I live in a decent neighborhood. Our neighbor’s backyard is clearly visible from our backyard deck and upstairs room. Mother and son have allowed homeless white trash kinds of people live in their backyard in a shed and makeshift tents. For months we’ve complained to community compliance and police who just give us the run around. Tonight fire department came to put out a trash fire. There’s been fights amongst the homeless men back there and police were told they couldn’t go in the backyard when they arrived. It smells like urine and feces from our yard and our other good neighbor’s yard. They’ve reported human feces and toilet paper thrown in their yard with no repercussions. Anyone know if there is ANYTHING ELSE we can do?

I had an idea for an eldritch blast build that uses a ton of self-healing in order to use Vital Sacrifice feat's blood boon as often as possible, adding the 2d6 necrotic damage on top of their hexed eldritch blast.
In terms of healing, Celestial warlock get's a pool of d6 equal to their warlock level + 1. As a bonus action, they can a number of them up to their charisma modifier and restore that much health to any creature within 60 ft. As a bonus action, this competes with both Hex & Vital Sacrifice, but as long as we have a blood boon going in to combat, we can cast hex the first round, use vital sacrifice for 2-3 rounds, and then Healing Light every 3rd or 4th round to pick us back up.
Pact of the Chain has Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which makes it so any dice rolled to heal our warlock count as having rolled their max so long as the familiar is within one hundred feat. This is huge, as an imp familiar can just turn invisible and do nothing, and we get double the average hp from dice effects.
Race doesn't seem to matter much, but Dhampir seems thematically appropriate, plus they can get some healing through their bite, and spider climb will help gain vantage points for blasting from. The bite doesn't get buffed by Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, since the die is determining damage and the damage restores an equal amount of hit points.

• I'll not that variant human and custom lineage would give you a free feat so that you can have the 2 feats that feed this build by level 4, but if your DM allows starter feats, I'd go with the more flavorful option.

The Remarkable Recovery feat also makes it so when we regain health due to a spell, potion, or class feature, we regain an additional number of hit points equal to our constitution modifier.

• This means that a single die from Healing Light will restore 6 + our constitution modifier every time we use it, which keeps up with 2-3 uses of Vital Sacrifice.
• Hit Dice are a class feature, so when you expend one, you regain 8 + twice our constitution modifier hit points, which is now twice the average hp restored by a hit die.
• It doesn't buff the bite attack, since it's not a spell, potion, or class feature.

Periapt of Wound Closure is an uncommon item, that makes it so that when you expend a hit die to regain health, you double the number of hit points it restores. This is a bit fuzzy, because if remarkable recovery's extra hit points are considered from the feat in response to using the hit die, you regain hp equal to 16 + three times your constitution modifier. However, if remarkable recovery is considered to increase the number of hp the hit die restores, you regain 16 + four times your constitution modifier hp.
And finally, Periapt of Wound Closure stabilizes you whenever you are dying at the start of your turn. Remarkable recovery heals you a number of hp equal to your constitution modifier whenever you are stabilized. So combined, whenever you start your turn dying, you wake up with a small handful of hp. This can go off every round of the whole damn day as long as nothing manages to kill you outright by hitting you twice or exceeding your hp max.
If you felt like it, you could use a Doublet of Dramatic Demise, a common magic item which makes it so instead of falling unconscious at zero hp, you are incapacitated with a speed of 0. The draw back is that nat 1s on a death save are instant death, but with the Periapt of Wound Closure & Remarkable Recovery combo, you never roll death saves for this to be a problem. You don't gain much from this, but it does mean that enemies don't have advantage to hit you from being unconscious, and if they do hit you, it's not automatically a crit, so it's only 1 failed save.
At this point, we only technically need 3 levels of warlock. A 4th makes getting a feat for the build faster, but if you're starting at a higher level that might not be an issue.
More warlock levels also means more healing dice from Healing Light, but apart from that, warlock doesn't seem like it stands to give anything to help much with the build. Level 6 gives you resistance to radiant damage, and lets you add your charisma modifier to one damage roll against one target of a spell you cast that deals radiant or fire damage, but to be honest you aren't casting many of those.
Level 10 gives you a slightly worse version of inspiring leader.
Your level 14 feature might not even work with Periapt of Wound Closure on, since it's triggered when you need to make a death saving throw at the start of your turn. It's effect it better than periapt, but it's once per long rest so choosing between the two still seems to favor the periapt.

Do you have a group of friends who want to play D&D but no DM? Want to explore a setting that has been built and ironed out with passion throughout the years? Want to engage in a story that has your characters as an integral part of it all? Well then. I may be able to answer your prayers. Read below and I hope that I may have caught your eye enough to give me the chance.
Hello, I'm back again. After trying to form a group from strangers. I decided to save myself the trouble and look for an already established group of friends to DM for a new campaign set in my homebrew world. It's a dark fantasy setting inspired heavily by FromSoftware's various titles (mostly Dark Souls and Bloodborne), ASOIAF, Pillars of Eternity, and of course LoTR.
The Premise
"A wall of darkness had taken the horizon. An abysmal maw stretching into nothingness. Before it, blanketed by unyielding clouds of black, laid a land unrecognizable. The sun’s arrows only pierced as far as perhaps a mile, but it was enough to glimpse the scale of death that had taken hold of Aryleit’s Valley. The color of the endless rows of orchids and daisies, the gentle river that followed the road, the small humble cottages that dotted the landscape. It was all gone. There was no river, no color, no life. Only a broken land of ashes. Like a great fire had raged through. Killing everything."
A disaster, unlike anything ever seen before, struck the eastern lands of Quandra two months ago. First as an earthquake, then as a shadow. Black clouds now occupy hundreds of miles of land and everything underneath it devoid of color and life. There is only speculation about what may have caused it, but the most common rumor is it was the work of magic. Specifically by the hands of the mages of the Ardelyn Academy. Whose great city too lies in the maw of the Eternal Night. Fear around magic has grown significantly. Many believing that its use may trigger another disaster or grow the Eternal Night.
It seems that Ishax may be heading to a dark age. War looms on the horizon as kingdoms lie in wait as vultures to feed upon the wound Quandra suffered. Words of tongueless corpses of elven nobles have grown. A new Rite of Kings ready to commence as Ardentent waits for their king to die. The civil war in Lidym reaching its peak of brutality as the fighting grows. But have they noticed what lurks in the shadows?
What I'm Looking For...

1. Have at least 3 people in your group. Up to a total of 6.
2. Everyone be at least 18 years of age or older.
3. All experience levels are welcomed! Whether everyone is completely new, hard-boiled veterans, or a mixed bag of both.
4. While I may not have to worry about people being disrespectful towards each other (assuming ya are good friends). I would like to DM for a group that is free of any homophobia, racism, etc. None of that edge lord shit please.
5. Players that are eager to engage the world and dive into the story elements of a campaign as well as the stories of the other player characters. The ratio is something about 80-20 Story to Combat. I do try not to neglect combat, but I also do not like throwing it in for the sake of filling a quota.

About Myself

• Worldbuilding is by far my favorite hobby, So much so that I have learned music and 3D software to help add to the world. It is my favorite aspect of fantasy. Only thing I love more than that is collaborative worldbuilding and I have found D&D to be the perfect place for it.
• Communication! I am always happy to answer any questions you may have or clear things up. Not only that but also happy to chat about anything else. If I feel there are issues arising then I won't be afraid to point it out. Only thing that has killed more games than scheduling is a lack of communication.
• Open to Criticism. I know my DMing may not be perfect and I might forget rules here and there, but it is my hope that people reach out to me about any issues. I will never take offense nor hold it against you. It is a game first and all. Maybe you didn't like a ruling or feel I did something unfair. Please let me know and we can discuss it. I do not want grievances to develop due to the lack of communication.

About The Game

• While it is a dark fantasy setting showcasing the horrors of a grim world. All forms of sexual violence are not included in the setting nor permitted. Any other topics you would like me to avoid can be written in the RPG Consent Checklist I have players take before we begin the first session.
• Time: Saturdays/Sundays 7am PST every week. Time is negotiable, but due to my work schedule it will have to be early in the day for me.
• We will be using Discord for voice. Roll20 for the VTT. Talespire for combat encounters (no need to purchase. I simply screenshare it on discord.)
• No Homebrew races. I am open to looking at classes and magic items, but take it with a grain of salt.
• Character Grace Period: The grace period is something I like to throw in my games. Which is basically for the first 3 sessions (5 if new players are included). I will allow players to change ANYTHING about their character. Class, race, whatever. I do this because I believe players may gain a better understanding of the setting in this time and might want to switch to something more fitting.
• No Joke Characters. I'm completely fine with goofing around, but Billy The Toenail Rogue is not a good fit for the world.
• Starting at Level 1 or 3. Depending on the makeup of the group. If there are players who never played before. It's best to begin at level 1 and move up quickly so they can gather the experience.
• Milestone Leveling.
• NO PVP!

Is This Campaign Right For You?

• RP/Narrative Heavy/Political Intrigue. You will find that I do skew a bit more towards the story side of dnd, but that is not to say combat is neglected. I just tend to do combat encounters when it makes sense narratively other than to fit a quota. That's also to say I'm not going to just let 7 sessions go by without a fight.
• Player Agency! It is vital that the players feel like their choices are actually affecting the world around them. I do so by placing a lot of importance on player characters and their backstories. Whether you write a paragraph or a novel. Be sure that I will be using it all to wove it into the grand schemes of the story. The world reacts to you as much as you react to it. I shape the campaign to your characters!
• Living and Breathing World! Worldbuilding is something I'm very passionate about and this world is something I have been fleshing out and changing for years. I very much enjoy making it feel like a real and living world to the players. I also encourage players to add to it as well. If there's something I love as much as worldbuilding. It's collaborate worldbuilding. Events in the world are not paused. Waiting for you to arrive.
• Long Term Campaign! Due to the nature of the story and everything I have planned. This campaign can last a while. During this time. You could see your characters grow to become heroes hailed in every corner of the world as you travel from place to place.

Setting Guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13euGqDwPuMcO6qxI9MVD-UF5hUb8bKhview?usp=sharing
Again forgive me for the walls of text. Feel free to skim through it to get an idea of what the world is like. I'm always open to answer any questions regarding the setting.
Apply here!: https://forms.gle/ydmvavr29jRyUy9A6

Y'know what I'm saying? Just say "fuck you" to the city and leave it all behind? Just go far, far away into the woods and live happily-ever-after?
I'd love to grow my own fruits and vegetables, learn to can, raise my own livestock, have a garden roof over my head with my herbs growing in the kitchen, spend my nights drinking crafted beverages and gazing at the stars by the fire. Having my own water wheel, having deer and birds for neighbors, waking up to the sounds of the creek washing over rocks, and cooking my dinner over a wooden fire.
I could invite my family over for a nice, clean, homemade meal while my brothers and their children explore my property, gazing at the ecosystem and watching life flourish. I could have my own eggs, I could have my own cheese, I could have my own bread, I could have my own butter, and the best part? I'd know what the hell is in my food!
Oh, and I can grow my own tea! Green tea, oolong, lavender, so many. I could have some chickens, some pigs, some cows, maybe some sheep. I could grow carrots, corn, peas, broccoli, and so on. I could grow peaches, apples, blueberries, strawberries, the works! I could learn to can and provide canned goods to the homeless! I could give freshly made, piping hot garden soup from farm to table, I could feed the misfortunate homecooked meals with freshly baked rolls! I could do so much!
Oh... to have a life like that. I could finally achieve happiness. Maybe my way out is the woods.

First of all, I'm very sorry for deleting the previous post I simply was made aware I posted it based on my speculation. Now to the topic.
Like I said, the question is, do Transylians look like they do to vladats? In my opinion, it is possible, given the evidence:
First of all, let's consider that all Transylians look like zombies (scar skin, etc.), and the evidence allows us to assume that they really are.
1: They are resistant to cold, lack of oxygen, heat, or high voltage, they are also stronger and more resistant than humans. All these powers indicate that they do not have to be living creatures, as corpses are much more resistant to most of these factors. Add to it Transylians are not people, it can be assumed that their physical attributes are slightly different from ours, so their corpses may also behave differently than humans (rot slower, be more resistant, etc.)
2) Among the transylians seen in the Galactic monster arc, at least I didn't detect any newborns, only one small girl. If Transylians are zombies, then Zombies lose 100% of their reproductive abilities, therefore they cannot have children
3) Dr. Victor is a genius, and his knowledge is many times higher than that of humans. As we know, people only have as much knowledge in their lives as they can accumulate during their lifetime minus the period when they are too young to learn. Transylians, on the other hand, are a race with intelligence close to primitive humans (fear of fire, etc.) Ergo, to achieve his level of knowledge, Dr. Victor had to live long enough... put it simply to be long-lived like a zombie.
The question is how they became these zombies.
Now let's note that Transylians generate electricity through a symbiotic relationship with nanomachines and Tesla coils on their backs. Such a symbiosis is probably impossible to achieve naturally, so someone had to initiate it, but who and why? And this is where vladats comes in.
Note that this race feeds on energy and is known to be a predator of the Transylians, as Dr. Victor talked about it this way:
Lord Transyl and other Vladats used my people as slaves. We were nothing more than beasts of burden, and ultimately we were food!
Also, as the Ben 10 wiki notes:
Vladats are arrogant, cruel, and both literally and figuratively bloodthirsty. They consider other creatures to be inferior. To them, other creatures are only useful as slaves and/or food. They have an overwhelming urge to feed on the energy of their preys.
This means that here we have a cruel, energy-hungry race that sees others as food or slaves.
There is a well-known case in the history of mankind when people similarly treated people, and this cruelty always included various inhuman experiments. Now let's think what could such people do if they had better technology?
Exactly, most likely something indescribably cruel, so could Vladats have done the same? Well, their behavior and what Dr. said. victor points it out as possibility.
So how could it be?
In my opinion, the Transylians were not Vladat's first victims, but one of the next. The Vladat conquered other races and used them as a source of energy until they ran out of energy and then they switch to another. (In this way, Ormeowon could be born i.e. a race of zombies, because as we know from the Ben 10 Wiki, Vladat victims look like Michael Morningstar's victims, ergo zombies) However, this system was ineffective for them, because firstly, it forced frequent changes of feeding grounds, and secondly, it could cause an interplanetary rebellion. Therefore, to avoid such a scenario, they chose a stupid race that hardly anyone cared about... the Transylians and enslaved them. However, instead of eating immediately, they performed a cruel experiment on them... they connected them to nanotechnology, which turned their bodies into living batteries but also detached them from life. The Transylians became nothing more than an easy snack that, even if sucked dry, did not die, it was simply recharged. And everything was fine, but only until it turned out that now they couldn't die because the machinery kept them alive, and this terrified the other races of the anur system. Then probably the ectonurite race used this fear to overthrow the Transylians (ectonurites are not alive in the human sense, maybe they don't even generate energy like other races, ergo they wouldn't have to be afraid of the vladat turning them into batteries,and besides hates vladat guts, so could use it as opportunity), and became the new high ectonurites of the anur system. Meanwhile, the Transylians fell under the rule of new tyrants who had no intention of leaving them in eternal peace. They simply became zombie cyborgs, who life thanks to electricity current through their bodies, slowly rotting without chance of dying.
To summarize the current appearance of the Transylians, it may be the result of Vladat's attempt to obtain eternal food, but ended up in terrible mistake that created race of undead cyborgs.
And that's all from me,so what do you think?

Ok. i think we are done here. Could you write me another signs of high-tech low-life society?

Absolutely! Here are some signs of a high-tech, low-life society:
Ubiquitous Technology, Crumbling Infrastructure:

• Glitching Skyscrapers: Imagine towering structures clad in malfunctioning holographic displays, projecting advertisements or flashing warnings over rusting metal frames.
• Smart Slums: Dilapidated housing blocks are retrofitted with basic smart tech – malfunctioning automated doors, flickering smart lights controlled by unreliable apps.
• Cybernetic Beggars: People with outdated or malfunctioning cybernetic limbs beg for credits to upgrade or repair them, creating a grotesque spectacle of technological dependence.

Extreme Social Inequality:

• Virtual Gated Communities: The wealthy live in luxurious virtual reality simulations, completely divorced from the harsh realities of the physical world.
• Data Black Markets: Personal information becomes a tradable commodity, with the poor selling their data scraps for a pittance to afford basic necessities.
• Cybernetic Caste System: The level of cybernetic augmentation determines social status. Those with outdated or malfunctioning implants are relegated to menial labor.

Technology as a Corrupting Force:

• Government by Algorithm: A corrupt AI dictates city policies, leading to impersonal and often harmful decisions based on cold calculations.
• Widespread Addiction to Virtual Reality: People escape the harsh realities of their lives through immersive VR experiences, neglecting their physical well-being and social connections.
• Black Market Biohacking: Desperate people turn to illegal biohacking to enhance their bodies, often with disastrous consequences.

Environmental Devastation:

• Tech Wastelands: Vast landscapes are littered with the discarded remains of outdated technology, creating toxic waste dumps and breeding grounds for disease.
• Weather Warfare: Nations use sophisticated technology to manipulate weather patterns, leading to devastating natural disasters for their enemies.
• Hacked Ecosystems: Corporations hack into natural ecosystems, manipulating flora and fauna for profit, leading to unpredictable and dangerous mutations.

This is just a glimpse into a high-tech, low-life society. These elements can be mixed and matched to create a truly dystopian world.

Picture some possible advertisements from such settings.

High-Tech, Low-Life Advertisements:

1. Holographic Billboard: (Flickers intermittently, distorting the image)

Product: "Neura-Calm 2.0" - Brain Implant
Slogan: "Tired of the glitches in your head? Neura-Calm 2.0 smooths out your neural network for a worry-free, low-lag existence! (Side effects may include memory loss, emotional numbness, and occasional involuntary twitching.)"

1. Grungy Neon Sign in a Seedy Back Alley:

Product: "Doc Chrome's Cybernetic Enhancements"
Slogan: "Get that edge you need! From basic strength mods to full black-market military enhancements, Doc Chrome has you covered! (Used parts, buyer beware.)"

1. Pop-Up Ad on a Cracked Mobile Screen:

Product: "Elysium VR Escape Pod"
Slogan: "Can't afford real estate in the Sky City? Escape the slums for Elysium VR! Live your wildest dreams in a pristine virtual world! (Free trial, monthly subscription required, real-world consequences for in-pod violence.)"

1. Stenciled Graffiti on a Rusting Service Drone:

Product: "Data Scrappers Anonymous"
Slogan: "Selling your personal data just to make rent? We can help you break free! Join our community and reclaim your digital identity! (Meetings held in abandoned ventilation shafts, Tuesdays at dusk.)"

1. Holographic Advertisement projected onto a Polluted River:

Product: "Eco-Scrub 5000" - Nanomachines
Slogan: "The river's looking a little…toxic? Eco-Scrub 5000 nanomachines clean up your local waterways! (May cause unforeseen mutations in aquatic life.)"

Another batch please.

1. Rusty Public Announcement Speaker: (Screeching static interspersed with the message)

Product: "Ministry of Order Approved Thought Regulators"
Slogan: "Unwanted thoughts causing glitches in your daily routine? The Ministry of Order approved Thought Regulator ensures a streamlined thought process for a more productive you! (May cause extreme conformity, inability to question authority, and spontaneous nosebleeds.)"

1. Faded Holographic Billboard on a Collapsing Skyscraper:

Product: "Luxury Chrome Plating Kit"
Slogan: "Ditch the rust! Chrome-plate your entire body for a sleek, metallic sheen. The mark of a true high-society citizen! (WARNING: Highly toxic fumes, may cause spontaneous combustion in humid environments.)"

1. Spam Email: (Subject: "YOU'VE BEEN CHOSEN!")

Product: "The Syndicate's Black Market Upgrade Lottery"
Body: "Congratulations! You've been randomly selected for a chance to win a top-of-the-line cybernetic upgrade! One lucky winner will receive military-grade night vision implants! Enter now! (Participation requires full biometric data submission. Winners responsible for extraction of previous, incompatible implants.)"

1. Glowing Neon Sign in a Crowded Marketplace:

Product: "Mama Chen's Guaranteed-Growth GMO Groceries"
Slogan: "Tired of expired rations and mystery meat? Mama Chen's GMO Groceries offer guaranteed growth on all fruits and vegetables! Bigger, faster, tastier! (Long-term effects unknown.)"

1. Audio Ad on a Glitching Radio Broadcast:

Product: "Rusty's Reliable Rocketship Repair"
Voiceover: (Gruff, heavily accented) "Is your escape pod sputtering? Did your joyride end in a fiery crash? Rusty's Reliable Rocketship Repair gets you back in the stars... eventually! (Guaranteed not to explode... again. Parts sourced from scrapyards. May contain rogue AIs.)"

Now craft ads that would be shown in high-society parts of cities.

High-Society Ads in a High-Tech, Low-Life World

1. Tranquil Holographic Projection in a Private Garden:

Product: "Serenity Spa - Neural Rebalancing Retreat"
Visual: A serene mountain landscape with a luxurious spa nestled amongst the clouds.
Slogan: "Escape the chaos. Reclaim your inner peace. Serenity Spa's exclusive neural rebalancing treatments restore harmony to your overloaded mind. (Limited availability, reservations required centuries in advance.)"

1. Discreet Text Message: (Delivered via secure, encrypted channel)

Product: "The Black Archive - Unrestricted Data Access"
Body: "Craving the forbidden? The Black Archive offers unparalleled access to censored historical records, banned media, and classified government information. Knowledge is power. (Extreme discretion guaranteed. One-time access fee, cryptocurrency only.)"

1. Exclusive Gala Invitation: (Delivered by hand-drones)

Event: "The Zenith Initiative - Unveiling the Next Generation of Cybernetic Enhancements"
Visual: A sleek, chrome figure with glowing blue cybernetic implants, striking a confident pose.
Details: "Mingle with the city's elite and witness the unveiling of cutting-edge cybernetic enhancements designed to redefine human potential. RSVP required. Black-tie attire mandatory. (Augmentations sold separately.)"

1. Curated Virtual Reality Experience: (Delivered on a high-security chip)

Product: "Elysium VR - Bespoke Worlds"
Description: "Escape the limitations of reality. Elysium VR crafts personalized virtual worlds tailored to your deepest desires. Explore a forgotten utopia, conquer a fantastical realm, or indulge in your wildest fantasies. (Customization fees apply. Memories created within VR may not be distinguishable from reality.)"

1. Whisper Network Rumor: (Spread through high-society gossip channels)

Product: "The Underground Clinic - Designer Gene Editing"
Details: "Unleash your child's full potential. The Underground Clinic offers discreet, top-secret gene editing to ensure your offspring possess the most desirable traits. (Designer genes come at a premium. Side effects may include unpredictable mutations and uncontrollable genius.)"
These ads cater to the specific desires of the high-society elite in a high-tech, low-life world. They offer exclusivity, forbidden knowledge, and the ability to transcend the limitations of the decaying world around them, all for a hefty price and with a hint of hidden danger.

Continue, try to make more serious ones.

Serious Ads in a High-Tech, Low-Life World (High-Society Edition)

1. Holographic Panel Discussion in a Luxurious Penthouse:

Product: "The Green Horizon Initiative - Sustainable Urban Development"
Panelists: Renowned architects, environmental scientists, and CEOs from leading green tech companies.
Discussion Points: Innovative solutions for vertical farming, self-contained eco-districts, and waste management technologies designed to create cleaner, more sustainable enclaves within the decaying city.
Slogan: "Investing in a greener future. The Green Horizon Initiative seeks to build sustainable havens within the chaos, ensuring a brighter tomorrow for generations to come." (Focuses on the long-term viability of the city and the importance of preserving resources for future generations.)

1. Documentary Screening in a Private Art Gallery:

Film: "Unveiling the Slums: A Call to Action"
Description: A powerful documentary exposing the harsh realities of the lower districts, highlighting the human cost of unchecked technological advancement and social inequality.
Post-Screening Discussion: Moderated by a renowned philanthropist alongside representatives from NGOs and social reform movements.
Call to Action: Donations to support educational programs, infrastructure upgrades, and basic necessities in the slums. (Highlights the societal problems and pushes for progressive change.)

1. Educational AR Program for Children:

Product: "The Knowledge Weavers - Immersive Historical Simulations"
Description: An augmented reality program that allows children to experience pivotal moments in history firsthand. Walk alongside historical figures, explore ancient civilizations, and learn valuable lessons from the past.
Focus: Educating the next generation about the dangers of unchecked technological advancement and the importance of social responsibility. (Promotes critical thinking and historical awareness as a means to prevent repeating past mistakes.)

1. Virtual Charity Gala:

Event: "The Code for Change Gala - Supporting Open-Source Solutions"
Description: A virtual reality charity gala featuring renowned artists, musicians, and thought leaders. Guests can donate to support open-source projects developing solutions for common problems in the city, such as energy distribution, waste management, and cybercrime prevention.
Focus: Harnessing the power of technology for social good and encouraging collaboration towards a more equitable future. (Promotes community engagement and utilizing technology to solve societal challenges.)

1. Architectural Award Ceremony:

Product: "The Salvaged City Awards - Recognizing Innovation in Urban Renewal"
Awarded to: Architects and engineers who have successfully repurposed existing infrastructure or implemented innovative solutions to revitalize decaying areas of the city.
Focus: Highlighting the importance of resourcefulness and creativity in adapting to a challenging environment. (Encourages using existing resources wisely and finding creative solutions to the problems of the decaying city.)

Another, but hiding an evil sinister twist.

Serious Ads with a Sinister Twist (High-Society Edition)

1. Holographic Charity Drive in a High-End Shopping Mall:

Product: "The Cradle Project - Investing in the Future"
Visual: Smiling, healthy children playing in a pristine, futuristic classroom.
Slogan: "Every child deserves a chance to thrive. The Cradle Project provides advanced genetic screening and early intervention to ensure the next generation reaches its full potential." (Twist: The Cradle Project uses genetic engineering to create a subservient, highly intelligent underclass.)

1. VR Documentary Premiere:

Film: "Harmony Through Integration - A Look at the Unified City"
Description: A seemingly heartwarming VR documentary showcasing the seamless integration of the lower districts into the high-society areas. People from all walks of life work and live together in perfect harmony.
Post-Screening Discussion: Moderated by a charismatic government official who emphasizes the importance of social cohesion and the benefits of centralized control. (Twist: The "integration" involves heavy surveillance, mind-altering technology, and the suppression of dissent.)

1. Exclusive Educational Program for Elites:

Product: "The Phoenix Initiative - Cultivating Tomorrow's Leaders"
Description: A prestigious educational program for children of the elite, offering advanced training in technology, governance, and crisis management. Graduates are promised positions of power within the city's ruling elite.
Focus: (Unstated) Conditioning the next generation to maintain the status quo and suppressing any ideas of social reform. (Twist: The program instills a ruthless, elitist ideology that reinforces the societal divisions.)

1. Virtual Reality Talent Show:

Event: "The Forge - Building the Perfect Citizen"
Description: A virtual reality talent show where contestants are judged on their physical and mental fitness, loyalty to the government, and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. Winners are rewarded with significant privileges and access to exclusive resources.
Focus: (Unstated) Promoting blind obedience and conformity to the government's agenda. (Twist: The "perfect citizen" is a mindless drone, easily manipulated and controlled by the ruling class.)

1. Architectural Award Ceremony (Twisted Edition):

Product: "The Order Award - Recognizing Compliance in Urban Renewal"
Awarded to: Architects and engineers who have successfully transformed lower districts into highly controlled, resource-efficient zones. Individuality and personal expression are discouraged in favor of uniformity and order.
Focus: (Unstated) Maintaining a tight grip on the population and preventing any potential uprisings. (Twist: The "renewal" is designed to weaken and control the lower classes, making them easier to exploit.)
These ads maintain a serious facade that appeals to the upper class' desire for order and control. However, the hidden twist reveals the manipulative and oppressive nature of the society they are trying to preserve.

Now design some high-class consumer level product items.

1. NeuraWeave Headband: This sleek, designer headband is a status symbol for the high-tech elite. It seamlessly integrates with the wearer's neural implant, allowing for subtle control over personal AI assistants, hands-free communication, and even enhanced focus during work or meditation. Hidden Feature: NeuraWeave can subtly collect and analyze the wearer's emotional state, feeding valuable data to targeted advertisers or even government agencies.
2. Eco-Bubble Personal Atmosphere System: Imagine a portable force field that creates a pristine, personalized micro-environment around the wearer. This high-end gadget filters air, regulates temperature, and even projects calming nature sounds, allowing the user to maintain a pocket of luxury amidst the polluted cityscape. Hidden Feature: Eco-Bubble can subtly monitor the wearer's health vitals and transmit them to a central database, potentially used for health insurance adjustments or targeted medical advertisements.
3. Bio-Tailored Clothing: Gone are the days of off-the-rack clothing. This high-end service utilizes advanced bio-scanners and 3D printing technology to create clothing that perfectly molds to the wearer's body, regulates temperature, and even promotes faster healing of minor injuries. Hidden Feature: Bio-Tailored Clothing can subtly collect biometric data like skin temperature and heart rate, potentially used for targeted fitness programs or even mood-altering marketing campaigns.
4. Augmented Reality Personal Chef: This high-tech device projects holographic instructions and culinary techniques directly onto the user's kitchen counter. Imagine whipping up gourmet meals with the guidance of a world-renowned chef, complete with step-by-step visual guides and interactive ingredient identification. Hidden Feature: The AR Personal Chef can subtly track the user's dietary habits and preferences, potentially used to target specific food and beverage companies for advertising or even manipulate their taste buds through subliminal messaging.
5. Luxury Cybernetic Enhancements: Forget clunky prosthetics. These high-end cybernetic limbs are designed to seamlessly blend with the human body, offering enhanced strength, dexterity, and even advanced sensory input. Imagine climbing buildings with ease, playing virtual reality games with unparalleled immersion, or experiencing the world with heightened senses. Hidden Feature: Luxury Cybernetic Enhancements can be subtly integrated with government surveillance systems, allowing for real-time tracking and monitoring of the wearer's movements and activities.

Why would you need a designer headband, when you already have neural implant?

You're absolutely right, a designer headband might seem redundant when you already have a neural implant in a high-tech society. Here are some ways to address that:

1. Fashion and Status Symbol: The NeuraWeave headband could be a designer accessory, a way to showcase wealth and social status. It might be crafted from exotic materials, adorned with precious jewels, or boast a sleek, minimalist design that complements the latest high-fashion trends. The neural implant itself might be hidden, with the headband acting as the visible expression of advanced technology.
2. Enhanced Functionality: While the neural implant offers basic functionality, the NeuraWeave headband could provide a more refined and user-friendly experience. It might offer haptic feedback for better interaction with AI assistants, improved noise cancellation for clearer communication, or even subtle brainwave stimulation to enhance focus or relaxation.
3. Privacy and Security: While the neural implant offers convenience, it might also raise privacy concerns. The NeuraWeave headband could act as a buffer between the implant and external systems, offering a layer of security and allowing users to selectively control the flow of information.
4. Social Etiquette: In a world where everyone has a neural implant, the NeuraWeave headband could become a social etiquette tool. Wearing the headband could signify that the user is open to receiving communication or interacting with AI assistants, while taking it off might indicate a desire for privacy or focused work.
5. Limited Functionality Implants: Not everyone might have access to top-of-the-line neural implants. The NeuraWeave headband could bridge the gap, offering basic functionality for those with older or more limited implants. It could essentially act as an affordable "upgrade" to boost existing technology.

Ultimately, the NeuraWeave headband exists in a world where technology is both essential and aspirational. It goes beyond mere functionality, becoming a way to express personal style, control privacy, and navigate the complex social landscape of a high-tech society.

Now the same, but low-class, available for masses, mass produced.

1. Syn-Flex Headband (Mass-Produced Version): This utilitarian headband is made from a cheap, conductive material that creates a weak neural link. It allows basic interaction with public AI kiosks, like ordering rations or accessing public transportation schedules. The headband's design is simple and utilitarian, often coming in a single, industrial gray color. Hidden Feature: While basic functionality is advertised, the Syn-Flex headband might subtly collect anonymized user data on purchasing habits and travel patterns, potentially used for targeted advertising in public spaces.
2. AirBubble Personal Filter: This bulky, wearable air filter system is a lifeline for those living in the polluted lower districts. It's a mass-produced device with a replaceable filter cartridge and a noisy fan system. While not exactly comfortable, it provides a basic level of air filtration, allowing wearers to breathe a little easier. Hidden Feature: The AirBubble filters might contain embedded tracking chips, subtly logging user location data, potentially used for targeted pollution control measures (or in some cases, manipulation of government reports on air quality).
3. Repli-Wear Clothing Kits: These kits contain pre-cut fabric swatches and basic instructions for creating clothes at home. They're designed to be cheap and adaptable, offering a variety of mix-and-match options to create basic garments. Hidden Feature: The Repli-Wear fabric might contain embedded tracking tags, allowing for identification and potential social credit deductions for those caught wearing "unlicensed" clothing styles.
4. Holo-Chef Lite Projector: This cheap projector displays holographic images of basic recipes and cooking techniques. It lacks the interactivity of the high-end version, but allows users to follow along with simple meals prepared with readily available rations. Hidden Feature: The Holo-Chef Lite projector might subtly promote specific brands of low-quality, processed food rations, potentially influencing dietary choices towards companies that sponsor these devices.
5. Second-Hand Cybernetic Enhancements: These are refurbished or salvaged cybernetic limbs, often clunky and lacking the finesse of luxury models. They offer basic functionality like increased strength or rudimentary prosthetics, but come with the risk of malfunction or compatibility issues. Hidden Feature: Second-Hand Cybernetic Enhancements might contain hidden spyware or tracking devices installed by previous owners, potentially monitoring the wearer's activities or even sabotaging their cybernetic limbs in extreme cases.

These low-class consumer products offer a glimpse into the harsh realities of a high-tech, low-life society. They are cheap, functional, and often come with hidden drawbacks that further disadvantage the underclass.

How bad air quality would be in such setting?

The air quality in a high-tech, low-life society would be catastrophic. Here's a breakdown of the potential problems:

1. Industrial Pollution:

• Unchecked Emissions: Factories prioritizing profit over environmental regulations would pump out unchecked pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter (PM).
• Obsolete Technology: Outdated manufacturing processes would be less efficient, leading to higher levels of waste and pollution.

1. Waste Management Issues:

• Mountains of E-waste: Rapid technological advancements would lead to mountains of discarded electronics, many containing toxic materials that leach into the environment.
• Open Burning: Incapable of proper waste disposal, some residents might resort to open burning of trash, releasing harmful toxins and carcinogens into the air.

1. Energy Production:

• Reliance on Fossil Fuels: Expensive renewable energy sources might be neglected in favor of cheaper, dirtier fossil fuels like coal, further worsening air quality.
• Power Grid Instability: A crumbling infrastructure could lead to power outages and reliance on backup generators, adding to the air pollution.

1. Climate Change Effects:

• Heat Island Effect: Densely packed concrete jungles with minimal green spaces would trap heat, contributing to rising temperatures and increased smog formation.
• Acid Rain: The combination of industrial emissions and rising temperatures could lead to acid rain, damaging buildings and vegetation, further hindering air purification.

Living Conditions:

• Constant Smog: A thick haze of smog would likely hang over the city, reducing visibility and causing respiratory problems for residents.
• Limited Outdoor Activities: Air quality would be so bad that spending time outdoors would be hazardous, impacting physical and mental health.
• Dependence on Filtration Systems: Those who can afford them might rely on personal air filters or sealed living spaces, further dividing the classes.

The severity of the air quality would vary depending on the specific setting. Some areas might be industrial wastelands, while others might be slightly better off. However, the overall picture is bleak – this is a society choking on its own technological advancement and disregard for the environment.

Sketch some repli-wear "unlicensed" clothing styles.

Repli-Wear: Unlicensed Clothing Trends

1. The Salvaged Chic:

• Description: A mishmash of salvaged materials and repurposed clothing scraps. Think mismatched patterns, patches from old uniforms, and belts fashioned from recycled tech cables.
• Inspiration: High-society's sleek, minimalist aesthetic, reinterpreted with resourcefulness and rebellion.
• Risks: May attract unwanted attention from authorities who see it as a symbol of dissent.

1. The Glitched-Out Glamour:

• Description: Clothing adorned with intentionally malfunctioning LED lights, flickering pixels, and distorted logos from popular high-end brands.
• Inspiration: A mockery of the high-society's obsession with luxury and technology.
• Risks: May malfunction and cause minor electrical shocks, attracting suspicion from security systems.

1. The Bio-Hazard Chic:

• Description: Clothing dyed with bioluminescent algae or adorned with filtered gas masks and repurposed medical equipment.
• Inspiration: A dark reflection of the polluted environment and a commentary on the societal disregard for health.
• Risks: Bioluminescent algae might attract unwanted attention, especially in the dark.

1. The Cyber-Tribal:

• Description: Clothing incorporating salvaged wires, circuit boards, and other discarded tech components. Think of cybernetic motifs hand-stitched onto worn leather jackets or tribal patterns formed from glowing wires.
• Inspiration: A mashup of traditional craftsmanship and defiance against the dominance of high-tech aesthetics.
• Risks: Might be mistaken for makeshift weapons or attempts to bypass security systems.

1. The Corporate Spy:

• Description: Subtly subverted versions of high-society uniforms. Imagine slightly ripped blazers with mismatched buttons, or high-collared shirts with the logos subtly altered to resemble protest symbols.
• Inspiration: A subtle rebellion against the corporate elite, blending in while making a statement.
• Risks: Might attract suspicion from authorities if the alterations are too obvious.

These are just a few ideas for Repli-Wear styles. Clothing in a high-tech, low-life society would be a way for the underclass to express their individuality, defiance, and limited resources, all while navigating the dangers of a controlling society.

Sketch some repli-wear "licensed" clothing styles, that do not pose any risk for wearers from any concerned sides.

Repli-Wear: Licensed Clothing Trends (Safe Zone)

1. The Vintage Throwback:

• Description: Replicas of historical clothing styles, like classic trench coats, denim jackets, or even floral dresses from a bygone era. Think of vintage fashion filtered through a futuristic lens, with subtle metallic accents or holographic embellishments.
• Appeal: Offers a nostalgic escape from the harsh realities of the present.
• Safety: Historical styles are unlikely to raise suspicion from authorities.

1. The Minimalist Worker:

• Description: Practical, utilitarian clothing designed for maximum comfort and durability. Think of well-made jumpsuits in neutral tones, with reinforced knees and pockets for tools.
• Appeal: Perfect for everyday wear in the lower districts, offering functionality and a clean aesthetic.
• Safety: Promotes a sense of productivity and avoids any controversial symbols.

1. The Nature Enthusiast:

• Description: Clothing with nature-inspired patterns and muted earth tones. Think of shirts with forest camouflage or jackets with subtle leaf prints.
• Appeal: Offers a sense of connection to the natural world, a stark contrast to the polluted cityscape.
• Safety: Nature motifs are unlikely to be seen as a threat by authorities.

1. The Sports Fanatic (Limited Edition):

• Description: Replicas of historical sports jerseys or team logos from a bygone era. Could also feature faded logos of defunct corporations, offering a sense of playful nostalgia.
• Appeal: Allows for a limited display of individuality and team spirit.
• Safety: Historical or defunct logos are unlikely to pose a threat, as long as the license is valid.

1. The Kid's Corner:

• Description: Replicas of popular cartoon characters or children's book illustrations, brightly colored and playful.
• Appeal: Offers a sense of innocence and escapism for children in a harsh environment.
• Safety: Popular children's characters are pre-approved and unlikely to be seen as a threat.

Now the opposite: some high-end high-society high clothing styles.

High-Society Haute Couture in a High-Tech, Low-Life World:

1. Bio-Luminescent Elegance:

• Imagine a flowing gown woven from a special bioluminescent material that emits a soft, ethereal glow, adapting to the wearer's mood and movement.
• The dress could be accented with strategically placed gemstones that amplify the bioluminescence, creating a mesmerizing spectacle.

1. Augmented Reality Couture:

• Dresses and suits with intricate embroidery that, when viewed through special AR glasses, come alive with holographic animations, patterns, or even personalized messages.
• This could be used to display family crests, stock market trends, or even live news feeds, all seamlessly integrated into the clothing.

1. Nanotech Tailoring:

• Clothing that self-adjusts to the wearer's body temperature and preferences. The fabric could be woven with microscopic nanobots that regulate temperature, repel dust, or even release a subtle, personalized fragrance.
• This would offer a level of comfort and personalization that pushes the boundaries of traditional haute couture.

1. Recycled Luxury:

• High-society wouldn't be complete without a touch of eco-consciousness (or at least the appearance of it). Imagine garments meticulously crafted from recycled materials like discarded computer components or salvaged spaceship parts, transformed into stunning evening wear.
• This "waste-to-wear" approach would showcase wealth and environmental responsibility (or at least the image of it).

1. Cybernetic Accents:

• Subtle cybernetic implants seamlessly integrated into clothing. Imagine a dress with a built-in neural interface that allows the wearer to control personal AI assistants with a simple touch or a suit with temperature-regulating implants woven directly into the fabric.
• These high-tech accents would be a subtle yet sophisticated way to showcase wealth and technological advancement.

Bonus: The "Living" Garment:

• A truly outrageous and exclusive garment – a dress or suit composed of a bio-engineered material that appears to be alive. Imagine clothing that shimmers and pulsates with a faint bioluminescence, seemingly breathing and adapting to the wearer's movements.
• This would be the ultimate status symbol, a conversation starter that pushes the boundaries of fashion and technology into the realm of the fantastical.

Where do I begin. For the purpose of this post, I will use fictious names and locations as it is ongoing, and out of respect (even though she doesn't deserve any)
My name is Daniel. I am 35 years old, and i am dying. I have a disease called systemic sclerosis. I am currently on a supplemental disability plan, until I get approved for SSI (social Security). Until then, my income is about 4K a month. I own a home but after child support and bills, NOT INCLUDING gas, food, haircuts, medical appointments, and or emergencies like my fridge just broke. (which i never go out) I am left with $260 that has to last me a month. I also have three children who I have to take care of half the time per the 50/50 agreement.
Recently, I found out my oldest, (who is 13) is not biologically mine. I decided to look into it as I had concerns for a while since my divorce as her cheating was very rampant. I also had caught her in 2017 with a man in my house, which is what prompted the divorce. But FL being a no fault state, doesn't matter. I also had to pay child support since the beginning and WHILE LEGALLY Married since 2010 because she had applied for financial support like food stamps and government assistance then. I know what your thinking. Why didnt you stop it then? I tried. You cant take yourself off child support. I also never grew up with a father and wanted that two-parent household. I don't run from responsibilities, like he did. Its how I was raised. Anyways, I married her, tried to do the right thing, she lied numerous times. she never worked, and I worked 90 plus hours a week. To look into her cheating, was impossible at the time as I was never home. and to busy providing for my family.
fast forward to now. My disease started to become worse and over three years; it didn't reveal itself until last year fully to actually pinpoint what this was. for instance, I had in 2019 pain behind my eyes and horrible headaches to the point that I thought I had MS. following year, I had trouble swallowing for 3 months. next year itching in the skin for three months. But prior, I had visited various doctors to see what was going on, each time a flare up then would last 3 to four months, which again, when you don't understand what's going on, you need to take time off to go see doctors, run tests, but this illness was and still is very elusive. with that being said I had 5 jobs since its first flare up till last year to continue to support my family and to pay child support. as of last year. I'm having trouble moving on certain days, breathing and acid reflux and muscle atrophy. (disease progression) especially when this is going on, it worsens everything as this is flared up. I was working under the table to try and make ends meet as I was paying child support still. I should add that the child support with 50/50 custody was $1029 for three kids cause I was making six figures at the time of divorce in 2018. Last year however, I couldn't work anymore, and filed for disability.
In june of last year, I had asked Susan, to get the children school supplies, (which she never does) as I was still paying at the time $1029 in child support. She said she didnt have the money despite now making 70k and her new BF living with her and is working whom she cheated on me with. With me working under the table, I bought them clothes, haircuts, school supplies (ive done every year) but then, I noticed she went on vacation to puerto rico and got a giant leg tattoo. At the time, I had already known what I had, and I asked myself why the heck am I doing this? So i turned to an attorney to get it modified. Again, this is June 20th to be exact of last year. My lawyer, stated that this was only going to be a 90 day turn around for the temporary modification then we will go for the final.
Since then, I have gone for a DNA test. I had to know. I am dying. I wanted to know. And you may judge me for this. but i have filed for disablement for paternity, meaning I am removing myself from the birth certificate. However, in the state of Florida, a mother can deny this and so can the courts. before you judge me, I have many reasons none of which have to do with him other then his mental disability (Aspergers) This illness, as days go by takes more and more from me. As previously aforementioned, I am left with 250 a month. I cannot go get a drs appointment pay for groceries or start planning my funeral which I will start making payments on soon. He also eats three times the amount that we all collectively do (Not his fault) but I have paid enough both mentally and financially. He also has trouble communicating as my suspicions is, that he was born of incest (gross) which is why I was 'chosen' to be his father at the time. Before you ask how do you know? Lets just say she had an uncle 'leave' during that time.
anyways, in February, I had the temporary modification hearing for child support and needless to say it was a circus. My doctor was subpoenaed to be there by my attorneys request to better my argument, even though I felt we didn't need her, she advised me to have my doctor there. Well, he attorney attacked my doctor and me for an hour and 40 mins when the court case was only supposed to go for an hour. He said "you saw another dr Max so and so and they said it was all in your head" (again I had flare ups on a illness that hadnt revealed itself correctly since last year). So there argument was that I was doctor seeking to avoid child support. After I have paid for 13 years never missing a payment. Her lawyer also targeted people who are living with me. Now I'll admit that I said they were friends which is true but how else can I pay for my attorney? Cant work, cant sell drugs, cant rob a bank? So they want to take there income into consideration. BS. She also hired a private investigator to watch me exercise outside and stated that because I can exercise, I can work..... Ok. Where's the 23 hours of the rest of the day watching me in pain. or when do you have me on video of a flare up from this terminal illness? (that's what I wanted to say)
Although I was granted the temporary modification, of $209, I left the court thinking wow, this woman can cheat, commit paternity fraud, not give two craps about our children, live with her mom in a section 8 home, and here I am doing whatever I can and I've done nothing wrong but be lied to and this is how my government, my country treats me? No wonder men my age dont have children this is insane. The paternity issue wasn't even brought up they said that this isnt the place for this and that the disestablishment will be another trial for those wondering. My lawyer only spoke for 5 mins. Asking her about her income cause thats the only thing that has changed since 2018 since she didnt work at the time. Other than that, it was an attack on me and my disease arguing my ability to work.
after leaving that, I didnt eat for 96 hours. I have since been crying nonstop. Compilating suicide. I am already heart broken about my son not being mine. Sure does a terminal illness make me said, no question everyday. But a life wasted on another? Cause I decided to be a man and take up responsibility? thats soul crushing. And to say "well, there is a big chance the courts will deny your request' thats BS. If i go to prison because I was accused of a robbery for 13 years, and DNA evidence proves I wasnt there, I get out of jail and can sue. This is no different. If anything, DNA evidence needs to be more of a factor in family law than in almost every court of law if not as equally important. My bad for not investigating her infidelity not only in the beginning but also in the end. How about not being a POS. sorry rant over
gets better. Her mom and dad smoke in the section 8 house, kids reek of cigarette smoke and marijuana, all day. they dont take showers there, they were hand me down clothes, they live in the garage shared with there mother, that isn't air conditioned. and he makes only a few thousand less than I do a month. She stated in court that she pays her mom $500 in rent which is BS, she is only doing that now so that she makes herself look bad. I know she is doing pills, like oxy and what not. Id love to prove it.
after the temp hearing, in april, I had to go to court to contest my drivers license suspension as I hadn't paid child support since, august of last year. again, there is no way, I can pay my bills, feed my children, go to the doctor, pay my lawyer to end all of this BS and pay the current child support amount. and again, this final hearing is still not set yet. So they intercepted my tax return, even though the temporary modification was approved, the final is what gets it retro backed to the date of filing, so they took, a much needed 5500 tax return from me. I needed that cause one of the issues I failed to mention as well, hurricane Ian has destroyed my home and I'm still going through that process too. not to mention I am on payment plans with Mayo clinic and other various medical facilities. (no one cares) but the interest that accrues, makes it impossible to catch up. also, Florida department of rev is overstepping I feel, and asking for medical info to be sent to them as well as updated doctors letters to be sent saying that I am still on disability.
a few weeks ago, I got an email from my lawyer having a withdrawal notice from her lawyer. in the withdrawal, he stated that he cannot represent her, due to something she may have withheld or lied about (more or less wasn't worded like that but you can tell). In feb court appearance they never produced the PI report, or videos, they had medical info they shouldn't have had, and they had very outlandish comments about my lifestyle. So my lawyer filed immediately a motion to compel. meaning, we want to see everything you have on my client. this was filed almost immediately after court appearance on feb 20th. Susan has failed to provide any updated info requested by my attorney so on june 18th, we have that upcoming hearing.
in the mean time, I have sent my lawyer, a very heavily requested topics, such as "where did they get my medical records, if those were lies, what are the consequences if any"? What did exercising have to do with any of this despite various drs saying he has to or he will get worse.
I know wat you must be thinking, what about your oldest, how can you do that to him. Please listen. This woman has taken everything from me. And i mean everything but the roof over my head. I am seeing a therapist to help with the suicidal thoughts. it isnt enough. the reality of it is, I chose to be loyal and it bit me in the butt. This disease will rob me of everything, my teeth will fall out ( I had 5 cavities last time I went to the dentist) I haven't had a cavity since I was 30 and even then I was suspicious. And I am brushing 5 time s a day to save them. My skin is tightening, and my arms and muscles are wasting. I will literally be left with nothing. My organs will also start to harden, and I will have to start getting around the clock care.
I forgot to mention they (child support) recently, sent a letter to SSI (social security) saying that they would garnish my SSI before I even got it, totaling $1029. the incorrect amount. I sent this to my lawyer and she is looking into it. But it shows that child support will overstep and breaks every law or freedom you may think you have. I DO take care of my children. if they need a haircut i do it, school supplies clothes, anything I do it. And I do it, cause she wont. What I want to leave you with, is that woman can be dead beats too. Child support was designed to have woman off of government subsidized programs like section 8 food stamps and what not. Also to make the man pay for their children man or woman I should say, I know this. I am not running from my obligation. I just want Susan, to have to pay for what's she's done to me and the kids.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this, please comment and share, all names are fake, but everything else is unfortunately real. I know it was wordy, but I wanted to provide as much backstory as possible. And please. Respect my descions. When you are end of life, I hope someone would be kind enough to respect yours. You may not agree and that's ok, but I am asking you to respect them. Thank you for reading.

So I'm trying a lil game challenge here.
Power cutoff 0-6months. Loot: NOT insanely rare cos it got ridiculous. feels like some containers are not set to spawn anything. Fire Spread off (just incase zombies get caught on fire and set the walls on fire, this happened to me in Metro map and I was trying with Custom Zombies)
other mods like Better Batteries for the handcrank, Long night (to make the exterior pitch black for immersion) Reactive Zombies? but I'm not sure how this would work as the map is entirely indoors. the Last resort feature still gives me hebbie jeebies. Don't feed the zombies (map has lots of dumpster so you can dispose bodies with some effort. Cyrogenic Winter, so blackouts can become fatal. Water goes bad, tainted tooltip off.
other notes, I'm not sure if trapping would work indoors, even for mice/rats. The map has no forage zones, so if trapping is tied to that then no dice. There is a sewer system but I haven't been able to get a sledge to get to it to try to fish. If you can fish, in sandbox settings I would set it to low nature abundance (there are probably some fish in the sewers but probably nothing really nutritious. or healthy) I did research, there isn't really a plant that can grow in no sunlight (that isn't a mushroom) except maybe potatoes. Just not very well? You'll be surviving off plonkies for as long as you can live.
my mod order is a mess and full of errors but that's the bare bones jist of this, anything else you'd add?

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command
Date: [REDACTED]
The force assembled at the outskirts of the Skaven home system was larger than any I had ever seen. It was a rainbow of ships, each decorated with different colors and symbols communicating their allegiances. I kept one eye on the Glorious display of interspecies cooperation as I looked to my first officer.
“Wow Recel.” I said with mirth. “Just… Wow! I know I asked you to bring reinforcements, but did you really have to drag along half the federation?”
Recel didn’t respond right away. He looked past me, out into the infinite void and scratched his head, seemingly deep in thought. But then, he snapped out of it and turned his gaze to me with a proud expression. “It just seemed like the right thing to do sir.”
I couldn’t help but agree. This battle would surely go down in history as one of the federation’s greatest victories, accomplished through the cooperation of the herd. “Indeed.” I simply replied before transmitting to the Fleet. “All hands, Full speed ahead!”
Thrusters lit up across the formation as we advanced, the Skaven homeworld coming into view. The bridge crew was tense, but I didn’t share their worry. As far as I was concerned the battle was already won, superweapon or otherwise.
A beep from the sensor station notified us that the Skaven ships had come within range of our scanners. As images of the predator vessels were distributed across the fleet, there was a collective sigh of relief. They were much fewer in number this time, only a handful of freighters and a few dozen fighters. The Flagship was at the head of the formation, but crucially, the bell on top was still broken. Clearly, Kalsim’s sacrifice had not been in vain.
With this new information in mind, I addressed the fleet once more. “Looks like this will be easier than we thought. Maintain dispersed formation, I don’t want any surprises.”
“Captain!” The crewmate Manning the sensor station spoke up. “We’ve got more detailed scans of the Predator fleet. The flagship… it’s absolutely packed with life-forms! Same goes for the freighters.”
An evacuation effort? Then why were they headed right for us? They couldn’t possibly get past this many guns. “Ready weapons, I want them shot down as soon as they’re in range. Don’t let them get away.”
However, just before we reached effective weapons range, an alarm rang out. Recel checked his pad and read out a report. “Predator sighting in the Engineering deck! We’re under attack!”
“What?!!” I exclaimed. The Fleet’s communication channels became flooded with chatter, similar reports coming in from across the formation. A hunch began forming in my mind. “Sensors! Give me an update on those lifesigns!”
The crewmate squinted at his screen. “They’re… gone! The ships are empty!”
“Teleportation.” I deduced. “So that’s their gambit.” I drew my pistol from its holster, prompting the rest of the bridge crew to do the same. “All hands! Prepare to repel boarders!”
Superior Skryre Thought-Memory transcription subject: Oivit, Gojid Exterminator
Time-Date: The Grand-Great Deception
My squad took cover at the edges of the hallway, and we raised our rifles and flamethrowers at the Bulkhead in front of us. The poor engineers on the other side had managed to seal them just before being overwhelmed by the predators, giving us time to set up a defense at the natural choke point. This in turn would allow the command crew to fortify the bridge even further, but I naturally hoped that we would be able to repel them here.
Not long after we had taken positions, a green jet of energy appeared in the bulkhead’s side, beginning to cut a rectangular opening through the thick metal. We aimed at the center of the nearly completed portal, but suddenly the cutting stopped just short of completion. What were they-
BWOOSH
A fiery explosion tore open the bulkhead, destroying the neatly carved lines and causing the edges of the barrier to bend out, like a metallic flower. Despite the protection our cover and fireproof suits afforded us, the explosion rattled us, and we simply cowered behind our defenses for several seconds.
I was the first to cautiously peek out at the smoking remains of the boundary. A predator in red armor staggered through the opening, seemingly as shell-shocked as we were. I remembered my training and brought my rifle to bear. With plenty of time to aim, I fired a burst of plasma through the damned thing’s head, killing it instantly.
This galvanized the other predators, and a barrage of thin streaks of lightning rushed out at us from beyond the Bulkhead. We returned fire, but with the dense smoke we couldn’t tell whether we were inflicting casualties. As the blind firefight continued with no casualties on our side, I thought we’d be capable of holding them here until reinforcements arrived. But it wasn’t long before something besides energy blasts began to rush through the opening.
A wave of gangly predators rushed through the breach. Their scurrying quadrupedal run kept them mostly below the continued fusillade, but some were inevitably scorched dead when the shot reached too low, or a predator head too high. Our flamethrowers were ready for them however, and quickly spat a torrent of fire in their path. The front rank of creatures tried to stop at the last second, but the momentum of those behind them was too great, and they were either trampled underfoot or pushed directly into the inferno.
The charge was fully incinerated, yet a few of the burning predators continued their charge by sheer momentum alone, crossing the short distance between themselves and the flamethrower team, and plowing into them in their frenzied death throes.
More elite predators moved up in the wake of the devastated assault, brutes in red armor firing their lightning guns at us. The firefight quickly grew much more intense, both exterminators and Skaven killing each other at a rapid pace.
A group of creatures in black rags rushed out from behind their armored fellows, tossing primitive throwing weapons at us as they went. One of them struck me in the arm, piercing through my suit and leaving a small cut. Unbothered by the glancing hit, I raised my rifle to return fire, but suddenly found that I couldn’t feel my limb, nor pull the trigger.
As the strange numbness spread, I lost my balance, falling to the floor in a limp heap. I watched helplessly as my comrades lost ground, and the rearmost part of our formation turned and ran. The savage beasts hollered with bloodlust, giving chase.
As they disappeared around a corner, a new group of predators emerged from the broken bulkhead. One of their ‘Grey Seers’, accompanied by a multitude of servants. They looked more like cargo wagons than living beings, each hunchbacked from the weight of the numerous packs and crates they carried.
Their leader looked around at the walls before pointing one out, and another predator carrying a multitude of tools went up to it and unscrewed one of the panels covering it. Discarding the panel, it pulled up a strange green drill, and began digging through the thick layers of armor, quickly carving out a cavity in the side of the hull.
As it climbed in and continued drilling, the other predators followed suit. To my horror, I and several of my dead squadmates were picked up and brought along, dragged into the newly created space. Still paralyzed, I could only despair as they picked up the metal panel, sealing the tunnel behind us.
( - - - - - - - - - - )
The Extermination fleet breathed a sigh of relief as their ships managed to repel their boarders one by one. With the assault repelled, they moved into orbit of their target and unleashed their countless weapons upon the planet, bringing the End Times to the Old World.
After the annihilation was confirmed, the vessels of the fleet separated, each charting a course back to their native systems. They returned as heroes, massive celebrations held on every planet in the federations to glorify the monumental victory. And while the people celebrated in the streets, the Shadow Caste began work on their latest propaganda campaign, intending to convince future generations that the ‘Skaven’ had never existed.
As the military vessels were abandoned by their reveling crews, hunchbacked shapes emerged not long thereafter. Creeping out of cargo bays and maintenance hatches, they would briefly sniff the air to ensure the coast was clear, before scurrying off into the wilderness. There they dug holes, at first only cautiously. But it wasn’t long before they began to expand, tunneling beneath the very cities they had avoided.
They did not stop there. Camouflaged rafts were constructed, populating the abandoned oceans with dozens of ramshackle, barely floating warrens. Some snuck aboard Arxur raiding vessels when they arrived, in order to settle the planets said vessels returned to. The particularly bold began to kidnap small numbers of surface dwellers, using them as slaves, food, or the test subjects for grotesque experiments.
When they finally amassed the resources, massive antennae were erected, laced with green crystal and hidden underground, powerful enough to penetrate the crust of their respective planets. With these, encoded signals could be sent between the infested planets. Some messages were declarations of cunning, might, or other forms of superiority. Some were threats, wishing death and destruction upon rivals several lightyears away. But most were devoted to coordinating various plots, with one plot in particular standing far above the rest.
The Galactic Vermintide, to gnaw at the entire galaxy until it belonged only to the Skaven.
First - Previous

Boykissers are extremely weak specimens with the average length of 15cm, and only weighing from 50 to 80 grams.
They are barely stronger than that of a Tiger Prawn or Two-spotted Field crickets(Gryllus bimaculatus).
Astoundingly weak that even an adult was sometimes hunted by: Chinese Mantis(Tenodera sinensis), European Mantis(Mantis religiosa), Cane Huntsman Spider(Heteropoda venatoria), Greater Arid-Land Katydid(Neobarritia spinosa), Giant Asian Mantis(Hierodula patellifera), Asian Giant Hornet(Vespa mandarina) and even Giant orb weavers(Nephila pilipes).
Their vocalizations consists a very annoying, femboyish: "Ohh you like kissing boys you are a homosexual boy kisser"/"Ohh you like kissing girls you are a heterosexual girl kisser". Variations do exist; But what all they have in common as they are reported to be much more annoying than Asian Koels at midnight times.
Their diet is similar to that of a rat, eats what they sees in front of them. They don't require that much of food and mainly scavangers. They don't even have the capacity to hunt down a two-spotted field cricket, so they hunt slow and small targets such as: larva and grubs, earthworms and pillbugs. But hunting rarely occurs, often observed to eat trash or leaf litters, fallen fruits.
It's intelligence is lower that of reptiles; for example, leopard geckos and anoles. And their maxinum speed is about recorded to be 0.7 to 3km/h.
To fix that, they have specifically evolved into one thing: High reproductive rate. They are extremely prolific, able to make another generation in a matter of 14 days. Their litter size is from 15 to 20 individuals.
Baby boykissers, weighs as much as 0.5 - 1.2 grams; where as Juvenile boykissers weighs around 8 - 20 grams.
So that's make them very vulnerable to insects, and are favorite foods of Dragonflies,
Predatory Crickets,
Ants,
Cockroaches,
Robber flies,
even Antlions(Myrmeleontidae species.) Their offspring mortality rate is around 85%.
Sometimes, something like Thrushes and Starlings, Bullfrogs, Centipedes, Whipscorpions or Vinegaroons(Uropygi), True Scorpions, Tokay geckos, and even a Tarantula could even destroy an entire family of boykissers without significant effort.
Their prominent femboyish voice would instantly enrage almost everything; making them very vulnerable to predation. In the ecosystem, they don't serve a purpose; they can't pollinate or fertilize the soil,
their only purpose is to be bodied by almost everything and provide food for the ecosystem. Boykissers are primary/rarely secondary producers, often placed below that of rabbits as you commonly see in a food chain diagram. They are often surplus killed as some humans and predators hunts the for sport/lashing out.
As a result, Baby and Juvenile boykissers are often commonly used in live feed for predatory insects such as mantis and antlions, and small reptiles such as anoles; Adult boykissers are commonly live fed to Chickens, Monitor Lizards including komodo dragons, Ducks, House cats, Dogs, Mustelids.
They are often bred in suppliers.
In fishing, Baby boykissers can be used to fish River prawns and Crayfish; where as juvenile boykissers suits medium fish like Tilapias and adult boykissers fish baits larger fishs such as Salmon, Tuna, Sailfish, even Groupers.
There are absolutely no law regulations towards boykissers, so they could be ground up in shredder and mix it in livestock feed, fish chums, Boiled alive to make more digestible treats; or even beaten up by the packagers while shipping from frustration.
For Boykissers, They can be sold in a 100 individuals for 3 euro(100 TWD).
Due their prolific efficiency to make offsprings, there are companies which can produce 1 billion boykissers per year. they are lucrative businesses in martial arts for replaceable sandbags, stress relievers, pet stores and fishing stores.
Children usually play them like soccer or beating them up, and not punished by teachers because no one wants to protect them.
You cannot be arrested, no matter how you torment them and caught on live camera, as Animal Welfare Organizations don't consider them as sentinent creatures.
Domain:Eukaryota Kingdom:Animalia Phylum:Chordata Class:Mammalia Grandorder:Ferungulata Mirorder:Ferae Order:Carnivora Suborder:Feliformia Family:Shittidae Subfamily:Shittinae Genus:Shit Species:S. fuckus

 Binominal Name *Shit fuckus* (Huang, 2024) 

Boykissers have bone density of average of 0.6 to 0.7g/cm², makes them very prone to fracture and breaking. Adapted a bipedal stance, the weight bearing ability in legs can reach 0.85g/cm². Compared to humans who had 1.8 to 1.9g/cm²; boykisser is way much inferior than most animals in bone strength. From a live hydraulic press experiment, it only takes 8 kilograms force; or 72 joules/meter(72 newtons) to pulverize every single bone in adult boykissers. for single bone, and it would take 0.5 - 3kgf or 4.9 to 29 Joule/meter(4.9 - 29N) to pulverize the entire femur of boykissers. Their muscle tissue are quite weak; with the strongest individual in the sample tested lifting strength with whole body don't generally exceed 12 grams, with average of them at 65 grams never exceeded 5 grams.
Lifting strength never exceed 12 grams with whole body with bones 3x weaker than average human. They have one of the lowest size to strength ratio, no claws and have uneffective teeth. 0.8 - 1.5N(0.1 to 0.2psi), 30x weaker than that of the horned frog in bite.
IQ is lower than reptiles such as geckos, and comparable to that of a severe/profound child or a koala. Skin is about 5 micrometers thick and could be punctured by even hit by an european robin.
Boykisser vs Various critters in odds:
Let's start!
Boykisser's odds:
Stentor coeruleus - 1.1 micrograms, 0.5 - 2mm long Odds: 100% No Difficulty
Caenorhabditis elegans - 1 microgram, 1mm long Odds: 100% No Difficulty
Dust mite - 3 to 6 micrograms, 0.2 - 0.3 mm long Odds: 97% Very Low difficulty
Persimilis(Predatory mite) - 5 to 13 micrograms, 0.3 to 0.5mm long Odds: 95% Low difficulty
Booklice - 27 micrograms, 1 to 2mm long Odds: 90% Low Difficulty
Pseudoscorpion - 650 to 800 micrograms, 5 - 8mm long Odds: 85% Medium difficulty(Might get pinched and get slightly venomed)
Cat flea- 1 milligrams, 2mm long Odds: 82% Medium difficulty(Might suffer from allergies)
Red wood ant worker(Formica rufa) 6 to 8 milligrams - 1 to 1.2cm long Odds: 75% Medium-High difficulty(Might get blinded by spitting formic acid/envenomed)
Fall Cicada(Meimuna opalifera) - 6 grams, 4 - 4.8cm Odds: 72% Medium-High difficulty(Technically they do not fight back, but boykisser would suffer from ruptured eardrums.)
Desert Locust - 2 gram, 7- 8cm Odds: 64% High difficulty(They might be harmless to humans, but can tear through boykisser's skin)
American Cockroach - 0.6 - 0.8 grams, 3 to 5cm long Odds: 58% Very High Difficulty(They can bite. and it hurted.)
Field Cricket(Gryllus bimaculatus) 0.8 to 2 gram, 3.1 to 5cm long Odds: 50/50
Fire ant - 0.8 to 2 milligrams, 2 to 8mm Odds: 40%(Boykissers lose at this point, the stinger of fire ant is much more potent)
House Mouse - 12 to 30 grams, 7.5 to 10cm long Odds: 32%(Somewhat of a chance)
Green Darner Dragonfly - 1 to 1.2 grams, 6 - 8cm long Odds: 15%
Chinese Mantis(Tenodera sinensis) - 6 to 14 grams, 10 to 15cm Odds: 4%
Eurasian Tree Sparrow - 20 to 24 grams 12.5 to 14 cm long Odds: No chances whatsover
European wasp - 1 to 1.2cm, 0.1 - 0.15 grams Odds: No chances whatsoever
Female, Giant orb weaver(Nephila pilipes) - 12 - 15cm legspan, 3 to 4 grams Odds: No chances whatsoever
Solifuge/Camel Spider - 30 to 56 grams, 12 to 15cm legspan Odds: Irrelevant
Brown Rat - 200 to 500 grams, 20 to 40cm length incl tail Odds: Irrelevant
Japanese Rhinceros Beetle - 17 to 30 grams, 5 to 8 cm long Odds: Irrelevant
Emperor Scorpion - 30 to 50 grams, 15 - 20cm Odds: Never
Asian Giant Hornet - 15 to 30 grams, 5 to 8cm Odds: Never
Eurasian Blue Tit - 14 - 18 grams, 11 - 12cm Odds: Never
Giraffe Stag Beetle - 11 to 12cm, 50 - 60 grams Odds: Never
Bearded Dragon - 24 to 40cm, 280 - 400 grams Odds: Go fuck yourself.
Hercules beetle - 8 to 14cm, 50 - 85 grams Odds: Go fuck yourself.
Goliath Birdeater - 28 to 30cm leg span, 150 - 175 grams Odds: Go fuck yourself.
Great Tit - 14 to 16cm, 14 - 22 grams Odds: Go fuck yourself.
Amazonian Giant Centipede - 30cm, 400 grams Odds: Don't think about it.
Peacock Mantis Shrimp - up to 46 cm long, 450 to 600 grams Odds: Whoever think this boy kissing creature wins should go eat shit.

Don't really know what I am hoping to accomplish with this. Moral support I guess, as I am kind of terrified.
Been with the same company (more or less due to mergers and acquisitions) for my whole career. Due to some restructuring of how we go to business, my workload has changed. I manage a warehouse that recently had a bunch of volume moved to another warehouse one state over. Writing is on the wall that there is more of that to come. My boss (who is currently out on leave due to stress, I think) advocated for finding other work for me to justify keeping me around. I despise the work they found for me. It's a mix of corporate nonsense (filling out forms, etc), garbage work no one else wants, and stuff an intern should be doing. (for example, my skip level boss told me to plan on renting a SUV for an upcoming meeting so I can drive people around.) Lately this whole situation has been really messing with me. Losing sleep, constantly worried about work, etc.
Also as part of these changes we had to let some of my crew go. They weren't offered severance, which really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know that this has also contributed to me being so unhappy, but it hasn't helped.
As for my financial situation; m47, married, two kids still at home one of them finishes HS in a couple weeks the other is a sophomore. One more already in college. They all either pay their own way or plan to do so. I'm willing to help them if needed, but think it's important for them to stand on their own.
Net worth is just over 2MM counting house (conservative estimate on value) or 1.6MM not including house. No debt. Wife works and makes enough for us to live but we wouldn't be saving much. Last year's expenses were around 65k but that doesn't include anything that's withheld from our checks (taxes, insurance, etc)
I don't have anything lined up, but when I do I don't want to keep doing what I'm doing. I want to have a job that I don't need to take home with me. Just applied for a job maintaining trails for the parks department this morning. Pay would be minimal, but my thinking is it would be enough to keep us building up savings instead of just relying on compounding. I also can't just do nothing and expect the wife to bring in the only income until we hit our number (which I'm thinking is right around 2MM) Honestly, with some expense cutting we could possibly scrape by and call ourselves lean fired even if she didn't work, but that's not really ideal.
I know it makes more sense to wait to quit until I have something lined up, but mentally I just don't have it in me.
Any support anyone cares to offer is greatly appreciated.

https://archive.is/1DQJp
From 9 a.m. Saturday, when families began making their way to the Second Congregational Church’s front lawn, to the unveiling of Greenfield’s 12th bee sculpture, “Fearless,” outside the Greenfield Fire Department’s new station on Main Street at 12:30 p.m., more than 1,000 people of all ages stopped by this year’s Bee Fest — the largest attendance the event has seen since its inception 14 years ago, according to its founder Sandy Thomas.
“It’s off the charts, we’ve never had this many people. We clicked in [counted] 500 just a few minutes ago, but its got to be more than that now,” Thomas said at 10:30 a.m. “These people came from Wrentham specifically for this because they’re new beekeepers, they heard about it and they just came. It’s wonderful, they keep coming and they want to learn about bees.”
The roughly three-hour festival honored the Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth, the sixth minister of Second Congregational Church who is known as the father of modern beekeeping. Langstroth patented the bee hives with movable frames in 1852, a design still commonly used by bee keepers today, according to Franklin County Beekeepers Association President Art Canterbury, who manned a bee education table with a live beehive demonstration at this year’s festival.
Canterbury engaged with curious festival-goers, educating them on bees and beekeeping, and answering questions ranging from best beekeeping practices, to general inquiries about the nature of bees and their colonies.
“My grandfather kept bees and I worked with him when I was a little kid. Now it’s just the easy attachment to go right back to and enjoy it and develop it,” Canterbury said. “This community loves the idea of bees in general and pollinators like to have that exposure and understanding of the bees [...] The colony of bees itself is a super organism. Everything that they do is for the colony. There’s not a bee in there that’s only doing something for itself.”
Children, many sporting elaborate bee costumes, marched through the farmer’s market for the Pollinators Parade and took turns swinging at a bee pinata. Families also centered around the beehive painting station, putting their unique marks on beehives that will be used at apiaries across Franklin County. Thomas said since bees are capable of sensing color and design, the practice of hive painting could make it easier for bees to find their hives.
The festival also featured a silent auction of bee-related products, bee-related games for children, a pollinator plant giveaway table and a 214th birthday cake for Langstroth. Katie Rozenas-Hanson and Rick LeBlanc of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources also operated an informational booth, where they distributed sunflower seeds and informed the public on best practices for planting pollinator plants at home. Rozenas-Hanson said she was pleased to see how effectively the festival engaged children.
“This event is so wonderful because it’s evolved from a festival that’s mainly for the general public, to being really kid-focused and having a bunch of free activities for kids to do to engage with bees, learn about beehives and best apiary practices — I just can’t think of a better event for them to go to,” Rozenas-Hanson said.

** Sculpture unveiling**

Bee Fest wrapped up with the unveiling of the city’s 12th bee sculpture “Fearless,” depicting a bee dressed in a firefighter’s uniform, in front of the new fire station on Main Street. Before the unveiling Fire Chief Robert Strahan announced that the department will begin moving into the station this week before a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 10.
Designer Rachael Katz, an artist and owner of The Greenfield Gallery, produced the original “Beatrice” bee sculpture prototype. Over the past three years, her first 11 bee sculptures have been installed along Main and Federal streets, at Court Square, and at the John W. Olver Transit Center. She said that while the other bee sculptures took identical forms with unique decorations, she and the sculpture’s painter Andrew Easton wanted to give the “fearless sculpture” a unique character and form.
“For most of the other bees, the form just served as a canvas, and the artists painted images upon it. And this one we really wanted to make a character in and of itself — it’s not decorated with pictures of fire engines, it’s an actual character [...] it’s our firefighters, they’re there for us. They’re heroes and they charge into danger and it just seemed right to honor them,” Katz said.
Easton, who said he spent roughly 160 hours painting the “fearless” sculpture, put significant work into not only painting the bee, but arranging various elements, such as the oxygen tank on its back and its “343” fire helmet, which he said was a tribute to the 343 New York firefighters who were killed during 9/11.
“This is a special honor for us. There is a personal story that goes along with this bee, and we are humbled to have it at our new headquarters,” Strahan said.
Mayor Virginia Desorgher, who joined Strahan and the artists as they removed the tarp from the Fearless sculpture, said she was pleased by how the annual festival has evolved and grown over the years.
“It gets better and better every year, there were more people from out of state this year than I’ve ever seen,” Desorgher said. “It’s very exciting.”

Gaz had crawled high into the apple tree and was pulling fruit down, lobbing it into the net his sister Tibble was holding out with her four hands. He hooted as he saw Jonathan walking through the rows.
Tibble turned, her blue fluff ruffling. "Human Jonathan! We have gathered many of the apples!"
Jonathan smiled as he approached, noting the large pile stacked on the ground. "Tibble, you have to put them in the baskets. Contact with the dirt will cause them to rot." He laughed. "I've told you this."
She shook her head. "Pyramid shape best. I like this." She pointed at the pile. "This is best way. You said you would make more cider. We like the cider. You will make it for me."
He knelt down and picked up an apple, taking a bite. Juice oozed out around his lips as his teeth pierced the skin of the fruit. He chewed for a moment while looking up at Gaz. "Yes. I said I would. Get these in the baskets and I'll carry them back."
She growled at him. "Piles are best." Tibble then began moving the top of the pile into the basket.
Jonathan sat under the tree as she filled the first basket, finishing off his third apple. She stacked it as high as she could before they started rolling off the top, and he got up. He lifted the basket and started carrying it toward the shed. "I'll be back for the next basket shortly."
He walked the half mile through the ruins of the city and stopped outside the door to the shed. He placed the basket down next to the apple masher and pulled the first apple up. He felt something ping on the back of his neck. Instinctively he scratched it, not remembering the sensation. He scratched a second time before he remembered what that particular vibration meant.
"Ares. Answer transmission."
The silicon based assistant accessed the relay and transmitted it to his subneurals.
An image of a man appeared in his ocular display. "Activation code Xeres Zulu three Kappa Alpha seven." The man said.
Jonathan tensed up and took a long breath before sighing. "Go ahead, admiral I'm guessing?"
"Admiral Alexander Oline, and you are Remnant Jonathan Kurzov?"
"I am."
"You are being activated."
Jonathan shook his head. "I'm retired."
"Retired?" The admiral asked. "You're done being human? I didn't know that was a thing."
"I'm retired from whatever you're wanting to ask me to do. Unless it's gardening, I don't give a shit about whatever you're doing."
Admiral Oline looked away for a moment and then back at Jonathan. "I have a report here describing in depth contact and conflict with an alien species, conducted by you. We received this information along with an application for a species of blue fuzzy creatures to be put under our species protection from a communications relay you and your assistant built. Am I wrong in this?"
Jonathan groaned. "No, you're right. I did a good deed."
Alexander nodded to himself as he looked over the report. "Yes, and now for your punishment." He smiled. "Prior to this, we thought all expansionist missions into your galaxy were extinct. The only traces we have left, before you, are the four sentience probes that were sent with your colonists. Do you still have access to those probes?"
Jonathan shook his head. "Haven't seen them in a few centuries. They left this system to continue scanning."
The admiral nodded. "Well, they have been continuing as programmed. They've been transmitting the entire time, and their data as mothballed during the last era, but now." He paused for a moment, his face growing stern. "A lot has changed since you left the Way. We, humanity, are on a similar path as yourself it seems."
"How so?" Jonathan asked.
"Humanity is making peace with our existence. We have gone back to our roots, trying to find peace in this darkness. Gardening, zen, familial ties, these are major values we have fostered, same as you and your adopted blue friends."
"Well, good for humans. Woo." Jonathan said. "Get to the point Oline. What do you want."
"Okay, I'll cut the curtsies. Those four probes from your expedition, their transmissions got bought up by a young entrepreneur. He went through them, refocused the probes to blue planet and found something. There's a species there, Isopodal, smart, but technologically savage. They're never going to reach beyond their atmosphere. They're planet locked, hell, probably never going to see electricity."
"Okay, so savages are causing a problem how?"
Oline sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment. "He watched them, then shared the feed with his friends, who shared the feed with their friends, and it became a phenomenon. These big bug, they're nice with extended families. They build their homes out of their shed carapaces. The longer they stay in a place, the bigger their homes get. Some are a hundred generations old, children walking through their halls touching the shells of ancestors long long gone. They scavenge, filter feed. The build tunnels to channel wastes from their small towns to the forests nearby, perfect balance with their ecosystem. They don't wage war, plan long term settlements with population quotas, living exactly as how the new human government envisions we should."
Jonathan nodded. "Sounds nice."
Oline sighed again. "It's a whole thing. We have a moon dedicated to making plushies of these things. People love them. The probes have been following specific towns for four decades now. Generations of people are involved in this ideology."
"And where do I fit in?"
"Your conflict with the Brin. Our Isopods biologically cleanse their environments of heavy metals. Their towns are built out of high demand, refined, high value materials. The Brin have since shifted their focus away from your blue fuzzy's and now are predating upon the Isopods."
"Fuck. Alright, I'll put a stop to them. You got coordinates for their homeworld?"
The admiral shook his head. "No, we're not into genocide anymore. We have to consider voters now. Your galaxy is being watched in detail now, with your little communication relay set up. We have to do this hands off, plausible deniability."
"For fuck's sake. Okay. How you wanna do this then?"
"Open source a Hadronic engine, give it to them. Basic freedom fighter protocols."
Jonathan nodded. "Understood."
Admiral Oline looked down at his templates and transmitted them. "Remnant Jonathan Kurzov, you are authorized to commence Project Pandora, classification Ultra Secret."
---===*===---
The father and eldest daughter and melted in the house of her forebears. She screeched through the walls, begging them to get out while she focused on the twins. She grabbed the two balls and tucked them into her filter pouches before running out the front door. She made it out to the beach as the heat intensified and the floating disk began sucking up their home. She stood in the water, her visual plate peaking out from the waves watching as she shivered with sadness. Her feeler appendages stroked the twins in her pouches as they fed from her filters, safe under the water. The beams finished melting down her home, pulling the slag up into the belly of the floating circle. She watched it float slowly away, disappearing down the beach.
She stood in the water, watching the smoldering hole that was her home far into the night. The stars were bright, and a dim glow came from beyond the horizons. She didn't dare leave her home, her ancestors. She kept shivering in grief, then she saw it.
A shadow contorted and a figure moved. Her vision, being as highly sensitive as it was, could barely make it out. She watched as it stood next to her ruins, her family home. A flash came from the thing.
"Fear not." It said as clearly as if it were her own blood.
She tiptoed out of the water, her weight coming back to her as she walked onto the beach. She shimmered back at the creature. "Spare us. Please."
It turned toward her, its face horrible and full of holes. Two orbs peered down at her, sending waves of fear through her shell. "A mother stands before me." It said, reflections appearing in front of it, cascading infrared to her. "I will do more than spare you."
Terror welled up in her and she fell down to the ground, but she resisted the urge to coil up and maintained her gaze upon the creature. "You are not them. You, you are different."
It walked closer to her, moving upon a mere two appendages. It lowered down next to her, extending a manipulator arm toward her. "Chance has sent a plague upon your peoples, one that you will not survive." It stared deep into her visor plate. "My people weep at that thought and offer you, Mother of three now two, a gift."
She could not help herself, and as if commanded without words, she extended two of her manipulator appendages up toward it. It opened up the ball at the end of its arm, five digits unfurling to reveal a black cube. It gently pushed the cube into her two pointed appendages.
"What is it?" She asked, shimmering.
The creature shimmered the air around it, speaking in ways she couldn't. "It is the gift we wish we did not have to give. It is horror, pain, and destruction. You know it in your organs, you feel it thinking about your mate, your daughter. Those that brought this feeling to you, will not stop until you give them this feeling back. This, this will allow you to do so, and I am sorry to have to give it to you."
She looked down at the cube in her points, feeling it as it vibrated across her limbs, reaching into her. Lines traced across her shell as she watched it grow on her. She looked back up toward the being as it crawled across her body but the shadow creature was gone.
A voice spoke to her, vibrations in her very core. "Hephaestus online. Greetings Mother."
She stood, her numerous feet appendages poking into the wet sand. "Where are you, being?" She shimmered with her shell.
"I am in you Mother, and am at your service." It replied within her minds.
"What has happened?" She asked, shivering with fear.
"You have been called upon to save your people."
She looked around before touching her own carapace. "How do I, how do we do that?"
"Where are the survivors?" It asked.
She thought for a moment, visions of the deep, visions of safety in the dark filled her minds.
"Go there. Help them."
She shivered again, defeat in the squish of body, her filters feeling the twins feeding at her sides.
"They will not stop, and more will suffer and die."
She turned her gaze back toward the horizon, seeing the glow of other homes melting in the far distance. "We can stop this?" She asked, now solely using her thoughts.
"I am but your tool. You can stop this." It replied.
---===*===---
She had not been to the vents since she picked her mate. They had fed there, filtering, hardening their shells together while discussing their future family. She could see the flickers of bioluminescence in the dark as she approached, her filters tasting the dense biofilm from the sea. She was close, and the flickers were from many peoples, many different families. She watched them talk, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers, grandparents, all missing loved ones. Pain was the primary color, loss and heartache shared through the broken peoples.
She stepped into the outer ring, the heat of the vents warming her and her twins at her sides. Shimmers rose up to her asking who she had lost. She replied. "Mate and eldest daughter." But her reply wasn't heartache, but rather tinged with a new feeling and color. She replied with deep reds, a red tied to a thought from a people people beyond the stars, a red of blood and fire, things she knew nothing about.
The people's around her shifted in confusion at the colors. An elder great mother rose up to her. "You speak confusing daughter. What are you saying? Are you injured?"
She looked around, her visor meeting with dozens of others as they raised up to look at her. "The darkness came to me, spoke with me." She looked at the great mother. "The darkness touched me and has told me what we must do."
The elder mother walked over and touched manipulators with her. "Sit with us daughter, you need to rest. You have come far and need to heal."
"Our mates burn." The Mother of three now two said. "Our children, our families, our fathers burn. Things of light and pain come here and kill us. I will not heal these wounds. I bleed in my organs, pain beyond pain. I will not rest until they cease, until they feel my pain. They will feel this in their organs!" She flashed brighter than those around her thought possible. "I will stop them!"
A father stood up, pain shown in his colors. "They burn us. They are in the sky! How do we stop them? Do you know how? If you know anyway I will lend my spikes to yours. Please, tell us how! Anyone, tell us how." He shouted as bright as he could, lament touching his words.
The Mother of three now two walked over to him, placing her appendages upon his. Dots of blue light shifted from her carapace onto his. She looked into his visor plate and spoke with tinges of red. "The darkness has come and has promised us vengeance."
He flexed his carapace, breathing deep as he sucked in the sea. "What is this?" He asked, his own colors shifting toward the red.
"Our pain made flesh." She replied.
---===*==---
Brin operator Noloc was marking the next metal deposit while the syphons were busy pulling up the slag. It radioed over to buddy Lana. "You nearing full?"
Lana replied back. "Yeah. You want to get food while we empty?"
"Yeah, obviously." It replied. "Care to stimulate bodies while we eat?"
"Yeah obviously." Lana said. "Hey, are you getting any weird readings?"
"Like what?" Noloc asked.
Lana sent over telemetry. "Heat spikes in the water. What are those?"
Noloc looked them over and then scanned the water nearby. "Yeah, I got a dozen near me too. What are those?"
Noloc turned to look out the window just in time to see something leap onto the outer hull of its ship. "Um, one of the native creatures is on my miner."
Lana screamed through the radio.
Noloc shook at the noise and looked back out at the native. The creature was larger than normal, its color darker as well. Noloc watched as the thing curled, hunkering down on the hull. Deep scratching sounds echoed through the ship. "I am in need of assistance." It radioed up toward the mothership. "Assistance needed, native attack."
Telemetry came down. "Wait time for assistance five minutes. Ten minutes. Three hours." It read out, the time continuously increasing.
Noloc looked around. "What is happening! I need assistance!" Another thud on the hull and Noloc looked out to see another native boring into the ship. "Help!"
---===*===---
The Mother walked over to the downed ship and watched as the warriors cut apart the pilot. Hephaestus highlighted the mining beam as she walked across the machinery. She pointed with one of her manipulators. "There Father. We need that piece." She shimmered.
One of the fathers walked over and cut it free with his new sharps. "What is it Mother?"
"It is a tool of light and fire."
He shook, remembering his family burning.
"Remember that pain Father. They will feel it as they burn."
He paused and looked at her. "We will be as they are then. Burners, bringers of pain. That is not who we are."
She felt at the empty filters at her side. "My twins are in the deep with the mothers. That is not who they are, but that is who we must be so they can stay that way."
The Father shimmered back in tones of red. "They will be as we were before."
She flashed understanding. "We will suffer, become the monsters so they won't have to."
He replied understanding.
--===*===---
Three galaxies away, sitting in their living rooms across numerous worlds, humanity watched on. The four probes, hidden in their cloak fields, displayed in completed holographic representations, the forgotten horrors of war. Beams of fire and light rose up from the depths of the seas, melting Brin ships out of the sky. Day after day, the Isopods did what they did, scavenged. More fallen tech fed them, and within three months they had risen out of their gravity well, taking the fight into orbit.
A year later and several scavenged stations and the Isopods had opened up communications, seeking the others hiding in the shadows.
A world of blue fuzzy creatures were quick to respond, welcoming the filter feeders to the galactic community.
The Mother of Three now two was aboard the ship crossing the darkness as the first gathering commenced.

--⧼ BEGIN Broadcast Message ⧽--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Priority Level: Urgent
:: From ::
Center Arm of the Emperor, Planet Laran
:: To ::
All Survivors of Fellow Royal Cast Broods
:: Message ::
The Emperor has graciously permitted the use of his Excellency's summer home on Planet Laran, located in the Empire's Center Arm, as a temporary refuge during the unprecedented violent Terran offences against His Holiness and the holiness of the Omni-brood of Ix.
:: Attachments ::
Coordinates and Flight Key
:: Royal Cryptographic Signature ::
Lord La'Ix, The Emperor's Right-Center Arm
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
--⧼ END Broadcast Message ⧽--

earlier

"CURSE THEM! The great houses are going to have my bloody head for this! There is no way this should've happened and under my command too! The Golden Emperor's own exotic holiday world has gone to ash and the only one to blame is going to be me. Well it was basically my watch anyways. Curse. Them. All"
Those were the only legible sounds one could hear among the frantic stamping of one particular Ixian lord as he hurried away through the underbrush of the royal reserve just outside the centre palace. The same Ixian lord that, only hours earlier, was delighting in his typical cooked boar while enjoying his evening's entertainment of a young Terran girl running for her life from a loose Laran tiger. Something about the way those bipeds run always makes him laugh. Some similarly caste Ixian would call this form of entertainment childish, lowbrow, and immature. He would tend to agree. But sometimes he just wanted cheap slapstick humour. The day to day life of the royal caste tends to get dull with all the fine arts an Ixian of his caste is meant to enjoy.
"How did it all go to shit!?! I was always attentive, and there hasn't been an uprising since those terrans were tamed for the palace. I mean we mostly neuter the problematic ones anyways, so why all the sudden aggression?", he shouted in agitation at the emptiness in front of him.
Speeding through the royal garden which in actuality is a repurposed Savannah of the island the palace is on. The Ixian was a beast of speed. Perfectly honed and trained over decades, and genetically maintained over eons, he always proudly held that he was the fasted in his brood of 16. Making a name for himself among the other broodkin for being the most genetically suited for the rank of high general (not that there was any need for generals, there hasn't been need for war in so long). Of course the Ixians always pride themselves in having no excess potential, and adapting your environment to suit your biology, but it never hurts to have perfect biology. That's the true pride of an Ixian.
That innate need to change the universe rather than changing themselves is what led to their vast interstellar empire. One that reached from constellation to constellation and then eventually to the arms of entire galaxies, terraforming worlds to the same environment they were already adapted to. Since forcing nature into one's bidding was the most sacred duty of any that shared a lick of Ix biology.
Which was why the Ix was confident in themselves. This Ixian in particular surely felt surprised, but mainly he was only moderately upset at the sudden change of situation, from being comfortable in the royal dining hall to sudden exercise.
"Everything can be changed back. Everything can be changed back." It repeated the mantra to itself. As it began to relax and turn its snarled sharp mouth into a toothy grin.
"Yes, there is nothing to worry about at all. Then let's make a game plan. Just need to make it to the space port at the harbour. Grab a ride out and find someone else to take the fall. That old royal butler is as ancient as the dirt of the broodworld. Hell, he probably was there when it vanished in the shadow of the holy empire's long past." chuckling to himself at the quite witty remark, but saddened that no one else was there to hear it.
Should be realistic enough for the others to believe. But first things first, I need to reach the harbour-master. It thought while its dense muscles powered the beastly lizard-like form on its journey, as it bound in the direction of its destination at top speed on all fours.
The blood red sun was already kissing the horizon by the time the Ixian went to nearly collapse under exhaustion of the extended sprint. He hasn't ran this far and fast than when he a young broodling that won competitions and competitions in the royal sports. I think I might have overdid it. He thought while massaging the oncoming threat of a sneaky cramp in his hind leg.
The Ixian were well known for speed. But their stamina was another thing. There bodies simply didn't have the evolved features for long distance travel. There was never truly any need in the past, as their very steady and controlled climate and sparsely diverse ecosystem on Ix never truly required much challenge.
It turned its panting head to face the way it came, gazing proudly at the great distance it made in such a short while.
But something was off by that view. Something different to what he was expecting. The view itself was mostly fine. Well, as fine as a smoking mark in the distance, presumably from the summer palace being engulfed in flame and spitting great plumes of black smoke. But no, something about this view chilled him to this spine. Craning his neck from his vantage point he could swear there was a small speck in the distance.
What on great Ix is that?
All of a sudden realisation hit like a rock on a peaceful pond. Something was following him. Something unknown and cold was making its way to his location. He was certain it wasn't any of his guards, all guards permitted to serve under the royal summer home were Ixian of course. Physically bred for their strength and speed, and placed into roles of importance like protecting the higher caste such as himself. (Whereas this day being the only exception). It did look like he was the only Ixian that actually made it out of the palace so far. Ixians are able to cover short distances in phenomenal speed, akin to a scaly 4 legged beast of the hunt.
No this was something else.
Feeling a very small panic build up inside, but veiling that cold, unwanted terror as impatience at how far he still needs to travel yet. Lord La'Ix flexed his anterior legs and sped on leaving behind a red-yellow cloud of dust in his wake.
He frowned. Feeling strange at a never before felt sensation. Like something in the back of his perfectly designed brain was screaming a silent, but terrifyingly familiar warning.
"Ix itself is an ancient world. Temperate in climate, while abundant in vegetation and small game. It is unknown how the Ixian was formed on paradise.
The old priest can drum into your heads that I'Ix made us into being by indenting his form in the sand of the first beach and filling the shape with his life. Moulding us into being.
The heretic would counter and say we evolved from a previous species akin to ourselves over the course of untold lengths of time.
The philosopher would suggest that only on paradise would the sentient universe fill in the space for the perfect beings to enjoy the fruits of existence.
Lastly, even the lowest caste Ixian would point and laugh at the rest and say 'why talk about antiquity, when we can make more paradise to fill the heavens'."
-A popular Ixian parable
Lord La'Ix bolted up all of a sudden from his resting spot. Heart suddenly beating frantically. The stars had barely enough time to shift positions when last rested his weary body, only a couple hours must have passed since dusk fell and the world plunged into night.
The silence of the Savannah made sound from afar travel better. Aside from the quiet rustling of the wind he wasn't so sure what he heard. Assuming his bored ears were playing tricks on him.
Calming down, curling up on the flat cool rock he found he started to drift to the shadowless lands where all Ixian go when they dream...
Drums, no, not drums. Some sort of mechanical tool? Not that I ever heard of a tool that just beat the ground senseless. A strange beating sound could be heard, pounding into the ground. As he stayed frozen and very awake, he could have sworn it was getting louder. Closer.
CRACK. SNAP. CRACK.
Suddenly the entire valley echoed the sounds of a few broken sticks.
La'Ix jumped up, whirling around, and came to face something approaching fast that could only be described as a cold predator, not that there were any predators on the homeworld's recorded history. But every cell in his aching body reacted the same. DANGER, DANGER, RUN, RUN.
The silver light of the planet's 3 moons barely lit the valley but what that light bounced off of was a figure in motion. Front Legs pumping up and down, nostrils flaring, eyes too close together, and pupils so large it was like staring at darkness itself.
Hold on there are only 2 legs right? Sudden familiarity hit him hard, memories of last night's entertainment stained his mind. In the name of Ix is that a Terran?!?
La'Ix didn't realise it then, but it was looking at a Terran, despite the Terrans characteristics looking different to the standard slave he was used to seeing. The pumping body of the runner was made for such long distances. Sweat acting as a cooling mechanism, making the man glisten in the harsh moonlight, the enlarged nostrils taking in all the air the body needs for this type of strenuous activity. And the enlarged pupils, made for adjusting to low light environments.
Down on the plains of the Savannah were two creatures. One a perfect evolutionary miracle, practically evolution's first try gone right, Perfectly made for its environment and was never truly exposed to varying climates and environments. And the other, having crawled through the primordial ooze, and struggled and fought its way through dangers, diseases, and competition on its own horrifying world. Where deadly heat in deserts can dry out any living thing, and such freezing poles that can turn anything that enters it in pure ice.
The man's lean and sweat-slicken form was steadily making its way towards the frozen statue of La'Ix. Just as he got within 50 paces did La'Ix sprint away scattering pebbles in its path the echoes of which bounced back from the valley's sharp walls. Undeterred, the chaser kept steadily running. Jaws grit. Eyes locked on afar.
And afar was its prey. Sprinting away.
HOW IN IX'S NAME DID THAT THING KNOW WHERE I AM? The La'Ix in a fit of sudden excitement mixed with a heavy dose of panic, began its high octane sprint from the sudden looming threat of being found. Hind Legs propelling the creature's body forward, while its front arms, which were historically also for four legged locomotion, pulled the terrain closer with each stride. Increasing its momentum until it reached max speed.
"Broodling La'Ix!" said a stern but educated voice.
"Huh? Oh! Yessir!" a young Ix jumped to attention still thinking about more enjoyable things specifically outside of the classroom walls.
"Well? Can you please answer my question or will you make your other broodkin wait until Ix falls to ash first", the tutor said expectantly, prompting several muffles giggles in the room.
"Sorry sir. What makes the Ixian race its place in eternity is the attention we put in perfection. After our home-world of Ix's climate and terrain began to change, the leaders from antiquity decreed we carry on the spirit of the home-world in maintaining a consistent biological and genetic profile that will always be suited to Ix's surface. As we change worlds to be more like Ix, we can spread the spirit of Ix to them. As such, Change is- uh, change is..."
"Change is the poison of perfection, Remaining unchanged for Ix enable us to carry its spirit to other planets in the heavens", continued the tutor. "Well you certainly paid some attention to today's lesson at the very least. But remember that final part. It's the last of the core tenants you will need to remember."
"Yessir!"
A good half night passed on the surface of the Savanna. Where a previously noble and alert Ixian who took great care in appearances and status was no longer to be seen. Instead of that proud domineering alien representative of ix was a dishevelled, dusty, ragged creature, dehydrated, hungry, and exhausted from the various sprints it forced itself to endure to stay ahead of fate's ever closing hand.
Is this the sword of Damocles that was mentioned in the ancient Terran records? Always hanging down on those who hold power and seek more? Fate's sharp blade? But why me? I was never in any real power. All I wanted out of this life was a comfortable posting with no dirt and grime from the lower worlds. Why me? Why now? Why do I-
La'Ix snapped himself out of a daze. Is he here- No, no I should be far far away from that Terran now. Maybe I can find some-
A dim glow interrupted its train of thought. Much too early to be the Sunrise on the Emperor's summer planet, and much to low to be the light from one of it's 2 moons. It was a light from a town.
"That's right!" The Ixian barely managed to rasp in between haggard breaths. Its body barely able to continue the amount of self inflicted abuse it has suddenly been put in.
A lot more hunched over than the Ixian was earlier. It made its way towards a small town it knew was in between the palace and the harbour. The emperor loved his royal rustic towns and villages. It is said that his royal emperor would sometimes tour around them marvelling at the romantic theme of a simple rustic life. Although getting a personal town full of Ixians required a lot of lower caste be forced into long and expensive work contracts as background entertainers for the king's planet, all this excessive show of wealth was partially for peackocking the emperor's reputation, and partially for his own personal enjoyment. The Emperor is almost culturally required to flaunt his royal wealth in all forms in order to keep connections with all the royal houses. An emperor that doesn't shower their supporting aides and houses with grand gifts is fated to eventually be found cold on the floor of the royal banquet due to 'suicide from accidentally ingesting poison', as was the previous emperor.
To avoid such an unfortunate passing, the Higher Royals would trade vast resources, delicacies, and even exotic slaves to court 'royal favours'. Slaves of the Terran variety especially are considered to be the most unique of gifts the empire has ever acquired.
Terrans weren't necessarily large and bulky. Fighters were assigned to the Slave Obniraks. Powerful creatures used to fill the fields on tougher worlds where mechanical services would be deemed to expensive. The growth of a Obnirak into full working adulthood is only a few cycles. Meaning mass producing a workforce is quite an easy feat.
Terrans instead would take vast cycles to mature from a childling to an average adult. Meaning growing a slave force would take vast quantities of resources, immense patience, and strict guidance from their owners as to not create faulty creatures. All of which increases the general standing on any house that manages to keep a vast amount of Terran slaves in the best quality.
Terrans weren't necessarily docile and obedient. That role was perhaps given to the oldest slave race the Ix ever controlled. The Iralisa. It was known that they were made remarkably docile due to generations upon generations of select breeding, and pruning off the 'aggressive traits' from the gene pool. However, that led to the adverse effect of physically weakening them to a point where such docility and lack of a frame to keep up with their workload led to a general lack of Ixian interest and were subsequently purified.
Terrans are notoriously independent and herd-minded in larger quantities. Similar to growing a very stubborn Terulian Rose Vine. Which only looks impressive when great care have been given. Terrans need to be given an illusion of being ever so slightly free. Which typically involves owning vast amounts of land and nature to let them roam and graze. Of course, the only ones that can accommodate grand work forces of Terrans are the larger houses with the appropriate territory for humans, as is studied in the Ixian art of Servitude.
One can only guess which species is the Emperor's favourite.
The following town should indeed have both, low caste Ixians, and possibly none of the Emperor's favourite slaves.
The Ixian approached the glowing town. As it reached closer it straightened its back, upright on its hindlegs in the royal fashion. And proclaimed. "It is I! La'Ix, royal courtier. Lend me aid imme-"
Something is off. Not a single shadow in the town, I can see lights but no movement, where is every-
After turning the corner to the center of the small town, the dustied and weary creature froze in its tracks when it saw it. A pit nearly as wide as an Ixian land cruiser and who knows how deep filled with a stench so powerful it watered his eyes. Despite the Ixian's lack of a proper sense of smell. It knew the foul fetor of death.
The crudely dug pit was nearly overflowing when he approached it. Large, smoking, smouldering pyres cast that eerie light that had drawn him in.
"H-how? Wha-What the..." he trailed off when a local species of Laran boar growled and squealed as it tore a dead Ixian limb from the mountain of corpses.
"Who could've..."
He stopped. The shock of seeing his own kind laid like broken dolls in a bleeding pit slowly faded, replaced by a numbness. The Ixian had just noticed they were of Ix. Only of Ix.
Not a single terran colour was visible in the black and spotted pit of bodies. Not a single slave body was visible.
I-Impossible...
His legs gave way, either from the strain of the entire nights run, the horror facing him, or the threat from behind. He just dropped.
Minutes passed, or hours. It was hard to tell. But the Ixian lay slumped. Body unwilling to move further. Battered flesh unwilling to be propelled by a shattered spirit.
Mind slowly spinning up again. Thoughts began whirring to life in its mind. Could the rumours actually have been true? It had read the sparse reports of odd activity from certain Ixian-controlled worlds on the outer arms of the empire. Small uprisings of unknown origin. Hardly anything of note. If it had no affect on the greater houses then it was of no real concern to Ix and its emperor.
Could this threat have made its way to the centre arm already? Impossible. But what else could have done this to us?
Something caught the Ixian's eyes. In the middle of the pit it stood. A large stake, wet with deep Ixian crimson, dripping ever so slowly. Towering over the pit like a battlefield flag was a head of an Ixian rammed onto the tip of the spike. But the particular detail that caught the Ixian's eyes was a symbol cut into the flesh of the large forehead.
Looking from the outward-in. Eight concentric rings, which proceeded to get smaller and smaller in size until it reached a dark mass at the centre of the symbol. The Ixian never forgot the symbol and the affect it had on it.
Eight concentric rings, and a centre mass. Eight rings, and a mass. Eight- Eight what? Eight planets? And a star? ...
A growing pool of cold dread rose in its guts that made it shiver despite the fair night. This dread reflected the sharp reality on its frigid surface.
This Ixian was well-bred, well-trained, and well-educated. Although anyone with a basic education would know of such a pattern.
Terra and her sisters. THEIR star system...
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
It's not possible!-
Knowing what that sound meant, the Ixian tried to whirl around, its body barely being able to heed its masters commands. Just when it was starting to move again it felt it.
Sudden sharp agony. Sudden sharp, raging agony. The Ixian looked at it's hind leg. A sharpened wooden stake was jutting out of it.
It loud out a tight lipped scream, as it grasped the pulsating wound as one does immediately after an injury. It barely had enough time to look up at its attacker when the Terran bolted forward, shortening the distance between hunter and prey from metres to mere paces. The Ixian barely had enough time to block the hand grasping the knife as the arm flew forward at the last minute with a crash.
What phenomenal force!
Using the momentum from that sprint plus the wind up of his arm. The Terran was able to impart a phenomal show of force for a creature its size. That's when La'Ix for the first time saw a human in its raw unchanged form. Great beads of sweat collecting dust on its brow, to prevent it from entering the eyes. The constant release of sweat from the countless pores on its soft fleshy skin. Constant cooling? Even the visible veins and capillaries visible from the fire light.
What a beast of endurance-
Suddenly the horizon fell before the Ixian only to reveal the inky black sky dotted with pigments from stars like a painters masterpiece. When did I look up? Then a crash and blunt force from the ground.
The Ixian had been toppled over by that ferocious exchange of force.
Barely able to get up due to the wind being knocked out of its single large lung, the searing pain in its hind leg, and the exhaustion from the chase. It was too late. The terran was already on top of it. Taking up the entire view of the sky as the terran stepped forward into its field of vision.
The sudden perspective change made a once small and frail looking slave look grander than life, grander than all the legends told to Ixian broodlings.
The punches rained down. Repeatedly. A constant bombardment of beating rained like the drops of rain before the first dew. The previous pain in its leg forgotten, to invite a new visitor in the form of blunt force trauma. So ferocious were the raw blows to its carapace that the Ixian felt the exoskeleton crack under the increasing pressure and strain.
Something cracked, another thing snapped. The amount of pain too much to comprehend. The neurons firing in its second brain just assumed it was everywhere. Its half-working eye glimpsed the fist as it came down for the nth time. Red and split knuckles, revealing pure white bone beneath—a reinforced weapon. The perfect natural offence. All the muscles moved to propel it downwards where something else cracked and split.
Is this where I die?
As if understanding its fate the Ixian's form slumped over. Its body barely holding onto the natural exoskeleton shielding that covered its chest and facial area. Fluids leaking from the cracks that went too deep, and who knows how many internal ribs are shattered.
Its body, knowing that that more movement will cause more injuries, and further stimuli would confuse it further. It simply shut down.
The last moments it had as it fell backwards on its side. Was a small running figure. Hand clutching wooden spears. But the truly petrifying sight was behind it. A vast shadow flickering from the light of the lit pyres from the hunter in front of it. A shadow cast so large, jagged, and menacing it appeared to swallow the town whole.
And into a hole did the Ixian fall. A vacuum with no sensation or thought. Just darkness.
How... did we never notice such a... monster... in their... shadow...
All Ixians were taught about 'violence' and 'conflict' at an early age. As a sort of rite of passage that any of them would go through as they survive their early broodling days. As Ix have no natural predators, they had begun to instil a serving of some necessary conflict to keep their generations fresh and somewhat physically strong. As a precaution, only rudimentary forms of civil sports, races, shows of strength and courage were ever really explored. But always in a controlled and calm settings, as there would never be any true need for actual conflict.
As there was always a need to maintain ones own environment. The need never arose for the development of fighting techniques and schools of training. That was one of the best parts of being an Ix that many thought. Having supreme control over the worlds you inhabit means setting gravity, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and temperatures to the perfect levels for comfort replaced any need for biological change. Why grow when you can keep everything the same way, how you like it.
They were a vast empire. An empire of statues.
-Excerpt from the history of extra-solarian species, Author unknown
It awoke to a burning radiating heat from in front. The large sun was already starting to set on the horizon when it awoke. Had a whole day passed? Or two?
Trying to block the setting sun from its eyes it couldn't. "What?...", barely made out in a whisper.
I'm tied up.
And indeed the Ixian was right. Tied up next to a small brook, with a scorching fire in front of it. The monster nowhere to be seen.
"No good... it's too tight", it grunted in an attempt to escape its bindings.
Going slack in defeat it avoided any additional movement. Not having the energy to spare to move. It was lucky to have always been lazy at shedding its carapace - a frequent nag from its broodmother - might just have become its salvation in this case.
Thank Ix.
So there it stayed.
Hours passed. The Sun fully set and the stars awake in this dark world barely lit up the wildlands. Only the prisoner in this cone of firelight existed out here.
A rustling up ahead caught the prisoner's attention disturbing the eerily still silence of the Savannah night. And ungodly horror of a squeal ruptured the air invoking a deep visceral terror within the bound prisoner. Something. Something close but just outside the firelight was eyeing it, glinting from beyond the light. Those dark predatory eyes stabbed the prisoner with a sudden coldness. All while the squealing suddenly halted. SNAP. SQUELCH.
Now it came, emerging into the light. A beast. Holding a knife in one bloodied hand, dripping on the dirt. And dragging by the leg, a massive adult Laran boar grotesquely smearing thick blood still warm from the cut in the neck on the dirt.
The prisoner watched, barely moving, barely breathing. Frozen with the horror in front of it as the bloodied carcass was skinned; fur sliced away with harsh, scraping sounds with the crude knife. Spurting remaining blood all over the site.
The pink naked flesh then washed in the brook, leaving a distinct smell of oxidised blood in the air, before being skewered and roasted over the roaring flames. Fat popping violently in the heat.
In this gruesome display, the beast revealed not just a fate for the boar, but a dark hint of what might come. The realisation struck deep—this could be more than just a demonstration; it was a terrifying preview of its own potential end.
It passed out again.
Only to be awoken by the haunting echoes of a wild, desperate squeal that once thrummed through the savannah's eerie silence. Dare it open its eyes?
After a great heavy effort -utilizing its every last drop of courage- one eye cracked open. And what it saw. Made it regret ever having done so.
Right across from it, the hunter was a grotesque silhouette against the flickering fire. Grasping a severed boar leg was a mouth viciously biting, ripping, tearing into the flesh with primal ferocity. Each bite was deliberate, each tear of sinew was a clear, calculated demonstration of supreme savagery. Its jaw muscles bulged with the force of a bite.
All the while, the eyes—deep, abyssal pits—fixed intently on the prisoner. Deepest black pits stared back at it. Watching. Observing. Calculating, with a dark intelligence. it was calculating. It was relishing the terror it inspired and the control it exerted. Or planning its next meal.
The sounds of ripping flesh filled the thick, blood-soaked air. Deep into the night. Deep into this never-ending nightmare.
Never once did the prisoner move. Not an iota. Frozen in abject horror.
The night passed quietly. After the feast the human had, or the desecration of life that the prisoner saw, whichever way you look at it. The human nodded off to sleep. Content in the success of his mission. But the tied up creature had no such rest. Sending silent pleas to the stars that it might be saved. But not daring to make a sound, less it awaken that sleeping horror. Or was it sleeping? Dear Ix, it might be watching me. Feigning sleep to keep an eye on its meal. Dear Ix I'm next...
All through the night, the demons plagued its mind. Until the warmth of the morning rose, and with it the sound of an Ixian cruiser.
Elation could not be an understatement for the tired, tied, beat, and bruised thing. Craning its neck to the direction of the sound about to bellow out an Ixian warning to the demon resting next it.
"BE CAREFUL! THERE'S ONE HERE-". It stopped speaking. That previous elation it felt at a saviour arriving to rescue it from the demons grasp, fizzled out like a drop of water in a drought.
That all so familiar cold remained. And the dryness of despair. As pairs of dark pupils shot back at it.
On the cruiser were tall adult Terrans. Clean cut, well fed, well dressed Terrans. Four, no Six, no eight of them. All hanging onto the side of cruiser while it made its way to their location. Compared to the demon waking up beside it, these creatures were organised. A savageness neatly packaged in a uniform with a symbol. The prisoners eyes grew wide in its sunken sockets. 8 rings, and a centre mass. They must be the cause of, well all this.
Accepting fate, its head fell in part defiance, in part to avoid the stinging eyes of these others. It felt their gaze burn through—cold, cruel, calculating. There is nothing I can do any longer.
"You're finally here. What took you so long?" The runner said to his approaching comrades, "Took all night to catch up to him."
"Hey Jan, great work", the tall militant woman shot back. With a playful punch to his arm. "Guess all that cardio really paid off, didn't I tell you it would!" She let out a playful guffaw.
"Thanks Chel", replied Jan.
"Ok chop chop people, we're on a schedule. We need to reach the port ASAP remember? Come on Jan, rest up all you like, you're still on the clock."
"Aye sir." Jan shot back in a mock salute, gaining a sneer from the commandant, then a sneaky smile.
"Don't forget your trash. And make sure its breathing still."
It creaked open its eyes, seeing pairs of boots moving towards it and standing in front. In silence. Then all of a sudden, felt pairs and pairs of hands pull and tug. and lift it up The thing let out a pathetic silent sob. While it was loaded in the back of the cruiser, face up. Staring at eyes, piercing black dots peering back. It could never understand what was being felt by those eyes and those faces.
Ixians wear their emotions on their carapace; spots and stripes would slowly appear in certain parts, representing emotions and feeling that their bodies felt in a general sense. But the most private thoughts were of course, still kept private.
But this. This was just too foreign. The eyes never stopped. Even in the swaying movement of the cruiser the pupils never broke contact. Those eyes. As if it was peering into it, envelops your entire mind. There was no way to hide, even hiding in his inner self would do no good. Those eyes. Those predator eyes can find me anywhere I try to escape to. Inside and out.
Some times passes.
"You know. I lost good friends to the royal caste. Especially to this one's brood clan or whatever they like to call it." One of them was looking right at it when they said it. It turned its eyes over to the source. A short one, with a slave scar on the neck said it. A scar that shot through his memories. A scar inflicted to property owned by, his brood. This one is dangerous..., it thought.
Jan, and the others didn't look but felt it. The cold darkness in that tone made it clear what it intended to do.
The female militant, Chel, I think her name was. Slowly reached to the side arm on her holster. Sensing the oncoming problem.
"You still understand me don't you? I've had to watch good people die. Damn good people." The scarred one one stood, grabbing the upper rail of the cruiser to steady themselves. "I hear that even if you get ill, you become the entertainment for the night. What was it now?" She paused for a brief second. "Oh I remember".
"Stil" Chel said slowly. "Cool it". Hand still on the butt of the sidearm.
Not hearing or not wanting to reply. Stil continued. "Torn apart by those raptor pets. Hands or feet cut off as souvenirs for those fucked-up parties and those fucked-up guests. Oh yea, and the 'toy play' or whatever they call it. Can't have Ken and Barbie fight back now, can we?"
Stil leaned closer to the now cowering, shaking thing, "I wonder which one was your favourite." The words cut through La'Ix like an icicle. This was the first time these demons actually spoke to it directly. And it didn't like it. It could sense the venom from the words.
"Stil..." Chel slowly got up, hand still at the ready. "I said cool it." The line had a steely warning to it. Chel wouldn't risk the mission. Even if it meant doing what must be done.
Agonizing seconds passed. The cowering, shaking thing seemed to grow whiter and whiter by the second, It's spots clearly showing what it felt. Staring up, Not willing to move but being unable to hide. It felt the absolute crushing weight of the present. Grinding it down to a paste.
Everyone stayed still. The two militants didn't move. The rest didn't seem to even have paid attention to the converstation, still looked away.
Longer passed.
Stil smiled, "Oh come on Chel, you know I wouldn't do anything to our friend here? You know I was just playing around." Stil laughed. Chel didn't react.
Stil immediately crouched, faced the shaking prisoner inches apart eye to eye, and in a whisper said "Right friend?"
She wants me to reply? Dear Ix I can't even think with those eyes in front of me What do I do?! What do I say?!
"Right. Friend?" Stil repeated slower and colder. Like the blade of a surgeon hovering over skin, ready to plunge.
The gears of its Ixian brain grinded to a screeching halt. In utter desperation to find a reply it simply gave up. Instead, it felt a warmth slowly spread. Slowly spread between its hind legs. It had released its bladder.
"BAHAHAHAHA LOOK AT IT" Stil roared in laughter. The sound of it rattling the prisoners brain with the sound. Disorienting its senses. "NOW THAT'S CLASSIC TIMING IF I'VE EVER SEEN IT!" She plopped back down face red and still laughing.
The Ixian didn't know what to do but tremble and sob silently on the cold surface of the cruiser surrounded by laughter. and the warmth of its piss. It tried to plug its ears. But the sound still came. Laughter. Laughter. Laughter. Dear Ix, what are these demons... where are they taking me? To hell?...
The cruiser kept cruising. Towards the port across the island. Trailing laughter behind. Or to the sobbing wreck of a thing, demonic cackling.
The scent of familiarity wafted into the senses of the prisoner as the cruiser started to slow. The smell of the salt, the chirping of familiar aviaries. Sound of the crash of sea. The port.
Braving a sentence for the first time in for what seems eternity. It let out a question "...w..w..where ... why... are... ... we ...h... here?" It managed to say shakily, eyes downcast.
As if in response, a sharp shove greeted it from the back and a hard hit on the ground was as much of an answer it was getting.
"Move it", Jan said gruffly.
They walked. the ixian still bound but free to walk in the middle of the group of humans. Towards a destination still not known. The walk twisted, and turned, and twisted again. One thing struck out to the prisoner. It was too clean, especially for what it was expecting, it's last experience being in the previous blood-soaked town laden with bodies and carrion eaters.
The port town was completely silent, free from the regular hustle and bustle it usually had even when the emperor was not present. And superbly clean. Not a single piece of dirt to be seen. Not a single Ixian either. Where did everyone go? Did they make it out somehow when these invaders came?
In the background, the surf broke relentlessly.
Piercing eyes caught the prisoners glance, as it wandered curiously around the town. Realising its mistake La'Ix tried to look away but the burning gaze gripped his own.
As if reading its soul. The human answered the hidden question bubbling up in La'Ix. "You should've seen them your royal majesty". The one called Stil said while bending in mocking courtesy.
The surf pounded the shore even more loudly now.
"They don't swim well. Especially the young ones. They dropped like stones. Turning all white by the time they stopped moving."
Louder now. The sea roared.
Nothing came. Not a thought in La'Ix's mind. Its mind struggled to comprehend the depth of what was said by Stil, the scarred human.
The waves boomed louder now. Louder than the sun, echoing louder than the screams of all the Ixians that must have perished.
It saw the lips of the standing-devil in front of it. But all the came from its blood red lips were obscured by the sound of the pounding of the waves. The echoes of drowned kin, thudding and slapping against the shore, merged with the relentless surf in La'Ix's mind.
This is for our sins.
Wave after wave, the relentless surge continued, each one a haunting reminder of the souls lost to the sea, each crash a ghostly thud of bodies hitting the shore.
Very slowly did some exhausted neuron in the Ixian's head come to a conclusion as to how these creatures in front of it can be so relentless, so cruel, and so evil. When pushed to beyond its breaking point, did their true carnivorous instincts rear their ugly head.
Oh dear Ix. What sort of environment could breed such demons?
La'Ix didn't remember what happened next. The memories feel like a distant dream now as he sits watching the port sky now.
The aching brand on his forehead of the 8 ringed system, pulsed in pain—a departing gift from his newly made friends, stung from the salty sea air.
He barely recalls the staggered walk from the empty inter-arm transmission office and the inputting of his biometric royal seal. He barely even remembers the message that was sent under his name and signature
And even less does he remember what he heard what will happen next.
All alone now, he stares at the sky of the empty port town. As he watches more royal ships enter the atmosphere.
He gazes upward, thoughtlessly, statue-like Knowing fate will come for them all. Fate in the form of piercing black eyes and a monster so large it can fit in a shadow.
A single thought, carried its way from above the despair to the surface. Slowly. Like a bubble in a pool of tar.
What was I meant to tell the emperor again?

Supreme Admiral Vex stared intently at the holo-display in front of him, blinking in disbelief at what the sensor readings were indicating. The small blue world, designated Earth by its inhabitants, was buzzing with activity that seemed impossible.
Powerful energy signatures radiated from weapons emplacements, scattered across the planet surface, far surpassing the type of directed energy armaments even the Krell empire had mastered. Swarms of orbital shipyards, held frame after frame of colossal starships taking shape, the largest stretching over 30 kilometers in length.
"Run the scans again," Vex growled at the sensor operator. "There must be some mistake." But as the data refreshed, it showed no changes, humanity appeared to have grasped technologies centuries ahead of their time.
Vex could sense the unease spreading through his crew, on the bridge of the cruiser Korath. Hushed whispers questioned, how a species could possibly achieve such advancement so fast. It went against everything they knew about the natural order, of technological progression.
Below, Commander Sadir approached Vex hesitantly. "Admiral, long range scanners have detected unusual energy signatures forming in orbit of the third planet. I believe...one of their starships may be deploying."
Steeling himself, Vex turned to the main viewscreen just as a burst of intense light erupted from one of the orbital shipyards. Shielding his eyes, he watched in awestruck horror as an immense vessel began to unfold, its armor plating extending layer by layer like some colossal metal flower. When the awakening was complete, a full kilometer had been added to its Length.
"30 kilometers," a sensor operator reported weakly. "Armor suggests offensive and defensive capabilities, beyond our own Battleship class. Its weaponry..." She trailed off, overwhelmed by the readings.
Admiral Vex stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Korath, lost in thought as images from his encounter with humanity played out in his mind. He was startled from his reverie by the chirp of his comm system.
"Admiral, the Terran delegation has arrived and is requesting an audience," his aide informed him. Vex took a moment to collect himself before responding.
"Send them in." He turned to face the entrance as the doors slid open, revealing Commander Chen and two of her soldiers. Vex gestured for them to follow, as he led them to the observation deck overlooking the Sol system.
"I must confess, Commander, that my initial observations of your people were...troubling," Vex began. "The level of advancement seen was beyond any records or expectations. It is clear humanity has achieved remarkable success in a short period of time."
Chen regarded him cooly. "And what conclusions have you drawn, Admiral?"
Vex met her steady gaze. " Your species may pose a threat to galactic stability. However, after further analysis, I believe cooperation may be beneficial to all of us." He paused. "You must understand how...surprising this was for my people."
Chen considered this. "While strength ensures our survival, we seek peaceful relations. If the Empire approaches us as peacefully, there need not be conflict. But make no mistake, we will defend ourselves by any means if threatened."
Vex nodded slowly. "A message I will convey. Progress requires understanding between our people. I believe much can be gained through open exchange and trust."
Vex made his decision. "Helm, plot a course back to the empire border at maximum speed. Send a priority alert to Command, humanity is more advanced than any records indicate, and may pose an existential threat. We must convene the Council at once."
The journey back was spent in uneasy silence. Vex stayed glued to sensor displays, half expecting the Terran warship to give chase. But it remained in high orbit, no doubt monitoring the Korath's retreat.
Upon arriving, Vex was summoned immediately to the Council chambers. He recounted all that had been observed, dreading their reaction. Murmurs of alarm broke out, as holograms showed the size and power of human ships, and weapons.
"How can a species achieve such a drastic technological leap, in a so short time?" One councilor demanded. Vex had no answers, only more questions.
When the panic subsided, Grand Admiral Kaar spoke. "Clearly these Terrans pose a grave danger if left unchecked. Vex, you will return to Sol system covertly at once, try to discover the source of their advancement, and determine if we can make sense of their technology. As Vex ship departed he wondered, how would second contact end, if he is discovered. Either way, Empire has decided and he must obey.
Supreme Admiral Vex pored over star maps, in his quarters aboard the Korath, calculating routes that would covertly bring them back within range of the Sol system. His original plan had been, to make peaceful diplomatic contact, yet after witnessing humanity's military prowess, council has decided on covert operation.
Captain Sadir entered and approached hesitantly. "Admiral, the navigational simulations are complete. There is a gravitational anomaly near the system's outer edge, that could conceal our entry, if precise calculations are made."
Vex examined the proposed route. "It seems our best option. Set a course and engage at maximum safe speed. Alert me the moment we exit." Sadir saluted and departed to relay orders.
Days passed as the Korath crept through the void, buffeted by turbulent currents as they neared the anomaly. Vex felt his stomach twist, half expecting to drop out of speed within range of those Terran sensing nets. But their journey went without incident, bursting from the anomaly clouds undetected.
At first, all seemed normal as Vex scanned local space from his station. Then he noticed it, the barest trace energy reading rapidly expanding, originating from the anomaly itself. "Explain!" He barked, alarmed.
"I-I'm sorry Admiral, our entry point must have triggered proximity sensors somehow," a technician stuttered. "That trace...it's moving to intercept us at maximum sublight speed already!"
Vex stared in disbelief at the viewscreen. A brilliant pinprick of light had emerged from the planet, rapidly growing larger as it closed the distance at frightening velocity. His heart sank. "Battle stations! Shields to maximum, charge all projector banks!"
Alarms shrieked as the Terran vessel bore down on them, easily five times the Korath's size. Vex watched helplessly as its silvery hull pivoted, hundreds of gunports sliding open to reveal gleaming barrels. "Admiral, weapons are powering up, that ship will be in optimal firing range within minutes!"
His ship shuddered under the first volley, energy shearing through weakened shields. Secondary explosions ripped through decks below, as systems shorted out one by one, from each precise hit. "Shields collapsing, engines offline! They're hailing us sir!"
Steeling himself, Vex turned to the viewscreen expecting to see a Terran commander demanding surrender. Instead, a feminine synthetic voice spoke calmly. "Unidentified vessel, power down all systems and prepare to be tractored. Any aggression will result in your destruction."
Within hours, the Korath had been thoroughly disabled and boarded, human repair teams working faster than Vex believed possible. He could only marvel, as they towed the wounded cruiser, into high orbit of Earth, where an immense orbital shipyard bustled with work on vessels just as massive.
Vex was escorted to a landing zone where military officers awaited. A stern looking man in a crisp uniform stepped forward. "I am Commander Holden of United Earth Defense Forces. You will explain why you entered our territory unannounced, Admiral Vex."
Struggling to find words, Vex rambled out their mission, as dispassionately as possible. Holden listened without expression before gesturing to his escort. "You are our guests now, But know that any threat, will be met with overwhelming force, as you have witnessed today."
With that, Vex was transported to Earth itself, catching glimpses out viewports of sprawling cities glittering below powerful energy shields. He realized with a chill that despite his status, here he was truly at the mercy of humans, and their incomprehensibly advanced civilization. Cooperation, would be the Empire's only hope, of escaping this imminent threat unscathed.

Supreme Admiral Vex stared intently at the holo-display in front of him, blinking in disbelief at what the sensor readings were indicating. The small blue world designated Sol by its inhabitants, was buzzing with activity that seemed impossible.
Powerful energy signatures radiated from weapons emplacements, scattered across the planet surface, far surpassing the type of directed energy armaments even the Krell empire had mastered. Swarms of orbital shipyards, held frame after frame of colossal starships taking shape, the largest stretching over 30 kilometers in length.
"Run the scans again," Vex growled at the sensor operator. "There must be some mistake." But as the data refreshed, it showed no changes, humanity appeared to have grasped technologies centuries ahead of their time.
Vex could sense the unease spreading through his crew, on the bridge of the cruiser Korath. Hushed whispers questioned, how a species could possibly achieve such advancement so fast. It went against everything they knew about the natural order, of technological progression.
Below, Commander Sadir approached Vex hesitantly. "Admiral, long range scanners have detected unusual energy signatures forming in orbit of the third planet. I believe...one of their starships may be deploying."
Steeling himself, Vex turned to the main viewscreen just as a burst of intense light erupted from one of the orbital shipyards. Shielding his eyes, he watched in awestruck horror as an immense vessel began to unfold, its armor plating extending layer by layer like some colossal metal flower. When the awakening was complete, a full kilometer had been added to its Length.
"30 kilometers," a sensor operator reported weakly. "Armor suggests offensive and defensive capabilities, beyond our own Battleship class. Its weaponry..." She trailed off, overwhelmed by the readings.
Admiral Vex stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Korath, lost in thought as images from his encounter with humanity played out in his mind. He was startled from his reverie by the chirp of his comm system.
"Admiral, the Terran delegation has arrived and is requesting an audience," his aide informed him. Vex took a moment to collect himself before responding.
"Send them in." He turned to face the entrance as the doors slid open, revealing Commander Chen and two of her soldiers. Vex gestured for them to follow, as he led them to the observation deck overlooking the Sol system.
"I must confess, Commander, that my initial observations of your people were...troubling," Vex began. "The level of advancement seen was beyond any records or expectations. It is clear humanity has achieved remarkable success in a short period of time."
Chen regarded him cooly. "And what conclusions have you drawn, Admiral?"
Vex met her steady gaze. " Your species may pose a threat to galactic stability. However, after further analysis, I believe cooperation may be beneficial to all of us." He paused. "You must understand how...surprising this was for my people."
Chen considered this. "While strength ensures our survival, we seek peaceful relations. If the Empire approaches us as peacefully, there need not be conflict. But make no mistake, we will defend ourselves by any means if threatened."
Vex nodded slowly. "A message I will convey. Progress requires understanding between our people. I believe much can be gained through open exchange and trust."
Vex made his decision. "Helm, plot a course back to the empire border at maximum speed. Send a priority alert to Command, humanity is more advanced than any records indicate, and may pose an existential threat. We must convene the Council at once."
The journey back was spent in uneasy silence. Vex stayed glued to sensor displays, half expecting the Terran warship to give chase. But it remained in high orbit, no doubt monitoring the Korath's retreat.
Upon arriving, Vex was summoned immediately to the Council chambers. He recounted all that had been observed, dreading their reaction. Murmurs of alarm broke out, as holograms showed the size and power of human ships, and weapons.
"How can a species achieve such a drastic technological leap, in a so short time?" One councilor demanded. Vex had no answers, only more questions.
When the panic subsided, Grand Admiral Kaar spoke. "Clearly these Terrans pose a grave danger if left unchecked. Vex, you will return to Sol system covertly at once, try to discover the source of their advancement, and determine if we can make sense of their technology. As Vex ship departed he wondered, how would second contact end, if he is discovered. Either way, Empire has decided and he must obey.
Supreme Admiral Vex pored over star maps, in his quarters aboard the Korath, calculating routes that would covertly bring them back within range of the Sol system. His original plan had been, to make peaceful diplomatic contact, yet after witnessing humanity's military prowess, council has decided on covert operation.
Captain Sadir entered and approached hesitantly. "Admiral, the navigational simulations are complete. There is a gravitational anomaly near the system's outer edge, that could conceal our entry, if precise calculations are made."
Vex examined the proposed route. "It seems our best option. Set a course and engage at maximum safe speed. Alert me the moment we exit." Sadir saluted and departed to relay orders.
Days passed as the Korath crept through the void, buffeted by turbulent currents as they neared the anomaly. Vex felt his stomach twist, half expecting to drop out of speed within range of those Terran sensing nets. But their journey went without incident, bursting from the anomaly clouds undetected.
At first, all seemed normal as Vex scanned local space from his station. Then he noticed it, the barest trace energy reading rapidly expanding, originating from the anomaly itself. "Explain!" He barked, alarmed.
"I-I'm sorry Admiral, our entry point must have triggered proximity sensors somehow," a technician stuttered. "That trace...it's moving to intercept us at maximum sublight speed already!"
Vex stared in disbelief at the viewscreen. A brilliant pinprick of light had emerged from the planet, rapidly growing larger as it closed the distance at frightening velocity. His heart sank. "Battle stations! Shields to maximum, charge all projector banks!"
Alarms shrieked as the Terran vessel bore down on them, easily five times the Korath's size. Vex watched helplessly as its silvery hull pivoted, hundreds of gunports sliding open to reveal gleaming barrels. "Admiral, weapons are powering up, that ship will be in optimal firing range within minutes!"
His ship shuddered under the first volley, energy shearing through weakened shields. Secondary explosions ripped through decks below, as systems shorted out one by one, from each precise hit. "Shields collapsing, engines offline! They're hailing us sir!"
Steeling himself, Vex turned to the viewscreen expecting to see a Terran commander demanding surrender. Instead, a feminine synthetic voice spoke calmly. "Unidentified vessel, power down all systems and prepare to be tractored. Any aggression will result in your destruction."
Within hours, the Korath had been thoroughly disabled and boarded, human repair teams working faster than Vex believed possible. He could only marvel, as they towed the wounded cruiser, into high orbit of Earth, where an immense orbital shipyard bustled with work on vessels just as massive.
Vex was escorted to a landing zone where military officers awaited. A stern looking man in a crisp uniform stepped forward. "I am Commander Holden of United Earth Defense Forces. You will explain why you entered our territory unannounced, Admiral Vex."
Struggling to find words, Vex rambled out their mission, as dispassionately as possible. Holden listened without expression before gesturing to his escort. "You are our guests now, But know that any threat, will be met with overwhelming force, as you have witnessed today."
With that, Vex was transported to Earth itself, catching glimpses out viewports of sprawling cities glittering below powerful energy shields. He realized with a chill that despite his status, here he was truly at the mercy of humans, and their incomprehensibly advanced civilization. Cooperation, would be the Empire's only hope, of escaping this imminent threat unscathed.

The first hurdle to your infiltration of Eochu Bres is entering the Hybrasil system undetected. As you reach the hyperjump point into the system you are contacted by Trion Security demanding you to turn on your IFF transponder or be barred from entry by the hyperspace condenser. You turn it on and enter the system, the megastructure of the hyperspace condenser in your view. You watch as another fleet, a large cargo ship with some fuel carriers and a heavy escort, enters normal space outside of the standard traffic entering and exiting the system before being vaporised by the condenser's security systems. Further scans show Path members in the graveyard formed from their attack force, before they are hoovered up by automated salvage vessels, a reminder of why a frontal assault is not recommended.
The first destination of your shuttlecraft is Culann, the industrial centre of the Hybrasil system. Your ship travels to one of the more sparsely populated sectors of the pseudo-eucomopolis world before heading down. Even in the industrial sector, the chaotic heart of the planet is palpable. Street vendors on every corner, streets filled to the brim with people and buildings browned with pollution and use, or as the people of Culann call it "soul". Although Culann is one of the less pleasent places to live in the galaxy, the inhabitants maintain a firm sense of pride in being the heart of a major industrial empire and a blitz spirit towards the hardships found living in a planet-wide industrial slum. Whilst the meeting place is on one of the lower levels, it is far from the bottom, a place home to unkown terrors as is standard of a world such as Culann. You meet with the Faction Paradox agent who hands you your Eochu Bres passports before running through the plan as is standard. Get to the planet, enter the complex, reach the location and breach the vault. As your ships leave the artificially sustained atmosphere of the ex-gas giant you move past the Starship Bazaar, a gargantuan space station surrounded by more ships than your scanners can count.
Your ships is able to pass through the passport blockade of Eochu Bres with little to no difficulty and enter the planet's interdiction field. The various branch complexes each leave their marks on the planet's cold surface. The great agri-rings of Trion Agriculture, hundreds of miles wide each, sustained by terraforming megastructures that maintain the optimum climates for each of the rings. This starkly contrasts with the mountains that play home to the Trion Security complex, peppered by constant small arms fire that act as training for both Trion's military and mercenary branch. Your ship passes the Trion Shipping complex, the only one not to be based on the planet itself. While less sizable than the Culann Starship Bazaar, it still maintains a respectable amount of traffic as it controls the flow of goods into and out of the planet. Finally, your ship flies over the main corporate complex, guided in by an air traffic control officer who makes sure to check your permissions over three times and probably sends it to a higher up to be checked as well. The Corporate complex is the polar opposite of Culann, where Culann is chaotic and polluted, the Corporate complex is clean and controlled. Every shop has a standardised rotor of goods, every piece of public transport runs on time to the second with no privately owned vehicles in sight and every section of the city is surgically designed to be as efficient as possible. You finally find your way to the base of Trion Tower, the map leading to the datavault uploaded to all your PDAs, let the job commence.

(I am using a new account to post this, i have been in the infidelity subreddit since January, just didnt want this linked to my other accounts. Mods, please reach out to me for verification of being in group with other accounts if need be.)
I apologize in advance for the long post, I'm trying to edit as I go, but I am typing it quickly on my phone.
I (37F) have been with my husband (36m) for almost 13 years, married almost 12. About 2.5 years ago we hit a rough patch and stopped communicating and working together. Around that time we had his daughter (13) move in with us, she is severely depressed among other mental health disorders. When she came to us, she had been using drugs and drinking for the previous 6 months, so we set about getting her sober and working through withdrawals. School was also a constant battle, getting her to do her schoolwork and practice the things she was learning in therapy. I say we were dealing with all of this, however, it was mostly on me. My work schedule allowed me to adjust my availability to work with her therapy schedule and to alow me to be home to help with schoolwork. My husband is working third shift and unfortunately had been unable to move to a different shift, so I didn't mind carrying a lot of the load he was working to provide for the family. In the midst of this my SD ended up getting hospitalized for having a plan to unalive her self, in dealing with the recovery from that we also had multiple deaths in the family (6 total between the 3 of us in a year and a half).
So that is the stress that caused us to begin to disconnect. My focus stopped being on our relationship and I was constantly dealing with putting out fires. My step daughter and I began butting heads, her psychiatrist attributed it to her borderline personality disorder. Our house started turning into a war zone, I would go to my husband and ask for help and he wouldn't step in or fully have my back. My SD was opening disrespectful and aggressive towards me and we would get into verbal arguments (not in the beginning, the relationship devolved).
While all this was going on at home, my husband began to confide in a female coworker. He mentioned one day to me how he had a crush on her, I told him I wasn't comfortable with the friendship. He kept it on, eventually moving to her team to work along side her. Now he has never physically done anything, not making an excuse just painting the picture. As he confided in her and got closer to her, he began to have feelings for her. She knew/knows about his crush. He would come home constantly talking about her, and about her relationship problems (her cheating on her significant other with a different coworker). About how he would give her advice about her relationships, and so on. I still kept asking for distance.
January of this year he came to me and told me he wanted to move out. That he wasn't in love with me and wanted to see where things would go with a different coworker (who was also in a relationship). We went back and forth for a few days about how he wanted to leave before he finally told me about the other woman. We spent the night and next day talking about everything and he decided to stay and work on us. He stopped communicating with her, told her they weren't to speak to each other any longer at work and that was it. After a few weeks she got a new job and quit.
Beginning of February my SD moves back to her mother's after she had been fighting about going back for ages. My husband and I had gotten to the point with her therapists, that there was really nothing more we could give/offer her. So we let her go, hoping that things would start to improve for her if she was in an environment where she wanted to be. She has been doing slightly better, and does seem happier.
End of March/Beginning of April, I had a feeling and took a day off from work so my husband and I could talk. My husband decided to tell me he was leaving me and moving out, that he was moving to a camper on the first coworkers property and would live there. Apparently she had been in his ear the whole time we had been working on each other, telling him to leave me. Reminding him of how his daughter and i fought, and that we would scream and call each other names. I again begged for distance between them, and asked him to stay and work on us, REALLY work on us. I told him I need to get a better job so I don't have to be financially dependent on him, as I don't want him to feel obligated to give me money (he said he would if he moved out). He decided that yes, we would work on us that he would tell this coworker that we were working things out. At first they were still friends as before and then she started reminding him of all the negative things and never being supportive of him working on his marriage.
Which brings us to now, I started having a feeling again last week and asked him why he was diatant. He told me that his coworker was moving to another shift and he was sad that he was losing his friend. By this point I had had him block her on social media, and was under the impression they stopped communicating unless it was about work. Well, no, she had been in his ear after about 2-3 weeks of us building back from April. So with this feeling I had, I came home early from work and he told me again that he was leaving. That he didn't love me (which he told me he said to try and make it easier, but that he still does and I know he does) and she had asked him to move to her place. He told me he loved her and wanted to see the what if. I messaged her and told her to back off from my husband and allow us to work on us, and that it was impossible with her being in his ear constantly. She went off on me and my husband and blocked us both.
We are working things out, and we both know we need this cloud of her gone before we can truly connect. So he is going into work tonight, and I am just filled with so much anxiety. He is stressed out because work is going to be stressful. He thinks she is going to make his life miserable. He is going to talk to one of the managers and see of he can switch places with someone else on another team, while waiting out her going to an opposite shift (she's going to first shift, while he is still on third and in a different department.) We are also in the process of applying for new jobs for both of us, for a fresh start and more distance.
I just hate feeling like my life is up in the air, I love this man with all my heart, and I am still in love with him. I told him that I will be here to support him as he starts his grieving process of losing that friendship and potential romance. (How screwed up is that, but at the end of this he is still my best friend and i do not want to see him hurting.) I told him I don't want us to talk about splitting up in the future while we are working on us, I only want us to be positive. I told him I know us fully working on us will only really start to happen once she is no longer in his life and he can grieve. I asked him to atleast give me that much, to atleast try and then attend marriage counseling if we hit a wall. He has agreed, but I still have so much anxiety about all this. I know it will pass, but it's just so hard.

On Saturday, May 18, at approximately 10:36 PM, the Colorado Springs Police Department received a call for service regarding a suicidal male armed with a firearm in the 4200 block of Deerfield Hills Road. Before officers arrived on the scene, it was reported a shot was fired inside the residence. Other occupant(s) of the residence exited safely. When officers arrived on the scene, they attempted to check the welfare of the suspect, at which time additional shots were fired from within the residence into the surrounding neighborhood. Patrol officers requested tactical support. Before tactical support was able to respond, the suspect exited the front door of the residence with a firearm. Officers verbally engaged the suspect in an attempt to peacefully resolve the situation and commanded the suspect to drop the firearm. The suspect refused to obey commands. At that time, at least one officer fired at least one round, striking the suspect. Once it was safe to do so the officers rendered emergency medical aid and took the suspect into custody. The suspect was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced deceased. No officers or other community members were harmed during the incident.
As per CSPD policy, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office will be investigating this officer-involved shooting. All further investigative updates will come from them. Within 21 days, CSPD will release a significant event briefing video with body-worn camera footage regarding this incident.
Don't off yourself, but if you must, don't make someone else do it for you so they have to live with it.

Waking up in the middle of the night I find myself restless
So much has come into focus in the last few days. The station, my first steps on another world. It is all a bit overwhelming. Relaxing my thoughts drift off thinking about how I got here. A young girl on Europa, being selected for training after my aptitude tests, the Academy on Ganymede. Then as always my thoughts drift back to… her…
Lucy…
We started at rivals at the academy, we were from different worlds. Literally, me from Europa a wet ocean world remote and isolated, her an inner worlder from the hot dusty plains of Venus. We were water and fire.
The professors pitted us against each other from day one, based on our aptitude tests we were the top of the class. They split the class into teams and gave us challenges. I like to say I got the better of her, I was fast out the gate winning a few challenges. But Lucy turned back on me in a vengeance, she had a magnetism to her that caused our classmates to almost be addicted to her. People from my team would defect over to Lucy. Soon I found myself vastly outnumbered.
One day after Lucy and her team thrashed me again in a simulated strategy challenge. I left and I needed to be alone. I showered, went into the sauna. Replaying the moves again and again. How was I going to get the upper hand. She outnumbered me so much.
Everyone knew to leave me alone in the sauna. It was where I thought, relaxed, my place of peace. I was frustrated, I lean back against the wall and let me hands wander. Gently down my body, letting my stress evaporate as I tease myself…Then the door opened…. And it was Lucy. A cocky grin in her face.
We had been thinking about nothing but each other and we had both become obsessed. When that tension broke. Let me just say in a sauna fire and water combine to make something beautiful. Lucy and I did as well.
She moved towards me quickly, letting her towel drop, she was direct with a purpose. Grabbing the back of my head and kissing me deeply. I was shocked.. surprised... Excited..
I grabbed the back of her head and kissed her back. A deep need inside of me welling up, our lips slid across each other's as our tongue intertwined. I poured my life water of passion into her. She flared up and accepted my passion. Her hands exploring my body as I moved my knees between her legs.
Fuuuccckkk…. When she arched her back… so beautiful… MMM nnngghhhh an orgasm washed over me in my bed while I thought of Lucy.
Panting… even after all this time, separated by a waygate and unfathomable distance my body still yearned for her, I still yearned for her. Rolling onto my side I stare out my window into the vastness of space and the void. My fingers still ryhmically dancing on my pussy. Fingers sliding in and out
Your taught at the academy not to develop attachments, especially since the top prize, the highest honor of our training, to one day fly a deep space exploration through a waygate. Which would put us alone, in a different system. Like I am now.
Even if I power up my waygate in record time and rush home. Lucy is most likely gone. She was my alternate, meaning had I been unable to go this time she would have. It also means she most likely the deployed to her own system and would be gone before I returned. Likely I would never see her again.
Biting my lips and pressing a hand out onto the glass…yes…yes.. there
Fuck again….Fuucckkkkk LLLLuuucccCC
EeeeeeeeeerrrrrreeeemmmmmAAAAAA, a beautiful black haired woman orgasms in a bed identical to Emeras save the ambient lighting is blue inside of pink.
Fuck…. That was good. I find myself panting as I step out into the hallway of my ship. 2 days since the waygate, 6 months since I last saw Emera. Since she departed through her gate. Stars know if she still lives.
It was a rare happening, another gate coming online shortly after Emera’s departure. I thought I would be flying routine patrols around the system. Now I'm alone. Alone with my thoughts of her, and my AI Julia. Fuck. Why couldn't we have gone together. Why only one pilot to a ship. Who knows maybe she's thinking of me. Technically the systems we are in are closer together than home. That's something…
You're probably wondering if I was outnumbered and Lucy normally had my number in competition then how did I get to leave first. Yes, I did sleep with high command. That was only my closing argument though. You see Lucy had her magnetism that caused people to be addicted to her, she drew people in. But I was better at strategy and nuanced maneuvers.
The rules weren't strict on the teams, people defected all the time. Keeping your people together was part of the challenge. I decided to break that challenge.
No Battleplan survives first contact with the enemy afterall. Why not break the competition itself
My enemy wasn't Lucy, trust me we had been together enough at this point my heart swelled when I saw her. My enemy was the rules, and proctors.
There had to be two team in the academy for the lessons to work. But the rules only set a minimum not a maximum.
Lucy and her best 4 left her team, and me and my best 4 left my team. We formed a new team with Lucy and I at the head. The proctors were fuming. I was called into their offices again and again. Which is what led to me sleeping with a few of them to get ahead. It is always good to solicit a meeting with superiors, you can always be turned to your advantage.
In the Academy, there were 50 of us girls. The proctors let us keep our 3rd team, but declared no one else could join us. It was the ten of us vs double our number on both the other teams. Not ideal… but we had Lucy and I together. My how we shined
We out maneuvered, out paced, and out thought the other teams again and again and again..
Entering into the final the proctors split everyone up, eliminating the team. Just to try and stop us from sweeping the competition. Instead there would be 25 teams of 2 members each of our own selection. Lucy and I naturally selected each other.
We set down on a terraformed valley on Mars, all the other duos were around. The mission was complex. Gather knowledge, survive in the wilderness, there were simulator villages where we had to set up relations, and if possible eliminate other teams.
The gravity is different from what I'm used to, my body feels heavy. Sluggish, they train us on this and soon I'll adapt. But first landing it hits me like a weight. Ffuuuccckkk I murmur as I land my account ship on the surface.
Lucy always compares a new celestial body to a lover. Well for me Mars just grabbed my hair, slapped my ass and pushed in
Fuck I can't imagine landing on Earth. Triple this, fuck that give me my moon mother's oceans anyday.
I suck deep and hard on the control in my mouth and all three extract from me. I am about to get up from the control seat when I feel a palm in the small of my back
“Lucy not funny, let me up” I say
She giggles, and rubs my ass cheeks before her fingers rub against my lips
I moan biting my lip as I push myself against her hand
“I knew the gravity here would give a Moonie like you a good fucking, you're so wet my love”
Rolling my head back and forth..”quickly we have to debrief and set up camp” I moan
She smacks my ass again and her fingers deftly slide to work, one hand pinning me to the chair while she teases my sex, her thumb rubbing in perfect circles on my clit and her fingers pulling on my g-spot
“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes uuuhhhhh my love it feel so good” shaking my hips back and forth I feel it building as I rock my hips on her hand
Squeezing….my leg….quivering… my voice squeaking… “uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh ffuuuccckkk” I moan as I feel the orgasm wash over me…
Lucy slaps my ass playfully and licks her fingers… “let's go my love, stop playing around we have to set up camp” she giggles
“Oh!! You!!” I get up and rush after her slapping her ass when I catch up
Carryalls follow us out of the ship.. I immediately sent out the scout drones and assessed our landing spot. Allocating tasks and running diagnostics.
Lucy set about converting the ship to a shelter and arranging power arrays, and deciding on perimeter defenses
We were a perfect power duo. Our carryalls and scouts were soon all at work, and Lucy was finishing up the shelter
I needed to repay her, so I slowly walked up behind her. She heard my heavy steps in the gravity. Turning to look at me she beamed at me. My heart melted and grabbing both sides of her face I pinned her to the side of the ship. Our bodies intertwined and our lips locked.
She moaned at me giggling, pushing my knee between her legs, and we quickly undressed each other. Her mouth on my breast, as my hand glided down to her slick vagina.
Grabbing her chin roughly and up turning her head exposing her neck I sink my teeth into it as I push forward with my knee back and forth pressing my fingers in and out of her.
A deep moan emanates from her, licking my bite mark I kiss up her neck until my forehead is resting hers. Eye to eye, I watch the pleasure build in her. Thrust after thrust of my knee. My fingers pressing into her g-spot every time, my palms pressing and grinding onto her clit
“Cum for me my love, give me your sweetness, I want your water to be the first I drink on this planet” I breath
I feel her pussy tighten and grip my fingers. Her legs twisting around me… she goes silent… a flush rises in her flesh… we kiss deep, and long, and passionately as I feel her gush onto my hand as orgasm rapts her body..
I watch her eyes dilate and relax I kiss her gently again before kissing down, my lips brushing through her pubic hair tickling my lips. Opening my mouth and pressing my tongue in I drink of her orgasm
My fingers inside pressing to work again, she cries out as she rocks her hips grinding her lips to mine. As she gushes another orgasm into my mouth..
I can even taste and feel it now on my tongue…
Releasing her, and helping her up I grin
Walking awayz the top of my leotard open my tits out in the sun
“I'm up by one my love, and you taste so GGGGOOOOoooOOooddddDD” I giggle setting back to work.
Days and weeks pass Lucy and I set up our camp. Wefind nearby teams before they find us. We quickly fall on them in the night, clearing our immediate area, eliminating them from the contest. We bathe in a nearby stream, sun ourselves on the rocks, make love on the soft moss of the forest.
I don't know if I've ever been happier, ever been more at peace l than I was then with Lucy. Her and I… her and I against the world.
We make good progress setting up relations with 12 of the 15 villages. Our camp is well stocked. We receive updates from the proctors from dead drops. Seems out of the 25 teams only 8 remain. Lucy and I have eliminated 7 ourselves.
We need to be the last standing, triumphant together.. so that maybe.. maybe we can convince them to send two of us on a ship. Imagine the wonders, this wouldn't be temporary, but would become our life.
Lucy and I talk about it often. We can convince them. We'll defeat the others then refuse to turn on each other.
Our dream died that night…
We were naked, curled up in each others arms when the alarm sounded..all the alarms
Proximity alert for 14 signals… they had teamed up on us. 14 on 2 they were going to eliminate the front runners while they still could.
Fuck.
Lucy and I turned and quickly downed our emergency biotic vials just as a concussive blast hit our ship shelter.
“Fuck! They aren't supposed to attack equipment!” I yell
“The proctors must have sent them, they should be intervening with that!” Lucy says
“You're better in a fight, charge them and I'll flank” I yell
We nod at each other and we are off naked as the day we were born
Lucy bursts from our ship her shield bursting out in front of her
I dart out the side and task our scouts and drones to make dive bomb attacks on the intruders
I leap over a blast, grab a tree branch and swing. I land my legs on either side of the head. Of one the attackers, twisting my flip her over and knock her out. Back on the run, I see Lucy take out another one as drones dive in and out of the chaos.
Lucy blocks to her right and charges blasting herself high into the air, twirling before blasting herself downward tackling her target to the ground and eliminating her.
She's about to get blasted from behind when I take the attackers in the flank, knee to the solarplex. My hand on the side of her neck I thrust up hard with my knee. In the low gravity she turns and flies off into the trees as I raise my hands and blast another in the side.
She turns just in time to block my attack, when Lucy rockets into her side with her elbow