved forward, planting a kiss on Erin's lips. The shock to Erin's mind was brutal, but she soon began to enjoy it. After several minutes, Edward broke the kiss and looked at Erin with a look he'd never had before. "That's what happens," Edward said softly, hugging her again.

Hi all, long story short: I (24f) got the genetic testing and tested positive for MTHFR (compound heterozygous) years ago, when I was 15. I never felt any side effects or symptoms, or at least if I did, I didn’t make a correlation to this.
Fast forward to now, ten years later, I got pregnant, by luck was taking a prenatal that had l-methylfolate instead of folic acid, and just recently I remembered I had the MTHFR mutations. I have since fallen in the rabbit hole of researching about it, I’ve been worrying sick about the effects of it on my baby, and even terrified of the high levels of folate and the higher chances of autism in children (I know it comes from one paper and it isn’t that reliable, but I am a FTM I am gonna worry.)
When I brought up to my OBGYN I had the mutations, she only told me to take the a prenatal with l-methylfolate and to take baby aspirin everyday. Simple enough but didn’t take away the worry from me that I may had a higher dosage than I should’ve, specially since on top of supplementing, one of the things that has been helping me with constipation during pregnancy (sorry, TMI) is lentils, which are rich in folate. I eat them like, alllll the time.
Last Friday, I asked my OBGYN to test my folate levels. She asked for the serum plasma test, which my results came back as >20. To my knowledge, that’s high and out of range. Now, I’ve done extensive reading in this subreddit and know I should be getting the RBC test and my B12 checked (I supplement for B12 too, 1,000 mcg a day), as the serum plasma does not equal the true absorption of folate. I haven’t gotten to talk to my OBGYN yet as it is the weekend, but she should be calling me tomorrow to discuss the results. Meanwhile, I’ve been anxious and spiraling over my high levels and worried sick my over supplementing will impact my child.
I guess I am looking for comforting words, would love to know if someone has been in a similar situation, and if everything ended up okay?
For reference, I am 17 weeks pregnancy and baby seems to be thriving, growing strongly and perfectly.
Thank you so much in advance!

I sell used E46 auto parts on eBay, and I am trying to make sense of the colors for the door horizontal plastic interior trim strip. These strips come with a wood finish, or not. It's the "or not" aspect that inspired this post in the hope that it helps someone similarly puzzled.
As far as I can tell, the parts for pre-2002 cars came with high-gloss finish in beige, black or gray for which German is "beige," "schwarz" or "grau." The German word "hochglanz" translates to "high gloss."
The parts for post-2001 cars did not come with the aforementioned finishes. One example is "graphit matt" (which I figure to be a dark gray) in a matte (as in, not shiny) finish. Another example is "sieblack grau." Obviously, some kind of black, and then gray, right? Actually -- no.
I was raised German but I live in the US, and I think in English. But in pondering "sieblack grau" I had to thinking in German temporarily. "Sieb" is "sieve" ... "lack" is "paint" ... "grau" is "gray." So it is a sort of patterned finish as if painted through a sieve. There is no "black" in the name, in the German meaning.
This reminds me of a fellow American who translated "Hellrot" to "hell red." In German, "hell" is "bright" and "rot" is "red" so ... actually, it's "bright red."
My point: German words are often non-intuitive or even counter-intuitive, compared to English. Generally, when you read French, you can pretty well guess what the English equivalent would be. With German, less so.
So if you're looking at a German word, and you're puzzled, and something seems odd, you're probably right to not take it at face value. If you formally translate the word (such as using Google's "German to English") then you might be surprised at how different the German meaning is, from what a reasonable guess might be for a native English speaker.

I am trying to make allergy labels, but the brands of ingredients I use consistently change and I set up a google sheet to combat this, where if i change the brand in my "pantry" column, it will update all my product ingredient lists with said ingredient. This has worked very well for everything except allergy info.
I make custom cakes so every order is different, how my process works is every recipe has a code I made, and i named the cell with their ingredients after that code. I then enter the recipe codes I used in that order into google sheets and it will give me lists of all the ingredients in each one.
I copy the ingredient list from the cell and paste it into an print out template I have in a Google Doc I already have filled with other information like weight and bakery address.
For allergy label laws, I have to bold specific allergens, i.e. milk, peanuts, eggs, etc.
Is there a way I can "tell" the doc "if you see this word (milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, etc.), bold it"?
I thought I got a clever workaround with markdowns, and put two asterisks on both sides of the allergen words in google sheets, thinking that when I pasted it in docs it would automatically bold them, but nope, in order to bold them I have to actively type the two asterisks, it wont work if i just paste them.
I thought the markdowns was a good idea, and I'm wondering if there's a way to fix it not working when pasted.
Is there a way to do what I am looking for?

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

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

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

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

and

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

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

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

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

First Reading - Acts 2:1-11
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ³ And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Par′thians and Medes and E′lamites and residents of Mesopota′mia, Judea and Cappado′cia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phryg′ia and Pamphyl′ia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyre′ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
Responsorial Psalm - Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Second Reading - 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel - Jn 20:19-23
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
How many of us pray to the Holy Spirit? Be honest. Even myself I have to remind me that "Oh, yeah, there is the Holy Spirit." How many of us will pray to Jesus, the Father, even asking others to pray for us before going to the Holy Spirit? Well, I am here to tell you that the Holy Spirit is God. We can and should pray to the Holy Spirit! Our reading today from 1 Corinthians tells us that we cannot have faith in Jesus Christ without the Holy Spirit! At Baptism, we receive not only God's salvific grace cleansing us of all our old sins, but we also receive the gifts of the holy Spirit found in the alternate second reading today: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. These can also be stated as wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
St. Paul also tells us that while there are a wide variety of gifts of the Holy Spirit, there is still one Spirit. We are all baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We all receive a variety of gifts maybe it is athleticism, maybe it is a gentle heart, intelligence, maybe it is a great patience, maybe it is being funny. We have all been given a many wonderful and varied gifts and we are called to use them! At the same time, when we triumph on the athletic field, get an A on a test or a project, get a promotion for our hard work, or even have a really good parenting moment, we must remember where (and who) our talents come from! In the immortal words of St. Francis de Sales:

"Be who you are and be that well, in order to give honor and glory to the Master Craftsman whose work of art you are!"

My friends, the Holy Spirit may not be calling us to go on a mission trip to Africa, maybe instead we are being called to housesit for our next door neighbor. Maybe we are not called to the priesthood or religious life, but instead build a faithful household and teach a (or some) tiny human how to love God. God puts us where we are so that we may serve all of those around us.
God gives us all the tools that we need to be able to accomplish the roles that he has placed us in. Remember, the apostles were not pharisees or Sadducees. They were not trained theologians. Yet, thanks to the Holy Spirit, they are able to go out into the world and preach the Gospel to the entire world. It did not matter what language they spoke, the Holy Spirit took care of that. I imagine this as they just spoke but the Holy Spirit would kind of "auto-translate" for them. God tasked them with teaching the faith to the entire world and God made sure that they had the tools to do that!
Lastly, in the Gospel, we see another tool that Jesus gave the apostles: those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them. Those whose sins you retain are retained. He gave them the ability to forgive sins! Or rather, Jesus continued to forgive sins through the apostles!
Let us pray:
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Every time I try to learn a word or a Grammar point, it feels like 10 new ones suddenly appear to besiege me from all sides, and once you try addressing one of those new issues, another untold number spawn in their place. It is a war of attrition, but there are tens of thousands of these things, and only one of me.
I have been trying to study Japanese as thoroughly as possible, but even when fighting through the early mornings or the sleepless nights, little progress is ever truly made. Even making minor observable progress at this point is exceedingly difficult; I feel almost as though I am playing a game where I have to complete college-level assignments just to take a single step, and yet the task at hand before me is to scale an entire Mountain.
I now look back with sympathetic pity at my early days of blissful innocence, when learning serious, important words 大好き, 先輩, or "やめて！" made me feel invincible.
Will the Sun ever shine upon me again? For those of us wandering through this darkness, is there any hope for us, or shall our struggle endure forever?

dystopian dream movie (scary)
i watch life gripping movies often so i understand where it comes from but the way my subconscious mind put a crazy dream together like that is weird asf.
so the setting begins with an amusement park that has many families, where we (my family) had gone to visit.first we encounter ghosts of the lower level, funny and eerie and friendly and of other kinds.all of this when, the tour guide is driving a roofless sedan, and explaining to us the rules of entering the park. as we drive, a bodyless head bangs across the car deck and rolls off laughing, and the driver warns us that we're about to meet some upper level ghosts (as the levels increase they get powerful and manifest in 3d) who will ask us to submit one word we shall not use for a span of next 30 days, failing to do so, that specific ghost will chase you to death. we laughed it off thinking they're messing with us.
fast forward, one of my family members (expected) does use the word they submitted, and it became WILD after that. we were being chased by a series of highly conscious other wordly beings, made me spit my heart out of fear. they began chasing us, splitting humans for fun, and made most of the humans unconscious with a special mist.it was a large park and all the humans were trapped. i and my family ran my ass of closing large doors behind us but somehow they managed to breakthrough,until i woke up. it was so fujking scary, it took me 5 more hours of sleep and a day off uni to be normal again.
open to recieving any interpretations and questions ;)

The "glorious son" Ninurta – the offspring of Enlil (the father of the gods); was said in Sumerian mythology to have defeated the so-called "Asag" demon ("Asakku" in Akkadian) who was himself a manifestation of Enmesharra (the sinister god of the underworld; a Sumerian equivalent of "Satan") and to have uttered these words upon its defeat:
"From today forward, do not say Asag: its name shall be Stone. Its name shall be zalag stone, its name shall be Stone. This, its entrails (meaning its 'foundations'), shall be the underworld (the lower parts). Its valour shall belong to the lord (Ninurta)." – lines 310-330.
The text then continues: "The lord applied his great wisdom to it. (Ninurta), the son of Enlil, set about it in a grand way. He made a pile of stones in the mountains. Like a floating cloud he stretched out his arms over it. With a great wall he barred the front of the Land. He installed a sluice on the horizon. The hero acted cleverly, he dammed in the cities together. He blocked the powerful waters by means of stones. Now the waters will never again go down from the mountains into the earth. That which was dispersed he gathered together. Where in the mountains scattered lakes had formed, he joined them all together and led them down to the Tigris. He poured carp-floods of water over the fields." – lines 347-359.
On top of it he erected his Hursag (a Sumerian term meaning "mound, mountain" and it was intended as a "holy place – place of worship" of the gods).
Ninurta then compared all of the soldiers from the entourage of the Asag-demon who had followed the Asag-demon into battle – to precious stones (which is why he addressed the stones one by one in the text and the soldiers are literally called "stones" and given a purpose that’s comparable to those of precious stones utilized in handiwork – to which Ninurta will give a purpose because he’s the god of craftsmanship among other things). He called them each with the name of a stone because he considered them each a valuable piece on top of whom to construct his puzzle by amassing them all together – piling them up basically like bricks, one after the other; giving each of them a new purpose and redeeming them in the eyes of Ninurta (because the soldiers or "stones" had accompanied the "evil" Asag-demon but now Ninurta took them in as part of his own entourage instead – and he thus redeemed them in his eyes giving them a new purpose).
They all became precious allies of the god Ninurta – and all of them had their roles assigned like stones in a construction or like the materials in the building of artifacts; essentially each of them playing a role in his creation, the new creation that the god Ninurta had established in the mountains according to the text (when he reclaimed the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and rearranged "the mountains" i.e. "the underworld" in order to block the destructive waters that come from the underworld which is called "the mountains" – "Kur" in Sumerian).
And the lord Jesus looked at Peter and said: "And I tell you that you are a Stone, and on top of this Stone I will build my church (my holy place, my place of worship)" – Matthew 16:18.
"And the hero Ninurta acted cleverly, he dammed in the cities together. He blocked the powerful waters by means of stones. Now the waters will never again go down from the mountains into the earth. That which was dispersed he gathered together." The Hursag which Ninurta had built would not be overcome by the waters of Kur (the underworld) now that he’s fixed everything together.
"And all the powers of hell will not conquer it" (Matthew 16:18) – the Church which Jesus had built on top of the Stone; the one which he had built will not be overcome by the gates of Hades (the "gates of Hades" or "powers of Hell" being intended as the "destructive waters of the underworld" by Sumerian mythology).
Furthermore in the Greek equivalent of this myth we have that: the Oracle which the lord Apollo erected on top of the demon Python will not be overcome by the powers of the underworld. Python lies safely beneath it, playing his assigned role in giving oracles, but completely dormant and thus the powers of the "underworld" have been stopped from causing harm.
"He's using us all – irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home." – Ephesians 2:20-22.
"You yourselves are like living stones." – 1 Peter 2:5.
And the god Ninurta was claimed to have called each of them with the name of a stone. He reordered the stones in his creation; because each and every one of them was equal in the eyes of Ninurta, and he respected them all – forgiving the enemy (the stones who had served in the entourage of the Asag-demon) and making them all one of his own – building on top of them by giving them each a role. (He addressed them each and used each and every one of them like a stone telling them what to do: "U stone (emery) […] since cornelian is polished by you, you shall be called by its name. And now, according to the destiny fixed by Ninurta, henceforth when U stone touches it, there will be pierced cornelian." – "Cu stones […] Since you cannot escape from his great strength, the goldsmith shall puff and blow on you with his breath. You shall be shaped by him to form a matrix for his creations. People shall place the first fruits of the gods on you at the time of the new moon." – "Sajkal stone […] they shall say to you "Be off with you, hurry!", it shall be your name. And now, by the destiny fixed by Ninurta, henceforth you shall be called a bad lot in the Land. So be it. – "Esi (diorite) […] when a king who is establishing his renown for perpetuity has had its statues sculpted for all time, you shall be placed in the place of libations and it shall suit you well in my temple E-ninnu, the house full of grace." – lines 419-478). The enumeration of the stones continues and Ninurta gives them each a role.
The "place of worship" erected by this pagan god was not so much a "church" – but rather a point from which everyone would get access to water, food and healthcare (being a god of medicine and healing) whenever they needed it.
The same way Ninurta enumerates all the precious stones that are used in craftsmanship and he lists every single role that they have (being the god of handiwork himself) – he will then rearrange the soldiers of the army of the Asag-demon giving them each a new purpose and a new role; so this is what the metaphor of the text is trying to convey. He used the people like the stones he utilized in building artifacts and in constructing his Hursag.

I'm new to modding FO4 - I have modded FNV/TTW and Skyrim before so understand the basics but I'm no expert. I've set up a decent list of mods and had it running fairly well aside from the odd crash which I let slide cos Bethesda... anyway it's now got to the point where the game crashes every 5-10 minutes, particularly when I enter the built up area around Boston - I was hoping someone more experienced than I could take a look at my load order and see if I have any particularly problematic mods that be causing the issue? I also downgraded my game from the new updates before modding as I knew this would break 90% of the mods. TIA
0 0 Fallout4.esm
1 1 DLCRobot.esm
2 2 DLCworkshop01.esm
3 3 DLCCoast.esm
4 4 DLCworkshop02.esm
5 5 DLCworkshop03.esm
6 6 DLCNukaWorld.esm
7 7 Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
8 8 ArmorKeywords.esm
9 9 HUDFramework.esm
254 FE 0 F4MS.esl
10 a Homemaker.esm
11 b Loads.esm
12 c NewCalibers.esp
13 d SimSettlements.esm
14 e ProjectZeta.esm
254 FE 1 BerettaM9FS.esl
254 FE 2 HellcatPA.esl
15 f EthreonMasterPlan.esm
16 10 CWWorkshopMaster.esm
254 FE 3 HoloDisplay.esl
254 FE 4 Working_Aquariums.esl
254 FE 5 LadderVanilla.esl
17 11 OVT.esp
18 12 NukaWorldReborn.esp
19 13 MojaveImports.esp
20 14 Campsite.esp
21 15 EveryonesBestFriend.esp
22 16 MYLadyKillerBed.esp
23 17 slevins_chemVFX-Light.esp
254 FE 6 PAVertibirdDockFix.esp
24 18 OutcastsAndRemnants.esp
25 19 Nuka-World Fizztop Grille Workshop.esp
26 1a CleanSettlement Greenhouse.esp
27 1b HAIA With Crafting.esp
28 1c QuazDiamondCityApartment.esp
29 1d safeharbor.esp
254 FE 7 OCsNorthpointDam.esp
30 1e GN_Home.esp
31 1f AA FusionCityRising.esp
32 20 QuazHighTechLoftOLD.esp
33 21 RedWaveReloaded.esp
34 22 Homemaker - Unlocked Institute Objects.esp
254 FE 8 Power Armor HUD Switcher.esp
35 23 UNLIMITED JETPACK.esp
36 24 LooksMirror.esp
37 25 Move (Get Out the Way).esp
38 26 No Aggro Impact Landing.esp
39 27 AES_Renovated Furniture.esp
40 28 Renovated_Furniture_MY_BEDs.esp
41 29 SettlementMenuManager.esp
42 2a VisibleWeapons.esp
43 2b AnS Wearable Backpacks and Pouches.esp
44 2c AnS Wearable Backpacks and Pouches - Ballistic Weave.esp
45 2d WIPAG_Power Armor Overhaul.esp
254 FE 9 WIPAG_Vanilla_AWKCR_PA_Addon.esp
WIPAG_B35_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Classic_Addon.esp
WIPAG_CMC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Combat_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Construction_Addon.esp
254 FE a WIPAG_Contraptions_DLC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Cosmos_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Excavator_Addon.esp
254 FE b WIPAG_FarHarbor_DLC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Horse_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Liberty_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Mechanist_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Medic_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Midwest_Addon.esp
WIPAG_MidwestEvo_Addon.esp
254 FE c WIPAG_NukaWorld_DLC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_RedShift_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Relic_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Sierra_Addon.esp
WIPAG_SpaceMarine_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Spartan_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Submersible_Addon.esp
WIPAG_SubRedux_Addon.esp
WIPAG_T51c_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Ultracite_Addon.esp
WIPAG_Vault_Tec_Addon.esp
WIPAG_WarMachine_Addon.esp
WIPAG_X02_CC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_X02_Enclave_Addon.esp
WIPAG_X03_CC_Addon.esp
WIPAG_X03_Hellfire_Addon.esp
46 2e CheatTerminal.esp
47 2f cVc Dead Wasteland 6.esp
48 30 powerarmort49.esp
49 31 ProjectValkyrie.esp
254 FE d WIPAG_Storyteller_Addon.esp
50 32 Eli_Armour_Compendium.esp
254 FE e FPVertibird.esp
254 FE f FPV_Armored.esp
254 FE 10 TrainPowerArmor.esp
51 33 Genesis.esp
52 34 9mmPistol.esp
53 35 USSQuincy.esp
54 36 FO4TribalPowerArmor.esp
55 37 SkyrimInspiredPowerArmor.esp
56 38 AkaWaterWorld.esp
57 39 Kraggles - Structures.esp
58 3a WoodenPrefabsExtended.esp
59 3b Prefabs.esp
254 FE 11 FPVTrackingModule.esp
254 FE 12 FPVPilotCommands.esp
60 3c SSEX.esp
254 FE 13 WIPAG_TES51_Addon.esp
61 3d AnS Wearable Backpacks and Pouches - Power Armor Carry Capacity.esp
254 FE 14 WIPAG_Tribal_Addon.esp
62 3e Quad_Accelerator.esp
63 3f el_AgentOutfit.esp
64 40 AQUILA.esp
65 41 InstitutePowerArmor.esp
254 FE 15 WIPAG_Institute_Addon.esp
66 42 ASVektor.esp
67 43 CBBE.esp
68 44 KSHairdos.esp
69 45 DOOMDesertEagle.esp
70 46 LooksMenu Customization Compendium.esp
71 47 kokok_Piper_Replacer.2F1E.esp
72 48 LooksMenu.esp
73 49 REAPER.esp
74 4a SCAR-L.esp
75 4b Survivalist.esp
76 4c AWKCR - Mod Power Armor Engine Glitch Fix.esp
77 4d FunctionalDisplays.esp
78 4e FunctionalDisplays-AID-VIS-WI.esp
79 4f FunctionalDisplays-AID-VIS.esp
80 50 FunctionalDisplays-AID-WI.esp
81 51 FunctionalDisplays-Collectibles.esp
82 52 FunctionalDisplays-MISC-VIS.esp
83 53 FunctionalDisplays-MISC-Vanilla.esp
84 54 FunctionalDisplays-Patch-DLC-ALL-VIS.esp
85 55 FunctionalDisplays-Patch-DLC-ALL.esp
86 56 CabinInTheWoods.esp
87 57 Boats.esp
88 58 3dscopes.esp
89 59 Better Vendor Stalls.esp
90 5a Lots More Male Hairstyles.esp
91 5b Loads of Ammo - Leveled Lists.esp
92 5c Faster Terminal Displays (20x).esp
93 5d K9TacticalHarness.esp
94 5e LongerPowerLines3x.esp
95 5f BetterGenerators.esp
96 60 BetterSettlersNoLollygagging.esp
97 61 FunctionalDisplays-AID-Vanilla.esp
98 62 AzarPonytailHairstyles.esp
99 63 Canopies.esp
100 64 ShootingTarget.esp
101 65 SettlementPrivacy.esp
102 66 Farming Resources.esp
103 67 BalconySupports.esp
104 68 WeaponDisplays.esp
105 69 Crimsomrider's Unique Furniture.esp
106 6a Thematic and Practical.esp
107 6b SMH.esp
108 6c woodysWastelandStuff.esp
109 6d OCDecorator.esp
110 6e OCDecoratorDLC.esp
111 6f OCDispenser.esp
112 70 RealNameSettlers.esp
254 FE 16 BuildingBudgetExtender.esp
254 FE 17 Scrap Everything - Core.esp
254 FE 18 Scrap Everything - Automatron.esp
254 FE 19 Scrap Everything - Far Harbor.esp
254 FE 1a Scrap Everything - Nuka World.esp
254 FE 1b Scrap Everything - Vault-Tec Workshop.esp
113 71 BetterSettlers.esp
114 72 BetterSettlersCleanFacePack.esp
115 73 BetterSettlersCCAPack2.0.esp
116 74 BetterSettlersMortalPack.esp

Context:
I’m rewriting my WIP for the fifth (and hopefully last) time to make the story more character driven and make my characters motivations stronger. I’ve changed the first three chapters so many times I have no idea what’s good anymore. It’s a portal fantasy Reverse Harem with fated mates. You only meet two love interests in the intro (and one of them only shows up towards the very end of the set up), but I am just looking to see if my FMC's motivations make sense, or if I have made the Set Up too convoluted and given her too many goals.
**Please note the scenes I am posting have been written as an outline, and is not intended to read line by line like a finished manuscript. I will be writing it in First person POV when I finish plotting.**
Backstory (TLDR; Character A needs to gain access to the Other World so she can make a bargain to trade her Father's life for hers, we open on the 6th anniversary of him being taken, her 24th birthday. I ramble on for quite a bit so if you would like to get right into it please skip to Intro/Set Up)
Motivation:
Character A’s Father was stolen by otherworldly creatures 6 years ago and taken to their lands. Character A harbours guilt and blames herself because she disobeyed her Fathers rules and snuck into the woods with her friends on her 18th birthday to go swimming. Her Father came looking for her and that is when she witnessed him being taken.
In the area they live in, disappearances around the full moon were common, with many losing their loved ones over the last 50 years with no explanation. There were a lot of theories of aliens, bigfoot, cougars, werewolves, and only her Father claimed that magic wielding creatures were responsible.
Character A grew up being told stories about these lands, how the creatures enslaved humans to play in their games until they died for entertainment. Her Father told her magic was real but it was to be feared and to run from any sign of the unusual, forbade her from leaving her house after sunset or from ever going into the woods, and he always tried to keep her close to him.
He had a hard time holding down a job due to the grief he felt from losing Character A’s mother during childbirth and when he would drink he would make it known that he resented Character A for derailing his life, because now he was burdened with protecting her instead of living as a family. Her mother was buried there and her father refused to move away from her body. Character A internalized this, feeling guilty for being the reason he struggled so much, and spent her life caring for her father the way she would a child. Cooking, cleaning, paying bills, etc. She would even get revenge on his bosses for firing him. Her Father always claimed it was never his fault, that they were abusing their power and couldn’t handle somebody smarter than them, and losing his job would send him into an alcoholic depression.
Character A heard her Fathers words, and combined with the way out-of town business men had turned her small mountain town into their own personal resort, developed a deep hatred for anyone that held power. She would find little ways to get revenge on her Fathers bosses, and when she was older, spent her spare time getting revenge on the trust fund kids who didn’t care if their actions had consequences for the people living there.
She had a big dream of leaving her small town and exploring the world, but she felt responsible for her Father. She took care of him, and she was afraid of what would happen to him if she left, but she knew she was suffocating under him. Although her guilt and love for her father prevented her from seeing the full truth of what he was, narcissistic and abusive, deep down she knew and she became restless under his restriction.
When she was young she believed his stories but as she got older and never saw any evidence to back up his claims, the more she chaffed against his rules and started sneaking out. She wasn’t dumb, she always carried a knife and bear spray. She read up on what to do if you encountered a predator in the forest, and she begun stealing what little freedom she could for herself. She didn’t believe in magic, wolves and mountain lions were the only things that made sense to her.
Wound:
After her Father is taken Character A is broken. Everything her Father said was true, all he was trying to do was keep her safe, but she disobeyed him and now he was taken to a magical land to be tortured by never ending games. She is distraught and depressed. She begins sleeping in the woods, hoping to be taken too so her pain can end.
A few months later, at the end of summer, her best friend and boyfriend, the only people her father approved of her spending time with, tell her that they still plan to leave for the year long trip they were all going on. They want to start their lives, they think Character A has become delusional in the wake of her Fathers disappearance, they can’t be stuck there taking care of her, they can’t handle her emotions, they need a fresh start. She realizes they have been having an affair, she internalizes them telling her she is too much to handle and that she is unlovable. She was a burden on her father and then a burden on them. She doesn’t see them again for six years.
Present Day:
Character A has spent the last six years trying to get to the other world during the full moon. The weeks in between she spends physically training, researching anything she can, working just enough to cover her bills for the month, and distracting herself with casual flings or sleeping with the trust fund kids in order to gain access to something she wants to steal from them as payback for something they have done. She never lets herself get too close to anyone, knowing that she plans to disappear, but she partied with whoever is willing to distract herself until the next full moon.
Every passing year on her birthday she grows more and more desperate. She begins researching magic spells and rituals that might show her the entrance to the otherworld. She finds a newly discovered mushroom being sold that claims to help you see what is hidden from human eyes.
Character B:
A month ago Character B was sent from the other wolrld to retrieve Character A. She is the descendant of a lost royal line and they have received a vision from the goddess that she is her Heir, the key to defeating the darkness and restoring balance to the land. Character B does not live a good life in the other world, he is nothing but a glorified prisoner in his own life, and all he’s ever wanted was a family of his own, but because of the queen and his father, he cannot have that. He avoids confrontation, always choosing to run from his problems instead of fight. He first lays eyes on Character A as she is driving a motorcycle into a lake.
He is unsure if the vehicle is supposed to drive under water, so he waits a moment before trying to do a rescue. He doesn’t know it’s her until she swims up into the shore, and begins gathering weeds from the lakebed. he thinks she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen and can’t imagine dragging her back to his world where she could be in danger. He wants to watch the curious human for a bit longer to see what she does
He silently follows her and watches her climb into a window and place the weeds around a man sleeping in a bed, then creep down the hallway to an office where she unlocks a safe and pulls out a stack of papers. She then meets up with somebody, hands over the papers with a hug, then walks into the forest.
She walks and walks and he realizes she heading towards the portal and gets nervous, until she reaches a tree with five different coloured ribbons tied around one branch. She takes a new yellow ribbon , adds it to the branch and continues walking until she reaches another tree with ribbons where she adds another ribbon, then walks to the very centre of both trees and sits down. She softly hums a tune to herself.
She seems relaxed, strong and confident, he thinks this must be some new human ritual he hadn’t heard of yet and her humming is soothing to him, but he notices a shiver. He feels a strong need. To wrap her up in a blanket and make her warm. He decides right then that he cannot take her back and ruin her peace, that he himself would not go back, that he would befriend her and they would hide together her in her world and they would be safe and happy. It was pointless trying to fight anyway, they were never going to win and it would be better for them both to be safe and far away from the evil queen.
The next morning he follows her to her favourite coffee shop, glamoured to look more human and remove his pointy ears, and introduces himself as a man trying to get away from his overbearing parents and family he doesn’t get along with.
Intro/Set Up
Chapter 1
-Character A is thinking about how she has to get laid tonight, because it will be her last chance before she disappears and probably dies. Character A is stealing some documents and a bunch of cash from a safe in The Guys home office, she pulls a bag out of her pocket and with it, a card for the bookstore she works at flutters under his desk. She puts the documents and money in the bag and bends down to pick it up when she notices the family photo on the desk and she stops.
It is a picture of The Guy, His Son that she stole and crashed his bike into a lake last month, and The Other Son that she may have killed nine months ago when she burned his cabin down. She is filled with rage when she looks at the photo and thinks she doesn’t regret what she’s done. Character B calling her phone snaps her out of it and when she hears someone come home, she leaves, but she forgets the card.
-She stops at the bookstore to give Coworker 1 the documents and money. Coworker 1 says she will never be able to thank her, that this was the last thing she needed she could get out of town. Character A tells her good luck and to give them hell. Coworker 1 is leaving town tomorrow, she connected with a journalist who can help her expose The Guy and once she does she won’t be able to come back. Coworker 1 is very grateful to her, and Character A makes sure to tell herself that they aren't friends, because friendship requires a level of vulnerability that Olivia could not give her, but she knew Coworker 1 was a good person and deserved so much more than what she got when The Other Son sexually assaulted her at work while His Son filmed it. How when she received a payout in exchange for her silence they knew it wasn’t the first time. They were determined to find further evidence, and they did. Signed NDA’s from all of the employees they had paid off in the past.
Character B joins them at the store. Character A is petting her beloved bookstore cat and goes to pull some treats out of her bag. Her hand brushes against a vial of red and white mushrooms and Character A hopes that they are the key she has been searching for. For six years she has felt like she has been brushing up against the edge of something, but has never been able to get herself to the other side. She was deep in a witchcraft discussion forum when somebody posted about a new discovery of mushrooms, one that allowed the ingestor to see through the Veil, to show them all the magic they cannot see. The poster was pretty insistent that it wasn’t just a trip, that they were able to see threads of magic. After years of failed meditating, drinking teas, burning herbs,and chanting spells around the ley line conversion and not finding anything, what did she have to lose with some magic mushrooms?
Character B calls her name, startling her from her thoughts and she knocks over a box of alien and bigfoot merch. Coworker 1 cracks a joke about being careful with the product or else the alien truthers will riot, Character A rolls her eyes at the people who flocked there in search of the wrong thing. Character B apologizes for startling her and says he was just admiring one of her new Boxwood Topiaries, three trees of varying height that ended with hearts on top, and she says she finished it yesterday.
She loves plants but, like a cat, she can’t commit to having them because she doesn’t plan to be around long, so she does topiary art as a compromise, and the extra money she earns goes towards buying her herbs and mushrooms. Her Father never managed to save much money and she wasn’t left with much after he was taken. She had to use her savings replacing the furnace in her home shortly after her Father was taken, and now she only worked enough to keep her living until the next paycheck. She spent the rest of her time training and researching. Preparing to go to Wonderland in search of her Father.
Character B is making friends with the cat, having charmed it onto its belly, and Coworker 1 gives Character A a knowing look. Character A shakes her head, says they are just hanging out, nothing serious. Coworker 1 says he could be good for her. She knew they had been hanging out, that Character A had let him stay at her house for the last two weeks. She wasn’t judging though, Character A seemed lighter around him, and he was so nice. She had seen him helping Mrs. Smith with her groceries the other day.
Character A thinks that was what initially warmed her up to him. Coworker 1 was right, she never brought guys home, but the first week that he was here he had never failed to notice when people needed help and always offered to lend a hand. Plus he was fun, and fun to look at, and he was always looking for a new adventure. He took her mind off of what a failure she was for not saving her Father yet, and he seemed relatively harmless. So when he said he had never seen her favorite comedy movie she just HAD to take him home to watch it. And he hadn’t left, she hadn’t asked him to. It was becoming a problem. Because she was going to disappear tonight, and a small part of her was beginning to feel sad she would never see him again. It was why she hadn’t slept with him yet, she knew she enjoyed his company just a little too much and wouldn’t risk any further attachment. Character A agreed that he was a good person but emphasized that it was just casual. Coworker 1 says alright, she will back off, and she will let them get to the party. She needs to finish packing and wants to leave as soon as possible. Character A says she understand, they hug and say goodbye.
Chapter 2
-Character A and Character B are walking to the Board Game party. They are dressed as Clue characters, she is Miss. Scarlet and Character B is Mr. Green. They had played every board game she owned, which was a lot of them, in order to decide what to dress up as for the Your Favorite Board Game Party. He turned out to be a good competitor and got way more into the games than she expected him to.
He hands her a cinnamon bun, her favorite, and tells her he had made a whole batch for her, claiming that he knew she hadn’t gotten one since they were hiking that morning, and all she had eaten that day was trail mix and beef jerky and he refuses to let her party on an empty stomach. She happily takes a huge bite, grateful for this one thing she loved before she left this world forever.
He says he’s been thinking and asks her to go traveling with him. She almost chokes on her food. His words rush out and he assures her he has money and can pay for everything and they can go anywhere she wants. Her heart sinks into her stomach. Before her Father went missing, an offer like that from a hot guy would have been her dream, but she couldn’t now, or ever. She looks at the half eaten cinnamon bun, thinks how he had made them because he had gotten coffee with her every morning for the last three weeks, and he saw how every Saturday and Sunday morning she would get a cinnamon bun the size of her face and eat it. She looks at the Green jacket he wore and remembers laughing in the thrift shop as he tried on a full leather catsuit while they searched for the perfect outfit for the party. He was too good. She begins to think that in another life, they could go. They could adopt an adventure cat and take it with them on their world travels, but that wasn’t possible for her. She wasn’t staying in this world, and even if she was, she was too messed up. Too broken. Too much of a burden. And she could never give all of herself to one person ever again, she did it twice, and was broken by both of them because she was too much.
She decides he’s gotten too close and she needs to push him away, so in the hopes that it will scare him, she explains that she can’t leave because her Father was stolen by a magical creature and taken to the Other World. She tells him the entire story her father told her, of creatures luring people to the Other World and keeping them for the Queen's entertainment, forced to be pawns in her games. They are ruthless and obsessed with games and everything reeks of roses. She tells him its her fault that he got taken and she can’t live with herself until she either gets him back or gets revenge for his death.
Character B begins pleading with her, telling her she shouldn't go. She is surprised he doesn’t balk or think she is crazy. He isn’t looking at her the way Ex-Bestfriend and Ex-Boyfriend did, like they feared she would infect them with her crazy, no, he looks at her with genuine terror in his eyes. She stops walking, they are just outside the party house. What do you know? She says. He inhales and steps forward, desperation etched into hs features, and says that he knows that everything she said was true, and that it is much worse than she even thinks. That if she goes, she will not make it back here. It’s too dangerous, and he just wants to keep her safe. She is flabbergasted, and checks over his features for signs. No pointed ears, no animalistic features such as scales or a tail, no strange eyes. How do you know all this? He doesn’t answer, his mouth works like he’s trying to come up with something and betrayal starts to roil in her gut.
Before he has the chance to lie, two men throw their arms around their shoulders. It is the couple that Character A hooks up with on occasion. They start walking them into the house and the one with Character A asks if she wants to come over later for a joint and to hook up. She tries to muster up a yes, it is what she wanted after all, but she can’t think straight after her conversation with Character B. She turns back to see he’s been steered into a conversation with a few other people and thinks she needs a drink to calm herself and give her some courage.
-She walks into the kitchen for a glass and bumps into her Ex-Boyfriend. She is thrown for a loop again. He says Happy Birthday and remarks that he didn’t think he would find her at a party today, since he knows how much she hates her birthday. Character A is surprised to see him and momentarily forgets about Character B, and asks what they’re doing back in town. He says its because Ex-Bestfriends mom is still missing. Character A says, oh, right. And feels stupid for thinking she wouldn’t run into them. She was devastated to hear Ex-BFFs Mom had been taken, she was like a second mother to her, but after Ex-BFF left she couldn’t stand to look at her Mom anymore and remember what she had lost.
He mentions something about the baby coming soon and Ex-BFF wanting to be as close to her mom as she can. Character A questions the baby and he tells her they are pregnant. Character A flashes back to both of them telling her they were leaving and couldn’t stay in contact with her anymore, that she had become too much for them to handle on the horizon of their new lives. She noted the way they looked at each other and how their knees pressed together, and that was when she knew they had been having an affair. She comes back to the present when he leans in close and says he actually wants to ask her some questions about her dad. She sees a familiar head with a mop of blonde hair moving through the crowd towards them. Seeing Ex-Boyfriend was bad enough, she cannot see Ex-Bestfriend. See her pregnant. And now he wants to hear what she has to say about the disappearances? You can go fuck yourself, she spits and walks away before he can say anything else, and thankfully, before Ex-Bestfriend reaches her. She thinks his betrayal hurt her, but her betrayal broke her.
-She is fleeing the kitchen, heading for the back door, desperate to get away from them, when she bumps into an attractive man in a red velvet sport coat with a red velvet top hat. They are both imprinted with roses. He apologizes for bumping into her and her heart skips a beat, thinking of the Queen's obsession with roses. She asks him who he's supposed to be and he smiles but pauses before saying his name is Character C, he’s friends with Character B, and her heart stops all together. A chill runs through her and Character B interrupts and asks him what he’s doing here. Character C hugs him and says its good to see him and says he thought he was dead. Character C turns to Character A and says that he took off for a month without saying anything, could she even believe it? And they had an important event that the three of them needed to attend tonight. Character B starts to argue with Character C when Character A hears her name called. The Guy she stole from is there, he holds up the card to the bookstore that fell under his desk and said he wants the contents of his safe back, and maybe the sheriff will go easy on her if she returns it, or maybe he won't since he will also be investigating his cabin burning down and one of his sons going missing. Character A plays dumb but he grabs her around the neck and says he knows it was her, she’s a pathetic bum just like her father. Character B punches him, forcing him to release her and they begin fighting. The other partygoers jump to Character A’s defense and start fighting the other guys that came with him. Character C picks up Character A after she was knocked over to keep her from being trampled, and Character B breaks away when The Guy starts fighting with someone else. So they turn and head for the door, but The Guy's Son, the same one from last month who she stole the bike from, blocked the back door.
-Character A turns and together they run into the basement, locking the door behind them. They run down the stairs and into a bedroom where she locks the door again. She whips out her knives and points one at Character C. “Why do you want me to go to the Other World?” He holds up his hands and smiles, “I need your help finding a weapon that will help me defeat the Queen .” “Why me?” “The Goddess showed me in a dream that it is you. I will pay you in gold and return you back here, unharmed, once you find it.” Character A hears them break through the basement door and descend the stairs. “Fine, I’ll help you do it.” Character B protests and steps forward but she gestures the knife at him and he stops. “But first, you will help me find my Father and send him back here. Alive. And healthy.” All she knows about the Other World is what she could glean from her Fathers stories and what she was able to research about lore, but she had no idea what was accurate and what was not. She would be a fool to think she should turn away help if she could bargain for it. “I will help you find you Father, but it won’t be until after tonight, we must attend the Queens party so you can search for the weapon, this is the best opportunity we will have for another year.” The Guy begins banging on the door. She took it back, she was being a fool, she had very little hope that she would be able to fulfill her end of the bargain, but she was out of time, and she may never have a chance to get to the Other World again. “Deal.” She says as she steps forward to shake his hand. Character C grasps it and an electrical charge runs up her arm. He pulls a small vial out of his pocket. He dumps some black sparkly powder on his tongue and a hole appears in the floor. Grabbing Character B’s hand as well they jump through it just as the door breaks open.
If you have read this far, seriously thank you so much and I love you and if you want feedback on anything please direct me to where I can provide it!
I wanted to note that the mention about her potentially killing The Other Son is relevant to the plot because he did not die in the fire, he was lured to the Other World and will be there as an antagonist when Character A shows up. Also, the mushrooms become relevant to her finding the weapon in book 2. She gets sidetracked this book by finding her father and bargaining to take his place in the game (the party they are attending is to watch this game take place) and having to fight her way out of them. The entire first book takes place over the course of one single night.

2006 mustang GT vin H 4.6
Some background I’m very mechanical savvy I’ve done a camshaft job and all maintenance myself. Ive tried using google, I got results for peoples keys getting stuck, but not my issue.
Guys I need some help on this one. I recently picked up an 06 mustang gt I’ve owned and taken care of one before so this issue baffles me. With the key out and car off the Ignition will stay on randomly with the key out. When I put the key in and turn to the first position the dash will go black and start dinging reminding to take my keys if I was leaving but they are locked in the cylinder until I turn it to the off position and the dash will stay lit up, then I found out the dash lights will turn off if I push the clutch pedal in with the key out. :/
Only codes I have are for the fuel sending unit circuit I need to get a pump to put in as the level unit is faulty. otherwise the car starts normally and everything comes to life when I turn on accessory.
I suspect the ignition switch may be the culprit, is the neutral safety wired to the ignition switch?
TIA

Hello totalwar,
I'm in an interesting position. I'm playing as the Sendai on a VH/VH long campaign and I'm on turn 110. I'm one region away from causing a realm divide. I have an American military mission and decided to conquer the northern part of Japan from the Matsumae and other clans.
I've been at war with other factions for a while (it ramped up around turn 80 when I traded with the Hirado) but for the most part I'm mainly at war with the Tosa, Jozai, and Nagaoka. The Jozai and Nagaoka border me at the moment as I vassilized the Aizu but they got steamrolled shortly after. Initially the Jozai threw a few Shogitai at me and because of my general's command it wasn't too difficult to country. Now, however, they're throwing the max number of Shogitai along with other units; the last few included line infantry. Nagaoka initially threw levy infantry with a few line infantry regiments but now its mostly Shogunate infantry and 2 Armstrong guns (I had two Parrott guns but had to disband them due to money issues.) The Tosa are probably the weakest but twice they've tried to attack my northernmost areas with infantry which distracts my own navy of 5 ships trying to find them. I fear that they might land next turn if I don't find them.
6 turns ago I built a Military Academy after struggling to do so juggling so many economic buildings; I haven't upgraded most towns to also have a Police Office yet. I wanted to re recruit the Parrott guns and at least two units of US Marines but I'm juggling with just over 2k koku per turn. I have 4 units of Shogitai spread out over 2 armies, one headed by my daimyo and the other by his heir. Command-wise I'm probably leading everyone else as both the Jozai and Nagaoka lost their best generals early on and the Tosa lost their 4 command daimyo trying to land up north. I finally was able to recruit 4 units of Line Infantry and I have kneel fire unlocked (level 4 development) so with my generals it should be enough firepower to beat most units and combined with others can cause easy routs.
My problem is, however, that I wanted to become a republic. I know I probably have enough time to do it but once the realm divide starts I'll be on the defensive again and I'm trying to figure out how I should form my armies for this. I'll have access to Republican Infantry and 5 of them should carry me easily, but I'm wondering if I should go with whatever is available instead of trying to get a doomstack. I'm hoping to capture an Armstrong gun the next time the Nagaoka attack me but its unlikely. I can't always charge across a battlefield and hope to take no casualties, and defensive sieges would be a nightmare.
My navy is commanded by a rank 3 general and costs me 1.8k for 6 ships. I feel like this is overkill but the Tosa has fielded 8 ships before (I beat them) so I feel that once the other factions attack me they'll probably have strong ships as well.
Has anyone done a traditional republic run with a Shogunate faction? I'd assume the Aizu are the easiest even with their bad position but I could be wrong.

So aside from the fact that it has no ultimate and augments that upgrade the abilities, the base abilities and passive are these (slightly shortened since I don’t want to type that much)
Passive: Explosive rage: accumulates energy from losing or restoring health. At max energy, create an explosion that deals (20+20% AD+100%AP+5% bonus max hp) to nearby enemies. Some augment upgrades include gaining bonus stats after the explosion, it charging faster, and having a bigger area or something.
Q: spear thrust: 8 second cooldown (FYI in the game mode there are no ability ranks, this is all that is displayed), range is about the same as a pantheon q without charge, and it consumes 10% max hp to dash forward, dealing damage equal to (20+100% AD+20% AP+5% bonus HP). Some upgrades include having a chance for lightning to strike enemies hit, which restores HP, the ability having longer range, the ability having 0 cd, the ability healing based on dmg dealt, and being wider.
W: war cry: cd is about 10 seconds, deals damage equal to 20+ 30% AP and AD to enemies in about the same range as q and gains a shield of 30% bonus max hp. Some augment upgrades include pulling in enemies hit, stunning enemies hit (pretty sure it’s by a second), reducing the cd by a lot, reducing the cd for every enemy hit, and having a bigger shield the lower kalista’s hp is.
e: sweeping conquest: range is about the same as q/w, and it’s a cone that does 20+60%AD+20%AP+15% bonus HP, and heals kalista for 5% max hp per enemy hit, up to 30% (it’s a pve event where enemies swarm you). Augment upgrades includes having a free automatic cast of this ability every few autos (4 IIRC), the ability being circular, gaining max hp based per kill+the ability grants bonus hp for a short duration after use, and attacking after using this ability (basically, this ability resets your AA timer is what this upgrade is).
Now this kit has no ult, however an idea for an ult I have is to give her some of her ability upgrades for a duration. But which? That’s kind of hard to choose. So why not make it so that at rank one, it gives one for each, 2 at rank 2, 3 at rank 3, and maybe 4 at level 18. Also I feel like if this were to be a champion e would need to be changed to 6% max hp and only against champions, or have rediced healing against minions/monsters. So what would you all think of a champion like this? Any adjustments you’d make? Any ult ideas?

Anyone here using PSSO and managing Mac Admins via Intune?
PSSO all set up - Mac in 'shared' mode, any of my users can log into Mac with their Entra Credentials, and it creates them a standard account on the Mac.
However, I've got one user whose credentials I want to be able to act as administrator on the device. Any ideas?
I saw this blog post: https://www.intuneirl.com/taking-platform-sso-to-the-next-level-create-new-user-at-login/
Where groups are used to promote and demote local users (well, they're actually IDP users) - from admin to standard and vice versa. The post didn't include any information on how to do this, and I can't find anything out there to help me!
In my current windows environment I can easily assign a user with the Local Device Admin role in Intune, and they can use their credentials to elevate - i.e. one of our technicians or Managers to be able to add printers, etc.
Any ideas much appreciated!

Previous Part
I grabbed the back pack Bianca had left in the kitchen and waited in the living room. I had no idea what she was packing for but after this morning I wasn’t going up there to check. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to ask Tuck yet. I wanted him to tell me he was a werewolf himself, that seemed like pretty important information just on the basis of trust. But I also wanted to know why he was really out by the mine yesterday. His story didn’t add up and there’s no way he knew we would be up there, I think that was just a coincidence. As I was trying to come up with exactly how I wanted to broach the question to Tuck, Frank put a hand on my shoulder. He was wearing his lab coat so I guessed he just came up from the basement. The hairnet he always seemed to wear when he was working was in its usual spot. I suppose he wore it to protect the memory of hair that was once on his head. He looked solemn and a little sick as he turned to me.
“Keep her out of trouble will you? I know we haven’t always been the best to her and I’m sure Stein and I don’t really give her the help she needs. But she’s like the daughter I never had time to have, I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her.”
“Frank, you probably do more than you know for her. Did she ever talk about her family with you?”
“Very briefly throughout the years, I don’t know if she’s told you much or anything for that matter. It… it certainly wasn’t easy for her growing up and it never got easier.”
“I’ll do my best to keep her out of trouble. If she does end up following me into… whatever this trial ends up being just promise me you’ll have a way to get her out. Some kind of contingency, I can fend for myself but I’ve seen her just shut down before. Like yesterday in the caves someone grabbed her and she lashed out and just… wasn’t herself. She just froze and I don’t want that to happen anywhere near Shaoni.”
“I’ll work on something but I can’t promise that. Like Stein said we’re scientists, we don’t really do field work like that. If I do come up with something you’ll be the first to know. I’m glad she ran into you when she did Keith, she could really use a friend.”
With that Frank walked away, back towards the kitchen and into the basement.
It wasn’t long after that when I heard Bianca coming down the stairs asking if anyone had seen her toothbrush. At which point Rocco appeared in front of me from god knows where holding a suspicious disassembled toothbrush.
“Not. A. Word. Kid.”
Rocco growled at me as he scampered out the door behind me.
“I have a couple that I packed for the trip here from Wisconsin I can just give you one of those.”
I called to Bianca. Partially because I wanted to get a move on and partially because I wanted no part in whatever Rocco was getting up to. If there was one supernatural thing about this town it was that raccoon’s knack for mischief. I get that’s what raccoons are known for but seriously, Rocco was on another level. Bianca reluctantly agreed to take one of the travel tooth brushes I had back at my house. I wasn’t even going to ask why she packed a duffle bag to go a few hundred feet into town and back again.
“Come on we’ll take the bikes again.”
Bianca said as she made her way behind the house.
“I’m telling you they’re going to give me tetanus one of these days but sure. Lets just stop at my place first, I want to drop off this backpack you took yesterday first.”
Bianca was still wearing the ratty jeans she’d taken from me yesterday and at this point I just figured she could have them. I really wasn’t about to get into an argument as to why she should take my pants off and… ugh even saying it is just… no. Those were hers now as far as I was concerned.
We rode over to my house through the crisp autumn afternoon. The trees along the street were finally being to change color, it looked like a scene from a postcard. One of those one’s of the idyllic towns that could’ve come straight out of a hallmark movie. I had to give it to Eagles Peak, it may by turning into a den of vipers for me minute by minute but it sure could be beautiful, in it’s own isolated kind of way.
“Wow its very… small.”
Bianca commented as she stepped into my house and looked around.
“Yeah not everyone has a blank check from two different governments like Stein.”
“I didn’t mean li…”
“It’s ok I know what you meant, its different.”
I said cutting her off before she had the chance to apologize. I dropped off the backpack in my room and rooted around in the one duffle bag I still hadn’t unpacked from my trip here. I found the toothbrush without to much trouble and walked into the living room to give it to Bianca only to find her unpacking on the couch.
“What’s going on here, are you moving in?”
I joked, not expecting the answer I was about to get.
“Yeah, kind of hard to keep an eye on you from my house. I suppose I could from the top floor but if we’re working against Shaoni that doesn’t seem like a great idea. She’s got that whole thing with lighting and I get the sense her being angry at you while your up in the air isn’t a great combination.”
Bianca said, unpacking a blanket like she wasn’t just inserting herself into my house.
“WHAT?”
I shouted, maybe a little too loud.
“Is there a problem?I thought you wanted me looking out for you, this is me, doing that.”
She said looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. You’ve got to understand, those eyes coming from someone like Bianca, glowing or otherwise, well you just can’t say no to that. When it’s Bianca you really can’t say no. She can just take that option away in an instant but again she didn’t for me, it was still my choice.
“I.. sure but you can have my bed. We’ll get everything set up once we get back from the Roost. You did tell Frank and Stein about this right?”
I gave in, deciding to let her stay.
“I’m a big girl, they doin’t need to know everything I do, and… thanks”
“It’s alright, just let me know next time you’re going to pull something like this ok?”
I added, equal parts excited to actually have someone to talk to besides myself in my own home, and worried what Frank and Stein might think was going on here. I put those thoughts out of my head for the moment as we got back on the bikes.
It was about 3 by the time we made it to Tuck’s bar after the delay Bianca had caused by moving herself out before we left. Just as I expected the sign said closed but the door was unlocked. The bar looked exactly the same as the last time I was there. Stone fireplace roaring and pristine wooden floor looking like it had been polished just this morning. Tuck was sitting behind the bar looking worse for wear. The look on his face said he knew we were coming and he wasn’t to thrilled about it.
“Does he know?”
Tuck asked pointedly, looking straight through me and speaking to Bianca.
“About me or you, because the answer is both of us.”
Tuck shook his head at this and a grim look came over him.
“Ya shouldn’t have pulled him into this.”
“Actually I pulled her into it if anything, going out there was my idea. I’ve got a mark like Robert’s, its actually what brought me to town in the first place.”
I said, hoping my honesty would get the same out of Tuck.
“So that bird called ya out here somehow?”
“More or less, but that’s not what I’m here about. I want to know why exactly you followed us out there yesterday.”
Tuck sighed and gestured to the seats at the bar, beckoning Bianca and I to take a seat.
“When Robert chased ya out the other night some of his friends came by. They all got that mark like him, they were sayin’ something about the thunderbird makin’ an appearance back at the old mine. I wanted to see for myself and make sure they were wrong. I found those bikes and ended up followin’ the trail. By the time I got there some guys were poking around that hole in the wall and a storm had kicked up. I saw them cut that rope and figured they weren’t doin’ no good. I… changed and dealt with them then forced my way into the old mine entrance, the rest ya already know cause I ran into ya not long after.”
This story made more sense to me, Tuck never came out there to find me, I just so happened to be out there. Those boulders I thought were moved had been, by Tuck which made me question just how strong he was. Each of those huge things had to weigh tons and there were three strewn about the entrance.
“Ok that makes more sense than what you told me, but what were you hoping to accomplish up there. If you ran into the thunderbird what would you have done?”
“I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t really up there again but the storm seemed to say otherwise. No storm like that just pops up and goes away, the bird had to be involved with that.”
“Actually she was there, just not as some huge bird. She was down in the caves with us but she looked human, native American to be more precise. That’s how I met her when I got marked and now she’s holding some kind of trial out in those mines.”
“You met the thunderbird, its a person? What does she want with this place now.”
Tuck said his demeanor changing into one full of concern. I didn’t know what else to say cause at the moment I didn’t actually know much more than that. It’s infuriating, this being in the dark thing. I just settled for dodging the question.
“Not to change the topic but are we to early to grab a bite to eat?”
I wish I had a camera handy because the face Tuck made at that whiplash change of topics was priceless. I can’t properly do it justice with words. Suffice it to say one of his eyebrows hit the ceiling while the other hit the floor and a violently confused expression plastered his face.
“Sure I guess, what do the two of ya want!”
Tuck exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air and walking back behind the counter. I ended up ordering some fried chicken sandwich with bacon and pickles, and as I took the first bite my risk of heart attack increased ten fold. Bianca ordered the same thing and was pecking at it inquisitively when I asked,
“So what’s the story with Rocco?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean why, why did Frank and Stein make him in the first place?”
I asked through a mouthful of greasy goodness.
“Well I think it started out as a joke, then Stein actually wanted an assistant and that joke became Rocco. They worked on him for a while, pretty much they took a random raccoon off the street and played around in its head. I know there was some gene splicing involved but if you want to know how they did it ask them.”
“So he was supposed to be an assistant in the lab? I think I’ve seen him doing one thing to help them out this whole time and he was poking through a back alley for old batteries.”
“Yeah, he’s not a great assistant, must be good enough though cause they haven’t tossed him out.”
“Are you kidding me! If they tossed him out he be so much worse! Just think, Rocco left to his own devices without any supervision.”
Both of us shuddered at the thought, if he was bad now he’d be a menace to society without the little control we had over him.
Bianca and I ate and eventually Tuck came out and I told him my story about Imalone. He seemed really concerned at the fact that the thunderbird could be walking around town and he wouldn’t know about it. I assured him that Shaoni was really hard to miss if you just looked at the eyes. It wasn’t like she looked any different either, no matter what she was wearing those tattoos would be a dead giveaway. Tuck assured me he was going to keep an eye out and gave me his number to call if I saw her. I don’t want to talk down on Bianca, but something about having a werewolf looking out for me as well was reassuring. Tuck told us a bit about what he was doing with Frank and Stein too. Apparently he contracted his “disease” as he called it long before he came to work in Eagles Peak. He was originally from Louisiana and moved to New York for a change of scenery and ended up getting a job in the mines here around 1940. I should also mention Tuck ages very slowly due to his “disease” so he looks like he’s in his 50’s or so but he was born in 1900. To his credit you’d never know he was anything other than your friendly middle aged bartender.
Bianca and I were getting ready to leave as it came time to open the bar for real. When Tuck offered us a round of drinks on the house.
“No, no that’s alright Tuck, you’ve done enough for us we’ll see you later.”
Bianca politely declined, pulling me towards the door. After I said my goodbyes and we had gotten back to the bikes I asked Bianca,
“Do you not drink? I’m not judging just… when Tuck offered you seemed kind of jumpy.”
“I just never have, I was kind of bouncing around the country when I turned 21 so I just never started.”
“So your telling me you never had your first drink? Well, we have to fix that then.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, its like a right of passage where I’m from. We’ll pick up a six pack or something on the way back but we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”
I said, trying to convince her. I’m not a huge drinker but I am from Wisconsin, alcohol is a way of life out there and we’re know for our beer. In my family turning 21 and having your first drink is cause to bring the whole family together. I couldn’t do that for her but I could at least give her the experience, maybe give her just one more good thing to remember.
Bianca agreed and we pulled into the Save-A-Lot just outside town. The building was painted white bit it was slowly peeling away revealing a concrete grey underneath. The big glowing sign was missing a few letters now simply reading Sav- -Lo. Despite its decaying state it still had the classic beer cave inside. I took a second to look for something from Wisconsin, call me a snob but we do beer right. I settled on a 12 pack of Leinenkugel, that was close enough to home for me. Bianca trailed behind me in the store, a bit like a scared cat looking for a place to hide. Obviously she didn’t get out much and having people she didn’t really know much about was stressing her out somewhat. We got to the checkout and an older cashier eyed my suspiciously.
“Can I see an ID”
She croaked in a hoarse smokey voice. Now I don’t always look my age but I’m 28 there was no reason to try and ID me. That didn’t really bother me so much as the fact that my wallet was still at home. I’ve been spending the cash Bianca gave me back when I watched her house and I just keep that in my pocket. I also have a bad habit of only brining my wallet when I knew I would need it instead of carrying it on me. Regardless I started to sweat a little as I tried to explain the situation.
“You see I would but I left mine at home and I’m not sure if…”
I was cut off by Bianca reaching out and brushing the cashier’s hand Then looking her straight in the eye. I knew exactly what she was doing.
“Look we don’t have an ID for you right now can you just take it on faith?”
“I understand sweetie, here why don’t I cover it for you, my treat.”
The cashier said, turning a complete 180 on her previous question. I looked from Bianca to the old woman a few times before Bianca finally shrugged.
“What?”
I wondered if it was that easy for her to change my mind back when she manipulated me into watching the house.
“So she just payed for it?”
I asked Bianca as we walked back to the bikes.
“That was her, not that I couldn’t make her do that. As far as I can work out, if I suggest something people tend to do it. Over the years I learned how to control that to the point where I’m only able to do it when I want to. Frank said it has something to do with pheromones in my breath or something like that.”
Bianca explained, hoping onto her bike and keeping pace with me back towards my house. I didn’t ask for an explanation but she gave it. I’m not really sure pheromones were something that could have that profound of an effect on someone but I’d just add it to the list of questions I’d have to ask Frank or Stein at some point.
“Still it was a bit weird seeing it from the outside. Was I that easy to convince before?”
Bianca got a mischievous look in her eye.
“Oh, you were so much easier, I barley needed to try. Just flip my hair and flutter my eyes a few times and that was that.”
She said, smiling devilishly at me. I blushed a little bit, partly because that’s probably all it would’ve taken from someone who looked like her and partly because I was embarrassed that she might not just be poking fun at me.
“No you definitely did something to me, I lost like 6 hours in your kitchen! That was you right…right?!”
I asked a little nervous. Bianca just laughed and pedaled off ahead of me. She did not put my mind at ease with any sort of answer but she did beat me back to the house.
When I got in She was sitting on the couch sorting through a pile of movies she pulled out of her duffle bag. She really had just thrown the entire contents of her room into a bag and brought them over. Bianca seemed to settle on a movie before she realized I’d walked in.
“So you like horror?”
I said, gesturing to the same movies I’d seen lying out earlier when I watched her house.
“Yeah, I just like seeing how people think all these things act. Like Tuck, werewolves are always looked at as these big imposing things in movies but he’s a puppy in comparison.”
“The guy looks like he could tear me apart down the middle with his bare hands buuuut, I see your point.”
Thinking back to every interaction I’d had with the guy so far, he never really was as scary as he looked. I sat down on the couch, dropping the case of beer on the coffee table.
“So, have you picked out a movie yet?”
To which Bianca closed her eyes and poked at a random movie in the pile. “Dog Soldiers”, it was called, actually I think I’ve heard of that movie before. One of those its so bad its entertaining things. I popped the movie into my DVD player and sat back, handing Bianca a beer.
“ Is this how normal people feel?”
She asked as the movie started.
“Depends on what you mean by normal, even then I’m not sure that’s the question I’d be asking. Maybe you just finally have a chance to relax after years of never being able to.”
“Oh sure, I’ll just relax now that I know we have the actual thunderbird looking to force you into some kind of trial.”
Bianca joked sarcastically before suddenly softening and taking a sip of her beer.
“Uggg that’s bitter… but not bad. Maybe your onto something Kieth.”
I don’t remember much from the movie. One scene stuck with me, a guy trying to fist fight a werewolf. It was already campy but the effects on the werewolf were just dated enough to make it that much funnier. Bianca and I couldn’t help but to Imagine Tuck as the werewolf, bewildered as to why this scrawny thing thought it could fight him. At some point the beer ran out, Bianca and I making it through the whole case. I remember getting up to go to my own room and Bianca pulling me back. What I didn’t remember though was letting Shaoni into my house. I was woken up by a tap on my shoulder, coming face to face with her. Shaoni’s hand was on one shoulder and Bianca’s head was on the other. At some point we both feel asleep on the couch together, the TV was still on, illuminating the dark room.
“Well well, I wasn’t expecting you to have guests Keith.”
Shaoni mocked, clicking her tongue at me as she finished. She wore the same white night dress I’d seen her in before. Something in the house was open, a window, a door? I didn’t know but the smells of an autumn rainstorm blew into the house, a storm no doubt caused by Shaoni.
“I… its not what it looks like.”
I stammered out, embarrassed to be caught like this.
“I don’t care what you get up to in your free time Keith. I just came to tell you I’ll expect you at the mine tomorrow, The trials will be starting soon and I want everyone who will be participating to meet each other, you will be participating, won’t you Keith?”
She asked like it was a question but it really wasn’t, wether I liked it or not I was going to be there, I could come willingly or kicking and screaming. She was simply asking which I wanted it to be.
“When do you want me there?”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I’ll send someone to collect you around noon.”
With that she turned to walk away, but I wasn’t done with her yet.
“Wait! What exactly are these trials, what am I going to be doing out there?”
“That would spoil the surprise Keith, be patient, you’ll know in time. That pretty little thing there, her name wouldn’t happen to be Bianca, would it?”
Shaoni asked, pointing at Bianca who was still asleep on my shoulder.
“How did you know that?”
I shot back, immediately jumping to Bianca’s defense. I hadn’t known her all that long true, but I didn’t want her any closer to this than she had to be.
“Oh no reason.”
Shaoni said with a snicker that sounded more like a hiss. With that she disappeared, and I mean she was just gone. One minute she was there the next there was a gust of wind and a brief flash of light and she was gone. The disruption was enough to wake Bianca up finally.
“Ugh, head..still…spinning.”
“Heh, I think you overdid it a bit last night.”
“Ugh maybe.”
She said, holding her head that still rested on my shoulder.
“What’s going on anyway, why’d you wake me up.”
“It’s just… well things are moving a bit faster than I hoped.”
I said, trying to reassure her that it was nothing, most likely failing miserably but she didn’t seem to notice. There was a second there that I thought maybe things could just be normal. This whole thing would just blow over and Shaoni would never come back and get me for these “trials” but I always knew it was wishful thinking. Now Bianca was a part of it to somehow, that had made up my mind. She’d been through enough, now Shaoni seemed interested in her all of a sudden. If putting myself through these trials kept her away from Bianca that’s exactly what I’d do.

I'm a float pool nurse, have been for almost a year now. I was a float pool CNA for 3 years so it just made sense to stay with my same manager (who I absolutely love) and I was already familiar with all the floors. Plus, the making my own schedule and extra hourly incentive (Plus I'm overnight, so as a new grad making that, was hard to pass up).
It was great during orientation! Loved it. My first week off orientation they made the decision that float at this specific hospital would start floating also to their sister hospital, it's over an hour away from my house and an awful hospital. The ratios are 1 to 7-8, I wish I was joking, of patients ranging from Medsurg level of care to IMC. My manager assured us we would only be going there once a blue moon because they were so well staffed.... should have known better. I've been sent there every shift for the last 12 weeks.
I'm feeling so burnt out and defeated. I love the job, I absolutely love when I'm at my "home" hospital, but it's looking like that's a thing of the past since I guess there has been a staffing shift and now my "home" hospital is staffed and the other bad hospital had 50% travelers who they didn't extend for whatever reason. I regularly have 7 patients that are high acuity, I have rapids back to back all the time, I can't give proper care, I constantly get the WORST assignment because I'm a float nurse, I work nights so the support is slim.
Now last shift I guess the floor I was on audited my charting and saw I didn't do all my hourly rounds and forgot to do one pain assessment. I understand this charting is important and vital, but with 7 patients, no aid, 3 CBIs, 1PD, all ACHS, 4 with extreme agitation and sundowning... yes I did forget to do a few hourlys, and now I'm beating myself up. My manager didn't seem happy in the email she sent me, saying I should be an "expert" on charting by now. I just am feeling super low right now. And now I'm also terrified, like am I going to get in a lot of trouble for this, did I do something wrong to warrant the audit (I don't think so, I've never had any other complaints or variances this is the first discussion I've ever had). I'm like should I reach out to that manager for that floor and apologize? Idk.
Any other float pool nurses on here? How do you survive? I love the float pool overall when I'm at my home base. Yes I've talked to management. I even tried days out to see if I liked it better.
I signed a 2 year contract to agree they would pay 40k of my student loans, if I leave before the 2 years I have to pay it back so I'm definitely sticking it out until August 2025. But man it's hard and I'm just feeling super low. I dread work every day because I know I'm gonna go to that hospital over an hour away and get the absolute worst assignment.
Really just venting, so thank you for your time. But if anyone has any words of encouragement I greatly appreciate it.

28 - The Fountain Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 1000 CP 1000 (Base)

Jump Details

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

Jump Duration

Years: 10 Months: 0 Days: 0

Perks

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

Items Stipend: [+200/600 CP]

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

28A - Biosphere Supplement Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 800 CP 800 (Base)

Jump Details

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

Items

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

My normal posts are 2-5 paragraphs. This is long because it's a starter.
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The sloping ground around the Kiaurk family mesa had been sculpted into shelves or terraces, and it was on one of those upper terraces that Kiaurk Nshurr now lounged beneath a pergola anchored to the striated stone face behind her. The mesa rose at her back: an enormous, looming, almost sheer outcrop that her family's dwellings had been carved into the face of. Wide, shallow steps cut into the artificial (but entirely convincing) sandstone wound their way up between landings and porticos leading inward, between tiny balconies shaded by bright solid-colored canopies, between rooms with flat walls and rounded corners that came jutting out to shadow the steps below. Rriigkhans rarely used glass as window barriers; smooth-edged holes had been cut through the rock in varying shapes and sizes. It could be difficult to tell which apertures were windows and which were entryways. A physical barrier that kept out the elements was obsolete in all but the crudest dwellings, though some of these larger holes were curtained with braided string or strips of cloth that served a purely decorative purpose.
From her high vantage point Nshurr could see the shelves stretching out below her as the base of the mesa leveled out to flattish terrain that was a wonderland of vegetation in muted rainbow colors: mustard yellows, clay reds, earthy browns and the occasional dash of sage or dusty blue. This scrubland lay like a blanket around everything below that was not part of the village between the mesas. Down there, adobe compounds never taller than two or three storeys seemed so squat compared to the mesas that Nshurr could see towering in the distance, many of those family mesas only a few hours walk from her own if she traveled by foot. The village sprawled, with tile parkways winding in serpentine fashion between the various buildings, courtyards, parks, and ponds. There were no property lines, no clear division of the land into neat little plots owned by the individuals who lived and worked in these places. It all seemed to be part of a whole, with a single unifying aesthetic. The village housed those rriigkhans of the lower castes, the kharratah and chelhautah, and the humans which were a caste all their own, haukagh-ar, except for a small number who lived with their employers in the caverns of the mesas or up on the plateau.
This planet, Sgarrl, terraformed over three hundred years ago, was home to more humans than any other Ssaarian world – aside from Earth, of course, discovered eighty years ago. The fact that humans shared so much in common with rriigkhans made them the perfect species to incorporate into the rriigkhan caste structure. They breathed the same mix of gases and required similar gravities, and their nimble little fingers were very useful for all sorts of work.
Still, despite the weird pidgin humans had made of her language and their English, she liked the little creatures. She had come to live with her Grandmother on Sgarrl only a month ago, and had never encountered them before. The males only stood as tall as her collar. The females were shorter still, much like the males of her own species.
To human eyes Nshurr was , with a muscular swimmer's body and the broad muzzle of a big cat, with watchful, forward-facing predator's eyes that seemed unexpectedly expressive, because rriikghans had almost as many muscles around their eyes as humans did around their mouths to convey the nuances of emotion. Despite being larger than even many Earth men, she was considered sleek by rriigkhan standards. She made up for that with her broader crest.
The rriigkhan crest was something like the crest of Utahceratops – a keratinized plate growing up out of the skull, except divided into three lobes instead of two, with scalloped edges along the outer rim. Unlike depictions of Utahceratops, the rriigkhan crest was not covered by skin. At least, not on the top. Thick ropy veins squiggled under velvet fur on the underside, closer to the neck. (A thick, arching neck muscular enough to support the weight of that crest meant that Rriigkhans walked with a stoop that made them seem hunchbacked, to humans.) The surface of the plate on top was often rough, even bumpy or corrugated like deer antlers in some areas, smooth in others. Every female crest had four tines jutting from the front – a pair several inches above the eyes, and another pair further up.
Nshurr's crest was wider than average, her upper tines spaced further apart, and combined with a compact face this made her look top-heavy. (A human might say that she was more snow leopard than lion.) Most female crests did not interfere with the movement of the ears – highly mobile, highly expressive paddle shaped things – but the edges of Nshurr's crest did jut out enough to almost shield them.
That her crest was weighty, that it was inconvenient, that she was often aware of it – this was Nshurr's pride. Her long tail curled happily when she caught males looking at it. Humans seemed to be intimidated by it sometimes, as if she might decide to stab them with her “horns.” She considered herself a confident person; not a braggart, but self-assured, and to carry her jhekaah so visibly pleased her to no end.
Her fur was an almost peachy off-white, but a mask of pale peach shaded each seafoam green eye. The mask blended into the white further up her forehead until fur gave way to bone-tan crest, and was split between her eyes by the white of her nose. Oblong spots in that same peachy color, each blending from dark to light, streaked down her sides.
These weren't the natural colors of her distant ancestors. It was unheard of to see a rriigkhan who was not gene-modified in some way, even if those modded genes had been part of rriigkhan life for so long that no one thought of them as mods any longer. She also thought nothing of the subtitles her augmented reality implant displayed whenever a human spoke, AI translated to help her decipher the pidgin. AR was simply a part of her, had been since she was a kit.
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OOC Information:
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For this particular prompt I imagine you'd play a human, probably a new arrival to Sgarrl but maybe someone who was born there. Even though I've set up a situation where my character would have a lot of power and yours very little, I want to clarify that I'm only looking for a mutually loving, slow burn romance.
My “type” that I'd like you to play would be an average man in the 40-60 age range, with realistic personality flaws.
I prefer partners who like to reply more than once a day. 2-3 replies per day would be ideal, but I understand life gets in the way. I usually write 2-5 paragraphs, or 150-450 words per post. This starter is much longer than my typical post length, but my lengths really vary a lot. If I'm introducing a new character or scene, my post might be 1,000 words, or it could be 100 words if our characters are in the middle of a conversation.
Please send a writing sample if you have none in your post history. No need to custom write anything for me, old samples are fine.