Small red rash with scaly center
Perioral_Dermatitis_
2022.12.07 18:23 Left-Relief8430 Perioral_Dermatitis_
Perioral dermatitis is a red or pink rash that appears around the mouth, the folds of the nose, and occasionally the eyelid. There can also be persistent grouped tiny red pimples, pimples that change into a blister and pimples with pus sometimes on the background of pink, scaly or dry patches.
2012.07.28 18:42 halstedom Neverwinter Nights
For the stalwart community interested in Neverwinter Nights (NWN), its sequel Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2), or Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition (NWN:EE)
2019.07.29 23:06 jona250210 Because Freedom of Choice Matters
A place for all portable, compatible and modular init systems and the Linux-based distros that use them. We're not limiting this sub only to those kind of topics, others include: suckless software, KISS principle, the Unix Philosophy, POSIX and others similar.
2024.06.04 16:44 YukiteruAmano92 There Will Be Scritches Pt.182
Previous Next First
---Orders---
---Thran’s perspective---
I walk through the starboard gallery of the Bright Plume on Deck 0.
On my right walks a man who stands a third my height again taller than me, taking one step to my two and not walking as softly as he normally does.
My mouth tastes of his.
Our orders are simple; get in, get a piece of thanatite and bring it back to her while not drawing attention.
If we’re chased, lose the pursuer before coming to the meeting place.
If anyone gets in our way, deal with them.
We hit the bottom of the stairs and climb the 5m up to Deck 1 before taking a right across the balcony to the dorm door.
“Thran? Victor? What’s going on?” comes Twila’s curious voice, speaking English over the hallway’s speakers.
We weren’t given any instructions about what to do if anyone tries to speak to us so we ignore her and walk into the Vrakhand’s Commonroom.
We march over to the far wall, on which two crossed spears hang, their shafts solid, dense, dark wood, their heads polished, glossy, red biomineral.
Victor extends his arms to take down the one on the outside that I would have had difficulty reaching.
Without a word, he brings the tip down to rest against the floor, pointing in my direction.
I step on the point with my left foot and raise my right to bring down my heel on the shaft, directly above the socket, just about managing to successfully crack through it in one try.
Tossing the heavy length of wood aside to clatter onto the floor, Victor bends down to pick the 40cm thanatite blade out of the impression of it that I just stamped into the floor.
Standing back up, he tucks what we were ordered to retrieve into his belt and we turn to leave.
“Guys?… Guys!… What’s happening!?… HelloOoOoOooo?… Why are you ignoring me?… Wait! Is that Khr’kowan’s spearhead?! What are you doing with that!?” comes Twila’s voice, as soon as we’re back out in the corridor.
Ignoring her again, we come out of the door and cross the balcony, making our way down the stairs and turning left to head back out, towards the planetside hangar bay the ship is occupying.
We get roughly halfway down the gallery before a door opens to our right and a shortish man with dark hair and a medium build steps out, looking at us.
“明徒弟，方徒弟，你們兩個在做什麼？怎麼了? 怎麼了?” he asks as he approaches.
I don’t speak Mandarin or any other Sintic language so I’m not able to recognise any meaning beyond him opening with our Dharmic names, not that I could respond if I did.
Both of us keep walking, ignoring him until the very moment he puts himself in our way.
With him still around 15m in front of us, I drop into a low Ma Bu, Horse Stance, characteristic of the Hung Gar style that I favour.
Victor lunges forward into a Gong Bu, Bow Stance, (as if he’s about to shoot an invisible arrow at the man making himself an obstacle to our orders) characteristic of his acrobatic Chaquan foundation.
Neither of us have spoken a word.
Taken aback, our teacher flicks his eyes from mine to Victor’s and then to Victor’s belt.
“噢噢噢噢噢… 你們兩個現在真的不是自己了不是嗎?… 正如特維拉告訴我的…” observes the supercentenarian.
He brings up his arms in front of him and covers his right fist with his left palm, bowing his head briefly in a baoquan.
Then, widening and bending his legs, he turns his toes to point inward and folds his arms to bring his, palm up, fists to just below his armpits, he simply states “就這樣吧。我會和你們兩個戰鬥。”
From his Kim Yeung Ma Stance it seems that, from the hundreds of styles he’s mastered, the old man has selected Wing Chun as the best counter to the mix of my low, powerful, solid and Victor’s dynamic, explosive, acrobatic styles.
I know that I would normally feel happy that he’d chosen a Southern style but, right now, I feel nothing at all.
Our bodies angled to put our respective dominant hands towards him, Victor and I advance on Master Yuán.
He does not move from his Kim Yeung Ma Stance.
Victor leaps into the air, easily higher than our opponent is tall, and brings up his right leg to higher than his own head before bringing the heel down towards Yuán’s.
At the same time I rush his right side and aim a Jik Kiu, Direct Bridge, strike at his centre of mass.
Barely moving his body, the old man raises both his arms to perform two simultaneous Tan Sao, Palm Up Blocks, deflecting my fist in front of him and Victor’s foot behind.
The instant Victor’s right foot touches the ground, he wheels to bring his left around from behind him and down on Yuán in three successive kicks with an astonishing combination of agility and power.
With his left arm, our opponent blocks and deflects the kicks without looking at them while his right is unleashing a rapidfire barrage of strikes at me, aiming to break my centreline and knock me off balance.
If I were any less strong than the strongest woman in the galaxy, if I were any less than ⅙ of a tonne (more than twice his weight), if I were using any style that didn’t focus so strongly on rooting me to the ground in an unbreakably solid stance, he would definitely succeed.
His more than a century of iron body training gives him a physicality like no other organic being I’ve ever fought, more like Stetter in his power and solidity.
Having dedicated his life to combat training, his mental responsiveness is unparalleled.
He knows what strikes we are about to make before we do.
There isn’t anything I could compare him to that would do the way he fights justice.
Describing him as ‘machinelike’ would be the closest in its analogy to his speed, power and solidity but would create the false impression that his fighting was precise, clinical, unflexible and uninspired.
He puts the more than 30 combined years of combat training and experience between the two masters he’s fighting utterly to shame… or he would be if shame were something either of us could feel right now.
The two of us have nearly 4 kilos to his every 1 and it doesn’t seem to matter.
Our every punch, our every kick, is dodged or blocked.
I’ve taken dozens of light punches to the face (no matter how much iron palm training he’s done, his bundle of spindly metacarpals and phalanges is not winning a contest of solidity with the skull of a Neanderthal with a defective bone density limiter gene) but, at this point, seeming to realise that the pain he’s attempting to blind me with is registering to me more as data than anything else, he switches to my chest, aiming rapid, hard strikes at my floating ribs and between my breasts to my solar plexus.
He’s trying to knock the air out of my lungs.
If I can’t breathe, I can’t fight.
I would be flattered by the extent to which he’s focusing on trying to remove me from the fight first if such things mattered to me at the moment.
The hard *thud*s of him using his four limbs to bat away the strikes of our combined eight echo through the cavernous spaceship gallery.
Victor’s explosive, acrobatic Chaquan utilise the full length and power of his long, strong limbs.
Changquan, the Northern style it’s a branch of, was one of the main ones that originally inspired firebending and it definitely gives the appropriate impression of ferocity.
I have very much imagined him sending blades of flame with his strikes when we’ve fought before.
The low, unyielding, firmly rooted Hung Gar I practice was one of the main inspirations for earthbending and it’s not at all difficult to understand why.
By contrast, the direct, lightning fast, highly interceptive Wing Chun the dark haired man is employing, focused on economy of motion, adaptability and simultaneous attack and defence, has neither the ferocity and dynamism of Victor’s style nor the power of mine.
Never the less, it’s quite an effective counter to both.
He’s able to make denying the two of us the slightest opening look nearly effortless.
Victor’s agility and my power have levelled more than a hundred strikes against him in the 30 seconds since the fight began and not a single one has connected with his head or torso.
That is until… Victor lands a strike on the back of his shoulder.
He sees it coming and knows he won’t be able to block it or dodge it so he sucks in a breath and tenses the area that’s about to be struck, angling it away from the punch as much as possible and relaxing the rest of his body.
The hit connects and, though he rolls with it, sharply expelling the held breath to dissipate the energy, the next few strikes he blocks make it clear the strength is gone from his left arm.
He adjusts his stance, trying now to keep both of us on his right side and using his left arm as little as possible but it’s clear that that hit has significantly altered the calculous of this fight.
With all four limbs in full working order he was more than a match for us.
His left arm being down to half its prior capacity has reduced his overall rating by far more than an eighth.
He continues to block and dodge Victor’s fierce flying kicks and my formidably strong punches but he’s backing away now, not able to hold his ground anymore.
Victor connects another strike to his chest… then another… and another…
Finally, I see a gap open up and I step forward to deliver a crushing direct hit to his solar plexus.
The small man is thrown backwards to land on the silvery metallic floor several metres behind him while the grunt of his lungs collapsing and the crack of his ribs breaking reverberates off of the cathedral like space above us.
Without hesitating, Victor strides past the wheezing old man, not sparing him a second thought.
I hesitate only a moment, considering whether leaving him alive satisfies the order ‘deal with’ him.
He looks up at me and he chokes “對不起明，對不起方… 對不起，我沒能打敗你們兩個…” his voice strangulated and his expression sad.
I look from him to the broad shoulders of the man walking away… before following on, leaving the halfdead man behind us.
---
Previous Next First
Discord
Dramatis Personae
submitted by YukiteruAmano92 to HFY [link] [comments]
---Orders---
---Thran’s perspective---
I walk through the starboard gallery of the Bright Plume on Deck 0.
On my right walks a man who stands a third my height again taller than me, taking one step to my two and not walking as softly as he normally does.
My mouth tastes of his.
Our orders are simple; get in, get a piece of thanatite and bring it back to her while not drawing attention.
If we’re chased, lose the pursuer before coming to the meeting place.
If anyone gets in our way, deal with them.
We hit the bottom of the stairs and climb the 5m up to Deck 1 before taking a right across the balcony to the dorm door.
“Thran? Victor? What’s going on?” comes Twila’s curious voice, speaking English over the hallway’s speakers.
We weren’t given any instructions about what to do if anyone tries to speak to us so we ignore her and walk into the Vrakhand’s Commonroom.
We march over to the far wall, on which two crossed spears hang, their shafts solid, dense, dark wood, their heads polished, glossy, red biomineral.
Victor extends his arms to take down the one on the outside that I would have had difficulty reaching.
Without a word, he brings the tip down to rest against the floor, pointing in my direction.
I step on the point with my left foot and raise my right to bring down my heel on the shaft, directly above the socket, just about managing to successfully crack through it in one try.
Tossing the heavy length of wood aside to clatter onto the floor, Victor bends down to pick the 40cm thanatite blade out of the impression of it that I just stamped into the floor.
Standing back up, he tucks what we were ordered to retrieve into his belt and we turn to leave.
“Guys?… Guys!… What’s happening!?… HelloOoOoOooo?… Why are you ignoring me?… Wait! Is that Khr’kowan’s spearhead?! What are you doing with that!?” comes Twila’s voice, as soon as we’re back out in the corridor.
Ignoring her again, we come out of the door and cross the balcony, making our way down the stairs and turning left to head back out, towards the planetside hangar bay the ship is occupying.
We get roughly halfway down the gallery before a door opens to our right and a shortish man with dark hair and a medium build steps out, looking at us.
“明徒弟，方徒弟，你們兩個在做什麼？怎麼了? 怎麼了?” he asks as he approaches.
I don’t speak Mandarin or any other Sintic language so I’m not able to recognise any meaning beyond him opening with our Dharmic names, not that I could respond if I did.
Both of us keep walking, ignoring him until the very moment he puts himself in our way.
With him still around 15m in front of us, I drop into a low Ma Bu, Horse Stance, characteristic of the Hung Gar style that I favour.
Victor lunges forward into a Gong Bu, Bow Stance, (as if he’s about to shoot an invisible arrow at the man making himself an obstacle to our orders) characteristic of his acrobatic Chaquan foundation.
Neither of us have spoken a word.
Taken aback, our teacher flicks his eyes from mine to Victor’s and then to Victor’s belt.
“噢噢噢噢噢… 你們兩個現在真的不是自己了不是嗎?… 正如特維拉告訴我的…” observes the supercentenarian.
He brings up his arms in front of him and covers his right fist with his left palm, bowing his head briefly in a baoquan.
Then, widening and bending his legs, he turns his toes to point inward and folds his arms to bring his, palm up, fists to just below his armpits, he simply states “就這樣吧。我會和你們兩個戰鬥。”
From his Kim Yeung Ma Stance it seems that, from the hundreds of styles he’s mastered, the old man has selected Wing Chun as the best counter to the mix of my low, powerful, solid and Victor’s dynamic, explosive, acrobatic styles.
I know that I would normally feel happy that he’d chosen a Southern style but, right now, I feel nothing at all.
Our bodies angled to put our respective dominant hands towards him, Victor and I advance on Master Yuán.
He does not move from his Kim Yeung Ma Stance.
Victor leaps into the air, easily higher than our opponent is tall, and brings up his right leg to higher than his own head before bringing the heel down towards Yuán’s.
At the same time I rush his right side and aim a Jik Kiu, Direct Bridge, strike at his centre of mass.
Barely moving his body, the old man raises both his arms to perform two simultaneous Tan Sao, Palm Up Blocks, deflecting my fist in front of him and Victor’s foot behind.
The instant Victor’s right foot touches the ground, he wheels to bring his left around from behind him and down on Yuán in three successive kicks with an astonishing combination of agility and power.
With his left arm, our opponent blocks and deflects the kicks without looking at them while his right is unleashing a rapidfire barrage of strikes at me, aiming to break my centreline and knock me off balance.
If I were any less strong than the strongest woman in the galaxy, if I were any less than ⅙ of a tonne (more than twice his weight), if I were using any style that didn’t focus so strongly on rooting me to the ground in an unbreakably solid stance, he would definitely succeed.
His more than a century of iron body training gives him a physicality like no other organic being I’ve ever fought, more like Stetter in his power and solidity.
Having dedicated his life to combat training, his mental responsiveness is unparalleled.
He knows what strikes we are about to make before we do.
There isn’t anything I could compare him to that would do the way he fights justice.
Describing him as ‘machinelike’ would be the closest in its analogy to his speed, power and solidity but would create the false impression that his fighting was precise, clinical, unflexible and uninspired.
He puts the more than 30 combined years of combat training and experience between the two masters he’s fighting utterly to shame… or he would be if shame were something either of us could feel right now.
The two of us have nearly 4 kilos to his every 1 and it doesn’t seem to matter.
Our every punch, our every kick, is dodged or blocked.
I’ve taken dozens of light punches to the face (no matter how much iron palm training he’s done, his bundle of spindly metacarpals and phalanges is not winning a contest of solidity with the skull of a Neanderthal with a defective bone density limiter gene) but, at this point, seeming to realise that the pain he’s attempting to blind me with is registering to me more as data than anything else, he switches to my chest, aiming rapid, hard strikes at my floating ribs and between my breasts to my solar plexus.
He’s trying to knock the air out of my lungs.
If I can’t breathe, I can’t fight.
I would be flattered by the extent to which he’s focusing on trying to remove me from the fight first if such things mattered to me at the moment.
The hard *thud*s of him using his four limbs to bat away the strikes of our combined eight echo through the cavernous spaceship gallery.
Victor’s explosive, acrobatic Chaquan utilise the full length and power of his long, strong limbs.
Changquan, the Northern style it’s a branch of, was one of the main ones that originally inspired firebending and it definitely gives the appropriate impression of ferocity.
I have very much imagined him sending blades of flame with his strikes when we’ve fought before.
The low, unyielding, firmly rooted Hung Gar I practice was one of the main inspirations for earthbending and it’s not at all difficult to understand why.
By contrast, the direct, lightning fast, highly interceptive Wing Chun the dark haired man is employing, focused on economy of motion, adaptability and simultaneous attack and defence, has neither the ferocity and dynamism of Victor’s style nor the power of mine.
Never the less, it’s quite an effective counter to both.
He’s able to make denying the two of us the slightest opening look nearly effortless.
Victor’s agility and my power have levelled more than a hundred strikes against him in the 30 seconds since the fight began and not a single one has connected with his head or torso.
That is until… Victor lands a strike on the back of his shoulder.
He sees it coming and knows he won’t be able to block it or dodge it so he sucks in a breath and tenses the area that’s about to be struck, angling it away from the punch as much as possible and relaxing the rest of his body.
The hit connects and, though he rolls with it, sharply expelling the held breath to dissipate the energy, the next few strikes he blocks make it clear the strength is gone from his left arm.
He adjusts his stance, trying now to keep both of us on his right side and using his left arm as little as possible but it’s clear that that hit has significantly altered the calculous of this fight.
With all four limbs in full working order he was more than a match for us.
His left arm being down to half its prior capacity has reduced his overall rating by far more than an eighth.
He continues to block and dodge Victor’s fierce flying kicks and my formidably strong punches but he’s backing away now, not able to hold his ground anymore.
Victor connects another strike to his chest… then another… and another…
Finally, I see a gap open up and I step forward to deliver a crushing direct hit to his solar plexus.
The small man is thrown backwards to land on the silvery metallic floor several metres behind him while the grunt of his lungs collapsing and the crack of his ribs breaking reverberates off of the cathedral like space above us.
Without hesitating, Victor strides past the wheezing old man, not sparing him a second thought.
I hesitate only a moment, considering whether leaving him alive satisfies the order ‘deal with’ him.
He looks up at me and he chokes “對不起明，對不起方… 對不起，我沒能打敗你們兩個…” his voice strangulated and his expression sad.
I look from him to the broad shoulders of the man walking away… before following on, leaving the halfdead man behind us.
---
Previous Next First
Discord
Dramatis Personae
2024.06.04 16:42 SendingBirds Monstous Whims by Mell R. Bright (monster romance)
Another post so soon, but I have been so lucky and I am so grateful to u/CyberneticStrawb3rry for commenting the second book of this series for my last request. And I saw that these books only have about 60 reviews on goodreads (and they are also quite recent), so I thought why not.
The series has been published in 2024, and both books are set in an apocalyptic future where climate change ravaged Earth and ancient monsters (called gods) woke from within the world and are now travelling and hunting where humans held their civilizations. The books have two different protagonists and couples. They are one pov only, and first person, and the author has a book three for the future.
{The Whims of Gods by Mell R. Bright}
{The Whims of Hate by Mell R. Bright}
Both books have a romance between a human and a "monster", in this case a mutant who has been created mixing the DNA of a god (an awakened monster) and a human. In both books the monsters/mutants are very human-like. In book 1 Griffin looks a bit more monstruous, and he is also known as a devil because he looks like a devil, with long black nails, red eyes and horns, while in book 2 Colin looks very human like, and often people do not recognize him as a mutant. The main difference are glowing eyes when using his electricity, and black veins.
Plot book 1: Helios mainly travels and lives alone, surviving in what the world has been reduced to after the Rise of monsters. When he is captured by a group of slavers, he is saved by a man named Griffin and known as Devil of the Wastes. Helios convinces Griffin to take him a as a temporary guest on his ship Beetle.
Tropes, content and TW: kidnapping, slavery, forced proximity, building trust, beauty and the beast kind of story, monster with a heart of gold, past exchange of sexual favors, applicable to Helios, MC1 who calms MC2 out of control with the power of love Griffin loses control with intense emotions, very sweet romance, watching tv together and sharing a love for books, non-human genitalia (two dicks), talking ship who is a secondary character, matchmaking (the ship teases them both and tries to help them), past abusive relationship (Helios and his past lover Oliver), switching, slight d/s (with Griffin being a bit more dominant in bed), violence, mention of past mourning and family death.
Plot book 2: Oliver has been left for dead, wounded and angry. Jude, one of the men he had captured to work in his city, reluctantly takes Oliver with him when he finds out that the only ship he can use to escape needs Oliver's voice and commands to fly. The two fly into the wastelands, Jude looking for a hacker that can transfer the ship's commands to him, so he can kill Oliver, and Oliver waiting for his chance at death or revenge.
The protagonist of book 2 is the villain of book 1 (Oliver), so both him and MC2 (Jude) are introduced in book 1, and the story of book 2 picks up right at the end of book 1. Book 2 was introduced by the author as "if you thought book 1's love story was too sweet, you can have this one instead" and they really delivered.
Tropes, content and TW: enemies to lovers, touch starved (especially Oliver), trying to kill each other's, building trust, violence and borderline torture, taking advantage of someone who is too hurt to stop what is happening, d/s with Oliver submitting to Jude, especially in the second half of the book and sometimes calling him master jokingly, hate sex, non-human genitalia Oliver's dick is bigger and conveniently produce lube, switching, childhood abuse both Oliver and Jude, de-humanization and mentions of experiments on a child, suicidal ideation (Oliver), force feeding, sexual abuse and abusive relationship (Oliver was the abuser when he was with Helios, even if he remembers it differently, and a lot of physical violence was his inability to contain his powers. But also Jude has sex with Oliver without clear consent, I would probably put it in the dubious consent category for a couple of scenes), forced proximity, nicknames, taming the villain, dramatic rescue, absolute loyalty, redemption, a lot of murder, death of family members Oliver killed his father, and Jude's parents die.
The narration is sometimes a bit rought around the edges, for example I noticed that the second book did not seem to trust the reader too much in remembering previously stated facts (ex. the book would often repeat that Oliver is scared of water because of the jellyfish, or that the Gods are territorial and the repetition sometimes made me roll my eyes a bit) and I wish it could have gone through some extra editing. Still, I adored both books.
The first novel is introduced as a Howl's Moving Castle-inspired sci fi, and it truly is. The picture on the cover is Beetle, the ship Griffin and Helios travel in, moving like a Beetle itself. I absolutely adored the ship, the way it was described. And the world building was excellent. I am such a sucker for good consistent world buildings that are not introduced through infodumbing, and here the reader can slowly discover the world chapter by chapter, also thanks to the small pre-chapter texts that were quotes of books/texts/interviews from the world itself.
The two novels have quite a different tone as well. Book 1 is almost a slice of life, two characters who accidentally ended up together and slowly fall in love after a life of lonliness. There is some action and adventure, but this is mainly at the end, when Helios is kidnapped and taken to Oliver, and the overall plot is in the background for the majority of the novel. The romance is also quite sweet, the angst of it mainly revolves around the incapability of Griffin and Helios of finally talk about their mutual attraction, and then Griffin's insecurity about how his body looks, and sex.
Book 2 instead is a wild ride (literally). It starts in the middle of things, and the protagonist is dragged along through chases, violence, and fights. The core of this romance is getting close through begrudglingly forced proximity and necessity, and recognizing each other's violence. I remember when I was reading I was thinking "Oh, how sweet, MC1 is going to teach MC2 about love" then MC2 killed someone in front of MC1 and MC1 was smiling all happy and I was like "Oh, I see". It is all about the characters stumbling into the romance against their own volition. Book 2 is basically redemption through the power of bdsm.
By the way, if you are just here for high angst and you want to skip directly to book 2, let me know and I can write a summary of what you need to know from book 1.
submitted by SendingBirds to MM_RomanceBooks [link] [comments]
The series has been published in 2024, and both books are set in an apocalyptic future where climate change ravaged Earth and ancient monsters (called gods) woke from within the world and are now travelling and hunting where humans held their civilizations. The books have two different protagonists and couples. They are one pov only, and first person, and the author has a book three for the future.
{The Whims of Gods by Mell R. Bright}
{The Whims of Hate by Mell R. Bright}
Both books have a romance between a human and a "monster", in this case a mutant who has been created mixing the DNA of a god (an awakened monster) and a human. In both books the monsters/mutants are very human-like. In book 1 Griffin looks a bit more monstruous, and he is also known as a devil because he looks like a devil, with long black nails, red eyes and horns, while in book 2 Colin looks very human like, and often people do not recognize him as a mutant. The main difference are glowing eyes when using his electricity, and black veins.
Plot book 1: Helios mainly travels and lives alone, surviving in what the world has been reduced to after the Rise of monsters. When he is captured by a group of slavers, he is saved by a man named Griffin and known as Devil of the Wastes. Helios convinces Griffin to take him a as a temporary guest on his ship Beetle.
Tropes, content and TW: kidnapping, slavery, forced proximity, building trust, beauty and the beast kind of story, monster with a heart of gold, past exchange of sexual favors, applicable to Helios, MC1 who calms MC2 out of control with the power of love Griffin loses control with intense emotions, very sweet romance, watching tv together and sharing a love for books, non-human genitalia (two dicks), talking ship who is a secondary character, matchmaking (the ship teases them both and tries to help them), past abusive relationship (Helios and his past lover Oliver), switching, slight d/s (with Griffin being a bit more dominant in bed), violence, mention of past mourning and family death.
Plot book 2: Oliver has been left for dead, wounded and angry. Jude, one of the men he had captured to work in his city, reluctantly takes Oliver with him when he finds out that the only ship he can use to escape needs Oliver's voice and commands to fly. The two fly into the wastelands, Jude looking for a hacker that can transfer the ship's commands to him, so he can kill Oliver, and Oliver waiting for his chance at death or revenge.
The protagonist of book 2 is the villain of book 1 (Oliver), so both him and MC2 (Jude) are introduced in book 1, and the story of book 2 picks up right at the end of book 1. Book 2 was introduced by the author as "if you thought book 1's love story was too sweet, you can have this one instead" and they really delivered.
Tropes, content and TW: enemies to lovers, touch starved (especially Oliver), trying to kill each other's, building trust, violence and borderline torture, taking advantage of someone who is too hurt to stop what is happening, d/s with Oliver submitting to Jude, especially in the second half of the book and sometimes calling him master jokingly, hate sex, non-human genitalia Oliver's dick is bigger and conveniently produce lube, switching, childhood abuse both Oliver and Jude, de-humanization and mentions of experiments on a child, suicidal ideation (Oliver), force feeding, sexual abuse and abusive relationship (Oliver was the abuser when he was with Helios, even if he remembers it differently, and a lot of physical violence was his inability to contain his powers. But also Jude has sex with Oliver without clear consent, I would probably put it in the dubious consent category for a couple of scenes), forced proximity, nicknames, taming the villain, dramatic rescue, absolute loyalty, redemption, a lot of murder, death of family members Oliver killed his father, and Jude's parents die.
The narration is sometimes a bit rought around the edges, for example I noticed that the second book did not seem to trust the reader too much in remembering previously stated facts (ex. the book would often repeat that Oliver is scared of water because of the jellyfish, or that the Gods are territorial and the repetition sometimes made me roll my eyes a bit) and I wish it could have gone through some extra editing. Still, I adored both books.
The first novel is introduced as a Howl's Moving Castle-inspired sci fi, and it truly is. The picture on the cover is Beetle, the ship Griffin and Helios travel in, moving like a Beetle itself. I absolutely adored the ship, the way it was described. And the world building was excellent. I am such a sucker for good consistent world buildings that are not introduced through infodumbing, and here the reader can slowly discover the world chapter by chapter, also thanks to the small pre-chapter texts that were quotes of books/texts/interviews from the world itself.
The two novels have quite a different tone as well. Book 1 is almost a slice of life, two characters who accidentally ended up together and slowly fall in love after a life of lonliness. There is some action and adventure, but this is mainly at the end, when Helios is kidnapped and taken to Oliver, and the overall plot is in the background for the majority of the novel. The romance is also quite sweet, the angst of it mainly revolves around the incapability of Griffin and Helios of finally talk about their mutual attraction, and then Griffin's insecurity about how his body looks, and sex.
Book 2 instead is a wild ride (literally). It starts in the middle of things, and the protagonist is dragged along through chases, violence, and fights. The core of this romance is getting close through begrudglingly forced proximity and necessity, and recognizing each other's violence. I remember when I was reading I was thinking "Oh, how sweet, MC1 is going to teach MC2 about love" then MC2 killed someone in front of MC1 and MC1 was smiling all happy and I was like "Oh, I see". It is all about the characters stumbling into the romance against their own volition. Book 2 is basically redemption through the power of bdsm.
By the way, if you are just here for high angst and you want to skip directly to book 2, let me know and I can write a summary of what you need to know from book 1.
2024.06.04 16:30 ElkPrudent1790 Treatment Jouney in the UK (NHS)
So I initially had symptoms of scabies 7 weeks ago now, but for the first week I thought it was just a standard allergy or something and then after a week, upon looking closer I saw the track marks on my hands with the little black dots at the end. When I first saw these I thought they could be carbon fibre splinters (which are very itchy) so I picked one of them out of my hand using tweezers and it moved. That made me realise it was scabies.
So after this I did the standard permethrin treatment, washing all my clothes and then repeating this after a week. I could never really tell if this helped as the rash just became more solid red, rather than spotty.
As a result of this not getting any better I booked a doctors appointment and she suggested one more round of Permethrin (not repeated after a week). This time my symptoms seemed to get WAY better but then after a week and a half I had track marks on my hands again (my theory is that the permethrin didn't kill the eggs so after they hatched and grew, they were back after a week and a half).
Because of this I then booked another doctors appointment, this time a phone call. I went into it prepared to ask the doctor to prescribe me ivermectin. He didn't know all that much about scabies but he was very helpful and was more than happy to prescribe me ivermectin.
However, after this call I realised he's only prescribed me one round of ivermectin (as per NICE guidelines). This isn't great tho as ivermectin doesn't kill the eggs (not ovicidal) so I phoned him back the following week. Again I went into it very prepared with various research papers showing the low efficacy of one dose of ivermectin compared to two, each a week apart. Again, he was very helpful and was more than happy to prescribe me more. He did say that apparently each dose of ivermectin costs the NHS >£100 which is probably why they only want to presribe one dose. Side note: not sure where this number is from though as looking online ivermectin is WAY cheaper than this.
Anyway, did my first dose of ivermectin and the day before I needed to take the second one I found a tiny tiny mite on my hands, not in a track mark, just on my skin. I know it was a mite not just dust as it moved. It was way smaller than the other mites I'd had so I assumed it was a very young, newly hatched one.
So I did the second dose of Ivermectin a week after the first, and it's now been 11 days since the second dose, with no new track marks or spots. I wary of speaking too soon but I think it's beaten now?
submitted by ElkPrudent1790 to scabies [link] [comments]
So after this I did the standard permethrin treatment, washing all my clothes and then repeating this after a week. I could never really tell if this helped as the rash just became more solid red, rather than spotty.
As a result of this not getting any better I booked a doctors appointment and she suggested one more round of Permethrin (not repeated after a week). This time my symptoms seemed to get WAY better but then after a week and a half I had track marks on my hands again (my theory is that the permethrin didn't kill the eggs so after they hatched and grew, they were back after a week and a half).
Because of this I then booked another doctors appointment, this time a phone call. I went into it prepared to ask the doctor to prescribe me ivermectin. He didn't know all that much about scabies but he was very helpful and was more than happy to prescribe me ivermectin.
However, after this call I realised he's only prescribed me one round of ivermectin (as per NICE guidelines). This isn't great tho as ivermectin doesn't kill the eggs (not ovicidal) so I phoned him back the following week. Again I went into it very prepared with various research papers showing the low efficacy of one dose of ivermectin compared to two, each a week apart. Again, he was very helpful and was more than happy to prescribe me more. He did say that apparently each dose of ivermectin costs the NHS >£100 which is probably why they only want to presribe one dose. Side note: not sure where this number is from though as looking online ivermectin is WAY cheaper than this.
Anyway, did my first dose of ivermectin and the day before I needed to take the second one I found a tiny tiny mite on my hands, not in a track mark, just on my skin. I know it was a mite not just dust as it moved. It was way smaller than the other mites I'd had so I assumed it was a very young, newly hatched one.
So I did the second dose of Ivermectin a week after the first, and it's now been 11 days since the second dose, with no new track marks or spots. I wary of speaking too soon but I think it's beaten now?
2024.06.04 16:29 OpheliaCyanide [That Time I Ran Over A God] --- Chapter 15
What started as a panicked attempt to get her over-intoxicated friend to a hospital ended up in a disastrous car crash that claimed the lives of her friends... and a careless God crossing the street. But Sammi's adventure wasn't about to end there. In her dying breath, the God curses Sammi to take up her mantel. Now with her three friends resurrected as ghosts, Sammi has to navigate the tricky world of godhood.
Previous Chapter Next chapter coming soon!
Start here! Patreon (up to chapter 9)
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat at the front desk woman, who was tapping away on her computer. A bronze little placard on her desk read ‘Grace Burger.’
She peered at me, a little concerned, over her glasses. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We are taking this infraction very seriously. A full report will be written up–”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said, laughing a bit nervously and waving her down. “I actually came about something totally different.”
Grace frowned, frozen mid-tap. “Yes?”
“I need to talk to the person in charge of, uh…” I squinted my eyes together. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to start. “You told me you were gonna get me in touch with whoever is in charge of that shooting that happened the other night. The one down by the river where that Bridgeport kid was shot?”
“Mhm. I can send Detective Leister a message, but he’s in some hot water right now after letting both suspects escape the other day.” A fuzzy look crossed her face, and her peer intensified.
Shoot. I was losing the lie. “Right right. Well, ‘lose’ might be a harsh word, because the bail for both suspects was tooootally paid. Like, whatever the bail was, it’s paid, 100%. I’m actually just here to make sure all the paperwork got filed for that, which is why I need to talk to Detective, uh, Leister.”
The fuzziness faded from Grace’s face. “Like I said, I can send him another email.”
“Bro, who the fuck uses email?” Christopher asked. “Just tell them to let you in.”
I forced a smile. “He told me you could just send me to his office. He said ‘oh Gracie girl, just give her the deets and directions to wherever I’m at. She’s cool to let in, no sweat.’ Literally his exact words, swear to God.” Swear to myself, more like.
As I enjoyed a quiet chuckle at my own joke, Grace was nodding through my statement.
“Leister is currently in his office. A32.”
A32. I could do this.
I kept my lies minimal as I crept through the sweltering station. A few ‘naw, I’m not that fugitive, I just look like her’ and ‘yeah I’m supposed to be here’ and one, ill advised ‘you didn’t see anything,’ and I was tap tapping on the door to A32.
The door slid open a hair, revealing a large man with a large mustache. Technically only half of his face was showing, but it was a large half.
His eyes pierced me, and I knew what was coming.
“I’m not a fugitive,” I blurted. “Y’all hear that in there? I am not someone you are supposed to arrest.” Just have to get in the door. “I’m here for my…” I checked my snazzy watch. “My 2:37 meeting? It’s not on your calendars, but it is important. The secretary forgot to tell you.”
“Damn Burger. That’s the third time this week.” Mustache sighed heavily. “We’re going to have to take more serious action now.”
“Did you just get Grace in trouble?” Blair’s horrified whisper did nothing for my nerves, and guilt shot through me. “That’s not good, Sammi!”
“Oh my God, Blair, give it a rest.” Joni groaned. “It’s so far from the worst Sammi’s done.”
“Just because it’s not the worst doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad,” I said, already wincing halfway through my own sentence. “Uh. Just, uh, rehearsing.”
Mustache nodded, as if this made any fucking sense, and ushered me in.
The inside was dominated by a small oval table. At the head was a woman with a scrunched up face and a knot of auburn hair, who looked about as pissed as you would expect someone in a hot hot-water-meeting to look.
At the other end, a weasley looking man with greasy hair and a faded suit was shifting uncomfortably. That must be Leister.
“All righty,” I said, sitting down in the chair across from Mustache’s. “Let’s make this short, cause I’m just trying to gather some intel and share some of my own.” Simple, straightforward. No questions or requests unless they were accompanied by a lie. “I think you–” I pointed at the woman, who looked the most in charge, “were they one who said you’d be giving me some of the confidential case info. You said you couldn’t give me everything, but did say you would give me a list of suspects, witnesses, the name and information of anyone involved in this case.” This was my best bet at getting my hands on info pointing towards Henry.
The woman looked a little sheepish as I spoke, even as she leafed through a folder and pushed it over to me. Clearly she was in an uncomfortable position, given how one of Mustache’s bushy eyebrows shot sky high, while Leister’s oily ones creased over his face.
“Charlotte,” Leister started, his voice half nervous, half annoyed. “I respect that I may have dropped the ball letting Knox and Geraldo escape, but surely you’re not fully taking me off the case.”
I wasn’t gonna let Charlotte subconsciously finish my lie for me.
“Oh no, not at all,” I said. I could see Joni hovering over Leister’s head, eyes drilling holes in my brain. “I’m not being put on the case. I’m just a third party contractor, half government, half private, just here to gather some information for bookkeeping. Totally innocent.” My tongue felt heavy in my mouth as my rambling ran out of steam. “I’m here to gather some information on the case for, uh–”
“Posterity,” Christopher provided.
“Posterity.” I swallowed, a habit I really needed to kick, given it was so hot in here. My tongue had gone dry. “Also to tell you that Geraldo and Knox are out on bail. The news just came in, your secretary–” I’m so sorry Grace “–was supposed to tell you this morning that she got a call saying they were on bail. That’s why they’re not here.”
Leister stood up, triumphant. “See,” he said, pointing a finger at Charlotte. “I told you it wasn’t the officers’ fault.”
Mustache stroked his mustache, thoughtfully. “They did say that Knox had scammed them into letting Geraldo out. If this really was a matter of bail…”
I looked helplessly at my ghosts. It wasn’t that the cops didn’t believe the lie, but they were contesting it.
“Ooh, tell them it wasn’t Sammi Knox who was in yesterday,” Blair said. “Tell them you’re her secret twin, and you were the one that paid bail.”
It was a terrible plan. A horrible plan. But also kinda brilliant.
“Actually, that was me in there yesterday,” I said, a new confidence taking over me, even as Christopher dissolved into laughter and Joni’s face screwed up so bad she almost managed to make her ghostly skin turn red. “That was the big misunderstanding. I was coming in to pay bail for Cara Geraldo and Sammi Knox. Sammi hadn’t been brought into custody, but jails make her nervous, so I wanted to pay it before she came in.”
The lie had felt pretty water tight, but they were still giving me suspicious eyes.
“And who exactly are you?” Mustache asked, cocking his head dangerously.
Ah. That’s what I’d forgotten. “I,” I said, giving a pause for dramatic effect. “Am Sammi’s twin sister. Sam. Sam Knox.”
Charlotte leaned back, eyebrows pinching. “You’re both named Samantha?” she asked, a southern twang unmistakable in her voice.
“Haha, no. Of course not. Sam is short for… Sampson.” I gave a tentative shrug to accompany my tentative laugh. Sampson’s a name, right? “Our parents, you know, how that generation is. Funky names. Anyway, I’m Sampson Knox, and I was paying bail for Samantha Knox and Cara Geraldo, but everyone got confused, which I get, and so there was some mix up. I had told Grace I was there to pay bail and she let me in. She told me to tell people I was an out-of-state detective, just in case she was a little slow on entering information into the computer. I think she was in the middle of a minesweeper game or something. You know. Probably just forgot to put in all the bail info.” I shrugged, far more confidently now. Everyone in the room was starting to nod. They looked annoyed, sure, but not at me.
“That sounds like Grace,” Mustache sighed. “Charlotte, I know she’s been through a lot, and we’re all pulling for her after the cancer and the house fire and the whole identify theft thing, but at this point, she’s gone from minor mistakes to flubbing up a standard bail posting so bad that we still have two officers missing.”
“Jesus Christ, Sammi.” Even Joni was starting to look upset with the Grace situation. “Forget throwing her under the bus, you’re making fucking tires out of her corpse.”
My brain chewed on that metaphor for a few seconds, before my eyes fell on the folder in front of me. I waved Christopher and Joni over to look through the paperwork as the cops continued to talk.
“So this isn’t my fault, then?” Leister asked, nasally voice rising hopefully. “I mean, of course I didn’t receive notice of the bail, but that’s not on me, right?”
Charlotte wheeled on him, face flushing red as her hair. “Maybe you should’ve been around yesterday to handle the bail money instead of spending the day dumpster diving.
Dumpster diving?
Leister puffed up. “It’s called Urban Scavenging. And it was an officially approved PTO day.”
Mustache growled under his breath. “And why are we taking PTO on the same day we get assigned to an attempted murder case?”
“It was approved, Doug.” Leister crossed his arms. “And I am allowed to have hobbies without my lifestyle being judged by my employers.”
“We are not judging your lifestyle, Leister.” Mustache’s lip curled. “Just your priorities.”
The files in the folder had a lot of legal jargon that I don’t think I could have understood even without the conversation going on. But I was able to put a few things together. Henry Miller was on their radar, but only as ‘potential subject’ and ‘missing.’ Noah’s parents had been made aware of his situation, but they lived on some island in the Caribbean and couldn’t afford the trip up. Some police grunts had interviewed a bunch of kids on campus to understand more about the days leading up to the shooting. Most of them didn’t have much to say about Noah’s movements, though I noticed that none of the other members of the Gaming Guild had been interviewed yet.
So that would be interesting.
“I care about the case,” Leister said, his voice unconvincing. “I take all my cases super seriously. But I need a healthy work-life balance.”
Normally I’d be all on Leister’s side here. I mean, who didn’t take some PTO here and there, huh? Or even just calling out when you need a break. I did that shit all the time.
But I was also never a detective on a shooting case, so I was kinda in Charlotte and Mustache’s boat.
“Look,” I said, jumping in because I was starting to get bored and wanted to get out of here before I passed out from heat stroke. “I really appreciate all this information. It’s great. I’m sorry your secretary botched the bail situation. And I’m sorry about the cancer, house fire, and identity theft. For real. But I kinda gotta get back to my place to make sure Sammi and Cara are doing alright. I can get you my address, and I’ll just keep an eye on them so they don’t get into any trouble. Don’t want any more college kids getting shot, huh?” I laughed, tossing them some finger guns.
They stared at me. Even Leister looked uncomfortable with my joke.
I slowly lowered the finger guns. “Okay, well, here’s my address and phone number,” I said, scribbling them down. “The only important thing for you to know is that, if you do need me, call me to meet in person. Don’t try to handle anything over the phone. They have it tapped, you know.”
“Who?” Charlotte asked.
“Who?” I repeated, looking nervously at the ghosts. “Uh. Well, obviously…”
“The Canadians,” Blair said. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s always the Canadians.”
I nodded. “The Canadians. The Canadians keep tapping our phones–your phones–because they want to outsource your work… to them. It’s a whole thing. Anyway, it’s also not important. Just call me into the office if you have any questions.” Risking phone lies on high stakes like this wasn’t something I wanted to do.
“Of course.” Mustache’s eyes narrowed again. “Don’t need those damn Canadians stealing any more of our work.”
Leister tossed my sheet of paper with the number and address on top of a pile of paperwork in the corner. “We’ll see you around, Samuel.”
“Sampson,” I corrected.
He waved this off. “Right right.”
A small pang of sympathy twinged in my heart as the ratty man’s attention turned back to the room, my contact details already out of his mind. This was really all they had spared to solve the shooting?
“Poor Noah,” Blair said, echoing my thoughts as I finally started to make my way out of the blistering building. “No family up here besides you.”
“Sammi’s not his family,” Joni said. “And he’s unconscious, so he doesn’t know they’re not here.”
“Actually, some studies have kinda, like, proven that comatose people recover better when they’re given attention and stuff,” Christopher said. “So maybe he doesn’t consciously know they’re not there, but he’s not doing anything consciously. It’s all in the subconscious, man.”
“Our subconsciousness is where 90% of our brain power happens.” Blair tapped her head. “I saw a movie about it.”
And on that note, we finally made it outside, and I gasped in a breath of crisp September air.
“Holy shit.” I sucked in another breath. “I need fucking water. Joni, you gotta learn to turn that crap off sometimes.”
Joni, who had her mouth already open to insult Blair, turned her opened mouth on me. “I gotta learn to do what now?”
I sank down on a park bench, fanning myself. “I leveled you up. Forgot to mention. You’re a… uh, you can control temperature now. So you were the reason everyone got so hot in there.”
Joni looked pissed at this, which I didn’t take personally cause I’m not sure she had another mode.
“Were you gonna tell me?” she asked.
Before I answered her, I flagged down a jogger that was running past me. “Hey,” I shouted. “You have my water bottle. Thanks for returning it to me.”
He grinned and pulled the water bottle off his little hip holster. “No prob!”
I waved him to continue running and took a much needed gulp of water. Okay, it was gatorade. But it was cold and it was refreshing.
“Look,” I said. “I forgot. I did it cause I wanted to do something nice for you, but I was so embarrassed over taking that useless spell that I forgot, and it seemed like people were just being really negative, so I kinda just… Didn’t want to say anymore about the level up. Y’all just get mad so fast.”
Something must have been pathetic enough in my voice, cause Joni’s anger watered down a bit. “Well… Well next time just–or…” She gave a heavy sigh. “Thanks. Temperature is kinda cool, I guess. Just gotta get the hang of it.”
“Heh.” Christopher grinned. “Kinda cool.”
–
It took me a few more minutes of relaxing on the bench before I was ready to head back to my apartment. I hoodwinked a burger from a street vendor–let Joni decide on toppings, just to make sure I was solidly back in her good books–before making my way past the guards and upstairs.
Once inside, I let out a long breath and a bit of a whoop. All told, I’d done a fire job out there.
“Sammi?” Cara’s voice, panicked as always, echoed from around the corner, and a moment later, she darted around, eyes wide. After seeing me, she let out a breath. “Oh thank God. I keep waiting for someone to figure out we’re not supposed to be here and kick us out. How did it go?”
“Good,” Blair said, speaking before I could even open my mouth. “Sammi said you were twins.”
“No,” I said, shooting her a nasty look. “I said I was twins. Or, that I had a twin. That I was my twin. I might have gotten someone fired.”
Cara looked even more alarmed at this.
“Blair,” I said, “I’ve changed my mind. You handle Cara.” I pointed them towards the room they’d debriefed in yesterday–which I’d decided was Cara’s room–and went further into the apartment, to where I’d heard some shuffling and scraping noises.
Blair saluted and whooshed off, Cara unknowingly in tow.
“Tina?” I said, popping my head around the corner into the main living room kitchen space.
“Sammi, yeah, come in come in.” Tina the Taxi was standing in front of several large boxes and bags. A bag of clothes rested on a fold out chair, and Tina stood by it, one hand holding a glass of wine, the other pulling articles of clothing out of the bag and tossing them into one of three piles on the floor. “I went pretty thorough with this shopping trip, but reality is, pretty much everything had to be ordered. You know, ordered and delivered. So most of the stuff is gonna trickle in over the next few days. Meantime, I figured I’d pick up some stuff to tide us over.” She motioned at the boxes.
Three fold out futons, a small wooden table, four folding chairs, and various kitchen ware, toiletries, cleaning supplies, a few bags of food, several bottles of alcohol, and a dozen other odds and ends.
I gave a long, low whistle. “Well damn Tina.” God it was nice having someone in this house whose brain wasn’t the cerebral equivalent of a gerbil on a hamster wheel. “You might just be my new favorite person in here. No offense,” I said, raising my voice so the rest of the household could hear me.
Tina waved this off, her olive cheeks flushing red, and she took a sip of wine. “Cara’s not so bad. Just young and not made of the toughest stuff. Just be patient with her.”
In hindsight, my comment did just feel like a diss towards Cara.
“Fair fair.” Then I turned towards the piles of clothes. “Which is whose?” I asked.
“That one’s yours,” she said, pointing to the biggest pile of clothes. Both Cara and I had given her our sizes before the shopping trip. “I was surprised at how high the card limit was. I shouldn’t have been, but yeah, that’s a lot of designer goods, the kind you like.”
Well. I guess I was someone who liked designer stuff.
“Thank God you can get out of your blood stained clothes,” Joni said.
“I dunno, I think my clothes are kinda cursed,” I said, rifling through the pile while Christopher goggled at the brands. “Who’s to say these won’t just get bloodstained too?”
Tina looked a little uncertain at my comment but tried her best to respond. “There’s dry cleaning downstairs, so anything that gets messed up, I can handle. Also in unit laundry. I got some detergent and dryer sheets.”
Dryer sheets. Holy shit we were getting fancy.
“Tina, you’re the best.” I pulled my futon out of the box and reclined on it. “Seriously. This is perf.”
Down the hall, a door opened, and I turned to see Cara sulk into the living room. She gave me a glance for a long moment before sighing, grabbing her somewhat small pile of clothes, and sulking back to her bedroom.
Tina and I exchanged glances before she took a long drink and went back to sorting.
Things were starting to come together. Next step, find Henry Miller.
Sammi's really starting to live it up! What's the point of being a God if you can't enjoy some luxury here and there?
Finding Henry might be a liiiiittle more challenging than that though.
Also I've posted Sammi on Royal Road! If you could go there and leave a rating or review, it would mean the world to me! Find it on Royal Road here!
Just one or two ratings would really help there. You're all wonderful, I'll see you later this week!
submitted by OpheliaCyanide to redditserials [link] [comments]
Previous Chapter Next chapter coming soon!
Start here! Patreon (up to chapter 9)
She peered at me, a little concerned, over her glasses. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We are taking this infraction very seriously. A full report will be written up–”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said, laughing a bit nervously and waving her down. “I actually came about something totally different.”
Grace frowned, frozen mid-tap. “Yes?”
“I need to talk to the person in charge of, uh…” I squinted my eyes together. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to start. “You told me you were gonna get me in touch with whoever is in charge of that shooting that happened the other night. The one down by the river where that Bridgeport kid was shot?”
“Mhm. I can send Detective Leister a message, but he’s in some hot water right now after letting both suspects escape the other day.” A fuzzy look crossed her face, and her peer intensified.
Shoot. I was losing the lie. “Right right. Well, ‘lose’ might be a harsh word, because the bail for both suspects was tooootally paid. Like, whatever the bail was, it’s paid, 100%. I’m actually just here to make sure all the paperwork got filed for that, which is why I need to talk to Detective, uh, Leister.”
The fuzziness faded from Grace’s face. “Like I said, I can send him another email.”
“Bro, who the fuck uses email?” Christopher asked. “Just tell them to let you in.”
I forced a smile. “He told me you could just send me to his office. He said ‘oh Gracie girl, just give her the deets and directions to wherever I’m at. She’s cool to let in, no sweat.’ Literally his exact words, swear to God.” Swear to myself, more like.
As I enjoyed a quiet chuckle at my own joke, Grace was nodding through my statement.
“Leister is currently in his office. A32.”
A32. I could do this.
I kept my lies minimal as I crept through the sweltering station. A few ‘naw, I’m not that fugitive, I just look like her’ and ‘yeah I’m supposed to be here’ and one, ill advised ‘you didn’t see anything,’ and I was tap tapping on the door to A32.
The door slid open a hair, revealing a large man with a large mustache. Technically only half of his face was showing, but it was a large half.
His eyes pierced me, and I knew what was coming.
“I’m not a fugitive,” I blurted. “Y’all hear that in there? I am not someone you are supposed to arrest.” Just have to get in the door. “I’m here for my…” I checked my snazzy watch. “My 2:37 meeting? It’s not on your calendars, but it is important. The secretary forgot to tell you.”
“Damn Burger. That’s the third time this week.” Mustache sighed heavily. “We’re going to have to take more serious action now.”
“Did you just get Grace in trouble?” Blair’s horrified whisper did nothing for my nerves, and guilt shot through me. “That’s not good, Sammi!”
“Oh my God, Blair, give it a rest.” Joni groaned. “It’s so far from the worst Sammi’s done.”
“Just because it’s not the worst doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad,” I said, already wincing halfway through my own sentence. “Uh. Just, uh, rehearsing.”
Mustache nodded, as if this made any fucking sense, and ushered me in.
The inside was dominated by a small oval table. At the head was a woman with a scrunched up face and a knot of auburn hair, who looked about as pissed as you would expect someone in a hot hot-water-meeting to look.
At the other end, a weasley looking man with greasy hair and a faded suit was shifting uncomfortably. That must be Leister.
“All righty,” I said, sitting down in the chair across from Mustache’s. “Let’s make this short, cause I’m just trying to gather some intel and share some of my own.” Simple, straightforward. No questions or requests unless they were accompanied by a lie. “I think you–” I pointed at the woman, who looked the most in charge, “were they one who said you’d be giving me some of the confidential case info. You said you couldn’t give me everything, but did say you would give me a list of suspects, witnesses, the name and information of anyone involved in this case.” This was my best bet at getting my hands on info pointing towards Henry.
The woman looked a little sheepish as I spoke, even as she leafed through a folder and pushed it over to me. Clearly she was in an uncomfortable position, given how one of Mustache’s bushy eyebrows shot sky high, while Leister’s oily ones creased over his face.
“Charlotte,” Leister started, his voice half nervous, half annoyed. “I respect that I may have dropped the ball letting Knox and Geraldo escape, but surely you’re not fully taking me off the case.”
I wasn’t gonna let Charlotte subconsciously finish my lie for me.
“Oh no, not at all,” I said. I could see Joni hovering over Leister’s head, eyes drilling holes in my brain. “I’m not being put on the case. I’m just a third party contractor, half government, half private, just here to gather some information for bookkeeping. Totally innocent.” My tongue felt heavy in my mouth as my rambling ran out of steam. “I’m here to gather some information on the case for, uh–”
“Posterity,” Christopher provided.
“Posterity.” I swallowed, a habit I really needed to kick, given it was so hot in here. My tongue had gone dry. “Also to tell you that Geraldo and Knox are out on bail. The news just came in, your secretary–” I’m so sorry Grace “–was supposed to tell you this morning that she got a call saying they were on bail. That’s why they’re not here.”
Leister stood up, triumphant. “See,” he said, pointing a finger at Charlotte. “I told you it wasn’t the officers’ fault.”
Mustache stroked his mustache, thoughtfully. “They did say that Knox had scammed them into letting Geraldo out. If this really was a matter of bail…”
I looked helplessly at my ghosts. It wasn’t that the cops didn’t believe the lie, but they were contesting it.
“Ooh, tell them it wasn’t Sammi Knox who was in yesterday,” Blair said. “Tell them you’re her secret twin, and you were the one that paid bail.”
It was a terrible plan. A horrible plan. But also kinda brilliant.
“Actually, that was me in there yesterday,” I said, a new confidence taking over me, even as Christopher dissolved into laughter and Joni’s face screwed up so bad she almost managed to make her ghostly skin turn red. “That was the big misunderstanding. I was coming in to pay bail for Cara Geraldo and Sammi Knox. Sammi hadn’t been brought into custody, but jails make her nervous, so I wanted to pay it before she came in.”
The lie had felt pretty water tight, but they were still giving me suspicious eyes.
“And who exactly are you?” Mustache asked, cocking his head dangerously.
Ah. That’s what I’d forgotten. “I,” I said, giving a pause for dramatic effect. “Am Sammi’s twin sister. Sam. Sam Knox.”
Charlotte leaned back, eyebrows pinching. “You’re both named Samantha?” she asked, a southern twang unmistakable in her voice.
“Haha, no. Of course not. Sam is short for… Sampson.” I gave a tentative shrug to accompany my tentative laugh. Sampson’s a name, right? “Our parents, you know, how that generation is. Funky names. Anyway, I’m Sampson Knox, and I was paying bail for Samantha Knox and Cara Geraldo, but everyone got confused, which I get, and so there was some mix up. I had told Grace I was there to pay bail and she let me in. She told me to tell people I was an out-of-state detective, just in case she was a little slow on entering information into the computer. I think she was in the middle of a minesweeper game or something. You know. Probably just forgot to put in all the bail info.” I shrugged, far more confidently now. Everyone in the room was starting to nod. They looked annoyed, sure, but not at me.
“That sounds like Grace,” Mustache sighed. “Charlotte, I know she’s been through a lot, and we’re all pulling for her after the cancer and the house fire and the whole identify theft thing, but at this point, she’s gone from minor mistakes to flubbing up a standard bail posting so bad that we still have two officers missing.”
“Jesus Christ, Sammi.” Even Joni was starting to look upset with the Grace situation. “Forget throwing her under the bus, you’re making fucking tires out of her corpse.”
My brain chewed on that metaphor for a few seconds, before my eyes fell on the folder in front of me. I waved Christopher and Joni over to look through the paperwork as the cops continued to talk.
“So this isn’t my fault, then?” Leister asked, nasally voice rising hopefully. “I mean, of course I didn’t receive notice of the bail, but that’s not on me, right?”
Charlotte wheeled on him, face flushing red as her hair. “Maybe you should’ve been around yesterday to handle the bail money instead of spending the day dumpster diving.
Dumpster diving?
Leister puffed up. “It’s called Urban Scavenging. And it was an officially approved PTO day.”
Mustache growled under his breath. “And why are we taking PTO on the same day we get assigned to an attempted murder case?”
“It was approved, Doug.” Leister crossed his arms. “And I am allowed to have hobbies without my lifestyle being judged by my employers.”
“We are not judging your lifestyle, Leister.” Mustache’s lip curled. “Just your priorities.”
The files in the folder had a lot of legal jargon that I don’t think I could have understood even without the conversation going on. But I was able to put a few things together. Henry Miller was on their radar, but only as ‘potential subject’ and ‘missing.’ Noah’s parents had been made aware of his situation, but they lived on some island in the Caribbean and couldn’t afford the trip up. Some police grunts had interviewed a bunch of kids on campus to understand more about the days leading up to the shooting. Most of them didn’t have much to say about Noah’s movements, though I noticed that none of the other members of the Gaming Guild had been interviewed yet.
So that would be interesting.
“I care about the case,” Leister said, his voice unconvincing. “I take all my cases super seriously. But I need a healthy work-life balance.”
Normally I’d be all on Leister’s side here. I mean, who didn’t take some PTO here and there, huh? Or even just calling out when you need a break. I did that shit all the time.
But I was also never a detective on a shooting case, so I was kinda in Charlotte and Mustache’s boat.
“Look,” I said, jumping in because I was starting to get bored and wanted to get out of here before I passed out from heat stroke. “I really appreciate all this information. It’s great. I’m sorry your secretary botched the bail situation. And I’m sorry about the cancer, house fire, and identity theft. For real. But I kinda gotta get back to my place to make sure Sammi and Cara are doing alright. I can get you my address, and I’ll just keep an eye on them so they don’t get into any trouble. Don’t want any more college kids getting shot, huh?” I laughed, tossing them some finger guns.
They stared at me. Even Leister looked uncomfortable with my joke.
I slowly lowered the finger guns. “Okay, well, here’s my address and phone number,” I said, scribbling them down. “The only important thing for you to know is that, if you do need me, call me to meet in person. Don’t try to handle anything over the phone. They have it tapped, you know.”
“Who?” Charlotte asked.
“Who?” I repeated, looking nervously at the ghosts. “Uh. Well, obviously…”
“The Canadians,” Blair said. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s always the Canadians.”
I nodded. “The Canadians. The Canadians keep tapping our phones–your phones–because they want to outsource your work… to them. It’s a whole thing. Anyway, it’s also not important. Just call me into the office if you have any questions.” Risking phone lies on high stakes like this wasn’t something I wanted to do.
“Of course.” Mustache’s eyes narrowed again. “Don’t need those damn Canadians stealing any more of our work.”
Leister tossed my sheet of paper with the number and address on top of a pile of paperwork in the corner. “We’ll see you around, Samuel.”
“Sampson,” I corrected.
He waved this off. “Right right.”
A small pang of sympathy twinged in my heart as the ratty man’s attention turned back to the room, my contact details already out of his mind. This was really all they had spared to solve the shooting?
“Poor Noah,” Blair said, echoing my thoughts as I finally started to make my way out of the blistering building. “No family up here besides you.”
“Sammi’s not his family,” Joni said. “And he’s unconscious, so he doesn’t know they’re not here.”
“Actually, some studies have kinda, like, proven that comatose people recover better when they’re given attention and stuff,” Christopher said. “So maybe he doesn’t consciously know they’re not there, but he’s not doing anything consciously. It’s all in the subconscious, man.”
“Our subconsciousness is where 90% of our brain power happens.” Blair tapped her head. “I saw a movie about it.”
And on that note, we finally made it outside, and I gasped in a breath of crisp September air.
“Holy shit.” I sucked in another breath. “I need fucking water. Joni, you gotta learn to turn that crap off sometimes.”
Joni, who had her mouth already open to insult Blair, turned her opened mouth on me. “I gotta learn to do what now?”
I sank down on a park bench, fanning myself. “I leveled you up. Forgot to mention. You’re a… uh, you can control temperature now. So you were the reason everyone got so hot in there.”
Joni looked pissed at this, which I didn’t take personally cause I’m not sure she had another mode.
“Were you gonna tell me?” she asked.
Before I answered her, I flagged down a jogger that was running past me. “Hey,” I shouted. “You have my water bottle. Thanks for returning it to me.”
He grinned and pulled the water bottle off his little hip holster. “No prob!”
I waved him to continue running and took a much needed gulp of water. Okay, it was gatorade. But it was cold and it was refreshing.
“Look,” I said. “I forgot. I did it cause I wanted to do something nice for you, but I was so embarrassed over taking that useless spell that I forgot, and it seemed like people were just being really negative, so I kinda just… Didn’t want to say anymore about the level up. Y’all just get mad so fast.”
Something must have been pathetic enough in my voice, cause Joni’s anger watered down a bit. “Well… Well next time just–or…” She gave a heavy sigh. “Thanks. Temperature is kinda cool, I guess. Just gotta get the hang of it.”
“Heh.” Christopher grinned. “Kinda cool.”
–
It took me a few more minutes of relaxing on the bench before I was ready to head back to my apartment. I hoodwinked a burger from a street vendor–let Joni decide on toppings, just to make sure I was solidly back in her good books–before making my way past the guards and upstairs.
Once inside, I let out a long breath and a bit of a whoop. All told, I’d done a fire job out there.
“Sammi?” Cara’s voice, panicked as always, echoed from around the corner, and a moment later, she darted around, eyes wide. After seeing me, she let out a breath. “Oh thank God. I keep waiting for someone to figure out we’re not supposed to be here and kick us out. How did it go?”
“Good,” Blair said, speaking before I could even open my mouth. “Sammi said you were twins.”
“No,” I said, shooting her a nasty look. “I said I was twins. Or, that I had a twin. That I was my twin. I might have gotten someone fired.”
Cara looked even more alarmed at this.
“Blair,” I said, “I’ve changed my mind. You handle Cara.” I pointed them towards the room they’d debriefed in yesterday–which I’d decided was Cara’s room–and went further into the apartment, to where I’d heard some shuffling and scraping noises.
Blair saluted and whooshed off, Cara unknowingly in tow.
“Tina?” I said, popping my head around the corner into the main living room kitchen space.
“Sammi, yeah, come in come in.” Tina the Taxi was standing in front of several large boxes and bags. A bag of clothes rested on a fold out chair, and Tina stood by it, one hand holding a glass of wine, the other pulling articles of clothing out of the bag and tossing them into one of three piles on the floor. “I went pretty thorough with this shopping trip, but reality is, pretty much everything had to be ordered. You know, ordered and delivered. So most of the stuff is gonna trickle in over the next few days. Meantime, I figured I’d pick up some stuff to tide us over.” She motioned at the boxes.
Three fold out futons, a small wooden table, four folding chairs, and various kitchen ware, toiletries, cleaning supplies, a few bags of food, several bottles of alcohol, and a dozen other odds and ends.
I gave a long, low whistle. “Well damn Tina.” God it was nice having someone in this house whose brain wasn’t the cerebral equivalent of a gerbil on a hamster wheel. “You might just be my new favorite person in here. No offense,” I said, raising my voice so the rest of the household could hear me.
Tina waved this off, her olive cheeks flushing red, and she took a sip of wine. “Cara’s not so bad. Just young and not made of the toughest stuff. Just be patient with her.”
In hindsight, my comment did just feel like a diss towards Cara.
“Fair fair.” Then I turned towards the piles of clothes. “Which is whose?” I asked.
“That one’s yours,” she said, pointing to the biggest pile of clothes. Both Cara and I had given her our sizes before the shopping trip. “I was surprised at how high the card limit was. I shouldn’t have been, but yeah, that’s a lot of designer goods, the kind you like.”
Well. I guess I was someone who liked designer stuff.
“Thank God you can get out of your blood stained clothes,” Joni said.
“I dunno, I think my clothes are kinda cursed,” I said, rifling through the pile while Christopher goggled at the brands. “Who’s to say these won’t just get bloodstained too?”
Tina looked a little uncertain at my comment but tried her best to respond. “There’s dry cleaning downstairs, so anything that gets messed up, I can handle. Also in unit laundry. I got some detergent and dryer sheets.”
Dryer sheets. Holy shit we were getting fancy.
“Tina, you’re the best.” I pulled my futon out of the box and reclined on it. “Seriously. This is perf.”
Down the hall, a door opened, and I turned to see Cara sulk into the living room. She gave me a glance for a long moment before sighing, grabbing her somewhat small pile of clothes, and sulking back to her bedroom.
Tina and I exchanged glances before she took a long drink and went back to sorting.
Things were starting to come together. Next step, find Henry Miller.
Finding Henry might be a liiiiittle more challenging than that though.
Also I've posted Sammi on Royal Road! If you could go there and leave a rating or review, it would mean the world to me! Find it on Royal Road here!
Just one or two ratings would really help there. You're all wonderful, I'll see you later this week!
2024.06.04 16:26 Unfair_Seat_5703 Why do I stay in this shitty town??
I dislike where I’m from. Drug infested,low I.q,red neck,crooked cops and what I dislike most of all Is I have been here all my life… Love all my family and want to be around to enjoy the lives of my loved ones especially the older. still around to make memories. 38 single father of two beautiful daughters And a son every weekend. I’m a busy guy but I still notice how fucked my hometown is. It’s a small town 30 minutes from Nashville But the drugs over flow into the small towns. I’ve nearly lost my brother countless times To drugs and I feel it will be his demise eventually. I’ve grown to hate that fact but it’s something I can’t control. Countless friends and associates have perished to the overdoses/deaths to the point I am scared for my children’s future. I want to be around my family because I know they need me. And will need me more and more as they age. But is it worth it? What would you do? How would you cope? I think I have ptsd from all the events with my brother in the last 10 years. (CPR,ambulance,blue lips,fell out in floor) Just thinking he was going to die over 15 times. And two years ago the death of my daughters mother. I’m strong but life is really kicking my butt And I need opinions and support from my reditt friends please.
submitted by Unfair_Seat_5703 to complaints [link] [comments]
2024.06.04 16:25 tealfairydust I talk to God, but the sky is empty
 | I’ve never related so much to a piece of writing in my life submitted by tealfairydust to u/tealfairydust [link] [comments] |
2024.06.04 16:24 M3NARY Trying something different with my builds, character information in comments including perks
Aelthir Silverblade, a High Elf (Altmer), was born amidst the opulence of the Summerset Isles, a place where the aristocracy thrived on the rigid hierarchies and traditions of their race. His early years were marked by rigorous education in the arcane arts, as his family, staunch supporters of the Thalmor, envisioned him rising to prominence within the Aldmeri Dominion. His natural talent for magic was evident from a young age, earning him a place among the Thalmor Justiciars, the enforcers of the Dominion's will. Aelthir ascended rapidly through the ranks, his prowess in Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, and Enchanting magic making him a formidable agent.
However, his experiences as a Justiciar exposed him to the Thalmor's darker side—the oppression, the cruelty, and the relentless pursuit of racial purity. He was often dispatched to root out heresy and dissent, enforcing the Dominion’s edicts with a heavy hand. The turning point came during a mission to purge a village suspected of harboring Talos worshippers. The brutality of the act, the screams of the innocent, and the flames consuming their homes shattered something within him. Among the chaos, he encountered a dying villager who, with her last breath, forgave him and implored him to change his path. This moment of unexpected compassion struck a deep chord in Aelthir, igniting a crisis of conscience he could no longer ignore. Unable to reconcile these horrors with his conscience, Aelthir deserted his post and fled the Summerset Isles, becoming a fugitive.
Aelthir's appearance reflects his noble lineage and the internal turmoil he carries. He possesses the pale gold skin typical of High Elves, with piercing blue eyes that hint at both wisdom and sorrow. His platinum blonde hair, often tied back in a loose ponytail, frames his sharp cheekbones and thin lips, giving him a determined look. His primary skills include Destruction, showcasing his raw power with fire, frost, and shock spells; Alteration, providing him with powerful defensive and utility magic; Conjuration, allowing him to summon creatures and bound weapons; Enchanting, through which he crafts and improves magical items; and Restoration, reflecting his newfound desire to protect and heal rather than harm. His secondary skills, Illusion, Speech, and Alchemy, further enhance his versatility and tactical prowess.
Aelthir distributes his attributes with 60% in Magicka, 30% in Health, and 10% in Stamina, reflecting his focus on magical prowess and strategic combat. He follows the Mage Stone, which improves all mage skills 20% faster, aligning with his quest for knowledge and mastery of magic. His equipment includes a Bound Sword for close combat, the Fireball spell for ranged destruction, Archmage's Robes that enhance magicka regeneration and spell effectiveness, Boots of Sneaking to increase stealth capabilities, a Ring of Fortify Magicka to boost his reserves, and an Amulet of Talos to reduce shout cooldown time—a subtle act of defiance against the Thalmor. He also carries potions, scrolls, and soul gems for various situations, showcasing his preparedness and deep understanding of magical tools.
Aelthir's devotion to Mara, the Divine of Love and Compassion, is central to his character arc. Mara's teachings emphasize mercy, understanding, and nurturing, aligning with Aelthir's desire for redemption and his commitment to helping others. This devotion influences his actions and decisions, driving him to undertake quests that involve protecting the innocent and bringing peace to troubled souls. His proficiency in Restoration magic is enhanced by his devotion to Mara, excelling in healing spells and protective wards. He often visits the Temple of Mara in Riften, seeking guidance and offering his services to the priests and priestesses. His compassionate actions, diplomatic approach, and symbolic acts of kindness reflect Mara's principles of love and harmony.
In combat, Aelthir's playstyle is centered around versatility and strategic use of magic. He utilizes Destruction spells for high-damage ranged attacks, Conjuration spells to summon atronachs and bound weapons for support, Alteration spells for defensive and utility purposes, and Restoration spells for healing and protection. He also employs Illusion spells for crowd control and stealth. His tactics involve preparing for battles by casting defensive spells and summoning atronachs, engaging enemies with powerful Destruction spells, adapting to situations by summoning creatures or switching to healing spells, conserving magicka by using bound weapons, and maintaining advantageous positioning.
Out of combat, Aelthir engages in Alchemy and Enchanting to enhance his abilities and gear, uses Alteration spells to locate hidden threats and treasures, and interacts with NPCs in a manner consistent with his backstory, promoting understanding and empathy. His journey is one of redemption, continually striving to embody the virtues of love and compassion, often reflecting on his past and seeking to improve himself. His conflict with the Thalmor, who view his devotion to Mara as a weakness, creates ongoing tension as he navigates the dangers posed by his former allies. Through his actions and decisions, Aelthir Silverblade seeks to spread love and understanding in a world fraught with conflict, embodying the teachings of Mara and striving to make amends for his past.
Aelthir’s devotion to Mara also influences his interactions with companions and followers. He tends to form bonds with those who share his ideals or who are also seeking redemption. He often acts as a mentor, teaching others the values of compassion and understanding. This is reflected in his choice of allies, often preferring those who have been wronged or are in need of guidance. He takes special interest in helping the marginalized and oppressed, seeing it as a way to atone for his own past actions.
In his travels, Aelthir frequently stops to aid the wounded, mend broken relationships, and offer solace to the grieving. His knowledge of Restoration magic is unmatched, and he uses it not only to heal physical wounds but also to provide comfort and hope. He carries a journal in which he writes down the stories of those he helps, preserving their tales as a testament to his journey and the lives he has touched.
Aelthir also engages in deep meditation and prayer, often seeking solitude in nature to connect with Mara and reflect on his path. These moments of introspection are crucial for his character, providing him with the strength and clarity needed to continue his mission. He has built a small shrine to Mara in his quarters, adorned with symbols of love and peace, where he performs daily rituals to honor the Divine and seek her guidance.
His inner conflict and quest for redemption are further complicated by the whispers of his former comrades in the Thalmor, who seek to reclaim or eliminate him. These encounters are fraught with tension, as Aelthir must confront the remnants of his past while upholding his new principles. Each confrontation is a test of his resolve, pushing him to reaffirm his commitment to Mara's teachings and his new path.
Aelthir Silverblade is a character deeply rooted in the themes of redemption, compassion, and inner conflict. His backstory, skills, and devotion to Mara create a rich tapestry of experiences and motivations that drive his actions and interactions in Skyrim. Through his journey, he seeks not only to make amends for his past but also to create a better future for those around him, embodying the true spirit of the Divine of Love and Compassion.
submitted by M3NARY to skyrim [link] [comments]
However, his experiences as a Justiciar exposed him to the Thalmor's darker side—the oppression, the cruelty, and the relentless pursuit of racial purity. He was often dispatched to root out heresy and dissent, enforcing the Dominion’s edicts with a heavy hand. The turning point came during a mission to purge a village suspected of harboring Talos worshippers. The brutality of the act, the screams of the innocent, and the flames consuming their homes shattered something within him. Among the chaos, he encountered a dying villager who, with her last breath, forgave him and implored him to change his path. This moment of unexpected compassion struck a deep chord in Aelthir, igniting a crisis of conscience he could no longer ignore. Unable to reconcile these horrors with his conscience, Aelthir deserted his post and fled the Summerset Isles, becoming a fugitive.
Aelthir's appearance reflects his noble lineage and the internal turmoil he carries. He possesses the pale gold skin typical of High Elves, with piercing blue eyes that hint at both wisdom and sorrow. His platinum blonde hair, often tied back in a loose ponytail, frames his sharp cheekbones and thin lips, giving him a determined look. His primary skills include Destruction, showcasing his raw power with fire, frost, and shock spells; Alteration, providing him with powerful defensive and utility magic; Conjuration, allowing him to summon creatures and bound weapons; Enchanting, through which he crafts and improves magical items; and Restoration, reflecting his newfound desire to protect and heal rather than harm. His secondary skills, Illusion, Speech, and Alchemy, further enhance his versatility and tactical prowess.
Aelthir distributes his attributes with 60% in Magicka, 30% in Health, and 10% in Stamina, reflecting his focus on magical prowess and strategic combat. He follows the Mage Stone, which improves all mage skills 20% faster, aligning with his quest for knowledge and mastery of magic. His equipment includes a Bound Sword for close combat, the Fireball spell for ranged destruction, Archmage's Robes that enhance magicka regeneration and spell effectiveness, Boots of Sneaking to increase stealth capabilities, a Ring of Fortify Magicka to boost his reserves, and an Amulet of Talos to reduce shout cooldown time—a subtle act of defiance against the Thalmor. He also carries potions, scrolls, and soul gems for various situations, showcasing his preparedness and deep understanding of magical tools.
Aelthir's devotion to Mara, the Divine of Love and Compassion, is central to his character arc. Mara's teachings emphasize mercy, understanding, and nurturing, aligning with Aelthir's desire for redemption and his commitment to helping others. This devotion influences his actions and decisions, driving him to undertake quests that involve protecting the innocent and bringing peace to troubled souls. His proficiency in Restoration magic is enhanced by his devotion to Mara, excelling in healing spells and protective wards. He often visits the Temple of Mara in Riften, seeking guidance and offering his services to the priests and priestesses. His compassionate actions, diplomatic approach, and symbolic acts of kindness reflect Mara's principles of love and harmony.
In combat, Aelthir's playstyle is centered around versatility and strategic use of magic. He utilizes Destruction spells for high-damage ranged attacks, Conjuration spells to summon atronachs and bound weapons for support, Alteration spells for defensive and utility purposes, and Restoration spells for healing and protection. He also employs Illusion spells for crowd control and stealth. His tactics involve preparing for battles by casting defensive spells and summoning atronachs, engaging enemies with powerful Destruction spells, adapting to situations by summoning creatures or switching to healing spells, conserving magicka by using bound weapons, and maintaining advantageous positioning.
Out of combat, Aelthir engages in Alchemy and Enchanting to enhance his abilities and gear, uses Alteration spells to locate hidden threats and treasures, and interacts with NPCs in a manner consistent with his backstory, promoting understanding and empathy. His journey is one of redemption, continually striving to embody the virtues of love and compassion, often reflecting on his past and seeking to improve himself. His conflict with the Thalmor, who view his devotion to Mara as a weakness, creates ongoing tension as he navigates the dangers posed by his former allies. Through his actions and decisions, Aelthir Silverblade seeks to spread love and understanding in a world fraught with conflict, embodying the teachings of Mara and striving to make amends for his past.
Aelthir’s devotion to Mara also influences his interactions with companions and followers. He tends to form bonds with those who share his ideals or who are also seeking redemption. He often acts as a mentor, teaching others the values of compassion and understanding. This is reflected in his choice of allies, often preferring those who have been wronged or are in need of guidance. He takes special interest in helping the marginalized and oppressed, seeing it as a way to atone for his own past actions.
In his travels, Aelthir frequently stops to aid the wounded, mend broken relationships, and offer solace to the grieving. His knowledge of Restoration magic is unmatched, and he uses it not only to heal physical wounds but also to provide comfort and hope. He carries a journal in which he writes down the stories of those he helps, preserving their tales as a testament to his journey and the lives he has touched.
Aelthir also engages in deep meditation and prayer, often seeking solitude in nature to connect with Mara and reflect on his path. These moments of introspection are crucial for his character, providing him with the strength and clarity needed to continue his mission. He has built a small shrine to Mara in his quarters, adorned with symbols of love and peace, where he performs daily rituals to honor the Divine and seek her guidance.
His inner conflict and quest for redemption are further complicated by the whispers of his former comrades in the Thalmor, who seek to reclaim or eliminate him. These encounters are fraught with tension, as Aelthir must confront the remnants of his past while upholding his new principles. Each confrontation is a test of his resolve, pushing him to reaffirm his commitment to Mara's teachings and his new path.
Aelthir Silverblade is a character deeply rooted in the themes of redemption, compassion, and inner conflict. His backstory, skills, and devotion to Mara create a rich tapestry of experiences and motivations that drive his actions and interactions in Skyrim. Through his journey, he seeks not only to make amends for his past but also to create a better future for those around him, embodying the true spirit of the Divine of Love and Compassion.
2024.06.04 16:22 M3NARY Trying something different with my builds, character information in comments including perks
Aelthir Silverblade, a High Elf (Altmer), was born amidst the opulence of the Summerset Isles, a place where the aristocracy thrived on the rigid hierarchies and traditions of their race. His early years were marked by rigorous education in the arcane arts, as his family, staunch supporters of the Thalmor, envisioned him rising to prominence within the Aldmeri Dominion. His natural talent for magic was evident from a young age, earning him a place among the Thalmor Justiciars, the enforcers of the Dominion's will. Aelthir ascended rapidly through the ranks, his prowess in Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, and Enchanting magic making him a formidable agent.
However, his experiences as a Justiciar exposed him to the Thalmor's darker side—the oppression, the cruelty, and the relentless pursuit of racial purity. He was often dispatched to root out heresy and dissent, enforcing the Dominion’s edicts with a heavy hand. The turning point came during a mission to purge a village suspected of harboring Talos worshippers. The brutality of the act, the screams of the innocent, and the flames consuming their homes shattered something within him. Among the chaos, he encountered a dying villager who, with her last breath, forgave him and implored him to change his path. This moment of unexpected compassion struck a deep chord in Aelthir, igniting a crisis of conscience he could no longer ignore. Unable to reconcile these horrors with his conscience, Aelthir deserted his post and fled the Summerset Isles, becoming a fugitive.
Aelthir's appearance reflects his noble lineage and the internal turmoil he carries. He possesses the pale gold skin typical of High Elves, with piercing blue eyes that hint at both wisdom and sorrow. His platinum blonde hair, often tied back in a loose ponytail, frames his sharp cheekbones and thin lips, giving him a determined look. His primary skills include Destruction, showcasing his raw power with fire, frost, and shock spells; Alteration, providing him with powerful defensive and utility magic; Conjuration, allowing him to summon creatures and bound weapons; Enchanting, through which he crafts and improves magical items; and Restoration, reflecting his newfound desire to protect and heal rather than harm. His secondary skills, Illusion, Speech, and Alchemy, further enhance his versatility and tactical prowess.
Aelthir distributes his attributes with 60% in Magicka, 30% in Health, and 10% in Stamina, reflecting his focus on magical prowess and strategic combat. He follows the Mage Stone, which improves all mage skills 20% faster, aligning with his quest for knowledge and mastery of magic. His equipment includes a Bound Sword for close combat, the Fireball spell for ranged destruction, Archmage's Robes that enhance magicka regeneration and spell effectiveness, Boots of Sneaking to increase stealth capabilities, a Ring of Fortify Magicka to boost his reserves, and an Amulet of Talos to reduce shout cooldown time—a subtle act of defiance against the Thalmor. He also carries potions, scrolls, and soul gems for various situations, showcasing his preparedness and deep understanding of magical tools.
Aelthir's devotion to Mara, the Divine of Love and Compassion, is central to his character arc. Mara's teachings emphasize mercy, understanding, and nurturing, aligning with Aelthir's desire for redemption and his commitment to helping others. This devotion influences his actions and decisions, driving him to undertake quests that involve protecting the innocent and bringing peace to troubled souls. His proficiency in Restoration magic is enhanced by his devotion to Mara, excelling in healing spells and protective wards. He often visits the Temple of Mara in Riften, seeking guidance and offering his services to the priests and priestesses. His compassionate actions, diplomatic approach, and symbolic acts of kindness reflect Mara's principles of love and harmony.
In combat, Aelthir's playstyle is centered around versatility and strategic use of magic. He utilizes Destruction spells for high-damage ranged attacks, Conjuration spells to summon atronachs and bound weapons for support, Alteration spells for defensive and utility purposes, and Restoration spells for healing and protection. He also employs Illusion spells for crowd control and stealth. His tactics involve preparing for battles by casting defensive spells and summoning atronachs, engaging enemies with powerful Destruction spells, adapting to situations by summoning creatures or switching to healing spells, conserving magicka by using bound weapons, and maintaining advantageous positioning.
Out of combat, Aelthir engages in Alchemy and Enchanting to enhance his abilities and gear, uses Alteration spells to locate hidden threats and treasures, and interacts with NPCs in a manner consistent with his backstory, promoting understanding and empathy. His journey is one of redemption, continually striving to embody the virtues of love and compassion, often reflecting on his past and seeking to improve himself. His conflict with the Thalmor, who view his devotion to Mara as a weakness, creates ongoing tension as he navigates the dangers posed by his former allies. Through his actions and decisions, Aelthir Silverblade seeks to spread love and understanding in a world fraught with conflict, embodying the teachings of Mara and striving to make amends for his past.
Aelthir’s devotion to Mara also influences his interactions with companions and followers. He tends to form bonds with those who share his ideals or who are also seeking redemption. He often acts as a mentor, teaching others the values of compassion and understanding. This is reflected in his choice of allies, often preferring those who have been wronged or are in need of guidance. He takes special interest in helping the marginalized and oppressed, seeing it as a way to atone for his own past actions.
In his travels, Aelthir frequently stops to aid the wounded, mend broken relationships, and offer solace to the grieving. His knowledge of Restoration magic is unmatched, and he uses it not only to heal physical wounds but also to provide comfort and hope. He carries a journal in which he writes down the stories of those he helps, preserving their tales as a testament to his journey and the lives he has touched.
Aelthir also engages in deep meditation and prayer, often seeking solitude in nature to connect with Mara and reflect on his path. These moments of introspection are crucial for his character, providing him with the strength and clarity needed to continue his mission. He has built a small shrine to Mara in his quarters, adorned with symbols of love and peace, where he performs daily rituals to honor the Divine and seek her guidance.
His inner conflict and quest for redemption are further complicated by the whispers of his former comrades in the Thalmor, who seek to reclaim or eliminate him. These encounters are fraught with tension, as Aelthir must confront the remnants of his past while upholding his new principles. Each confrontation is a test of his resolve, pushing him to reaffirm his commitment to Mara's teachings and his new path.
Aelthir Silverblade is a character deeply rooted in the themes of redemption, compassion, and inner conflict. His backstory, skills, and devotion to Mara create a rich tapestry of experiences and motivations that drive his actions and interactions in Skyrim. Through his journey, he seeks not only to make amends for his past but also to create a better future for those around him, embodying the true spirit of the Divine of Love and Compassion.
submitted by M3NARY to SkyrimBuilds [link] [comments]
However, his experiences as a Justiciar exposed him to the Thalmor's darker side—the oppression, the cruelty, and the relentless pursuit of racial purity. He was often dispatched to root out heresy and dissent, enforcing the Dominion’s edicts with a heavy hand. The turning point came during a mission to purge a village suspected of harboring Talos worshippers. The brutality of the act, the screams of the innocent, and the flames consuming their homes shattered something within him. Among the chaos, he encountered a dying villager who, with her last breath, forgave him and implored him to change his path. This moment of unexpected compassion struck a deep chord in Aelthir, igniting a crisis of conscience he could no longer ignore. Unable to reconcile these horrors with his conscience, Aelthir deserted his post and fled the Summerset Isles, becoming a fugitive.
Aelthir's appearance reflects his noble lineage and the internal turmoil he carries. He possesses the pale gold skin typical of High Elves, with piercing blue eyes that hint at both wisdom and sorrow. His platinum blonde hair, often tied back in a loose ponytail, frames his sharp cheekbones and thin lips, giving him a determined look. His primary skills include Destruction, showcasing his raw power with fire, frost, and shock spells; Alteration, providing him with powerful defensive and utility magic; Conjuration, allowing him to summon creatures and bound weapons; Enchanting, through which he crafts and improves magical items; and Restoration, reflecting his newfound desire to protect and heal rather than harm. His secondary skills, Illusion, Speech, and Alchemy, further enhance his versatility and tactical prowess.
Aelthir distributes his attributes with 60% in Magicka, 30% in Health, and 10% in Stamina, reflecting his focus on magical prowess and strategic combat. He follows the Mage Stone, which improves all mage skills 20% faster, aligning with his quest for knowledge and mastery of magic. His equipment includes a Bound Sword for close combat, the Fireball spell for ranged destruction, Archmage's Robes that enhance magicka regeneration and spell effectiveness, Boots of Sneaking to increase stealth capabilities, a Ring of Fortify Magicka to boost his reserves, and an Amulet of Talos to reduce shout cooldown time—a subtle act of defiance against the Thalmor. He also carries potions, scrolls, and soul gems for various situations, showcasing his preparedness and deep understanding of magical tools.
Aelthir's devotion to Mara, the Divine of Love and Compassion, is central to his character arc. Mara's teachings emphasize mercy, understanding, and nurturing, aligning with Aelthir's desire for redemption and his commitment to helping others. This devotion influences his actions and decisions, driving him to undertake quests that involve protecting the innocent and bringing peace to troubled souls. His proficiency in Restoration magic is enhanced by his devotion to Mara, excelling in healing spells and protective wards. He often visits the Temple of Mara in Riften, seeking guidance and offering his services to the priests and priestesses. His compassionate actions, diplomatic approach, and symbolic acts of kindness reflect Mara's principles of love and harmony.
In combat, Aelthir's playstyle is centered around versatility and strategic use of magic. He utilizes Destruction spells for high-damage ranged attacks, Conjuration spells to summon atronachs and bound weapons for support, Alteration spells for defensive and utility purposes, and Restoration spells for healing and protection. He also employs Illusion spells for crowd control and stealth. His tactics involve preparing for battles by casting defensive spells and summoning atronachs, engaging enemies with powerful Destruction spells, adapting to situations by summoning creatures or switching to healing spells, conserving magicka by using bound weapons, and maintaining advantageous positioning.
Out of combat, Aelthir engages in Alchemy and Enchanting to enhance his abilities and gear, uses Alteration spells to locate hidden threats and treasures, and interacts with NPCs in a manner consistent with his backstory, promoting understanding and empathy. His journey is one of redemption, continually striving to embody the virtues of love and compassion, often reflecting on his past and seeking to improve himself. His conflict with the Thalmor, who view his devotion to Mara as a weakness, creates ongoing tension as he navigates the dangers posed by his former allies. Through his actions and decisions, Aelthir Silverblade seeks to spread love and understanding in a world fraught with conflict, embodying the teachings of Mara and striving to make amends for his past.
Aelthir’s devotion to Mara also influences his interactions with companions and followers. He tends to form bonds with those who share his ideals or who are also seeking redemption. He often acts as a mentor, teaching others the values of compassion and understanding. This is reflected in his choice of allies, often preferring those who have been wronged or are in need of guidance. He takes special interest in helping the marginalized and oppressed, seeing it as a way to atone for his own past actions.
In his travels, Aelthir frequently stops to aid the wounded, mend broken relationships, and offer solace to the grieving. His knowledge of Restoration magic is unmatched, and he uses it not only to heal physical wounds but also to provide comfort and hope. He carries a journal in which he writes down the stories of those he helps, preserving their tales as a testament to his journey and the lives he has touched.
Aelthir also engages in deep meditation and prayer, often seeking solitude in nature to connect with Mara and reflect on his path. These moments of introspection are crucial for his character, providing him with the strength and clarity needed to continue his mission. He has built a small shrine to Mara in his quarters, adorned with symbols of love and peace, where he performs daily rituals to honor the Divine and seek her guidance.
His inner conflict and quest for redemption are further complicated by the whispers of his former comrades in the Thalmor, who seek to reclaim or eliminate him. These encounters are fraught with tension, as Aelthir must confront the remnants of his past while upholding his new principles. Each confrontation is a test of his resolve, pushing him to reaffirm his commitment to Mara's teachings and his new path.
Aelthir Silverblade is a character deeply rooted in the themes of redemption, compassion, and inner conflict. His backstory, skills, and devotion to Mara create a rich tapestry of experiences and motivations that drive his actions and interactions in Skyrim. Through his journey, he seeks not only to make amends for his past but also to create a better future for those around him, embodying the true spirit of the Divine of Love and Compassion.
2024.06.04 16:14 Murky_waterLLC Crash Course: to the Stars! Chapter 1 Part 2
[Prelude] [Previous] [Next]
Dialog Key:
[Translated]: Dates, Units of Measurement, or other Grammatical terms will be retrofitted to be legible for readers while still staying true to their definition
{Exposition}: Immediate context regarding events, People, Entities, or other key points that allow for understanding amongst different cultures.
...In his adrenaline rush, Axel lept on top of the thing, pressing the barrel of his rifle on it and emptying the rest of his magazine into the chassis of the droid, leaving little more than a gaping hole leading to the floor where the motherboard would have been. Axel panted as he dropped his rifle to the floor.
“Take that, Fyronic…” He thought to himself, “...Ain’t taking this soldier’s job any time soon.”
But his fight wasn’t done yet. Whether it was his adrenaline-heightened senses or his bionics Axel couldn’t remember. He twisted around, seamlessly snatching the robot’s firearm and just barely evading the slugs aimed from behind as he nailed his flanking attacker. The Ce’davi recoiled as the two bullets ripped chunks out of their sides, viscus blood pouring out of their “Torso”, if you could point out where such a place would be, before crumpling to the ground next to their late colleague. Axel wasted no time celebrating his small victory as the Security force was closing in around him. They were losing numbers, and their panic started to show in their liberal expenditures of ammunition.
Axel picked up on shouts in a language he didn’t have time to run through his AI’s algorithms to translate, but given the noises most certainly came from a Preene, and they sounded panicked, yet structured, enough, Axel could deduce that backup was being called in if the base’s sensors hadn’t sent out the call already. Axel snatched up another pistol from the other automaton and made a risky dash behind the nearby void shuttle to buy him some breathing room.
He took a risk and checked the magazines of his two firearms, formulating a plan. He reached around his chest and grabbed the small metal capsule, unstrapping it from his Kevlar vest. He pulled the pin on the flashbang and rolled it under the suspended vessel. When he heard the telltale blast followed by the screams of his enemies, Axel rounded the craft and opened fire on any targets his HUD could get a lock on.
Two Preene instantly went down, including one holding the communications device. All that remained now was the two Preene and one last Ce’davi. Axel barely had time to drop his guns and catch the HF blade coming from above as the Ce’davi pounced on him with enough force to send his boots grinding against the plasio-ceramic floor. He pressed the flat ends of the blade between his hands as its friction began to warm, burn, and then scold his palms. Glancing down, he could see the lower arms of the Ce’davi unholstering a gun and drawing it up.
Axel raised his leg and kicked the soft belly of the Ce’davi, making it drop both the blade and its gun and stagger but only for a moment. Axel discarded the blade as the Ce’davi made its final attack, being carnivorous reptilians, this one’s kind had an array of sharp teeth that would definitely hurt if they got a good bite out of your neck. Axel quickly reacted by grabbing the jaws of the reptile and holding them in place. The Ce’davi had a strong jaw, even for someone like Axel, and the two of them struggled in against one another. Suddenly, the Ce’davi started loudly vocalizing despite its mouth’s dexterity being limited and unable to form coherent sentences, almost as if it was trying to signal someone. Axel caught a glimpse of movement in his vision and turned to see the white-feathered Preene focusing a high-powered rifle at him.
The Ce’davi made some more vocalizations that sounded like taunting laughter, sending a waft of bad breath directly at Axel’s face. Noxious fumes were the least of the Operator’s concerns at the moment as the Preen’s grip around the trigger tightened. Being locked in place by the Ce’davi, Axel could only hope the Avian missed its shot. A gunshot rang out and the Preen’s head snapped to its left before it collapsed to the ground, blood and brain matter spraying across the floor. The Ce’davi’s eyes went wide in shock, loosening its vise-like jaw just enough for Axel to grab and pull down. Hard. The sickening sound of the tearing of tendons and bones as the reptile’s jaw was forcefully ripped from the rest of its skull would have made any untrained soldier empty their stomach. The scream of agony from the Ce’davi was cut short as Axel twisted the dropped HF blade around and sliced the Ce’davi’s underbelly straight from top to bottom, spilling its insides and sending it crashing to the ground.
The Operator only took a second to admire his handiwork before stepping out from in between the docked shuttles and looking up to see his savior, Vizor sitting on the same metal scaffolding he dropped from not a few moments earlier. She wore much of the same tactical gear as him, though some more so to fit her marksman capabilities.
“Command’s pissed, they wanted to call off the mission because of you.” She called, pulling back the bolt on her rifle and ejecting a shell that emitted a soft clang against the grated metal upon landing.
“Heh, so why’d you come back?” Axel called up.
“Because I didn’t want either of us dying from your ‘gut instincts’... good thing too, Command was right, without me you’d contribute to your little art display you have going on here. On that note, no thank you?” Vizor teased.
Axel chuckled.
“Alright, thanks, I guess that makes us even?” He said.
“Nope, Facifax and Jirimo, remember? I’m two up on you now.”
“Right, well you do make it hard to save you when you keep out of the action from your eagle nest.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way, on that note, this little birdie can see a certain Genocidal maniac is missing from the obituary.”
“Yeah, and another dodo’s unaccounted for, got eyes on them?”
“Cypher’s got eyes in the sky, says they’re with Haden, speaking of which you better catch up to him. Channel four, I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, I’m going to do something you seem to have an inability to do unprompted and plan us a way out of here.”
“Copy.”
Vizor departed on the scaffolding and into another maintenance shaft. Axel retrieved his rifle, blade, and pistol before he reloaded his firearms, and switched his com lines back on to channel four. Simultaneously, the base’s alarms began going off, a low droning sound aided by flashing orange lights to get the message of ‘Intruder alert’ across.
“Alright, set, Cypher you there?” Axel called into his coms channel.
“No, just me.” Vizor responded.
“Better than nothing, but just barely," Axel jested, "Got any insights on our target?”
“Haden is probably heading towards the center of the station, right above the old mineshaft this place was built on top of, if he’s smart, he’ll go down there and lose you in an endless maze of iron and nickel before doubling back on you. And giving you the slip.”
“That won’t save him.”
“No, but it will accomplish exactly what he did at EPCOT and Kuri’n: Buy him a little more time. While he can afford the risk he knows we can’t, especially with both of us playing with our careers like this. If we fail it’s Dishonorable Discharge and a bloody nose for both of us.”
“Then let’s not fail, where to?”
“Cypher’s seeing a solid shortcut through the base’s hydroponics bay, take that.”
“Copy.”
Axel didn’t need any further directions, he saw the massive greenhouse through the equally large hangar windows just out the gate Haden ran through. Rifle at the ready, Axel turned the corner and opened fire on anything that moved. He pushed deeper into the complex’s halls, making his way toward the general direction of the hydroponics.
His ocular HUD translated the alien dialect as he continued through the stronghold. The hired guns were too slow to react to his bionic reflexes, so resistance was manageable… at least until Axel reached the Hydroponics bay. He moved through the open airlock and into the admittedly well-kept hydroponics bay. He was suspended at least two stories above the ground floor as alien trees reached up and brushed against the reinforced glass of the greenhouse.
Metal walkways stretched and weaved in between the trees and hanging pots and plants, suspended on metal platforms just below designated watering systems. Vibrant fruits broke up the green and brown of the rest of the greenhouse.
[Previous] [Next]
submitted by Murky_waterLLC to HFY [link] [comments]
Dialog Key:
[Translated]: Dates, Units of Measurement, or other Grammatical terms will be retrofitted to be legible for readers while still staying true to their definition
{Exposition}: Immediate context regarding events, People, Entities, or other key points that allow for understanding amongst different cultures.
...In his adrenaline rush, Axel lept on top of the thing, pressing the barrel of his rifle on it and emptying the rest of his magazine into the chassis of the droid, leaving little more than a gaping hole leading to the floor where the motherboard would have been. Axel panted as he dropped his rifle to the floor.
“Take that, Fyronic…” He thought to himself, “...Ain’t taking this soldier’s job any time soon.”
But his fight wasn’t done yet. Whether it was his adrenaline-heightened senses or his bionics Axel couldn’t remember. He twisted around, seamlessly snatching the robot’s firearm and just barely evading the slugs aimed from behind as he nailed his flanking attacker. The Ce’davi recoiled as the two bullets ripped chunks out of their sides, viscus blood pouring out of their “Torso”, if you could point out where such a place would be, before crumpling to the ground next to their late colleague. Axel wasted no time celebrating his small victory as the Security force was closing in around him. They were losing numbers, and their panic started to show in their liberal expenditures of ammunition.
Axel picked up on shouts in a language he didn’t have time to run through his AI’s algorithms to translate, but given the noises most certainly came from a Preene, and they sounded panicked, yet structured, enough, Axel could deduce that backup was being called in if the base’s sensors hadn’t sent out the call already. Axel snatched up another pistol from the other automaton and made a risky dash behind the nearby void shuttle to buy him some breathing room.
He took a risk and checked the magazines of his two firearms, formulating a plan. He reached around his chest and grabbed the small metal capsule, unstrapping it from his Kevlar vest. He pulled the pin on the flashbang and rolled it under the suspended vessel. When he heard the telltale blast followed by the screams of his enemies, Axel rounded the craft and opened fire on any targets his HUD could get a lock on.
Two Preene instantly went down, including one holding the communications device. All that remained now was the two Preene and one last Ce’davi. Axel barely had time to drop his guns and catch the HF blade coming from above as the Ce’davi pounced on him with enough force to send his boots grinding against the plasio-ceramic floor. He pressed the flat ends of the blade between his hands as its friction began to warm, burn, and then scold his palms. Glancing down, he could see the lower arms of the Ce’davi unholstering a gun and drawing it up.
Axel raised his leg and kicked the soft belly of the Ce’davi, making it drop both the blade and its gun and stagger but only for a moment. Axel discarded the blade as the Ce’davi made its final attack, being carnivorous reptilians, this one’s kind had an array of sharp teeth that would definitely hurt if they got a good bite out of your neck. Axel quickly reacted by grabbing the jaws of the reptile and holding them in place. The Ce’davi had a strong jaw, even for someone like Axel, and the two of them struggled in against one another. Suddenly, the Ce’davi started loudly vocalizing despite its mouth’s dexterity being limited and unable to form coherent sentences, almost as if it was trying to signal someone. Axel caught a glimpse of movement in his vision and turned to see the white-feathered Preene focusing a high-powered rifle at him.
The Ce’davi made some more vocalizations that sounded like taunting laughter, sending a waft of bad breath directly at Axel’s face. Noxious fumes were the least of the Operator’s concerns at the moment as the Preen’s grip around the trigger tightened. Being locked in place by the Ce’davi, Axel could only hope the Avian missed its shot. A gunshot rang out and the Preen’s head snapped to its left before it collapsed to the ground, blood and brain matter spraying across the floor. The Ce’davi’s eyes went wide in shock, loosening its vise-like jaw just enough for Axel to grab and pull down. Hard. The sickening sound of the tearing of tendons and bones as the reptile’s jaw was forcefully ripped from the rest of its skull would have made any untrained soldier empty their stomach. The scream of agony from the Ce’davi was cut short as Axel twisted the dropped HF blade around and sliced the Ce’davi’s underbelly straight from top to bottom, spilling its insides and sending it crashing to the ground.
The Operator only took a second to admire his handiwork before stepping out from in between the docked shuttles and looking up to see his savior, Vizor sitting on the same metal scaffolding he dropped from not a few moments earlier. She wore much of the same tactical gear as him, though some more so to fit her marksman capabilities.
“Command’s pissed, they wanted to call off the mission because of you.” She called, pulling back the bolt on her rifle and ejecting a shell that emitted a soft clang against the grated metal upon landing.
“Heh, so why’d you come back?” Axel called up.
“Because I didn’t want either of us dying from your ‘gut instincts’... good thing too, Command was right, without me you’d contribute to your little art display you have going on here. On that note, no thank you?” Vizor teased.
Axel chuckled.
“Alright, thanks, I guess that makes us even?” He said.
“Nope, Facifax and Jirimo, remember? I’m two up on you now.”
“Right, well you do make it hard to save you when you keep out of the action from your eagle nest.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way, on that note, this little birdie can see a certain Genocidal maniac is missing from the obituary.”
“Yeah, and another dodo’s unaccounted for, got eyes on them?”
“Cypher’s got eyes in the sky, says they’re with Haden, speaking of which you better catch up to him. Channel four, I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, I’m going to do something you seem to have an inability to do unprompted and plan us a way out of here.”
“Copy.”
Vizor departed on the scaffolding and into another maintenance shaft. Axel retrieved his rifle, blade, and pistol before he reloaded his firearms, and switched his com lines back on to channel four. Simultaneously, the base’s alarms began going off, a low droning sound aided by flashing orange lights to get the message of ‘Intruder alert’ across.
“Alright, set, Cypher you there?” Axel called into his coms channel.
“No, just me.” Vizor responded.
“Better than nothing, but just barely," Axel jested, "Got any insights on our target?”
“Haden is probably heading towards the center of the station, right above the old mineshaft this place was built on top of, if he’s smart, he’ll go down there and lose you in an endless maze of iron and nickel before doubling back on you. And giving you the slip.”
“That won’t save him.”
“No, but it will accomplish exactly what he did at EPCOT and Kuri’n: Buy him a little more time. While he can afford the risk he knows we can’t, especially with both of us playing with our careers like this. If we fail it’s Dishonorable Discharge and a bloody nose for both of us.”
“Then let’s not fail, where to?”
“Cypher’s seeing a solid shortcut through the base’s hydroponics bay, take that.”
“Copy.”
Axel didn’t need any further directions, he saw the massive greenhouse through the equally large hangar windows just out the gate Haden ran through. Rifle at the ready, Axel turned the corner and opened fire on anything that moved. He pushed deeper into the complex’s halls, making his way toward the general direction of the hydroponics.
His ocular HUD translated the alien dialect as he continued through the stronghold. The hired guns were too slow to react to his bionic reflexes, so resistance was manageable… at least until Axel reached the Hydroponics bay. He moved through the open airlock and into the admittedly well-kept hydroponics bay. He was suspended at least two stories above the ground floor as alien trees reached up and brushed against the reinforced glass of the greenhouse.
Metal walkways stretched and weaved in between the trees and hanging pots and plants, suspended on metal platforms just below designated watering systems. Vibrant fruits broke up the green and brown of the rest of the greenhouse.
[Previous] [Next]
2024.06.04 16:14 Salt-Explanation-738 Anyone else here develop issues with benzoyl peroxide? I have combo/sensitive skin and was fine with it for months, but I've recently stopped due to redness (no rash/itching or anything). I still look like I have a perpetual slight sunburn since stopping use.
Maybe it just really dried out my skin, so that's why I have redness even after stopping? Should I just switch to a hydrating wash and lotion? Allergist said redness sounds more like irritation than an allergy, so. My skin doesn't *feel* dry to the touch, but I guess I could say the same for my arms, which are eczema prone and worsen if I don't lotion them. Thanks!
submitted by Salt-Explanation-738 to beauty [link] [comments]
2024.06.04 16:09 WiseSeaworthiness633 Quit a preschool position after a week- would you have?
This morning I quit my job at a preschool I had just started by leaving them a voicemail after failing to answer the phone. I had worked there for only a week but the reasoning I left wasn’t because of the kids, or even some of the expectations I had going in. It was a handful of red flags that made me feel like just a body.
Background, I’m not thoroughly experienced in ECE, I was coteacher for twos for a year and a paraeducator for adults with disabilities and I loved both of those jobs, the pay was just unliveable. I have three degrees, two in language studies and I always wanted to use my background to support public education opportunities for students regardless of age or background.
On my hire date I was made to do the typical state licensing/child care module stuff. Typical paperwork. My first red flag was the employee manual. It was filled with pages of way to be terminated as an employee. This is a chain preschool daycare I worked at, with expectations to come to every supplemental education training or potentially result in firing, firing if you call out on Mondays or Fridays, requirement of doctors notes after 1 missed day despite lack of benefits, any presumed action of insubordination =firing, etc. Stuff I haven’t seen at any preschool I’ve been hired at before. I had already communicated with the staff that I had done a background check/fingerprinting previously, but at the end of the day they wanted me to go get another one, which is fine. But when I showed up, the paperwork had not been sent over nor was I given anything and I had to reschedule the appointment for later that day resulting in my having to drive around unnecessarily. I shrugged it off, the director was new and I felt like she was overwhelmed, I gave it acknowledgment but brushed it off.
On my first actual day in the classroom is when what I feel a lot was already going down hill. I knew that the fours room didn’t have any lesson planning or set schedule and was interfering with their learning, I knew that going in and was partially why I was hired. So that doesn’t bother me. I felt that I could help establish routine and a learning environment. The issue was within 10 minutes I was left alone with 13 students and told nothing about the children. I didn’t know their names, I didn’t know ages, I didn’t know if they had allergies or any specific accomadations. There was no time schedule posted on the classroom. 20 minutes later I was told to go outside with these kids, joining two other classes outside, again still while I didn’t know the kids names. Obviously, I figured it out, but having known nothing about me, and having giving me no training, I would assume the first day someone would communicate a little more than just beyond here is your classroom.
The entire day was crazy, children walking in and out, obviously going the bathroom unsupervised was a typical. There were 2 year olds walking around this center unsupervised. I ended up needing to train the woman who took over at 3 whose day was also her first at the center, she was just subbing from a different school. Which makes no sense.
But I came in the rest of the week, hoping for improvement. I had zero acknowledgment from the upper management. Not even a hello. Thank god the kids were cool. Occasionally I’d talk with other staff in the hall and would get remarks about how they put me into a class without communicating. For me, I just felt like it was dangerous for the kids.
By the end of the week I was pretty annoyed. When I asked for things that were necessary I didn’t get them, like a sheet, gloves, to be told where things are, etc. I went home unhappy. Then I got sick.
On Monday I had a fever and called in, my voice was awful so I had to semi yell over the phone to be intelligible. The woman who answered had no idea who I was and said that there was no one by my name that worked at the center. I was pissed. She said she would leave a message with the director saying I called out.
To me, that all shows that they don’t care about staff and don’t care about the safety of their kids. And I’m not going to be a part of that. Was I wrong?
submitted by WiseSeaworthiness633 to ECEProfessionals [link] [comments]
Background, I’m not thoroughly experienced in ECE, I was coteacher for twos for a year and a paraeducator for adults with disabilities and I loved both of those jobs, the pay was just unliveable. I have three degrees, two in language studies and I always wanted to use my background to support public education opportunities for students regardless of age or background.
On my hire date I was made to do the typical state licensing/child care module stuff. Typical paperwork. My first red flag was the employee manual. It was filled with pages of way to be terminated as an employee. This is a chain preschool daycare I worked at, with expectations to come to every supplemental education training or potentially result in firing, firing if you call out on Mondays or Fridays, requirement of doctors notes after 1 missed day despite lack of benefits, any presumed action of insubordination =firing, etc. Stuff I haven’t seen at any preschool I’ve been hired at before. I had already communicated with the staff that I had done a background check/fingerprinting previously, but at the end of the day they wanted me to go get another one, which is fine. But when I showed up, the paperwork had not been sent over nor was I given anything and I had to reschedule the appointment for later that day resulting in my having to drive around unnecessarily. I shrugged it off, the director was new and I felt like she was overwhelmed, I gave it acknowledgment but brushed it off.
On my first actual day in the classroom is when what I feel a lot was already going down hill. I knew that the fours room didn’t have any lesson planning or set schedule and was interfering with their learning, I knew that going in and was partially why I was hired. So that doesn’t bother me. I felt that I could help establish routine and a learning environment. The issue was within 10 minutes I was left alone with 13 students and told nothing about the children. I didn’t know their names, I didn’t know ages, I didn’t know if they had allergies or any specific accomadations. There was no time schedule posted on the classroom. 20 minutes later I was told to go outside with these kids, joining two other classes outside, again still while I didn’t know the kids names. Obviously, I figured it out, but having known nothing about me, and having giving me no training, I would assume the first day someone would communicate a little more than just beyond here is your classroom.
The entire day was crazy, children walking in and out, obviously going the bathroom unsupervised was a typical. There were 2 year olds walking around this center unsupervised. I ended up needing to train the woman who took over at 3 whose day was also her first at the center, she was just subbing from a different school. Which makes no sense.
But I came in the rest of the week, hoping for improvement. I had zero acknowledgment from the upper management. Not even a hello. Thank god the kids were cool. Occasionally I’d talk with other staff in the hall and would get remarks about how they put me into a class without communicating. For me, I just felt like it was dangerous for the kids.
By the end of the week I was pretty annoyed. When I asked for things that were necessary I didn’t get them, like a sheet, gloves, to be told where things are, etc. I went home unhappy. Then I got sick.
On Monday I had a fever and called in, my voice was awful so I had to semi yell over the phone to be intelligible. The woman who answered had no idea who I was and said that there was no one by my name that worked at the center. I was pissed. She said she would leave a message with the director saying I called out.
To me, that all shows that they don’t care about staff and don’t care about the safety of their kids. And I’m not going to be a part of that. Was I wrong?
2024.06.04 16:08 evilporro [INT][XP][Clan] Join Red Ribbon Army - EVENTS, PLAT PRIZES AND GIVEAWAYS!
![[INT][XP][Clan] Join Red Ribbon Army - EVENTS, PLAT PRIZES AND GIVEAWAYS!](https://external-preview.redd.it/azk5N3VqMmFiazRkMQvgZ2OCQ_A6JVvpi-D4pGRg8GSrCTNqH-ZnalGNwlxr.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=58248dc5b0ef70c6f665db51a21b9983865b1f1b "[INT][XP][Clan] Join Red Ribbon Army - EVENTS, PLAT PRIZES AND GIVEAWAYS!") | Greetings, fellow tenno! Are you on the lookout for a vibrant and supportive clan? submitted by evilporro to warframeclanrecruit [link] [comments] Look no further than Red Ribbon Army! Join our DISCORD and @ Recruiter for an instant invitation: About Red Ribbon Army Clan: Red Ribbon Army is an English-speaking clan centered around Discord, dedicated to fostering player growth and connections across all regions. We welcome players of all experience levels and aim to create a collaborative environment where everyone can thrive while enjoying their Warframe journey. Our Main Goals: Player Development: Access to research and guidance from seasoned players to help newcomers navigate the game effectively. Functional & Stylish Dojo: Explore and decorate our well-crafted Dojo for your enjoyment. Social Community: Connect with fellow Warframe players via our Discord hub, fostering friendships and camaraderie. Clan Features: All research unlocked for member benefit. Welcoming players from MR 0 to L4, ensuring inclusivity. Active participation in a larger Alliance, often hosting engaging contests. Access to our Community-tier, level 3 Discord server, featuring eidolon bots and voice channels. Regular updates and additional features based on community feedback. Lightly enforced activity policy, keeping the in-game clan active while preserving community ties for returning members. Access to Alliance chat, connecting you with players from all clans in our alliance network. Join Red Ribbon Army today and experience Warframe like never before! |
2024.06.04 16:05 Siri2611 A few questions regarding what I should do now
Firstly I just maxed tier 3 and 4
Also if I were to make another coal gen setup, is the desert place good? the one with rocks and trees, it has 3 pure nodes near water I think and is north of grass fields
So Is it fine if I skip biomes? Like the Purple biome area has wayyy too many trees, it seems if I build anything there it is gonna be very annoying.
Also the huge mushroom biome and the weird desert area which has wayy too many mountains and caves. I dont think ill be able to build there either, my brain is too tiny for that.
Thats all for now, I will for sure get confused on the higher tiers, I don't think without you guys ill ever be able to complete this game. So thanks alot!
submitted by Siri2611 to SatisfactoryGame [link] [comments]
- Energy -
Also if I were to make another coal gen setup, is the desert place good? the one with rocks and trees, it has 3 pure nodes near water I think and is north of grass fields
- Heavy modular Frames -
- Quartz Factory -
- Biomes-
So Is it fine if I skip biomes? Like the Purple biome area has wayyy too many trees, it seems if I build anything there it is gonna be very annoying.
Also the huge mushroom biome and the weird desert area which has wayy too many mountains and caves. I dont think ill be able to build there either, my brain is too tiny for that.
Thats all for now, I will for sure get confused on the higher tiers, I don't think without you guys ill ever be able to complete this game. So thanks alot!
2024.06.04 16:04 ThatAlarmingHamster Adventure Help - Conceptualizing Ship Size
Happy Tuesday! I'm going to be using Mongoose Traveller 2nd to run a game in the Babylon 5 universe. Taking the 1st edition skin for character creation, adjusting as needed to bring it up to 2nd, then continuing from there. However, I've never run a Sci-Fi game before, so I'm looking for help/feedback on one of my ideas for the campaign.
We're all fans of lots of different Sci-Fi IPs, so I'm looking to bring in themes from several different ones. Traveller is best geared for adventuring parties (as I understand), so it'll have a bit of Firefly vibe. They're a motley crew from various backgrounds, flying around the universe getting into trouble and trying to turn a profit while they're at it.
Initially, I had planned to just give them a sufficient stake in an Armed Trader (page 22 of "Adventure Class Ships") that they aren't desperate for money, but still feel the constant pressure of that mortgage hanging over them. However, I've come around to thinking that what might be neat is to add in a certain amount of vibe from Andromeda and/or Stargate Universe.
They find an ancient ship wreck of a small warship (frigate type role) built by one of the First One races (a new one I made up). It barely runs (current functionality about that of an Armed Trader), but it has potential to be way more powerful. If they can figure out how to fix it up, which is easier said than done. It's made with all kinds of advanced materials, the systems are light years beyond anything they have seen before, the ship's AI has massive gaps in her memory due to the damage to the ship so she can't even help them much, and finding a good mechanic will be tricky because any legitimate port will run the risk of government impound.
As part of this, I thought it would be interesting if some of the adventure hooks revolve around exploring parts of the ship they can't immediately access. When they get it, they have access to some of the state rooms, one of the engine rooms, the bridge, some of the cargo space, etc. But sections of the ship are blocked by emergency doors that shut during the crash. The ship can't open them herself, she doesn't even know what's beyond them due to the damage to her memory circuits. Might just be another batch of state rooms, might be an advanced engine, might be fancy weaponry, might be stasis pods for the original crew, might be a hall full of toxic gas, etc, etc.
But..... How big would such a ship need to be? You don't want a ship so big it draws attention to itself. An unidentified capital ship coming through the jump gate of any inhabited system is going to get people all kinds of worked up. Something you can pass off as a custom build and/or purchased from another race that doesn't get over "this way" much might not raise many red flags.
Thoughts, comments, feedback, things to think about...... All welcome. Thanks!
submitted by ThatAlarmingHamster to traveller [link] [comments]
We're all fans of lots of different Sci-Fi IPs, so I'm looking to bring in themes from several different ones. Traveller is best geared for adventuring parties (as I understand), so it'll have a bit of Firefly vibe. They're a motley crew from various backgrounds, flying around the universe getting into trouble and trying to turn a profit while they're at it.
Initially, I had planned to just give them a sufficient stake in an Armed Trader (page 22 of "Adventure Class Ships") that they aren't desperate for money, but still feel the constant pressure of that mortgage hanging over them. However, I've come around to thinking that what might be neat is to add in a certain amount of vibe from Andromeda and/or Stargate Universe.
They find an ancient ship wreck of a small warship (frigate type role) built by one of the First One races (a new one I made up). It barely runs (current functionality about that of an Armed Trader), but it has potential to be way more powerful. If they can figure out how to fix it up, which is easier said than done. It's made with all kinds of advanced materials, the systems are light years beyond anything they have seen before, the ship's AI has massive gaps in her memory due to the damage to the ship so she can't even help them much, and finding a good mechanic will be tricky because any legitimate port will run the risk of government impound.
As part of this, I thought it would be interesting if some of the adventure hooks revolve around exploring parts of the ship they can't immediately access. When they get it, they have access to some of the state rooms, one of the engine rooms, the bridge, some of the cargo space, etc. But sections of the ship are blocked by emergency doors that shut during the crash. The ship can't open them herself, she doesn't even know what's beyond them due to the damage to her memory circuits. Might just be another batch of state rooms, might be an advanced engine, might be fancy weaponry, might be stasis pods for the original crew, might be a hall full of toxic gas, etc, etc.
But..... How big would such a ship need to be? You don't want a ship so big it draws attention to itself. An unidentified capital ship coming through the jump gate of any inhabited system is going to get people all kinds of worked up. Something you can pass off as a custom build and/or purchased from another race that doesn't get over "this way" much might not raise many red flags.
Thoughts, comments, feedback, things to think about...... All welcome. Thanks!
2024.06.04 16:01 Background_Wrap_1396 Monster in law 🧌
Apologies for how long this is, despite that a lot was left unsaid. No names, but just know there is a Karen.
My husband and I started dating back in 2013. I always knew his mother was…difficult. We were young and ran into some housing issues, so we moved in with his parents for a couple of years. During that time, my anxiety skyrocketed because we were constantly being threatened with eviction should we not do something exactly how she wanted. Fast forward to 2019, after 6 years, my husband proposed to me on our anniversary. Immediately, once my in laws were informed, I knew this would not go the way I wanted it to. My husband and I are not materialistic, we didn’t want a huge wedding with all of the fancy garb. Despite that, I was still extremely excited for the planning, as that is right up my alley. My MIL had different plans. She eerily said, “Just try to keep me out of wedding planning,” and laughed. His parents offered us $1000 for the wedding, but when we didn’t jump for joy my FIL asked what was wrong. We told him that we knew there were strings attached to that money, and how right we were. Our wedding planning was underway, and the first problem was the venue. We found one we liked, but it was too far of a drive for my family, so we went with a location closer. The community center in my hometown was available, cheap, and it came with all the tables and chairs needed for our small wedding. I let my in laws pay the $265 for the venue, as that was what they wanted and as a fresh college grad I didn’t exactly have the funds. Next problem was the guest list. My husband and I come from large families, but we were only inviting close friends and immediate family, no extended family. His mom did not like this plan, at all. She said that we should invite all of her side of the family, that they wouldn’t show up but we could get the gifts they sent and she wouldn’t “look bad” for them not being invited. I told her that we didn’t care about the gifts, we weren’t going to invite over 50 people and not expect them to show up. My luck, they would show up and not have a seat. And if we invited his extended family, we would have to invite mine, and they’d show up for sure. She literally said, “well since we are helping pay for the wedding, I figured we would get to choose who got invited.” I flat out said no, that isn’t how this is going to work. She didn’t like that, but she backed down. Over the next few months, she would ask me about decorations she found on Facebook marketplace, insist on us doing things a specific way, and whenever I would politely (and meekly,) tell her that wasn’t the direction we were going in, basically thank you but no thank you, she started getting more and more aggressive. Every time I told her no, no matter how nicely, she was getting angrier and angrier. One day, she wanted to spend $20 on a cupcake tier. I told her I had it and not to worry. She kept asking why I wouldn’t let her buy anything for the wedding, which I hadn’t since the venue, and I didn’t engage. I just said I don’t want her to worry about it, that I would take care of it. My husband and I wouldn’t accept anymore money from them, we knew the true cost, and they hated it. Because I knew that I couldn’t trust my MIL to do anything the way I wanted it done, I made the executive decision to take the responsibility of making food for our 25 guests away from his parents. I told her, “We want you guys to have a good time, enjoy yourselves and not worry about anything. Making food in the community center kitchenette would be difficult.” Behind a closed door, not on speaker phone, my husband and our guests could hear her cussing me out. I was so taken aback and hurt. We didn’t speak for several days, my husband was the only one to talk to them, and that was only to tell her to apologize to me. She was dumbfounded that he wasn’t on her side. He simply told her, “Of course I am not on your side. You cussed out my fiancé.” He was still on their phone plan, so she cut off his phone. He decided to retaliate by going out and getting his own phone plan, which made her rage even more. She had finally lost all of her control. We didn’t speak for months after this. Finally, she apologized to me, so as to not lose her relationship with her son. When we finally had our ceremony, I had transferred all responsibility to my closest family friends. Anytime she tried to do something, (e.g. move tables or mess with decor,) they would stop her and say that we are doing this the way the bride wants. Our relationship is much better now, and she knows that if she does anything like that again, she’ll lose her son. I left out a lot of detail, there were months of debilitating anxiety for me, every time she would text me I would break down. She took something that was supposed to be an amazing experience for me and turned it into a traumatic one. My husband and I have been married now for 4 years, and we are stronger than ever. You do marry the family, but it doesn’t have to destroy your marriage.
submitted by Background_Wrap_1396 to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]
My husband and I started dating back in 2013. I always knew his mother was…difficult. We were young and ran into some housing issues, so we moved in with his parents for a couple of years. During that time, my anxiety skyrocketed because we were constantly being threatened with eviction should we not do something exactly how she wanted. Fast forward to 2019, after 6 years, my husband proposed to me on our anniversary. Immediately, once my in laws were informed, I knew this would not go the way I wanted it to. My husband and I are not materialistic, we didn’t want a huge wedding with all of the fancy garb. Despite that, I was still extremely excited for the planning, as that is right up my alley. My MIL had different plans. She eerily said, “Just try to keep me out of wedding planning,” and laughed. His parents offered us $1000 for the wedding, but when we didn’t jump for joy my FIL asked what was wrong. We told him that we knew there were strings attached to that money, and how right we were. Our wedding planning was underway, and the first problem was the venue. We found one we liked, but it was too far of a drive for my family, so we went with a location closer. The community center in my hometown was available, cheap, and it came with all the tables and chairs needed for our small wedding. I let my in laws pay the $265 for the venue, as that was what they wanted and as a fresh college grad I didn’t exactly have the funds. Next problem was the guest list. My husband and I come from large families, but we were only inviting close friends and immediate family, no extended family. His mom did not like this plan, at all. She said that we should invite all of her side of the family, that they wouldn’t show up but we could get the gifts they sent and she wouldn’t “look bad” for them not being invited. I told her that we didn’t care about the gifts, we weren’t going to invite over 50 people and not expect them to show up. My luck, they would show up and not have a seat. And if we invited his extended family, we would have to invite mine, and they’d show up for sure. She literally said, “well since we are helping pay for the wedding, I figured we would get to choose who got invited.” I flat out said no, that isn’t how this is going to work. She didn’t like that, but she backed down. Over the next few months, she would ask me about decorations she found on Facebook marketplace, insist on us doing things a specific way, and whenever I would politely (and meekly,) tell her that wasn’t the direction we were going in, basically thank you but no thank you, she started getting more and more aggressive. Every time I told her no, no matter how nicely, she was getting angrier and angrier. One day, she wanted to spend $20 on a cupcake tier. I told her I had it and not to worry. She kept asking why I wouldn’t let her buy anything for the wedding, which I hadn’t since the venue, and I didn’t engage. I just said I don’t want her to worry about it, that I would take care of it. My husband and I wouldn’t accept anymore money from them, we knew the true cost, and they hated it. Because I knew that I couldn’t trust my MIL to do anything the way I wanted it done, I made the executive decision to take the responsibility of making food for our 25 guests away from his parents. I told her, “We want you guys to have a good time, enjoy yourselves and not worry about anything. Making food in the community center kitchenette would be difficult.” Behind a closed door, not on speaker phone, my husband and our guests could hear her cussing me out. I was so taken aback and hurt. We didn’t speak for several days, my husband was the only one to talk to them, and that was only to tell her to apologize to me. She was dumbfounded that he wasn’t on her side. He simply told her, “Of course I am not on your side. You cussed out my fiancé.” He was still on their phone plan, so she cut off his phone. He decided to retaliate by going out and getting his own phone plan, which made her rage even more. She had finally lost all of her control. We didn’t speak for months after this. Finally, she apologized to me, so as to not lose her relationship with her son. When we finally had our ceremony, I had transferred all responsibility to my closest family friends. Anytime she tried to do something, (e.g. move tables or mess with decor,) they would stop her and say that we are doing this the way the bride wants. Our relationship is much better now, and she knows that if she does anything like that again, she’ll lose her son. I left out a lot of detail, there were months of debilitating anxiety for me, every time she would text me I would break down. She took something that was supposed to be an amazing experience for me and turned it into a traumatic one. My husband and I have been married now for 4 years, and we are stronger than ever. You do marry the family, but it doesn’t have to destroy your marriage.
2024.06.04 15:58 Emily_Anne37 A delightful vistor...but, too soon?
 | I am new to native gardening, so initially I was delighted to see that my false indigo plant is already hosting this enterprising creature. You can't see it well in the photos because he's hiding in his little leaf tent, but based on the red head and eye spots, I think he is a silver skipper caterpillar. The only problem is, the false indigo is young and not yet established. The caterpillar seems to have eaten all the new growth (not a sustainable strategy on his part, I have to say!). I'm concerned that if he sticks around he will kill the small plant with overzealous eating. submitted by Emily_Anne37 to NativePlantGardening [link] [comments] Am I worrying over nothing? Or is it best to shoo him away and let the plant get better prepared for future hosting? Georgia, hardiness zone 7b |
2024.06.04 15:56 DiscoPlantHat AITA for telling my grandmother in law that my sister's in law dog is not dead
Hey everybody,
first I want to mention that english is not my native language so excuse me in advance for the mistakes and second, I have adhd but I currently don't take my medication because of breastfeeding, I will try to keep it short but we may take a rollercoaster to get to the point. Buckle up it's going to be a crazy delulu ride.
Last night my fiancé (let's call him Dave) 27M and I 25F had an argument. He just left for work without kissing me goodbye like he does everyday and now I'm starting to think I might be in the wrong...
So, context:
We are no contact for a few months now with Dave's mother and sister who are like two evil twins. They think, act, laugh and look the same. Dave told me a lot about his past and his resentment towards his sister. When he was 5 years old his mom and dad broke up and Dave and his sister were raised mainly by their mother who had full custody. They had to move a few times when he was a teen because his sister was...possessed. There was a ghost following her and one time she faked an exorcist scene and MIL was believing it so they moved out. It's an exemple of the BS he had to go through growing up with those two. A lot of made up stories and drama.
The reason he finally went no contact with them is because of our son, who just turned 1 year old. To keep it short I will make a "grocery list" of crazy things MIL did that led to Dave blocking her:
•Unfriend him on Facebook the first time he uploaded a picture of the two of us as his profile picture •After we annonced our pregnancy, threw multiple tantrums because we didnt included her enough in the pregnancy, like we did not wanted her to know the gender of the baby before us to make us a surprise baby gender reveal •Announcing she was cutting me (36 weeks pregnant at the time) off her life because we did not wanted any visitors at the hospital after the delivery •Realising that she would not see the baby so accepting me back without of course apologizing, then a month after the baby is born sending multiple texts to Dave while he was at work to tell him she was not going to be a grandmother and to have a great life with his new family without her because she only saw her grandson 3 times in one month and it was not NORMAL •Realising that didnt work as expected then gaslighting him asking "How can you be so cruel to me it's been 3 weeks since I saw my grandson?"- At this moment we had a big fight and I told Dave if he wanted his mom in our son's life that he needed to set clear boundairies with her- •Then 6 months later announcing there was going to be no Christmas this year because of all the drama (we didnt knew there was drama lama it has been 6 months that things were going smooth and that she surprisingly respected our boundairies) and that she wanted me OUT of her life because I was toxic -at this point I told Dave that it was the last strike and she needed therapy if he wanted her in our son's life- •Contacting a lawyer to beggin legal procedures to see her grandson -at this point we almost broke up because he didnt want to fight his mother in court but I didn't want this toxic person in my son's life, but finally agreed that she could see him once a month for a few hours only while we're doing a couple's activity- •Screaming at Dave so loud that I could ear her while waiting in the car with the doors and windows closed outside her house for picking up our child, because she raised Dave alone and could not believe he was so mean to her ect, while our 11 months old baby was inside with them !!! •Hi it's me realising the context is way longer than expected
And Dave is no contact with his sister because she is a follower of her mother the queen of all and to her I am the reason her family is falling to pieces.
For Dave's father side, there is no problem with them, I love them all and I think they appreciate me much since Dave have more contact with them since I'm in his life. I'm especially close to his grandmother, we message a lot, I'm sending her pictures of our son often ect. She in fact talks to me more often than Dave because Dave can take days to reply to his messages, he gets overwhelmed easily.
So finally, on April's first, SIL post on Facebook that her dog died. Oh I forgot more context...it's going to be short I swear. On top of all, MIL is our neighbor. She lives two houses across our street. Luckily there is a lot of threes so we don't see each others house. Fun fact that's how I met my fiancé he lived with his mom and he was my neighbor, he just moved with me on the other side of the road.
SIL(29F) have an history of moving out of appartment like twice a year, quitting jobs because of crazy workplace stories and adopting small dogs and hiding them from the landlord then giving them away because the landlord finds out. 7 months ago she moved 2 hours away to live with her new boyfriend who she met on tiktok and who is now in prison. When that didn't worked out she moved with my FIL, so that's why we have all the gossip. She couldn't bring her dog so she asked her mother to temporary take her dog while she finds a place that accepts dogs. After a few months of keeping the dog MIL apparently put an add to give the dog away, SIL threw a tantrum and MIL kept the dog. A few months after, there is April first and SIL post on FB that her dog died and that she thanked her mom for everything.
We were wondering if it was a sick April fools joke but apparently no, grandmother in law has contact with SIL and she told us that SIL was going to MIL house (like 2 or 3 weeks after that the dog was supposedly hit by a car, there was no snow left so that was already weird like who tf keeps a dead dog in their backyards for 3 weeks before burrying it when it's hot outside?!). SIL maintained the dead dog story, even showing GMIL pictures of where she had burried her dog.
But weeks goes by and I sometimes was hearing a small dog barking nearby our house. I was suspiscious but thought maybe another neighbor got a small dog. I often hear MIL who has a big dog of her own calling her dog back to her house.(I do a lot of gardenning and yardwork so I'm often outside). But sometimes, I would hear MIL calling what seemed to be SIL's dog name... but I thought maybe I was to far away and didn't heard it really clearly so I wasn't sure.
And then last night. I was at the end of our driveway watering plants and I heared it, clear as rock water (do you guys say that in english maybe not? <> is a french expression) MIL calling supposedly dead SIL's dog name. Oh I had a good gossip there.
I am guilty of liking a good gossip. So I rushed to my phone and DM my GMIL about what I just heard. GMIL knows about the lying history and was a witness of many crazy MIL stories back in the days MIL was with her son(FIL). So even if I don't have proof exept what I heard GMIL believes me. That is so weird I don't know if it's a lie from SIL to make her life more interesting or MIL made up that story not to tell SIL she gave the dog away and like she told SIL she already had burried the dog because of the heath, I have so many questions that won't be answered. I think she might have gave the dog to a friend of her and that is why the dog is back to MIL sometimes.
I afterwards told Dave what I heard and he wasn't surprised. I told him also that I messaged his GM about it, and at first he laughed. But then a few minutes later, he came back saying that was unnecessary to tell GMIL because she likes to gossip and will tell the whole family about it and that it was only putting oil on a fire that wasn't burning anymore. I replied that since we had no contact with them and that he blocked them on everything that it doesn't really mater, he won't have a feedback from MIL or SIL, I wanted to expose the truth about their sick lies. Then things escalated and we went to bed angry, wich in 3 years did rarely happened and didn't happened since he went no contact with his mom. Things are so much better without all the drama but I feel I triggered something in Dave last night and I don't know if I'm in the wrong... I know it took a long time for Dave to go no contact with his mother, he always hated his sister but just realised now that she is just a copy of their mom. He was raised by a narcissist and from what I have red I am lucky that he sees his mother for what she is and took the decision himself to go no contact with her.
So we have finally arrived folks, AITA for reveling the truth about the undead dog?
By the time I wrote this Dave texted me that he was sorry for not kissing me goodbye and that he loves me. But I feel guilty for not keeping my mouth shut...
submitted by DiscoPlantHat to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]
first I want to mention that english is not my native language so excuse me in advance for the mistakes and second, I have adhd but I currently don't take my medication because of breastfeeding, I will try to keep it short but we may take a rollercoaster to get to the point. Buckle up it's going to be a crazy delulu ride.
Last night my fiancé (let's call him Dave) 27M and I 25F had an argument. He just left for work without kissing me goodbye like he does everyday and now I'm starting to think I might be in the wrong...
So, context:
We are no contact for a few months now with Dave's mother and sister who are like two evil twins. They think, act, laugh and look the same. Dave told me a lot about his past and his resentment towards his sister. When he was 5 years old his mom and dad broke up and Dave and his sister were raised mainly by their mother who had full custody. They had to move a few times when he was a teen because his sister was...possessed. There was a ghost following her and one time she faked an exorcist scene and MIL was believing it so they moved out. It's an exemple of the BS he had to go through growing up with those two. A lot of made up stories and drama.
The reason he finally went no contact with them is because of our son, who just turned 1 year old. To keep it short I will make a "grocery list" of crazy things MIL did that led to Dave blocking her:
•Unfriend him on Facebook the first time he uploaded a picture of the two of us as his profile picture •After we annonced our pregnancy, threw multiple tantrums because we didnt included her enough in the pregnancy, like we did not wanted her to know the gender of the baby before us to make us a surprise baby gender reveal •Announcing she was cutting me (36 weeks pregnant at the time) off her life because we did not wanted any visitors at the hospital after the delivery •Realising that she would not see the baby so accepting me back without of course apologizing, then a month after the baby is born sending multiple texts to Dave while he was at work to tell him she was not going to be a grandmother and to have a great life with his new family without her because she only saw her grandson 3 times in one month and it was not NORMAL •Realising that didnt work as expected then gaslighting him asking "How can you be so cruel to me it's been 3 weeks since I saw my grandson?"- At this moment we had a big fight and I told Dave if he wanted his mom in our son's life that he needed to set clear boundairies with her- •Then 6 months later announcing there was going to be no Christmas this year because of all the drama (we didnt knew there was drama lama it has been 6 months that things were going smooth and that she surprisingly respected our boundairies) and that she wanted me OUT of her life because I was toxic -at this point I told Dave that it was the last strike and she needed therapy if he wanted her in our son's life- •Contacting a lawyer to beggin legal procedures to see her grandson -at this point we almost broke up because he didnt want to fight his mother in court but I didn't want this toxic person in my son's life, but finally agreed that she could see him once a month for a few hours only while we're doing a couple's activity- •Screaming at Dave so loud that I could ear her while waiting in the car with the doors and windows closed outside her house for picking up our child, because she raised Dave alone and could not believe he was so mean to her ect, while our 11 months old baby was inside with them !!! •Hi it's me realising the context is way longer than expected
And Dave is no contact with his sister because she is a follower of her mother the queen of all and to her I am the reason her family is falling to pieces.
For Dave's father side, there is no problem with them, I love them all and I think they appreciate me much since Dave have more contact with them since I'm in his life. I'm especially close to his grandmother, we message a lot, I'm sending her pictures of our son often ect. She in fact talks to me more often than Dave because Dave can take days to reply to his messages, he gets overwhelmed easily.
So finally, on April's first, SIL post on Facebook that her dog died. Oh I forgot more context...it's going to be short I swear. On top of all, MIL is our neighbor. She lives two houses across our street. Luckily there is a lot of threes so we don't see each others house. Fun fact that's how I met my fiancé he lived with his mom and he was my neighbor, he just moved with me on the other side of the road.
SIL(29F) have an history of moving out of appartment like twice a year, quitting jobs because of crazy workplace stories and adopting small dogs and hiding them from the landlord then giving them away because the landlord finds out. 7 months ago she moved 2 hours away to live with her new boyfriend who she met on tiktok and who is now in prison. When that didn't worked out she moved with my FIL, so that's why we have all the gossip. She couldn't bring her dog so she asked her mother to temporary take her dog while she finds a place that accepts dogs. After a few months of keeping the dog MIL apparently put an add to give the dog away, SIL threw a tantrum and MIL kept the dog. A few months after, there is April first and SIL post on FB that her dog died and that she thanked her mom for everything.
We were wondering if it was a sick April fools joke but apparently no, grandmother in law has contact with SIL and she told us that SIL was going to MIL house (like 2 or 3 weeks after that the dog was supposedly hit by a car, there was no snow left so that was already weird like who tf keeps a dead dog in their backyards for 3 weeks before burrying it when it's hot outside?!). SIL maintained the dead dog story, even showing GMIL pictures of where she had burried her dog.
But weeks goes by and I sometimes was hearing a small dog barking nearby our house. I was suspiscious but thought maybe another neighbor got a small dog. I often hear MIL who has a big dog of her own calling her dog back to her house.(I do a lot of gardenning and yardwork so I'm often outside). But sometimes, I would hear MIL calling what seemed to be SIL's dog name... but I thought maybe I was to far away and didn't heard it really clearly so I wasn't sure.
And then last night. I was at the end of our driveway watering plants and I heared it, clear as rock water (do you guys say that in english maybe not? <
I am guilty of liking a good gossip. So I rushed to my phone and DM my GMIL about what I just heard. GMIL knows about the lying history and was a witness of many crazy MIL stories back in the days MIL was with her son(FIL). So even if I don't have proof exept what I heard GMIL believes me. That is so weird I don't know if it's a lie from SIL to make her life more interesting or MIL made up that story not to tell SIL she gave the dog away and like she told SIL she already had burried the dog because of the heath, I have so many questions that won't be answered. I think she might have gave the dog to a friend of her and that is why the dog is back to MIL sometimes.
I afterwards told Dave what I heard and he wasn't surprised. I told him also that I messaged his GM about it, and at first he laughed. But then a few minutes later, he came back saying that was unnecessary to tell GMIL because she likes to gossip and will tell the whole family about it and that it was only putting oil on a fire that wasn't burning anymore. I replied that since we had no contact with them and that he blocked them on everything that it doesn't really mater, he won't have a feedback from MIL or SIL, I wanted to expose the truth about their sick lies. Then things escalated and we went to bed angry, wich in 3 years did rarely happened and didn't happened since he went no contact with his mom. Things are so much better without all the drama but I feel I triggered something in Dave last night and I don't know if I'm in the wrong... I know it took a long time for Dave to go no contact with his mother, he always hated his sister but just realised now that she is just a copy of their mom. He was raised by a narcissist and from what I have red I am lucky that he sees his mother for what she is and took the decision himself to go no contact with her.
So we have finally arrived folks, AITA for reveling the truth about the undead dog?
By the time I wrote this Dave texted me that he was sorry for not kissing me goodbye and that he loves me. But I feel guilty for not keeping my mouth shut...
2024.06.04 15:56 Sweet-Count2557 Best Brunch in Roanoke Va
 | Best Brunch in Roanoke Va Looking for the ultimate brunch experience in Roanoke, Virginia? Look no further! We've handpicked the finest brunch destinations in town just for you.From classic dishes that will make your mouth water to inventive creations that will tantalize your taste buds, Roanoke has it all. Whether you're a meat lover, a vegan, or somewhere in between, there's a brunch spot that will cater to your cravings.Join us on a culinary adventure through the best brunch spots in Roanoke, Virginia. Let's dig in!Key TakeawaysRoanoke offers a wide variety of brunch options, ranging from fancy and cute spots to charming breakfast spots in historic buildings.Many of the brunch spots in Roanoke pride themselves on using fresh and locally sourced ingredients, providing farm-to-table dining experiences.There are brunch spots in Roanoke that cater to various dietary preferences, including options for vegans, gluten-free individuals, and meat lovers.The brunch scene in Roanoke is known for its efficient and friendly service, with many establishments offering excellent customer service.Bread Crafts BrunchWe love the European-style hard-crusted bread at Bread Crafts Brunch, especially when it's made with natural ingredients. Located in Roanoke, Virginia, Bread Crafts Brunch is a top choice for brunch lovers in the area. With its cozy and inviting atmosphere, it offers a delightful dining experience.At Bread Crafts Brunch, you can indulge in a variety of mouth-watering dishes that will satisfy your breakfast cravings. From fluffy omelettes to stacked pancakes, there's something for everyone. But what truly sets this brunch spot apart is their European-style hard-crusted bread. Baked to perfection, it has a crispy exterior and a soft, chewy interior that's simply irresistible.The use of natural ingredients in their bread adds an extra layer of flavor and quality. You can taste the difference in every bite. Whether you prefer a classic avocado toast or a hearty breakfast sandwich, the bread at Bread Crafts Brunch elevates the entire dish.When it comes to finding the best breakfast in Roanoke, Bread Crafts Brunch is a must-visit. The combination of their European-style hard-crusted bread and natural ingredients creates a brunch experience that's both satisfying and memorable. So, gather your friends and head over to Bread Crafts Brunch for a delicious start to your day.The Regency Room BrunchLet's indulge in the bottomless brunch buffet or explore the extensive menu at The Regency Room Brunch, part of Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. Located in Roanoke, VA, this brunch spot offers an exquisite dining experience that's sure to satisfy your taste buds.The Regency Room Brunch is a fancy and cute brunch spot with enchanting murals and gleaming tiled floors. As you step inside, you'll be greeted by excellent service and a warm ambiance. Whether you're looking for a casual brunch or a special occasion, this place has got you covered.The brunch options at The Regency Room are truly impressive. From classic breakfast favorites like fluffy pancakes and omelettes to more unique dishes such as smoked salmon benedict and crab cake sliders, there's something for everyone. The menu is carefully crafted with high-quality ingredients, ensuring that each dish is bursting with flavor.If you're in the mood for a leisurely brunch, the bottomless buffet is a must-try. Feast on a variety of delectable options, including fresh fruits, pastries, salads, and a wide selection of hot dishes. Pair your meal with a refreshing mimosa or a perfectly brewed cup of coffee for the ultimate brunch experience.The Regency Room Brunch is the perfect place to gather with friends and family to enjoy a delicious meal in a beautiful setting. Whether you're a local or just visiting Roanoke, VA, make sure to add this brunch spot to your must-try list.Scrambled BrunchScrambled Brunch offers generous portions of tasty no-frills classics, making it a satisfying option for brunch in Roanoke. Located in the charming historic Market Building, this breakfast spot serves up all-day brunch and breakfast options that are sure to please.Whether you're craving traditional favorites like fluffy pancakes or hearty omelettes, Scrambled Brunch has got you covered.One of the standout features of this brunch spot is their commitment to providing generous portions. You won't leave hungry after indulging in their delicious dishes. From their perfectly cooked eggs to their crispy bacon and flavorful sausages, each item on the menu is made with care and attention to detail.Not only does Scrambled Brunch excel in their food offerings, but they also provide a pet-friendly enclosed garden patio where you can enjoy your meal in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. The efficient and friendly service adds to the overall enjoyable dining experience.Whether you're a local or just visiting Roanoke, Scrambled Brunch is a must-try for brunch lovers. Their no-frills classics and generous portions will leave you satisfied and ready to tackle the day ahead. So gather your friends and head on over to Scrambled Brunch for a delicious and filling brunch experience.Local Roots BrunchLocal Roots Brunch is a farm-to-table restaurant located in the Historic Grandin District of Roanoke. With its commitment to using fresh and locally sourced ingredients, the menu at Local Roots offers visually appealing dishes that are as delightful to look at as they're to taste.From the brunch noodle bowl with house noodles and smoked lamb to the infusion of fresh daikon radish and kimchi, Local Roots Brunch is a true culinary experience that showcases the best of the local food scene.Visually Appealing DishesWe were delighted by the visually appealing dishes at Local Roots Brunch, with their small but focused menu and infusion of fresh daikon radish and kimchi.The brunch noodle bowl, made with house noodles and smoked lamb, was a sight to behold. The vibrant colors of the radish and kimchi added a pop to the bowl, while the tender and flavorful smoked lamb provided a satisfying protein element. Each ingredient was thoughtfully arranged, showcasing the chef's attention to detail.The presentation of the dishes not only pleased our eyes but also heightened our anticipation for the flavors to come. It was clear that Local Roots Brunch takes great care in creating dishes that aren't only visually appealing but also bursting with fresh and locally sourced ingredients.Fresh and Locally SourcedThere are several other brunch spots in Roanoke that offer fresh and locally sourced ingredients. Some notable options include Bread Crafts Brunch and The Regency Room Brunch. However, let me tell you about a few other places that prioritize fresh and local ingredients in their brunch menus.Local Roots Brunch: This farm-to-table restaurant in the Historic Grandin District is a must-visit for those seeking a brunch experience that celebrates local flavors. Their small but focused menu features visually appealing dishes like a brunch noodle bowl with house-made noodles and smoked lamb, infused with fresh daikon radish and kimchi.Wildflour Brunch: This cafe caters to vegans, omnivores, and meat lovers alike, with plenty of gluten-free options. Their consistently excellent service ensures a delightful brunch experience, while dishes like the street taco, cashew chicken salad, and Santa Fe burger showcase the best of fresh and locally sourced ingredients.Mac and Bobs Restaurant Brunch: With a simple menu that boasts superb flavors, generous portions, and stellar service, this spot is a favorite among locals. They prioritize freshness in their dishes, such as their French onion soup made with caramelized onions and beef stock. Their Sunday brunch from 10:00 AM to 02:00 PM isn't to be missed.Wildflour BrunchWildflour Brunch offers a variety of options for vegans, omnivores, and meat lovers, with plenty of gluten-free choices to indulge in. Located in Roanoke, Virginia, this charming cafe has become a popular spot for locals and visitors alike. As soon as you step inside, you're greeted by a warm and inviting atmosphere. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the sound of sizzling bacon fills the air.The menu at Wildflour Brunch is diverse and caters to all taste preferences. For vegans, there are options like the street taco made with plant-based protein and topped with fresh salsa. Omnivores can enjoy classics like the cashew chicken salad, which is packed with flavor and texture. And for meat lovers, the Santa Fe burger is a must-try, with its juicy beef patty, melted cheese, and tangy chipotle sauce.One of the highlights of Wildflour Brunch is their dedication to accommodating gluten-free diners. From fluffy pancakes to savory sandwiches, there are plenty of gluten-free options to choose from. The staff is knowledgeable about dietary restrictions and can help guide you through the menu to find the perfect dish.In addition to the delicious food, Wildflour Brunch is known for its consistently excellent service. The staff is friendly, attentive, and always willing to go the extra mile to ensure a memorable dining experience. And with reasonable rates, brunch at Wildflour isn't only delicious but also affordable.Whether you're a vegan, omnivore, or meat lover, Wildflour Brunch has something for everyone. With their diverse menu and dedication to accommodating dietary needs, it's no wonder why this cafe has become a favorite brunch spot in Roanoke. So, if you're looking for a delicious and satisfying brunch experience, look no further than Wildflour Brunch.Our Daily Bread BrunchWhile Our Daily Bread Brunch offers a French-inspired menu with exquisite pastries and hearty favorites, we can also enjoy the cozy outdoor seating and a large mug of coffee with free refills. The ambiance at Our Daily Bread Brunch is warm and inviting, with a charming French bistro feel. The aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries fills the air, creating a comforting and inviting atmosphere.The French toast at Our Daily Bread Brunch is a must-try. Served crispy on the outside and custardy on the inside, it's topped with fresh berries for a burst of sweetness. Each bite is a delightful combination of textures and flavors that will leave you craving more.The staff at Our Daily Bread Brunch is always friendly and attentive, providing excellent service that enhances the overall dining experience. Whether you have questions about the menu or need a refill on your coffee, they're always there to assist you with a smile.The outdoor seating at Our Daily Bread Brunch is perfect for enjoying a leisurely brunch on a sunny day. Surrounded by lush greenery and bathed in natural light, it offers a peaceful and serene setting to savor your meal. It's the ideal spot to relax, unwind, and enjoy the beauty of nature while indulging in delicious food.At Our Daily Bread Brunch, you can expect a delightful dining experience that combines French culinary traditions with a cozy and welcoming atmosphere.Evies Bistro and Bakery BrunchEvies Bistro and Bakery Brunch is a delightful spot in Historic Old Southwest District known for their scratch-made baked goodies and globally-influenced American cuisine. The airy, casual, and chic atmosphere is enhanced by the local art that adorns the walls.Guests can indulge in unique bakery offerings like the Dragon's Tooth sandwich with roasted peppers and eggplant, as well as creative options like the black bean burrito.Unique Bakery OfferingsWe should definitely try the unique bakery offerings at the brunch spot in the Historic Old Southwest District. The bakery is known for its mouth-watering pastries, artisanal breads, and delectable desserts.Here are three reasons why you should indulge in these delightful treats:The pastries are a work of art. Each one is carefully crafted with precision and attention to detail. From flaky croissants to decadent chocolate eclairs, every bite is a taste of heaven.The artisanal breads are a must-try. Made with natural ingredients and baked to perfection, they've a crispy crust and a soft, fluffy interior. Whether you prefer a classic baguette or a unique flavor like rosemary olive, there's something for everyone.The desserts are simply irresistible. From creamy cheesecakes to rich chocolate tarts, these sweet treats will satisfy any sweet tooth. Don't miss out on the chance to indulge in these delectable delights.Now, let's move on to the next section and explore the globally-inspired brunch dishes offered at this spot.Globally-Inspired Brunch DishesI can't wait to try the globally-inspired brunch dishes at this spot; they sound absolutely delicious! From the table below, it's clear that there are several brunch spots in Roanoke that offer a diverse range of cuisines.Each restaurant has its own unique style and flavors, making it an exciting culinary adventure for brunch lovers. Whether you're in the mood for European-style hard-crusted bread with natural ingredients, French-inspired pastries and hearty brunch favorites, or globally-influenced American food and delicious cocktails, there's something for everyone in Roanoke.The variety of options ensures that you can satisfy your cravings for different flavors and cuisines all in one place. So, if you're looking for a brunch experience that takes your taste buds on a journey around the world, Roanoke has got you covered.Now that we've explored the mouth-watering brunch options in Roanoke, it's time to shift our focus to the airy and chic atmosphere that these spots offer.Airy and Chic AtmosphereThe airy and chic atmosphere of Evies Bistro and Bakery Brunch creates a relaxing and stylish ambiance for diners.Soft, natural light filters through the large windows, illuminating the cozy seating areas adorned with trendy furnishings. The combination of modern decor and rustic elements, such as exposed brick walls and reclaimed wood accents, adds a touch of warmth and character to the space.The sound of gentle chatter and soft music fills the air, creating a pleasant background noise that enhances the dining experience.Local artwork adorns the walls, showcasing the talent and creativity of the community.Overall, the ambiance at Evies Bistro and Bakery Brunch is inviting and sophisticated, making it the perfect place to enjoy a delicious meal in a relaxed and stylish setting.Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat Are the Prices for Brunch at Bread Crafts, the Regency Room, Scrambled, Local Roots, Wildflour, Our Daily Bread, and Evies Bistro and Bakery?The prices for brunch at Bread Crafts, The Regency Room, Scrambled, Local Roots, Wildflour, Our Daily Bread, and Evies Bistro and Bakery range from moderate to slightly upscale.Each establishment offers unique dishes made with quality ingredients.Bread Crafts and Scrambled have more affordable options, while The Regency Room and Evies Bistro and Bakery tend to be on the pricier side. Local Roots and Wildflour fall somewhere in between.Our Daily Bread offers a French-inspired brunch experience, and prices are reasonable.Are Reservations Required for Brunch at Any of These Establishments?Reservations are required for brunch at some of these establishments. It's always a good idea to call ahead and secure a table, especially for popular spots like The Regency Room and Local Roots. They tend to fill up quickly, so making a reservation ensures that you won't have to wait too long to enjoy your delicious brunch.Other places, like Bread Crafts and Our Daily Bread, may not require reservations, but it's still a good idea to check ahead, just in case.Do Any of These Brunch Spots Offer Vegetarian or Vegan Options?Yes, some of these brunch spots do offer vegetarian or vegan options. They understand the importance of catering to different dietary preferences, so you can still enjoy a delicious brunch even if you don't eat meat or animal products.From cafes with plenty of gluten-free options to farm-to-table restaurants with visually appealing dishes, there are choices available for vegans and vegetarians alike.Are There Any Gluten-Free Options Available at These Brunch Places?There are several brunch spots in Roanoke that offer gluten-free options. From Bread Crafts Brunch to Wildflour Brunch, you can find plenty of choices for gluten-sensitive diners. Enjoy dishes like gluten-free street tacos, cashew chicken salad, and even a Santa Fe burger.Local Roots Brunch also caters to gluten-free diets with visually appealing dishes made from fresh, locally sourced ingredients. So, whether you're a vegan, omnivore, or meat lover, you can still indulge in a delicious gluten-free brunch in Roanoke.Can You Bring Your Dog to Any of These Brunch Locations?Yes, you can bring your dog to some of the brunch locations in Roanoke.Tucos Taqueria Garaje has a dog-friendly patio where you can enjoy Latin American flavors and inventive spirits.Evies Bistro and Bakery also welcomes dogs in their airy and chic spot with globally-influenced American food.Scrambled Brunch has a pet-friendly enclosed garden patio, perfect for enjoying their generous portions of tasty classics.ConclusionSo whether you're a fan of classic brunch dishes or looking to try something new and innovative, Roanoke, Virginia has the perfect brunch spot for you.With a variety of options available for every taste and dietary preference, you can indulge in delicious French pastries, hearty brunch favorites, or globally inspired cuisine made with locally sourced ingredients.With excellent service, reasonable prices, and pet-friendly patios, these brunch spots offer the perfect ambiance for a relaxing and satisfying meal.Embark on a culinary adventure and discover the best brunch in Roanoke. submitted by Sweet-Count2557 to worldkidstravel [link] [comments] |
2024.06.04 15:55 greg0525 Tranquil Transects
On a day in august in 2022, my wife and I had a lovely weekend in Sopron (Hungary)
Hotel Siesta was a great place to stay. It was located near a tranquil forest of firs that provided a peaceful atmosphere. The rooms were cosy and comfortable, but there weren’t enough electrical outlets in the walls. That was the only downside.
The wellness area was fantastic; it was practically empty since we had gone there early in the morning. They had the perfect amenities: a jacuzzi and a large swimming pool. We got to enjoy it without other people around.
We spent some time in the city centre, and I was impressed by how much was crammed into such a small area. An old wall, probably part of an ancient castle, towered over the market square. The small streets had a maze-like quality and were lined with restaurants and cafes. It was a great place to explore.
As I stood in the main square of Sopron, surrounded by the ancient tower, I felt the presence of history mingling with modern life. It was the 20th of August, and I remember all the vendors in the street joyfully peddling their wares, creating a pleasant ambience.
All in all, we could experience how historical Sopron is.
From this weekend getaway in Sopron, I learned to appreciate the blend of history and modernity in a quaint city setting. Staying at Hotel Siesta provided a comfortable retreat near the serene forest, although the lack of electrical outlets was a minor inconvenience.
Exploring the city center revealed the richness of Sopron's history, with ancient walls towering over the bustling market square and labyrinthine streets lined with charming eateries. Standing amidst this historical backdrop on the 20th of August, I felt immersed in the vibrant atmosphere as vendors joyfully showcased their goods.
The wellness area at the hotel offered a peaceful respite, with amenities like the jacuzzi and swimming pool providing relaxation without the crowds. Overall, this experience allowed me to appreciate the historical significance and cultural richness of Sopron while enjoying moments of tranquility and exploration with my wife.
submitted by greg0525 to dailygains [link] [comments]
Hotel Siesta was a great place to stay. It was located near a tranquil forest of firs that provided a peaceful atmosphere. The rooms were cosy and comfortable, but there weren’t enough electrical outlets in the walls. That was the only downside.
The wellness area was fantastic; it was practically empty since we had gone there early in the morning. They had the perfect amenities: a jacuzzi and a large swimming pool. We got to enjoy it without other people around.
We spent some time in the city centre, and I was impressed by how much was crammed into such a small area. An old wall, probably part of an ancient castle, towered over the market square. The small streets had a maze-like quality and were lined with restaurants and cafes. It was a great place to explore.
As I stood in the main square of Sopron, surrounded by the ancient tower, I felt the presence of history mingling with modern life. It was the 20th of August, and I remember all the vendors in the street joyfully peddling their wares, creating a pleasant ambience.
All in all, we could experience how historical Sopron is.
From this weekend getaway in Sopron, I learned to appreciate the blend of history and modernity in a quaint city setting. Staying at Hotel Siesta provided a comfortable retreat near the serene forest, although the lack of electrical outlets was a minor inconvenience.
Exploring the city center revealed the richness of Sopron's history, with ancient walls towering over the bustling market square and labyrinthine streets lined with charming eateries. Standing amidst this historical backdrop on the 20th of August, I felt immersed in the vibrant atmosphere as vendors joyfully showcased their goods.
The wellness area at the hotel offered a peaceful respite, with amenities like the jacuzzi and swimming pool providing relaxation without the crowds. Overall, this experience allowed me to appreciate the historical significance and cultural richness of Sopron while enjoying moments of tranquility and exploration with my wife.
2024.06.04 15:53 ThisJourneyIsMid_ I finally wrote a post-PL story I'd been telling myself I should write for ages (spoilers for PL and Edgerunners)
I had this story idea ages ago, and kept on telling myself I should write it. I finally sat down and banged out what I'd consider the beginning. idk what to do with it, so I figured I'd post it here and see what people think. I'm open to criticism, roasting, or whatever. (Or being told it doesn't belong here - I didn't see a tag that really fit this.) It canonizes male V and saving Songbird because, well, because I wanted to.
Even now, she perceived in bursts of noise and light. She was aware of being lifted onto a stretcher, a mask being fitted over her face, but couldn't even see who was doing the fitting. Lights in the ceiling as she was wheeled down corridors and hallways. A sterile voice over loudspeakers, but not enough focus to make out the words. The smell, though. There was something unique about the smell, a scent she had no frame of reference for. I guess this is what the moon smells like. The fully articulated thought floated along the shattered waves of her consciousness.
Lost time. A feeling of motion. Elevator? So Mi fought with consciousness, willing with whatever remains of energy she had to see, to perceive anything about her surroundings. She was beyond feeling helpless. She was close enough to death that the thought of being betrayed held no sway over here; she was already dead. The only question was if she might be resurrected. Maybe resurrection wasn't enough by now.
Had she passed out again? The room smelled like a clinic. The mask was off. So Mi summoned a reserve of strength to turn her head. Her visions swam in and out of focus. Medical equipment, scanners. And a person. White lab coat worn loosely, falling off their shoulders. A technician? A doctor? Strangely, So Mi couldn't take her eyes off of their hair. It was the most beautiful techhair So Mi had ever seen, a short inverted bob rainbow wave of light pastels. She told herself there were better things to think about while knocking on death's door, but couldn't take her eyes off the ethereal hair as its owner turned towards her.
"Are you still with us?" The voice was feminine, quiet enough to be just on the edge of what So Mi could hear. She tried to answer, but couldn't get sounds out of her broken body. She blinked, then blinked again, finding it the only thing she could do to give a sign of life. Approaching, Techhair reached down, touching her face. So Mi had never been more aware that her face was artificial plate, she could feel, but it felt like someone other than her was being touched, not her.
"It's ok, you don't need to do that." So Mi stopped the blinking. Techhair looked into her eyes, then let go. So Mi wondered what she saw there. Techhair moved back to the terminals, touching something on the screens. So Mi heard a rising mechanical hum.
"I'm going to start prepping you for surgery now." Techhair moved in and out of So Mi's swimming vision. So Mi felt a bit of panic. Her body was basically a machine at this point. The only thing that practically separated her from a Full Body Conversion, or someone who was only a brain in a machine, was that some of her internal organs were still housed in her mechanical torso, along with part of her original bio in her skull. Her original body had been wasted part by part over her trips beyond the Blackwall, polluted by rogue code from the Krash that knew how to waste both virtual and biological life. The deal she had cut had been to try to wean her back off the cyber, to get her more of her meat back. Usually switching out chrome for flesh was simple enough for a five eddie ripperdoc in a Night City back alley. So Mi was different, veteran of a dozen trips to where no netrunner was supposed to have returned from. Simply reattaching cloned limbs wouldn't work. Everything would be rejected. She would die as surely as she would laying on the table now. She had to say something. The effort made her black out more than once, but she would speak.
"A..a..advanced d..d..degeneration... digital-biocorruption..." So Mi wheezed at the effort, at least as much as her artificial respiratory system allowed. Techhair merely nodded. So Mi almost felt angry, but didn't have enough in her. If she died on the table here because of this lackey's ignorance, then so be it. A fitting end at the terminal side of a moonshot at survival. You could only beat the odds so many times.
Techhair returned to the stretcher, pulling So Mi's personal link from her hand, and connecting it to a stand next to her. A holographic display turned on. So Mi could see a human silhouette, inverted to her view from the stretcher. They were running diagnostics based on her biomonitor, but who knew how corrupted it was. Entire sectors of the silhouette were red, telling a story she already knew. Her body, her military-grade shell, was shutting itself down. The woman touched a few places on the holo, then began busying herself.
"You don't need to stay awake. It's ok if you drift off." How was Techhair so... unmoved? It was something to wonder about as she felt herself slipping towards unconsciousness against her will. So Mi fought with everything she had, told herself that she must watch over, must make sure they knew what they were doing, but she was beyond all reserves of strength by now. Her vision blurred again. Breathing was becoming harder. Her eyes fluttered closed, first for a second, then again and again, each time taking longer for them to open until she at long last lost the battle to force them open, fairly certain they would never open again.
She cast the thought out of her mind, willing herself to move an arm. She felt every fiber of the medical sheet as it rolled off. Moving the limb in front of her, enough light came through the window for her to see it. She could see the impressions left in the flesh from where it had rested awkwardly on the edge of whatever bed she was in. Slowly, almost not daring to believe, she reached towards her face, feeling the soft give of the skin, the uneven texture of the bones underneath that only natural could provide.
So Mi felt tears in her eyes, the heat trickling down her face. Metal faceplates registered touch, but most artificial faceplate recipients didn't even have tear ducts, and even if they did, they weren't sensitive enough for tears. She felt herself rolling to her side without thinking, her legs pulling up towards her chest as she started sobbing, crying herself back to sleep in the dark.
Getting back into flesh was... shocking. Breathing felt so much more natural. She wondered how much of her was now flesh. Her eyes were still cyber, that much was clear. She could still pull up her HUD, though trying to read anything was a sure way to make her fall back into torpor. She knew she was being drugged, likely to aid her body into reaccepting her limbs and organs.
Having been as cyber as she had been, So Mi had always been a steady diet of cutting-edge military grounders, pharmaceuticals created to stave off the otherwise inevitable decline towards psychosis. Those took their toll alongside the effects of the chrome itself, disassociation, loss of feeling, an inability to feel remorse. Emotions long since gone washed back over her. So Mi felt blessed by their return, but also overwhelmed.
There is so much to think about, so much to remember, but it's hard to hold a thought without collapsing. How she got here, the people she had to betray, the one person who had stayed with her throughout, well past when he had anything to gain. Was Reed still alive? Would Myers ever stop pursuing her? The thoughts followed her as she drifted in and out of sleep. Somehow, she had made it to wherever she was now.
Solitude was her only companion. She assumed they, whoever they were, were tending to her, but apparently only when she wasn't awake. So Mi didn't mind the privacy. She barely tried moving, sufficing only to roll one way or the other to get comfortable or stretching, feeling like she was indulging in a forbidden luxury every time she did. Muscle stimulation would prevent atrophy, and she didn't even want to get out of the bed. It was her and her thoughts, and that was enough to keep her engaged with what small capacity she had.
"They asked me to come down and talk to you." "Where am I?" It's the first time So Mi has talked since the operation and her own voice startles her as she hears it. It's the same voice as always, but it feels different. "You don't like the Amazon?" The woman makes a hand motion, and So Mi realizes that it was never a window at all. It was a screen. Of course it was. So Mi blushes as the sound of rain fades away to the quiet landscape of the moon, and the sensation is exquisite. "Don't feel bad. You're high as a satellite. Standard reintegration med regimen, but dialed up to eleven." The woman's voice is quiet, somehow soft and intense at the same time.
All of the sudden, So Mi is bursting with questions, and can't figure out which to ask first. Did V also come to Luna? If he did, was someone able to help him with the engram he had stuck in his head? Was the operation a success? What did she owe out of this devil's bargain?
Techhair (So Mi vaguely recalled naming her that, before) bent down, adjusting something underneath the bed, maybe one of the tubes running into her. As she stood, she put a hand on So Mi's shoulder. "Don't worry. There will be time for questions, the doctors say you should focus on resting for now."
"How did they handle the RABID-based corruption?" There are other questions that are more important, but it's easier to ask something technical. "Standard DNA-edit sector repair. Search for affected cells and destroy." "They would have needed to find not only every drone cell, they would have also needed to find any cell hiding the factories." The malicious code from beyond the Blackwall had figured out how to hurt flesh. It would edit DNA in cells into what were called factories and drones. The drones did the damage, but the factories made the drones. There were ways to pick off drones when they started doing damage, but factories looked largely like regular cells. They could also hide in cyberware, making it even harder to track them down. So Mi knew all this definitively. Aside from plaguing her body, she had weaponized the code at President Rosalin Myers' behest. "We're pretty well equipped out here, don't worry about it." Equipment was only a part of it. It would need a top-tier netrunner to have the speed to find factories and shut them down before they could self-replicate sleepers that would evade detection. "You haven't been feeling any discomfort that might be Blackwall corruption, have you?" "Would I even be able to feel it?" "You'd feel it." That was true. So Mi was sure that no drug could take away the pain of Blackwall corruption. An awkward silence settled, and So Mi got the feeling that Techhair was waiting to see if she had any questions, but wasn't the sort to converse unnecessarily. So Mi felt a wave of exhaustion coming, and suddenly didn't feel like asking anything important, about V, Reed, or anything that had happened in NCX, let alone about the future. "What are you? Medical technician?" Techhair smiles, as if something about that is funny, and even through the haze So Mi knows she had guessed wrong. Maybe just an intern? The woman looks young, but somehow just doesn't look like she should be that low on the ladder. "Something like that." They both know it's a lie, but it isn't the time to press for an answer.
Techhair starts moving towards the door, and So Mi got the distinct feeling that asking her about herself made her decide she'd been there for long enough. Definitely the sort who enjoys being an enigma. The exhaustion was settling in, even a brief conversation straining her. So Mi wants something more, something other than just technical details about how they managed to salvage her broken life from the jaws of death once more. "Do you at least have a name?" The woman had almost made it out the door. So Mi's words stopped her. She turned to face So Mi, and for a second, she was just beautiful. She contemplated how much to say. Finally, she said one word before walking out. "Lucy."
submitted by ThisJourneyIsMid_ to LowSodiumCyberpunk [link] [comments]
1
So Mi could not even remember the trip to Luna. Years of looking up at the sky and wondering what it would be like to have made it, to be able casually riding up to the stars. Now, she had done it, but the memories, if she had even been conscious at all, were locked away from her.Even now, she perceived in bursts of noise and light. She was aware of being lifted onto a stretcher, a mask being fitted over her face, but couldn't even see who was doing the fitting. Lights in the ceiling as she was wheeled down corridors and hallways. A sterile voice over loudspeakers, but not enough focus to make out the words. The smell, though. There was something unique about the smell, a scent she had no frame of reference for. I guess this is what the moon smells like. The fully articulated thought floated along the shattered waves of her consciousness.
Lost time. A feeling of motion. Elevator? So Mi fought with consciousness, willing with whatever remains of energy she had to see, to perceive anything about her surroundings. She was beyond feeling helpless. She was close enough to death that the thought of being betrayed held no sway over here; she was already dead. The only question was if she might be resurrected. Maybe resurrection wasn't enough by now.
Had she passed out again? The room smelled like a clinic. The mask was off. So Mi summoned a reserve of strength to turn her head. Her visions swam in and out of focus. Medical equipment, scanners. And a person. White lab coat worn loosely, falling off their shoulders. A technician? A doctor? Strangely, So Mi couldn't take her eyes off of their hair. It was the most beautiful techhair So Mi had ever seen, a short inverted bob rainbow wave of light pastels. She told herself there were better things to think about while knocking on death's door, but couldn't take her eyes off the ethereal hair as its owner turned towards her.
"Are you still with us?" The voice was feminine, quiet enough to be just on the edge of what So Mi could hear. She tried to answer, but couldn't get sounds out of her broken body. She blinked, then blinked again, finding it the only thing she could do to give a sign of life. Approaching, Techhair reached down, touching her face. So Mi had never been more aware that her face was artificial plate, she could feel, but it felt like someone other than her was being touched, not her.
"It's ok, you don't need to do that." So Mi stopped the blinking. Techhair looked into her eyes, then let go. So Mi wondered what she saw there. Techhair moved back to the terminals, touching something on the screens. So Mi heard a rising mechanical hum.
"I'm going to start prepping you for surgery now." Techhair moved in and out of So Mi's swimming vision. So Mi felt a bit of panic. Her body was basically a machine at this point. The only thing that practically separated her from a Full Body Conversion, or someone who was only a brain in a machine, was that some of her internal organs were still housed in her mechanical torso, along with part of her original bio in her skull. Her original body had been wasted part by part over her trips beyond the Blackwall, polluted by rogue code from the Krash that knew how to waste both virtual and biological life. The deal she had cut had been to try to wean her back off the cyber, to get her more of her meat back. Usually switching out chrome for flesh was simple enough for a five eddie ripperdoc in a Night City back alley. So Mi was different, veteran of a dozen trips to where no netrunner was supposed to have returned from. Simply reattaching cloned limbs wouldn't work. Everything would be rejected. She would die as surely as she would laying on the table now. She had to say something. The effort made her black out more than once, but she would speak.
"A..a..advanced d..d..degeneration... digital-biocorruption..." So Mi wheezed at the effort, at least as much as her artificial respiratory system allowed. Techhair merely nodded. So Mi almost felt angry, but didn't have enough in her. If she died on the table here because of this lackey's ignorance, then so be it. A fitting end at the terminal side of a moonshot at survival. You could only beat the odds so many times.
Techhair returned to the stretcher, pulling So Mi's personal link from her hand, and connecting it to a stand next to her. A holographic display turned on. So Mi could see a human silhouette, inverted to her view from the stretcher. They were running diagnostics based on her biomonitor, but who knew how corrupted it was. Entire sectors of the silhouette were red, telling a story she already knew. Her body, her military-grade shell, was shutting itself down. The woman touched a few places on the holo, then began busying herself.
"You don't need to stay awake. It's ok if you drift off." How was Techhair so... unmoved? It was something to wonder about as she felt herself slipping towards unconsciousness against her will. So Mi fought with everything she had, told herself that she must watch over, must make sure they knew what they were doing, but she was beyond all reserves of strength by now. Her vision blurred again. Breathing was becoming harder. Her eyes fluttered closed, first for a second, then again and again, each time taking longer for them to open until she at long last lost the battle to force them open, fairly certain they would never open again.
2
The first thing she noticed was the thin layer of sweat between her head and the pillow. Chrome didn't sweat, at least not without special extensions specifically designed to. It felt like nostalgia and childhood, a time before she had become more metal than person. Her eyes slowly opened. Wherever she was, it was dark, the only light coming from a window, rain pattering against it. So Mi didn't know what that meant. She was supposed to be on Luna, and it didn't rain on the moon. Had she not ever made it there?She cast the thought out of her mind, willing herself to move an arm. She felt every fiber of the medical sheet as it rolled off. Moving the limb in front of her, enough light came through the window for her to see it. She could see the impressions left in the flesh from where it had rested awkwardly on the edge of whatever bed she was in. Slowly, almost not daring to believe, she reached towards her face, feeling the soft give of the skin, the uneven texture of the bones underneath that only natural could provide.
So Mi felt tears in her eyes, the heat trickling down her face. Metal faceplates registered touch, but most artificial faceplate recipients didn't even have tear ducts, and even if they did, they weren't sensitive enough for tears. She felt herself rolling to her side without thinking, her legs pulling up towards her chest as she started sobbing, crying herself back to sleep in the dark.
3
There was no concept of time. Sometimes the room was light and sometimes dark. The window showed her a forest, and rain was common. There were wires and tubes leading from her body to under the bed. She was never conscious for long.Getting back into flesh was... shocking. Breathing felt so much more natural. She wondered how much of her was now flesh. Her eyes were still cyber, that much was clear. She could still pull up her HUD, though trying to read anything was a sure way to make her fall back into torpor. She knew she was being drugged, likely to aid her body into reaccepting her limbs and organs.
Having been as cyber as she had been, So Mi had always been a steady diet of cutting-edge military grounders, pharmaceuticals created to stave off the otherwise inevitable decline towards psychosis. Those took their toll alongside the effects of the chrome itself, disassociation, loss of feeling, an inability to feel remorse. Emotions long since gone washed back over her. So Mi felt blessed by their return, but also overwhelmed.
There is so much to think about, so much to remember, but it's hard to hold a thought without collapsing. How she got here, the people she had to betray, the one person who had stayed with her throughout, well past when he had anything to gain. Was Reed still alive? Would Myers ever stop pursuing her? The thoughts followed her as she drifted in and out of sleep. Somehow, she had made it to wherever she was now.
Solitude was her only companion. She assumed they, whoever they were, were tending to her, but apparently only when she wasn't awake. So Mi didn't mind the privacy. She barely tried moving, sufficing only to roll one way or the other to get comfortable or stretching, feeling like she was indulging in a forbidden luxury every time she did. Muscle stimulation would prevent atrophy, and she didn't even want to get out of the bed. It was her and her thoughts, and that was enough to keep her engaged with what small capacity she had.
# 4
A smell of cigarettes reminds her of V again. The door is so silent that So Mi doesn't hear it open at all, only catches a glimpse out of the corner of her eye. A woman who at least appears to be the same age as her walks in casually, noticing after a minute that So Mi is awake. If the woman is surprised, she doesn't show it. So Mi struggles to remember if she knows the interloper until she recognizes the hair, the smartly-cut bob with the palette of light pink and violet. Her lab coat still slouching down her arms, not quite reaching her shoulders. The technician who had prepared her for the procedure. Whoever she is, she busies herself checking some details on the bed's side panel before she talks."They asked me to come down and talk to you." "Where am I?" It's the first time So Mi has talked since the operation and her own voice startles her as she hears it. It's the same voice as always, but it feels different. "You don't like the Amazon?" The woman makes a hand motion, and So Mi realizes that it was never a window at all. It was a screen. Of course it was. So Mi blushes as the sound of rain fades away to the quiet landscape of the moon, and the sensation is exquisite. "Don't feel bad. You're high as a satellite. Standard reintegration med regimen, but dialed up to eleven." The woman's voice is quiet, somehow soft and intense at the same time.
All of the sudden, So Mi is bursting with questions, and can't figure out which to ask first. Did V also come to Luna? If he did, was someone able to help him with the engram he had stuck in his head? Was the operation a success? What did she owe out of this devil's bargain?
Techhair (So Mi vaguely recalled naming her that, before) bent down, adjusting something underneath the bed, maybe one of the tubes running into her. As she stood, she put a hand on So Mi's shoulder. "Don't worry. There will be time for questions, the doctors say you should focus on resting for now."
"How did they handle the RABID-based corruption?" There are other questions that are more important, but it's easier to ask something technical. "Standard DNA-edit sector repair. Search for affected cells and destroy." "They would have needed to find not only every drone cell, they would have also needed to find any cell hiding the factories." The malicious code from beyond the Blackwall had figured out how to hurt flesh. It would edit DNA in cells into what were called factories and drones. The drones did the damage, but the factories made the drones. There were ways to pick off drones when they started doing damage, but factories looked largely like regular cells. They could also hide in cyberware, making it even harder to track them down. So Mi knew all this definitively. Aside from plaguing her body, she had weaponized the code at President Rosalin Myers' behest. "We're pretty well equipped out here, don't worry about it." Equipment was only a part of it. It would need a top-tier netrunner to have the speed to find factories and shut them down before they could self-replicate sleepers that would evade detection. "You haven't been feeling any discomfort that might be Blackwall corruption, have you?" "Would I even be able to feel it?" "You'd feel it." That was true. So Mi was sure that no drug could take away the pain of Blackwall corruption. An awkward silence settled, and So Mi got the feeling that Techhair was waiting to see if she had any questions, but wasn't the sort to converse unnecessarily. So Mi felt a wave of exhaustion coming, and suddenly didn't feel like asking anything important, about V, Reed, or anything that had happened in NCX, let alone about the future. "What are you? Medical technician?" Techhair smiles, as if something about that is funny, and even through the haze So Mi knows she had guessed wrong. Maybe just an intern? The woman looks young, but somehow just doesn't look like she should be that low on the ladder. "Something like that." They both know it's a lie, but it isn't the time to press for an answer.
Techhair starts moving towards the door, and So Mi got the distinct feeling that asking her about herself made her decide she'd been there for long enough. Definitely the sort who enjoys being an enigma. The exhaustion was settling in, even a brief conversation straining her. So Mi wants something more, something other than just technical details about how they managed to salvage her broken life from the jaws of death once more. "Do you at least have a name?" The woman had almost made it out the door. So Mi's words stopped her. She turned to face So Mi, and for a second, she was just beautiful. She contemplated how much to say. Finally, she said one word before walking out. "Lucy."
2024.06.04 15:52 rmgvc Prehistoric 2009 PC is forced to evolve to keep running MMORPGs! D: [Warning: yapping!]
TL;DR: 600-800€ new build, near France, MMO gaming, for 1366x768 60hz (or 1080p later), Lowest graphics, 2TB SSD, 32GB RAM, may run 2 games at once, wired, no monitor needed. Prefer: silent stealthy black case, some SATA ports and room for future HDDs, maybe built around a used RX 6600/580 video card.
Hello, while making this I rambled a lot in order to be "as specific as possible" and wrote many questions since I myself am unsure what to expect for what budget. I've stuck with the same potato PC and tunnel-visioned two games for a decade, WoW and LoL, so I've never experienced the modern standard for "acceptable" in metrics such as FPS for newer games, quality, resolution, quietness and storage. Perhaps it will be jarring to read, perhaps it breaks the monotony of robotic fast food requests, I don't know, that's why I wrote that TL;DR. The essay is just here if you need more context. Hopefully it helps. Either way I thank you for your time.
I'll highlight the most relevant information if you want to skim through. And I'll link pages to system requirements of each game, and PC parts I'm considering buying.
1. New build or upgrade?
New. Mine is beyond saving.
2. Existing parts/monitors to reuse? (List with models/links)
Just my 1366x768p 60hz monitor for now.
More important to this list, I'm considering buying either one of these "refurbished" video cards from eBay, they both have a 1-year warranty, free shipping in four days straight from my country, and the seller has overwhelmingly positive reviews on hundreds of them. Do you think any of those is good deal? AMD RX 6600 Sapphire Pulse 8GB, 187€ https://www.ebay.fitm/134948507775 or AMD RX 580 Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB, 107€ https://www.ebay.fitm/134663065775 if 6600 is overkill. I read that 580 consumes more, but I'm clueless with math. How many hours would it take to make 580 more expensive than 6600 in the long run?
Right now, technically, I'm reusing my 1366x768 60hz monitor ViewSonic VA1913wm. It has a blue VGA port from an ancient civilization, will that be a problem or can I just find an adapter for it? But if possible I'd like to build around a future 1920x1080 monitor in case mine dies. Why I believe it may die [yapping]:in March it's been acting creepy for the first time in 14 years, making a whiny buzzing noise and flickering brightness like it's a horror game, intensified if I kept the brightness high. Somehow it stopped this behavior after one week but instead it's now stuck projecting the default high brightness, ignoring any value I select. Thankfully I can still lower the brightness a bit through the Windows 7 color calibration feature. So for now the monitor has been "tolerable" but definitely not normal. It's still better than having it too dim or flickering and noisy so I dare not mess with the settings again and damage it further.
Later, I'll probably reuse my current SATA SSD for extra storage. Samsung QVO 870 1TB. [yapping] It was an emergency QLC SSD that I bought solely because WoW became unplayable on my HDD in the November 2022 expansion. But now perhaps I could use use a faster SSD(?), and 2 terabytes since most of these games weigh above 100GB and I read it's bad to fill the whole drive. My 500GB HDD split in two partitions has always been the bane of my existence preventing me from trying other games. I'm keeping that SSD in my old PC for now for testing/troubleshooting/backup but I'll probably transfer it to my new build for extra storage once the old PC is no longer needed, it boots from the HDD anyway. Will I need to format that old SSD when transferring it or will I keep my data when I plug it into my new PC?
3. PC purpose? (Gaming, editing, etc. List apps/games)
(Grab a coffee) My main usage is gaming. Typically multiplayer with infinite play time, character customization and fashion, socializing hubs, healer classes, so usually MMORPGs.
List of games I definitely want to play + targeted FPS + play frequency:
To give you an idea of how much garbage quality I was able to endure: in WoW [yapping] I currently average at 15 FPS in dungeons (5 players) 10 FPS in raids (25 players), all that at 33% render scale (so effectively 453x256 resolution), down to negative FPS with Discord open. It was painful but still enough to earn the main limited-time end-game rewards every season (Elite PVP set and Mythic+ dungeon portals). I've haven't seen a stable 60 FPS in years, outside of chill solo questing in old areas. So I reckon I'll be okay with at least 30+ FPS in raids and 40-60 in smaller group content, with only Projected Textures enabled and Particle Density on Good+ to dodge boss abilities easier.
I want to sometimes run two games at once, hence why I'm aiming for at least 32 GB RAM despite most MMO games requiring 8-16. Obviously I don't expect optimal performances when running two games at once. The reasoning is that those games rely a lot on doing nothing, waiting for queues, rare spawns, auto-play, and looking up guides on a web browser.
I also use Discord often when raiding, it currently uses a ton of my tiny processor. I'd also like the ability to use a soundboard and voice changer in voice chat in the future, without subscribing to Nitro. But I'm unsure if that requires specific hardware; I had a guild mate randomly playing memes like "I am under the water" at good audio quality during raids in 2020 and it was hilarious, he told me I need a sound card(?) for it, whatever that is, so perhaps I'll need a space for that on the motherboard for that unless there is a simple soundboard software nowadays that does this without sounding like it comes from my cheap microphone while my PC fans make noise. Feel free to tell me if you know an alternative to Nitro.
Second daily use: downloading past livestream broadcasts. No crazy hardware involved, just a lot of network and temporary disk writings. The most "editing" I do is just sometimes trimming with LosslessCut. Nerdy breakdown if you're interested: I'd first download a temporary 160p30 version of the broadcast on an internal HDD with either with TwitchLeecher-DX to preview the desired segments fast with VLC, or with TwitchRecover to load the thumbnail of each 10-second chunk with Windows Explorer. Then on an external HDD I'd download the segments that I want in 1080p60 quality with the Simple Mass Downloader browser extension and delete the temporary 160p files.
I also watch YouTube in a minimized PotPlayer window, it takes far less processor and memory than a browser, but it sometimes downloads a kind of "cache" of the video or something to the Temp folder while playing it, and I don't know how to avoid that, meaning more frequent disk writings. All this yapping to say it's always handy to have SATA ports for internal HDDs, even just 1TB, so I don't waste these daily 1-2 GB of temporary writings on a SSD. Although I've heard nowadays SSDs are more durable (I just don't know to what extent) so I can worry about adding a HDD later. At least I still have my old SATA SSD I can transfer.
4. Purchase country? Near Micro Center? (If not US, list local vendors)
France or near.
People recommend buying from Germany or Spain (amazon.de or amazon.es) so I'm willing to try that. Though I'm unfamiliar on how efficient that is, due to delivery times/fees, and maybe customer support. I'd prefer ordering as soon as possible since there is a grinding limited-time event in FFXIV ending on June 24th.
This website can be used to compare prices between websites or countries. https://dropreference.com/fhome
I rarely shop online. I know some websites for used hardware in France are Leboncoin, Rakuten, eBay. New: Amazon.fr, Fnac, Darty, LDLC, Cdiscount, Topachat. If you can't be bothered optimizing the price and looking in both countries (since it does sound painful), feel free to mention trustworthy German websites so I don't get lost struggling to create accounts in another language and giving my payment information to shady places.
5. Monitors needed? (Number, size, resolution, refresh rate)
No. I'll re-use mine for now.
6. Budget range? (Include tax considerations)
600-800€. I believe France includes VAT in prices.
After simulating a price estimation on PCpartpicker with random cheap parts + the refurbished RX 580, no HDD, no cooler, it seems I'll need at least 600€ due to the expensive 2TB SSD and 32GB RAM. 800€ isn't an absolute maximum, but it's what I paid for my old pre-built PC with a OS license in 2009 and it lasted me a long time (albeit a miserable time), so I'm eager to see to see what that gets me nowadays. Plus it stings to pay a lot for a dying game genre because companies whom I hate force me to upgrade.
The leftover budget perhaps could be spent on: more protection on the power supply so it doesn't damage my storage drives after a power outage, if that is even how it works (and how much would such safety cost?). It's rare but inevitably happens randomly a few times a year, perhaps during bad weather.
Wired.
8. Size/noise constraints?
Noise: preferably silent, but again, as a 2009 animal, I have no clue how controllable noise is. My PC, with only four fans in it (1 blowing out hot air to the back, 1 power supply, 1 processor stock cooler, 1 video card) has always sounded as if someone in the room next to me were blow-drying their hair or vacuum cleaning, so I've never heard what's the standard for "low noise" and how much silence costs, so if it costs a lot more, feel free to suggest several fan models. Of course I'll appreciate if it's silent just because I can hear my PC fans when I occasionally record song covers for fun, but besides that they haven't bothered me because it's not an annoying noise like coil whine, which is a sound I've only learned about recently while reading a review of a RX 6600 PowerFighter video card, I do hope not to hear that. I'm a gamer first so I prioritize cooling.
Size: no constraint, preferably enough to mount a couple HDDs, so better too big than too small.
9. Cololighting preferences?
Preferably: a basic black case, emitting as little visible light as possible in the dark. While it's heartbreaking since I love pink cases and pretty lights, I must blame it on biology; I currently use Cooler Master Elite 341 MicroATX Mid Tower Case and its darkness is the meta because it doesn't reflect light into my weak vampire gamer eyes. It's slightly behind my monitor so I have vision on a third of the side panel all the time.
I'd prefer no window, again regrettable because it's cool to monitor inside the case at a glance, but I fear I'll get blinded by whatever LED lingers inside of it.
I know humans aren't supposed to look at monitors in the dark but that's what works for me. Well lit rooms somehow tire me more, even at school. But here I've referred to myself as many things, human is not one of them. Perhaps I could work around this by placing something DIY in front light sources. So prioritize whatever case and fan has better cooling.
10. Any other specific needs?
Some questions: I've been torn on the debate about the two popular budget processors AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Core i3-12100F. I read that the 4 cores of 12100 are usually better at running a single game than the 6 cores of 3600 (which somehow is astronomically beloved by the PCpartpicker community). However I'll often have another program open such as Discord voice chat, YouTube on PotPlayer, a Chromium browser, watching Twitcth, or even a second game (low quality), so I can't just take the bare minimum for one game. Is that enough multi-tasking to warrant going for 6 cores? Are both of these processors overkill or too weak anyway? I'm just scared because I've only lived with 2 cores and just having the (terribly buggy) idle League of Legends launcher or Discord voice chat open cuts my performances by a lot. So as an ignorant normie who doesn't comprehend the other metrics such as GHz and threads, a 4-core processor doesn't look like a big jump after 14 years, though I could see it be just fine for users who run one game and no other program.
Here's my current system, if an archaeologist is curious what depth of Hell I come from. It was a pre-built PC I ordered for WoW and Aion at a small local tech store for Christmas 2009, for I believe about 800€: OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (they initially gave me 32bit, at least it was a legit license) CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240. Thermal paste: Cooler Master IC Essential E1 (first and last replaced in 2014, yeah I really neglected it to be fair, I kept coping "I'll upgrade soon anyway") GPU: nVidia GeForce 9800 GT Motherboard: M4A78-VM (AM2) (2 RAM ports, max 8GB) RAM: 4GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 401MHz (6-6-6-18) (overprice 80€ replacement from 2015 another overprice DIMM that only lasted a few months, hence why I lost trust in hardware sellers, I don't even know the even a brand name, initially I got 2+1GB Kingston that died after 4 years), HDD: 465GB Seagate ST3500410SV ATA Device (I'm so proud it's still alive) SSD: Samsung 870 QVO 1TB ATA Device (from 2022) PSU: PC ATX LITEON PE-6301-08AP 300W? (cheap replacement from a tech friend when mine broke around 2018). Monitor VA1913wm-4 (1360x768@60Hz)
submitted by rmgvc to buildapcforme [link] [comments]
Hello, while making this I rambled a lot in order to be "as specific as possible" and wrote many questions since I myself am unsure what to expect for what budget. I've stuck with the same potato PC and tunnel-visioned two games for a decade, WoW and LoL, so I've never experienced the modern standard for "acceptable" in metrics such as FPS for newer games, quality, resolution, quietness and storage. Perhaps it will be jarring to read, perhaps it breaks the monotony of robotic fast food requests, I don't know, that's why I wrote that TL;DR. The essay is just here if you need more context. Hopefully it helps. Either way I thank you for your time.
I'll highlight the most relevant information if you want to skim through. And I'll link pages to system requirements of each game, and PC parts I'm considering buying.
1. New build or upgrade?
New. Mine is beyond saving.
2. Existing parts/monitors to reuse? (List with models/links)
Just my 1366x768p 60hz monitor for now.
More important to this list, I'm considering buying either one of these "refurbished" video cards from eBay, they both have a 1-year warranty, free shipping in four days straight from my country, and the seller has overwhelmingly positive reviews on hundreds of them. Do you think any of those is good deal? AMD RX 6600 Sapphire Pulse 8GB, 187€ https://www.ebay.fitm/134948507775 or AMD RX 580 Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB, 107€ https://www.ebay.fitm/134663065775 if 6600 is overkill. I read that 580 consumes more, but I'm clueless with math. How many hours would it take to make 580 more expensive than 6600 in the long run?
Right now, technically, I'm reusing my 1366x768 60hz monitor ViewSonic VA1913wm. It has a blue VGA port from an ancient civilization, will that be a problem or can I just find an adapter for it? But if possible I'd like to build around a future 1920x1080 monitor in case mine dies. Why I believe it may die [yapping]:in March it's been acting creepy for the first time in 14 years, making a whiny buzzing noise and flickering brightness like it's a horror game, intensified if I kept the brightness high. Somehow it stopped this behavior after one week but instead it's now stuck projecting the default high brightness, ignoring any value I select. Thankfully I can still lower the brightness a bit through the Windows 7 color calibration feature. So for now the monitor has been "tolerable" but definitely not normal. It's still better than having it too dim or flickering and noisy so I dare not mess with the settings again and damage it further.
Later, I'll probably reuse my current SATA SSD for extra storage. Samsung QVO 870 1TB. [yapping] It was an emergency QLC SSD that I bought solely because WoW became unplayable on my HDD in the November 2022 expansion. But now perhaps I could use use a faster SSD(?), and 2 terabytes since most of these games weigh above 100GB and I read it's bad to fill the whole drive. My 500GB HDD split in two partitions has always been the bane of my existence preventing me from trying other games. I'm keeping that SSD in my old PC for now for testing/troubleshooting/backup but I'll probably transfer it to my new build for extra storage once the old PC is no longer needed, it boots from the HDD anyway. Will I need to format that old SSD when transferring it or will I keep my data when I plug it into my new PC?
3. PC purpose? (Gaming, editing, etc. List apps/games)
(Grab a coffee) My main usage is gaming. Typically multiplayer with infinite play time, character customization and fashion, socializing hubs, healer classes, so usually MMORPGs.
List of games I definitely want to play + targeted FPS + play frequency:
- World of Warcraft The War Within. Goal: 30+ FPS in raids with Discord voice chat, Low settings. It's my current main game because it's all I can still run (barely). I typically do Heroic raids (15-30 players), Mythic+ dungeons (5), PVP arenas (3V3) and battlegrounds (10v10), only up until I get the limited-time cosmetics for the season then I go play games with more instant gratification like LoL, Skyrim, L4D2. But I hope that with acceptable FPS and fast loading screens I'll enjoy the game again and play it for fun.
- Final Fantasy XIV Online Dawntrail. I don't know my goals yet, I've only managed to complete the 1-50 leveling story quests of the free trial before they removed the DirectX 9 client in March so I couldn't any raid. It's competing to be my new main game thanks to the welcoming community, the housing, fashion, emotes and playable musical instruments.
- League of Legends. Goal: 60 FPS, Very Low. It's my second main game but nowadays I mostly play it out of sunk cost fallacy and Fear Of Missing Out (exactly like WoW) and less for fun, so mainly during limited-time events, no longer chasing ranks. [ranting] They nerfed my only character out of its role since 2015 (lane Nidalee), players are encouraged to mute others, and to blow 500 dollars within one month lest they live with a permanent hole in their favorite character's skin collection. Now you know why it took me a decade to upgrade.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (2016). The GOAT. My PC can't run it but I often come back to original Skyrim (2011) for fun. It's not my main game since it's offline, hence why I'm very eager to try Elder Scrolls Online.
- World of Warcraft Classic Cataclysm. [ranting]You'd think it's redundant to mention this game since: I can run WoW Dragonflight which is visually 13 years more advanced, I ran the first build of the Classic Cataclysm beta in March, this PC physically has seen the original Cataclysm first release in 2010, and my GeForce 9800 GT literally is listed as the minimum GPU for GTA V (and 9800 GTX for BDO). However since the second beta build in March 2024, Classic Cataclysm requires a "3D accelerator card with dual-TMU support," whatever that is, just to launch the game. I bet it's because of the AI up-scaling garbage they added and the usual incompetent WoW Classic Team of 5 interns couldn't think of a way to make it optional for people who don't care about 4K.
- The other known MMORPGs such as Elder Scrolls Online, Black Desert Online, New World, Guild Wars 2. Thankfully MMO is a dying genre, the "popular" ones are a decade old. And graphics can't get more realistic than reality, so eventually my hardware will catch up.
- Grand Theft Auto V Online/FiveM. [yapping] Yes, I've heard the horror stories of rock$tar allowing cheaters to grief, ban, dox and DDOS innocents in every PC public lobbies. So I no longer expect the same welcoming social experience I got in MMORPGs. But the rag doll physics and fashion in GTA have potential for fun. I'm curious to see the chaos for myself, like the missionary who went to Sentinel Island and got skewered by the local tribe. Perhaps there's fun to be found in their Discord community or a private sever in the FiveM client.
- Maybe Sea of Thieves. Maybe Rocket League (60 FPS) if they add a 2V2 solo queue without pre-made parties one day I might reinstall it.
To give you an idea of how much garbage quality I was able to endure: in WoW [yapping] I currently average at 15 FPS in dungeons (5 players) 10 FPS in raids (25 players), all that at 33% render scale (so effectively 453x256 resolution), down to negative FPS with Discord open. It was painful but still enough to earn the main limited-time end-game rewards every season (Elite PVP set and Mythic+ dungeon portals). I've haven't seen a stable 60 FPS in years, outside of chill solo questing in old areas. So I reckon I'll be okay with at least 30+ FPS in raids and 40-60 in smaller group content, with only Projected Textures enabled and Particle Density on Good+ to dodge boss abilities easier.
I want to sometimes run two games at once, hence why I'm aiming for at least 32 GB RAM despite most MMO games requiring 8-16. Obviously I don't expect optimal performances when running two games at once. The reasoning is that those games rely a lot on doing nothing, waiting for queues, rare spawns, auto-play, and looking up guides on a web browser.
I also use Discord often when raiding, it currently uses a ton of my tiny processor. I'd also like the ability to use a soundboard and voice changer in voice chat in the future, without subscribing to Nitro. But I'm unsure if that requires specific hardware; I had a guild mate randomly playing memes like "I am under the water" at good audio quality during raids in 2020 and it was hilarious, he told me I need a sound card(?) for it, whatever that is, so perhaps I'll need a space for that on the motherboard for that unless there is a simple soundboard software nowadays that does this without sounding like it comes from my cheap microphone while my PC fans make noise. Feel free to tell me if you know an alternative to Nitro.
Second daily use: downloading past livestream broadcasts. No crazy hardware involved, just a lot of network and temporary disk writings. The most "editing" I do is just sometimes trimming with LosslessCut. Nerdy breakdown if you're interested: I'd first download a temporary 160p30 version of the broadcast on an internal HDD with either with TwitchLeecher-DX to preview the desired segments fast with VLC, or with TwitchRecover to load the thumbnail of each 10-second chunk with Windows Explorer. Then on an external HDD I'd download the segments that I want in 1080p60 quality with the Simple Mass Downloader browser extension and delete the temporary 160p files.
I also watch YouTube in a minimized PotPlayer window, it takes far less processor and memory than a browser, but it sometimes downloads a kind of "cache" of the video or something to the Temp folder while playing it, and I don't know how to avoid that, meaning more frequent disk writings. All this yapping to say it's always handy to have SATA ports for internal HDDs, even just 1TB, so I don't waste these daily 1-2 GB of temporary writings on a SSD. Although I've heard nowadays SSDs are more durable (I just don't know to what extent) so I can worry about adding a HDD later. At least I still have my old SATA SSD I can transfer.
4. Purchase country? Near Micro Center? (If not US, list local vendors)
France or near.
People recommend buying from Germany or Spain (amazon.de or amazon.es) so I'm willing to try that. Though I'm unfamiliar on how efficient that is, due to delivery times/fees, and maybe customer support. I'd prefer ordering as soon as possible since there is a grinding limited-time event in FFXIV ending on June 24th.
This website can be used to compare prices between websites or countries. https://dropreference.com/fhome
I rarely shop online. I know some websites for used hardware in France are Leboncoin, Rakuten, eBay. New: Amazon.fr, Fnac, Darty, LDLC, Cdiscount, Topachat. If you can't be bothered optimizing the price and looking in both countries (since it does sound painful), feel free to mention trustworthy German websites so I don't get lost struggling to create accounts in another language and giving my payment information to shady places.
5. Monitors needed? (Number, size, resolution, refresh rate)
No. I'll re-use mine for now.
6. Budget range? (Include tax considerations)
600-800€. I believe France includes VAT in prices.
After simulating a price estimation on PCpartpicker with random cheap parts + the refurbished RX 580, no HDD, no cooler, it seems I'll need at least 600€ due to the expensive 2TB SSD and 32GB RAM. 800€ isn't an absolute maximum, but it's what I paid for my old pre-built PC with a OS license in 2009 and it lasted me a long time (albeit a miserable time), so I'm eager to see to see what that gets me nowadays. Plus it stings to pay a lot for a dying game genre because companies whom I hate force me to upgrade.
The leftover budget perhaps could be spent on: more protection on the power supply so it doesn't damage my storage drives after a power outage, if that is even how it works (and how much would such safety cost?). It's rare but inevitably happens randomly a few times a year, perhaps during bad weather.
Enough processor to run two games at once or other programs while gaming Maybe pick the refurbished RX 6600 for eye candy/future games/power saving.7. WiFi or wired connection?
Wired.
8. Size/noise constraints?
Noise: preferably silent, but again, as a 2009 animal, I have no clue how controllable noise is. My PC, with only four fans in it (1 blowing out hot air to the back, 1 power supply, 1 processor stock cooler, 1 video card) has always sounded as if someone in the room next to me were blow-drying their hair or vacuum cleaning, so I've never heard what's the standard for "low noise" and how much silence costs, so if it costs a lot more, feel free to suggest several fan models. Of course I'll appreciate if it's silent just because I can hear my PC fans when I occasionally record song covers for fun, but besides that they haven't bothered me because it's not an annoying noise like coil whine, which is a sound I've only learned about recently while reading a review of a RX 6600 PowerFighter video card, I do hope not to hear that. I'm a gamer first so I prioritize cooling.
Size: no constraint, preferably enough to mount a couple HDDs, so better too big than too small.
9. Cololighting preferences?
Preferably: a basic black case, emitting as little visible light as possible in the dark. While it's heartbreaking since I love pink cases and pretty lights, I must blame it on biology; I currently use Cooler Master Elite 341 MicroATX Mid Tower Case and its darkness is the meta because it doesn't reflect light into my weak vampire gamer eyes. It's slightly behind my monitor so I have vision on a third of the side panel all the time.
I'd prefer no window, again regrettable because it's cool to monitor inside the case at a glance, but I fear I'll get blinded by whatever LED lingers inside of it.
I know humans aren't supposed to look at monitors in the dark but that's what works for me. Well lit rooms somehow tire me more, even at school. But here I've referred to myself as many things, human is not one of them. Perhaps I could work around this by placing something DIY in front light sources. So prioritize whatever case and fan has better cooling.
10. Any other specific needs?
Some questions: I've been torn on the debate about the two popular budget processors AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Core i3-12100F. I read that the 4 cores of 12100 are usually better at running a single game than the 6 cores of 3600 (which somehow is astronomically beloved by the PCpartpicker community). However I'll often have another program open such as Discord voice chat, YouTube on PotPlayer, a Chromium browser, watching Twitcth, or even a second game (low quality), so I can't just take the bare minimum for one game. Is that enough multi-tasking to warrant going for 6 cores? Are both of these processors overkill or too weak anyway? I'm just scared because I've only lived with 2 cores and just having the (terribly buggy) idle League of Legends launcher or Discord voice chat open cuts my performances by a lot. So as an ignorant normie who doesn't comprehend the other metrics such as GHz and threads, a 4-core processor doesn't look like a big jump after 14 years, though I could see it be just fine for users who run one game and no other program.
Here's my current system, if an archaeologist is curious what depth of Hell I come from. It was a pre-built PC I ordered for WoW and Aion at a small local tech store for Christmas 2009, for I believe about 800€: OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (they initially gave me 32bit, at least it was a legit license) CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240. Thermal paste: Cooler Master IC Essential E1 (first and last replaced in 2014, yeah I really neglected it to be fair, I kept coping "I'll upgrade soon anyway") GPU: nVidia GeForce 9800 GT Motherboard: M4A78-VM (AM2) (2 RAM ports, max 8GB) RAM: 4GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 401MHz (6-6-6-18) (overprice 80€ replacement from 2015 another overprice DIMM that only lasted a few months, hence why I lost trust in hardware sellers, I don't even know the even a brand name, initially I got 2+1GB Kingston that died after 4 years), HDD: 465GB Seagate ST3500410SV ATA Device (I'm so proud it's still alive) SSD: Samsung 870 QVO 1TB ATA Device (from 2022) PSU: PC ATX LITEON PE-6301-08AP 300W? (cheap replacement from a tech friend when mine broke around 2018). Monitor VA1913wm-4 (1360x768@60Hz)
2024.06.04 15:49 alwayslostin1989 The Stowaway
 | So I ended up with an Anole this weekend, how emaciated does it look?. Trying to get up to speed on care I’ve had lizards before specifically bearded dragons but this is completely different. submitted by alwayslostin1989 to Anoles [link] [comments] It was a stowaway on one of our potted Birds of Paradise. I recently moved from Florida to Montana. My wife and I attempted to get all of them off the plants and out of the pots/grill/outdoor stuff but we missed one(there was no less then 9 we found between the 5plants. I initially saw it when we were unloading but it ran away into the rocks in our new homes yard. I was organizing the garage two weeks later and there it was so I decided to make it a pet as it was my fault he came all this way. Any recommendations would be nice as I’m feeding it it small crickets right now. That’s a live plant and I have more on the way. I also have better lighting in the mail this setup was basically all the closest pet store had. And the humidifier in the center is definitely needed as the normal humidity here is below 40% the cage stays at 75% with it and morning/late afternoon cage misting. Again any help is appreciated. |