Alright so yeah, this is an issue. So far my gf has given me 4 blowjobs over the course of our relationship. She actually gives me the best blowjobs I’ve ever had in my life, it’s insane.
But for some reason this keeps happening. Whenever she goes down on me my hands, chest, and face go numb, like a more aggressive version of “pins and needles”. I start to shake and freak out a bit, trying to hold in a full-blown panic attack. Even though what she’s doing feels really good I just completely lose my mind and go into panic. I start to freak out about the fact that I’m freaking out because I don’t want to hurt her or anything and I also just want to enjoy what’s happening so I’m mad at myself for panicking, so it just starts this spiraling down into a state of panic. It gets to the point where sometimes I just lose my boner, but every time consistently I don’t cum (I have another post about that), even though sometimes it feels like I’m about to.
I have zero idea why the fuck this is happening and I’d really like it to stop. Has this ever happened to you? How did you deal with it?
I’ve had blowjobs from other girls before and this didn’t happen then.

[vent / posterity notes for people facing a similar choice]
I just turned 36, after a successful PhD in a field I am no longer interested in (computational neuroscience) and a mediocre postdoc adjacent to my desired field (applied self-supervised ML in cellular images). I might be able to publish enough and find a position after another postdoc, but that would take more years, and won't necessarily be worth it. The reason it won't be worth it is because now, 14 years after I started my bachelor degree, I don't think academic research is the best path for me. I enjoy building and creating tools that work and that people use, and I enjoy researching and analyzing a system to understand it better. I enjoy learning and teaching what I learned. I enjoy being part of a vibrant, intelligent, creative community. But I never enjoyed the feeling of being the first person to discover something. I never had a burning passion to solve a problem no one else succeeded in. My passion was to be a productive and respected member of the community, and to build something new and exciting and interesting, and if I'm honest, to chase prestige. I can find all of these elsewhere. After my mentor abruptly dismantled the lab and moved to another institution, I decided this will be my cue to move on. Today I accepted an offer to work as a ML researcher at a startup company. I will continue to research, and build, and hopefully even be a larger part of the interpretability research community I am interested in, compared to my lukewarm not-here-not-there postdoc in biology and ML. This step was years in the making, and while I'm sad I didn't take it earlier, I don't think I was emotionally able to. I wish all the luck to people who choose to stay in academia, and all the luck to people who choose to move on. Catch you on the flip side, as the obnoxious industry researcher who tries to stay relevant while asking annoying questions at conferences.

SUMMARY/PLAYSTYLE

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The main strategy of our deck is to pretty much be somewhat of a glass cannon offense. We like to go second and rely on all the special summoning we can commit, culminating in a pendulum summon of multiple monsters all at once. We continue in this style to swarm the field, then use one of our best spells, Abyss Script - Rise of the Abyss King, to destroy every face-up card in our opponent’s possession. If we didn’t get as many monsters out as we’d have liked and don’t quite have lethal yet, we have other tricks at our disposal, like Abyss Actor - Comic Relief which is capable of stealing an opponent’s monster, disabling them of not only a monster with high ATK, but probably with a very troublesome effect that we can now take advantage of. I call it a glass cannon deck because we are a bit frail; depending on our hand, we can only play through a couple negates, and we rely heavily on hand traps like Ash Blossom and Imperm in order to be able to put in work. Our deck did just get a huge upgrade with, among other things, the L-2 monster Abyss Actor - Super Producer, whose effect allows us to play Abyss Playhouse - Fantastic Theater right out of our deck (which can even be done on our opponent’s turn). This is huge, because we barely had any interruption until now, so we get a way better turn 1. This is very much appreciated because what the theater does is once per turn it will change an opponent’s monster effect to destroy one of our set cards. If you’ve never heard of Abyss Actors you might think that’s not crazy good, but trust me, it’s great for two reasons: one, whatever effect they were trying to do goes out the window, and two, Abyss Actors actually thrive off of their set spell cards being popped as they have additional effects for if this happens. One thing I love about this deck is that our monster effects are slightly complicated, and what I mean by this is there allows some flexibility in our plays, there’s not really just one “correct” line to play every single game. I also greatly enjoy the two gimmicks this deck employs: having pend monsters that can be summoned out of the pend zone, and having monsters that interact alongside their own sub-archetype of spells with effects upon destruction if they are set. Also, this deck xeno locks a lot, so our extra deck plays are very limited and rare (excluding our link monsters). Play Accesscode, Bagooska, Electrumite, Beyond the Pendulum, Linkuriboh, Knightmares, Masquerena, R4NKs and/or 7s…you get the picture.
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》》》》》◆《《《《《
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MONSTERS

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Abyss Actor - Trendy Understudy (0x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 2*
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Pendulum scale: <8>
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Stats: ATK / 700 DEF / 700
Pendulum effect: When you Pendulum Summon: You can add one face-up “Abyss Actor” that is Level 1 or Level 8 from the Extra Deck to your hand.
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Monster effect: If you have 2 “Abyss Actor” cards in your Pendulum Zones: You can Tribute this card; Special Summon one Level 1 or Level 8 “Abyss Actor” monster from your hand or face-up from your Extra Deck. This effect is hard once per turn.
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The only monsters this card can move or summon is Extras or Evil Heel, neither of which we particularly care to be using or summoning onto the field by trading this one. Even if it was able to summon any AA, the fact that we’re a pend deck and can mass summon all at once basically renders this guy obsolete.
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Abyss Actor - Extras (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 1*
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Pendulum scale: <3>
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Stats: ATK / 100 DEF / 100
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Pendulum effect: If your opponent controls a monster: You can Special Summon this card from the Pendulum Zone. This effect is hard once per turn.
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Monster effect: You can Tribute this card: Place an “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster from your deck in your Pendulum Zone. For the rest of the turn after this effect is activated, you can only Special Summon “Abyss Actor” monsters, also you cannot use the Pendulum effect of “Abyss Actor - Extras.” This effect is hard once per turn.
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This card is fantastic because it does not waste our normal summon via its pend effect, and because it pulls any monster straight out of our deck and into the pendulum zone. The classic AA drawback of xeno locking ourselves into not being able to go into the ED for any non AA monster for the rest of the turn does suck, but it’s definitely still worth running this card at 3.
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Abyss Actor - Curtain Raiser (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <7>
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Stats: ATK / 1100 DEF / 1100
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Pendulum effect: If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone. This effect is hard once per duel.
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Monster effect: If this is the only monster you control, it gains 1100 ATK. Once per turn: You can send an “Abyss Script” Spell from your deck to your GY; add a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster from your Extra Deck to your hand.
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I was skeptical of this card at first when it was released in Duel Links (but that’s another story). I thought it was awkward that its pend scale is 7, the exact level of Superstar. However, I forgot that this card shines when it only stays in the pend zone for a second. Very often it’s your starter to go into Hyper Director. Alternatively, if you have this and any other low-level monster in your hand, you open up the potential for a LINK-2 or R4NK play prior to the xeno lock, provided you still have a way to make Hyper Director via Extras or an early pend summon. The ATK increase is pretty irrelevant because we are trying to spam the board as much as possible, but the Script mill can be nice combined with Abysstainment, which can tribute one of your AAs in order to set a Script from the GY.
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Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 7*
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Pendulum scale: <0>
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Stats: ATK / 1800 DEF / 2500
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Pendulum effect: You can pay 1000 LP: Add an “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster from your deck to your hand, except for another copy of this card. This effect is hard once per turn. After this effect’s activation, you can only Special Summon “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monsters for the remainder of the turn.
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Monster effect: Gains 100 ATK for each “Abyss Script” Spell in your GY. Each of the following effects are hard once per turn:

• When a Pendulum monster you control is destroyed by battle: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.
• If an “Abyss Script” Spell or effect is activated: You can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster from your deck, but it is sent to your hand during the End Phase.

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This is one of the best cards in our deck, but its search effect does come at the brutal cost of not even allowing us to link summon Hyper Director or Super Producer, so be careful about when you time it. The ATK boost is cute, but the cherry on top of Madonna’s effects is the ability to special another monster from the deck to secure the OTK we are aiming for. Being able to special herself is a somewhat rare effect because of the antiquity of battle destruction, but the extra possible protection can never hurt and can even save us in a real bind.
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Abyss Actor - Evil Heel (0-1x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 8*
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Pendulum scale: <1>
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Stats: ATK / 3000 DEF / 2000
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Pendulum effect: You can Tribute an “Abyss Actor” monster, then target a face-up monster your opponent controls; it loses ATK equal to the original ATK of the Tributed monster, until the end of this turn. This effect is once per turn.
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Monster effect: If this card is Summoned: You can target an opponent’s face-up monster; it loses 1000 ATK for each “Abyss Actor” monster you currently control, until the end of this turn. When this card destroys a monster by battle: You can target an “Abyss Script” Spell in your GY; Set that card.
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I’ll be honest - objectively, this card is not very good (I just have a soft spot for it). All of this card’s effects are basically useless, considering our game plan is to pop all face-up cards with Abyss King. Therefore lowering our opponent’s ATK or setting cards from our GY after destroying something by battle is somewhat moot if we’re clearing the board in another way. In addition, using this card, a level 8 monster, almost forces you to have Wild Hope in the pend zone to make its pend summon possible (Twinkle sucks, don’t use her). The reason I play this card as a 1-of is because us AA players need all the ATK we can get, because it can be summoned by other ways like with Hyper Director, and for the unlikely scenario where our opponent has a monster indestructible by card effect, meaning Abyss King wouldn’t work on it, but is not untargetable.
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Abyss Actor - Superstar (2-3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 7*
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Pendulum scale: <3>
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Stats: ATK / 2500 DEF / 1800
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Pendulum effect: You can Tribute one “Abyss Actor” monster, then target an “Abyss Script” Spell in your GY; add it to your hand. This effect is once per turn.
Monster effect: When this card is Summoned, your opponent’s Spell/Trap cards and effects cannot be activated. You can Set one “Abyss Script” Spell directly from the deck, but it is sent to the GY during the End Phase. This effect is once per turn.
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Another amazing hitter in our lineup, and appropriately so, being the closest we have to a boss monster. This monster’s power lies in the fact that it, and whatever you pend along with it, cannot be floodgated. But it doesn’t stop there: the ability to set any Script we want straight from the deck is also an egregiously spectacular effect. Don’t worry about its pend effect; the only reason we’d be putting Superstar into the pend zone is to cheat it out with Hyper Director. But if you really need it, it’s pretty much more copies of Abysstainment. We’d normally rather not be using this card as a spell, though.
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Abyss Actor - Sassy Rookie (0-1x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <2>
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Stats: ATK / 1700 DEF / 1000
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Pendulum effect: If your “Abyss Actor” monster would be destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect, you can destroy this card instead.
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Monster effect: This first time this card would be destroyed each turn, it is not. If this card is destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect: You can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower “Abyss Actor” monster from the deck, except another copy of this card. If this card in the Pendulum Zone is destroyed: You can target one Level 4 or lower monster your opponent controls; destroy it.
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You’re rarely, if ever, putting this card in the pend zone (Madonna + Comic Relief is the usual pair), but it’s got a decent protection effect that can proc its other effect, destroying a low-leveled monster in your opponent’s possession. A niche use of this effect could be for Super Producer to destroy it on the opponent’s turn for some interruption, something which our deck has had a lack of until now. However, the main use of this card (besides being another name to get popping with Abyss King) is the sheer annoyance it is to get rid of. Not only will it simply not die the first time it normally should, but on top of that, once it finally is destroyed, well guess what, now we get a float of Wild Hope or Leading Lady for a potential search or ATK reduction on top of having another body to be dealt with, so thanks! This goober is just a little lovable sponge.
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Abyss Actor - Wild Hope (2-3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <2>
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Stats: ATK / 1600 DEF / 1200
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Pendulum effect: If you have another “Abyss Actor” monster scaled in your opposite Pendulum Zone, you can change its scale to 9 until the end of this turn. This effect is once per turn. You cannot Special Summon for the remainder of this turn, except to Summon “Abyss Actor” monsters.
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Monster effect: Until the end of this turn, you can have this card gain 100 ATK for each “Abyss Actor” monster you control with different names. This effect is once per turn. If this card is destroyed: You can add one “Abyss Actor” card from the deck to your hand, except for another copy of this card. This effect is hard once per turn.
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Yeehaw, pardner. The slight ATK buff is cute and sometimes may be necessary to get every last drop of power we need to kill in one turn, but the effect we really care about is the search upon destruction. Simple as that! Search with it, pendulum summon it back out, and give it a baboost while you have the max number of AAs on your side of the field to utilize it to its fullest.
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Abyss Actor - Liberty Dramatist (1-2x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <8>
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Stats: ATK / 1500 DEF / 1500
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Pendulum effect: When an attack is declared: You can discard one card; Special Summon this card to your opponent’s field. This effect is hard once per turn.
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Monster effect: If this card is Special Summoned out of the Pendulum Zone: Reveal 3 “Abyss Script” Spells from your deck. Your opponent randomly chooses one to be Set to your field, and shuffle the others back into your deck. The card Set by this effect will be destroyed at the End Phase. If this card is destroyed: You can shuffle one “Abyss Script” Spell from your GY into the deck. Each of these effects are hard once per turn.
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Alright, from what I’ve personally seen throughout my research on other AA decks out there, this card is a little bit slept on. Up until her release we only had Comic Relief and Fantastic Theater to force the opponent to pop our set Scripts, and I think that any card that reinforces that sentiment is appreciated. Yes, it does suck that you’ll have to discard a card to make it happen - maybe that cost is a bit too much to make her worth running, we can find that out. I also think, though, that its other effect of being able to set a Script upon being summoned out of the pend zone works fantastically alongside Hyper Director. Finally, let’s say you lost access to Abysstainment being able to recur Scripts out of the GY: she can send one back into the deck for you to search, play, or set later on. We also love running as many unique AA names as we can to be sure that Abyss King can get popping. No, I’m not saying she’s the best card to ever come out for AAs, but I think she has a multitude of decent effects and that a chance should be given for her.
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Abyss Actor - Twinkle Little Star (0x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <9>
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Stats: ATK / 1000 DEF / 1000
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Pendulum effect: You can target one “Abyss Actor” monster you control: During this turn, it can make up to 3 attacks on monsters, also your other monsters cannot attack. You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except “Abyss Actors.”
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Monster effect: This card is not destroyed by battle on your turn. This card can make up to 3 attacks on monsters.
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These effects are nothing but more of a detriment than anything, unless for some reason you’re playing 3 Evil Heel and no Abyss King, please don’t put her in your deck. The spiciest play you could make with her is to play Fantasy Magic and swing into up to 3 monsters, but you’re offing yourself in the battle damage you take from it, plus your opponent will just resummon those monsters next turn regardless, making all of that work meaningless. Abyss King is a million times easier and more effective.
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Abyss Actor - Leading Lady (0-1x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 4*
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Pendulum scale: <2>
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Stats: ATK / 1500 DEF / 1000
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Pendulum effect: When you take battle damage from an opponent’s attacking monster: You can activate one of these effects;

• That opponent’s monster loses ATK equal to the damage you took.
• Add a face-up “Abyss Actor” monster from your Extra Deck to your hand with ATK less than or equal to the damage you took. This effect is once per turn.

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Monster effect: When battle damage is inflicted: You can target one face-up monster your opponent controls; it loses ATK equal to the damage dealt. This effect is once per turn. If this card is destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect: You can Set one “Abyss Script” Spell directly from the deck.
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Once again, the effects that lower ATK can be counted as backup, assuming we were stopped from getting Abyss King going. Alternatively, moving a monster from the ED to our hand might be nice sometimes. Its monster effect ATK reduction can be a decent way to protect yourself from lethal on the opponent’s turn, for it goes off even if she herself is attacked and before she is destroyed. Looking at the effect offensively, Supreme King Dragon Dark Rebellion plus Leading Lady (and Evil Heel) can be a cheeky way to deal massive amounts of damage if we do not want to or cannot wipe the field and attack directly for whatever reason. And her replacement effect is nifty. Another easy-to-summon AA name with somewhat okay effects = more pops with Abyss King.
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Abyss Actor - Comic Relief (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 3*
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Pendulum scale: <8>
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Stats: ATK / 1000 DEF / 2000
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Pendulum effect: You can target one face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster you control and one monster your opponent controls; switch control of the two monsters, then destroy this card. This effect is hard once per turn.
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Monster effect: This card’s controller takes no battle damage from attacks involving this card. During your Standby Phase: Give control of this card to your opponent (this effect is once per turn). If control of this face-up card changes: Activate this effect; this card’s owner (yourself) can destroy one Set “Abyss Script” Spell on their field. This effect is also once per turn.
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BEST CARD IN THE GAME BAYBEE HA YOU IDIOT TAKE THIS 100 ATK MONSTER IN EXCHANGE FOR THAT BOSS MONSTER YOU SPENT YOUR WHOLE TURN MAKING oh yeah it also is a great tool to destroy your own set Scripts for them to pop off aaand it’s a scale 8 so we can basically pend anything we want with it wooo
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Abyss Actor - Funky Comedian (0x)
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DARK Fiend
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Level: 1*
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Pendulum scale: <8>
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Stats: ATK / 300 DEF / 200
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Pendulum effect: You can Tribute an “Abyss Actor” monster, then target one face-up “Abyss Actor” monster you control; it gains ATK equal to the original ATK of the Tributed monster, until the end of this turn.
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Monster effect: If this card is Summoned: You can make it gain 300 ATK for each “Abyss Actor” monster you control, until the end of this turn. You can target one other “Abyss Actor” monster you control; until the end of this turn, it gains ATK equal to this monster’s current ATK. This card cannot attack the turn this effect is activated. This effect is hard once per turn.
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While we are a bit desperate to get as much ATK as we can muster to push for the OTK we would love to see, it’s not really worth playing a monster whose only function is that, unless you’re going for an attack-oriented aggro Evil-Heel-centered build. You don’t need to run this guy, our little baboosts and monster swarming is usually sufficient.
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Abyss Actor - Hyper Director (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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1 “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster
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Link Rating: LINK-1
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Stats: ATK / 800
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Effect: You can target one card in your Pendulum Zone: Special Summon it, then place an “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster with a different name from your deck or face-up Extra Deck into your Pendulum Zone. For the rest of this turn after this effect is used, you cannot Normal or Special Summon a monster, except to Summon an “Abyss Actor” monster. This effect is hard once per turn.
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A la Extras, here we have a very good L-1 monster that not only sets a pend scale from the deck but also cheats out whatever we want from the pend zone, adding a monster onto our frontrow like we love to do. The big new play that we’re usually gonna want to do is to use Hyper Director and whatever he called from the pend zone in order to link summon the next monster on our list.
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Abyss Actor - Super Producer (3x)
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DARK Fiend
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2 monsters, including 1 Fiend-Type monster
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Link Rating: LINK-2
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Stats: ATK / 1600
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Effect: During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target one face-up card you control; destroy it, then you can apply one of these effects. This effect is hard once per turn. Place one “Abyss Playhouse - Fantastic Theater” from your deck to the Field Zone. Place one “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster from your deck in your Pendulum Zone.
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Such a wonderful card, as previously mentioned in the summary. Destroying one of our monsters is an effect that we like to see, since it procs Wild Hope’s search, Sussy Rookie’s effect in the pend zone, or Liberty Dramatist’s Script recursion. But that’s just a bonus: the real reason we love this card so is the fact that Fantastic Theater can be played right out the deck (dodging Ash Blossom, since it is not being added to the hand but to the field), negating an opponent’s next monster effect. Super Producer’s effect can be chained onto an opponent’s monster effect, and after the chain resolves, their effect will be changed after Theater hits the field, meaning we can time it to block whatever we want, then reap the rewards of having our set Scripts destroyed by our opponent. Or use the second effect and put something in the pend zone, that effect is also good if we already have Fantastic Theater up.
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》》》》》◆《《《《《
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SPELLS

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Abyss Prop - Wild Wagon (0x)
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Continuous Spell
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Effect: The first time each “Abyss Actor” monster you control would be destroyed by battle each turn, it is not. You can target one face-up “Abyss Actor” monster you control; your opponent cannot target it with card effects until the end of their turn. This effect is once per turn. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can return all cards your opponent controls to the hand.
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As nutty as this card’s effects seem, one big reason no one runs it is because its name is “Abyss Prop,” not “Abyss Script.” This makes it unsearchable, making it luck of the draw. It also means Comic Relief cannot pop it when it swaps control over to your opponent. Additionally, this card has some oversights and it’s not quite what it may be cracked up to be. For one, I should not have to say that negates or destruction by card effect are extremely common, meaning the one-time protection by battle for our monsters is fairly negligible. While the next effect, temporary untargetability for a monster, may be useful going first to prepare for something your opponent might be planning on doing, unfortunately this effect kind of falls flat on its face because at any other time, all your opponent has to do is chain to this effect, targeting your monster and getting their disruption off anyway. Lastly, while this card does have the potential to bounce your opponent’s entire board, this will only work if they do not destroy this card near the start of their turn or lack recovery. And even if it does pop off, your opponent will simply re-set any backrow that was bounced. Don’t get me wrong, removing every monster off their field they just established would be insane, but it’s not like you no longer have to worry about playing through anything. Anyway, after this long-winded discussion of this debatable card, what follows is a much better spell that we are going to want to use.
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Abyss Script - Dramatic Story (2x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: Target one “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster you control; Special Summon one “Abyss Actor” monster from your deck with a different name, then place the targeted monster in your Pendulum Zone or destroy it. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can return up to 2 cards on the field to the hand. This card’s activation is hard once per turn.
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Now this is what we like to see: an actual Abyss Script spell to use alongside the plethora of AA monsters that have effects related to them! In fact, this is the newest one, and its effect goes hard, vastly increasing consistency (I can see a case being made to run 3 of this card, for sure). Now, right off the bat what jumps out to me is that this card special summons from the deck, meaning that it cannot be abused while Ash Blossom is so prevalent. Does that mean we should not play this card at all, for fear of it being negated? Absolutely not. This card does four amazing things all in one - it can summon any monster we need out of the deck, it can set a pend scale for us, it can destroy our monster (let’s say we only opened this + Wild Hope and a bunch of hand traps, we’re definitely destroying Wild Hope for a search to make more plays possible), and it can bounce (non-targeting) up to 2 pesky cards on the field. With the versatility this card provides, I fail to see why it would not be run.
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Abyss Actors’ Dress Rehearsal (3x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: At the start of Main Phase 1: Add one “Abyss Actor” card and one “Abyss Script” Spell from your deck to your hand. For the remainder of this turn, you cannot Pendulum Summon any monsters except for “Abyss Actor” monsters.
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Pretty self-explanatory: it’s a search of 2 cards, so it’s quite nice. The caveat of it being usable only at the start of MP1 means we replace Pot of Extravagance for it, and the fact that it prevents us from pend summoning anything other than AAs means literally nothing to us when every main deck monster we want to summon is an AA.
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Abyss Playhouse - Fantastic Theater (1-2x)
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Field Spell
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Effect: You can reveal one “Abyss Actor” monster and one “Abyss Script” Spell in your hand; add one “Abyss Script” Spell from the deck to your hand, with a different name from the one you revealed. While you control a Pendulum Summoned “Abyss Actor” monster, any monster effect activated by your opponent becomes “Destroy one Set Spell/Trap your opponent controls”. Each effect of this card is hard once per turn.
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I pretty much already explained this card in the summary, so I’ll try and keep it concise. It gives us a search for a Script? Nice. It says “fuck you” to an opponent’s monster once per turn and allows us to take advantage of our Scripts’ second effects? Even better.
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Abyss Script - Rise of the Abyss King (2x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: Target face-up cards on the field, up to the number of face-up attack position “Abyss Actor” monsters with different names you control; destroy them. If you control a Level 7 or higher “Abyss Actor” monster when this card is activated: Your opponent cannot chain a card or effect onto it. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can add up to 2 “Abyss Actor” cards and/or “Abyss Script” Spells with different names from the deck to your hand.
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Undoubtedly our best spell in the entire deck, as it makes the OTK possible. Not only that, but the fact that it has Super Poly’s “your opponent can’t activate anything in response to this card” effect while we have a high-level AA out is incredible. Finally, we search 2 if this card is destroyed while it is set and we have an AA in the ED, which is very much welcomed.
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Abyss Script - Abysstainment (1-2x)
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Continuous Spell
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Effect: You can Tribute 1 “Abyss Actor” monster, then target one “Abyss Script” Spell in your GY; Set it to your field. This effect is hard twice per turn. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can Special Summon any number of “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monsters from your deck.
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Pretty good effect, allows you to use Abyss King multiple times in one turn. And not to mention a pretty cracked second effect, literally allowing you to special summon up to 5 monsters right out of the deck in one go.
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Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony (1-2x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: Gain 500 LP for each face-up “Abyss Actor” monster you control. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can draw until you have 5 cards in your hand. Each effect of this card is hard once per turn.
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The LP gain effect can actually be pretty tremendous since we are continuously going -1K for the Madonna search and we love to swarm the field, making 500 per monster not the worst. However, the real reason I would play this card is because YOU CAN DRAW 5.
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Abyss Script - Romantic Terror (0x)
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Quick-Play Spell
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Effect: Return one “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster you control to the hand, and if you do, Special Summon from your Extra Deck in defense position, one face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster with a different original name from the monster you returned. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can Set any number of “Abyss Script” Spells directly from your deck. This card’s activation is hard once per turn.
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Ehhh this is pretty jank, the summon effect is pretty nothing and the effect to set any Script(s) is unnecessary and slower compared to Abysstainment or Superstar on our turn.
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Abyss Script - Fire Dragon’s Lair (0x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: Target one “Abyss Actor” monster you control; if it destroys your opponent’s monster by battle this turn, your opponent chooses 3 monsters from their Extra Deck and banishes them. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can look at your opponent’s Extra Deck, also banish one monster from it. This effect of this card is hard once per turn.
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Pretty hollow card. We have no interest in using any copies of it.
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Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic (0-1x)
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Normal Spell
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Effect: Target one “Abyss Actor” monster you control; if it battles an opponent’s monster this turn, but does not destroy the monster it battled, return that monster to your opponent’s hand at the end of the Damage Step. If this Set card in its owner’s possession is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, and you have a face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monster in the Extra Deck: You can target one card your opponent controls: Place it on top of their deck.
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Now I haven’t seen a list utilize this card and its first effect is pretty useless, I just love that its second effect is spell version of Raiza spin and I think that makes it decent enough to play at a single copy for shits and giggles.
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》》》》》◆《《《《《
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TRAPS

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Abyss Actors Back Stage (0x)
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Normal Trap
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Effect: If you have two “Abyss Actor” cards in your Pendulum Zones: Add two “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monsters with different names from your deck to your Extra Deck, face-up. This effect is hard once per turn.
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This is slow and for literally nothing, wtf
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Abyss Actors’ Curtain Call (0x)
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Normal Trap
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Effect: If an “Abyss Script” Spell or effect is activated this turn: Add face-up “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monsters from your Extra Deck to the hand, up to the number of “Abyss Script” Spells in your GY. Then, you can Special Summon “Abyss Actor” monsters from your hand with different names, up to the number of cards added to the hand. You cannot Special Summon for the remainder of this turn, except “Abyss Actor” Pendulum monsters. This effect is hard once per turn.
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Too situational and slow. Our ED is only ever gonna have like 1 or 2 face-up AAs in it anyway, so a straight up pendulum summon outclasses this. However, it is searchable off Wild Hope, so I guess I could see this being played at 1 for a defensive strategy if we end up going first, so long as it doesn’t end up being popped before it can be played to its fullest extent, which is ironically something we do encourage our opponent to do. Hence why I find this card somewhat risky and not the best to be running.
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》》》》》◆《《《《《
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SAMPLE DECK - 40 CARDS

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2x Maxx “C”
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3x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
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3x Abyss Actor - Extras
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3x Abyss Actor - Comic Relief
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2x Abyss Actor - Sassy Rookie
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1x Abyss Actor - Leading Lady
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2x Abyss Actor - Wild Hope
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3x Abyss Actor - Curtain Raiser
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2x Abyss Actor - Liberty Dramatist
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2x Abyss Actor - Superstar
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3x Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna
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1x Harpie’s Feather Duster
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1x Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony
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2x Abyss Script - Rise of the Abyss King
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3x Abyss Actors’ Dress Rehearsal
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1x Lightning Storm
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1x Abyss Playhouse - Fantastic Theater
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2x Abyss Script - Abysstainment
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1x Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic
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2x Infinite Impermanence
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》》》》》◆《《《《《
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EXAMPLE LINE (GOING SECOND)

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(Set Extras in the pend zone
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Special Summon Extras
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Tribute to) set Curtain Raiser in the pend zone
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Special summon Curtain Raiser
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Link into Hyper Director
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Set [any AA] in the pend zone
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Special summon [any AA], and set Madonna in the pend zone
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Link into Super Producer
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Search Wild Hope with Madonna
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Set Wild Hope in the pend zone
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Destroy Wild Hope with Super Producer
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Search off Wild Hope + set Comic Relief in the pend zone
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Pendulum summon [any AA] + (Curtain RaiseExtras) + [any AA(s) in hand]
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If Superstar was summoned:
Set Abyss King

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If Abysstainment was in your hand instead of Superstar:
(Power up Wild Hope if you have one out)
Use Curtain Raiser, milling Abyss King
Use Abysstainment, Tribute something to set Abyss King

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Use Abyss King
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Special summon from the deck if Madonna was on the field
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(Power up Wild Hope if you have one out)
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If your opponent still has a strong monster: Use Comic Relief, trading Extras for it

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SWING FOR GAME!

My (40 F) parents, dad (63 M) and mom (60 F), have been married for 43 years. I have six siblings 42 F, 38 F, 34 F, 20 M, 20 M, 18 M. I have been with my husband (39 M), since we were 15. I got pregnant at 17 and we moved in with my parents. I gave birth to my now 22 year old daughter. We got married at 18 shortly after. My dad’s father passed shortly after our wedding and left his ranch style house to my father. My grandparents built a house next door to my parents when they retired. My parents decided to let us live in this house & told us this would be my inheritance. My husband and I had no issues with this. We went on to have a 20 M, 14 F, 5 F, and I'm currently 7 months pregnant with my last child, a boy, due in April.
I thought I had a good marriage, we were intimate more than twice a week, we went on date nights, we bought each other gifts, we didn't fight. My entire world was shattered on New Years Eve when I returned early from a girl’s trip I had taken with some friends. I walked into my bedroom to find my mom having sex with my husband. My mother screamed at me to get out of “their” bedroom which really shook me up even more.
Unfortunately, my oldest daughter, was also home in her bedroom across the house getting ready for a party. She ran out and witnessed my all but a bed sheet naked mother run out of our house next door to her house and slam the door. My daughter was devastated and went to my sister’s house. I asked her not to say anything until I first talked to my husband. I asked him for the truth. He told me that my mom seduced him when we were 18 and living in their house. They’d been having unprotected sex at least once a month for longer than we were married. I ran the math and was horrified, because the timeline meant my twin brothers and youngest brother could be my husband’s.
I immediately called my dad and told him to come to my house without my mom. I made my husband confess and my dad was devastated, he and my mom were high school sweethearts too. Needless to say, we could hear my mother screaming from her house when he confronted her.
I then told my older sister and she and I decided to have her throw a party for the whole extended family and we invited my ex’s family as well. At the party, I had my 22 F daughter take all the kids to our basement and put on a movie, leaving only the adult children and siblings and I told them exactly what they’d been doing.
Most of the family is on my side, except my 3 youngest siblings, 38 F sister, Ex’s entire family. They all say I’m an AH for dropping this publicly. Word got out and my mom’s best friend, who is on leadership at my mom’s church (my childhood church)called me to verify. My mom has since been let go as the children’s pastor there and she claims I’ve essentially ruined her reputation and life. My dad kicked her out and she’s now living with my 38 F sister, and lastly, my dad insisted on a dna test for the three youngest boys before he’d consider anything to do with their marriage. The twins are my husband’s bio children. I’ve since kicked him out and he’s living with his parents.
My father and I are discussing me moving into his much larger house and him selling my grandfather's house and him giving me the money to buy a new house somewhere else to get rid of the memories. My husband is appalled and furious that I proved he actually is about to have seven kids, instead of five, that I'm going to be taking half his business away from him. My husband started his own HVAC company a few years back and for the first five years, I helped him get it set up, ran the office completely, and took time away from my teaching career to help him get this established. In my state, all marital assets, including businesses are split 50/50. Since the house was still in my father's name, my husband will get no money from the sale, neither will my mother, since inherited assets are not subject to be split in divorces. My mother is also likely to not get any alimony, as our state is not a no fault divorce state.
I'm now over a month removed, still extremely bitter and angry at my mother, especially at her hypocrisy of calling me a whore and shaming my family, when she's done much worse. I also despise my ex with everything within me now, as he was fucking both my mom and me in some instances coming to our bed minutes later. He got my mother pregnant less than a week after getting me pregnant and while I thought it was so cute and fun that I shared a pregnancy experience with my mom, she was carrying my children's half siblings. He has broken all trust I had in men and being faithful. I have already procured a good lawyer from the firm that helped us in financial matters for both me and my dad and my dad is helping pay for it.
My twin brothers, one of my sisters, and my entire ex's family have gone no contact with me and my minor children and my children have essentially lost all of their grandparents but my dad, two uncles, and an aunt on my side, and my husband's three brothers, due to this mess.
I've also developed ulcers and digestive issues because of this, so I'm visiting the doctor soon and I've been in therapy since the first week of January. I've offered this for my two adult children if they need family therapy with all of us, but they're doing individual therapy right now.
My 14 year old knows that we're getting divorced and why and she's so angry at her dad that I struggle sending her to his house on the weekends. I feel like she's old enough to make a decision on that, but I don't want to damage her relationship with her dad. I've told all my kids it's okay to love their dad, even if he hurt me, but the oldest two have cut him off 100%. I won't tell my youngest two until they're teens why we got divorced, and everyone else has agreed to not spill anything until they're old enough to understand.
As for how I had no idea this affair was ongoing, my husband confirmed to me that they would have sex at my mom's office at church, in their cars, at a motel, and when we built the business, they started having it routinely in his office, once I went back to teaching. They also had it in our houses too when my father would go away on business trips or I'd be out of town.
It was pure happenstance that I came home a day early from a trip, because I was uncomfortable from being nearly seven months pregnant and just wanted my own bed, for me to find out. Knowing they'd be carrying on this full blown affair still if I hadn't caught them is what I'm still upset about. The fact that the grandmother and father of my children cared so little about destroying our families is what I can't get past.
What's hardest for me is that my own mother would do this to me and would continue to do this for years and not caring when it all blew up in her face that she would be destroying her entire family.
Edit: Also, to add insult to injury my husband confirmed in one of our mediated conversations the affair started when I apparently made him angry. He didn’t tell me and instead vented to my mom when they were alone. She comforted him and they had sex. He loved it and then pursued her after that. He said he would’ve divorced me, but knew he’d get cut off from her and she was so much better at sex than me, so stuck it out with me. He told me I was a placeholder. Of all the betrayal and low blows, that statement is what keeps me up at night.
TL;DR
My mom fucked my husband for 22 years, got pregnant with twins, continued the affair until I caught them in bed together on New Year’s Eve while I was nearly 7 months pregnant. I publicly exposed it and my mom lost her job , her marriage, and is homeless.

I’ve seen bodies mashed, crushed, dismembered, stuffed into suitcases, blackened like meat on a grill, floating, bloating, with flies swarming their flesh and maggots wriggling out of their eyes. I have, in short, an intimacy with death.
But nothing prepared me for the horror in cabin 4044.
I stared at my own smoldering corpse, into the blackened sockets of my melted eyes, and ice raked my spine and splintered my bones, shivering all the way down to my frozen fingertips.
You knew this day would come, whispered a voice in my head. And then, as my nose wrinkled, Ugh, I smell like bacon.
Giggles. Oh dear. Not beneficial. Couldn’t I try to approach my death with some dignity? No? Well… fine. Ignoring my own bubbling hysteria, I held my napkin over my nostrils and leaned in. Cross-legged in a lotus position, hands cradled and thumbs touching, crispy me (hehe) held the pose of a meditating monk. From the liquor bottles scattered around the burnt wreckage as well as the pose, I’d started the fire myself. But what induced such madn—
Glowing white light suddenly emanated from the blackened sockets. I gasped, tumbling backwards over the coffee table.
When I sat up, the light was gone.
It did not reappear during the half hour I charged my phone, keeping one leery eye on my corpse while I used the ship’s spotty wifi for research.
A Mysterious Contagion
According to Google, the worst cruise disaster in modern times involved the partial capsizing of a vessel after a captain’s error led to a rock tearing open the hull. Of the four thousand passengers, 34 drowned.
Another ship infamously dubbed the “poop cruise” had its engines catch fire, and passengers were stranded for nearly a week on board without electricity or toilet facilities.
But the Seastar was not destined for any ocean or weather related incident, but rather, a contagion. And while coronavirus and norovirus have both afflicted cruise ships in recent years, no virus—not even rabies—could explain the self-mutilation. To say nothing of the virulence. A mortality rate of 100%? That was unheard of in nature. There should be some survivors, if only by happenstance.
Or is it because…
A terrible chill spread up the flesh of my arms, and a thought lodged like an ice pick in my skull: What if the doom of the Azure Seastar isn’t happenstance—but deliberate? Are there no survivors because someone doesn’t want there to be?
Numb at the implication, I set down my phone. But how? Why? A thousand passengers and crew… If there was someone planning such a disaster, how would I identify them? And why would anyone commit such an atrocity? My gut tightened, and I got up and ventured out to the upper decks.
Deck 9
Cold. Cold. Cold. The chill in my bones deepened with each hand I brushed. Passengers glared as I fumbled around, dismissing me as either blind or mentally feeble. The blindness was somewhat accurate—I couldn’t see under the electric lighting in the swanky interior, since my eyes were seeing six days in the future, when the Seastar would be plunged into blackout. I depended on my phone’s feeble flashlight as I navigated the sea of guests around the bar and lounge areas. But no matter how many arms and hands I bumbled into—COLD!
With no accidental survivors, I was becoming more and more convinced the Seastar’s doom must be deliberate, but I was still very much in the dark—literally and figuratively—about why.
The most useful discovery of the evening came after my collision with a heavyset older man whose drink I spilled. Noticing me sweeping around my phone’s pitiful beam and assuming I’d lost something, he offered to lend me a more powerful flashlight from his cabin.
“It’s one of those high powered ones if you want it.” He smiled, and I stared, every hair on my neck standing on end.
“Uh… Something on my face?” His smile turned into a confused frown under my phone’s light.
“N-no. Yes, a flashlight would be very helpful, thank you.”
“This way. Name’s John, by the way.” His grin returned.
Oh God—I’d recognized him. Glass chewing man. He had a name now.
I am ashamed to admit that I tried not to speak to him too much on the way to his cabin, despite his doing me a kindness. It’s so much harder to face death with names and histories attached. I remained standing outside his cabin door, looking incredibly guilty as he emerged and set into my hand the flashlight. When I turned it on, it sent a floodlight straight down the corridor one end to the other. In addition to this useful tool, the encounter brought a critical insight.
His clothes. Glass chewing involved a different outfit. So, the catastrophe would not strike tonight.
Pool deck
After brushing roughly a billion COLD hands, as the overnight crowd began thinning, I took myself out to a lounger (being unwilling to overnight in my cabin wreathed in the fumes of my own chargrilled corpse).
Voices woke me in the dead of night.
The moon and stars offered the only illumination over the pitch sea, and I shambled groggily to the rail. It struck me that the wind had died—the Seastar was stationary.
Out on the pale peaks of waves, a rescue craft bobbed up and down.
“Looks like some idiot went overboard,” complained a voice behind me.
A cluster of passengers had gathered. One—with the authority of an experienced cruiser—mentioned the possibility of a suicide jumper. “It shouldn’t affect our itinerary much,” declared the man. “These things happen at sea, you know. After the rescue, he or she—let’s call them Passenger X—will be taken to the infirmary and monitored by security…”
I didn’t hear the rest of his words, because I was too busy smacking my forehead as I burst, “The INFIRMARY!” Good fucking gracious, was my brain already barbecue? I suspected a contagion, yet hadn’t thought to search the infirmary? Snatching up my flashlight, I headed downstairs, but the lower decks were cordoned off.
A jovial crewman explained that passenger access was restricted during rescue operations.
“Also, it’s three in the morning,” he added, sipping coffee from a styrofoam cup. “The infirmary will open—I think around eight?”
“Which deck?”
“Deck two.” He gladly explained the layout when I asked. The lower decks also included crew quarters, a crew lounge, mess hall, the engine room, kitchens, food storage, the “highway” used for quickly trafficking trolleys from one end of the ship to the other, the infirmary, various machinery rooms, a brig, a morgue—“We mostly use it for like, chilling flowers and stuff like that though,” he added with a grin. There was also a third staircase near the stern of the ship—the aft stairwell—used regularly only by staff but opened to passengers in cases of emergency.
As he rattled off this list, I could feel myself plunging deeper into despair. This ship was so enormous, and so much of what lay below was off limits to passengers. Furthermore, there were no windows below! How was I going to make my way in the blackout? Even with John’s flashlight, the prospect was daunting.
But first things first, Cass, I told myself. The infirmary.
Infirmary
At 8am sharp I stepped into the infirmary. The waiting room was as ordinary as they come, complete with boring magazines and cheap office chairs and—because it was deep in the interior—pitch dark to my sleep-deprived eyes.
“Morning, Sweetie! How can I help you today?” The secretary at the front desk tipped her head toward me, revealing a glimpse of another face beneath my flashlight—mouth gaping and mangled, every tooth pulled out. Blissfully unaware that she was sharing her chair with her own corpse, the secretary smiled and gave me a clipboard of paperwork for check in.
While I filled out the forms by flashlight, footsteps shuffled near the desk, and the secretary struck up a conversation with someone I assumed was a nurse. My ears pricked when they gossiped about last night.
“… did you hear about the rescue? When they pulled him out of the water, he wasn’t breathing...”
I pretended to be engrossed in the forms.
“… As soon as they revived him, he started screaming and screaming.”
“Oh my god… seriously?”
“Yeah, and he was like, super aggressive. They had to sedate him.”
“Oh my god…”
“It’s really weird… they’re saying he might have come from another ship, and it might’ve been, like… days… that he was out on the water!”
So this Passenger X who was pulled in last night had just been drifting out on the ocean? He wasn’t a jumper? And he was “screaming and screaming”—like, perhaps, someone maddened? I was about to abandon my forms and search for this Passenger X when the secretary all but gave me a heart attack by materializing in front of me out of the dark. She took the paperwork and informed me the nurse was ready. I was directed to a small examination room—one of three, I noted as I swept my beam around the infirmary. Examining tables, chairs, computers. No sign of any screaming passenger. Where would they have brought him?
The nurse, a young woman in a hijab, asked me the typical questions, typing my responses into a computer with a cracked, dead screen.
“Is he all right? The man who was rescued?” I asked. “Was he drifting long?”
She responded pertly, “We’re still trying to ascertain. But don’t worry, he’s being helped—um….” Her brow scrunched as she shone a light into each of my eyes.
Of course. I forgot to warn her.
“That’s so strange…” she murmured. “Are you wearing contact lenses?”
“No. My eyes are very black. Even under a flashlight they don’t reflect any light. They’ve been that way since I was four years old. I was dead for nearly an hour from drowning, but revived, and everything came back normal except for my eyes.” I’d always believed my horrific visions were the result of my near-death experience, as if I wasn’t supposed to come back, and brought a little bit of death with me, just in my eyes.
“Wow! What a wild story!” The nurse exclaimed.
“You have no idea,” I replied, looking at her corpse peering out at me from under the examination table, all jammed around the base.
A knock on the door cut our exam short before I could warn her (not that it would make any difference). She asked me to wait for a few moments and stepped out.
When she did not immediately return, I slipped away in search of Passenger X.
Highway
The moment I stepped out of the infirmary and away from the nearby elevator lounge, it became evident I’d left the passenger areas. All veneer of luxury was stripped away, leaving bare walls interrupted only by occasional stacks of boxes. The flashlight’s wide beam swept along the massive corridor that I was guessing was the “highway.” My footsteps resounded on concrete. Nothing but sterile, windowless white—or at least it had been white, once.
I tried not to look too closely at the crimson streaking the walls or the corpses I stepped over. The origin of the contagion was definitely down here. Even through the napkin held over my nose, I could taste death here—
Hello? What was this?
In one section of the corridor, the walls and floor had rippled. Almost as if a shockwave had left indentations, bending and shattering the concrete. But what could have done that?
The lights flickered.
I froze.
It wasn’t my flashlight’s beam. That remained steady. The lights—the overhead lights—flickered, casting the hall in blinking flashes of crimson streaks and white walls.
Then the lights came on.
All the bodies vanished.
“Oh,” I said, blinking against the sudden brightness. “Oh.” The smell was gone, too. No scent of death. Though there was something else. A strangely metallic, tangy smell. Like lightning and copper.
I shut off my flashlight, turning a slow circle as I gawked at the stark white walls, the flat gray floor, the dazzling fluorescent lighting so bright it almost blinded me. It struck me that I was seeing the ship right now. Not six days in the future, but NOW, before the blackout, before the outbreak. The same whitewashed hallway as all the other passengers saw.
Why? What had happened to my vision? Had I lost my special sight? Or—
Someone was standing in the corridor.
I froze.
The hairs on my neck prickled, and a knot of dread twisted my gut.
The man stood halfway down the highway, slouched and bedraggled. His clothes were crushed and faded, hanging off him like from hangers of bone. His limp hair draped in messy curls around his unshaven face. And his eyes—those eyes! The same eyes I’d seen looking at me from the deep end of a public swimming pool when I was just a child. The same eyes I’d seen staring emptily from John’s glass-chewing corpse, and from the mangled nurse under the table. All the dead have the exact same look in their eyes. One glance at those pale blue orbs—
This man was dead. I was certain of it.
Yet he was standing.
“You,” I said. “You… are you the passenger who—”
The dead man’s lips spread, baring teeth in what might have been a sick imitation of a grin, or a grimace.
“HEY!!!”
I jumped as a voice called out behind me.
An officer in a security uniform strode out from an unmarked door, eyes on the dead man. The security officer said, “Ma’am, stay back.” His gaze never left the dead man. “Sir, if you could please come with me—”
“No!” I cried. “Don’t!”
But the security officer was already marching forward, and the dead man’s hands lifted in stiff parody of surrender. He turned and began shuffling away under the officer’s escort. And then—his teeth bared. Suddenly the dead man had his arm around the officer, mouth clamping on his ear as the officer howled. He was eating him—no, tongue wriggling—licking him?
—whispering?
The officer shoved the dead man aside and collapsed against the wall. I rushed forward, but skidded to a halt as the dead man’s grinning face turned toward me. Terror seized me at the sudden revelation that I was next. He took a wobbly step—
The lights shut off.
Swearing, I fumbled for my flashlight. Switched on the beam. Shrieked when it fell across a hand—but it was just the security officer reaching for me, asking, “Hey—hey, are you all right, Ma’am?” He winced, rubbing at his ear like a dog bothered by a whistle only it could hear. Then he said into his phone, “He assaulted me and got away. I’ve got another passenger here—”
The stench wafted back. Gore once again splattered the walls. I was once more seeing six days into the future, and clapped my napkin to my mouth to stop myself from retching at the return of the smell. But I wasn’t really thinking about all that.
No, because my heart slammed my ribs and my breath ripped ragged from my throat, and every hair stood on end as if I’d been struck by lightning. Whatever it was the crew of the Seastar had hauled from the ocean, it certainly hadn’t been living when they “rescued” it. And the proof was in those overhead lights. Merely being in proximity to Passenger X, my vision had been pulled into the present. Like he was a magnet drawing my sight into his field. But if death was the thing my black, lightless eyes usually glimpsed, then what exactly was Passenger X? And if he could affect my vision, not to mention animating a dead man’s corpse… how was I going to have any hope of stopping him?
[Part 1] [Part 2]

Okay so, I was born in Canada in 1994. Ive always had memories of my past life basically my whole life, I always remembered distinctly being a gay jewish man from Chicago, I was born sometime in the 60s or possibly late 50s, I have a few vague memories of being a small child, Random stuff like going to the bakery with who I remembered as my "mom", standing in the hallway of a house with her, getting ice cream from a vendor with some other kids.
I remember meeting A man in a bar when I was In my early 20s and leaving with him, unfortunately I can't really remember what he looked like, just that he was white and wasn't old but wasnt particularly young either and he was taller than me. I'm pretty sure I was murdered, I don't know if it was him or someone else or how or where I was murdered, but I'm pretty sure it involved my skull and sulfuric acid and I'm pretty sure I drove somewhere shortly before.
Unrelated to my death things I can remember: There was something about a coffee shop, I can't remember what I did for work but i remember that I liked my job and was friends with everyone there, and getting stuck mopping the floor was my least favourite part, I remember having a little fluffy white dog at some point, liked to draw and liked sports, particularly baseball and bowling. I can't remember what my face looked like but I can remember my torso a little bit, skinny and somewhat fit and I had light brown skin. I think I had a sister or a bestfriend that was a girl, young with dark shoulder length hair, I remember standing on a balcony with her, with a super crappy view that just faced another building lol. And I can remember the inside of a friend's apartment from the front door, there were 3 other men there, one of them was angry and yelling because one of the other men didn't want to sleep with him.
I'm probably leaving out a bunch of stuff, but those are the main things I guess. I've tried to look it up a few times but haven't really been able to find anything that matches up, would love to know what you guys think and if you have any ideas! -Also I was trying my best to sum this up and keep it relatively short, I can elaborate more if anyone wants that lol.

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Raven

(Spotlight guest-written by bluelookslikeblue)
Name: Rachel Roth
Created by: Marv Wolfman and George Perez
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26
Affiliation: Titans
Previous Affiliations: Teen Titans, Sentinels of Magic, Night Force, Team Wonder, Justice League Dark
Allies: Beast Boy, Nightwing, Donna Troy, Cyborg, Starfire, Arsenal, Tempest, both Wally Wests, Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark), Superboy (Conner Kent), Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Woman, Shazam, Booster Gold
Powers: Pretty much whatever combination of teleportation, empathic healing, soul-self projection, flight, telepathy, telekinesis, emotional manipulation, mind control, and vaguely defined magical energy the writer feels like that day.

Origins:

Raven’s story begins with her mother, Angela Roth. Angela made the unfortunate decision to join a satanic cult, leading to an even more unfortunate encounter with Trigon, a genocidal demon rapist. One failed abortion/suicide later, Angela and her daughter were taken in by the monks of Azarath, a pacifistic magical realm which accidentally created Trigon in the first place. Taking on Trigon’s daughter was a matter of controversy in Azarath and there was at least one assassination attempt on the infant half-demon. Angela took the name Arella and learned some of the Azarathian mystic arts. The child named Raven was taken to be raised by the Goddess Azar.
Azar determined that Raven could be possessed by Trigon and/or destroy the universe if she lost control of her emotions. Thus, Arella was told to surrender her child to Azar to train and raise. Azar raised Raven in isolation, training her to purge herself of emotion and rarely permitting contact with others including her own mother. The result was a child about as socially well-adjusted as you’d expect someone denied emotions, love, or any contact with kids her own age whatsoever. Upon Azar’s death, Raven’s training fell to Arella. Although mother and daughter eventually grew close, their relationship was somewhat hampered by Raven’s insularity and emotional stuntedness. On her thirteenth birthday, Trigon revealed himself as her father. He tortured her mother and demanded Raven take his place at his side. She refused and lashed out in hatred, her darker side manifesting as her soul-self for the first time. Satisfied that his daughter had inherited his power and rage, Trigon departed, warning that he would return once Raven became a woman.

New Teen Titans:

When Raven was eighteen, Trigon returned to destroy the Earth. Deeming this outcome unacceptable, she implored the priests of Azarath to intervene but they refused, believing it to be a violation of their pacifist beliefs. Moving on to Plan B, she fled to Earth and asked the Justice League for help but was declined as Zatanna sensed Trigon’s taint on her and told her teammates that Raven was probably evil. Refusing to give up, she went to Plan C and haunted the dreams of Dick Grayson - then still Robin - until he agreed to reform the Teen Titans with her chosen members. She was able to convince Donna Troy (then Wonder Girl), Beast Boy (then going by Changeling), and Cyborg to join but was turned down by Wally West (then Kid Flash). Unwilling to take no for an answer at this point, Raven secretly made Wally fall in love with her using her empathic magic, causing him to join. She then led them to the rescue of their final member, the alien warrior Starfire who was captured by Gordanian slavers.
Raven’s early days with the Titans did not go well. Her pacifism made her useless in fights and her refusal to give a straight answer to anything and tendency to disappear immediately upon getting what she needed made her teammates question her trustworthiness. Things were further complicated when the other Titans were killed and Raven had to go back in time with Booster Gold to covertly fix the timeline. Upon Zatanna’s revelation that Raven had turned Wally’s brains to scrambled eggs so he would do her bidding, her teammates decided they had enough and refused to put up with her anymore. To make matters worse, Trigon arrived to destroy the world and easily defeated her estranged teammates. Raven teleported them to Azarath before they could be killed and begged her mother and the priests of Azarath for help but was again declined. When Trigon appeared and once more defeated the Titans, Raven moved on to Plan D and agreed to go with him in exchange for the safety of the Earth and the lives of the Titans. Trigon accepted her offer and took Raven with him to his realm. He then promptly murdered a child and announced his intent to destroy the Earth anyway. Distraught by the loss of her daughter, Arella agreed to take the Titans to Trigon in order to rescue Raven but the teens were defeated again and imprisoned. However, Raven was able to free her teammates and together they were able to weaken Trigon with Arella sacrificing herself to imprison Trigon in another dimension.
Raven enrolled in college and continued to serve with the New Teen Titans despite an awkward and occasionally tense relationship with Wally West, forming an odd friendship with the extroverted and impulsive Starfire. While continuing to espouse pacifism and pursuing non-violence when possible, Raven came to the conclusion that knocking people out with her soul-self, controlling minds, and the occasional act of psychological torture was okay and robots and monsters shouldn’t count anyway and thus proved surprisingly useful in many fights. During this period, the Teen Titans would face off against many supervillains such as Deathstroke, the Brotherhood of Evil, and the Fearsome Five. However, none would prove as troublesome to the young heroes as Brother Blood, whose cunning, charisma, and arcane mastery would put the Titans on the off-foot time and time again. Although Raven would come to be a valued member of the team, Trigon’s corrosive influence led to her gradual physical and mental degradation which was exacerbated by her fear of reaching out to others for help. Eventually, Trigon escaped captivity and almost caused the apocalypse with a corrupted Raven as his minion. The Teen Titans ultimately thwarted Trigon with the help of Raven’s mother and Lilith Clay. Raven’s body was nowhere to be found.
The Titans thought this a bit weird but didn’t make finding her their number one priority. This proved to be a bit of a whoopsie-doodles as she was captured and brainwashed by Brother Blood first. Nightwing would eventually come looking for her but was himself captured. Blood would defeat the Titans and came to the cusp of taking over the world before Raven broke free of his control and stopped him. With Trigon seemingly dead, Brother Blood’s brainwashing purged, and her soul purified, Raven was free to be herself for the first time in her life. Rejoining the Titans, the now-white cloaked Raven was thrilled to finally be free of any malign influence and became the embodiment of sweetness and light. Unfortunately, this sunny outlook was not to last. Kid Flash’s replacement Jericho became evil and caused her to be corrupted by evil spirits. Once more falling to demonic possession, Raven proceeded to engage in various acts of villainy. However, the good part of Raven secretly planted herself in Starfire and helped her friends kill her body and defeat her evil self.

Time Dead:

Raven’s re-purified spirit spent most of this period hanging around as a golden ghost, occasionally assisting the Titans when necessary. For a while Detective Comics Comics forgot she was dead and she served on the Sentinels of Magic alongside various other mystical heroes such as Zatanna, Alan Scott, and Madame Xanadu. Then it remembered and unceremoniously threw her back in the grave without explanation.

A Second Chance at Life:

Raven would be resurrected in a younger body by the new Brother Blood, a sniveling teenage aspiring rapist who was the son of the previous Brother Blood. Brother Blood Junior wanted to force Raven to marry him as part of a plan to end the world. Raven was not fond of this development and tried to escape. Upon being caught and recaptured, her subconscious magically reached out to Beast Boy via a haunting and took control of him in order to lead the latest iteration of the Teen Titans to her location. With his help, she broke free of Brother Blood’s control. Once more plagued by her darker half as a result of Brother Blood’s rituals and believing herself to be a danger to her friends, Raven prepared to depart but was encouraged by Beast Boy to rejoin the Titans, now consisting of himself, fellow veterans Starfire and Cyborg, and new members Cassie Sandsmark, Conner Kent, and Tim Drake. Raven would renounce her pacifism and help her friends mentor the younger members of the team, helping Tim come to terms with the death of his father and encouraging Conner to believe that he was more than the worst parts of his heritage after the discovery that he was a partial clone of Lex Luthor. She would also begin a rocky on and off again romance with Beast Boy. While Raven was drawn to his kindness, her lack of openness and his immaturity would lead to many rough patches in their relationship. Raven attempted to establish a civilian secret identity as Rachel Roth but it is questionable how secret it really was after Beast Boy visited her in the belief nobody would recognize him if he showed up in disguise as a green bear.
When Trigon returned, Raven reunited with her old New Teen Titans teammates and defeated him but was once more nearly overtaken by her evil side. Although able to prevail over her inner darkness, Raven was badly shaken by the experience and became even more insular and withdrawn. Believing herself to be a danger to her friends, she broke up with Beast Boy and attempted to push him away through meanness for his own safety. However, events would see them once again working together mentoring younger heroes on the Teen Titans. The pair would eventually reconcile, with Beast Boy growing in maturity and Raven resolving to get in touch with her emotions and embrace the good in life as well as the bad. Reaffirming their love, the two shared a passionate kiss and were ready to move on, optimistic about their future together.

The New 52:

Because Barry Allen missed his mom, the entire timeline was rebooted and all of the previous history and character development was lost because Dan DiDio said so. In the new timeline, most of her early life was basically the same except this time Rachel was her birth name. However, this time she had to flee Azarath at age sixteen to escape Trigon. While hiding on Earth, Rachel would attempt to do good, using her empathic powers to secretly comfort suffering people but was betrayed by the Phantom Stranger and handed over to her father who renamed her Raven. Forced to become Trigon’s servant, Raven committed various atrocities before being planted on the Teen Titans as a mole. Beast Boy was red for a bit before turning green again for unexplained reasons. Bart was actually Bar-Torr, a war criminal from the future. Raven broke free of her father’s control due to time travel shenanigans. It was a weird time. Following a lot of bad comics, the team disbanded and Raven sought out her mother’s family and enrolled in high school, hoping to reconnect with her human side.

Rebirth:

Due to events featuring the older, white Wally West and a naked blue man, it turned out that five years were erased from the timeline and there was a previous Titans team led by Dick Grayson. As a result, there were now two Titans teams, the Titans led by Dick Grayson, and the Teen Titans, now led by Damian Wayne. Raven was shanghaied into the Teen Titans via kidnapping by Damian alongside her old teammate Beast Boy, the younger, African-American Wally West and Starfire. Raven did not do much of note during this period. She briefly made an ill-advised decision to throw in with an insane Tim Drake from the future alongside Beast Boy, as they determined that even a Tim Drake without all his marbles was preferable to Damian. She also did a few cool things during the Dark Nights: Metal Wild Hunt tie-in issue where she was decidedly unimpressed by the angsty darkness of evil Batmen. Monkeys were involved. DC tried putting Raven in a relationship with Wallace the Younger but changed its mind. As a result, they officially began dating in an issue of Teen Titans and were mentioned to have broken up off-panel in an issue of The Flash that came out the same day. She was then abducted by aliens and took part in the events of No Justice where she was part of a Wonder Woman-led team of mystics before having a few solo adventures stopping Trigon again and briefly leading a group of magically powered teens associated with the morally dubious Baron Winters. After this, she was ambiguously aged up alongside Beast Boy and placed on Dick Grayson’s adult Titans team where she was drawn as older and written as more mature and having a preexisting friendship as Nightwing but nothing was explicitly retconned. Raven lost her soul-self early in her tenure with this team along with most of her powers and ability to feel emotions due to trickery by an elf. She would eventually recover it and save the universe from the villainous Mother Blood alongside Beast Boy with the two friends saving each others’ lives during the final battle.

The Present:

Because in another universe Batman is a clown, Wonder Woman had a conversation with Perpetua after a bunch of nonsense that I am not going to waste time on what happened and continuity changed again. Raven is now in her mid to late twenties and has achieved greater mastery of her powers than ever before. Her background is currently hazy with something vaguely approximating the events of New Teen Titans having occurred several years in the past with some details changed. (eg: Cyborg was a member of the Justice League before joining the Teen Titans.) More information regarding Raven’s current origins and backstory will presumably be revealed in the upcoming Tales of the Titans miniseries.
Raven agreed to participate in her fellow former New Teen Titans’ disastrous attempt to run a school for super-teens. It exploded twice in a year before they gave up and called it quits. During this period, Raven mentored Billy Batson and his friend Dane (who was the antichrist), saving the two boys from the clutches of the fallen angel Neron after they made an unauthorized trip to Hell. She would also reignite her relationship with Beast Boy. After Teen Titans Academy blew up the second time during the events of Dark Crisis, Raven proved instrumental in saving the universe, locating Pariah’s magical macguffin as part of a Justice League Dark taskforce and defeating a corrupted Spectre with the assistance of Jim Corrigan. However, victory would not come without a cost, as Beast Boy would become horribly traumatized after an attack by Deathstroke which nearly killed him. Also, Lazarus Planet happened and Trigon came back but nobody cares about Lazarus Planet.
Following the events of Dark Crisis, Raven took her relationship with Beast Boy to the next level, sharing living arrangements with him, helping him cope with his PTSD, and even engaging in public displays of affection with her fuzzy green lover. Raven and Beast Boy agreed to once more serve on the Titans, now tasked with safeguarding the world following the disbanding of the Justice League. One of their first assignments was the safekeeping of Olivia Desmond, a young girl whose soul was claimed by Neron, who had since taken over hell. Raven saw echoes of her past in the young girl and took the matter very personally -much to the concern of her teammates who were disturbed by her willingness to entertain extreme measures to safeguard the child. Determining that the best way to learn how to help Olivia was to go directly to the source of the problem, Raven led the Titans through the depths of hell where Nightwing found the information needed to save Olivia’s soul. While there, she formed an uneasy working relationship with the demon Blaze, who was vying with Neron for control of hell.
Neron proved supremely incompetent and utterly failed at all of his attempts at villainy in an extraordinarily pathetic manner. Trigon showed up to call him a loser, a rare area of agreement between father and daughter. While Neron was easily poofed back to hell by Nightwing in a weakened state through the power of bad writing, Raven deemed this outcome unsatisfactory. Believing Olivia to be unsafe as long as Neron was still at large, Raven returned to hell by herself without consulting her teammates and proceeded to singlehandedly overthrow him through overwhelming violence. She then left a brutalized and comatose Neron to the mercies of Blaze, to whom she handed the leadership of hell. When asked what price she demanded for control of the underworld, Raven informed Blaze that she would call in a favor later but for now she just wanted the Titans left alone by any demonic forces. Blaze agreed to Raven’s terms, warning her that she sensed that Raven was not whole and something was missing…
Raven currently stands at an inflection point. In some ways, she has never had it better. She is more powerful than she has ever been and has reunited with her oldest friends, earned the respect of her peers, and found love. However, her decision to meddle in hell’s affairs may prove her downfall, earning her powerful enemies and encouraging dark impulses she has long tried to suppress. What happens next may determine whether she will finally rise above her tragic past or fall into damnation forever. Whatever the future may hold for the Daughter of Darkness, the return of her father and the rise of a new Brother Blood suggests that it is not going to be easy.

Recommended Readings:

Those interested in Raven’s classic adventures should check out New Teen Titans (1980) and Teen Titans (2003).
Those who want to see a crossover with Marvel written by Chris Claremont should read The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans if they can find a copy.
Those who think I am making the bit with Booster Gold up should read Booster Gold (2007), issues 23-24.
Her solo adventures during the New 52 and Rebirth eras can be found in Marv Wolfman’s Raven (2016) and Raven: Daughter of Darkness (2018).
To get caught up on where she is currently, read Nightwing (2016) 100-104, then Titans (2023) and her upcoming issue in Tales of the Titans.
She also stars in Kami Garcia’s popular YA novels Raven and Beast Boy Loves Raven, which are illustrated by fan favorite artist Gabriel Picolo.

This happened just very recently today and frankly, was both amusing and saddening situation.
Backstory: This person, a man, has been my language learning partner for about a year. Mainly our conversations have been very casual - occasionally he would send me photos of his dinner or of different places he visited. I always assumed that we were just friends as there never was any flirting between us. I never really felt a big cultural difference between us - we didn't really chat about religion, politics or anything that would turn into a cultural war. Just general "oh, this is how you do *that*? Funny, we do *that* so differently" and then laugh about it.
So you can imagine that what happened today was 100% unexpected. I was feeling good this morning so, I wanted to take few new selfies and at the same time update my profile photos on different platforms. It wasn't long after I received a message from him stating that "the glasses really don't make you look good".
Previously I've had most of my photos taken without the glasses as I didn't really like how they looked. However, I have really liked my new glasses and felt confident about wearing them. I never really considered the photos without glasses as cat fishing as my face otherwise remained the same. Perhaps I've been wrong about this?
Anyway, I thought he was joking at first, but as I explained my bad eyesight and the fact that I liked these new glasses he became very persistent. He continued repeatedly telling me how much older I looked. Not old as "mature and classy" but old as an old and ugly grandma. He then suggested I should re-take the photo without glasses.
Obviously, I got frustrated. I found him repeating the same line very rude. He wasn't being typically polite either, his language was very blunt. I told him 1. he doesn't need to look at the photo so closely if it bothers him so much 2. I liked this photo (honestly the only thing that mattered). 3. I've had several photos without glasses so this was for a change. After all, that's me in the photo and that's my appearance most of the time (being kind of generous here, I wouldn't put that much effort into my looks on daily basis).
Then he completely flipped - he accused me of not ever listening to his advice, that he only wanted what was "the best for me" and how I was too stubborn and hard headed. He was also referring to our older convo of me talking about a sensitive topic and how "I would just keep on repeating the same mistakes". On top of that he ended his message with "Goodbye forever".
What the heck just happened??? Did I just lose "a friend" over something so stupid? Was he even a friend to begin with? And why on earth he would think his "advice" would be appreciated when I never asked any advice to begin with????
I guess the trash took itself out. Yet, I feel saddened for many reasons. Even if he wanted to be helpful he completely missed the mark - I never asked for his opinion about the matter and moreover, the way he said it sounded very... controlling? As in " I don't like how you look at this photo so change it", which is ridiculous especially since the photo is not even offensive! It is just me.
But hey, I guess women are illogical and emotional or whatever.

Foundations of Humanity 29 (Healing Words) - an NoP fanfic
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Thank you u/SpacePaladin15 for establishing the Nature of Predators Universe, and for allowing Fanfics to flourish! Thank you again, u/Braquen, u/Acceptable_Egg5560, u/BiasMushroom721, and last but not least u/Liberty-Prime76 for proofreading! This is my side of the Nature of a Giant crossover!
First -- Previous -- Next
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Memory transcription subject: Valek, Venlil tourist
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 11th, 2136. Middle of 3rd Claw
Tarlim was the first to see me as I marched toward the table, tossing the still-open pad into its center.
“Predator Disease is anything! Whatever they need to put you away!” I cried, vacillating between grief and outrage while Tarlim looked through my research.
“They don't work! None of them do! Hundreds are being thrown into those facilities for everything from active murder, to jaywalking,” And Tarlim met my gaze, “to complaints. Complaints! The most positive source said ‘a dozen cured every year’. From a sample of hundreds! No names! No sources! Just their word and a ‘trust me, bro!’ And that’s only maybe from the ‘jaywalking’ section, not even the people who need real help!”
I pulled my ears down taut, embracing the pain to distract my panic, blind to Alvi’s desperate attempts to calm and comfort me. “The facilities don't help anyoneI But every one of them punishes, no, tortures Venlil for something they cannot control or choose. Not criminals, not those who did something, just… just so many people who did nothing wrong! Who had no record beyond a-a single half-shorn screening!!"
I stopped to breathe, my voice faltering as I started again, “And we sent you there. I checked, you did nothing! Not even a complaint! The only charge on your record, even according to that pro-exterminator trash ‘Moralen’s Pred Guide,’ was ‘resisting arrest’; whatever the brahk that’s supposed to mean. You were only barely an adult, and… we still sent you there. I’m… I don’t… I’m so sorry, Tarlim. I won’t plead innocence; we did this. Our people, all of us, failed you in the most impossible, embarrassing way. I’m…”
You’re what?? Sorry?!
My body went limp as I felt the weight of my people’s sins against all of us, distilled into this Person’s real experience. “No. Just a sad ‘sorry’ doesn’t even begin to make up for what happened to you. I don't know how to make this right, or if it’s even possible to do so at this point. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I looked up at him. At Tarlim. He… he had begun breathing erratically, short and fast, tossing his chest wool about. His ears twitching in fear. Had- had I said something wrong? I saw Alvi lean towards him with worry in her affect. “Hey, you okay?”
Tarlim didn’t show any sign of having heard. He grabbed onto his knees and pulled them to his chest. Jacob stood and began running his hand along Tarlim’s back. I didn’t know what to do! How do I fix this? Should I do something? Wait? I-
I heard a chime coming from Tarlim’s shoulder pack. As soon as it was heard, it was like he transformed. The look of panic and confusion was replaced by a determined calm as he began taking steady breaths. He seemed to be coming around again.
Maeve leaned forward, looking uncertain at her words. “It’s alright Tarlim. We are here with you. You’re not alone. ”
“C’mon buddy, you got this.”
A murmur, too small for a Venlil of his size, “Th-Thank you.” Then Tarlim’s ears swiveled back to me, “Valek… you… you are the first to say that. To really say that, and to mean it, too.”
My tail swayed in honest joy, while I closed my eyes to give him comfort, as he started again, choking on phlegm brought on by tears,
“It has been years since my lawsuit. In that time, I can count the people who supported me on one paw. One paw!” He held up four claws for emphasis. “They helped me get on my feet. Let me release my feelings. And just… they were there for me. They gave sympathy, but you…” I panted, trying to control my breathing. “You didn’t. You called me dangerous. Feared me. You were… you were them.” He swept his arms at the oblivious crowd below, “In all those years, all that time, nobody, not one, had ever apologized. Not sincerely.”
I tried to show kindness and welcome, happy to have another friend. “You’re a good person Tarlim. I know I won’t be the last.”
…
A short silence fell over us all, before Maeve spoke up, “Not to give conversational whiplash, but absolutely to change the subject: What do you think about Venlil Cuisine, Jacob? I am quite partial to the Juicefruit, even if I need a small towel for every bite.”
“Good subject change,” he took a drink of his soda and set it on the table. “There’s this thing that translates to Firefruit, and it’s amazing! Got this nice zest like a lime but a sweet spice like a jalapeño! Its juice goes great on a lot of things!”
“Oh then you may like this,” she shifted a plate of fried veg across the table, “This one is fried Deeproot. It’s got quite a ginger kick to it, but the fry brings out a lot of sweet too!”
Tarlim’s affect softened as we spoke on kinder things. “Deeproot? That’s rather tasty.” He uncurled himself and swung his ears genially, “Have you… have you been on the planet long?”
Maeve met my eye, and pulled Alvi onto her lap, her voice taking on a wistful remembrance, “Feels like a new life… but my calendar says just over two weeks! A lot has changed since I walked on the station.” Her voice trailed off, while my tail flicked comfort and Alvi leaned her weight against Maeve.
Tarlim continued his curiosity and asked Maeve, “So what do you think of our planet? Apart from the… poor welcoming.”
Maeve waved her hand dismissively, “Oh those poor pups were just doing as nature intended; honestly it just made your planet more familiar! Really that’s the surprising thing, despite twenty lightyears across the galaxy, everything is still so familiar! You have trees that remind me of the Redwoods, you have cities that are just like ours, if shinier, and Alvi here worked in customer service!” She ruffled Alvi’s crown affectionately. “I never imagined I would feel so at home on another world!”
I stepped back from the conversation and helped myself to what was left of the food, enjoying the sharp tang of the Deeproot.
Maeve breathed a contented sigh under her veil, before facing Jacob, “How about you, Jacob? How are you handling the planet?”
Jacob finished another drink of his soda. “Ah would say that outside of the station incident, it has been going well. After we’re done here, ah am going to be getting my own apartment to live in since Tarlim’s isn’t big enough!” He snorted in amusement. “Don’ worry about me living in an apartment. Ah have mah ways of winning people over.” He picked up the last of his fried dough. “Relatedly, be careful with Venlil drinks. Their ‘lite beer’ is our equivalent to distilled whiskey.”
Maeve laughed lightly, “Glad to see they know how to party! It’s an equal trade though, what they call an ‘energy drink’ is on par with weak tea. I was so glad my handler got me a 10lb bag of beans and a french press.”
“Lite beer? What do you guys consider strong?” Alvi asked, and I had to agree with her concerned tone.
“Tarlim called it distilled Ipsom,” Jacob responded. “60% alcohol. That’s pretty strong fer most humans. Our whiskey is usually 40-50%. What about y’all? What do you call strong?”
Alvi perked up, excited to share one of her happy memories, “I used to hang out at The Roost when I was in the capital, and they kept a bottle of 90% behind the counter for Venlil only: distilled and fermented Goji juice, aged in Nishtalian hardwood casks. It was really good, but I’ve had stronger.” I had to admire how proud she was to say that. Even I would struggle at that amount!
Jacob leaned back, his shoulders tense with surprise. “Jeezus! And this is just drinkable Ethanol, right? Not Methanol?”
I recoiled at the awful memory of my first time with Methanol. That disgusting stuff? Blech!
“Ew, no, I hate the taste it leaves on your tongue. And after what happened at my 16th, I’m not touching that stuff any time soon.” Alvi seemed to share in my distaste for that glorified spoiled speh.
“Yeah,” Tarlim chimed in between sips of his Sprunk, “I hear the Zurulians experiment with drinking that stuff specifically, but it seems to be just them. Even they don’t usually drink at our level.”
“That’s incredible!” Maeve chimed in, “That stuff makes us go blind. Doesn’t stop people from homebrewing it anyway though.”
My tail flicked in concern; I mean, methanol is bad, but were humans so frail that it would make them go blind?
Tarlim, however, seemed somehow amused! “You guys are crazy. Why would you do something that would cause you to be disabled?”
“I never said we were smart!” Maeve, to my astonishment, laughed along with Jacob. “Seriously though, it's complicated. The insultingly short version is: humans experimented with alcohol for literally our entire history, some post industrial nits thought it was evil and banned it, so people made their own. Bootlegging Moonshine became its own culture, even the not so smart parts, so methanol based drinks are still around.”
“But seriously though, to turn blind.” Tarlim’s voice was full of worry, and his tail didn’t hide it. “Why do something that would cause them to be cast out?”
“Cast out??”
A silence fell over the table, while Maeve and Jacob watched Tarlim, who began to shrink under their gazes. I hadn’t been expecting this reaction; wouldn’t humans do the same? Isn’t that what… Wait. Maeve wouldn’t, not in a million years! Why did I think that humans would do this?
“Why,” Jacob asked, “would you think we would cast someone out?”
“B-because that’s what… we… oh Speh!” Tarlim did his best to bury his face in his paws, and I hid behind my ears. “Why did I think that? It isn’t true- of course it isn’t! The exterminators said it! Gods!”
“Yeah,” Jacob said as he shook his head slowly, “that ain’t what we do. We try to help them live as normal a life as possible.”
“Yeah,” Maeve agreed. “We teach them how to use guiding sticks, give correctional implants, or help them learn braille!”
That last word caught my attention. The translator seemed to struggle with it, saying it was some form of communication for people who couldn’t see, but not how. “Braille? What’s that? The translator didn’t quite get it.”
“It’s a kind of writing.” Maeve explained, “Little bumps whose patterns translate to a letter. A blind person can pass their fingers over the bumps to feel the pattern and thus read through their hands.”
“Don’t y’all have something similar?” Jacob directed his question at Tarlim, “you told me once that the Xeno-what’s it hospital.” He twirled his hand dismissively, “You said it had classes. Don’t they teach stuff like that there?”
“Those…” Tarlim spoke up, then hesitated. “Those classes are for families. Teaching them how to care for their herd members. Not for… us.”
Jacob shook his head. “Okay? Ah mean, that’s fine fer families, but what about someone without one? Or if they go somewhere the rest of their herd doesn’t?”
"It depends on the family," Alvi added her voice, "some will go without to stay with the weak, but some will just…" Her ears fell, "leave them. And for those that don't have… don't have a herd they…"
A deep sadness drifted from the Giant, “Sleep on the streets.”
“Bullshit!” Jacob slammed his hand against his table. “I’m not gonna lie and say we humans don’t have homeless, but no support if they don’t have a family or herd? None? What about shelters? Food banks? Those… those bunkers everybody evacuated to in panic!”
“We have food banks!” I piped up, wishing to add some hope to the gloom, “We don’t let people just starve! If people are tight on money, they are completely free to visit one of the social centers or food banks! They have services there to match you with a herd, and sometimes they give community service. It's considered pre-disease treatment.” But I couldn’t ignore the Tarlim in the room. "Sometimes people fall through the cracks. And sometimes, as I just learned… they are dropped through."
"Oh my god…" Maeve sighed, her face pointed at nothing.
“Hold it. Pre-disease?” Jacob’s voice dripped with skepticism. “So you're saying that someone visiting one of those places would be saying they have your Predator Disease?”
I answered immediately, "Not necessarily. It is more supposed to prevent herdless behavior. I've never been in the system, though, so I don't know what it looks like inside."
“It’s a big room.” I wince at Tarlim’s tone as he interrupts. “A bunch of bunk beds crammed together in the center with Exterminators watching over at all hours as you eat, sleep, and… everything else. Watching for the slightest excuse to cry Predator Disease.” He let out a huff of distaste. “When I was in the facility, there were five inmates who tried to stick around me despite what the faculty said.” He stared directly at me as he said the final words. “Three of them were snatched in one of those places. There’s a reason I slept in the streets.”
“But… but they wouldn’t…”
I remember the photo. I remember the corruption on Emerald Marble. I remember the testimony from Clegal Falls. So many children, abandoned by their families.
"Who am I kidding. I want so badly to believe we aren't like that, but…" I pointed despondently at my pad in the center of the table.
"It's ok, Valek, this is actually familiar to us." Maeve's voice soothed my melancholy, as she tried to rub my head with her elbow, "We haven't solved those problems ourselves, but we have made huge strides. Hopefully, more opportunities and less facilities may give them a fighting chance."
“Here’s hoping,” Jacob agreed.
I heard Tarlim sigh, but his tail… wagged?. “And as little as it may be, there is now at least one city with no Facility at all.”
A city with no facility. Somewhere that people with… possible Predator Disease roamed free. For two years. And yet, this place… it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t in chaos. There weren’t people being devoured in the streets at all times. There was… there was nothing. Just a normal city…
How could so few have realized…
“By the way,” my train of thought was interrupted by Jacob’s voice, “bit of a subject change, but Maeve. Are you going to eat any of your food?” He gestured to our plate. “You haven’t even touched that since we arrived.”
Maeve flipped her hand, and her voice was light and kind, "It's quite a pain to eat through this. I'd already had enough before you guys got here, I'll be fine."
Jacob shook his head. “Ah don’t buy that. There’s only one plate in front of you, and it’s only been nibbled.” He leaned forward, placing his elbow on the table. “It’s the teeth thing, isn’t it?”
Tarlim signaled concern, while his ears locked onto Maeve. “Are you not eating just so I don’t see your teeth?”
Maeve was quiet for a moment. She was thinking about her next words, like I had seen so many times before. "... I'm sorry I lied to you, I should have seen you're more comfortable than the average Venlil. Teeth is a part of it, yes, but I have had the most intense reaction from my eyes and hair. I'm red-headed, rather brightly I'll add."
Jacob leaned back in his chair, and chuckled, "Oh, No!"
Tarlim’s affected slid to confusion, "I don't get it, what am I missing?"
"Uhh, there's no easy way to say this bud, but her hair makes it look like she's doused and speckled in Venlil blood."
Of course, there really isn’t a good way to say that. It was the most alarming thing about Maeve when we first met, and Alvi took almost three paws to get used to it! I hoped that Tarlim wouldn’t freak out too badly.
He stared blankly. “Ooookaaay? And why is that a problem?”
Whut.
“Wait,” Alvi was the first to speak, “you aren’t bothered?”
Tarlim cocked his head quizzically, “Why should I be? It’s a fur color. I have seen pictures of Sulians with a pigment that makes them look like the color of our blood.” I could only stare in shock as he simply sipped from his soda. “Don’t starve yourself on my account.”
Ok Tiny, you're laying it on a little thick. You don’t have to be that nonchalant.
My ears focused on him as I called him out, “Alright, how are you so calm about this? Even the braver Venlil on the station were nervous around humans that weren’t their partners. Why aren’t you?”
“Guys, look at me. I tower over all of you. What could they do to me that a prey couldn’t? That…” His whistling laugh dripped with irony, “that a prey hasn’t already done?”
What they… that hasn’t… that has to be the most cynical reason for bravery I’ve heard.
I remembered the video of the station incident. My father’s rifle, ready to fire. The shuttle driver dropping us in the middle of a forest. And through it all, Maeve’s smile never left me.
I joined the four of them in boisterous laughter at the ridiculous reversal of everything I have ever known and been taught. When the world is upside down, what can you do but laugh?
Shortly after, Maeve regained her breath and answered, "I'm glad you can laugh about it! Well, consent given…" and she removed her veil entirely.
I watched as Maeve removed her head covering, marveling at the luscious waves of sunset falling against her shoulder. I couldn’t stop my tail from swaying as I saw her bright smile light up the entire room, and set my heart ablaze; a fire more hungry than any Exterminators’ torch. And in that moment I wanted nothing more than to feel her hair in my paws, scent her salt on my tongue, and hear our jubilations rattle off the walls of wherever we stood. To know her, completely. And maybe ‘biblically’.
Tarlim spoke with certainty, as if stating a fact that was beyond obvious, “You have very nice eyes,” Damn right, she does. And my snout bloomed at the well deserved compliment. “The color reminds me of a freshly sprouted Darkwood leaf.” Tarlim turned his attention to me, “From what I understand, you two are very brave to have seen her without her mask.”
I flapped my ears to shake off my reverie, and I breathed deeply as I remembered how we began. "It took time. We had talked by text for a couple weeks before the meetup, and our introduction in the room went smoothly. But when she took off her hair wrap, I… I could hear the sound of blood on the ground. I tried to dive under the bunk, but I missed. Woke up in the clinic with a nasty bump." and I laid my paw on the place of impact, now well healed.
Jacob chuckled. “You certainly weren't the only one to react by freaking out.” He turned his visor towards Alvi. “What about you?”
"My first time was in the forest." Alvi started, "Maeve was… having a hard time. I caught her eyes when I was trying to talk to her and… I uhh… I fainted!" She pulled her ears in front of her face, "and the second time! We were in Valek's b-" her voice caught in her throat.
I met Alvi’s eye while she sat on Maeve’s lap, reaching out to offer comfort as I picked up her story, "It's ok, Alvi. Our first rest at the farm we were all sharing a bed, Maeve's spare room wasn't finished yet. Maeve's uncovered face was the first thing Alvi saw when she woke, and she locked up. At least we took the opportunity to get used to eye contact."
"How about you two?" Maeve spoke to Tarlim directly, "You mentioned you were from the first wave on Prime Station? I'm glad you both made it out of the attack!"
“Nah,” Jacob waved his hand, palm facing out, “Only one of us was on the station.”
Tarlim sighed in disappointment, “Yeah, I’m certain you can guess why it wasn’t me.”
Maeve sympathetically returned his disappointment, “Ah. I can see why your size would be a prohibitor. Though I’m certain a human would have gotten creative to make a fix. But no use lamenting what is already done. And you, Jacob?” She switched to facing Jacob, and asked through a bite of fried sweetwood. “How did you fare in the attack?”
Jacob shrugged, “ah volunteered to help recover drifters after the raid cause, well, Spacesuit.” he gestured at his sadly un-blue pelts, “But Ah’m sure we can talk about that even more in a bit. Fer now,” he shook the now empty fried dough bags, “Ah don’t think these were filling enough. Do any of y’all have suggestions on what else to eat?”
“Not around here if you’re looking for ‘filling’,” Maeve answered, “If I’m being honest, as delicious as I find their food, everything has been very calorie-light. I would ki-- uh… be very excited for some pasta. This girl needs her carbs!” Her giggle was adorable. I could tell she was about to say something else, but she recovered well.
“Well why not eat some Stringfruit?” Tarlim offered, excited to be helpful, “It’s one of the more dense foods, more content and less juice, and has a good amount of protein inside. Good savory taste, in my opinion. Or maybe some more Bunt leaf salad. Hearty plant. Bit neutral, but that makes it good with just about everything. And even though it’s not my taste, firefruit is a good option for calories.”
I was impressed; He was more familiar with some of our foods than even my parents! Maeve and Jacob looked at him in surprise before he clarified, “I’m big! Need to eat more to fuel my size!”
Maeve lit up in another smile, “I will take those notes! The three of us can check a cafe that we passed on the way. But Jacob, what were your first impressions when you got to Venlil habitations? The smell took some getting used to, but at least it’s not sour…” Her question surfaced memories of her teeth on my neck, and I hoped my bloom wasn’t noticeable.
Tarlim’s ears turned in confusion, “Smell? What scent do you mean?”
Maeve shrugged, “It’s just something I noticed while on the station. Humans have their own scents, some stronger than others, but I noticed that the Venlil are especially thick; might be a consequence of having to taste the air. You, for example, remind me of when I took a nap in a field of honeysuckle.”
In response to Maeve’s words, Tarlim leaned forward for a scenting breath.
It was an interesting part of our biology. While our lack of a physical nose caused many to assume that we Venlil had no sense of smell, that wasn’t quite true. Our mouth and tongue had more taste receptors than most other races, so we could taste the air much like other races could smell it; though we were less sensitive and more specialized. We would be able to discern the difference between fruits one day apart in age, but things like petroleum products were completely scentless to us. Maeve and I had a wonderful conversation about the differences in our biology when that was first brought up.
Tarlim appeared to approve of our choice of shampoo. “Interesting. If multiple people were using the same scented fur-care, I can see how it would be overwhelming at first. But Jacob is going to get his own apartment. We’re just waiting to hear from the magistratta with news. Should be on this paw or the next. I’m sure that sleeping on a couch wouldn’t be an accurate impression.”
“Certainly not,” Jacob agreed. “Just thankful the apartment is tall enough!”
“Yeah, I can stand straight with my ears flat. Barely fitting for me, but good headroom for humans!” Tarlim flattened his ears, mimicking his issues with low ceilings, before laughing amiably.
“But fer now,” Jacob calmly stood from the table, “my stomach demands to be satisfied. Perhaps we could all check out that cafe y’all noticed?”
Alvi’s ears excitedly perked, “That would be fantastic! They had a stringfruit soup bowl with spiceleaf and nightberry on the window that I’d love to try! They're just leeward of the Dome, about two streets over.” Maeve set her down before standing as well.
Tarlim was next to rise, agreeing and swinging their tail in clear joy and friendliness. Maeve and Jacob reapplied their coverings before we all walked as a herd to the exit.
​
First -- Previous -- Next

Hey I'm a cardinal fan (i come in peace), road tripping to the Friday and Saturday games, but accidentally bought tickets to the Sunday game as well, trying to come close to getting my money back, since Seatgeek wouldn't let me return, even thought I realized my mistake 30 seconds after I hit submit.
They're great seats, Section 254, Row 2, seats 1 and 2 (so aisle seats). view It's the Adam Wainwright bobblehead giveaway.
Redbird club is great, access to AC and separate concessions, little classier food, etc.
Face value is $125 per ticket, 272.30 after fees for the pair. (proof)
I paid $123.84 after fees for the pair on seatgeek (proof)
Right now on tickpick, the cheapest cardinal club seats are $47 each all in, but they're top of the section.
Asking $100 for the pair OBO. If you're willing to send me one of the bobbleheads, we could work out a deal to shave some dollars off. I don't post in this sub much (if at all, i think?) but I've got some positive feedback on /HardwareSwap, and also 600+ positive feedback on ebay, if you want that link.
I did my best to follow the sub rules, but if I missed anything, lmk.
Please and thank you.
​
(I checked with mods and they said it was OK to post)

No, the vague question posed in the title isn't to be taken too literally. None of us really know why we're on the planet, living and breathing as we are. Well, maybe some think they do...but how can they be sure?
But, y'know, I mean....why are you reading this post? I want you to tell me why you're looking for whatever this is. Maybe it's as surface as you're bored at work. Maybe you're looking for a distraction. Maybe it's something I could never, ever guess in a bazillion years.
I'm single and I think it would work best if you were, too. East Coast, USA - but you don't have to be in my time zone. I have a career, a hobby or two, people say they like looking at my face 'n stuff. I'd probably like to look at yours, too.
I'm open to a lot of different avenues of conversation. Wanna see where it takes us?

This will be the last statement I ever make before I disappear forever. I’ve heard that this kind of a thing is quite common for those who finally grow a conscious and decide to leave for good. I personally don’t know anyone else apart from a few people I used to work with who knew about this, so here we go. My name isn’t important, but you can call me DD. When I think about it, I’m not important at all, I’m just the messenger or whistleblower, so anything else that would further “incriminate” me isn’t important either. What is important however is this story. It’ll probably be swept under some rug no doubt, that’s the usual approach to these things, the words “conspiracy theorists” has a strong negative vibe to it, we can thank the boys at Langley and the Pentagon for that one. They have been responsible for more cover ups and lies than anyone else on the planet, except for a few. Well anyway, spoiler alert; there’s a derelict object orbiting Ganymede which is one of the moons of Jupiter… Now that I have your attention let’s begin.
I work for NASA. Well, that’s half-truth really, if you saw my real credentials, you would say that I worked for NASA, and that’d be that. The truth is I’ve been free lancing for various intelligence agencies, some named, some not, for about the last 10 years... Most of the other guys that worked with me were sort of the same, varying in different fields. My job was to delete or remove all the UFO evidence the government “accidentally” let slip into the public eye. We call them UAP’s I’m not sure why the different name but that’s what we call them. What often happens is one of those idiot Astronauts goes for a spacewalk on the external side of the ISS and gets too wild with a camera and boom one of those things is front and center of the next biggest conspiracy to hit the internet; or one of those weather balloons go up for some science experiment or something and they catch one zooming on by. Let’s face it, its been happening a lot these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cover up and eradiate everything, whilst Tech Giant companies continue to sell to everyone on the planet a personal camera to record anything they want, with the ability to upload it.
You can only suppress this kind of thing for so long before the conspiracy theorists finally get enough evidence together to make most denials look suspicious at best, and if you keep denying it, well you just look dumb. One thing everyone must know about the Governments of the world, they really care about how they appear to the public, in their little Geopolitical world its known as Optics, its part of their control apparatus. But that’s another story.
So, with the Ganymede object. It requires context that it’s been seen by almost every major Government in the world. Before the James Webb telescope gave us detailed images, we were getting shots from Hubble, and so on and so forth. So, when you think about it this object sort of throws a whole wrench into well... Everything. As far as we were aware at the time when we found it there was a… damn I’m not sure what it was but shit... its strange. It looks like a space station sphere within a toroid, roughly 900 feet across in diameter, it or they both look as though they counter rotate. I think; around each other which is how it is maintaining its orbit, it’s hard to tell, because the body of it doesn’t have any patterns or distinctive features or something along those lines. Juno got too close to the thing, and made it shoot out a ping. So, they had to make it out to be a bunch of random sounds and disruption in downloads for those who wanted the pics from the Jovian planets moon for the mainstream media to keep the all the people calm. The media told everyone that Juno was disrupted, and communication would be shut down for a bit until the proximity was past. Sometimes I think those types of cover ups work a little too well. Juno got a lot closer, and no one was aware. That’s when people like me take over and we work to figure out as much as possible, and then cover the rest up.
The color of this thing shimmers from time to time, we couldn’t tell whether it was some sort of technology, or defensive camouflage or something that had been busted from the internals, or even if it had been naturally made to be iridescent, what we do know though however is that it emits little to no radiation, there is zero heat, and it has no life signatures whatsoever. Throughout this you will notice how behind the eight ball the intelligence services were when it came to this thing and can sometimes be with other of these major world altering revelations sometimes. But I digress.
So, we quickly began covering up everything, and gave it a name, Little Rock. Stupid and probably insulting but that’s what we call it as it looks like a rock anyhow. We tried dating how long Little Rock had been orbiting Ganymede, though without any form of reference it was anyone’s guess, quite possibly before life even existed here on Earth. There is another thing we had to verify about it, we had to make sure of this, but it has a giant freakin hole in the center of it, one of the guys who I worked with has been looking at UFO’s for quite some time, looking for offensive capabilities and the such, he told me that the hole could have been made by either a huge comet ramming through it, at some point in the past or, some other form of kinetic weapon that was shot through it. This evidence was in the images that Juno spat out and it’s like it’s been blown to pieces. We couldn’t make heads or tails as to how.
Moving along, we fast forward to why this has taken so long coming out. After the Juno cover up, we had to get on top of this thing before other Governments decided to move on this, so we launched another satellite in secret almost straight away, this one was launched by one of SpaceX’s rockets; they made a big show that it was only launching more of the Starlink satellites, but one of them had an Ion drive on it and slung shot itself around the planet to move into the trajectory of making it to Ganymede and hopefully running into Little Rock. Well, it worked. The Satellite we sent was called Nemo, it got into an orbit with Ganymede and has produced some more detailed photos of Little Rock, and well its worse than we thought.
Surprise to everyone we aren’t alone in the universe. I think I should just rip that band-aid off and let everyone digest what I just said. And yes, I meant that, we are not alone. We have the proof, but by now I think everyone’s suspicions are just confirmed.
Nemo was shot down, by probably the same thing that got Little Rock maybe? Whatever it was it had been hanging around after Juno passed it or it could have always been there, we aren’t sure. This thing looked like some inactive debris, so Nemo approached it and was instantly destroyed. When we looked at the play back footage, which took longer than we wanted it to get back to us, it looked like a small object had approached Nemo, it had a strange physical look which puzzled everyone, the only way to describe it would be the Angel depictions from the Genesis section of the bible like a sphere within a sphere.it was just bizarre.
The playback showed that as soon as Nemo got there it began moving and changing its orbital direction to meet Nemo, so we have limited information as to what it was and why it did it. When we saw the initial playback one of the four-star Generals who was there with us at the time told us all to copy it to his files for the Pentagon and delete the original. We had to do it but after that we all theorized about what our best guess was. The best one I remember was that it was some sort of proximity drone that activated too late when Little Rock got hit, went dormant again, then when Nemo turned up it went active and did its job. We think it’s a proximity drone since it never attacked Juno, because Juno didn’t get too close like Nemo did.
Now we get to the best part. Somewhere along the line the drone must have been scanning the wreckage of Nemo and figured out its origin, keep in mind that we didn’t leave one of those dumb golden plates on Nemo like Voyagers got, that pretty much says come and get us. So how it made the connection is a mystery to us. What happened next was very scary, we got the same frequencies that Juno picked up earlier here on Earth. For reference there is loads of space junk up there above our heads, and some of it woke up. To be specific the one that woke up is a bit infamous, it’s called the Black Knight Satellite, this thing has been in orbit for the longest time around the south pole; we had originally assumed it was a hunk of debris from the Mir station years ago, but as of more recently we thought it was something else, the conspiracies surrounding it say it is an Alien spacecraft, and well its true. We keep an eye on these things in case, and for the most part it stayed dormant all these years we have never had a way of getting to it without it being obvious or reckless, at least to my knowledge. When those frequencies started, post Nemo getting wrecked the Black Knight decided to start moving in a certain direction and it began emitting a frequency like the one that Juno read. Though it was softer and didn’t emit consistently it bleeped a few times then stopped and started moving.
From what we understand the Black Knight began moving towards Europe where it dropped something out of a holding bay onto a collision course with Earth. You guys should have seen the amount insanity that caused with the intel community, and NASA practically pooped themselves as this payload slammed into the Siberian tundra about 400 miles from anything remotely resembling human habitation and no one knew why or what it was.
That’s when the race had been on, every Government that wanted to see what it was, were sending everything they had up that way. The Russians had a huge head start and were pretty much all over it setting up quarantine stations and a huge facility over the top of what had struck the Earth. We were watching via spy satellites and stealth craft, whilst I’m told we had spies and wet work teams on the ground which made sense because we got photos from the inside of their makeshift facility. Our first reports showed that they’d been excavating it for days, it was a large 3 meter by 3-meter black cube. I’m serious it was a cube, with a lot of... well, I’m not sure, but the images we got back made it look like some sort of sludge. Like this oozing red sludge. The Russians were keeping away from the stuff as it probably freaked them out. They were instead sticking probes in it, taking samples and trying to figure out what it even was. The sludge was given a wide birth, as it was expanding out of the cube, the initial containment zone had been expanded, and was growing daily from the imagery we got back. This was concerning to us, and there had been talk of dropping all kinds of ordinance on the site. As far as we are aware we were moving into different defcons, which is a state of readiness for war.
It must have been something that happened because the cube emitted a pulse. This was read like a seismic event over in that region. For some reason the sludge apparently stopped moving. It just stayed in position and then it calcified. The info we got said the pulse made it crystallize and it looked like a ruby. Within the crystal were sacks or at least they looked like small gross little wiggling sacks full of puss and bile, like larvae or maggots looking for a meal.
No one exactly knew what had been going on, although they did know one thing, these larvae couldn’t be reached by anything, how we figured that out was easy. The Russians have some of the best drilling equipment on the planet and some of the largest and strongest diamond tipped filament drills in the world. Keep in mind that these types of machines and tech are specialized and leave a paper trail. They cost an exorbitant amount of money and are often from overseas corporate manufacturers. So, for secret projects they need a finer touch or end up leaving a large fingerprint on everything. In normal situations Governments will often pay using a black budget that no one can audit or talk about during a live parliament session. This relates to us because we were the ones who the Russians were buying extra drills from and our hardware to crack this structure. If Russia already had the equipment and they were buying more from overseas Manufacturers, it meant they needed help getting into it, and they didn’t care if it was obvious.
These larvae sacks eventually were dissected out of the crystalized structure The Russian government had stopped buying excessive amounts of drills, we heard. Now these larvae weren’t like the ones you find in movies, they looked like tiny little specs, which eventually grew to the size of human bodies, looked like a body bag that had veins and a lot of discharging sludge coming off them, they would wiggle around every now and then like a caterpillar moving around on a leaf, We knew that they didn’t get them all, but the willingness to continue wasting resources was weaning, they got a few of them and left the others, their scientists had found thousands of these things apparently, but they had just sealed off the cube and the word was they planned to fill the whole thing with concrete, or something worse.
The ones they extracted were moved to another facility and we only have sparring reports and rumor as to what had happened since their scientists are tight lipped and every spy that got close to this vanished. I’ll say this without any context. Its human. Somehow someway it’s human or at least appears to be. It has from the documents that we were able to obtain and translate, a human type of body with a working nervous system and humane features down to a detail. On a cellular level their cell structures and makeup of their nucleus is different though, they are harder to destroy, and the life cycle is elongated before undergoing mitosis. There was some speculation as to why they were birthed in those living larvae sacks, the theory went by some of the brains of the freelance contractors and the intel community that in order for any of those things to survive here they have to be birthed from this planet. which would include adapting their immune systems and growing on this planet. You can imagine the absolute nightmare fuel that brought about. This was when the higher ups really considered just dropping a nuke on the whole area and blowing it all to Jesus; and if I’m being honest, I don’t really blame them for wanting to do that. But somehow level heads prevailed, and they decided that if anything was going to happen the Kremlin would be the one to deal with it but if it went beyond their borders, it would be a NATO issue.
We had gotten assurances from higher ups that all data would be shared as it was increasingly obvious to every country involved. The negations meant that the Kremlin was prepared to drop any ordinance they had to deal with it. This wasn’t the best approach but there was an assumption from everyone that NATO would step in if something went sideways even if it was still in Russian territory. Things were very tense in those rooms, I’m just glad I’m not there anymore.
Here is the part that should scare the pants off anyone; we know for a fact that the larvae sacks eventually hatched, or something, and they all came out looking like humans, well they were birthed into various ages, some were 40 odd some were in their 20s, some female, some male. It was as if the birthing sacks had a set expectation of development, not only that, but they had ethnic diversity, meaning they had different racial traits and backgrounds. Some were Caucasoid, others Hispanic, Asian and so on. The Russians were smart enough to photograph and fingerprint all the ones that they had pulled from the ruby structure and thank God they did. Another weird coincidence was that when they ran the DNA and fingerprints most have matching DNA strands to those who have gone missing globally. Yeah, that’s right missing persons cases that have been all over the world, not just in the Russian region but globally. But the differences in their cell structure meant that these things weren’t those missing people, so that was its own pandoras box.
Now that we have caught up, The worst part. They lost them. They literally broke out of their containment zone and ran off into the Siberian tundra, most of them nude or in hospital gowns, those damned idiots lost them. What we know is before the giant jail break. Is that they had been attempting the communication process and education with these hybrid humans, but it hadn’t gone very well, somehow one of them had figured out some information that they shouldn’t have, and even though they were housed in one of the most sophisticated dark gulags they got, these hybrids got out, this isn’t some old soviet era dump, its an actual top level place where they were housing most spies and just pure evil people the Russian Government hated but couldn’t kill. They housed them there moving everyone else out and the Hybrids, they could communicate without anyone else knowing. So, they got out and are in the wind now, and everyone is losing their minds trying to find them. Good luck, I say.
I had to blow the whistle on this one, what the hell is being done to find these people? And what are they going to do if they catch them? I don’t know and don’t want to know, they killed everyone who knew too much and that includes me. so I’m gone, I’m out, I’m leaving this mess behind me, this will be one of my last broadcasts, don’t expect anything in the future, they are probably going to try and find me, but I’ll head off grid and stay off grid forever ill step back if anything ever comes about from this.
Just one more thing before I go, this is more of a thought that we played with in game theory classes during the strategy meetings. When the owners of the Little Rock station had a let’s call it a “security measure” in place to activate Black Knight to have all of this happen with the Cube and the Hybrids, and let’s say it’s a contingency to make sure their civilization survives, who were they fighting? and why were they losing. Food for thought.
DD

This will be the last statement I ever make before I disappear forever. I’ve heard that this kind of a thing is quite common for those who finally grow a conscious and decide to leave for good. I personally don’t know anyone else apart from a few people I used to work with who knew about this, so here we go. My name isn’t important, but you can call me DD. When I think about it, I’m not important at all, I’m just the messenger or whistleblower, so anything else that would further “incriminate” me isn’t important either. What is important however is this story. It’ll probably be swept under some rug no doubt, that’s the usual approach to these things, the words “conspiracy theorists” has a strong negative vibe to it, we can thank the boys at Langley and the Pentagon for that one. They have been responsible for more cover ups and lies than anyone else on the planet, except for a few. Well anyway, spoiler alert; there’s a derelict object orbiting Ganymede which is one of the moons of Jupiter… Now that I have your attention let’s begin.
I work for NASA. Well, that’s half-truth really, if you saw my real credentials, you would say that I worked for NASA, and that’d be that. The truth is I’ve been free lancing for various intelligence agencies, some named, some not, for about the last 10 years... Most of the other guys that worked with me were sort of the same, varying in different fields. My job was to delete or remove all the UFO evidence the government “accidentally” let slip into the public eye. We call them UAP’s I’m not sure why the different name but that’s what we call them. What often happens is one of those idiot Astronauts goes for a spacewalk on the external side of the ISS and gets too wild with a camera and boom one of those things is front and center of the next biggest conspiracy to hit the internet; or one of those weather balloons go up for some science experiment or something and they catch one zooming on by. Let’s face it, its been happening a lot these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cover up and eradiate everything, whilst Tech Giant companies continue to sell to everyone on the planet a personal camera to record anything they want, with the ability to upload it.
You can only suppress this kind of thing for so long before the conspiracy theorists finally get enough evidence together to make most denials look suspicious at best, and if you keep denying it, well you just look dumb. One thing everyone must know about the Governments of the world, they really care about how they appear to the public, in their little Geopolitical world its known as Optics, its part of their control apparatus. But that’s another story.
So, with the Ganymede object. It requires context that it’s been seen by almost every major Government in the world. Before the James Webb telescope gave us detailed images, we were getting shots from Hubble, and so on and so forth. So, when you think about it this object sort of throws a whole wrench into well... Everything. As far as we were aware at the time when we found it there was a… damn I’m not sure what it was but shit... its strange. It looks like a space station sphere within a toroid, roughly 900 feet across in diameter, it or they both look as though they counter rotate. I think; around each other which is how it is maintaining its orbit, it’s hard to tell, because the body of it doesn’t have any patterns or distinctive features or something along those lines. Juno got too close to the thing, and made it shoot out a ping. So, they had to make it out to be a bunch of random sounds and disruption in downloads for those who wanted the pics from the Jovian planets moon for the mainstream media to keep the all the people calm. The media told everyone that Juno was disrupted, and communication would be shut down for a bit until the proximity was past. Sometimes I think those types of cover ups work a little too well. Juno got a lot closer, and no one was aware. That’s when people like me take over and we work to figure out as much as possible, and then cover the rest up.
The color of this thing shimmers from time to time, we couldn’t tell whether it was some sort of technology, or defensive camouflage or something that had been busted from the internals, or even if it had been naturally made to be iridescent, what we do know though however is that it emits little to no radiation, there is zero heat, and it has no life signatures whatsoever. Throughout this you will notice how behind the eight ball the intelligence services were when it came to this thing and can sometimes be with other of these major world altering revelations sometimes. But I digress.
So, we quickly began covering up everything, and gave it a name, Little Rock. Stupid and probably insulting but that’s what we call it as it looks like a rock anyhow. We tried dating how long Little Rock had been orbiting Ganymede, though without any form of reference it was anyone’s guess, quite possibly before life even existed here on Earth. There is another thing we had to verify about it, we had to make sure of this, but it has a giant freakin hole in the center of it, one of the guys who I worked with has been looking at UFO’s for quite some time, looking for offensive capabilities and the such, he told me that the hole could have been made by either a huge comet ramming through it, at some point in the past or, some other form of kinetic weapon that was shot through it. This evidence was in the images that Juno spat out and it’s like it’s been blown to pieces. We couldn’t make heads or tails as to how.
Moving along, we fast forward to why this has taken so long coming out. After the Juno cover up, we had to get on top of this thing before other Governments decided to move on this, so we launched another satellite in secret almost straight away, this one was launched by one of SpaceX’s rockets; they made a big show that it was only launching more of the Starlink satellites, but one of them had an Ion drive on it and slung shot itself around the planet to move into the trajectory of making it to Ganymede and hopefully running into Little Rock. Well, it worked. The Satellite we sent was called Nemo, it got into an orbit with Ganymede and has produced some more detailed photos of Little Rock, and well its worse than we thought.
Surprise to everyone we aren’t alone in the universe. I think I should just rip that band-aid off and let everyone digest what I just said. And yes, I meant that, we are not alone. We have the proof, but by now I think everyone’s suspicions are just confirmed.
Nemo was shot down, by probably the same thing that got Little Rock maybe? Whatever it was it had been hanging around after Juno passed it or it could have always been there, we aren’t sure. This thing looked like some inactive debris, so Nemo approached it and was instantly destroyed. When we looked at the play back footage, which took longer than we wanted it to get back to us, it looked like a small object had approached Nemo, it had a strange physical look which puzzled everyone, the only way to describe it would be the Angel depictions from the Genesis section of the bible like a sphere within a sphere.it was just bizarre.
The playback showed that as soon as Nemo got there it began moving and changing its orbital direction to meet Nemo, so we have limited information as to what it was and why it did it. When we saw the initial playback one of the four-star Generals who was there with us at the time told us all to copy it to his files for the Pentagon and delete the original. We had to do it but after that we all theorized about what our best guess was. The best one I remember was that it was some sort of proximity drone that activated too late when Little Rock got hit, went dormant again, then when Nemo turned up it went active and did its job. We think it’s a proximity drone since it never attacked Juno, because Juno didn’t get too close like Nemo did.
Now we get to the best part. Somewhere along the line the drone must have been scanning the wreckage of Nemo and figured out its origin, keep in mind that we didn’t leave one of those dumb golden plates on Nemo like Voyagers got, that pretty much says come and get us. So how it made the connection is a mystery to us. What happened next was very scary, we got the same frequencies that Juno picked up earlier here on Earth. For reference there is loads of space junk up there above our heads, and some of it woke up. To be specific the one that woke up is a bit infamous, it’s called the Black Knight Satellite, this thing has been in orbit for the longest time around the south pole; we had originally assumed it was a hunk of debris from the Mir station years ago, but as of more recently we thought it was something else, the conspiracies surrounding it say it is an Alien spacecraft, and well its true. We keep an eye on these things in case, and for the most part it stayed dormant all these years we have never had a way of getting to it without it being obvious or reckless, at least to my knowledge. When those frequencies started, post Nemo getting wrecked the Black Knight decided to start moving in a certain direction and it began emitting a frequency like the one that Juno read. Though it was softer and didn’t emit consistently it bleeped a few times then stopped and started moving.
From what we understand the Black Knight began moving towards Europe where it dropped something out of a holding bay onto a collision course with Earth. You guys should have seen the amount insanity that caused with the intel community, and NASA practically pooped themselves as this payload slammed into the Siberian tundra about 400 miles from anything remotely resembling human habitation and no one knew why or what it was.
That’s when the race had been on, every Government that wanted to see what it was, were sending everything they had up that way. The Russians had a huge head start and were pretty much all over it setting up quarantine stations and a huge facility over the top of what had struck the Earth. We were watching via spy satellites and stealth craft, whilst I’m told we had spies and wet work teams on the ground which made sense because we got photos from the inside of their makeshift facility. Our first reports showed that they’d been excavating it for days, it was a large 3 meter by 3-meter black cube. I’m serious it was a cube, with a lot of... well, I’m not sure, but the images we got back made it look like some sort of sludge. Like this oozing red sludge. The Russians were keeping away from the stuff as it probably freaked them out. They were instead sticking probes in it, taking samples and trying to figure out what it even was. The sludge was given a wide birth, as it was expanding out of the cube, the initial containment zone had been expanded, and was growing daily from the imagery we got back. This was concerning to us, and there had been talk of dropping all kinds of ordinance on the site. As far as we are aware we were moving into different defcons, which is a state of readiness for war.
It must have been something that happened because the cube emitted a pulse. This was read like a seismic event over in that region. For some reason the sludge apparently stopped moving. It just stayed in position and then it calcified. The info we got said the pulse made it crystallize and it looked like a ruby. Within the crystal were sacks or at least they looked like small gross little wiggling sacks full of puss and bile, like larvae or maggots looking for a meal.
No one exactly knew what had been going on, although they did know one thing, these larvae couldn’t be reached by anything, how we figured that out was easy. The Russians have some of the best drilling equipment on the planet and some of the largest and strongest diamond tipped filament drills in the world. Keep in mind that these types of machines and tech are specialized and leave a paper trail. They cost an exorbitant amount of money and are often from overseas corporate manufacturers. So, for secret projects they need a finer touch or end up leaving a large fingerprint on everything. In normal situations Governments will often pay using a black budget that no one can audit or talk about during a live parliament session. This relates to us because we were the ones who the Russians were buying extra drills from and our hardware to crack this structure. If Russia already had the equipment and they were buying more from overseas Manufacturers, it meant they needed help getting into it, and they didn’t care if it was obvious.
These larvae sacks eventually were dissected out of the crystalized structure The Russian government had stopped buying excessive amounts of drills, we heard. Now these larvae weren’t like the ones you find in movies, they looked like tiny little specs, which eventually grew to the size of human bodies, looked like a body bag that had veins and a lot of discharging sludge coming off them, they would wiggle around every now and then like a caterpillar moving around on a leaf, We knew that they didn’t get them all, but the willingness to continue wasting resources was weaning, they got a few of them and left the others, their scientists had found thousands of these things apparently, but they had just sealed off the cube and the word was they planned to fill the whole thing with concrete, or something worse.
The ones they extracted were moved to another facility and we only have sparring reports and rumor as to what had happened since their scientists are tight lipped and every spy that got close to this vanished. I’ll say this without any context. Its human. Somehow someway it’s human or at least appears to be. It has from the documents that we were able to obtain and translate, a human type of body with a working nervous system and humane features down to a detail. On a cellular level their cell structures and makeup of their nucleus is different though, they are harder to destroy, and the life cycle is elongated before undergoing mitosis. There was some speculation as to why they were birthed in those living larvae sacks, the theory went by some of the brains of the freelance contractors and the intel community that in order for any of those things to survive here they have to be birthed from this planet. which would include adapting their immune systems and growing on this planet. You can imagine the absolute nightmare fuel that brought about. This was when the higher ups really considered just dropping a nuke on the whole area and blowing it all to Jesus; and if I’m being honest, I don’t really blame them for wanting to do that. But somehow level heads prevailed, and they decided that if anything was going to happen the Kremlin would be the one to deal with it but if it went beyond their borders, it would be a NATO issue.
We had gotten assurances from higher ups that all data would be shared as it was increasingly obvious to every country involved. The negations meant that the Kremlin was prepared to drop any ordinance they had to deal with it. This wasn’t the best approach but there was an assumption from everyone that NATO would step in if something went sideways even if it was still in Russian territory. Things were very tense in those rooms, I’m just glad I’m not there anymore.
Here is the part that should scare the pants off anyone; we know for a fact that the larvae sacks eventually hatched, or something, and they all came out looking like humans, well they were birthed into various ages, some were 40 odd some were in their 20s, some female, some male. It was as if the birthing sacks had a set expectation of development, not only that, but they had ethnic diversity, meaning they had different racial traits and backgrounds. Some were Caucasoid, others Hispanic, Asian and so on. The Russians were smart enough to photograph and fingerprint all the ones that they had pulled from the ruby structure and thank God they did. Another weird coincidence was that when they ran the DNA and fingerprints most have matching DNA strands to those who have gone missing globally. Yeah, that’s right missing persons cases that have been all over the world, not just in the Russian region but globally. But the differences in their cell structure meant that these things weren’t those missing people, so that was its own pandoras box.
Now that we have caught up, The worst part. They lost them. They literally broke out of their containment zone and ran off into the Siberian tundra, most of them nude or in hospital gowns, those damned idiots lost them. What we know is before the giant jail break. Is that they had been attempting the communication process and education with these hybrid humans, but it hadn’t gone very well, somehow one of them had figured out some information that they shouldn’t have, and even though they were housed in one of the most sophisticated dark gulags they got, these hybrids got out, this isn’t some old soviet era dump, its an actual top level place where they were housing most spies and just pure evil people the Russian Government hated but couldn’t kill. They housed them there moving everyone else out and the Hybrids, they could communicate without anyone else knowing. So, they got out and are in the wind now, and everyone is losing their minds trying to find them. Good luck, I say.
I had to blow the whistle on this one, what the hell is being done to find these people? And what are they going to do if they catch them? I don’t know and don’t want to know, they killed everyone who knew too much and that includes me. so I’m gone, I’m out, I’m leaving this mess behind me, this will be one of my last broadcasts, don’t expect anything in the future, they are probably going to try and find me, but I’ll head off grid and stay off grid forever ill step back if anything ever comes about from this.
Just one more thing before I go, this is more of a thought that we played with in game theory classes during the strategy meetings. When the owners of the Little Rock station had a let’s call it a “security measure” in place to activate Black Knight to have all of this happen with the Cube and the Hybrids, and let’s say it’s a contingency to make sure their civilization survives, who were they fighting? and why were they losing. Food for thought.
DD

I just left my husband. Cops had to be involved.
He had too much to drink and he was arguing with his drug addict brother on the phone. Call done. Then I hugged him because I know how stressed he is because he wants to help his brother to get better. Then all the sudden I became his target. He started calling me names and threatening to kill me and my family overseas. I admit, I haven’t been the best wife. We’ve been married three years and half the time he was doing so much for me because I have an injury that causes me disability. I literally cannot work, but I am receiving disability benefits and I share with some of our expenses and I pay my half of our rent.
He’s making almost five times I’m making. But for some reason, he still feels so much pressure that he’s the only person who can support our family. I understand how he feels, I understand his stress that’s why when he physically abused me two years ago with the same financial issues, I chose to forgive him, I stayed because I love him, but with the two years that passed he was still very temperamental and would snap at me and call me lazy because I’m not working even though I physically can’t. He also hates that I am financially supporting my family overseas. That’s why I had my sister look for a job- she is working now and I’m actually only supporting my mom now who is physically disabled as well.
Over the past two years, I have been slowly resenting him for being so mean to me. And I have been slowly planning to leave him. I’m less interested in being intimate with him. But this month I found out that I’m pregnant. So tonight when he got so drunk, and he started screaming at my face, threatening to kill me and my family, and he started banging the frying pan on the bed again and again right next to me, throwing things at me, I felt so scared not for my life, but for my baby’s life.
So I have no choice but to call the cops and they arrived about 20-30 minutes later and they took me away from him and they helped me. But when I saw him for the last time, I felt so bad that it has come to this, I still want to spend the rest of my life with him. But I know calling the cops was my only option, I don’t want to risk my baby because I don’t know if he can actually accidentally kill me. I had a feeling that if I move an inch, he would’ve hit me in the head with the pan, or worse, stab me. I was scared and imagining the worst.
Now I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to go. My marriage has failed. I know I need to grieve but it fucking hurts. I don’t completely hate him because he is actually a very caring husband 80% of the time, he’s done so much for me. I’m thankful for that. He’s only this horrible when he gets too drunk. But now I think I just need to be strong. For my baby. I hope the DA advocate can help me restart my life.

Hey there! I could really use your opinions, so bear with me.
I'm 35 years old and was diagnosed with autism last year. After obtaining my bachelor's degree in philosophy, I hoped things would start falling into place job-wise. To be fully honest → I didn't think I would be alive this long, so I chose and did my Bachelors out of interest, not with my future in mind.
My lack of a practical degree and lack of social skills made it difficult to land a job. Instead, I found myself working internships poorly paid ones, that left me constantly exhausted. I pushed myself to the brink of burnout for several years, trying to prove that I could provide for myself. It's been a lifelong goal of mine, as I grew up impoverished. But despite my best efforts, I couldn't seem to hold on to permanent jobs for more than a few weeks or months or have my contracts extended after my internships were over. The employers felt I wasn't ready or suitable for the positions, unaware of my autism and ADHD.
Feeling defeated and on the edge, I made a crucial decision a few weeks ago: I am now reaching out to my government's disability services for support. It was a difficult step for me, as I hate feeling like a burden. But I have put my pride aside and seek help. While I await their response, I've been consumed by my obsession with researching education programs and career training options. I've spent an extensive amount of time trying to find a path that would lead me to a government-approved qualification within 2 to 3 years. However, this process has only caused me more anxiety, I don't have the money to make a mistake and try something and not finish it.
Moreover, I struggle with self-studying and acquiring career skills outside a structured classroom environment. I know there are e.g. coding projects and online resources that could help me gain skills, BUT THE OVERWHELMING NATURE OF THESE TASKS HOLDS ME BACK.
Instead of making tangible progress, I find myself stuck in a cycle of obsessive research, adding unnecessary stress to my life.
But here's the thing: I know I'm not unintelligent. I believe that with the right accommodations, I might – maybe – succeed. But perhaps I am just daydreaming. I envision having strong technical skills that outweigh any difficulties I may face due to my social differences – my ticket to finally achieving financial stability.
So, if you have any advice, insight, experience, or suggestions to offer, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

He is a 10, gorgeous face, body chiseled like one of those Greek sculptures, dick just a wee bit bigger than ‘boyfriend size’ that I’m stretched but not enough to send me to the ER. The best sex of my life I swear I feel in love every time we are fucking.
BUT Outside of the bedroom, he has no regard for my feelings, fails to commit to any plans we make together, every time we talk or meet it’s on his terms. He HAS A GIRLFRIEND. 🤡
So is he still a 10 or…?

So the other week I had a customer wanting seagaurd 1000 for his snowmobile, idk why nor care. Well with the new VOC laws here in MI I cant outright sell it to him. Plus we didn't have any. This is apparantly the 5th time hes tried in a month to aquire it. Once I explained the VOC laws, he began to scream in my face, called me an asshat, and proceeded to push over a frogtape display. I just smiled and said "have a nice day" to which he immidietly replied "why dont we go outside and handle this like men!"
Now I am 6'7" 320 lbs, this man is 5'5" at best... I just laughed and picked up his mess. Has this happened to anyone else?? I mean, its fucking paint... Why throw down over something I habe no control over??

Hi everyone.
I wrote a little story that I'd like to share with you. English isn't my native language, so I probably made a lot of mistakes. Feel free to point them out and I will try my best to fix them and improve my writing.
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Captain Cro’zee never thought about himself as a cheapskate. He preferred to think that he was efficient with spending money. Sadly, his big break never came and his company was still limited to a single ship. And this ship was bleeding money.
But now… now it was about to change. The only thing that Cro’zee needed to do was to sign this contract. A very unusual one. Thing is, when you hire people, you are supposed to pay them out of your pocket. But in this particular case… Cro’zee would be compensated not only for every credit he was going to pay to this new hire, but for every expense that was related to this employment. Very unusual and very generous. And Cro’zee was going to milk that Earth Xeno-Relations Agency really hard. The only catch was that his new hire was a human.
Well, if to finally make a break, you had to hire a member of species that were relatively new to the galactic scene, but notoriously troublesome… then you better be prepared. Cro’zee’s tentacles twitched in exasperation, and then he made himself calm down. He took the private authenticator in his appendage, pressed it to the contract sheet and waited for a few moments. Authenticator buzzed, engraving the unique signature on the thin plastic and the deal was done.
Just like that.
Now the only thing that he had to do was to notify the crew. Trying his best to keep his voice straight, captain activated the ship-wide communication and began the announcement.
“Hey lads, Captain speaking. I heard your complains about lack of security detail for a few last deals and I’m proud to announce that we are finally going to fix this. We have a new hire, coming in tomorrow. Make him feel welcome. And, by the way, he’s human. I will send you updates on handling these species today. Read up on them. You have the whole shift to get ready. Captain out.”
* * *
Justin was having a mother of all headaches. He didn’t get much of a sleep tonight and the only thing that was keeping him functional was a big cup of coffee. Two cups, actually. And a cigarette, which he really wasn’t supposed to smoke, especially after going without them for two years. The amount of info that Agency made him read was enormous. He knew what he was signing up for, but that wasn’t really making him feel any better.
Being the first human accepted as an employee on the alien ship was a big deal. Like a really big deal. Agency made than painfully obvious. Humanity has only recently made contact with the Galactic Federation and still was treated like a new kid on the block.
“We placed a huge bet on you, son” said that guy from EXRA. “Do not let us down. We want you to ace whatever they’ll throw at you… and don’t you dare to quit. You are going to be Gagarin of interstellar job market.”
Yep. No pressure. Justin let out a deep sigh and looked in the window. The ship that was going to be his new home for a while was moored in the dock of space station. All that Justin had to do was to walk through the airlock and make a good first impression. To a bunch of aliens. Well, at least the crew was comprised of oxygen-breathing species, so he wouldn’t have to wear the mask.
Justin looked into a mirror. It reflected a tall man with black hair, brown eyes… and bags under these. But still handsome. He smiled, admiring his new teeth. Agency paid the dental bills, saying that their poster man should have the best possible smile for photos and what not. Custom-tailored steel-grey jumpsuit clinged to the body in all the right places, making Justin look like an action movie hero. A pistol was hanging at the hip – a trusty old 9mm. Pepper spray on the other side – although, judging by the Agency materials, it could be even more dangerous to most xeno-species than a bullet. A perfect security specialist with a humanity reputation to uphold, Justin thought. And, wearing his best smile, went through the airlock gate.
The air inside the ship was cold. Enough for Justin to see his own breath. The alien crew was gathered in the room, their eyes on the newcomer. Justin made two quick steps, saluted and reported: “Justin Allen Barrett, security specialist, reporting for duty!”
That’s when all hell broke loose.
* * *
Xathath was trembling with anticipation. She was about to see a human first time in her life! Well, the whole crew was about to do the same, but she had a special task from Captain Cro’zee. To make human feel welcome. Apparently, her appearance was the closest to human in the crew. She didn’t object, though. Cro’zee has finally approved her request to increase her finder’s fee on contracts, although he hinted that failing to work with the new hire will roll that back. So Xathath was really determined to face the human and make his life aboard the ship as great as possible.
But she was not ready to how humans make their entrance.
Airlock has opened and a hulking form came through. Hot smoke was billowing from its head orifices, and it wasn’t just smoke. Environment control system immediately sent warnings to Xathath’s headgear display: the concentration of caffeine and nicotine was rising rapidly. The human was literally breathing poison! He bared his white fangs and rushed forward, making Xathath instinctively back down a step. Then he stopped, become somehow even taller that he was before and roared: “Justin Allen Barrett, security specialist, reporting for duty!”
Xathath was supposed to greet him, but she felt like her vocal chords numbed. The silence lasted no more than a second, and then ECS finally issued an alert. The loudspeakers in the ceiling began to blare warnings, urging everyone to leave the compartment immediately. As Xathath was closer to human than anyone else, she had to act first and make something fast. She darted to the human, pulling the breather mask out of her emergency bag, and slapped it on the poison shafts on humans face, holding her own breath.
“Please, breath into this!” she shouted, “Why doesn’t documentation on your species warn that you are exhaling poisonous alkaloids?!”
“I am doing what?” croaked the human.
“Caffeine! Nicotine! These are not supposed to come out of you!”
Xathath felt terrible. She read so much data on these species and she missed such an important detail! What else did she miss? Bright stars, how is she supposed to work with that death-breathing monster? And make him feel welcome after what she did?!
“Ummm…” the human’s voice changed its tone and volume, “It’s my fault, actually. I was very nervous and tired and I had to use some stimulants to keep going. Sorry.”
They use toxins as stimulants? Xathath was not sure how to react to that. Luckily, Captain Cro’zee intervened.
“Welcome aboard, Human Justin Allen Barrett” he bellowed, “We are glad to have you. Please refrain from using toxic stimulants until we upgrade our environment control system. Don’t you worry, I will oversee that myself and send EXRA the bill. In the meantime, Exchange Specialist Xathath will give you a tour through my ship. You will see each other very often from now on.”