My (35M) ex best friend (36M) wants to sit down and talk in person about why we’re no longer friends two years later ahead of our mutual friends wedding in a few months. I haven’t been able to talk about why I walked away until recently. For clarity, I removed them from all of my social media except for WhatsApp and they didn’t reach out after I did so. I’ve written the below to read to them when we meet. Is it too much or should I be completely honest? Names changed for privacy.
“I think for you to understand why I did what I did, I need you to understand where it all started and where it’s all coming from. What I’m about to tell you is from my own point of view and I understand your perception of these situations at the time and now will more than likely differ.
I told you a couple of years ago in passing after having a few drinks that I had had a crush on you. That was putting it mildly. As for a long time I had very strong romantic feelings for you and I would say I had fallen in love with you.
I had developed a crush on you earlier in our friendship and the longer we stayed friends, the more intense my feelings started to develop.
When you went through one of the worst things I think anyone could go through, I thought I could shield you from the hurt you were going through and would continue to go through if I threw my whole being into being there for you, irrespective if you ever would feel the same about me. During this time, I felt our dynamic shift that beyond a friendship. Before you and Taylor broke up, for a series of months I felt you investing yourself emotionally in me and it felt that I had become someone or somewhere for you to have the emotional outlet you no longer had with Taylor. I don’t know and I don’t think this was done consciously by you. I think it was a result of circumstance.
After you and Taylor broke up, I clutched on to the sliver of hope that maybe this would be my time. If I waited, let you move on and continue to be there for you like I had been for so long, that maybe one day you’d turn to me and tell me what I wanted to hear. And then within a few weeks you told me you had started to see Ben. I remember the exact moment you told me so vividly, because for the first time in such a long time, I felt my heart break. A few minutes later I walked out of bar and hid in the car park and cried for as long as I could without raising suspicion as to where I was gone and I slapped my best friend face and personality back on.
Over the following 10 months or so, I felt you push me further and further away. The closeness we once had was starting to fade away. I had to try adapt to what our friendship was now going to be and also try move on from my feelings for you. Our time spent together went from what felt like constant to almost non existent. I also felt like Ben took a dislike to me, this left me apprehensive of being around you together, again this is my perception and may be different to you or Ben even. To be honest, I didn’t want to be around you two together because I didn’t want to have to see Ben get from you what I wanted.
When I started to date Josh it felt like I had started to move on from what I felt for you. You were no longer the person that occupied my mind the most. I started to feel happy again and I felt like I could be your friend, and just your friend. Then Josh ended it with me out of nowhere and I started to fall into a place of hurt and rejection by someone I started to really care about and trying to deal with feeling like that about you. Then a few days later I see on Instagram you had liked his post from two days after he ended things with me. At that time, I wasn’t in a place of full mental clarity and it felt to me that you intentionally did it to hurt me because you misinterpreted an evening where Aidan and I hung out and you thought that we were excluding you. I had thought you were someone that would never intentionally hurt me, and when I saw that, I felt as if you that hurt me more than anyone ever could.
Liking Josh’s post wasn’t the reason I removed you from my life, but it was the final straw for me. For months there were small but frequent instances of where I felt myself being pushed further and further from you. Our friendship had completely changed and I no longer felt valued or needed by you.
I had to step away from our friendship because it was killing me. And I had to decide between you being the Sun I orbited that would eventually burn up my oceans and leave me hollow. Or walking away, silently and without confrontation to find me again.
Walking away from you and the memories of our friendship was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but I had to walk away.
You were probably the best friend I ever had and will probably ever have. I’m happy we had that time together but we’ll never be able to be friends again. I hope this clears up everything for you and I can see now that there was so much more to our friendship ending then what I think either of us thought. “

First off, feel free to comment about your own experiences. I would love it if anybody can relate. I'm also open to questions, advice, whatever you wanna write. This is gonna be a bit longer, just fyi. Excuse lack of proper chronological order and maybe some wonky sentences, English isn't my first language.
I was parentified.
For context, my mother has three children, I'm the youngest one, then there's my older half-brother (30) and my older half-sister (36). Their father was a violent alcoholic with schizophrenic tendencies (official diagnosis), luckily I never met him. I refer to them as brother and sister. I'm 21 now. I'm the only child of my mom and my dad, my dad has three other kids who are in the same age group as my maternal siblings. Lots of history with divorces and family fights, I'm the center of a complete patchwork family, everybody moved towns a lot, it's all a bit messy and disorganized.
My mother has severe borderline disorder and has massive trauma from several age stages, especially involving men. She was heavily parentified and yet socially cast out by her family herself. I don't remember a time where I didn't act like her father, emotionally. This is made worse by the fact that I'm trans so I was like her bestie before I began socially transitioning in my early teen years. Of course, this was a massive issue for her. She told me she had only ever wanted daughters. Materially she was taking care of things until I was about 11 - walked me to school and took care of the household, used to work, everything.
I remember sitting next to her during a talk/fight she had with my dad while she was sobbing, I can't have been older than 3 or 4. They got divorced around that time. As I grew older, I came to be my mom's sole emotional support person. We had moved to an isolated village with my step-father and she developed a severe agoraphobia for some time. My step-father avoided all emotionality with both her and me and therefore I was now her only friend. I overheard conversations that she shouldn't be having with her child next door and was told about her most severe fears and traumas from a young age. I was lashed out at on a near daily basis and punishment came unexpectedly. It would consist of being screamed at for minutes on end until I would cry and hyperventilate, but she wouldn't stop then.
In spite of her idea of punishment and raising children, she was incredibly attached to me, still is. This would include massive anxiety fits when she didn't know where I was or when I was getting into activities she didn't approve of. One time, when I was about 17, I went to a party in my friend's basement. She knew about this and approved it, knew my friends and where they lived. I didn't have any signal in that basenent so she couldn't reach me. She proceeded to look up my other friends' parents' phone number and call them to contact me. There was nothing she wanted except to know that I had arrived there.
Whereas my other siblings had long left the household years apart from eachother, both with specific and complex fights and banging doors and screaming fits, I was, as the youngest child, turned into a confessional and a therapist. I would mediate fights from a young age. I witnessed physical violence between my brother, my mother and my sister. My brother was the perpetrator for the most part (however, I was neither hurt nor threatened myself). Nobody proceeded to remove me from the situation or stop me from getting involved. From then on, every fight and every drama caused me intense bouts of anxiety and it, to this day, remains to be the only thing that makes me cry and/or lash out.
In a household full of anger, my anger was not tolerated. I was raised with some old-timey sort of black paedagogy (I'm German so it is something of a generational curse for some): I was to have unwavering respect for my parents, I was expected to be obedient, "let him cry it out" type stuff. At least when I was a younger child. When I got older, my emotions did not matter either. After stressful situations or fights that I proceeded to witness for most of my life, nobody ever asked me how I felt or explained to me what had actually gone down. I was left alone while not being left alone at all.
If I failed to provide emotional security for my mother or even attempted to call her out, I was made to feel immensely guilty. This could range from her crying/yelling things like "Why is it always me that must suffer" to guilt-tripping texts and blocking my contact for a while to very action-based suicide threats, depending on the situation. Her emotions were forced to be my emotions if I wanted to "stay alive".
At the same time, I still proceeded to excel in school. I felt like dying but nobody, and I tell you, nobody, noticed. I was a teacher's pet, I still had some loose friendships, I visited my dad once a month or more ever since my parents divorced. Nobody realized what I felt. I felt alone and had the worst depressive episode of my life when I was 13. I neglected personal hygiene. I never opened up to my father for many years. To this day I think he doesn't know everything. Especially during covid, him and my ex-stepmother were my safe space. When I first opened up to them, they welcomed me with open arms, my father was very strict and cold when I was young, but he softened, changed, and is everything and more I could ask for in a father. He is among the most positive examples of masculinity and especially of fatherhood that I know in my circles. He sends me postcards several times a month, wants me to visit, hugs me and tells me he loves me and that he's proud, gives me space. The dad who remembers the names of our childhood stuffed animals. Literally. I love him to death. He was also the only parent who engaged in activities with me and would play with me, later on take me to the movies, go to bars and restaurants, go to museums with me etc.
My mother got worse both psychologically and physically, she is chronically ill and needs immense support in a lot of things now. For about a year, my stepfather worked in a town far away and only came home during the weekends. This was during covid. Within a year, I developed a hatred so deep for my mother that I had thoughts that scared me. I took care of our pets and the household, was not allowed to get into any activities after school other than coming home and spent hours after my day listening to her rants, anxieties, fears. I get hateful goosebumps when I remember the way she used to call my name when she wanted me to do something for her. Sometimes she would make me stay awake for longer, knowing that I had to get up at 6am again. It was usually already around 12 at night. She wanted me to walk the dog before SHE went to bed because otherwise it would ruin her otherwise horribly insomniac circadian rhythm. Therefore I was not allowed to go to sleep. At that point she had not worked for more than 6 years and stayed home all the time. My stepfather and I did grocery shopping. She rarely ever leaves the house if she can avoid it. This was during the German version of my GCSE's.
I was denied medical care that could have potentially fixed my posture issues and other orthopedic issues. My mother deemed physiotherapy as inefficient and got mad when I asked her about it again. Money was always an issue. We were evicted once. I was denied certain things and never asked for extra cash because we ran low on money, my stepfather was blamed for smoking and consuming a lot of meat (which indeed is pricy), but my mother never reflected on her online shopping addiction and I'm aware that she is in an ongoing debt. Has been for years now.
Things got a bit better when my stepfather moved back and Covid cleared up somewhat. Regardless, I used pure spite to continue studying hard while they were yelling at eachother from the top of their lungs for hours on end and did the best I could to get the hell out of there. I've had therapy with several years' of breaks for a total of nearly 3 years now, that I partially applied for myself and I'm working on tackling everything. I live in a different city, studying subjects that I love. I get all my shit done, for the most part, I know how to do paperwork and know how all of the chores work. I can regulate myself in terms of sleep and food and cheap thrills. I have a (milder) case of anxiety. I keep meaningful friendships in which I find myself capable of avoiding all the harmful behaviors and attitudes I was taught. I'm learning to stand my ground and take responsibility for my own decisions and actions.
When I establish my boundaries with her now, she turns into some sort of anxious-attached mess. She over-apologizes to me. She puts me on a pedestal and I'm living a life that she is jealous of. She is intensely attached to me and considers me her favorite child and also hasn't properly gotten over my father, over 15 years of them being divorced. She will do anything to support me materially and then tear me down emotionally. Everything I tell her is followed by her mourning the life she doesn't have and never had instead of properly celebrating with me. She gets noticeably sad when I refuse to give her my full attention, she yearns for what she considered a deep and important relationship to me. But it was all just emotional neglect and emotional abuse. Now I sometimes can't help but meet her with the same attitude she gave me.
This is not perfectly chronological and all over the place. I have complicated relationships with my siblings and other relatives, which I don't mourn, but feel guilty about. My father and I are very good with eachother although I need to confront him about some things as well. With my mother I do the bare minimum to avoid conflict, yet without throwing my sense of self out of the window again. She is the only human who can easily cause anxiety attacks in me, no matter where or when. I sometimes wish I was not in contact with her. I have a tendency for smoking too much weed and being just a bit too careless with other drugs (although I rarely do those in comparison), but I also try and regulate this heavily (e.g. not finding a dealer but asking friends every once in a while etcetc). I think this stems from these experiences. Apart from that, I think I'm coping very well.
To everybody: it does get better. It does. Even when your emotions are a rollercoaster sometimes. You will be in a different place, maybe you already are, and you'll escape from these structures. I think the hardest pill for me to swallow is that I create my own reality and that nobody will give me my stolen childhood back. I am an (albeit young) adult now and I must do everything I can to avoid becoming like her. Her life is not a life I want to lead. There's hope and you won't always be in this place.

Author's Note: I've been an HFY reader for some time now, and now I have the urge to share a story. This is my first story, so please leave feedback in the comments! Also, I may or may not decide to make a game based of this story. If I do, I'll link it in a comment. Without further ado, enjoy the story!
High Admiral Tilgrix Traxiv was having a bad day. He was currently sitting in a fighter, which he was only in because the escape pods were destroyed, and not only had it been EMP'd, disabling almost every system except life support, which itself was hanging by a thread, the grav-gen was spinning. It spun at just the right speed to make him incredibly nauseous. And to make matters worse, none of this should have happened! He was 3 systems away from the main battlefront against the Mei-Kai, and worse, he was on his way home from battle. His crew was being transferred home for a much needed break from the stress of war, and they were woefully unprepared to be attacked so suddenly. The Mei-Kai ships were there, picking at the corpse that was his ship. They were built in typical Mei-Kai fashion; with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. Their design philosophy seemed to be:
"Oh hey, we need this thingamabob"
"Put it next to the thingamajig"
"Wait, we need this thingy as well"
"Ok, just slap it on top. It'll be fine!"
Annoyingly, this haphazard approach to ship construction was remarkably effective. It also meant they could just directly rip off whatever they wanted from enemy ships, and slap it on a place that is functional. Only the humans are comparable, with their modular design philosophy, but they aren't involved in the war, unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately. The Sefliician {Sef-lee-eesh-ee-an} and the Mei-Kai governments had asked that the humans stay out of the war. Well, they asked everyone to stay out, but specifically the humans. The humans were too good at warfare. They demonstrate their prowess every Galactic sub-cycle in the Sim War Games. Whichever side had them would win. Even if it was the entire galaxy versus them. Humans never lose wars. Except against themselves. In any case, the Sefliician Empire and the Mei-Kai Union prefered to battle it out themselves, in accordance to the Galactic Constitution, subsection c, rule seven, under section x, Disputed Territory Settlements. Legally, anyways. In practice, both parties simply wanted to see who was tougher. They decided to fight for the next 50 sub-cycles, capturing as much territory as possible, and whatever was held by each at the end, would belong to them. While this ambush wasn't strictly against the Galactic Rules of Warfare Against Union Members, it was certainly not fair play.
This was all going through Tilgrix's mind as he drifted through space, watching the Mei-Kai dismantle his ship and the Terran Conglomerate hospital ships trickle in to start rescuing survivors. Suddenly, a bright flash appeared, and a wormhole was ripped open behind the Mei-Kai vessels, and through it trillions of tiny ships entered and began ripping the unsuspecting vessels to shreds.
The Volctic! he thought in horror as the swarm of enemy ships tore through the Mei-Kai like butter. The hospital ships began firing at the swarm, even as they tried to finish gathering the survivors and jump away. The Volctic swarm began to race towards the Terran ships, being destroyed by the hundreds, but millions took the place of every ship destroyed. The Volctic have been busy in their long exile it seems, Tilgrix thought as he began desperately praying to any being in the cosmos that could hear him that the EMP would wear off in time for him to activate the emergency jump drive every fighter was equipped with since the humans were first contacted.
His prayers were answered. The ship's essential systems began turning back on, beginning with the jump drive. Internally broadcasting his gratitude to whatever force answered his prayer, he powered up the jump drive. This caught the attention of the Volctic ships, but he managed to jump in time, vanishing into the aether just before they caught him.
Tilgrix arrived at a nearby beam station a few seconds later, roughly 6 systems away. He breathed a sigh of relief before noticing a coms transmission request. Accepting it, he was startled by the sudden excited chatter noise of someone who was clearly far too new to the job of Space Traffic Controller. "Hello traveler! And welcome to the Sifilax Primary Beam Station. Not only are we able to send you to any beam station in the Galaxy in less than an hour, we have all that your heart could desire while waiting for a flight or for bureaucracy to let you leave! We have restaurants, bars, and casinos! We have gyms, pools, and parks! Here for all your between-transit needs! Please dock your fighter in Dock C, Subdock F." Tilgrix grinned. He remembered being that enthusiastic about his job. Within a few minutes, he was docked.
Once he got out of the cockpit, he immediately headed over to the nearest Map Projector. "Sefliician Military Office" he stated. A route was highlighted, and uploaded to his state-of-the-art HUD chip. He quickly made his way over. After a brief pause by the door, he entered. The computer scanned him, and a hologram appeared behind the desk. "Hello, High Admiral Tilgrix Traxiv. What brings you here?"
"I bring dire news," he stated flatly. "I need to speak to the Emperor immediately." Surprised, the Digital Sapient quickly smoothed her face before complying, opening a direct holo-link between Tilgrix and the Emperor before vanishing. Tilgrix waited patiently for the computer to verify his identity and the Emperor to respond. "This better be good Admiral," The Emperor warned. "I'm in the middle of a council session. We have urgent business to conduct."
"Your majesty, this is the most important message I have ever sent in my life." The Emperor's face briefly darkened [This is the same as a human face paling], eye ridges shooting up, before he regained his composure. "Go on..." he said warily. "As you know, I was being transferred out of battle, and on my way home. Three systems in from the front, we were ambushed by the Mei-Kai." The Emperor raised an eyebrow at that. "While that is certainly foul play, it is not illegal in and of itself, and certainly not dire enough by itself to warrant such a drastic opening statement. What else is there? Did they hurt civilians? Did they butcher anyone? What is it?" Tilgrix hesitated, before setting his shoulders. "While the Mei-Kai were harvesting my ship, a wormhole opened up, and trillions of ships arrived. Volctic ships." The Emperor froze, face becoming almost black. "Are you sure?" he asked, half rhetorically. "Unfortunately so, your majesty." The Emperor smoothed his features, before setting his own shoulders, and narrowing his eyes. "Then we need to call an emergency session. I will have my servants send orders to assign you a ship. We meet before the Galactic Council in three days." The Emperor terminated the call.
Within an hour, he was assigned a ship to travel to the Galactic Union Council Station for an emergency meeting. The war against the Mei-Kai was put on hold. The Volctic had returned.

Maybe weird take/wording, but let me elaborate. For the record this is referring only to osu!standard.
Skill expression (or expression in general) is a core portion of any game you play, whether its a platformer or a fighting game, or even an srpg (to some extent), the game will likely have enough mechanics to diversify the approach people take to playing the game, especially at the highest level ("highest level" here being a catch all term for whatever is deemed impressive in that game).
Osu! isn't any different in this regard, in fact its probably one of the most mechanically simple games for its level of popularity that has any competition in its community (barring maybe geometry dash or something, but that's another discussion), but I think this simplicity is one of its most appealing aspects imo.
Anecdotally speaking with a personal example here, I'm the type of person that likes being able to play a game in a way that reflects the kind of person i am mindset wise, whether its through gameplan, tools used, etc (yes even in single player games), if I were to play an fps game, this would likely manifest in the types of skills or systems promoted by the game, which would usually obviously include aim, among other things like team coordination, map spatial awareness, movement, etc, (note that I don't really play fps games LOL so correct me if im wrong on the general assessment here), so in a game like csgo multiple factors work at play to evaluate overall skill due to the way the game works. With osu there are only really two core aspects to it, your raw mechanical aim and your tapping ability.
Its easy to find a reason to blame failures in a game on something, whether its a bad team, poor balancing, bugs and exploits, etc. But in a game like osu your performance (and in this context i don't mean relative to pp, which is a different can of worms lol) is completely dependent on you. If you feel like you suck its likely because you suck, and the only way to not suck is to simply improve (play more and such). There's nothing to exploit (again, not talking about pp here LMAO) so there's nothing external you can blame like in other games.
Its also at the level of simplicity in its core mechanics where its not so simple that the highest level of play would be indecipherable between two people (like if the game had just been autopilot or touchscreen), which is largely due to the aim aspect. It just creates so much variance that no two players end up turning out the same, that's not even taking into account what aim and tapping in tandem facilitate: Reading ability, aim tapping style, flow aim control, etc. which have basically stratified players into their own unique styles of gameplay.
The last, and most important reason why this works is how it makes the skill floor and barrier to entry non-existent. With minimal prior setup you can immediately start up the game with nothing else required, just know how to hold a pen (or mouse) and know how to tap and you're good, as rage inducing as the game seems to lend itself to be for some players, its (more or less) a perfect gameplay loop.
TL;DR: Osus simplicity reaches a fine balance of both making itself easy to pick up and also enabling a very pure form of player skill expression
So yeah, as basic as the idea of everything is (rhythm game where you aim lol), I feel like its worth nothing as something done well. Feel free to agree or disagree, or contribute your own thoughts on the idea, I found the concept of the topic interesting lol, so lmk what you think

My (35M) ex best friend (36M) wants to sit down and talk in person about why we’re no longer friends two years later ahead of our mutual friends wedding in a few months. I haven’t been able to talk about why I walked away until recently. For clarity, I removed them from all of my social media except for WhatsApp and they didn’t reach out after I did so. I’ve written the below to read to them when we meet. Is it too much or should I be completely honest? Names changed for privacy.
“I think for you to understand why I did what I did, I need you to understand where it all started and where it’s all coming from. What I’m about to tell you is from my own point of view and I understand your perception of these situations at the time and now will more than likely differ.
I told you a couple of years ago in passing after having a few drinks that I had had a crush on you. That was putting it mildly. As for a long time I had very strong romantic feelings for you and I would say I had fallen in love with you.
I had developed a crush on you earlier in our friendship and the longer we stayed friends, the more intense my feelings started to develop.
When you went through one of the worst things I think anyone could go through, I thought I could shield you from the hurt you were going through and would continue to go through if I threw my whole being into being there for you, irrespective if you ever would feel the same about me. During this time, I felt our dynamic shift that beyond a friendship. Before you and Taylor broke up, for a series of months I felt you investing yourself emotionally in me and it felt that I had become someone or somewhere for you to have the emotional outlet you no longer had with Taylor. I don’t know and I don’t think this was done consciously by you. I think it was a result of circumstance.
After you and Taylor broke up, I clutched on to the sliver of hope that maybe this would be my time. If I waited, let you move on and continue to be there for you like I had been for so long, that maybe one day you’d turn to me and tell me what I wanted to hear. And then within a few weeks you told me you had started to see Ben. I remember the exact moment you told me so vividly, because for the first time in such a long time, I felt my heart break. A few minutes later I walked out of bar and hid in the car park and cried for as long as I could without raising suspicion as to where I was gone and I slapped my best friend face and personality back on.
Over the following 10 months or so, I felt you push me further and further away. The closeness we once had was starting to fade away. I had to try adapt to what our friendship was now going to be and also try move on from my feelings for you. Our time spent together went from what felt like constant to almost non existent. I also felt like Ben took a dislike to me, this left me apprehensive of being around you together, again this is my perception and may be different to you or Ben even. To be honest, I didn’t want to be around you two together because I didn’t want to have to see Ben get from you what I wanted.
When I started to date Josh it felt like I had started to move on from what I felt for you. You were no longer the person that occupied my mind the most. I started to feel happy again and I felt like I could be your friend, and just your friend. Then Josh ended it with me out of nowhere and I started to fall into a place of hurt and rejection by someone I started to really care about and trying to deal with feeling like that about you. Then a few days later I see on Instagram you had liked his post from two days after he ended things with me. At that time, I wasn’t in a place of full mental clarity and it felt to me that you intentionally did it to hurt me because you misinterpreted an evening where Aidan and I hung out and you thought that we were excluding you. I had thought you were someone that would never intentionally hurt me, and when I saw that, I felt as if you that hurt me more than anyone ever could.
Liking Josh’s post wasn’t the reason I removed you from my life, but it was the final straw for me. For months there were small but frequent instances of where I felt myself being pushed further and further from you. Our friendship had completely changed and I no longer felt valued or needed by you.
I had to step away from our friendship because it was killing me. And I had to decide between you being the Sun I orbited that would eventually burn up my oceans and leave me hollow. Or walking away, silently and without confrontation to find me again.
Walking away from you and the memories of our friendship was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but I had to walk away.
You were probably the best friend I ever had and will probably ever have. I’m happy we had that time together but we’ll never be able to be friends again. I hope this clears up everything for you and I can see now that there was so much more to our friendship ending then what I think either of us thought. “

Please help me get 1 more night at this hotel
So I’m not going to get all in to detail because everyone has their own sh*t they go through but long story short I’m a 22 year old man that’s been by his self since 16 no mom dad brother sisters friends as of right now .i have been making it work by myself for this long had a apartment that I lost due not managing bills correctly then a car that I slept out of that I lost due to me staying up doing Uber eats and instacart thru the day and night for 3 days straight with no sleep and ended up falling asleeep while driving and totaled. My car. This lady witnessed this happen and she paid for the hotel for a few days because I got to talk to her and she decided to pay for the hotel which I appreciate. During the few days I have been here I just been applying for jobs. I ended up finding one with daily pay which I start tomorrow and means I can pay for my hotel tomorrow all I’m asking is for help paying for today I have no money the hotel is around 70 online and 90 if I paid up front like at the counter. I want to get another night because 1 it’s very close to the job and 2 I can get a good night sleep for tomorrow. As of right now I’m in the lobby because they manager is allowing me to charge my phone but if you don’t believe what I’m saying you can call me 7376109152 I don’t like asking for money I honestly never have or ever wanted to but I really need help right now I have 2 back full of just clothes and it’s hot in Texas which makes everything even better 😤😂but I’m in a little bind and am kindly asking for help.
P.s. if you know abt Austin Texas then you know that 211 is useless if your 22 and all the shelters around here are full of people that a 22 year old doesn’t need to be around. I’m not on any dru** I just want to get back on track.and this job will for sure help me.

Just to get this off my chest, hence the post but my big brother is just one of the dumbest ppl i've ever met. yesterday we went to watch the usyk fury boxing fight at a sporting venue. its basically a barestaraunt/events venue so its not your typical pub but a great place to watch sports as they have a really good setup for sporting events. i get there and randomly bump into the boss who is starting to get to know me and my wedding planner (lets call him J) who was just randomly in there with his mates. he asks me to come join him at him table for a while then my big brother joins.
my brother being the moron that he is, doesnt gauge the room at all, hes doesnt realise its not a proper out n out boozer and gets so drunk hes practically falling over. then near the end he starts picking a fight with 1 of Js mates because his mate was getting annoyed with my brother being so loud n obnoxious so he called my brother an alcoholic because clearly he cant handle his f'ing drink. then, not for the first time, im having to drag him out of a venue before we both get our asses kicked by 12-14 men and not only that, he ruins my reputation in a place which i really like going to because its got a good vibe and great food too!
I then told him what happened and how much of a idiot he was being and today just responds saying the guy was jealous of him!!! Jealous of what man, youre a acting like a f'ing alcoholic loser who was annoying everyone. the fact my brother cant even see his own faults annoys me to no end and its the reason i didnt drink yesterday because i feel like i cant properly relax around him because hes unpredictable. Just gets on my f'ing nerves and tbh i dont even wanna hang about with him again due to this. im a bloody 40 year old man i dont have time for childish ppl in my life or be someones saviour when hes about to get his head kicked in!!
tl;dr my brother gets me into scary situations and im sick of it!

Family Matters was a great track. It gave me similar vibes to “Against All Odds.” It was his Tony Montana moment, shooting at everyone with his best work all at once so he can end the beef. His red button.
However, this song was not good enough to end this beef, as Drake might have hoped. Nor was it the best diss track in this battle. People are giving it too much love, which is fine, but there are fundamental issues that can't make it better than other songs in the battle.
This track for as great as it is, lacks in a few components:
1. This song was never gonna end the beef. Since it dropped as a reply to Euphoria/6:16, it temporarily giving Drake an advantage before Kendrick replied. So it could never be that red button that ends the battle cause Kendrick wouldn't allow it
"How many more do I got in stock, 1 2 3 4 5 plus 5."

• If we are to believe Kendrick, he was not only gonna reply but he was bound to have the last word in this battle.

2. Drake dropping this song as a REPLY to Euphoria was mismanaging the battle, and a poor strategic move. If Family Matters was one of the last songs on the beef, then Drake could have won, no doubt about it. Or at least shifted the tide.

• Easy to say it in retrospect, but I think Drake should have kept it only about bars here. He brought up the Whitney/Dave Free accusations too soon. Drake's initial reply to Dot was "I'm that guy, I'm the biggest," so Dot replied with "yeah but you also a bigger bitch." Drake should have dissected Kendrick right back, play into those emotional battles, asking why Kendrick is so mad.

3. The song itself is inconsistent and while it does hit hard at Kendrick, it doesn’t have anything to stick. The entire first verse is invalidated by the false claims that it makes.
Gonna dissect some of the bars as an example.
"You know who really bang a set? My nigga YG You know who even bang a set out there is CB"

• Calling out Kendrick for DV, but shouting out Chris Brown in the same track? Also shortly after "Not Like Us" dropped, YG reposted on his IG story and showed support.

"Always rappin' like you 'bout to get the slaves freed You just actin' like an activist, it's make-believe Don't even go back to your hood and plant no money trees"

• Even ignoring the first line being a questionable bar from Drake, the second part is a blatant lie. Anyone who follows Kendrick knows this.
  "Why you never hold your son and tell him, "Say cheese"? We could've left the kids out of this, don't blame me"
  
• I know that ain't who I think it is
  

The second and third verses really are the meat of this track. Some of Drake's best work tbh. But even that had a couple of bars that have aged badly.
"What the fuck I heard Rick drop, nigga? Talkin' somethin' 'bout a nose job, nigga Ozempic got a side effect of jealousy and doctor never told y'all niggas"

• Doesn't really hit the same with the images that got leaked about Drake using ozempic for the weight loss.

"K-Dot shit is only hittin' hard when Baby Keem put his pen to it"

• I'd like to believe that Drake is talking about Keem writing GKMC/TPAB, which is funny as fuck lol. Imagine Keem writing TPAB at 13. Crazy. But it was obvious he's referencing Dot's work from 2021 onward. And again, this is just not true. Also hypocritical coming from Mr Ghostwriter himself.

"A cease and desist is for hoes, can't listen to lies that come out of your mouth"

• An email surfaced of OVO's team trying to get the track off radio play, which was then reposted by Metro himself. Another bar that doesn't hit the same now.

"Your back is up against the curb, you diggin' for dirt, should be diggin' for proof"

• This one is a bit controversial, but Kendrick already did address this on Euphoria, saying "Why would I call around tryna get dirt on niggas? Y'all thinkin' my life is rap?" But at the same time, Meet the Grahams does kind of support Drake's claim as well. I'll leave this one up to your interpretation.

4. The replies to Family Matters with "meet the grahams", was a strategical masterclass. With everyone online buzzing about what Drake had dropped, he picked a perfect time and a perfect song to reply with.

• If Drake's game is numbers/views and public perception, then Kendrick got him back hard. All the streamers on to react to this, with information that is just as harmful to Drake as it is to Kendrick.

"Your back is up against the curb, you diggin' for dirt, should be diggin' for proof"

• If I am to believe Drake, then it's another misstep in his battle. If Family Matters is true, and Drake team had really given Kendrick fake info, there's no reason why they should have lobbed Kendrick a reply to diss your red button. You had to dead that the same day. But Drake replied confirming the fake info 2 days later on THP6. It makes no sense.
• For this reason and the post online from Ebony, IMO Drake did NOT have an OVO mole.

5. BBL Drizzy/Not Like Us completely lost the battle and sent Drake into retreat mode.

• Not Like Us is charting #1 in the US right now. Top song of the summer. Kendrick played Drake's own game and beat him with it, while also maintaining his lyrical best in Euphoria/6:16
• Troll game is now against Drake with BBL Drizzy too, which IMO was a great move from Metro too.
• One underrated aspect was that with Push Ups, everyone EXCEPT Kendrick could not reply cause fans did not care. Rick Ross sent a diss, and people didn't care. Kanye "Yo Dot I got you," we didn't care. ASAP ain't even reply. Metro was told to shut up and make drums, I thought he would be finished too. But the way he actually LISTENED TO DRAKE, and turned it against him? Honestly play of the series right there.

I'm sure someone on the other side will do the same with the other songs, and they should. I would very much like to see it too, cause Kendrick also got some bars that ain't age well. But with that said, while Family Matters was a great track in my opinion, it wasn't enough in this battle.

I (19m) am the youngest of four siblings (27F, 22F, 20F), the two older having a different mother, from one of my dad's past marriages. Me and my youmgest sister were born to the same mother, but my parents have been divorced since 2019. My parent's divorce was a result of my dad cheating on my mom.
He ended up dating the woman for 8 years total (the relationship began years before anyone knew about it, so around 2015, and this relationship ended mid 2023). Following this relationship he then dated a woman 1 year older than my oldest sister, to which he then cheated on with his current woman, E (short for entitled).
Regarding my dad's current woman, she has been constantly trying to get involved in all of mine and my sister's lives, one way or another, such as showing uo to our birthday and christmas parties, but the issues being that she was either uninvited, would twist every conversation onto herself or her children, or make a big deal about how she would get really bad headaches and have to be carried to my dad's car to lay down. E constantly tells my dad about how his kids haven't done anything with their lives (I'm the only one not in college/graduated atm, and I'm working a full time job so I can afford to go), meanwhile she has children who dropped out of highschool and have been expelled, multiple times.
Today we had a party celebrating my older two sister's birthday and college graduation respectively. It was us four siblings, 22F's fiancé and 20F's boyfriend, and what we thought would by my dad and E (we don't really invite her, but if my dad is invited she has to go). When those two finally arrived (about 30 minutes late), we were surpised to find out that there was "a few" other people coming. We thought it would be her children, who have shown up for past events such as my birthday, but to our surprise E thought it was a great idea to bring her youngest son, and two people none of my sisters have ever met. One of the two I did recognize as one of my dad's employees at a bar, but the other was also a new face to me. As for the guy, he was just very downright racist and made us all uncomfortable with sexual remarks, and when we asked my dad about it E chimed in and said to 'not take him seriously'.
After we ate our food and played a bit of bags (cornhole), we tried to play a trivia game like we usually do, where we take turns and answer questions on a card, we have a turn system for this game, but none of the random invites nor my dad and E were following it. This combined with the group collectively trying to cause havoc throughout the entire party by looking at the trivia cards and guessing out if turn, and my sisters had enough and wanted to just leave. A couple comments were said by the 'guests', which caused an all out screaming war between my sisters, my dad, and E, where my dad and E were arguing that we had to get used to these people as they were family. I said that they weren't our family so they can leave. (They did end up keaving for a short period) This is where we found out my dad and E had gotten secretly married in March, and they would've announced it sooner (at my birthday party), and had I not been 'selfish' during my party, they would've announced it at the restaurant I chose to eat at (E said it was selfish because she was allergic to cinnamon and I got a cheesecake for dessert that had cinnamon in it so she had to leave). E said that since she was our stepmom now we had to listen and respect her, which is not how that works. She told us we were the ones that were not a part of my dad's family, and we should leave. This is around where I was tokd to leave so I sat in my sister's fiancé's car until my mom came and got me, (my youngest sister and her boyfriend had to leave early so they didn't know about this until I told them).
I don't know much of what was said after I left, but I did see the guests return for a minute, followed by my older sister shoving them right back out the door, to which they did not return.
I feel bad for my sisters. This was their day to celebrate, and not only did it end this badly, but my dad is threatening to cut off all communications with them because of this incident. He said if we return to the building we were celebrating at (which he owns), he will call the cops on us for trespassing. E is threatening to take my oldest sister's dogs because she 'doesn't deserve them', and E is likely now uninvited from my sister's wedding. I don't know what to do.
TL;DR - my sisters' combined graduation and birthday party is cut short because my dad got secretly married to an entitled woman, who now wants us cut off from 'her' family.

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

I've been doing therapy for a little less than a year now with some slow progress. Combined with therpary and some recent events in my life I've concluded on something which feed into most of my issues:

• Meeting the wrong people at certain points in your life can completely mess with you for a long time -

I had what I thought was a good group of friends in school, but what we got to about 16/17 they all started dating. I wanted to do the same but didn't have much luck. Their solution to stop me feeling like 13th wheel (yeah...) was to stop inviting me out until I met someone. I spent my last year of high school with no friends because of this.
These friendships never recovered from that point. That was 13 years ago and now, none of those people are even friends with each other, their romantic relationships (some of them are in the same relationship from 13 years ago) are their whole world.
When I went to university, I made a new group of friends. And for about a year maybe, things were great! But then they all started coupling up (again I was the single one). Things were a bit different this time, they didn't stop inviting me out but they didn't want to go out anymore. "why would I spend lots of money going to a baclub when I have a girlfriend/boyfriend".
We also never went on holiday as a group, other than me, no one could afford it because they were paying for holidays with their partners.
So my early twenties, became a series of nights in because my friends didn't want to go out.
As a boy in their early twenties, who was a virgin. I felt like a lot of my needs weren't being met. I spent a lot of time on my own when my friends were busy with their partners and when I did see my friends, it was always a night in. I confided in my friends about these feelings and the responses I got were : "dating isn't a big deal" "we don't care that you are a virgin" "you care about what other people think too much" "stop comparing your life to other people's"
Looking back on it now, I can see that I was being gaslit. They weren't really listening to how I felt.
I wanted to be out doing things and meeting new people. I wanted to go concerts, themed parties or conventions. I wanted to go on holiday. Bloody hell, I wanted to meet women, date and have sex! What an outrageous thing for a 21 year old single man to want...
I was made to feel that what I wanted was wrong, that I wasn't allowed to have those needs.
I'm now 30 years old and living in a different country. I've lived here for about 2 years now. None of the people above are in my life anymore. In hindsight I can see that every conversation we had or every "day/night in" we had was initiated by me.
But even now, nearly 10 years later I still feel guilty for: - wanting to go drinking with my friends - being interested in things my friends aren't - being attracted to or wanting to have sex with someone
Even being in a completely new place, the effects of those friendships still haunt me. Because of those unhealthy relationships, I'm 30 years old and I don't know how to express my feelings or desires. Or make close healthy relationships.
So yeah, that's a bit of my life story. In summary - Meeting the wrong people as a teenageyoung adult completely fucks you up.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can get over this?

(I LIVE!! I have no idea what's hit me as hard as it did that Friday. But I needed Saturday to recover as well. Clearly wasn't the CPAP as that's working fine now. But good god is this unpleasant. Thankfully I'm clearly on the mend. I think I may have gotten food poisoning from KFC. Pity.)
~First~
Love and Longing
Little Fina’Noir and Dri’Noir still don’t like getting along all that much. So of course they need daddy between them to behave. They lay across his stomach, each out of reach of the other. For all that they ‘don’t’ get along, separating them is worse. They’re clearly best rivals already. They reach for each other and there are tiny puffs of sparks and little tongues of flame. But considering the soft and thin bed of moss on their daddy’s torso, it does nothing but make their little bits of bedding all the more comfortable.
Cia’Noir was visiting again, to be fair she visited so often she had almost moved in, and she was also currently mixing up a meaty broth in the kitchen while humming a nursery rhyme that most of the girls adored. Especially Uma’Noir and Jiti’Noir as they tried to keep tempo with it as grandma semi-swayed, semi-danced to the tune to their delight.
Ari’Noir, Mala’Noir, Gia’Noir and Lia’Noir were all having an extra nap. They had managed to get each other excited and rushing around as best they could earlier and wore themselves out. Leaving Miro’Noir the proud mother to luxuriate next to their shared napping blanket and pillows, casually reading a book.
“Oh? A call?” Vernon asks as his communicator starts buzzing. This grabs the attention of Fina and Dri as he pulls it out. “Observer Wu? Oh, the new ship.”
He activates it and then has the phone levitate away to give a broader look. “Sir, you’ll forgive me for not standing at attention I hope.”
“Yes.” The Asian man says after a moment. “We can excuse the lack of decorum considering that you seem to be thoroughly pinned.”
“What can I say? My little girls are fighters. I’ve heard some rumour about you through The Dark Forest. How may I help?”
“I am doing a preliminary call and evaluation of the situation with humanity off of Earth. We’ve found enough confusion information coming back to us that it necessitated the appointment and dispatching of an unquestionably trusted individual, myself, in order to ascertain exactly what is going on.” Observer Wu stated. “Unfortunately due to the sheer amount of nonsense that’s being sent towards The Inevitable and by extension, myself, I have been forced to place several administrators on duty to sort out the sheer number of calls I’m getting. The galaxy knows this is a second Dauntless Class Vessel, which means more humans.”
“Which means more men, and many women that decided to take a wait and see approach have likely decided that they’ve waited long enough.” Miro’Noir states.
“Indeed that is true madam. I take you are Lady Miro’Noir?”
“Princess, Lady is a more ennobled title. I am a Battle Princess, a military rank, directly empowered by and under the command of the Imperial Family of Serbow, in particular, The Empress.” Miro’Noir says and Observer Wu nods.
“And the third adult looking into this conversation?” Observer Wu asks.
“I am Cia’Noir, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother depending who in this room you are asking.” She says. “My little girl has worked a miracle in that she’s locked down a husband all to herself. So she needs a bit of a hand to caring for her first clutch, no sister wives to assist you see.”
“I believe I do. Still, I have been informed that Officer Shay and Princess Miro’Noir are largely responsible for the excellent relationships the Apuk have with humanity. If you would be so kind, could you tell me how that came about?”
“Oh... it was silly, sweet and wonderful all at the same time...” Miro’Noir gushes. “We met at a bar and I tried to get some attention, a few credits for a conversation. At first I thought he was a Tret.”
“The near human species, yes.”
“Well, I was proven wrong, not only human, but an INTERESTING human as well. A trinity of criminal fools attacked, and as I rose to show off, he did as well. And displayed a terrifying Axiom power.”
“Terrifying power?”
“Transmutation sir. A very complicated Axiom Technique I had stumbled on and managed to create my own version of. Basically I had bumbled into a way to rapidly learn a monumentally difficult trick and make it extremely lethal in human hands.” Vernon explains.
“I see. Are the notes of your research available on The Dauntless?’
“Yes sir they are, I hope you’ll forgive that... hey!” Vernon is cut off when Fina’Noir starts smacking his stomach. “Be nice little lady!”
“Bah! Bah! Bah bah!” Fina’Noir counters as she smacks him in the stomach again and again.
“Fina’Noir you must be nice with family!”
“Adabababa!” Dri’Noir adds in with a smack of her own to her daddy’s stomach.
“Dri’Noir! Don’t follow your sister’s bad example! Be nice!” Vernon chides her and a smiling Miro’Noir rises up after marking her place in her book and sweeps the more active little girls into her arms.
“There, have your talk with your officer now dear.” Miro’Noir says giving him a peck that he gestures for her to come back to and he gives her a longer kiss in return.
“I’ll be back shortly.” He promises before rising up. The communicator floats into his hand and he offers a salute to Cia’Noir who sends one right back. “I’ll be just in the back yard.”
A few moments and the door is closed behind him. The communicator floats out of his hands and he slips into parade ground ‘at ease’ stance. “Sir.”
“This is a preliminary communication. Not that formal. How well regarded are humans by the Apuk?”
“We have been invited to build a community on their homeworld sir. That kind of privilege is usually extended only to species that are sworn to each other in some way.” Vernon answers.
“That’s very interesting.”
“It was a very strategic move sir. The Empress... she’s one of those kinds of politicians where any action you take short of directly opposing them or attacking them is something they benefit from, and they also know how to handle someone directly opposing or attacking them. She’s friendly and benevolent, but when you realize just how many of her strings you’re dancing on... it’s disquieting.”
“I see, so how did setting up a human community on Serbow help?”
“She requested a specific type to explore the human ease at learning Apuk Sorcery. She did this to not only develop a large number of sorcerers that are more mentally stable than most, but to get ahead of the next few sorcerers, put her in well with humanity, distract the more troublesome nobility and likely more. That was one action. One.”
“Ah... one of those types. Is she scrambling to get things done or does it all seem effortless?”
“Effortless.”
“... Frightening.”
“She’s been directly ruling an entire species for multiple centuries. Even if she was originally installed as a puppet of some kind, which she was not, then she would have had enough time to gain all the skills she needs to be an unstoppable force in the political side of things.”
“I see, anything else?”
“You’ll need some context for this. You are aware that Apuk are naturally inclined to breathe fire using Axiom right?”
“I am.”
“Those trained to use it properly manifest Warfire, it’s... hard to describe. A fire where the heat lingers and pervades much more than normal. It’s like the fire contains their aggression.”
“I see, what of it?”
“There are four grades of Warfire easily distinguished by colour. Red is standard, Blue is considered an expert level, Green is the sheer strength of Battle Princesses only, but the final level is White Warfire, and only The Empress can manifest it at will.”
“I see.” Observer Wu states and Vernon shakes his head.
“Sir, Red Warfire can burn a hole into a starship over the course of a few minutes. It takes a single minute or less for Blue Warfire to do the same. A mere moment for Green Warfire and is so instantaneous for White Warfire it would cause an explosion as the solid metal is converted into a gas instantly.” Vernon explains.
“Really? They’re that dangerous?”
“Sir, it’s legally a form of suicide to attempt to fight a Battle Princess with odds any less than five to one.” Vernon says and Observer Wu looks impressed.
“I see, and your involvement with their cultural traditions and such?”
“Well, first was the Broken Shell Tournament. A large martial contest with six person free for all fights. The aim is to break the armour or ‘shell’ of all your opponents, not kill them or force them out of the ring. I made it to the final round before I grew upset at one of my opponents, locked her down entirely, and then broke my own armour and walked out. More or less ruining the woman’s reputation and social standing while imprinting myself into the cultural zeitgeist.”
“What happened to the woman in question?”
“She joined a monastery and after achieving journeyman status I offered her a recommendation into The Undaunted as compensation. She’s taken it from my understanding, but as you can imagine, she and I are not on good terms. Or really speaking terms.”
“I see, and the community that has been built?”
“It... kinda ties into our initial journey through Cruel Space.” Vernon says somewhat ruefully. “A lot of us played all kinds of pranks and jokes and things like that to try and stave off the boredom and cabin fever. One of which was banding around a soldier who has ninjas in his ancestry and... pretending to be his legion of ninjas.”
“... The people that took part in that are mostly in the community aren’t they?”
“Yes sir, we’ve built a hidden ninja village in The Dark Forest of Serbow. A massive communal entity that is simultaneously a single mind and the mind of every single thing in the forest.”
“A communal entity? Wait, you said everything in the forest. Does that include the men currently inside it?”
“And me right now. Think of my like a brain-cell to a larger body if you must. While I cannot ignore the needs of the rest of the body, I can also guide it, learn from it, and it’s strength is mine as my knowledge and skills belong to it.”
“And it’s not a security breach?”
“I’m able to keep secrets from it, but what I share with it stays with it. It has however flash taught me the local language of Cinder Tongue, as well as Classical and even Ancient Cinder Tongue. I know the Apuk language and much of their history better than some dedicated historians. Couple that with the extreme area control and tactical advantages of being bonded to the forest and it’s been regarded as a more than fair trade.”
“Area control?”
“The Dark Forest as an entity can absorb heat and grow stronger. I can cause a temporary extension of this ally to appear wherever I am. And considering lasers and plasma are the most commonly used forms of weaponry and Apuk Warfire, it’s a nearly perfect defence. Couple that with just how much it understands about Axiom use towards animals, plants and the earth itself and I can shatter the ground under me with a blink and refuse any solid ground to stand on to my enemies as well. Add on Woodwalking and I am untouchable to my enemies.”
“Woodwalking?”
“The Forest is alive and on my side. I carry a whisper of it within me wherever I go. The Forest can call me back to any extension of itself at any time. Meaning I can in effect always retreat to a safe location no matter the distance, access the supplies I have stored there no matter where I am, and have backup by my side at any moment. Facing a Dark Forest Sorcerer is such a tactical nightmare that we’re considered direct counters to Apuk Battle Princesses, which may I remind you, are legally suicide to fight one to one.” Vernon says. “To say nothing of the other Sorcerers. The Dreadmoss, The Blood Bark The Burning Stone, The Bonechewer, The City Shaker, The Leviathan Lord. Or my own title, The Bloody Prophet.”
“You’re The Bloody Prophet?”
“I recreated the Plagues of Egypt to stop feuding families from slaughtering each other. I am the only Sorcerer who’s title wasn’t earned with a body count. Even if only by a technicality.”
“A technicality?”
“Dare’Char Crushclaw is the Lydris born son of Brin’Char The Bonechewer. He assisted in one of his father’s rampages against his hated enemy by providing transport. While Dare’Char didn’t kill anyone directly, he still enabled his father in that regard.”
“So those nicknames are for supernatural serial killers?”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Please explain then.”
“It’s rather hard to, until I became the first human sorcerer, all sorcerers were the result of an Apuk boy or man being pushed to the breaking point. They then flee in the night and find solace in the shadow of The Dark Forest, it bonds with them, protects them and teaches them. But it also reminds them of what drove them to the forest to begin with. Which means that in a few short years, the former victim returns from The Dark Forest, immensly powerful and filled with unthinking rage. Until humans were on the scene, all sorcerers went on at least one rampage and earned their nicknames from them. Since we showed up... there were only two... technically three. One was Brin’Char finding his ancient enemy still alive, so he was set off. Another was when Cals’Tarn joined us, his home was under attack and we counterattacked for him. Saving his home and family. Then there was mine, but no casualties, does it really count as a rampage?”
“I would say bringing the literal wrath of god onto someone would count as a rampage, yes.” Observer Wu states. “I think we will be speaking face to face in short order. It’s quite clear that you are responsible for some fairly major changes.”
“I look forward to it, is there anything else?”
“Not at this time.”
“Good, because I’d like to get back to my wife.”
“You’ve only been apart for...” Observer Wu checks his watch. “Four minutes.”
“Five minutes too many. If you’ll excuse me.”
“You are excused.” Observer Wu says and he turns off the communicator.
~First~ Last

Her remains are currently in the elephant shaped cookie jar on the kitchen table downstairs. She loved elephants, and we've had that cookie jar for as long as I could remember.
It is hard to believe she is in there and not physically with us. It is hard to believe I won't feel her hugs or kisses anymore. To hear her laugh, see her smile, hear her randomly singing throughout the house. To come home from college and see her sitting in her usual spot on the couch with Judge Judy on, or a crime show playing. Or to pick her up from work because we shared the same car. I can't believe that car is now officially mine. I know she is here in my heart, but dammit I would give anything just to see her again.
She spent a little over two weeks in the hospital. I had to call 911 for her and she was brought in by an ambulance. After the first two days of her being in the ICU, they told my dad and I that she would not make it through the night. My dad bought two plane tickets for my two brothers to get here that night to see her. Miraculously, she made it through the night. After a few days, she woke up. A couple days after that she was moved out of the ICU and into a regular room. She was awake and talking although it was hard to understand her voice. I was just so happy to see her doing better. I was so sure that she would recover and we could bring her home. April 25th, she was moved back into the ICU for breathing issues. Then, her organs were failing. The morning of April 26th, she passed away.
My mom meant everything to me. I was so comfortable being myself around her. I could tell her things I couldn't tell anyone else. She supported my sexuality and who I am as a person. We went almost everywhere together. We fell in love with the show Supernatural together. We met Jenson Ackles and Misha Collins together.
Now she's gone. I won't have that again. I keep thinking about all of the things she won't get to do. She won't be able to finish her KitKat bar I got for her at the gas station just a couple days before she was admitted to the hospital. She won't be able to wear her new work shoes she just got before the hospital. She won't be able to enjoy the gifts she received from her friends during her hospital stay. She wasn't there for my birthday which was yesterday. She won't be here for her own birthday next month. She won't be there for my graduation, or my wedding, or any important event in my life.
It feels like a dark shadow is just wrapped around my heart and it's just staying there. I'm off from college for the summer, so I'm just existing now. I've been getting out of bed later than usual. I talk to my friends and spend time with them like nothing has happened. I haven't cried for a couple weeks now because I don't talk about it. It's like I've been trying to ignore this, to distract myself from the pain. Writing this post now, I keep stopping to cry because writing this is bringing back the hurt, the memories, the feelings. My mom shouldn't have died. I shouldn't have to be making this post. She should still be here with me. My mom was amazing, and she didn't deserve to have her life cut short. I could go on and on and on about this, but that would make the post too long so I will end it here.

I started this morning at around 9:30 and finished in four hours and forty minutes. I'm happy I did it but the speed isn't where I wanted it to be. 10.7 MPH average and on the way back I had to stop A LOT more. I'm not sure if I should have fueled myself more or what but I started to get sick towards the end. I'd take a break, have some watesugar snack and then continue for a few more miles. Rinse and repeat.
My breakfast before the ride was a cup of brown rice, 4 eggs, salsa, and coffee. While on the trail I had a gallon of Gatorade/water mix, a bag full of raisins, some jelly beans, a peanut butter granola bar, and a protein/carb power bar. On the way back, because I was feeling a bit off, I got a bag of pretzels for salt.
The trail itself was awesome. I started in Ottawa, KS on the 'Prairie Spirit Trail State Park.' My goal was to make it to the 4th city which was exactly 25 miles. The trail was mostly woods and a few times it was heavy forest with large rivers/creeks to see. It was a rather hot day and there were some stretches of just wide open prairie and bright sun.
The 4th city felt like it was NEVER going to show up. Before I left I looked at a map and knew that there was a big lake at the start of this 4th city. On the ride I kept looking for the lake hoping it'd be over the hill. I was about to turn back... and then there it was! Quite a feeling.
One of my favorite highlights was about 10 miles in I saw a Mulberry tree and they are in season. I grabbed about 4 handfuls of Mulberries for some instant energy. I also saw a ton of wildlife and had two close calls which is making me hesitate doing that trail again.
The first close call is I'm pretty sure I saw an adolescent mountain lion. It was walking down the trail quite a ways ahead of me. At first I thought it was a large dog like a Labrador or something. As I got closer I knew it was a cat... but it wasn't a Bobcat. I've seen those before. I'd say this thing was about 50-60 pounds. While I don't think it posed a threat I had no idea if there were others nearby. I googled later and found that they hang out by river beds and this was right by one of those. Luckily, as I got close enough it slowly wandered back into the brush and I didn't see it again. It definitely didn't seem afraid of me.
The second close call was on the trip back. I was cruising going about 18-20 mph. I went over a hill and had to swerve as there was a decent sized snake lying right in the middle of the trail. Most likely baking in the sun. It was so fast that I was within a few inches of it and if it wanted to I would have been bit. Rattlesnakes and Copperheads are native here. Definitely had me freaking out for a bit, but I guess worse case... I had my phone on me.
How do you guys handle wildlife like this? I normally cycle alone as I prefer the quiet and to set my own pace. Should I rethink this?
The other wildlife I saw were all pretty cool. Lots of box turtles, snappers, ton of rabbits, squirrels, deer, and a couple close calls with hawks swooping down right in front of me.
Some pictures I took:

• https://i.imgur.com/lyuzlCd.jpg
• https://i.imgur.com/LMdZRGr.jpg
• https://i.imgur.com/m6rOQgc.jpg
• https://i.imgur.com/0wD7l0T.jpeg - One of the very few other riders I saw. The nearly 5 hours I was there I saw about 6 people.
• https://i.imgur.com/su9jvFU.jpeg

This is the story of Gavicus XXIX, the leader of the Aurean Dominate at the beginning of my book series. The Aurean Dominate is a declining empire centered around the Planet Aurea and a few pieces of the surrounding worlds. Despite this, the Aurean Dominate still remains one of the four great powers in the South Nebula, competing with the Haxamanian Empire over its southern and eastern worlds. The north is dominated by the Ishga Empire and the west is controlled by the mysterious and brand-new Tatiians. Minor powers include the Kingdom of Arturia, the Aztlanian Empire, the numerous Atlantean states, and the Kingdom of Vigam. Was Gavicus XXIX a good ruler in your opinion? Why or why not?
INFO ABOUT GAVICUS XXIX:
Gavicus XXIX was a Guant born somewhere in Occidens on Aurea 65 years before the end of Book 1. Not much is known about his early life, but it is known that Gavicus XXIX's birth name was Galerius Decimus Tranio and that he spent most of his young adulthood serving in the army during the war against Beyin Epivoulos and his criminal empire. He eventually became a Senator representing an area of rural Occidens, and after a few terms in the Aurean Senate, was chosen to become the Consigliere of Dominus Theodosius IV after the former Consigliere was ousted in the aftermath of the Great Nicopolitan Scandal. His tenure as Consigliere was short, however, as Theodosius IV died of the Blood Bleaching less than a year later. Galerius ascended the throne in Theodosius's place, and took the name Gavicus XXIX upon doing so. He was 47 years old at the time.
Gavicus inherited a bureaucracy that had just been stripped of the vast majority of its talent, as many of the best officials that had served under Theodosius had been implicated in the Great Nicopolitan Scandal and thus were barred from future office. Syagrios Komnenos, the Exarch of Tifinagh under Theodosius who had helped defeat Majorian IX when he tried to use Tifinagh as a base to usurp the throne, was replaced by Marcus Septimius Massgaba. Massgaba was an incompetent wealthy landowner who had bought his way into the Aurean Senate and would go on to spend his tenure as Exarch raising taxes like a maniac, triggering several small revolts, needlessly prolonging the war with the Haxamanians through his impatience and battlefield incompetence, and dying pathetically in the Battle of Tasfahn. Nassenia Montana, the highly capable Magistra Milita that had served under Theodosius IV was replaced by Gaius Caesonius Theodosius (no relation to Theodosius IV), a somewhat competent general who would go on to serve Gavicus well in the wars in Amorica but utterly fail him in the Battle of Tasfahn. For his Consigliere (2nd-in-command/heir in case of his resignation or death), Gavicus chose Tiverios Theodosiopoulos, the most capable of Theodosius IV's sons, who by this time was serving in the army and Senate as a Legate (Senator in command of a legion). As Gavicus was often away on campaign, Tiverios would go on to amass plenty of political clout and power for himself, as he is who Gavicus always left in charge of governance while out of the capital.
Almost immediately after ascending the throne, Gavicus was forced to deal with a crisis. In Lapum, a working-class satellite city of Aurea's largest city Nicopolis, an ethnic Tangolian civilian named Arslan Yi'it was murdered by Aurean legionaries stationed in the city, causing four days of ethnic violence and chaos known as the Lapum Riots. Large portions of the city were burned and looted. Gavicus personally led a legion into the city to quell the uprising, doing so with only 50 civilian deaths and a few hundred injuries, but this did little to quell the underlying ethnic tensions in the city and elsewhere in Aurea. Despite Gavicus's best attempts to invest in Lapum in the years following the violence, much of Lapum's terrified, ethnically Aurean and Centralian upper and middle class fled the city for Nicopolis and elsewhere, resulting in the beginnings of the urban decay the city is known for today.
Additionally and most importantly, Gavicus had inherited the war with the Haxamanian Empire that had cost the Aureans almost all of their territories on the Planet Awal. Only Tifinagh's islands and a small scrap of the mainland Theodosius IV reconquered just before his death remained under Aurean control. Immediately after dealing with the Lapum Riots, Gavicus traveled to Tifinagh, hoping to cement his legitimacy by reconquering the rest of Tifinagh. Due to the Haxamanians' attention largely being focused elsewhere, Gavicus and Massgaba managed to get significantly further than Theodosius IV did, marching east along mainland Tifinagh's northern coast to little resistance. A small Haxamanian force that tried to stop them outside the city of Dymox was easily defeated, and they took Chera, one of the largest cities on Tifinagh's mainland, with no resistance. However, the city had been emptied by the Haxamanians of its food, its civilians, its water, and its supplies. Immediately knowing this was a trap, Gavicus sent for reinforcements, naval resupply, and a fleet from Carthadasta, Tifinagh's capital. Too impatient to wait for supplies, Massgaba disobeyed Gavicus's orders to stay put and led small bands of cavalry to plunder what they could from the local countryside.
While on one of these raids, they clashed with a small band of Imazi cavalry, previously Aurean subjects who'd switched sides to the Haxamanians after the latter captured their land. The Aureans were victorious and managed to capture some, learning from them that the Haxamanians were amassing a massive army nearby, led personally by the Haxamanian Shahanshah (King of Kings) Bahram VII and his Spahbed (top general) Bacha Hilazai. Only a day later, a Haxamanian fleet appeared from the northwest and parked itself in Chera Bay, blocking reinforcements from reaching the city. However, just as according to Gavicus's plan, the Aurean fleet arrived soon after and defeated it, allowing the simultaneously arriving food and supplies to enter the city. Having lost their advantage in a siege, the Haxamanians instead opted to meet the Aureans in open battle, choosing a nearby site at the edge of the Imazi Desert. Gaius Caesonius Theodosius, who had arrived with the reinforcements, along with Gavicus and Massgaba, led the Aureans to a resounding victory, killing or capturing half the Haxamanian force and routing the rest. The victory at the Battle of the Imazi Desert allowed the Aureans to march much further into mainland Tifinagh, recapturing essentially the entire western half of the Exarchate. Meanwhile, Bahram and Bacha retreated to the fortified port of Vasanos to lick their wounds and await reinforcements. Hoping to return to governance, Gavicus left the situation on Awal to Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Massgaba for the time being and returned to Aurea proper.
In his early reign, Gavicus focused primarily on strengthening trade relations with the Ishgas, but was soon forced to shift his attention elsewhere. 4 years into his reign, the galactic warlord Tate released a magical cataclysm known as the Iteru Genocide on Iteru, a moon of the Planet Awal with close relations to the Aurean Dominate, as it was a former Aurean possession. With Iteru's Pharaoh Nuterhek, a close personal friend of Gavicus, begging him for help, Gavicus provided what rice and wheat the Aurean Dominate could spare to help with the associated famine. While it wasn't enough to save Iteru, the food aid bought many of Iteru's people the time they needed to flee the doomed moon. Despite the Aurean Dominate's extremely isolationist policies for the past few centuries, Gavicus made an agreement with Nuterhek to resettle some Iteru refugees on Aurea, angering many hardliners in the Aurean Senate. The decision was only able to pass the Aurean Senate when Gavicus agreed to cap the total number of migrants at 60,000 and restrict Iteru settlement to the cities of Astras and Olinthaseia. Most consequential of these arrivals was Taftenkhamun, Nuterhek's 10-year-old son and heir to Iteru's throne, whom Gavicus agreed with Nuterhek to adopt as a son. Despite Gavicus's efforts, however, the Iteru Genocide killed or forced into exile all sentient life on Iteru, taking the life of his friend Nuterhek as well, who chose to die with his people rather than flee to Aurea. Gavicus would live with the guilt of not doing more to help Iteru for the rest of his life.
Gavicus would raise Taftenkhamun, much better known by his Aurean name of Taftus, as the son he never had. He allowed Taftus to live with him in the Palace of the Domini, continued his education, and did his best to balance spending time with him and showing him love and affection with the duties of being the Aurean Dominus. Despite Gavicus trying to push Taftus into going into politics like he did, Taftus was far more interested in the military, and enlisted in the Aurean legions at 17, as soon as he became of age.
After a year of scheming to turn the tide of the war, Bahram sent Bacha undercover to the rebellious Aurean Province of Tangolia, tasked with fomenting a rebellion so they could use the province as a springboard to attack Aurea proper. Many Tangolians, particularly the Otrar and Gazan Tangolians, both felt mistreatment under Aurean rule and had more in common culturally with the Haxamanians than the Aureans, and many flocked to join the revolt, which quickly took control of the north and center of the province. Qajeer, the Tangolian Khan loyal to the Aureans, fought off several attempts by the rebels to capture Tengribalik, the Tangolian Capital. However, once the Haxamanians arrived, led by Bacha Hilazai, their combined strength was too much for Qajeer to deal with and he was forced to abandon the city to the rebels and Haxamanians, fleeing to Tangolia's eastern seaboard, an area much more loyal to the Aureans. With Gaius Caesonius Theodosius tied down in Tifinagh and not trusting Massgaba to defend the Exarchate on his own, Gavicus was forced to rely on what was left of Qajeer's force, border guard units, and regional commanders to stop the ensuing Haxamanian-Tangolian invasion of Argentolia, the Aurean heartland. The border guard units proved to be little more than a speed bump for the combined Haxamanian-Tangolian force, which easily broke through the border wall and crossed the Hsia River, invading Argentolia. As most of eastern Argentolia's regional commanders with any actual talent had been implicated in the Great Nicopolitan Scandal under Gavicus's predecessor and thus were no longer in command, almost all of them were fairly new recruits with little experience leading troops, resulting in disaster after disaster. Daion was the first city to fall to the Haxamanian-Tangolian force, which then followed that up by defeating an Aurean field army near Cannoria. Within three months, both Cannoria and Ferum, the latter being one of the largest and most important cities in the Aurean Dominate, would be in enemy hands. Over the following six months, poorly led field army after poorly led field army would fall to the invaders, with the major cities of Eresus, Cercapese, Ager Capulum, and Sacrini all falling within the next year. For the first time since the Aurean Dominate's founding, the capital of Astras was within striking distance.
Under immense pressure from the Aurean Senate and general public, Gavicus finally recalled Gaius Caesonius Theodosius from Tifinagh after Sacrini fell, as the enemy was nearing Astras, thought for millennia to be untouchable. By the time Gaius Caesonius Theodosius had arrived, the Haxamanian-Tangolian force had seized Artegion, on the doorstep of Astras, and with it, a fleet. With the combined arms of their massive land force and this fleet, the Haxamanian-Tangolian force laid siege to Astras, with Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Gavicus leading the defense of the city. The city's massive, three-layered walls, combined with its easily defensible location on the sea with only a few land entrances, allowed the Aureans to repel the invaders, marking a turning point in the war. While the Haxamanians under Bacha Hilazai simply sailed back to Awal, the Tangolians, with no such option and trapped thousands of miles deep in Aurean territory, would be dealt with piecemeal over the next three years. Around the same time, Qajeer had managed to reverse his fortunes in Tangolia and recapture Tengribalik and much of the province's center.
By year 6 of Gavicus's reign, the situation with the Tangolians was under enough control for Gavicus to return his military attention to Awal. While Gaius Caesonius Theodosius and Gavicus had been busy fighting off Bacha Hilazai and the Tangolians, Massgaba had lost some ground to Bahram VII in Tifinagh, having been pushed back to the city of Thubiscurum. Taking advantage of low Haxamanian morale after the failed Siege of Astras, the Aureans were able to push the Haxamanians out of Tifinagh entirely when Gavicus and Gaius Caesonius Theodosius returned, restoring the Aurean Exarchate of Tifinagh to full Aurean control for the first time in decades. Other lost Aurean Exarchates in the area - Kilikia, Meroe, Adua, and the Imazi Tribal Lands - were restored to Aurean hands over the next six years, putting the Haxamanians decisively on the back foot. During this time, Bacha Hilazai was killed at the Battle of Taoudenni, greatly weakening the Haxamanians and lowering their morale.
Relations with the Kingdom of Arturia were fraught, with conflict erupting 7 years into Gavicus's reign over the Aurean Exarchate of Amorica, an isolated Aurean territory on the Planet Arturia that the Kingdom of Arturia continued to claim. Paradoxically, these tensions began when Arturia's king, King Arturius, traveled to Aurea to meet with Gavicus to negotiate an end to their millennia-long conflict. While Gavicus was personally in favor of a deal, King Arturius refused to relinquish his claim on Amorica, leading to the Aurean Senate rejecting the deal and forcing Gavicus to continue the conflict. Additionally angering the Aurean Senate, Gavicus made the mistake of insisting that he meet with Arturius in Astras rather than on Arturia. Despite Gavicus's attempt to pitch it as a beginning of the end of Aurea's centuries of isolationism that even many Aureans were starting to regard as self destructive, this was seen as a bridge too far for most. During the failed negotiations, Gavicus briefly met Pompeia, a young disciple of King Arturius who would become of note much later. In order to make up his lost standing in the Aurean Senate, Gavicus was forced to escalate the situation in Arturia immediately after the negotiations broke down, distracting King Arturius with a vacation in Astras while he ordered a massive invasion force to land in Amorica and seize as much Arturian land as possible.
Exceeding even Gavicus's expectations, this force managed to break through the Arturian Alps and put Caerbannog, the Kingdom of Arturia's capital, under siege. Upon his return, however, Arturius managed to break the siege despite being taken completely by surprise, and defeated the Aureans in several battles, pushing them all the way back into Amorica. Eventually, Arturius, livid at Gavicus's betrayal, managed to invade into Amorica itself and fought the Aureans, led personally by Gavicus as he had traveled there by this point, to a stalemate at the Battle of Caerwent. While Gavicus still had enough resources to continue prosecuting the war, he felt that this particular episode proved there was no reason to continue the constant skirmishes with Arturia, and accepted an offer to negotiate peace terms with Arturius again, this time in Amorica.
The ensuing peace deal returned Aurea's and Arturia's borders to status quo antebellum, although Arturius was not happy about Aurea retaining Amorica. However, Aurea had to bite the bullet and recognize the Kingdom of Arturia's independence and normalize relations, as all of Aurea's previous Domini had refused to do this despite it having been fait accompli for millennia at this point. Aurea had previously seen the entire Kingdom of Arturia as little more than a rogue province that had somehow managed to slip from its control long ago. Aurea paid Arturia a hefty war indemnity, but this was paltry compared to the money that new trade relations between Arturia and Aurea brought in for both nations. Although recognizing Arturia's independence was not popular on Aurea at first, Gavicus was able to sell it based on the fact that he had retained Amorica, held the peace negotiations off-planet this time, and most importantly because of all the money that new trade relations with Arturia brought in, as Arturia sat along a key trade route linking Aurea more closely with the wealthy and technologically advanced Ishgas far beyond. This allowed Gavicus to hold lavish games, as well as expand Aurea's existing food dole for the poor to include protoceratops and psittacosaurus meat in addition to wheat, olive oil, rice, pork, and chicken. His popularity spiked, and in the tenth year of his reign, he would go on to sail to reelection against Qajeer Khan, winning 55% of the vote nationwide.
In the ninth year of Gavicus's reign, the last holdouts of the Tangolian revolt had been put down by Qajeer. Qajeer had his uncle Jamukha, who had led the revolt, strangled for doing so. However, Qajeer had his own reasons for helping crush the revolt instead of participating in it himself. While he secretly loathed the Aureans and the way they treated his people, Qajeer instead chose to bide his time, gaining the Aureans' trust and building a robust local power base while he waited for his own opening to revolt. For the entire rest of his life, Gavicus would be none the wiser. Qajeer would eventually revolt under Gavicus's successor, resulting in a multi-year civil war that would leave the already exhausted Aurean Dominate open to the machinations of Tate soon after.
Gavicus tried his best to manage the Blood Bleaching pandemic that circulated on Aurea during the first few years of his reign, but little could be done to spare Aurea from the destruction of that disease, and like most of the rest of the galaxy, Aurea lost a substantial chunk of its population. Thanks largely to Gavicus's enforcement of strict social distancing throughout its duration, however, the Blood Bleaching killed far less of the population on Aurea than it did on the hardest-hit worlds of Arturia and Iteru, each of which lost half or more of their pre-pandemic populations. In total, it is estimated around 10-15% of the Aurean Dominate's pre-pandemic population was killed by the Blood Bleaching, compared to around 50% on Arturia and a whopping 70% on Iteru. Even Aurea's relatively small loss was not without its consequences, however, as this caused a decline in tax revenue for years and a noticeable strain on the military's recruitment pool.
In the first four years after his reelection, Gaius Caesonius Theodosius managed to reconquer all of the lost Exarchates on Awal the Haxamanians had taken from the Aureans during Theodosius IV's reign. Nova Aurea, Caria, and finally Carmania were all finally returned to the Aurean Dominate after decades of Haxamanian occupation, and Gavicus's popularity soared as a result.
Despite having recognized Arturia's independence earlier, 14 years into Gavicus's reign, tensions flared up with Arturia again Amorica again. An Arturian garrison had left a border fort in the Arturian Alps briefly undefended, and a small Aurean force seized it without orders, prompting a small-scale war between Aurea and Arturia. This conflict was over in about two months, with the Kingdom of Arturia suing for peace after the Aureans seized a few more border forts and badly defeated an Arturian field army at the Battle of Allt-Gollau. At the negotiating table, Gavicus agreed to return the border between the Aurean Exarchate of Amorica and the Kingdom of Arturia to status quo antebellum in exchange for the freeing of 500 Aurean hostages Arturia took during the fighting and the Aureans who seized the initial border fort without orders were put on trial. Most notable about this conflict was the brilliance of an Aurean cavalry commander named Gorgo Gualtera at the Battle of Allt-Gollau, resulting in her catching Gavicus's eye. Gavicus promoted her to Exarch of Amorica, giving her full military and civilian control of the territory. Unbeknownst to Gavicus or anyone else, however, Gorgo was both the daughter of the dead Aurean crimelord Beyin Epivoulos (the crimelord whose forces Gavicus had fought in his youth), as well as a deep cover agent for Tate (the architect of the Iteru Genocide and many other atrocities across the galaxy).
The next year, the Haxamanian Empire was engulfed in a civil war, and Gavicus saw the perfect opportunity to strike at the Haxamanian Capital while the area was engulfed in turmoil, finally ending the decades-long war or maybe even conquering the Haxamanians completely in the process. However, things did not at all go according to plan, and all the armies he brought with him got destroyed by the forces of Rukhsana I Shahanzai, a disaffected member of the Haxamanian royal family who had escaped from prison, gotten an army together, annihilated the Aureans in the disastrous Battle of Tasfahn, and took the Haxamanian throne for herself. Several Aurean generals and other military leaders, including Massgaba, were killed, and Gavicus barely escaped the battle with his life. The Aureans had no forces left on Awal after this to protect their holdings there. On the other hand, Taftus, who was also present during the campaign, became a national hero when he used his tactical prowess to save the troops under his command from annihilation by a Haxamanian ambush deep in the mountains.
In the aftermath, Gavicus was forced to enter into peace negotiations. At first, Rukhsana demanded the Aureans cede all their lands on Awal to the Haxamanians, which Gavicus flatly refused (The Exarchate of Tifinagh on Awal was one of Aurea's most valuable regions and ceding it to the Haxamanians would have meant an end to the grain dole and mass starvation across Aurea). Eventually, a deal was reached in which the Aureans would cede all their lands on Awal except the Exarchate of Tifinagh to the Haxamanians, and the Aureans would have to pay a huge war indemnity to the Haxamanians as well. The Aurean Exarchates of Nova Aurea, Kilikia, Meroe, Adua, the Imazi Tribal Lands, Carmania, and Caria were all permanently handed over to the Haxamanians, essentially rendering all of Gavicus's reconquests except those in Tifinagh moot. This was formalized in the humiliating Treaty of Mingora, which Gavicus was forced to sign.
Gavicus's popularity took a nosedive in the aftermath of this event, and he dedicated the rest of his reign to domestic policy, commissioning public works projects, throwing lavish games, and beginning by far his most important legacy: he decided that to keep up with the rest of the galaxy, Aurea needed to end its isolationism and industrialize along the Ishga model. He decided that Aurea's largest city, Nicopolis, would be a good place to test industrialization, and he hired Ishga scientists, architects, engineers, and developers to transform Nicopolis into a modern city. While Gavicus's popularity would never recover to the heights it was at after his victory over the Arturians, this was enough to keep him from being assassinated (at least for a while).
For the rest of Gavicus's life, Taftus would alternate between his extremely promising military career and a middling-to-poor one as an elected politician, helping Gavicus with some of his later projects such as industrialization but turning out to be too scandal-ridden and debauched to be the protege Gavicus wanted. For all his military talent, Taftus had a reputation for extreme abrasiveness and anger issues, and it seemed every other week there was another rumor going around about Taftus having massive orgies involving female politicians and/or prostitutes. While Gavicus would never fully disown Taftus, he had largely abandoned him as a protege by the end of his reign, assigning him military command of the backwater province of Tiorangi where he didn't have to pay much attention to him. The year before Gavicus died, he made Gorgo Gualtera his Magister Equitum, supreme commander of all cavalry forces in the Aurean Dominate after the previous officeholder died suddenly of a stroke. While Gavicus had no way of knowing this at the time, this decision would eventually result in both his own death and Aurea being pulled into the galaxy's broader confrontation with Tate years later that would result in the bloodiest war in galactic history.
Towards the end of his life, Gavicus befriended Pompeia, a young woman of mixed Aurean and Tangolian heritage who had spent much of her life on the Planet Arturia before returning to Aurea by accident. She rose to superstardom as a gladiator, having trained in magic under King Arturius, utilizing magic in combat in ways that hadn't been seen in millennia. He was both shocked and intrigued by Pomepeia's friendship and past brief romantic involvement with Rukhsana I Shahanzai of the Haxamanian Empire. Gavicus saw great potential in Pompeia and reinstated her Aurean citizenship, even allowing her to serve as his Consigliere after Tiverios was indicted on corruption charges. However, there was some tension between the two, as Pompeia was from Lapum, had witnessed the Lapum Riots as a child, and was critical of Gavicus's failure to address the longstanding discrimination against Tangolians that led to them. Less than a year later, Gavicus was assassinated under mysterious circumstances (it would later be discovered that Gorgo Gualtera arranged his murder and covered it up so well that no one even suspected her until she would eventually reveal her true intentions years later), and Pompeia ascended the throne as the first female Dominus (Domina) in history. Gavicus's body was cremated after his death and his urn was placed in the Mausoleum of the Domini in Astras. Decades of constant conflict with the Haxamanians, both under Gavicus and his predecessor Theodosius IV, as well as civil conflict, multiple Tangolian revolts, the Hoc Nostrum conflict, and the Amorican Wars with Arturia would leave Pompeia with an exhausted Aurean Dominate, bereft of manpower, resources, money, and talent that would be completely unprepared to deal with Tate and his machinations only a few years after Gavicus's death.

Hey I ordered a ton of perfume during a mental breakdown. Here are my thoughts on some of them.
— Black-Hearted Tart —
We Fell In Love In October (Fluffy, hot off the griddle pancakes topped with butter and smothered in golden maple syrup. Accompanied by a side of spiced baked apples with notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger): Buttercream, cinnamon yankee candle, nothing. That’s the extent of my journey. Honestly, it’s fine, it’s a very inoffensive fall scent, if you want to smell like you’ve crushed a craft store on your wrist it’s great, but a lot is missing. If notes are a choir, the cinnamon has a megaphone. Honestly, I’ve been looking for a good pancake or waffle scent for a while, and this misses the mark. 3/5, not bad at all, but not was I was looking for and definitely not fit to wear yet in the Hell Summer I have coming up.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Gifting to people who still use the word “spoopy”
• School bake-sale days
• Smoking cigarettes on the roof

Boys Wanna Be Her (Uplifting basil and bergamot add freshness. Enhanced with an earthy blend of buddha wood and oak moss. Tonka bean and white patchouli evoke a bohemian vibe): Boys Wanna Be Clean too, apparently, because the crux of this frag is SOAP, lots of it, and nothing but it. I have no clue where it’s coming from based on the notes, but it’s undeniably suds. It smells like those industrial strength white bars. Like “I just worked a twelve hour shift and the first thing I did when I got home was scrub myself down so hard my nose forgot what work smelled like.” This would probably be great for layering, come to think of it, but I like “violently clean” scents and will probably wear it on its own anyway. 3.5/5 if you’re like me and soap is a comfort scent, or if you’re some kind of Patron Saint of Laundry Detergent, you’d probably like this too.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Showing up Febreeze
• Infiltrating rich person bathrooms where the shower has fifty nozzles that move and every surface is marble
• Feeling peppy and awake on mornings where you just want to crash

— OSMOFOLIA —
Finally A Star (The glitz of cardamom and sparkling grapefruit stars, outer space ozone, dreamy tuberose, searing gunpowder, and a ham hock for a head): I’m so mad that this is good. The joke with my IRL friends regarding this order was “you know I wasn’t in a good place when I made this purchase because I got ham perfume.” And I'm the joke now, because I ended up liking it a lot. Like, this is currently the only Osmo frag that has ever worked on me, and I’ve tried a sizable chunk of their library. (Seriously, I was going to include another perfume of theirs to compare and contrast, but everything I said felt too mean.) To make matters worse, you can definitely smell the ham and the gunpowder in the beginning! It’s in the background behind a really juicy grapefruit note, but it’s present. Part of the way this perfume was sold to me were reviews that assured me the ham was more of a bacon note, but no. This is honey baked ham. Deli-core. But the grapefruit note is so juicy that it takes over and makes it manageable. It’s pretty and weird and vaguely delicious and I’m worried someone will try to take a bite out of my facemeat when I wear this, but I will wear it. 3.5/5, I guess?
Potential Practical Uses:

• Ill-advised bereavement meals
• Going poolside but your bathing suit is hotdog-themed
• Happily single manic pixie dream girls

— Sorcellerie Apothecary—
Cake For Breakfast (Birthday cake, ripe mango, pineapple, coffee, maple syrup, and a hint of cardamom): Okay, I get it, coffee doesn’t like my skin. This is a bitter burnt caramel on me, though according to my friends with working noses, it reads more vanilla to them. I wish I could get what they got: as the day goes on, it started pulling borderline savory on me. It’s like… okay, you know when you make pancakes and little drops of batter get stuck to the pan? And then they stay there and slowly burn into little balls of ash? It smells like the process of that happening, but someone is chugging coffee syrup. I can’t say I got the mango or pineapple, which I was kinda pulling for; there’s a possibility it was there in the opening, but I also could have been hallucinating considering how fast it vanished. I’m giving it a 2/5, I can’t fully say it’s bad, especially because the drydown is okay if you like your caramel overdone, but I don’t think I’ll be keeping this.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Manifesting disappointment
• Becoming the exhausted diner waitress you’ve always dreaded being
• Reconnaissance in Seattle

Your Girlfriend Is A Badass (Yellow cake with fudge icing, oakmoss, Himalayan cedar, forest floor): By all accounts, this shouldn’t have worked. I hate chocolate as a perfume note, because it tends to go tootsie roll on me, and I’m not the biggest fan of yellow cake because vanilla is a death note, and “forest floor” implies dirt, which I’m also not an enjoyer of. This is all to say I honestly don’t know what possessed me to buy this, but I’m extremely glad it did because I’m in love. When they say fudge icing, they mean it: it didn’t go cheap or artificial on me, it was honest to god chocolate the whole time. I know “I wanted to lick my wrist” is a cliche in reviews, but it did smell like my arm was edible. That dirt note is prominent, but it works in harmony with the chocolate and gives the whole thing depth. As it dries down, an unexpected party joins: incense. I can’t name which exactly, but it has undeniable headshop vibes to it. It sounds weird, especially because it’s not in the notes (unless this is just Sorce’s base), but it works. It’s like… a joint retirement cake between Joni Mitchell and Walt Whitman. Or like you’re making s'mores in a log cabin with a bunch of your stoner friends who super aren’t going to die to a slasher later. It’s definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and pretty much seals the deal on me crawling back to Sorcellerie for another order. 4.5/5, easy, would annoy the Haunted Forest No One Should Step Foot In for cake again.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Tracking down the man who killed your parents
• Hiking on a cold Midwest evening, alone with your thoughts
• Daphne specifically

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

Hi, jungle and mid player here. I wanna talk about the reasons why Naafiri is so unpopular at the current moment. Personally, I think she is a very well designed and beginner friendly assassin. Many people however, seem to have a bit of a different opinion on that and her low use rate seems to reflect this at first. Some for example wanna see her in the jungle or consider her to be boring. While she is admittedly a bit one dimensional, she is not ment to be as hyper complex as some of the other lately released champs, that doesn't mean she is a failure in terms of design. To see what I mean, let's look for a moment at what the assassin class is supposed to do.
What has a assassin to do?
Assassins have one job, and one job only. Kill the most important target on the enemy team, usually the ADC. For this job, they have 2 tools at their disposal that allow them to do this job: mobility and a crap ton of burst damage, which is damage that comes out very quickly but usually is restricted by cooldowns, leading to overall lower DPS, but in exchange its more flexible in application. The playstyle of an assassin works like the following: they are sneaking around the map and wait for a succeptable target to be out of position. As soon as this is given, they use their mobility to go in, use all their burst damage and kill the target as quickly as possible, and then use the mobility to escape again.
Does Naafiri fulfill this job?
Overall: Yes. She has a good amount of burst damage with her W and Q if she hits with both daggers. Her Mobility is a bit more limited compared to other assassins but when it comes to going in, nobody has such a reliable engage as she has. Only her disengage is kinda ass, but she isn't the only assassin with a somewhat limited disengage. Rengar and Talon also have this issue to some extent. Like any champ in any class, assassins have different strengths and weaknesses inside their own class, and she has more of her power budget allocated to her damage rather than her Mobility, so this isn't a bad thing. In fact, some assassins with more mobility like Akali are in practice more hit-and-run skirmishers than full-blown assassins, but that's a bit hair spliting.
So, then what exactly does make Naafiri unpopular?
The thing about her I noticed when playing her is how deceptively simple managing her dogs is. I mainly started playing her because I needed an assassin in my pool that allows me to rip those annoying carry only champ comps to pieces, because with Lillia I cannot even walk up without loosing half my health bar, and I got her recommended as a beginner assassin. Honestly at first they look kinda intimidating to manage, which I think does count for a lot of summons, like Yoricks mist walkers, but in practice, they are very simple to use. With q can use them to poke the enemy, w and e allow them to collect them in one place, and r allows to summon more of them when needed. The more I played her the more I realised that the dogs are more of a additional cooldown to manage that allows you to empower your attacks rather than a real additional entity. This might sound a bit boring, and depending on who you ask, it is, but if you ask me, it's actually a brilliant way to integrate summons into lol. Why? Because summons in lol honestly are usually not that good to begin with and probably never will be.
Why summons are kinda bad in lol - and how naafiri circumvents those issues.
Summons have in lol the problem that they are a extension of the threat-bubble of the champ that uses them without the champ has to put himself at risk. That's essentially what the issue comes down to. To see what I mean, let's look at Yorick, especially his old version before the rework. This version essentially was a pure monster spawner. His laning phase essentially was purely throwing his summons (also called his omens) at the enemy and poking the enemy down while denying him CS. Depending on the matchup he was one of the most oppressive lane bullies in the game because those Gouls actually had a good amount of health. The problem however was that those Gouls are very hard to use in team fights because of their succeptablility to AOE damage. This is one of the reasons why Yorick was in practice forced to splitpush all game long. He still has those issues to some extent today and I think his kit will never really leave this issues behind. Other summons are kinda hit or miss when it comes to impact, illaois tentacles and malzahars mites feel sometimes extremely squishy, and Annie's bear and iverns stonegolem daisy are locked behind ultimates. Essentially, most summons either are easy to get rid off or are not part of their core gameplay, because in any other case they tend to be too oppressive to deal with. Naafiri has none of those issues, at least not to a problematic extent. While her Q is a way for her to let her dogs autonomously hunt down her enemies, it has a long cooldown, and it's a short ranged skill shot. She still has to put herself at risk in order to exert pressure with the summons, unlike Yorick. The dogs are also still somewhat squishy, so they can be easily killed. However, as a assassin, if she wants to go all in with her ultimate, the enemy might not have the ability to react quick enough to kill all of them. In essence, the reason why her summons are kinda boring is because that's the only way they are not too unfair do deal with.
The thing is, however, that because of the summons, she looks more complicated than she actually is, which is not nessesarily good for a beginnerfriendly champion. Many people consider for example Annie or garen as beginner friendly champs because of their almost to a fault simple kits. Because Naafiri's gameplay is all about managing her dogs, most newer players don't see her as the simple assassin she is supposed to be. Her kit is complicated in theory, but simple in practice, leading to few people trying her out, and those people are then disappointed by her stat checky nature in practice. The high BE price further increases this issue. However, I would argue that while someone like Annie or Ashe is simple in theory, they are actually a bit more complicated in practice, and that's because they aren't designed with a clear gameplan in mind and have abilities that are look somewhat out of place and for a beginner, it's not nessesarily clear instinctively how to use what ability. The first time I played league around 8 years ago I think, I wasn't aware of what the value of a stun is and therefore misused Annie's passive a lot. Her bear, while central to her theme, doesn't do that much to be honest and most more experienced Annie players flash ult into the enemies when they are grouped up so that they are all stunned all together. The bear is essentially irrelevant for her gameplan. Ashe has a lot of utility in the same fashion where it's not exactly clear how valuable what part of any ability is, like her additional vision and the slows on her auto attacks. Naafiri's abilities don't have this issue, even if they look more complicated. Her Q is her poke tool she uses if she doesn't wanna go all in and is very useful in lane for healing if you land both parts, but also is good for burst damage if you chase down the enemy. Her w is her all in, her e is a additional mobility tool who's value is the least intuitive, but it's a relatively small issue, and her ultimate is essentially a steroid, whichs value is also very intuitive to understand.
Essentially, the problem with naafiri is that she is a easy and intuitive champion that looks very complicated on the surface, intimidating people who are new to assassins and lol in general and disappointing people who are more experienced with the game. But that has nothing to do with the champion itself but rather management of expectation. I think riot should lower her be cost quickly and maybe should market her more aggressively as a beginner friendly assassin. Despite her low play rate, I personally really adore her design and find her, for all the hate that assassins tend to get (which is honestly sometimes understandable but that's another topic), a extremely well designed and fair champion.

28 - The Fountain Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 1000 CP 1000 (Base)

Jump Details

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

Jump Duration

Years: 10 Months: 0 Days: 0

Perks

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

Items Stipend: [+200/600 CP]

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

28A - Biosphere Supplement Build

Point Summary

Point Total: 800 CP 800 (Base)

Jump Details

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

Items

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

I thought it might be useful to lay out some of the more credible sounding comments and discussion I've seen around "the end" of Giuseppe's career and his disappearance. Nothing here is "officially verified", but I think there's a fair bit of truth in a lot of the information here, and might help point anyone who's interested in the right direction to a better understanding of his story. I've included the ones that make more sense to me/ reflect my own knowledge of the situation.
Giuseppe was living around Canandaigua, NY towards the end, staying with Mary's parents in her childhood home for a period, after they both had left Austin for unknown reasons. I would imagine the reasons would have likely been mental health and/ or money related for both of them (he was approximately 36 years old, at this point). Mary was still shipping movies out for a while around this time - the last order I placed on the website myself was November of 2014 and ended up emailing back a couple weeks later, because she had never sent me any information about receiving the order / shipping it out, in contrast to all earlier orders I had placed. She replied pretty quick though, and told me she had shipped it out earlier - it arrived about a week after. The return address was her parent's place in upper state NY.
Giuseppe's output got increasingly erratic and bizarre over the next couple years, and I wasn't really sure if half the items he was selling there were even real... they would have completely nonsensical descriptions, often like a free association / shitty "beat poetry" kind of thing, usually in all caps, featuring lots of bizarre and offensive language (racial slurs, AIDS references, etc), and the products listed were often things like a "3 minute DVD" for 20 dollars, so I was pretty skeptical / really didn't have much interest. He'd announce a ridiculous amount of new material, I'm talking like 5 new movies and 5 albums every week... The last order I made was for a few of the Austin films and I really didn't enjoy them, and more or less lost interest in any future projects at this point. I would still check periodically just to see what he was posting to the site, just out of curiosity / because a lot of it was really out there. He used to have audio samples for his "albums", and he almost exclusively was posting CDs of him ranting (with a ton of very weird throat clearing and coughing, it almost seemed like a Tourettes thing). His site went down somewhere between March 23, 2017 and July 3, 2017 according to Internet Archive. I can't remember exactly when he stopped adding new items, but it was probably sometime in early 2017.
He was clearly living in and around Canandaigua for a while, for at least 2-3 years, maybe even longer...
February 2017 - a twitter account called "HELP GIUSEPPE" was created and made three posts:

@ thecampaignbook Shia, G.A just came into my local bar needing help. he was stressin bad. hes in canandaigua NY and just stormed out of here
@ AdamRifkin G.A just stormed into my local bar, made it half way through the set up of this account and stormed out. needing you it seems.
@ EdwardNorton Giuseppe Andrews just came into my local bar very alarmed/needing a friend and help.

July 5, 2020 - a YouTube video entitled "What Happened to Giuseppe Andrews? A Short Investigation" is posted, some of the comments that were posted include:

(approx: 2021) I live in a small town called Carlin.. it’s literally 24 miles from Elko Nevada.. back in may of 2019 I was working at a small casino.. Giuseppe would often frequent the casino.. I worked the graveyard shift so it was mostly quiet.. he was polite and even remembered my name and would always ask me how I was.. I was able to get him to take a selfie with him and he even drew some artwork for me.. he told me that I could sell the artwork if I wanted to and fetch a decent price for it.. my husband and I were in the process of buying our first house and I told him no I would frame it and it would be proudly displayed.. he almost started tearing up..I’d happily upload the photo if YouTube would let me..
The same commenter also mentioned, responding to a comment about Detroit Rock City: yeah that was a good movie.. it’s really sad how his life played out.. he told me some sad tales of what he went through

> In early 2018 a man rang my doorbell in Canandaigua, NY. He was disheveled and seemed out of it***. He started yelling at me “I am Giuseppe Andrews, a Hollywood actor. I need you to call the police. “ I was startled and a little afraid but I told him to wait outside and I went in and called 911. He waited on my lawn and the police arrived in about 5 minutes. He spoke to the police in the car and then walked away. I don’t really live within walking distance of anywhere so not sure where he was going. I tried to obtain info from the police about what was going on but was not told anything. Has remained a mystery all these years later and I think people ( other than my neighbors who witnessed it) don’t believe me when I tell the story. Strange but 100% true.***
Some other interesting comments from various accounts, talking about the last stuff he was posting publicly:
> On his YouTube before he start d doing 13 albums in 2 weeks, his gf released a video a bunch of videos that was 4 or 5 hours long of him ranting on a couch with a guy. I think she was documenting it. I wish I would of downloaded it.
> And the next day it was all gone the footage, I have signed copys of DVDs and posters and shit he sent me in the mail.

(A reply from another commenter) - I remember he went on a long rant about various people in Hollywood and whatnot. Someone mentioned him having schizophrenia/paranoia, and while I'm in no way a psychologist or medical professional, it did seem like things were getting progressively more bizarre and unhinged. Given how creative and abstract he was when he initially started with his film making and music, I think it masked what was actually going on ( whether it was drug use, the onset of some sort of mental illness, or a mix of the two ). Earlier on he was still eccentric but seemed more lucid and driven with what he was doing.

> From what I've gathered (also a fan from DRC and Cabin Fever) his mother committed him to an institution and when released, he went to live with his mother. The twitter chick claims to be his fiancé now and he's no longer with Mary. But who knows.

It would turn out that Andrews also suffers from some very severe issues. Having chatted with his mother Giuseppegirl informed me that he has recently been placed in a mental health facility and has begun a 6 month stint in there where he has no access to the internet or anyone other than family members. He had a break up with his wife Mary Beth, who appears in a lot of his films, so it's possible that this is what put him over the edge. I've talked with Adam Rifkin who says he has some of Giuseppe's rarer films, but hasn't talked with the man for a few years now. That's as far as I have gotten in the rabbit hole.

A bigger YouTube channel made a video about Giuseppe's disappearance, titled "What Happened to Giuseppe Andrews? Internet Mysteries", posted Nov. 11, 2021:
(this commenter is different from account who made the earlier comment about ringing the doorbell in NY):

This dude showed up at my parents house 3 years ago in the middle of the night, asking for help and saying he needed to be let in. Absolutely no way was that happening. Long story short we found out after the fact that he was a character in Detroit Rock City & American History X some of my favorite movies
The last video of him I saw was a crazed rant of him yelling about censorship of art. He was real angry and cursing in a vlog style video. I think some people were criticizing him for use of racist language in his films I’m not exactly sure but I saw snippets of his rant and then the video was taken down a month later along with everything else.

1 year ago:
> He currently lives in Elko Nevada after having a schizophrenic break he still lives with his loving mother part time and she takes care of him. I see him around town a lot and only recently found out that he is Giuseppe Andrews. I can answer most questions if you’re curious.
There was also an interesting thread about 4 years ago, on a different subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/RedLetterMedia/comments/gal55x/giuseppe_andrews/
A few of the more interesting remarks:

After his California days he spent a few years around Austin making films that mostly just starred himself and his wife Mary. Some of these are really good but his minimalism and experimentation are pushed to the limits here. Some are absolute garbage. After this there was a short stint in upstate New York with this same kind of limited style. Shortly into this cycle things for weird then he disappeared. Right before he disappeared he was posting a lot of troublesome content and releasing TONS of music and films with nonsensical names like "fffff" which would be followed up with "fffffffff". I haven't seen any of this stuff.

> I remember the New York era where things kinda went off the deep end. He released a lot of content where he talked a lot. There was quite a few where he would mention that he was desperately trying to reach out to John Frusciante
Has anyone else stumbled across any comments out there, that support this general narrative / add additional context, or perhaps give reason to believe something a bit different? In particular, towards the end with his site and the long drawn out "spoken word albums" / posts he would make? I listened to some of the audio samples when they were on the site years ago and some of it was unbelievably weird, like he was in a totally dissociated state, talking to people who weren't actually there. There were a couple specific celebrities he was "talking to" quite often, John Frusciante was one for sure, and another guitar player from a relatively small band I can't remember now (I looked them up at the time and thought it was particularly weird, as they were like a small time college rock band who had broken up years prior).
One thing I do remember quite distinctly was I was quite surprised when a shot of Giuseppe on a playground with a man and woman in upper state NY was posted to Instagram, a short while after his website went down. If I remember correctly, they were musicians and the caption said something to the effect that he was helping them film a video. At this point I thought he was more or less completely out of it based on what he'd been posting to his website, so I was really surprised that he had connected with some strangers to actually do something like that, but I don't believe there was ever any follow up posts. I haven't been able to find that post since, if anyone ever remembers seeing that, and who the couple were that would be unbelievably helpful to me!
From the bits and pieces that have come out, I feel like I can stitch together a bit of an understanding of how things might have gone down over the last decade, but a lot is still very speculative to an extent. I'm really curious if anyone out there can corroborate some of these stories in any way, or add any additional information!

Previous part
I stood in my doorway, frozen to the spot as Shaoni walked past me, into my house.
“Weren’t you going to invite me in?”
Shaoni cooed at me, somehow making the arbitrary question sound like a threat.
“I uh… what can I get you.”
I stammered out, automatically reverting to subservient. I know it sounds bad but when you’ve seen what I’ve seen her do you listen first, ask questions later.
“Is water alright? It’s all I’ve got since I only just moved here because… well I guess you know why already.”
I said, wanting to keep the orange juice I was currently hiding behind me in the fridge for myself.
“The visions? Yes I do know about them. It’s what drew all of you here, just like I wanted. Though you weren’t supposed to see the stage yet, none of you were.”
She said, narrowing her eyes at me, presumably because of my earlier expedition into the mine.
“Why do you keep saying “you” like there’s more than one of me?”
I asked, finally working up the confidence to question her.
“Because there is, do you really think you’re the only one I marked? Keith your a special case yes, but not that special.”
“Special case? What do you..”
“If you let me finish I’m getting to that.”
Shaoni cracked back at me, I could feel the pressure in the room rise with her temper.
“Sorry ma’am… it just slipped out.”
She seemed to find my knee-jerk formal apology amusing and the pressure in the room returned to normal.
“I offered several people the same deal I offered you, most accepted. These are the others I refer to, all of which are here or on their way here now. That’s what the dreams, visions, whatever you’d like to call them, were for.”
“So you wanted us here, all together in this one specific town, why?”
“The trials of course, if you remember you agreed to take a burden from me. I guess I would describe it more accurately as a gift but it has become a burden for me.”
“What is it?”
“Now where’s the fun in telling you now? Besides your smart enough, I’m sure you’ll figure it out on your own.”
She answered, smiling devilishly at me and sending little pin pricks of ice down my spine. I let the conversation fall silent for a bit, watching Shaoni sip absentmindedly at the glass of water I’d given her before I asked another question.
“So what exactly are these trials for?”
“I want to use them as a selection process, it separates the wheat from the chaff as the saying goes. Only one of you will take on my burden and I want to make sure its the right one.”
“Ok, that makes sense but I’ve still got one more thing. Why did you say I was special before?”
I inquired, as Shaoni got up and started to leave.
“Well, because this is all new to you, you have no idea of the forces really at play in the world, the “supernatural” is what you’d call it. You’re at a particular disadvantage because you didn’t know what you were getting into so I figured I’d help out of the kindness of my heart. In addition to that, many of those I’ve chosen came from my own followers. You are one of the few I found on my travels that accepted my deal. I believe in keeping things fair, and so I came to warn you of what’s to come.”
Shaoni told me as she walked out the door without so much as a goodbye. The storm that had been brewing outside left with her, dropping bits of cracked branches and loose leaves to the ground as she got further and further away. I finally realized I was still standing at my front door, glued in place watching her. Once I closed and locked the door I heard a shrill screech pierce the night as Shaoni shed her human appearance and took to the skies as I saw a single shiny grey feather flutter to the ground.
I didn’t get much sleep that night, I didn’t even try. After something like Shaoni waltzing into my home like she owned the place and telling me I’m about to be part of some kind of “trials”, I just gave up on sleep that night. What I was worried about more than anything was the fact that I didn’t have a choice. Sure, she had never said that out right but if she showed up to tell me the trials were starting and I said no, that wouldn’t go well. I’d probably end up like those men in Imalone, just ashes on the wind. There was something she wasn’t saying as well. Shaoni wanted to flaunt that there was some sort of reward at the end of this, that the whole process would help her select a “worthy candidate”. But the reward was also the burden I had agreed to take. If whatever it was was something she wanted to get rid of why would anyone look at it as a reward? Something just wasn’t adding up in my head so I decided not to think about it for a bit. I instead I threw on some clothes as the sun finally rose and made my way over to Bianca’s house to pick up my backpack that she still had.
“Hey there Frank. Where’s Stein I wanted to ask how that research was coming, and has anyone seen Bianca?”
I said as soon as I’d walked in the front door. Rocco was eating something out of a bowl on the counter top and shot to attention as he saw me.
“What do you just live here now?”
He remarked, whirling around to face me. Frank looked up from the paper he’d been reading at the counter and gave me a half hearted wave.
“Stein’s in the basement testing a few samples of thunderbird feathers Tuck brought in.”
“You know Tuck? The mountain that just so happens to run a bar in town, that Tuck?”
“Yes of course, he’s helped us immensely with developing a suppressant for lycanthropy.”
“I… we’ll unpack that one later I guess but I’ve got too find Bianca first, she still has something of mine. Let Stein know I’m looking for him if he comes back up.”
I told Frank as he nodded in acknowledgment and I made my way over to the stairs leading up to the second floor.
“Oh god dammit, I just got that!”
I yelled to no-one in particular as I knocked on Bianca’s bedroom door. I heard a crash behind it as Bianca came flying towards me, throwing open the door and almost smacking me in the process.
“What the hell is going on why are you here! And what did you just get?!”
She belted out at me, apparently startled by my outburst. She had a long loose t-shirt on and maybe something on underneath that, I wasn’t going to check. I must’ve turned crab red as I saw her but it didn’t stop me from telling her what I just pieced together.
“Their names, Frank and Stein, Frankenstein. They did that on purpose didn’t they? I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on that sooner!”
“What are you… oooh, OOOH! I’ve been around them how many years and I’m just picking up on that too.”
She said, sounding a little disappointed and smacking herself in the head with the palm of her hand.
“So what’re you doing here anyways Keith?”
“You still have my backpack from yesterday and I could use that back.”
“Oh sure I forgot about that, come in.”
She said holding open the door for me and causing her shirt to hike up a bit, She did not in fact have anything other than what you’d expect on under it.
“Ummm… do you maybe want to get dressed first?”
Bianca turned redder than I’d ever seen anyone get in an instant. Her eyes Immediately started glowing and she slammed the door shut, apparently just realizing she had answered the door in nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. I heard of muffled groan of embarrassment from the other side of the door and decided to leave her to it.
When I came back downstairs into the living room Frank and Stein where waiting for me on the couch. It was a sight to see, two old scientists sitting in the middle of a lavish black leather couch that wrapped the outer edge of the room. The two looked out of place, like a time traveler trying desperately to look normal in a society they knew nothing about.
“Before you guys start I’ve got to know, did you do that intentionally?”
“Did we do what, what are you talking about?”
They both asked in unison.
“The names, Frank and Stein, did you do that on purpose?”
Frank smiled at this and looked toward Stein who seemed to be fuming.
“It’s been 60 years since I’ve heard that question and no, its purely coincidental. We just so happen to share similar names with this Frankenstein”
Stein replied, actually shaking with anger. Frank on the other hand, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. In light of this I decided to push my luck just a little further.
“Ok, but I’m still going to call Rocco Frankenstein’s monster from now on, I can’t just pass up that opportunity.”
Frank laughed at this and Stein shook his head in disappointment.
“Children, both you.”
“Oh come now Stein, even you have to admit its a little humorous.”
“I will not be compared to some fantasy doctor and their failed facsimile of life! Rocco is a proper experiment with guidelines and uses that monster from the story is just a harebrained pet project!”
Stein fumed, seemingly offended at the concept of being compared to doctor Frankenstein. After a short tirade, none of which I really want to repeat here, we got Stein calmed down. Then the two got me seated and asked a question I wasn’t expecting.
“Do you know why we decided to settle down in this town in the first place?”
The question took me by surprise, I had assumed they just ended up here for no particular reason. Like a tumble weed being blown across the desert. They were here now caught on a fence or something but I always got the sense the wind would blow them along to somewhere else eventually. I hadn’t given much thought as to why they would be here at all. My vacant stare must’ve clued them into the fact that I had no idea how to answer the question.
“Let me rephrase, do you have any idea why things like Bianca or Tuck or even us seem to be concentrated here?”
Stein asked again, a calm tone to his voice like he was explaining something to a child.
“Tuck? What does Tuck have to do with this? I get you two are supernatural researchers and Bianca is a succubus but Tuck is just a really, really string guy right?”
I shakily asked, slowly drawing a connection to what Frank said about Tuck and lycanthropy when I came in.
“Tuck is a werewolf, a repentant one but a werewolf nonetheless.”
“That… actually would check out, It would definitely explain why the guy is built like the Rock’s bigger cousin. But what exactly are you getting at?”
“This town Keith, There’s a reason it attracts people like us and the Thunderbird is a big part of that. It had been sleeping in the mines as far as Frank was able to tell, once it woke up it caused the collapse and it made a huge stir. Obviously reports came out about this massive thing coming out of the ground and talking flight but you’ll never find any of them. The government stepped in to help Eagles peak cover up its existence, if people knew about the Thunderbird there would be uproars and questions as to what else was out there, questions no-one really would’ve had answers too. Instead they buried it and tried to bury most records of this town, turning it into a haven for the supernatural, especially those who would rather be left alone.”
Stein’s lecture made sense, if the town was basically wiped off the map as far as recent information goes it would explain its small size. I really hadn’t seen anyone in town besides those people getting off the bus the day I met Tuck and a few employees at local stores I went to. But not all of them could’ve been supernatural beings right?
“So are you trying to say everyone in town is some kind of what… supernatural entity?”
“Nothing as grand as that but there’s certainly more supernatural beings than usual concentrated in this town. Even some of the normal people have ties to the supernatural here. It’s a place were people who know about these things can pass through without to much scrutiny. What’s more interesting though is the other Thunderbird sightings we were able to dig up. Almost all of them lead to a town like this, taken off the usual map with a barley visible digital presence. Tiny little nowhere places that aren’t known for much and never show up on the news. The Thunderbird seems to be making these sanctuary’s for the supernatural throughout the world. It doesn’t seem to monitor these places afterwards but they certainly never recover from the coverups after the Thunderbird makes an appearance.”
Stein continued to lecture, speaking just as much with his hands as he did with his words.
“Has she ever come back to any of these sanctuaries she’s created.”
“She!? You don’t mean the woman you saw in Imalone? I had chalked her up to a stress induced hallucination.”
I had to briefly explain to Stein that I had not in fact hallucinated the naked woman that ultimately turned out to be Shaoni, to his displeasure.
“So you saw this woman then?”
“Yeah, in the cave attached to what I’d have to guess were the mines. She even showed up at my house last night.”
“It… she, talked to you?”
“She said that there was going to be some sort of trials to see who takes on this burden of her’s. The whole thing was really unclear if I’m honest.”
“So she’s coming back then, not only that but she’s in the town or the forest right now. I don’t get to say this often but I really don’t know what’s going to happen with this Keith. Frank and I will keep an eye on what we can but we’re researchers, if she decides to pull you into these trials we won’t be much help.”
Stein said, growing concerning on his face. I don’t think seeing Stein in this state did anything to assure me. This is someone who worked on the wrong side of world war 2 and he seemed scared by the thought of what Shaoni might be up to. It was at least nice to know someone would be monitoring the situation when I got myself killed.
“I could go with him.”
An unexpected voice cut through the silence of the room, Bianca’s voice. She had wandered down from her room wearing a black leather jacket paired with a tight red shirt and ratty jeans, my ratty jeans I noticed. She had the backpack she owed me in one hand and her eyes locked on us.
“What?”
We all said, in shock of what Bianca had just offered.
“I could go, watch your back and see what’s going on with these trials. I’m familiar enough with the supernatural, not as much as Frank or Stein but I could help.”
She said with raw unfiltered confidence that was unusual for her.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that, I told you the story, you know what Shaoni is capable of.”
I bargained, hoping to keep her out of the line of fire for some reason. I knew it would probably be smarter to bring her with me if I did get forced into these trials but some protective instinct kicked in. I’d seen her barley able to keep herself together just talking about her past and shut down when someone grabbed her. I didn’t want to see her get hurt trying to look out for me. Her past obviously still effected her in a big way. Another part of me wanted to bring her with me just to see her fight against the power her past still held over her. When we were on the way to that mine yesterday she finally seemed alive. Bianca wasn’t just this this scared person living in a gilded cage with two people who took her in like a kicked puppy. Yesterday she was her own person again, if only for a little bit.
“Look I can’t stay here doing nothing forever, besides you helped me out watching the house way back when you first got into town. You didn’t hold the fact I manipulated you into it against me and you never really cared about what I was. I at least owe you this Keith, please.”
Bianca begged, I didn’t feel like she was trying to pul me one way or another this time, the choice was my own. I could also tell it was hard for her to give me a choice, her nature was to just use her power and make me agree with her. That single fact meant more to me than whatever fight was going on in my head, I nodded to tell her I agreed.
Frank and Stein weren’t particularly thrilled with the idea of Bianca watching out for me. They were worried it put her in too much danger. Despite the situation surrounding those three I could tell Frank and Stein really did care for her, or at the very least worried about her. She may not realize it but she was like a daughter to them, anyone could see that, anyone but her apparently. Or maybe she had closed herself off from the world so much to try and survive on her own that she just couldn’t bring herself to realize it anymore. I think that’s the more likely option but it begged the question. Why exactly does she keep going out of her way for me?
Bianca managed to convince them to let her keep an eye on me. Thanks in no small part to the fact that she claimed living anywhere near Rocco for prolonged periods of time was hazardous to her health. At which point almost as if on cue, Rocco shot out of a wall. Not off of it or out from around, no straight out of the wall sending plaster flying like shrapnel. Right after this we smelled the beginnings of an electrical fire. Rocco ran back into the room and jumped back through the hole in the wall with a fire extinguisher. Frank and Stein lost their minds at this point and went to find the proper equipment to deal with that. They agreed with Bianca on the spot after that one. Rocco claimed he was “trying to update the wiring in the house”, whatever that meant but you could never tell with him. Once everything had calmed down I headed over to the kitchen to make lunch for myself. I settled for a bologna and mustard sandwich and sat down to eat. As soon as I took a bite of the sandwich my phone rang with a number I didn’t expect a call from, Mom.
“Hi, what’s going on?”
“Are you ok, You never call, I just got your message.”
My mother Carla said, in that worried but angry tone only mothers can pull off.
“I’m fine mom I just wanted to let you know what was going on with me, I don’t think I ever told you I was moving and I didn’t want you to worry.”
Bianca walked into the kitchen at this point in the conversation and looked at me. I put my finger to my lips and shushed her. She just sat down across from me and took a bite out of MY sandwich.
“You didn’t, I know I don’t see you much and your fine on your own but I still worry. We were never the closest but that doesn’t mean I don’t wan to know If you’re moving halfway across the country on a whim.”
“I know mom, I know. A lot of things happened at once and it was such short notice I just… forgot.”
“I understand… just call me next time alright, and if you ever just want to talk I’m here. Just because we weren’t all that close doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear from you now and then. Anyways I have to get back to work.”
“Oh, ok Just… how’s dad doing?”
I sighed knowing the answer to my question already.
“He’s… he’s the same Keith, Love you.”
And with that Carla hung up.
Bianca eyed me with a mildly stunned look on her face. Like she just realized I was born not raised in a test tube somewhere.
“That was your mom?”
She asked, pointing at the phone in my hand and still eating the sandwich I had made for myself.
“Yes, Oh come on give me that!”
I yelled, reaching for the sandwich in her hand. She laughed and pulled it away, finishing it. She tried to speak with a mouthful of sandwich but I couldn’t make out a thing till she gave herself a minute to chew.
“I haven’t talked to my mom since the whole thing with Brooke. She never approved and that was that, I went my way and she went her’s.”
“What about your dad?”
I asked her, suddenly not as mad about her stealing my food.
“I never really knew him. Apparently he left when I was really young but that’s about all I know.”
“Is there a single question I can ask about you that won’t just leave me feeling sorry I had a moderately normal life before this? Really I just… that’s terrible.”
Bianca looked a little sullen as she thought about her family, her real family. I realized that as strange as this whole relationship with Frank and Stein was it was the closest thing she had to something stable. Hell, I might be the first real friend she’s had outside of the house in years.
“Tell you what, I’m suddenly hungry for some reason so why don’t we head down to the Eagle’s Roost and get something to eat?”
I glared at her just a little bit as I said that first part.
“It’s like 1o’clock now I don’t think Tuck opens up till 5 or so.”
“Well I’ve got a few questions for him now, besides last time I went down there early too and he was just hanging out behind the bar, didn’t seem to mind either. Wait, you know him? He didn’t really look at you when he saved us yesterday, come to think of it he barley mentioned you.”
“Yeah I’ve seen him coming in and out of the house when he helps Stein with his experiments, giving blood and tissue samples to him, that sort of thing. I don’t know why he didn’t say anything to me. Maybe cause he thought Frank and Stein didn’t know I was out there so he just didn’t want to stick his toe in that situation?”
She had to think for a second about that last part, furrowing her brow and shrugging when she couldn’t come up with anything better.
“Could be it, anyways its just one more thing I can ask him. So are you coming with me or what?”
“Yeah sure, just let me pack a few things.”
“Pack a few things? What do you mean it’s just…”
But Bianca was already running up the stairs back towards her room.