Hello Autists,
Today I am presenting Redfin (RDFN) and why it can and will be a 200% play over the next two years. Yes, I did say 200%. Just on stock, not even counting options. Let's jump in.
Investment Thesis: Redfin a super cyclical stock will be rebounding with great strength due to Online Real Estate Market Growth, AI investments, diverse Revenue Streams, and most importantly shrinking interest rate environment to kick it all off. They also got rid of their Buying program and implemented for the first time now the Redfin Premier Nationwide service to homebuyers.
What is Redfin?
Redfin is a residential online real estate brokerage. The company uses technologies such as map search and virtual house showings to increase exposure, improve the quality of the customer experience, all while delivering efficiencies and saving the consumer costs. Redfin also provides the ability to do digital and online document management making it a one stop shop for one’s real estate needs.
They also use the same combination of technology and local service to originate mortgage loans and offer title and settlement services. They also offer digital platforms to connect consumers with available apartments and houses for rent.
Their mission is to redefine real estate in favor of the consumer. To change an industry that has had little disruption. Redfin's business model to undercut competition is based on sellers paying Redfin a discounted fee, either 1 or 1.5% to list the seller's home.
Real Estate agents have to be the biggest thieves taking 6% commission being a realtor. Every $1,000,000 home sold equals $60,000 in fees for a license that can be earned in 75 classroom hours. And requires no technical skills or degree. Nothing against real estate agents, but after watching Selling Sunset on Netflix and working in real estate investments myself, I am ready to see the real estate market adapt, and move past agents who don’t provide more than $20 of value and headaches saying “Location, location, location” so I can buy more FD and OTD’s in my brokerage.
Investment Thesis Catalysts:
Online Real Estate Market Growth and Market Share: There is ongoing shift towards online platforms in the real estate industry that present an opportunity for Redfin to capture a larger share of the market. As more homebuyers and sellers embrace digital solutions, Redfin's technology-driven approach and user-friendly platform could lead to increased adoption and market penetration.
If any of you autists have ever used RDFN then you know first hand that there is a smooth process with limited conflict of interest since their agents are not commission based. People are becoming tired of the fees posed by traditional agents. Even though there has been a slow down in revenues across the real estate brokerage industry, going forward in a digital world I expect this to continue to grow.
Redfin currently only has .78% of the entire market share in the US….there is room for growth for this billion dollar market cap company where they are actually not being thieves for 6%.
The company's growth initiatives, such as geographic expansion and strategic partnerships, will contribute to its market dominance and attract more customers. They just initiated Redfin Premier Nationwide.
Redfin Premier is a specialized service that caters to high-end and luxury properties. It is designed to provide enhanced marketing and representation for luxury homes in select markets.Redfin Premier offers a range of features and services to sellers and buyers of luxury properties. These may include professional photography and video tours, custom marketing materials, targeted online advertising, and exposure on high-traffic websites and publications. And you know what they say…luxury products bring luxury margins.
Redfin also launched in 2022 their acquisition from 2021 RentPath, because lets be honest owning a home for many people right now is a pipedream and now has a rental search. This creates a new pipeline of consumers in different phases of life and I don’t know how many of y’all have been apartment shopping recently but damn these rents just keep going up. While Redfin is known for home buying and selling services… apartment rentals is a new slice of the pie to grow into. And most of the time M&A is a waste of time but this I think added value to Redfin.
AI Investments: I knew by putting AI in this, some of yall would make your keyboard sticky. They are making continued investments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analysis to make sure they provide personalized recommendations, improve user experience, and streamline the home buying and selling process to take consumer money and make us tendies.
Industry Trends:
Real Estate transactions have gotten wrecked. Interest rates affect this industry a fuck ton. Redfin’s share price has plummeted since 2022. Interest rates and recessionary environments have made homebuyers less of a rush to close deals.
Many experts in the mortgage industry see rates going down especially with the government preventing a US debt default. As the banking sector calms down. Economic data points towards a strong economy, and inflation eases, rates hopefully will go downward through the end of 2023. Fed tightening may put some upward pressure on mortgage rates in the near term, but ultimately more certainty about the Fed’s actions will help to smooth out some of the volatility we have seen with mortgage rates. It is likely that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates for the tenth consecutive time in May, which may represent the peak for the current round of policy tightening. Also if inflation surprises to the downside or recession fears intensify, mortgage rates could fall.
Risks/The Dirty: Why this Stock has fallen 90% from its peak.
Real Estate market got fucked worse than an episode of Brazzers. Interest rates got hiked worse than Johnny Sins morning wood and a recession made people less likely to move. This combination wrecked REITs, brokerages, growth stocks, every autists portfolios, even those losers in dividends with their measly .69 cents quarterly payments.
Risks include

• Interest Rates
• Financial Health (They need to crank out some earnings, they are using preferred stock, stock based comp, and senior notes to get through rough times)
• Housing Market (Back to interest rates, houses need to be being bought.)

The good news is, I see that the stock has been wrecked by the risks above. And as the light at the end of tunnel gets closer the stock should derisk itself assuming real estate armageddon does not hit and the stock price should go up. I do not think it will get anywhere near the former all time high stock price in the next couple years, but think it will bring great gains that outpace the general market.
Future Outlook from Q1 2023 Earnings:

• Reduced staff and made organizational changes, making support staff ratios to agents better
• Focused on mortgage cross selling business, concierge services, expanding Redfin Preimer Nationwide
• Exited the home buying business that again, fucked earnings like a scene out of brazzers.
• Aim to return to the traditional broker model, increasing monetization.
• Projected real Estate Service back to growth in Q2 2023 and strong double digit growth in rental and mortgage businesses.
• They expected adjusted EBITDA to be breakeven or better for 2023, $190 million better than 2022.

Valuation Notes:
The stock has been hammered…look at the stock chart. A lot of worst case nightmare scenarios came true for RDFN. Now RDFN is not a real estate company or REIT, it is a brokerage but also a tech stock. One of the biggest surprises when analyzing RDFN is their price to sales ratio.
RDFN has a P/S ratio of .51 which is incredibly low and before covid traded anywhere from 1.25 to 1.8 regularly. Because the company is not currently profitable it is a great ratio to do a quick comp. Meanwhile stocks like PLTR have a 14.6x P/S ratio. I know they aren’t the same company or growth or macro factors. But as this stock continues to have a great 2023 and market cap grows, more and more institutional investors will enter this heavily cyclical stock that has the most to gain in a great economic cycle.
As revenues rebound and grow, hopefully becoming profitable, see no reason this stock cannot hit over $30 in 30 months.
Conclusion:
Good stock. Fucked from tough times past 2 years. Innovative product that actually provides value at much more of a discount then some 6% sucking vampire real estate agent. Buy for tendies. I like it as interest rates go down, house buying environment picks back up, continued expansion, and better margins. Hopefully the worst is behind us and as earnings grow and the stock derisks, stock price will spike.
Positions:
1600 Shares at $10.16, looking to add more. And looking to add leaps for 2024/2025.

Melinda and the Little Green Men
by Andrew Roller
Melinda and the Little Green Men
Table of Contents
Chapter One - A Sad End
Chapter Two - A Castle for a Queen
Chapter Three - Incommodious
Chapter Four - The Sewer Room
Chapter Five - The Teleport Threat
Chapter Six - Neverwhere
Chapter Seven - Permanent Perigee
Chapter Eight - Losers Welcome ( Especially )
Chapter Nine - Buried Alive
Chapter Ten - Gone Away
Chapter Eleven - Dead Broke
Chapter Twelve - Grave’s End
Chapter Thirteen - Audition
Chapter Fourteen - Heavenly Flush
Chapter Fifteen - Coffined
Chapter Sixteen - The Big Bang
Chapter Seventeen - A Sucky Day
Chapter Eighteen - Examination
Chapter Nineteen - Expelled
Chapter Twenty - Enslaved
Chapter Twenty-One - The Bugler
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Gates of Salvation
Chapter Twenty-Three - The Amateur Genius
Chapter Twenty-Four - Pooper’s Paradise
Chapter Twenty-Five - Eisegesis
Melinda and the Little Green Men
by Andrew Roller
Chapter One - A Sad End
It was their last day on earth. The two girls, playing in the field in their suburban neighborhood, didn’t know this. If Melinda and Emily were ever to return to earth, it wouldn’t be for a very long time.
Melinda was ten years old. I could say that she looked “striking”. Or I could use some other politically correct term. In fact, she was very lovely. Her lank, flaxen hair fell to her slim waist. A white string bikini clung to her svelte figure.
Emily was seven years old. Her short red hair fell to her shoulders. Stout, she resembled a girl version of Winnie-the-Pooh. Emily wore a one-piece floral print swimsuit. Both girls had on rubber flip-flops.
Emily was clever. Though she was only seven years old, she wore a red fireman’s hat with the number “21” printed on it. Emily hoped that her hat would fool people into believing that she was older, or even that she was a fireman.
On this bright sunny day, something flashed in the sky. Both girls saw the silvery disc as it caught the sunlight. Emily was quick to figure out what it was.
“It’s a flying saucer!” Emily said. Melinda, who was taller than Emily, watched it with her friend. The saucer sailed over the neighborhood. As it approached, the girls saw it clearly. It had a flat circular base, and a domed top. A line of porthole-like windows encircled the lower part of the dome. There was a front-facing windshield.
The saucer, and its shadow, skimmed over the field. The saucer’s shadow briefly engulfed the girls. Then the saucer passed over a treeline. It settled into tree-dotted scrubland. From that place came a sound of snapping tree limbs, and of brush being crushed. Silence followed.
“Let’s go!” Emily urged. Both girls wanted a closer look at the flying saucer. It was unimaginable that such an object could land in their neighborhood! The girls had no idea that they would soon be swept up in an ongoing galactic war. They rushed into the treeline. Then Melinda and Emily crept into the shady brush beyond.
The saucer was there. It stood on metal legs, hulking amid the surrounding trees. An electrical hum, like that put out by high tension wires, came softly from the saucer’s smooth hull.
An airlock opened in the side of the saucer. A stair-equipped gangplank descended. Then, as Melinda and Emily watched, a line of little green men came down the gangplank. The men were about as tall as the girls. They were carrying a pink worm. It was a big worm, as big as a little green man.
The men laid their worm down on the grass. The last men in the group had brought shovels. The shortest of the little green men was in charge of the men. Named Chirpley, he set several men to work digging a hole.
Emily crept forward. Melinda tried to stop her, but decided to accompany her. The little green men saw the girls. There was a mutual cry of surprise from both parties. The men stopped their digging. Emily asked what they were doing.
“We’re digging a grave,” Chirpley answered. He and the other men stood with solemn faces. Emily, who sometimes went fishing, said that it was odd to bury a worm. She only dug worms out of the earth.
Chirpley stood straighter. He, like his fellows, had a round head. Two green antennae stuck out of the top of his head. He was without clothing, except for a white loincloth that, being puffy and full, resembled diapers. Chirpley wore white gloves. On his small feet were big, rhinestone-studded cowboy boots.
“This is no ordinary worm!” Chirpley told the girls. “It’s our queen!”
“Except she’s dead now,” a second little green man said. He looked much like Chirpley, with a round head and antennae. He wore a loincloth, gloves, and cowboy boots.
“She was a very old queen,” a third little green man said.
“So, since she’s dead, we must bury her,” a fourth little green man said. There were, in all, a dozen of them.
“Stand aside!” Chirpley told the girls. It didn’t matter that the girls were already at a distance from the dead worm. Chirpley rarely missed a chance to look important. Even in front of little Earth girls.
The little green men dug their grave. Or, rather, a few of them did, while the others watched this with Melinda and Emily. Chirpley supervised.
The dead queen was buried. The little green men had just filled in her grave when someone, off in the trees, yelled,
“Attack!” Stones and handfuls of dirt flew from the treeline. Several little green men were hit by the stones. A stone banged off of Emily’s Fire hat. She and Melinda screamed. So did the little green men. The men ran back aboard their flying saucer and, as neighborhood boys whooped and hollered, and threw more dirt and stones, Melinda and Emily followed the men.
No sooner had the green men and the girls rushed into the saucer, than something came out of it. Two somethings, in fact. They were grotesque. Ghosts, they resembled white sheets torn by the wind from a clothesline.
The boys charged from the trees. They were attacking through the shady brush when the ghosts set upon them.
“OOOOOO!” the ghosts howled. The boys screamed in terror. They fled back into the trees, and into the field.
The saucer hummed more loudly. Its gangplank retracted. Just before the ship buttoned itself up, the ghosts zipped back inside of it. The saucer whisked into the sky. It disappeared beyond the clouds.
Within the saucer, Melinda and Emily cringed before the ghosts. These hung over them, looking horrid. The ghosts had blank, bulging eyes, and gaping mouths with fangs. They had scared the boys, and were now scaring the girls. To the little green men, they were damn annoying.
“Our spaceship’s haunted,” Gauss apologized. He was one of the men. He and several of his crewmates, though dressed like the others, also wore utility belts.
“But we got it at a discount,” a fellow crewman said. The green men stood with the girls on the saucer’s bridge. To one side was the closed airlock. To the right, and to the rear, the bridge opened onto other rooms.
The saucer was named “Regoob”. Compared to a military cruiser, it was a little ship. Yet Regoob was plenty roomy. Its many spaces held a number of unwanted passengers. But these occupants were mostly small, and furtive, unlike the two hovering ghosts.
One occupant was big. He was a worm, like the men’s dead queen. He slithered about in the saucer’s recesses. Except now. Curious about the girls, this worm peered from a shadowed corridor. Then, he did the one thing that he was known for, and named for. He farted.
“Farrrrrrrrt!” It was a big, smelly fart. Both girls clutched their little noses. The little green men did the same. The ghosts, who had been so hideously maleficent, fled. An embarrassed Fartley slipped away into the ship.
“Peeyou!” Emily cried. Melinda echoed her. The girls made for the airlock. That’s when they realized that Regoob was airborne. In fact, the little saucer was far beyond the Earth.
“We’d better go home,” Melinda said. Emily wasn’t so sure. The saucer’s pilot’s seat, before its dashboard and its windshield, struck her as inviting.
“Can I drive?” she asked. Since no one was, at the moment, controlling where the saucer went, she figured she might try.
That’s when Gauss saw the Moon approaching. It was approaching fast. He gave a cry of alarm. The other men, now seeing what he saw, gave panicked yells.
Emily jumped into the pilot’s chair. Grabbing the saucer’s yoke, she steered the ship clear of the Moon.
“Hooray!” the little green men yelled, with Melinda. Emily continued to fly the speeding saucer. Gauss gave her driving tips.
Soon, the ship was approaching Jupiter. As anyone who’s watched the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” knows, or even the film, “Starship Poopers”, Jupiter is no ordinary planet. It’s a gateway to other parts of the galaxy.
Emily couldn’t resist flying through a galactic gateway. Regoob sped toward Jupiter. The planet soon filled Regoob’s windshield.
Within Jupiter’s clouds was a bright oval. This wasn’t Jupiter’s red spot, but a metal doughnut. This doughnut, however, was slender. It was dotted by circular lights.
“Head for the center!” Gauss said to Emily. She did. Regoob shot through the slim doughnut and into hyperspace.
A kaleidoscope of colors streaked past Regoob. They were very pretty. The girls remarked upon them as Regoob tunneled through our galaxy.
The little saucer popped from hyperspace. It sailed among the ordinary stars again. Ahead was a ringed planet.
“That’s Quigley!” Zolna, one of the little green men, told the girls.
“We live there, in a castle.” Gauss said.
“A castle!” Melinda was impressed.
“Does your castle have a fireman?” Emily asked. The answer was “no”. So Emily, who was now Regoob’s pilot, asked to be the men’s fireman as well. The men agreed.
This left Melinda wondering what she could be. Before dinner, of course, since she still hoped to get home soon.
“You can be our queen!” Zolna told her.
“I’ll be the princess!” Emily said. She was still intent, too, on being the men’s fireman and pilot.
“I’m the king!” Chirpley said. This brought Fartley-like noises from the other men. So Chirpley settled on being what he already was, the men’s captain.
Somewhere in the ship, Fartley ensured his place in this little world, by farting.
Quigley loomed. Space traffic was flowing toward the purple planet. Quigley was belted by shimmering rings. But their colors clashed. Melinda remarked on this.
“It’s better than having no rings at all, like Earth,” Chirpley riposted. He did not mention that planet Quigley lacked a moon.
Emily followed the space traffic into Quigley’s atmosphere. There, the ships scattered to their destinations. Emily, directed by Gauss, flew over a city. Its buildings, compared to those on Earth, were outlandishly shaped. Beyond the city lay a beach community. And then, shining to the sunlit horizon, was a lavender sea.
“Land there,” Gauss told Emily. He meant the far side of the beach community, near the seashore. Emily put the saucer down in a patch of sand.
Regoob stood upon its metal legs amid other parked spaceships. Makeshift buildings were also neighbors to to Regoob. No castle was in sight. The sea lay near.
Chapter Two - A Castle for a Queen
Zolna opened the airlock. Its gangplank lowered, and the men and the girls disembarked. The hour was noon. It was hot. There was a salt tang in the air and, in the distance, the waves could be heard as they broke along the shore.
Chirpley led the party along a sandy trail. It wound between the spaceships and the homes. Hofsted, the fattest of the little green men, waddled at the file’s rear. He complained about leaving the ship.
“We’ll be at our castle soon,” Chirpley said.
The beach community slumbered in the seaside air. There were odd odors. These smells, of cooking food, caused Hofsted to say he was hungry. The men ignored him. A seagull sailed overhead.
Creatures gazed here and there from the spaceships and from the homes. Their alien faces startled Melinda and Emily. It was as if they’d wandered into a back lot on Star Wars, full of extras in outlandish costumes! Some of the aliens were surprised to see the girls.
“What are Earthlings doing here?!” an alien asked.
“There goes the neighborhood,” an alien, observing the girls, lamented.
Chirpley heard this.
“Commoners!” he riposted, to his alien neighbors. “Show some respect for royalty!” Melinda realized that Chirpley meant her, and Emily. She blushed. As for Emily, she trotted along with a self-confident look. She’d piloted a flying saucer, and now she was the inheritor of Luke Skywalker’s realm. Plus she was a fireman, and a princess. This was a fine day!
The trail led onto the beach. It was mostly vacant on this weekday, with a few bathers and seagulls. Chirpley indicated a large sculpted heap of sand on the shore. It stood just above where the inrolling sea boiled.
“There it is!” he said. He and his crewmates beamed at Melinda and Emily.
The men had built a big sand castle. It had some attractive towers, a wall and a moat. Several small flags, in various colors, decorated the edifice. An old door lay across the moat. It gave access to a hole in the ground, that the castle enclosed.
Emily was entranced. When the men invited her to come inside, meaning down into the hole, she agreed. Melinda cautiously accompanied them. As she did, she seemed to hear her name on the wind. But she saw nothing unusual, besides the bathing aliens and the seagulls.
Zolna led the group into the hole. He did so with a flashlight. Several other men lit flashlights too, as the group entered the hole.
The hole had a stone staircase. It had been carved by time, and by an intelligent hand. Sand dusted or clung to some of the steps. So did seaweed and seashells. These also cluttered the floor of the cave that the stairs led down into. An old stove sat in the cave.
“This is Mr. Lehman’s cave,” Zolna told Melinda and Emily.
“We used to be his gardeners,” Hofsted said proudly.
“Gardners?” Melinda asked. She saw only stone, and the oceans’s detritus.
“It was an easy job,” Hofsted admitted.
“He’s a sailor,” Chirpley said.
“But he’s disappeared,” Gauss added. “We don’t see him anymore.”
“That’s too bad,” Melinda said.
An apparition appeared on the stairs, near the lowest step. Melinda yelped. Emily gave a gasp of surprise, and the men gave startled cries.
“Melinda,” the ghostly figure said. It resolved itself as a tall, slender boy.
“You’re human!” Emily gasped. The boy’s image remained streaked with transmission lines, as if it were being beamed into the cave from far away.
“Quiet!” the boy snapped at Emily. She gasped anew. So did Melinda, and the others
“You’re my bride,” the boy told Melinda. The bikini-clad girl shrieked.
“I’m King Kleigowski,” the boy said. “From Earth, of course. My galactic fleet will arrive in a moment. Stay here as it attacks. Then, I will land, and we’ll be married,” the boy said to Melinda.
Seawater spilled down the stairs. The boy’s image vanished.
“My God!” Melinda gasped.
“She’s not marrying you!” Emily, finding her courage, told the place on the stairs where the boy’s image had been.
More seawater came down the stairs.
“We’d better go,” Zolna said. “The cave floods at high tide.”
Emily scrambled up the stairs with Melinda. The men followed. The tide was boiling about the castle. In the clear sky above, thunder sounded. Then sirens began to wail in the distance. Kevin Kleigowski, who had been terrorizing the galaxy’s far side for some time, was now attacking Planet Quigley!
Melinda and Emily ran with the men from the beach. They headed back to Regoob. All about them, the beach community was coming alive to the danger that thundered above. A battle was underway in the sky.
Melinda and Emily ran up the gangplank into Regoob. As the crew came in after them, a seagull flew into the ship. Emily reclaimed her place in the pilot’s seat.
Regoob took off. Other spaceships were beginning to rise from the land too. Suddenly, a transmission forced itself onto a television screen on Regoob’s dashboard. A man in a military uniform issued a warning. His insignia showed that he was a Quiglian general.
“Attention all civilians!” the general warned. “We’re under attack! Do not leave Planet Quigley! All civilian spaceships are grounded!”
“We’d better land,” Hofsted said.
“Ignore that!” Chirpley shouted.
“But—“ Melinda gasped. Emily flew stolidly higher.
“We’re soldiers!” Chirpley said.
“We’re volunteer lifeguards,” Zolna said.
“Good enough!” Chirpley retorted.
The saucer was now climbing at an eye-popping speed. It cleared the clouds, and the sunlit sky. The starry cosmos opened before it. The ship sped toward the nearest ship in the Quiglian fleet. The Quiglians were locked in a battle with King Kleigowski’s ships.
As Regoob closed on the big Quiglian cruiser, the general reappeared on the saucer’s dashboard T.V.
“Stop!” the general ordered.
Chirpley drew himself up to his full, diminutive height.
“Sir!” he told the general, with an irked look. “I am Chirpley Superlapee.” To Emily, Chirpley said, “Full speed ahead!” Then, for effect, he added, “Don’t shoot ‘till you see the whites of the their eyes.” Since he was sounding very important, Chirpley added, “Your money or your life!”
The saucer rushed at the cruiser. As it loomed, Emily began to think that going full speed ahead might not be a good idea.
Then she realized that they were too close to the cruiser to stop! As a collision became obvious, she leapt from the pilot’s seat.
“Duck!” Emily called to Melinda. Samuel, the seagull who’d flown into the ship, drew himself up to his full, diminutive height. He did so on the floor, where he’d settled by Melinda’s feet.
“I, Miss, am not a duck! I’m a sea-“ Samuel began.
Melinda felt a sudden tingling wash over her. She was standing somewhere else, if still beside Samuel, as the bird finished giving his species.
“-gull,” Samuel said.
They were all someplace else. That is, the girls, the men, and whatever else that had been on the saucer’s bridge, was now in a jail cell. The jail’s front wall and it’s door consisted of iron bars. A heavy white mist clung to the jail’s ceiling.
The saucer was nowhere to be seen. But there was a low hum, that is common to spaceships.
A tall boy came to the cell’s door. Melinda gasped. So did Emily, as cries came from the men.
“It’s that boy!” Melinda yelped, alarmed, to cries of alarm from her cellmates. She cringed. So did Emily, and the others.
“Call me Kevin,” the boy said. He grinned at Melinda. “You’re lucky I’m around. Your little friend ( he meant Emily ) crashed your saucer into a Quiglian cruiser.”
“I’m not marrying you!” Melinda said.
“Me neither!” Emily said.
“Me neither!” Hofsted said.
Kevin laughed.
“You’d better let me do the thinking,” he told Melinda. “My teleport ray couldn’t reach you on planet Quigley. You were too far away. So I told you to stay. And what did you do?” He grinned, and not pleasantly. “You fled, of course, directly toward me!”
As Kevin spoke, the mist coalesced. Suddenly, it was no longer a mist, but a pair of fanged, bulging-eyed ghosts!
“OOOOOO!” the ghosts howled, at Kevin. The boy ran shrieking out of the jail cell. A moment later, tingling engulfed Melinda. Everyone else in the cell was caught in the same sensation. Then, as suddenly as they’d arrived, the captives all disappeared from the jail cell.
Chapter Three - Incommodious
Melinda sat on the floor. Her head rested against a tiled wall. A sink was above it. Around her, in disorder, lay a number of little green men. Emily sat nearby. Samuel, lying near Emily, righted himself. He flew up and about in a mist that floated along the bathroom ceiling.
They’d been teleported again.
“Where are we now?!” Emily asked.
“I’m in a toilet!” Chirpley shouted, from a bathroom stall. “Help!”
The men and the girls gathered themselves. Some of the men, being teleported to the bathroom, had landed in toilet stalls. Chirpley hadn’t just wound up in a stall. He’d been planted with such force into a toilet that his bottom was stuck in the hole at its base. Toilet water surrounded his semi-submerged figure. He gazed helplessly from the commode.
“Don’t flush it!” Chirpley cried, of his toilet, as the girls and some crewmen piled into his stall. The group couldn’t help laughing. Chirpley, however, didn’t laugh. Being stuck in a toilet was not his idea of a good time,
Emily and the crew pulled Chirpley out of the toilet. He was unhurt. His body was wet in places. His diaper-like loincloth was soaked.
A woman screamed. Shouts came from the men who hadn’t crammed themselves into Chirpley’s stall.
Kevin had teleported his captives from his spaceship to a Quiglian one. Specifically, he’d teleported his captives into a ladies’ bathroom aboard the Quiglian ship.
“Eeeeek!” the woman visitor screamed. “There are men in the bathroom! In the ladies’ bathroom!” Soldiers arrived. When they learned that the men in the women’s bathroom had also crashed their saucer into the Quiglian ship, they arrested them. Chirpley and his crew were brought before General Grouchley. They were accompanied by Melinda and Emily.
General Grouchley commanded the Quiglian fleet. His flagship was called The Drut. It was this that Regoob had crashed into.
George Grouchley was big, fat and green. His uniform strained to contain him. It was he who had grounded all of Quigley’s civilian ships, and who’d ordered Regoob to stop. It was he whom Chirpley had disobeyed.
Chirpley stood to attention before General Grouchley. He did so with wet pants, from the toilet. Gathered behind Chirpley was his crew, and the girls. The volunteer lifeguard saluted the general. This did not improve George’s mood.
“I understand you were in the ladies’ bathroom,” George said to Chirpley.
“Yes, sir,” Chirpley answered. “I was stuck in a toilet.”
“Your saucer crashed into my ship!” George told Chirpley.
“Yes, Sir,” the volunteer lifeguard replied. Emily slipped partly behind Melinda, to escape the general’s eyes.
“We’ll need a new ship,” Chirpley told George. “To continue our noble fight against King Kleigowski.”
“Kleigowski’s fleet is in full retreat!” George told Chirpley. “I’m not sure what happened. One minute they were attacking, the next — they were fleeing!”
“I may know why - “ Chirpley said.
“Obviously, I’m an even better general than I knew,” George concluded. He eyed Chirpley. “Get your stinky saucer out of my ship! And stay out of the ladies’ bathroom!”
“Yes, Sir,” Chirpley replied.
Several women came screaming into the general’s presence.
“Help!” the women shouted. “Our bathroom is haunted!”
Chapter Four - The Sewer Room
Regoob had smashed through a large glass panel in the hull of The Drut, near its stern. Doing so, Regoob had plunged itself into a big cesspool. Much of the cesspool’s contents had emptied into outer space. This left the saucer at the bottom of the big cesspool, in such sludge as remained. The cesspool stank.
Repair ships had plugged the hole in The Drut’s hull. The big, open cesspool was in The Drut’s sewer room. This was a big, high-ceilinged room, with a crane. As Regoob’s crew arrived, along with the girls, the crane lifted Regoob out of the cesspool. It plopped the saucer, with a clang, onto the sewer room’s floor. A work crew gathered about the stinky craft.
Chirpley strode up to the work crew.
“I am the captain of this august ship,” he said, in a tone that he hoped sounded important. Chirpley had a high voice. But now, his voice was mouse-squeaky, for he was holding his nose. So was his whole crew, and the girls.
The work crew was wearing disposable masks. One of them regarded Chirpley, who remained in wet pants.
“You own this piece of shit?” the workman asked Chirpley. “It’s going to need a lot of cleaning.”
“We’ll wait until you’re done with it,” Chirpley said.
“You’ll clean it now,” a workman told Chirpley. “General Grouchley wants you, and your saucer, off of his ship!”
“Oh!” Chirpley said. “We must have important duties awaiting us.”
“The general just wants you to go!” a workman said.
Meanwhile, back at the ladies’ bathroom, a priest had been called. He was exorcising the bathroom of its two ghosts. Ladies waited with rising anxiety as this holy procedure proceeded.
“Hurry up!” a woman complained.
“I have to go!” another woman said.
The priest paused in his incantations. He assured the ladies that they wouldn’t have to wait long. There was no need to go elsewhere. The priest was a speedy priest. But, if he were to rush, in an unholy way, the ghosts might not be exorcised. So the priest proceeded with due reverence for the divine. And the ladies waited. With rising anxiety.
Chapter Five - The Teleport Threat
Regoob left The Drut. That ship, and its fleet, were now returning to planet Quigley. Emily was piloting Regoob. She was doing so with the purpose of learning to fly it better.
Melinda was aboard Regoob. So was everyone in Regoob’s crew. Samuel, the seagull, had again invited himself aboard. The ghosts, exorcised from the ladies’ bathroom, were aboard Regoob too.
On the saucer’s bridge, teleportation was being discussed.
“People teleport all the time on Star Trek,” Emily said. Chirpley had seen the show.
“We call it ‘Apes in Space’”, he said. Emily scowled at him.
“Who knew an ape - I mean, a human - would invent teleportation?” Gauss asked. Melinda asked what he meant.
“No one in the galaxy can teleport,” Gauss said. “Except, now, Kevin Kleigowski can.” Everyone on the bridge considered this.
“We need to stop him,” Melinda said.
“Yes!” Emily agreed. “He could attack Earth!”
Chirpley saw a chance to be important. Standing straight, though he was still short, he said,
“Men! We must go after King Kleigowski! We must climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, and go where only apes in space have gone before!”
Gauss hastened to a computer.
“I’ll see if I can find the king’s fleet,” he said.
“Maybe we should ask for help from General Grouchley,” Melinda said. Chirpley bristled.
“I’ll be in command of this mission,” he said. “Since it was my idea!”
“General Grouchley didn’t do anything to defeat the king,” Zolna said. “It was our ghosts who scared him off.”
“I found him!” Gauss said. He meant the king’s fleet. Gauss told Emily what direction to fly in. She did so. Chirpley, pleased, began to practice a victory speech.
“I came,” he intoned. “I saw - “
“And I got stuck in the toilet,” a crewman said.
Chapter Six - Neverwhere
Kevin Kleigowski was angry. The panicked retreat of his fleet had put his ships into disarray. The fault was his own. His fleet was crewed by robots. Their purpose was to obey.
Kevin stood on the bridge of his flagship, Teliot. He spoke with his robot admiral, Dolt 0001.
“Take the fleet through a hypergate,” Kevin ordered his admiral. “We’ll reorganize ourselves on its far side.”
“Yes, Sir,” Admiral Dolt answered. Kevin’s fleet was soon flying toward a distant gas giant. There, it would pass through the planet’s hypergate.
Unknown to Kevin, a little saucer, flown by a seven-year-old girl, was hot on his trail.
Kevin’s fleet neared the gas giant. As Regoob closed on the fleet, Gauss told Emily,
“Hurry! They might go anywhere in hyperspace!”
Regoob snaked among the disordered vessels.
“Land on Teliot,” Gauss told Emily. “That’s the king’s flagship.”
Teliot was a big cruiser. Emily zipped above it. She put the small saucer down amid the outbuildings that topped Teliot’s hull.
The cruiser, and its accompanying fleet, passed into the gas giant’s hypergate.
Emily yawned. She was in a flying saucer in hyperspace, atop a galactic cruiser, but she was also a sleepy seven-year-old. Melinda shared her sense of exhaustion. She said so.
“And I need a bath,” Melinda said.
“I don’t need a bath!” Emily said.
“Emily Fortley, we will both take a bath!” Melinda said. The little green men escorted the girls to a bathroom. The area included a laundry room. When the girls were bathing, they found that they weren’t alone.
“Hey! Quit looking!” Emily said, spying the ghosts in their bathroom.
“Shoo!” Melinda scolded.
The ghosts, sniggering, slipped away.
Melinda and Emily bedded down in a bedroom aboard Regoob.
“Good night, Emily,” Melinda said.
“Good night, Melinda,” Emily said. Neither girl could guess what the hour was back on earth. Then both got a rude reminder of where they were. Fartley trumpeted a loud goodnight in the near distance. The girls escaped the ensuing smell by falling asleep.
As for the little green men, they were concluding their day. They soon bedded down in the room with the sleeping girls. The saucer, atop Teliot, was still passing through hyperspace.
“I don’t know where the king is going, but he’s going a long way,” Gauss said.
“He could be going in circles,” a crewman said. “To throw off pursuers.”
“We’ll board Teliot tomorrow,” Zolna said.
“We can’t do that until we’re out of hyperspace,” Gauss said.
“When we are, I’ll lead the way,” Chirpley said. “Hofsted?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Bring a trumpet. I’ll need you to blow it.”
“Sir?” Hofsted asked.
“Huh?” Zolna asked.
“It will be a great heroic deed to capture King Kleigowski,” Chirpley said. “When we charge him, Hofsted can blow the trumpet.”
“What about all of his robots?” a crewman asked.
“We’ll charge them too,” Chirpley said. “Zolna!”
“Yes?”
“You bring a trumpet too.”
“Maybe we should just bring Fartley along,” someone said.
“Yes!” Chirpley said. “We’ll have loud farts, and loud trumpeting, and then I’ll say ‘Charge!’. Very loudly.”
“After we leave hyperspace,” Gauss said.
With this, the little green men went to sleep.
“Melinda.”
The 10-year-old sat upright. She’d gone to bed wrapped in a dry bath towel, but now she was in her bikini again.
She wasn’t aboard Regoob. She sat in a field of pale mushrooms. These grew suddenly taller, on long stalks. They became a forest of mushrooms. The mushrooms shaded Melinda from the high sun. Through sprouted undergrowth, a path trailed off into the tall mushrooms.
Then an old man appeared. Using a gnarled branch for a cane, he followed the path. He saw Melinda and spoke.
“Melinda.” He said this at a distance. However, Melinda heard it as if he were beside her. She even smelled his breath. It had an odor of onions.
Melinda stood.
Suddenly, the man was before her. His stooped figure was tall and commanding.
“I want you,” he rasped to Melinda.
The blonde frowned. At least, she told herself, she was face-to-face with the person they’d been pursuing. She did not call him king.
“Kevin. You look awful,” Melinda said.
The man scowled.
“I’m done with Kevin,” he said. “Kevin’s attack on Planet Quigley failed. I don’t like failure.”
The man smiled at Melinda.
“Kevin bores me,” he said. “You don’t.” The man took Melinda’s arm. She found herself walking with him, despite not wanting to.
“We’ll rule the universe,” the man told her.
Due to Reddit’s character limit, I can only post part of my book here.
A free copy of “Melinda and the Little Green Men” is at:
http://andrewroller.com
Copyright 2023 by Andrew L. Roller. Melinda and the Little Green Men is a trademark of Andrew L. Roller.

Because someone asked me about a comment I made on another post, here's an edited version of a writeup I did back in 2011 of the 8 page outline from Heinlein's papers that became Spider Robinson's Variable Star.
When I first Read Variable Star a few years after it came out, I thought it was OK but disappointing. It's a Spider Robinson novel, and while I enjoyed the first few books of his I read, he has a limited range and by the time I read this one I had gotten bored with him.
But, a huge deal was made in the afterword and the cover blurbs about the source of the novel being a book outline by Heinlein that he had never expanded to a full novel - an 8 page outline that tragically had lost its last page by the time Robinson got hold of it. (I don't know how much of the story of the missing page is marketing BS, but there's no reason Robinson would have been unable to get a copy of the last page if he really wanted to see it) .
Anyway, I got curious and went looking for the outline. Like every other scrap of paper from his writing career that Heinlein didn't destroy, it's in the UC Santa Cruz library, and scans of everything in the Heinlein collection are available for sale online at the Heinlein Archive website. The 8 page outline (which is complete, no missing last page) is part of the "Story ideas, part 1" PDF, catalog number WRTG201a-01.
I paid $2 and got a 150 page PDF, including the 8 page outline and a bunch of other quite interesting material - very much worth the pittance.
TLDR: The outline is clearly for a Heinlein juvenile. While Heinlein never turned the outline into a novel himself, he did did not abandon it as the marketing for Variable Star would imply. Rather, he took one core idea (near-light speed travel as a form of time travel into the future) and used it as the basis for Time For the Stars. Then he took the other core idea (poor boy suddenly finds himself dealing with a family more wealthy and powerful than most governments) and incorporated it into Citizen of the Galaxy. Finally he took the last idea from the outline (boy and girl seemingly separated by one-way time travel into the future discover that their ages are not incompatible after all because they've both travelled forward), and used it in The Door Into Summer.
In 2011 when I wrote this up, I could not find anyone talking about the outline, so I wrote a detailed summary on my blog. Here's that summary:
The outline is eight single space typewritten pages, plus 12 handwritten notecards. The notecards are pages 115-128 and the typed outline pages 129-136 of the PDF. I'll be focusing on the typescript, which I can read without straining my eyes. The notecards are very brief, so we're not missing much this way.
The MS begins "Notes for a novel - 5 Nov 1955," which places it (going by publication dates) after Tunnel in the Sky and before Double Star or Time for the Stars. The second line gives a working title "The Stars are a Clock," and then there are several other titles handwritten at the top of the page:
Dr. Einstein's Clock, The Starship Nautilus, The Starship Naughty Girl, The Star Clock, The Einstein Clock
It's not clear whether the two "The Starship X" ones are meant to be subtitles for "Dr Einstein's Clock" or standalone titles in themselves. Page 2 is headed "Star Clock (The Star Clock, maybe)" and the rest of the outline has "The Star Clock-[page number]" as a running head.
The only named characters are Joel Johnston, age 18, the protagonist; Jinny Jones/aka Jennifer Conrad (Joel's steady high school girlfriend, age 17); and "Mr. Conrad," Jinny's grandfather and head of the Conrad financial empire. A few other characters are described in terms of the real-world people the character should be modelled after (in speaking of the starship, he says "I think maybe Ron Hubbard is her skipper").
This was clearly intended as a juvenile novel - Joel is 18, and when saying he "should have more girl trouble aboard ship," Heinlein adds "(keep it clean, of course!)" One reason Heinlein set the outline aside and started over may be that he decided he couldn't get a book whose plot was centred on a romance accepted for the (at the time) sexless juvenile market.
Joel and Jinny are in love, but Joel is an orphan with no money and he thinks he needs to get through college and start a career before he can get married. If Joel can't get the scholarship he's applied for, then it's going to take even longer, since he'll have to work his way though school.
Having gotten Joel to admit that he would like to marry Jinny if only there was a way, Jinny lets him know that her surname is not Jones but Conrad, and that she is not just a Conrad, but the "'crown princess' of the Conrad industrial empire... which is larger than the Hanseatic League, Rothschild family, and General Motors combined and just smaller than space itself."
Two paragraphs in a row start with a variation of Joel "finally gets it through his head" that Jinny is wealthy enough to pay his way though school, so Joel is yet another variation on the "smart but slow witted youth" that Heinlein used as protagonist again and again.
There's a couple of paragraphs mentioning the marriage and courtship customs of the time, which again probably would not have been acceptable in a novel for the juvenile market: "some discussion of 'student contract,' the trial marriage used" by most college students who wish to get married before they graduate, rejected by Jinny, ("marriage isn't a ticket to an amusement park") who wants an old fashioned life long marriage.
Jinny doesn't "park, diddle, go on no-chaperone weekends... she is old-fashioned and chinchy" because she has been taught since age three that she has a responsibility to the Conrad family to produce an heir with an acceptable father - and she has decided that Joel is that man.
Joel "finally gathers" that he has been tapped not just to marry into the Conrad family but to produce its heirs, and is dubious about being a kept man/prince consort. Jinny says "it isn't like that at all!" and makes him promise to go talk to her grandfather about it.
All this takes just over a page of the outline.
The next morning, Joel is summoned to an audience with Mr. Conrad. There is only one "Mr. Conrad" at any one time, all the other male Conrads go by "Mr. Joseph, Mr. Robert" and so on. Conrad takes Joel's consent for granted and proceeds to tell him how he will live his life from then on -- he will be educated, trained, and groomed to take a top executive position. Joel was thoroughly investigated before Jinny was given permission to propose to him. Mr. Conrad knows all about him - including confidential medical/psychological records.
Joel objects, respectfully, saying that having his life planned out for him like this is not his cup of tea. Conrad brushes his objections aside and leaves, failing to realize that he's just been turned down.
Joel is unable to contact Jinny after this ("she has been gently kidnapped, of course - family stuff"), and once he fails to respond to further messages from Conrad, the screws start to turn: his scholarship (controlled by the Conrad foundation) is turned down.
Unable to continue school, sore at Jinny for not contacting him, and at his wits end, "he sees the ad for 'gentlemen adventurers'" applies, is accepted, and is shortly on his way to Beta Aurigae.
All this takes a page and a half of outline, most of it devoted to a detailed summary of Mr. Conrad's interview with Joel.
Now there's just under two pages of background material, detailing several things:
First, the economics of space travel in this future society - relativistic starships that go out on voyages of exploration often fail to come back, but those that do return invariably show an immense profit, more than enough to pay for the lost ships. Starship exploration is one area where the Conrad empire has competitors, and the ad Joel sees is not affiliated with the Conrad conglomerate.
Second, the nature of Joel's poverty - he has an "orphan's allowance" which ran out on his 18th birthday. Joel's father bought some stock for him but the market shifted and Joel had to sell it low to pay for his last (post 18th birthday) semester at prep school. Without the scholarship, Joel has no money at all. He could do many things at this point, from indentured service to a stint in the military, but he's so discombobulated by the whole Jinny/Conrad business that he is in a "what the hell frame of mind" and signs up for this star voyage.
Third, the starship in question is "a pile of junk," old and poorly equipped, carrying low value cargo (emigrants), with low likelihood of returning, but Joel doesn't know that. "She will be a quaint mixture of madhouse and hellship." Subjectively, the trip out and back (to a star 10 light years away) will take a year, but 40 years will pass on Earth.
Fourth, there's a half page of brainstorming, with Heinlein throwing out multiple ideas as to what may happen (is the skipper incompetent, or is he in on a stock market manipulation scheme to delay the ship's return? Perhaps Joel still has some stock his father bought in an old starship that is long overdue, which he instructs his solicitor to invest in Joel's starship if it ever pays off? Perhaps they pay off, but his solicitor put them in a "safe" investment instead, and Joel is penniless - again! - at the end of his trip?)
Joel applies to go on the starship, along with a large crowd of "down-at heels rabble" and he is among the few provisionally accepted. They'd like him to marry one of the single women who have also been provisionally accepted, but he'll have none of that. "He is accepted anyhow and we rush him aboard."
And then there's a bit more than a page of further brainstorming about what happens aboard ship - with an note that "we've got plenty to happen when he gets back; what we need now is adventure and humour" - and ideas for plot twists on the ship and on the alien planet.
Heinlein makes several mid-course changes in the story: the back-at-home duration of the voyage gets increased to 60 years, with Joel ageing just three years; the ship goes through two names (Nautilus and Naughty Girl) and goes from making an out-and-back voyage to making a 4 or 5 leg journey. He tosses out the idea that an emigrant on the original trip out from Earth (then a 5 year old girl) grows up to be someone he might want to marry on his return to that colony world, and the idea that another girl from his high school is on the crew of the ship, and he falls for her, but she marries one of the officers instead.
One thing he is certain of is that while Joel's ship is still travelling, FTL ships are perfected and the relativistic starships become obsolete. He also mentions that Joel will find a "space bat" as a "cute and cuddlesome and smart e.-t." pet.
Eventually Joel has to go back to Earth (whether his stocks end up making him well-heeled or broke Heinlein waffles on), still single. A page is devoted to discussing the "Out-of-Phase Club, Anachron Lounge, etc" and Joel's meeting with the secretary of the club, who explains to him the club's purpose of helping relativistic starship crew by acting as trainers/translators and as a place where they can meet people from their own time period, since they are almost always going to find Earth's society, language, and customs to be bafflingly different from when they left.
Finally, the last page and a half of the outline is devoted to Joel's arranging to meet Jinny (who he imagines is now almost 80), the girl he ran away from and who has continued to haunt him, keeping him from marrying any of the "half a dozen other nice girls" he met on his travels. After getting to the Conrad house, he first sees Jinny's granddaughter and great-granddaughter, and (once again) is slow on the uptake when Jinny (still young) finally walks into the room.
Because, of course, she took a starship out too, after marrying, giving birth to the requisite heir, and then finding herself both widowed and orphaned in quick succession. So, sixty Earth years later, they are now the same age.
They fight, they make up, they "clinch." They decide, since they are both now anachronisms from the past, to buy their own starship (Joel's old ship) and travel around relativistically, coming back to earth every century or so to "see what's new."
(ETA: As you can see, this is basically a very preliminary version of "Time for the stars." I think the main reason the outline got shoved in a drawer and TftS became a very different book is probably because Heinlein realized he was not going to be allowed to have his juvenile protagonists be interested in marriage. But he also kept the outline in his story ideas file, and clearly he went back to it at least twice. The Conrad family seems to be a precursor to the Rudbecks in Citizen of the Galaxy, and the "oh, the girl I like must have grown old and aged while I time travelled into the future... oh wait, she is still young because she also travelled to the future separately from me, now we can get married, yay" plot device reappears in The Door Into Summer.)
Now a bit about Robinson's novel: it is extremely faithful to the first five pages of the outline (up to the point where Joel leaves on the starship). Robinson used just a few of the brainstorming ideas Heinlein put in page 6 (the trip), and ignored page 7 (Joel's return to Earth) completely (and it is claimed that he didn't have page 8, which is the reunion of Joel and Jinny). Robinson also borrowed some material from Time For the Stars, the Heinlein juvenile which did get written on the theme of relativistic star travel - there's mention of telepaths keeping the starship in touch with Earth, for instance.
Then (avoiding spoilers here) the ending of Variable Star utterly abandons the outline (well before the alleged missing page 8) and strikes off in an entirely new direction. By staying so faithful to the initial outline, then diverging so widely from it, Robinson ended up with a book that egregiously violates the Chekov's Gun rule - the ending of Variable Star comes from nowhere, with very little buildup or foreshadowing, while the beginning of the book puts a good many plot threads in motion that are discarded abruptly without resolution to make way for the shock ending.
Finally, a bit about the other material to be found in the "Story Ideas part 1" PDF: There are numerous newspaper and magazine clippings that Heinlein evidently found evocative; two articles by Jerry Pournelle (one typescript, one journal reprint); some handwritten pages that I did not try to decipher; 19 pages of worldbuilding notes for "A Martian named Smith" aka Stranger in a Strange Land, dated 1949; and finally two typed letters, one to "Sarge" (dec 1963), and one (missing the first page, probably from the same time period) to "Buz," both talking about race relations. Buz is probably F.M. Busby.

Hey Reddit. I’m in a pretty messed up situation here and I’d like some advice.
So me and my boyfriend (25M) broke up a few weeks ago, he broke up with me (18F) after about a 2 months of dating. I can’t lie the relationship wasn’t great, I cried almost daily and I wasn’t happy, but I really did love him, since he was what I was looking for, he had a stable job, had a somewhat good relationship with family who I really liked also, a caregiver, got me gifts, spent a lot of time with me and I found him quite attractive. He made me block two of my friends who I had been talking to for a while, I could understand why he asked me to block one of them, since he had feelings for me, but not my other friend, but he was always quite jealous and I was willing to do it for the relationship since he blocked a girl who had feelings for him, so fair, right?
After me and him broke up, and it seemed like he wanted this breakup (my bf) for a while, since nearly every day leading up to it we’d have ‘serious talks’ where he’d tell me i’m on my last chance, he didn’t think we’re compatible, etc. I unblocked my friends as we talked every day and finally started seeing them again.
A few days after the breakup (me and my ex were just casually keeping in touch as I wanted to be friends), he says he wants to get back togethework to get back together and we can be single but exclusive and we can try to fix things. Of course when this breakup happened I was heartbroken, he did it at like 1am and I cried all night as he just watched star wars and slept. So I was so glad to hear that he wanted to work things out, and I said yes. I had been meeting up with one of my blocked friends also 25M, we’ll call him J.
J came over any time I wanted him too and would help me feel better, took me out even at ridiculous times at night in his car just to cheer me up and find something to do for me, he offered to get me gifts and always made me laugh. He would hold me as I’d cry about my ex being distant and then loving, and about how I missed my ex, he’d give me advice. I realised after seeing him for a few days how much he did for me, how he would literally rush out to see me just to make me smile, even my family noticed that around him I’m happier than I ever was with ex, I was laughing and smiling constantly. I started to catch feelings for him, and hard. I mean, he was literally doing everything he could to see me smile, nobody ever did that much for me.
Me and my ex hang out occasionally, a few times a week, and he seems very loving now, he tries way harder than he ever did when we was together and genuinely seems to want me now, he said we talked about where we went wrong and how we can improve. We’re still exclusive but single from my choice and taking it slow to see if we could ever get back together. He has no idea about J since he wanted him blocked when we was together and still hates him (due to him having feelings for me) and wouldn’t want me to talk to him. I felt horrible knowing I hung out with J as a friend with no other intentions but started catching feelings and my ex doesn’t know. I know that I’m going to have to figure out what to do about this all soon, as I can’t keep pretending I’m not hanging out with J to my ex and try to evaluate what I want to do now, as my ex has seemingly changed and is now way more caring/loving which makes me want to give it a chance, but my friend has been there for me throughout it all and I’m starting to really like him hard. I feel like i’m cheating because my ex doesn’t know and we’re ‘exclusive’ but still single (according to my ex), so it’s even more confusing.
What should I do? Is there anyway I can tell who I should continue with? I just genuinely need some outside advice about the situation.

It had been years since I last stepped foot in that desolate forest. Memories of my childhood flooded back as I peered through the overgrown foliage, spotting the worn-out path leading deeper into the woods. The stories we used to share around the campfire echoed in my mind, especially the one about the abandoned cabin—the place where all fear began.
Curiosity tingled in my veins as I made my decision. I was going to find that cabin and uncover the truth behind the legends. With my backpack slung over my shoulder, I ventured down the overgrown path, the silence of the woods swallowing my every step.
The trees towered above me, casting eerie shadows across my path. Leaves rustled as if whispering secrets only they could understand. I swallowed hard, pushing forward, my determination overpowering the creeping unease. The tales of the cabin had intrigued me for years, and now it was time to confront the darkness that lurked within.
After what seemed like an eternity, I stumbled upon a clearing, and there it stood—the infamous cabin. It had succumbed to the passage of time, its wooden frame weathered and decaying. The windows were shattered, and the front door hung crookedly on its hinges, beckoning me to enter.
I took a deep breath and crossed the threshold. Inside, the air was stale and heavy, filled with the scent of abandonment. Dust danced in the weak rays of sunlight that filtered through the cracks in the walls. It was a scene frozen in time, as if the inhabitants had fled in haste, leaving behind their most cherished possessions.
A sense of foreboding settled upon me as I explored further. The whispers of the wind outside grew louder, carrying with them the echoes of distant footsteps. Every creak of the floorboards sent shivers down my spine, making me question my decision to venture into this forgotten place.
I noticed a stack of weathered journals on a nearby table, their pages yellowed with age. My curiosity got the better of me, and I picked one up, dusting off the surface. As I opened it, I was greeted by chilling accounts of strange occurrences within the cabin—a malicious presence that tormented those unfortunate enough to stumble upon it. The more I read, the more I felt a chill creeping up my spine.
I snapped the journal shut, convinced that the stories were nothing but the product of overactive imaginations. But as I turned to leave, the door slammed shut with a deafening thud. Panic surged through me, and I rushed to open it, but it refused to budge. My heart pounded in my chest, and the whispers of the wind transformed into sinister laughter.
Time seemed to stand still as I frantically searched for an alternative way out. The cabin's atmosphere had changed, becoming suffocating and oppressive. The creaking of the floorboards grew louder, and the unsettling feeling of being watched intensified.
Desperation overtook me as I stumbled upon a hidden trapdoor beneath a worn-out rug. My trembling hands reached for the handle, praying for an escape. With a deep breath, I opened the hatch and descended into the unknown.
The darkness swallowed me whole, the only source of light being a flickering lantern I had hastily grabbed from the cabin. The air grew colder, and an eerie silence engulfed me. It felt as though the forest itself had withdrawn, holding its breath.
I cautiously moved forward, my steps echoing in the cavernous space. The tunnel seemed to stretch on indefinitely, the oppressive blackness refusing to yield to any light.

[This is an aftermath sequel to Sanctuary. Please read it for context.]
Humans could get used to anything, given enough time and patience.
Intellectually, I am aware that I used to be Human, that prior to my exit from the dungeon, I'd had an entirely different life, that everything I knew from my past was a convenient lie to keep me trapped and servile.
There are many fanciful tales of Humans being taken, and through sheer willpower recalling their past lives and successfully destroying a dungeon's Core.
I know better, and I tell that to every would-be Adventurer who walks in through those doors.
When we were safely out of danger, John, Jimmy, and myself had come to an impasse on how to proceed. My entire life was gone, I was a monster, pure and simple, and even standing benignly in town got me more than a few terrified looks.
Dungeon Withdrawal is not unlike recovering from an addiction, I had to be locked up in a cell because every now and again, I got violent, demanding a Human to take me to the nearest dungeon.
The irony was not lost on me as I was indeed brought to a dungeon.
They kept me fed on a ration of meat and milk, both of which tasted horrible to me, because a dungeon sustains its monsters through mana, it's why several vicious monsters could coexist without killing each other.
But as it ran its course, the food began to taste better, and though they kept me for a week longer than necessary, once I was fully removed from the dungeon's influence, I was free to go.
John and Jimmy couldn't stay, they still had their own lives to live, and returning home victorious with both their manhoods intact was certainly going to make their lives easier.
They took one fourth of the loot each, at my direction, during one of my more lucid moments, and they ensured the Adventurer's Guild kept my half safe for me.
When I went to the Guild for my loot, it was given to me, coinage exchanged for viable currency, offers made on magic items that I staunchly refused to sell until I knew what I was going to do with my life.
Plus, that dagger is mine, I killed for it.
Because I didn't have any life to return to, the only clue being a letter that meant nothing to me taken from the body of a brother whose memory was utterly gone, save for the fact that my first and only look at him was a split skull and the look of fear in his eyes.
I didn't mention the funerary cannibalism to anyone, even if I didn't have any issue with it, the Humans certainly did and dragged me away from the body before I could even begin to explain.
It was the least I could do for someone who had once meant something to me.
The Guild also offered me a job, Monstrous Adventurers were valuable, they couldn't be taken by a dungeon with the right protections- and I had those protections tattooed beneath my scales- and their innate understanding of how a dungeon worked gave most adventuring parties an edge.
Plus, dungeon Cores were pretty, and could do practically anything if you removed it and bound it to you. Which I did. More on that later.
They had a Grandmaster Wizard try to recall my memories, he couldn't, the letter only indicated an empty house with very little of note or value to me, but since it was mine, I sold it for a modest sum.
It was a pair of brothers who entered the Guild, the sight of them joking and laughing dredging up unpleasantly sad emotions that had nothing attached to them except whatever remained of love for a brother that I had.
"We're here to register." The older of the two called out, completely missing the fact that I was there.
"Do you have an entry fee?" I asked as I climbed the step-ladder to address them. They screamed, I yelled, they screamed even louder. It was good fun, I liked scaring Humans.
"Now that you've sufficiently hurt my ears, do you have an entry fee?"
"It's a little lizard thing!"
"Kobold!" I snapped. "I am a Kobold, and you will stop acting like a bloody arse or I will have you thrown out so you can calm down!" Latent hatred for Humanity aside, I didn't have a particularly good temper, and when stabbing was a more efficient way to get your point across, I wasn't allowed my dagger.
They elected to calm down. Progress. They approached cautiously, as all newcomers do, and said, in a hesitant voice. "We're here to register?"
"Congratulations, you've echoed something I've already heard twice. Allow me to echo something a third time. Do. You. Have. An. Entry. Fee?"
"Entry fee?" He asked.
"Yes. An entry fee guarantees you basic armor and weaponry properly assigned for your roles. Without one, you will have to provide your own. The entry fee is fifty silvers."
"We, uh, we don't have enough for that." The younger said.
"We, uh, also don't have any weapons." The elder added.
"Bloody brilliant. You Humans cease to amaze me. Come this way, I can give you a quick job to earn enough to pay. You're going to need this."
I led the duo to a door, this was my door, because before I got a job here, it did not exist.
"Are either of you familiar with dungeon Cores?" I asked.
"They're really powerful." The eldest said with a nod.
"They create dungeons?" The younger asked uncertainly.
I sighed. I really did not have the patience for this. "Beyond this door is a dungeon. It is my dungeon. I aided a party in destroying a dungeon and claimed the core after giving them free rein on the loot."
I opened the door, which led into a recreation of the dungeon I had once called home. That was largely due to the fact that the same dungeon Core that dwelt in this one had come from that one. "Dungeons are graded based on what they create. This is a Grade 1 Dungeon. It is the safest and easiest of dungeons to survive in, and because it is under my command, this one is even safer."
I paused, making sure they understood.
"This dungeon does not have many monsters in it. This makes it the kind where, if you stay too long inside, you become a monster. This is something I cannot change, and I keep it this way because there are people who simply want a completely fresh start. There are ten Kobolds in this dungeon, they are the ones who did not get out in time, even with my help."
"Why are you showing this to us?" The older brother asked.
"Because it is the most expedient way for you to earn enough to pay for the fee, or to find enough armor and weapons to kit yourself out. The Kobolds in this dungeon are passive, but become hostile if you start taking things. Killing them is allowed, I can resurrect them without issue. But do bear in mind they used to be Humans."
I paused again, they nodded.
"You will experience the beginnings of the dungeon claiming you after one hour inside, this will manifest in growing scaly patches, your limbs becoming non-Human..." I explained the process of being claimed, which I described in exact detail. "After twelve hours, if you fail to return, you will be claimed, your memories utterly destroyed, and your will belonging to the dungeon Core."
I looked at both of them. "Now, would you like to opt for a cleaning job instead?"
"Once you lose your memories, you cannot retrieve them." I warned as I led them through the dungeon. I had given them both a dagger to defend themselves, once they staunchly insisted on doing things the expedient way.
They were going to run this dungeon regardless, but under easier terms.
"I was minutes away from being claimed, and I only got out because I had given a pair of Humans a bag of loot that I was damned and determined to retrieve."
I stopped at the first intersection and turned around. I stomped one of my feet. "Now, unless you want to become Kobolds- which I will happily oblige- you will navigate this dungeon by yourselves. I will be observing you, ensuring you don't die, but I won't prevent you from being injured."
I teleported to the Core, its glossy blue surface growing translucent as I observed the Humans running through the hallways.
I raised the floor a step, causing them both to stumble and fall to the floor. "You have triggered a trap." I said. "You are dead now."
They pushed themselves up and kept going. I set a few traps ahead, non-lethal ones, ones designed to capture and hold. The elder brother fell into a small pit, just high enough that he couldn't climb out on his own. The younger brother immediately helped him out.
"Excellent instinct." I said. "Your survival in a dungeon depends on your capacity to cooperate and protect one another."
I directed a Kobold toward their direction. They weren't mindless, certainly intelligent, but utterly incapable of being removed from the dungeon, even if I tried. Severing them simply killed them, returning their mind and soul to the core.
I told him there were intruders who were after our shinies, he immediately attacked.
They were cognizant of what this dungeon was meant to be, a home for myself, and a place to train Adventurers. They understood this intellectually, but they were fanatical when it came to protecting what the dungeon produced.
Even I still got a little grumpy, seeing Humans grabbing my treasures. Generally, the angrier I was by the end of the run, the better their grade.
The Kobold attacked with a dagger. Their duty was to incapacitate and imprison Humans so that they became Kobolds. I let the Humans out, of course, unless they were too far gone by that point, at which point I simply gave them the choice of staying or leaving.
Most people were surprised they elected to leave, though they always came back after they were severed.
The elder brother kicked the Kobold, knocking him down and making him drop the dagger. I watched, and shook my head when they ran.
The Kobold pushed himself up, scooped up his dagger, and went into a side tunnel, moving through the walls and catching up to them. He ambushed them, leaping from the inside of a wall and tackling the younger brother, dagger already jabbing into his side.
The elder brother immediately moved to protect his sibling, and this time, he didn't hesitate to kill.
"The Kobold you just killed is the same one you left alive." I said, the elder brother tensed, horrified. "Understand, you cannot assume you will outrun an enemy, your brother's blood is on your hands, he has paid for your choice."
It was brutal, but it was an important lesson.
I moved a chest and a mimic near them. The mimic was a mindless construct, set to devour or entrap.
The elder brother helped his sibling stand, removing the dagger.
"Congratulations, you have now ensured his stab wound is bleeding freely, in any other dungeon, without any form of healing, this would be a death sentence. Do not remove daggers until you can treat the wound."
He began to panic, looking for anything that would save his brother, likely forgetting I wasn't going to kill them. He spotted the chest and the mimic and rushed over to them. I set up some non-lethal traps, to remind him not to hurry. I even had one resemble a mimic opening up to capture him.
He triggered them all, but managed to avoid getting hit. He hesitated at the chest and mimic.
Good.
He took off one of his boots, letting out a sharp cry of shock as he saw his little toe had transformed. He gingerly touched it, the dungeon Core fed him pleasant sensations to make him want to stay.
Particularly weak-willed Humans would find themselves enjoying the sensations, not realizing that they were becoming monsters, until it was too late.
He pulled his hand back, still unsettled, and threw the boot.
The mimic triggered instantly, grasping at the air in front of it before resetting, taking the boot with it. He took the other boot off, letting out a cry of distress as he saw all of the toes on that foot had already transformed. He threw the boot at the other chest, determined it was safe, and opened it.
The trap struck him in the torso, flinging him backward.
"Remember, your brother is currently sitting on the floor, bleeding, an easy target for the Kobold who's heading in your direction." I said. That was a flat-out lie, but it got him moving. He checked the chest, took out a red potion, and ran for his brother.
He gave the potion to him, the wound sealed shut.
"I'm not evil." I said. "I ensured you would have a means of healing your brother. At the same time, never drink a potion you cannot identify. That could have just as easily been a potion of transformation, or even poison."
"What's a potion of transformation do?" He asked.
"Costs you an hour." I replied. "Outside of a dungeon, it just flat out turns you into a monster. One with memories intact, mind you, but a monster nonetheless."
His brother healed, he led him carefully to the chest and they grabbed the armor within. It was piecemeal, a single pauldron, a breastplate, and a ring.
The younger brother got the breastplate, which shrunk to fit him, the brother wore the pauldron, and picked up the ring. This was a Ring of Binding, it accelerated the process of transformation, it is a cursed item.
I sensed someone entering my dungeon, it was the Guild Master. I teleported him to me. An old man, he was one of the strongest men in the Guild, and that was only because old age had worn him down.
"Prospective members?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." I replied. The older brother stowed the ring in his pocket. "Good instinct, never wear unidentified magic items." They continued, the elder brother removing his ruined socks and going barefoot. They slowed down, started paying attention to their surroundings.
"Do you expect them to survive this?" He asked.
"I do not interfere, Guild Master." I said. "Unless I absolutely have to or it's necessary to teach them a lesson." I looked at him. "The younger brother will absolutely make it out fine, the elder brother might, if he doesn't put on that ring. The moment he puts it on, he would have to run and avoid every threat between him and the exit."
The Guild Master nodded. "I expect-"
That was when the younger brother collapsed.
Dungeonrunning is extremely dangerous, even in this 'tame' one, death was possible.
The younger brother was still alive, but he had certainly fallen unconscious.
"No! Not now!" The elder brother shouted.
"What condition is the younger in?" The Guild Master asked, concerned. I reached out and felt his energy, his soul.
"He has a condition that causes him to faint." I replied. "One that is treatable with medicine, and expensive magic." I shook my head. "He should not have brought his brother with him, now he has dead weight he has to protect.
"Hey! Kobold! Can you help me?" The elder brother asked.
"No." I said. "Interference is not permitted by Guild regulation unless absolutely necessary. Your brother is not dying, he is not in any present danger of death. However, he is along the same level of change as you."
The brother looked desperate. "If I have to rescue him, he will be considered unfit for the job. Indeed, his condition may be serious enough that we could not- in good conscience- put him in anything but a clerical position."
Now, the question remained if the brother was sensible, or stupid.
Given that he almost immediately chose to lift him up and carry him on his back, stupid was the answer.
"A shame." The Guild Master remarked.
I moved some Kobolds in their path, the Guild Master raised his brow. "Are you intentionally sabotaging his progress?" He asked in mock offense.
"It's only sabotage if you intend for them not to succeed." I said. "If he's willing to risk his brother's safety instead of forfeiting his brother's chances of joining the Guild, then he will have to live with the consequences of his actions."
The Kobolds set up an ambush, creating a noticeable fake trap that the elder brother would have to walk around to avoid. To their utter shock, as well as mine, he just ran across it.
"Did he intuit the trap was fake, or was he just that bullheaded?" I asked as the Kobolds moved to intercept. They got ahead of him, prepared an ambush, and the moment he was close, they jumped out, punching and kicking him and cackling with glee.
"I still find it disturbing how monsters delight in Human suffering." The Guild Master remarked.
"Quiet, this is the best part." I said. They tied the elder brother up and dragged the unconscious younger brother into a panel. He screamed out a name. "Daniel!"
"I'm giving him half an hour before I fail him." I said. "That should be enough time to determine his competence."
The elder brother, legs bound together, arms behind his back, began to desperately inch away from where he'd been put, toward the dagger that he had dropped. I nodded approvingly, that was a sensible plan. But then he inched past it and deliberately triggered a trap.
I gaped in absolute shock as the trap sliced cleanly through the ropes, barely missing his wrists. He then got up, grabbed the dagger, and freed himself.
"Resourceful lad." The Guild Master remarked. "Yet his brother has been abducted."
The brother went toward the wall they'd taken Daniel, who was already halfway across the dungeon and heading straight for the holding cells. One of them requested to grab a Transformation Potion to speed things up.
"Reserve that for later." I said. "I want to see how the elder brother handles this."
The brother in question gave up, and began searching around desperately for something. There was a chest nearby with a proper sword and more armor, even a non-cursed magic item and a scroll. He kept searching, keeping his hand along the right wall, until he found it.
"He has an uncanny sense of what he's doing." The Guild Master remarked. "He might be an untrained time mage."
"That would explain the bravado with the fake trap and the willingness to push forward. He might not even be aware of why he's doing what he's doing." I remarked. He threw one of his ruined socks at the chest- "He still had those!?" I yapped- and proceeded to dig through its contents.
By now, his feet were fully Kobold, with his legs beginning to accommodate. He would be off balance for a while.
"Greaves, bracers, a standard short-sword, a werewolf's skin, and a scroll." The Guild Master remarked. "Not a bad find for a dungeon of this caliber."
Werewolf skin was a fun item that turned the wearer into a monster. The effect was effectively the same as being in a newly formed dungeon, and was meant to bring about some diversity to to the monster population.
It was also one of the few ways a monster could return to Human form, if it merged with them.
"Ragnar is a Werewolf, isn't he?" I asked.
"Aye, he is. He's been looking for one of those for his wife."
The brother seemed to know what it was, or at least, what its properties were, and tossed it back into the chest, that's when he pulled out the cursed ring.
"He's going to be sorely disappointed." The Guild Master remarked. "That's a Ring of Binding if I've ever seen one."
The scroll burst into flames, and he looked at the ring, wincing as his mind was filled with knowledge he didn't have before. He stared at the ring in his hand, clearly disappointed by the fact that it was utterly-
"Did he just put it on!?" The Guild Master sputtered. He was right, the brother had put the ring on and was beginning to transform faster. He then opened the wall panel and began following along the path the Kobolds had gone.
"Pull him out." The Guild Master commanded. "You've engineered a desperate situation, and we can clearly see he's not capable of rational thought in such instances."
"No." I said. "Look." The brother was stepping out of the walls, grabbing gear and other items, before going back in. "Kobolds are innately good at dungeoneering. Even in a foreign dungeon, we can figure out where we are in relation to everything else. But in your native one, especially one that's actively claiming you..."
"He's deliberately doing what he can to salvage the situation." The Guild Master remarked. "How much time does he have left?"
"Approximately one hour before the transformation is irreversible, so thirty minutes with the Ring of Binding on." I ran the time in my head. "Even if he manages to rescue his brother in time and gather enough gear for the both of them, by the time we could remove the ring, he would already be a Kobold."
The brother got as much armor on as he could, continued making his way to the holding cells, where Daniel was already bound, the transformation proceeding just as slowly as normal.
His eyes opened, he shifted around on the table, unable to get out.
That's when he began to grow fur.
"He's a Werewolf." I said numbly.
"If his brother doesn't get him out, he'll be a Kobold Werewolf." The Guild Master remarked. "Those are technically among the more powerful of the moderately dangerous monsters, all of the strengths of a Werewolf, plus the innate understanding of a dungeon? Terrifying creatures."
"Don't give me ideas." I said. "Ragnar needs a gift for his wife still, right?"
I moved the chest with the Werewolf Skin over to me and, wincing at the idea of taking it out and removing it from the dungeon, put it into my bag.
The brother was almost there, and Daniel was undergoing a transformation.
"Going unconscious suddenly is a commonality with natural born Werewolves," The Guild Master remarked. "He's still in danger of being claimed by the Dungeon, but this is something he is naturally."
The younger brother broke his restraints, and with a feral growl lunged at the Kobolds, tearing them to shreds and beginning to eat them.
"Ferality, not a good sign." I remarked. "Go get Ragnar ready, I'm on retrieval."
I teleported the Guild Master out, then the elder brother, who looked around in confusion.
"Out. Now. There is an emergency." I said. He ran out of the dungeon, and then I teleported Daniel to the entrance, where he bolted out into the Guild Hall.
I teleported over and saw Ragnar wrestling with Daniel, keeping him pinned to the ground while the older brother stared in confused horror.
"You have ten minutes before your transformation becomes irreversible." I said. He looked at me, "Nine, if you keep staring at me like that."
"What's wrong with my brother? Why is he like that?" He asked.
"Congratulations, you and your brother are natural-born Werewolves, which explains why you had such good flashes of intuition in there, and why you refused to abandon him. Eight minutes."
He held his hand out, but then brought it in, holding it against his chest.
"I don't particularly care if you want to be a Kobold- in fact, I welcome it, we need more Kobolds in this city- but if you do, and you don't want to be, then let me take the ring off."
"I... don't really want to." He said. "All I could think of when I saw the first changes was, I wanted it to go faster."
"Ah." I said. "Well, then. You were doomed from the start. Lovely. Once you're finished with that ring, we'll have it on your brother so he can finish transforming and calm down. Since you're out of the dungeon, you should be relatively safe, but for both of your sakes, we'll need to hold you for a while.
He nodded.
Ragnar finally got Daniel to calm down, he was whimpering, clearly experiencing pain.
"Aye, pup, let it all out." Ragnar said, gently petting his fur. "There's a good pup, inner peace, lad." Daniel started thrashing about again. "Inner peace, not outer squirm!"
"Also, yes, this does count as failing." I said to the elder brother. "However, due to the circumstances- and the fact that your brother would have doubtlessly been a mindless beast if left in there- the Guild Master will talk to you about your options after your holding period."
He nodded. His transformation finished, I clapped him on the back, took the ring, and- with Ragnar's help, got it on the Werewolf pup's finger so he could get it over with faster.
Once the two were in holding, I walked over to Ragnar, pulled out the Werewolf Skin from my bag, and held it out to him.
"You know what to do with this." I said.
He looked surprised, then nodded, taking it. "Aye, lad. I do."
I thought about what other things I needed to do. "Oh, right. I need to resurrect the Kobolds." I said, before walking into my dungeon.
It did take about a week for Daniel to finally calm down.
At first, there was some concern that the nature of his transformation had left him potentially feral, but the morning he was meant to be let out, he was in Human form
I was the one who went in, covered him with a blanket, and put some spare clothes out for him.
"Where am I?"
"A holding cell." I said.
I heard him shoot up, accompanied by a sound I was familiar with, in that his fur suddenly floofed up. "W-what happened to me!?" He howled in fear.
"You are a Werewolf." I said matter-of-factly. I looked at him, he was looking at his claws with a mixture of horror, fear, and joy. I had vague feelings of that same mixture of emotions. "More specifically, at least one of your parents was a Werewolf."
"Wait, then is Jason-?"
"He became a Kobold." I replied. "He used an item to speed up the transformation so he could rescue you. If you had maintained your sanity in that moment, I would not have interfered. But you didn't, and you are going to need training to keep yourself in check whenever you're scared or angry."
"I- see." He said.
"For what it's worth, you won't pass out anymore, so your reason for coming has ultimately resolved itself."
"What's going to happen to Jason?" He asked.
"The same thing that happened to me. He will live." I replied. "He has retained his memories, due to accepting that he was likely going to be lost, just to save you. Even though he could have forfeited at any point like I told him."
"Aye, Kobold, is he safe?"
"Yes." I said.
The door opened, Jason stepped inside, then ran over to his brother and hugged him. "Little big brother, meet big little brother." I snarked.
They both looked at me, and then they laughed. I let them have some time together, to talk and acclimate.
After their reunion, I brought them with me to the Guild Master.
"So." He said. "You have a few options. One, we tattoo dungeon protections on you and have you sign on to helping clearing out dungeons, or two, we let you go, except you return every week so Ragnar can train you to keep yourself under control."
"Dungeon protections?" Jason asked.
I nodded. "We are monsters." I said. "Without the proper protections, a new dungeon can claim you, making you a part of its system." I looked at them both. "I don't think it need said why you should refrain from going inside dungeons without it."
"What happens to those who do?" Daniel asked.
"The dungeon claims them." I said. "They lose their memories of their past life, becoming convinced they always lived in it. They become trapped inside, forever."
They both looked at each other, then looked at us. "We, uh..." Daniel started.
"We actually wanted to go back." Jason replied.
"You want to be claimed by the dungeon." The Guild Master said.
"When I was looking for my brother, all I could think of was how much I liked being there." Jason replied. "That's honestly why I put on the ring."
"And I'm not leaving my brother alone." Daniel said. "We've only had each other our entire lives."
I nodded. "As the master of the dungeon, I will approve this." I said. "Any arguments against, Guild Master?"
He sighed. "Just go." He said.
With the brothers close behind me, I led them to the dungeon entrance. "Understand, by doing this, you are consigning yourself to protecting what is effectively a practice dungeon." I said. "You will be killed and brought back."
Jason nodded. "I know."
He opened the door, and they walked in.

dI made a bunch of posts here and in the forums about the Fortification update.
Today I once again had ample opportunity to use the system inside a larger squad. I just wanted to leave some pointers here.
For background this was on Cobalt. Me and my TR outfit Terran Republic Legacy scheduled a "Cleanup Crew" Squad for today around 7PM CEST so Prime Time. The idea I as lead had, was to get behind enemy lines and destroy as many bases as possible and cleaning enemy spawns. Also in services of other factions so they don't have to deal with ghost bases.
First we were fighting on the last half an hour or Amerish, where we did okayish, but nothing to amazing.
We had someone start up on Indar early and they built a base close to NC warpgate between the VS/NC frontline, west of havar physics lab.
Despite having a somewhat full squad with 3ish construction enthusiasts it took us like 5 minutes to be setup properly. during that time the rest did some early havoc by spawning ligthnings skyguarding NC warpgate or just killing smaller bases under construction. Of building the base a majority of the time was slotting modules into all the walls, turrets and terminals. Bottom Line: Allow for preinstallation of modules. Saw some wonderful ideas for UI implementation.
Anyway the real fun started after someone spawned a collossus + amor column on NC warpgate. At this point we had taken out 2-3 bases using lightnings, siege ants (please add stealing cortium from silos for the siege mandibles and yellow yacket) and cortium bombs. I gave the order to get a sortie for rushing the big tank and before I even had time to get my own tank, my squad of 12 people just smashed the entire column to pieces including the golden goose. And in the process saving active TR bastion from being harrassed.
Someone in NC didn't like us ruining their fun and so they started assaulting us. I am talking ground farmers, valks hovering above us (since this was their space and respawning inside easy), infils coming on falshes from nearby bases as well as flail bases hammering us. In short we had to juggle keeping modules up (horray firewall), swap between skyguards and tanks to deal with aiflail bases and all that in the heart of NC territory with no backup from TR (reasonable)
And let me tell you, the 45 minutes we stood our ground in our shack of walls having infantry rain and atillery shells all around us was amazing. Easily the most fun and excitement I had for months and profitable too, for all the repairs, cortium and various kills. 10/10 would do again.
Of course I cannot see how Fortifications really skews the balance in favor of the first successful base. We didn't bother with flails of our own, would we, no assualt base could have setup in the time we would have rained hell on them. Instead we relied on our 12 people manpower, infinite lightnings and an all encompassing fortress shield to become an island of pain against the odds. Sure a more coordinated attack might have succeeded actually in a short period of time, but on the other side we were and open squad with 60% randoms and honestly very "open" base design.
But this isn't how it ended, after letting VS just plow through NC as we kinda did disrupted the latter a bit in that direction, we kinda decided to relocate. So we deconstructed our entire base including the silo before the eyes of our enemies (power move 101) and made a mad dash across the continent with enemies in tow using our last pulls for an amor and support column. We immediately found ourselves north of berjess still surrounded by NC, but got to work with the last suviving ANT carefully being guarded by repair sunderers, skyguards and a few heavy tanks.
Within 10 minutes thanks to cortium drill, we had an ample supply of cortium, a router for berjess and xeno labs plus infinite tanks. I directed my squad to take berjes by just shelling their position (I dunnow whoever had built there didn't bother making more than some walls and a rebirth center on the western edge of the silo range) This is the other extreme, if a base isn't properly considering fortress shields and the like, they get rushed so easily by an amor column.
We had it within minutes during which I already had a router placed in the corner of Xeno Labs far away from any door behind massive cover, right next to the point and called TR leadership and my squad to rush the base and we easily took it. Shame construction is still so expensive, waited since the annoucement for them to lower some prices, but because now that I no longer put this expenditure off, I can actually contribute massively to capture regular bases, protecting and assaulting construction. But just spend my last 10k Certs for it and still lack big walls to cover the Silo and the various items like tunnel, infantry tower or pillbox. And we will probably don't see an uptick in routers being used due to all the hassel they involve.
Oh by the time we captured both bases, a good deal of amor was busy witteling our base down, never bothering to take out the router. A fair trade I would say.
Anyway while our contribution to the Alert Victory for TR was perhaps minimal with just 2 captures and a lot of time spent in NC heartlands, we would like to think that helping VS to become the biggest threat caused NC and TR to team up with TR being able to get ahead thanks to the amazing work of other squads, while we secured the NC flank by kepping pressure on their bases from behind their own lines.
Honestly from what I've seen during that alert, the best base is one behind enemy lines. Build a base on your side of the battlefield and you might secure a capture or protect a position, but in case of the latter you might just as easily overun. Once your Team pushes down a lane, your base becomes irrelevant and you need to relocate. Meanwhile behind enemy lines, you are much less expected (literally had a valkery under fire from my skyguard turn towards me as they tried to safe themselves and didn't realize they were shot in the back) and seen as waste of manpower to assault. And best case your team pushes past you, which can take a while and gives ample opportunity to help with routers and vehicle spawns. Worst case of course if the enemy pushes away from you, but then you can still assault them from an unexptected angle or be much quicker on backcaps and the like.
​
But this was just the first alers. After Indar closed, we rushed to Esamir. Where VS had pushed us all the way to jaeger's fist leaving us with a tiny strip on the south. My team rolled out in MBT, Sunderer's and 2 ANTs. We found my new favourtie base building spot on western Esamir and got to work. Our ANT protection paid off as the enemy was trying something in the area either claim the spot for themselves or just setup a defensive line against the rest of TR, but we caught their 2 vanguards and sunderer by suprise and wrecked shop. By the time they came back, we had unloaded the 2 ANTs, built a rebirth center and vehicle pad plus some walls and just kept them at bay with lightning spam. Proving once again my point that construction operates under a somewhat unfair first come, first serve principle. Anyway while my squad just mucked around the base, killing vehicles or putting up more walls, I got into contact with TR leadership and coordinated the use of my router spire. And let me tell you, my spot was ideal as it covered containment site, tapp waystation and south bank. During all 3 captures I had routers up for the entire duration allowing a friendly platoon to just go to town, while we did our thing. Got a lot of positive feedback for that.
Seriously if there should be one item, everyone should be given for free or at least highly encouraged to buy, it should be the Router Spire.
Anyway while we didn't want to get involved in 96+ slaughterfests, we used our ample vehicle supply to rush the traverse and secure it. Afterwards, I got back into contact with TR Command and we devised a plan. Stop pushing direct pressure onto NC, so that they would team up with us on VS and then steal their southern flank, while being distracted. I offered to relocate my base during that cool down period, so we would once again have some routers up to hasten our demise.
Another great reason to built behind enemy lines. Because unlike prepping a base by blowing up generators and the like, unless enemy air is flying reconissance, a base without CC or Skyshield can be safely setup and provide devestating results (see router).
And while due us indulging a bit into recording the base design for future reference and keepsake memory, we arrived a bit to late to provide routers ahead of our last minute NC betrayl, my squad did manage to setup a small base northwest of yimir ruins, to supply routers to both containment side and crashsite and also wreck the nearby NC fortress (remember cleanup crew) on ruins to prevent NC from responding properly. And the BL crashsite router stayed for the rest of the alert and was actively used in both the attack and subsequent defense by friendly platoons.
While I don't mind the hijinks this allows: Having mutliple functioning router pads across different hexes even when the original spire has been killed/replaced, is a bug that should probably be fixed for the health of the game.
At the end, we rounded the Alert off with a mad dash on tapp waystation, which we no longer could use our old base for, because I was the only one with all the core buildings and we had reloacted earlier. Securing it with one second to spare, tipping the control ever so slightly into TR's favor.
While I alreadly left some pointers, here are some new thoughts in no particular order gathered since my last post in this manner.

• The lack of construction outposts on other continents is a bit tragic. I also understand that changing the map to accomedate them would probably not well recieved and even I have a hard time even seeing space to add them without breaking the flow of the map. A possible solution might be to have some "unconnected" construction outpost in empty places of hexes, especially around large bases. They don't contribute territory control (thus not taking away existinig lattice balance), but provide guidance and ressources to create a base in prime locations to assault from or provide additional defenses. Think the towers around bases in Planetside 1, which can be hacked to provide a forward spawn. To take them over you need to have a stable link to the hex/be in control of the hex itself. (The whole point flip/asset handover might also help with the first come, first serve problem, since these particular bases can be taken over and thus not requiring trying to setup your own while in range of flails and orbitals)
• Construction Outpost can have terrible designs. All bases technically can have, but around Construction Outpost, especially Berjess, this can be felt quite pronounced. One lazy silo and you might not be able to wall up the bridges. One good citadel shield building and good luck trying to ever break through from the East. There are a few things, I would like to see here:
  • Have a minimum distance for all construction spawn options around the Control Point. No Elysium Tubes, Command Centers and especially Rebirth Center should be sitting within 50-100 meters of that thing, otherwise just completly enclosing it and making capture hell is way to easy.
  • Have a similiar very small no deploy area for sunderers, loadstars and the like around the control point. Not only to have defenders circumvent the above rule, but also to not have attackers basically make a point indefensible, as they use the skeleton of the base as cover for their own vehicles after smashing through one side.
  • Said no deploy area should also account for flails as with the first rule skyshields might no longer be available.
  • Silos should also have some no deploy areas around construction outpost, to prevent lazy/uninformed players from blocking valubale spots as they just put a silo next to the outpost heart. These no deploy zones shouldn't be massive circles. Just for example so that on Berjes a silo placed to the east always covers the bridge access points.
  • Berjess Overlook often turns into a clog around the walls on the eastern bridge. My suggestion would be to create some ledges for LA's around the perimeter that could be climbed from the bottom of the hill and could be positions to place routers which if blocked with walls on top would leave that flank more easily exposed to sideways fire. Another could be more usable, reliable and especially to new players communicated climb towards the nothern bridge, if only to make a pincer attack on berjess more likely.
• Air Defense is a pain. If you are better off just pulling a bunch of skyguards and leaving them around the base as turrets, instead of bothering with the actual AI turret, you know something is wrong. This mostly comes down to them not being Flak-Weapons, but also small "magazine size". Given they now need a human, they should be much more viable as a defense tool. Make them Flak-Cannons and give them a "magazin" comparable to a skyguard, at least half.
• Inconsistency in the NSO Haywire Ammo. Against base turrets, they apply havoc, against construction turrets they don't. I am not saying all buildings repairs should be disabled by the Linecutter (I mean could you imagine?), but at least have some of the debuff carry over to turrets would be a nice way for them to support an assault.
• In some corners of the map the NDZ or rather their combined blocked area is just excessive. Might do a write up about it later, where to fix what.
• Siege Ant not dealing damage to silos is maybe a bug, if not it should be better indicated and Siege ANT should be allowed to extract enemy Cortium.
• No idea why some buildings have their own cortium reserve, but I hope/would suggest that if a terminal is hacked and stuff pulled, it would drain this reserve and as long as it remains hacked, doesn't refill this reserve so a hacked terminal eventually runs out of juice even if the silo is still up. Might be a bit whacky for CC, but again no idea what other purpose these reserves fufill.
• Allow resupply tower to be fitted with terminal module. just because it fits the theme of the structure in my oppinion.
• increase the heat dissepate module runtime. between the pitifull ammount of shots, overall low fire rate and the fact that without a dedicated engineer, you bleed health under attack, it is just not worth it especially if places farther away from a module pull slot.
• i would love to repeat my point about deployed ants being allowed to serve as a silo replacement at least for walls, turrets and structures (though keeping all terminals and modules unpowered). Not only as a band aid to save a base after its silo went down, but also to allow for ramparts, etc being thrown up on a wide scale in the field. without clogging up the place with silos.
• skyshield module should be available for smaller buildings such as pillbox or bunker. As a tradeoff, add a limit of 2-3 skyshield modules per player into the game. Just because some cozy corners cannot accommedate them if only for the uneven terrain.

One nice side-effect of the lifting of secrecy was that the entire team (human and alien) could now be reassigned to somewhere more palatial than a sealed-off side-entrance into a hollowed-out mountain. But where, oh where, to put them? What was needed was someplace A) which was much nicer than a tunnel (humanity must treat our alien guests properly, after all) and B) was already set up with the necessary security precautions and secure communications in and out.
In the end, there was, really, only one choice of location…at least if they wanted to stay in the United States proper.
Camp David.
Corporal McCoy spread her arms out along the back of a very nice red-leather sofa, in the middle of a room dominated by a red-brick fireplace in one corner. Along the two far walls from the fireplace stretched multiple windows which showed, at the moment, the denuded stick-like forms of leafless trees. She knew that in the spring and summer they’d be a veritable explosion of green; somehow, she didn’t mind that she wasn’t able to see leaves at the moment. Off in a far corner of the room sat a wet bar that she also eyed with quite evident lust. There was at least one nice single-malt scotch there that she wanted to get ahold of. Just for a taste, mind you.
Not everyone was there; Chao and Grakosh were off in the midst of some giant nerd mind-meld with some Lockheed Martin Skunk-Works types, trying to figure out how to lift what materials were needed into orbit so that humans could help fix the Rithro and show the Coalition that we are very good and oh so helpful little sapients, yes indeed we are, please help us out just in case we get discovered by some genocidal robots who want to do a little bit of trolling.
Moquon, the knuall-toua who was the ship’s lifesystem engineer, coiled around her shoulder as the latter looked with interest at the wood paneling which made up the rafters and roof.
“Now this is more like it!” McCoy exclaimed to all and sundry.
“Yes, indeed! It does seem much nicer than our previous lodgings,” said Mouquon.
“This is not a vacation, corporal.” Sergeant Shaw stood next to one of the nearly floor-to ceiling windows, looking out over the grounds below with a practiced eye.
“You need to relax, Sarge,” said Martinez. “We got something like a million Secret Service agents prowling around here. I went shooting with one of ‘em once, trust me when I say those people are no joke.” He chuckled. “First time I got my ass kicked in a shooting contest by a woman.”
Shaw let out a grunt. “We are the last layer of the onion.”
“Sir?” asked McCoy.
“Someone can figure out we’re here pretty easily.” Shaw pointed out into the wintry woods. “If they send a determined and well-armed force, they might just make through those million agents to here.” He turned away from the window and stared at his team, who, at the moment, sprawled or sat with evident relief on the furniture within the room. “The OPFOR might get taken down. But then again, they might not. What do we do then?”
McCoy felt Mouqon coil herself tighter around her shoulder. Almost on instinct, she reached up and patted the snake-like alien’s head. “Don’t you worry. I’m here.”
Shaw pointed at the corporal. “Exactly. We are the last, and I do mean the last, line of defense. We are gonna run some drills at a time and place of my choosing. We are going to protect our esteemed guests to the very last…and yes, I do mean the very last. Make sure your gear is ready and that you are ready, or I will give y’all an ass-chewing they’ll feel clear out to the Coalition.”
Agent Milton Vila strolled into the lounge at that particular moment with a grin on his broad face. “Sounds like we’re getting an upgrade to our security, Mack.”
“Aw hell, you know how it is. I gotta keep these assholes on their toes or everything breaks down into chaos.”
The Secret Service agent grinned. “Anyways…we now have a new member of our merry band of misfits.”
“Misfits?” Martinez looked appropriately indignant. “I’ll have you know I am a perfectly normal functioning member of society!”
The agent and soldier held each other’s gaze for a few moments before they both busted out in laughter. “Anyways,” continued Vila, “He’s the medical expert that the general requested.” He turned to one of the entrances to the lounge. “Come on in, sir.”
A dark-skinned, lean man with an uncertain air entered. “Zawahir Ibn Harith,” he said by way of greeting. His eyes widened upon viewing the various alien forms now stretched out in various relaxed postures before him.
McCoy decided to throw him a bone. “Welcome!” She gave a wave of her arm…the arm around whose shoulder Mouquon was currently coiled. “Welcome to our…merry band of misfits!”
“Thank you!” The newcomer still looked a bit at sea.
“Hey, Dhuz?” McCoy called out.
The auhn turned from her gazing out the windows. “Yes?”
“I figure you and this guy got a lot to talk about.”
Dhuz met Zawahir’s eyes and smiled. McCoy was still getting used to that; it was a gesture of happiness just as with humans, but auhn teeth were very numerous and very sharp. “I imagine so. Mutual exchange of medical data, yes?”
Now that he had a task before him, Zawahir looked a lot more focused. “Of course! I mean, from what I’ve read thus far all of your species use some method of metal-oxygen bonding to deliver the necessary oxygen to your tissues, but not everyone uses hemoglobin!”
Dhuz lit up. “Exactly!” She touched her forearm and a big old wall of text and diagrams formed above it. “Here, let me show you…”
McCoy chuckled as the pair moved off into a far corner to continue their conversation. “Another nerd mind-meld,” she said to no one in particular.
“Pardon?” asked Mouquon.
“Oh, sorry. Just…Chao and your engineer are now off doing a big old nerd mind-meld with our best and brightest. The last time we had that much talent in one place, we wound up dropping the sun on some people.” The corporal regarded the pair now in the midst of an animated conversation. “I hope this particular nerd-gasm results in something more constructive.”
“Oh!” Mouquon perked up. “I should be a part of this ‘nerd-gasm’. At least, if they start talking about what foodstuffs are viable for the various species.”
McCoy sighed. This was a very comfortable couch, after all. “You’re right, Mouquon.” She hauled herself up and off of the furniture with a bit of reluctance. “Let’s get you involved.” She walked towards the pair, who were both still gesticulating at the display over Dhuz’s forearm.
__________
Milton Vila had, much to his annoyance, been pulled off of President Correa’s detail and assigned to a new one…one to protect the alien captain. Sure, Agent Keynes had taken his place…and if he was forced to admit it, the guy was as good of a shot as he was…but Keynes wasn’t him, and that knowledge ate at him.
Still, he supposed that at least he wasn’t alone in his misery. Sergeant Shaw (who had finally admitted to Milton he was a Green Beret, which helped nail down exactly which branch of the armed forces his team worked for) was also pulled into the task of guarding Sadaf…upon Milton’s request. Not that he would tell the Green Beret that. The sergeant had also gotten the tailoring treatment from Milton’s wife, and now he wore a navy-blue suit which complimented his red hair quite nicely. But the Secret Service agent could tell that the man still wanted to be clad in full battle-rattle and toting a rifle instead of a mere hidden handgun.
“I still say I should be able to wear my normal shit,” said Shaw, not for the first time. At the moment, the three rode in a limousine, on their way to some gala luncheon event held by some upper-crust DC types who wanted to get a speech by one of the brand-new alien celebrities. Milton hoped that they’d also decide to open their damn pocketbooks to help fund the repairs needed for the alien’s ship; in the short time he’d known her, the agent had become won over by Sadaf’s no-nonsense and in-charge attitude.
“We’re trying to not scare the normies, Mack,” replied Milton.
Sadaf, who sat next to the hulking red-bearded man, looked over at him in curiosity. “You want to wear your usual fecal matter?”
“Frinxing translators,” muttered Shaw. As was usual, the various profanities of alien language were the first things to percolate into human speech. “Sorry, ma’am, I meant my normal gear. Yeah, I’m wearing body armor but this stuff is class two at best.” He plucked at his jacket. “Plus I’m not used to moving in this monkey suit.”
Milton grinned. “You’ll get used to it soon enough, Mack. Hey, my people have cleared the place beforehand. Our job is just to stand there behind the good captain and look menacing. And then when she’s doing the meet-and-greet afterwards we need to look extra menacing…and, of course, keep an eye out just in case someone makes a false move.”
“I don’t want to get used to this,” grumped Shaw. “I don’t want to get used to any of this. I want some proper goddamn body armor and a proper goddamn rifle with some goddamn extra magazines. A rifle with an M203 launcher, just in case someone gets really squirrelly.”
The agent winced. “Um, Mack, we civvies do have to worry about things like ‘collateral damage’ and such.”
Shaw’s normally cheerful demeanor fell into a somber look towards the agent, one that brought Milton up short. “Agent Milton, have you ever fallen victim to an RPG attack?”
“Um, no?”
“I have. Trust me, there is never such a thing as overkill.”
Milton sighed. He reached into a jacket pocket and pulled out a city map. “Okay, I suppose that’s as good an excuse to go over everything again. This is the courtyard for the shindig.”
“Shindig!” exclaimed Sadaf in pleasure. “I don’t know why, but that word brings me joy.”
The agent smiled at her. “You’re gonna get used to it, believe me. So, we’ve got the whole area blocked off here, here, and here. Full-body scans for everyone going in, and believe me they’d better have the proper ticket to be there or they’re in for some looong questioning in a little dark room somewhere. No outside translator beads allowed, we issue ‘em after they get through the perimeter. We have snipers located here, here, here, and here. Each one has their own designated field of fire, the four of ‘em cover all angles. Anyone who pops their head up on any of the surrounding roofs will get a fifty-cal bullet right through their noggin before they can even blink.”
“What about the courtyard itself?” asked Shaw. “Before you set up the perimeter, I mean.”
Milton grinned. The sergeant had the makings of a first-class agent. “A very good question. We swept the area prior, using metal detectors and dogs. Especially for the dais and podium where Captain Sadaf is going to make her speech. If I was gonna try for a hit, that’s how I’d do it. Plant some explosives in the podium and trigger it remotely. But we didn’t find anything.”
The sergeant smoothed his beard in a nervous tic. “Drones?”
“Jammers for a thousand-yard radius around the podium. Anything remotely piloted into that space will just fall to the ground. As a bonus, just in case someone decides to try something cute using their cell phone, those won’t work either.”
Shaw grunted in grudging approval. “Sounds good.”
“This is how I earn a living, Mack. Relax.”
Sadaf rubbed a hand on her forehead. She was now clad back in her black-and-silver uniform; somehow the powers that be had determined that it was now okay for her to wear the supposed ‘militaristic’ uniform in public. “Is all this security strictly necessary? I mean, thus far most of your world’s nations seem to be behaving rationally.”
“Oh, we’re not worried about state actors, ma’am,” said Milton. “Well, except for a few. There’s always North Korea, after all.”
“Frinx, don’t get me started on those assholes,” muttered Shaw.
Milton continued, in what he hoped came across as a soothing tone. “Look at it this way. Does your kind suffer from mental disease?”
“Originally, yes. But thanks to medical intervention we can catch almost all of them. At present, we suffer from less than one in three hundred million who have an incurable derangement of the brain…” Sadaf’s eyes widened as she trailed off. “Oh. I forgot, you don’t have access to our level of medical technology.”
Shaw sighed. “No, ma’am, we don’t. Not to mention there’s almost eight billion of us on this here planet. Even assuming only one-hundredth-of-a-percent of those people wish you harm, that’s far too big of a population for us to relax.”
Sadaf seemed to shrink into the cushions of the limousine. “But we come in peace. We don’t mean you any harm.”
Milton knew that it was a breach of protocol, but he reached across and patted her knee. “I know that, ma’am, and almost everyone on the planet knows that. But there are some…well, there are some you just can’t reach.”
Shaw rubbed his jaw as he regarded the map again. “Damn. Wish I had Toke here. That guy could sniff out something hinky like nobody’s business. Plus if something did kick off, he could sort it out no problem.”
“He’s the skinny, taller guy, right?” asked Milton. “Marine Force Recon, I do believe. I know they are double-tough. Yeah, I admit he’d be good for something like this. But the powers that be want to keep him back at Camp David.”
The sergeant grunted in annoyance and looked out the window of the limousine. Then he looked up with a quirky smile. “I guess so. Look at it this way, if something does kick off, then having him at Camp David means that whoms’tsoever tries an assault there is gonna die.”
Milton replied to Shaw with a raised eyebrow. “All right, Shaw. Just between you and me, we deal with very dangerous people by being very dangerous people ourselves. Don’t try to feed me a line of dramatic bullshit.”
For once, Shaw looked flustered. “No, you don’t understand! Toke was the guy you’d drop into the shit, into the middle of any utter hell on Earth, and he’d get you your grid coordinates for arty or drone strikes while escorting two other guys and, oh yeah, he’d kill ten enemies at long range while doing all of that. And not just long-range. He once took out five guys in ten seconds with a knife…and he’s supposed to be a fucking sniper!” The sergeant shuddered. “I can’t tell you about the mission where he got his knee messed up, but let’s just say…he earned every single one of his medals during that action. He’s a throwback.”
Milton tilted his head, as did Sadaf. “Explain,” said the Captain, and not as a question.
“I mean, mentally, in some ways, he’s kinda from way back when we humans were all ooga-booga and lived in caves and smacked each other over the head with clubs. Toke just…ends things. Nice guy, hell if I had kids I’d let him watch ‘em with nary a care in the world. But you press one particular button and he…well, he reverts. He reverts to what we used to be.”
__________
Most of Camp David’s staff was still in bed; Matt had to admit that they’d adapted with admirable speed to having a motley crew of human knuckle-draggers and literal fucking aliens plonked down amongst them. But now it was early morning and Toke was hungry. If he was an asshole, he’d rouse one of the staff to assist in that but he’d rather slice off a toe rather than bother some hard-working person just to make him something to eat. Thus he headed for the kitchen to rustle up some grub for himself.
As he walked through the lounge, which was fast becoming the go-to point for everyone, he saw Kexal, the other udhyr, standing in front of the windows looking out over the wintry scene outside. The massive alien’s head just brushed against the auburn-colored wooden rafters that stretched upwards to form the roof overhead.
“Morning,” said Matt, trying to keep it casual. He’d never spoken much with the planetologist.
“Good morning, Matt!” replied the big alien, with enthusiasm. “I was just in the midst of getting my feel.”
The statement brought the Marine up short. “Feel?”
In response Kexal motioned him over with one of his lower arms. Matt had picked up enough alien social cues to know that such a gesture was intended as something more intimate. He stepped up beside the udhyr, who then proceeded to steer him around in front of him using his big upper arms.
He looked out over the wintry scene. Dawn was just starting, and the sun was beginning to peek over the leafless trees. “Okay, what am I looking or, should I say, feeling for?” he asked.
“The voice of your planet,” replied Kexal. “Being a planetologist is indeed a matter of knowing about weather patterns, about how the types of water, methane, and carbon dioxide ice react under various temperatures and pressures, of how a planet’s entire atmosphere changes when life is present. But there is also this.” He pointed with one big, three-fingered mitt out the windows in front of them both. “If you simply allow it, this planet can speak to you. Those in my profession call it getting the ‘feel’ of a planet. It may sound strange and mystic, but…I am getting my feel.”
That made Matt ruminate on his own view of his planet. Up until now, as far as he was concerned, it was just…there. “So, what kind of ‘feel’ are you getting thus far?”
“This place is wonderful, a lovely oasis. It welcomes me and my colleagues. This is a bastion of life in the midst of an unfeeling dark, much like other life-bearing worlds we’ve encountered…all too infrequently, sad to say.”
“So you’re saying we should treasure this planet?” Matt smiled. “I sure can’t argue with you there. We are trying to be more appreciative of it.”
“Indeed.”
The pair watched the sunrise in pleasant silence for a few minutes, until Matt’s stomach growled again. “All right,” he said. “This is nice getting our feel and all, but I gotta eat something. You hungry?”
“I could consume something.”
“Good, because I’m fuckin’ starving. Follow me.”
He led the big alien through to the kitchen. Thanks to heroic efforts by Dhuz and Mouquon back when they were sequestered in Cheyenne Mountain and then by efforts by those two and Zawahir in the last few days, all possible poisonous or allergic foods had been removed from the premises. That did limit the meals available, but as long as he didn’t have to eat it out of a pouch Matt was content.
He opened the fridge, surveying the contents. “I was just gonna do a sandwich. You want one?”
The udhyr sat at the nearby table; both of the big aliens had long ago forsaken chairs and simply sat on the floor. They claimed it was just as comfortable, and Matt for one was not going to press them on the matter. “Yes, I would like a ‘sandwich’. If it’s not too much trouble.”
Matt scanned the fridge interior. “No trouble at all. Okay, bread, we got.” He pulled a loaf out of the fridge; it had confused him the first time he’d seen it stored like that, since he’d grown up in northern, drier climes. But even in mid-winter this was a humid climate and it was way too easy for bread to go all moldy far too quickly. “Now all we need is filling…” His eyes lit on a big tub and he let out a little ‘ah!’ of pleasure. “Pimento.”
“Pimento?”
With reverence, Matt removed the tub from the fridge and set it on the counter next to the bread. “It’s a cheese-and-pepper spread. They call it the caviar of the South. I got addicted to this stuff back during my basic training days.” He shut the fridge, opened the upper cabinets, and was again pleased to see plates right where he expected them. He took down two.
Martinez strolled into the kitchen as he stretched his arms over his head. He was clad in sweatpants and a hoodie. “Morning, folks. Nothing like a nice little 5k to get the blood flowing in the morning.”
Kexal clicked his mandibles in puzzlement. “Five Kay?”
“Five-kilometer jog. Gotta keep fit, my man. Otherwise Sarge is gonna come back from his deployment and kick our asses.” The corporal’s eyes lit upon the foodstuffs laid out on the counter next to the fridge. “Hmm, breakfast?”
“Just pimento sandwiches,” said Matt as he took out another plate. “You want one?” It was a bit of a trick question; if you ask a soldier if he wants something to eat, the answer was always ‘yes’.
Martinez did not disappoint. “Oh hell yes. Not quite breakfast food, but I’ve for sure eaten way worse way earlier in the morning.”
“Vomlet?”
The corporal shuddered. “Shit man, I somehow wound up with one of those once in spite of it being way out of date. Nothing but a solid orange brick of nastiness, even with the salsa added to it. Are you tryin’ to give me PTSD?”
Matt pulled out a drawer and found a convenient knife. He began laying out the sandwich makings on each plate. “Could be worse. Could be the dreaded Four Fingers of Death.”
“Oof, I only heard about those. Were they bad as they say?”
“Oh, yes, they were,” replied Matt.
“Four Fingers of Death?” asked Kexal.
“Hot dogs,” replied Matt. “Um…little sausages. Ground-up meat, put it in a long casing, boil it or steam it or smoke it. It’ll last for a long time.”
“Ah!” The giant alien looked pleased…at least, Matt was pretty sure he looked pleased. “We have a similar cuisine involving smoked fish, ground up and molded into cakes.”
“Interesting. Then you should know that it should be a no-brainer to make good hot dogs. I mean, go to any ball game and you’ll see ‘em getting wolfed down by the ton. And yet, somehow, someway, Uncle Sam figured out how to screw up damn hot dogs. Four to a pack, and it was the nastiest shit you’ve ever ate.” He held up a hand, showing his fingers held together. “Hence the Four Fingers of Death.”
Kexal let out a pleased click as Matt continued assembling the sandwiches. “I really do feel like I’m getting a better feeling for human society.”
“It’s a very weird and small cross-section of human society,” said Martinez as he seated himself at the table. “We need to get this guy out to Yosemite or, or even better Yellowstone. I was out in Yellowstone once as a kid, it’s really damn cool. He needs to see some proper scenery. Or hell, just drop him into Times Square to chat with the locals.”
“We will do so, once we’re sure that the rest of humanity hasn’t lost its collective shit,” Matt replied. He finished putting the top slice of bread on each sandwich, then turned and fixed the two at the table with a gimlet eye. “Now. We have two important questions to answer. Crusts on or off?”
Martinez blinked, then responded. “Crusts on! Hell, I would always make sure to get the heel when I was a kid.”
“You’re a man after my own heart, Martinez. Kexal?”
“Um, as long as there are no allergens, then I will also go crust on?”
“Good. Next important question. Horizontal or diagonal cut?” Matt hovered the knife over one sandwich, showing each potential slice.
Martinez opted for horizontal, while Kexal requested diagonal. Matt cut each sandwich as requested, then placed each one in front of its recipient with the appropriate regal air. He then took his own, uncut sandwich and sat at the table.
“You don’t cut yours?” asked Martinez.
“Nope. That’s because I’m a savage.” Matt held the corporal’s eyes while he took a big bite out of his own uncut sandwich.
They all munched happily for a few minutes…right up until the alarm went off.
__________
“…and so I am humbly thankful to receive this honorarium on behalf of my crew and all of the Coalition…”
Milton figured that he had the easier job; just stand there and get across the message of ‘if you bum-rush this little blue-scaled person, you will die, and it will hurt the entire time’. He didn’t envy Captain Sadaf her newfound position as Representative Of All Of Alien-Kind, but then again he’d always been more of a wallflower-type anyway in spite of his impressive size. How he’d landed a dreamboat like Teresa was still a mystery for the ages. Although, if he was honest, she had approached him rather than the other way around.
He smiled internally at the memory of her walking up to him at the Sadie Hawkins’ dance and asking if he wanted to go for a spin on the dance floor. Something in her smile and direct gaze had awakened a more confident version of himself, and he’d accepted her request with the requisite gravity.
However it had happened, he now had a family. A wonderful wife and a son, the apple of his eye. But that wasn’t enough. He and Teresa were working hard on adding a daughter to the mix. If it turned out to be another son he wouldn’t be put out, but in his heart of hearts he wanted it to be a daughter. Just so he could spoil her rotten. But then again, if the Breakers arrived, whatever sex his next child turned out to be might be irrelevant.
Milton stopped his woolgathering and focused back on his job. Thus far his earpiece was silent save for periodic check-ins, which was good. No news was good news, after all.
Beside him, Sergeant Shaw constantly scanned the skies. That was fine, since Milton was busy scanning the people arrayed before him. Most of them were older blue-hairs who he could take with a pinky finger, but you never knew. Even an old person could wield a knife with deadly intent.
“…you must understand, we never intended to be here. It was sheer dumb fate that landed us in your, if I’m honest, quite generous lap. I understand that there is, amongst you humans, a lot of concern that we did not approach you directly. But I would invite you to look at it from our point of view. We had fragments, a few little transmissions and video images without context. We had no idea if you would respond to our presence with reflexive hostility. We were only here to gather data, to determine if a follow-up First Contact fleet would be welcomed.”
Sadaf paused and shook her head, a gesture she’d picked up from her time amongst humans. “As you well know, we were not given such a chance. But thankfully things have worked out well in spite of those circumstances…”
Milton’s forehead wrinkled as he heard a weird noise. It sounded a bit like ripping cloth, descending in tone. He reached up towards his ear to ask his team if they heard it as well…
Shaw straightened up, looking like a navy-blue wall of flesh. “INCOMING!” he bawled, just before lunging towards Sadaf at the podium.
The agent suddenly realized the source of that noise. “EVERYBODY DOWN!” he yelled in return as he threw himself at a few VIPs seated near him on the dais.
The huge sergeant simply yeeted the diminutive captain off towards the far end of the dais, before throwing his own considerable bulk at the other VIPs off to the other side.
Then the entire world seemed to explode. Milton’s ears just shut down at the resulting noise. After a moment, he picked himself up and looked over towards his principal, his ears ringing. He knew people were shouting, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying.
The small alien was out at the perimeter of the blast, and as she got to her feet she patted herself down in an automatic maneuver that Milton knew very well. She looked up, met his eyes, and gave him a thumbs-up.
“One thing gone right, at least,” he muttered to himself as he hauled himself upright. Okay, damage check…legs okay, feet fine…get moving, you asshole, get to your principal, keep her safe. As he lurched forward, he realized his right arm wasn’t moving properly.
He looked down.
Oh.
His right arm was gone below the elbow.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Am I supposed to learn to shoot left-handed now?”
Then he realized there was quite a bit of blood streaming out of his new stump…maybe he should sit this one out?
No.
Fuck that.
He was going to reach his principal, if nothing else he’d act as a meat shield. As he continued his determined lurching, in some distant corner of Milton’s mind he wished he could have given his beloved Johnny a little sister to torment.
Someone tackled him to the ground, and he performed an automatic hip-throw before jamming his still-existing left forearm across the throat of a terrified…wait, this was just a kid.
“MEDIC!” screamed the kid. “I’m a MEDIC!”
“What…oh.” Milton looked up into the astonished face of Captain Sadaf; he’d managed to made it all the way to her. “She okay?”
“SHE’S FINE!” yelled someone else.
Then another thought came into his adrenaline-fueled brain. “SHAW!” he all but screamed, looking back towards where the sergeant had been before this whole horrible business had kicked off.
What he saw was a big man, clad in navy blue, sprawled over several blue-haired gentry who looked appropriately terrified. And that big man’s leg ended just below his left knee, with blood streaming out of it.

In past lives I've killed executioners and dragon slayers alike. I've slayed an eldritch God imprisoned in the moon of a dream. I've crawled up from ashes to usurp the fire. But these lives have all started and ended long ago. Now I must start a new and this time it is a whole new world and a whole new me. This time a toned but not chiseled body of a woman with short blond hair and an eye wrap as a motif to my past life as a wearwolf hunter in Yharnam. As is my custom I awaken with little to call my own, just a club and rags that barely keep me modest, I guess you could call me depraved. After crawling my way out of a tomb my first instinct is to find some cloths and maybe somthing sharper than this stick. Looking along the fields beneath me I notice some enemies that my club makes short work of. By the time I've killed a decent amount of them I've managed to find a helmet that fits ... probably the least of my worries right now but I'll take what I can get. Some more exploring and I've found a cave surely with treasure in it possibly somthing I could use to cloth or arm myself further. Sadly just a few wolves which prove hard to read and with a miss step here and a careless action there I'm little more than another body littering the cave. Back at the last sight of grace I am reborn. Blush fills my face, ashamed of loosing to things that aren't even intelligent enough to use weapons or wear armor. I AM strong enough to beat them it was just a fluke. Now back at it again I'm finding it easier to drag one out at a time and after a few failed attempts and a few more frustrated rebirths I've cleared the first room of these wolves. A quick scan of the area and I find a tunnel which leads me to an opening where I'm fighting my first true adversary the Beast Master. I miss step twice and with ease he already he has me beaten. With his weight on my back I feel the flush of embarrassment fill my whole body. I'm better than this, ive slayed wearwolves and eldritch gods, How is this so tough. My inner monolog is cut short as I feel his warmth press along my backside. I shudder as it grows further clearly well endowed. With little to call cloths I'm unable to rely on these rags to hide my modesty. Defeated I have little energy to fight back and this beast master knows it. Removing its weight from me I have no ability to run or move as it takes stock of me. With a motion I wouldn't call gentle or fluid it removes what little I have to call cloths leaving my whole body exposed to the cool cave air. I get little more than a moment to let the shame sink in before it's back on my crushing my wrists to the cold stone floor of the cave as I feel it's member press along the valley of my back end and the tip dripping a viscous fluid at the arch of my back. With a rock of it's hips I can tell it's pulling back angling this inhuman thing towards my entrances. Thoughts race through my head of which one am I going to loose and which one would be the bet... too late to think any further the beast master has chosen either on accident or out of some cruel sadistic desire with the first thrust my back entrance has been taken. I attempt to scream but little more than a low groan escapes my lips. Little time is given to adjust before it pushes further, and further in until I feel it's sack press against me. Tears are welling up in my eyes as I feel it starting a ruthless rhythm with its hips stretching me more than I could imagine. After a few thrusts my body begins reacting positively to this shift in power and my untouched snatch begins clenching down as if the void of attention is what was pushing it over the edge. In little time it's rhythm begins to become erratic and the base of its shaft starts to swell. With a sharp thrust my backside has been knotted to it and I can feel it flooding my stomach with its horrid seed. Another orgasm wracks my body as I feel myself squirt all over the beastmasters sack and the cold stone floor. My embarrassment complete I let out one last moan before I'm sent back to the beginning of this cave. This defeat has shaken me. Even though I am as I was before entering the cave I can still feel the beastmaster's cock stretching my backside beyond its limit but a quick check and I'm as I was before. Gathering my courage I attempt the cave again, this time my distracted efforts get me caught by the wolves again before I can even make it to the beast master. Again back at the beginning I find a short cut that sidesteps most of the wolves and this time it just a one on one battle. I take it slow and safe keeping my distance from the wolf until it's definitely open for an attack. 1 hit, 2 hits. This 3rd one should do it ... not wanting to rush I'm keeping my distance... from out of nowhere behind me one strike to my back and already almost done for. Before I can even react the second strike lands me face down on the cave floor. A weak attempt to stand and I feel a fuzzy body push my chest back down onto the cave floor. Before I even have time to breath I feel the sharp teeth of the wolf on the back of my neck and a growl from behind me. A pathetic whimper escapes my lips in response. Once this white wolf confirms my submission it starts thrusting hard against my upturned backside poking my thigh, then the cushion of my rear, finally landing its blow it skirts between the cloth of my lower rags and my upper thigh sliding right into my snatch making me squeek a pathetic attempt at a yell. Realizing it's found a hole to fuck it starts going hard and fast beating my insides with the sheer size of its member. With just a few thrusts it's forceful pennitration has become welcomes by my rebellious snatch. I feel the smaller but still sizable knot forming at my entrance well aware what that means for me. I ball up my fists as I feel it push in. A scream would escape my lips but I'm far too lost by this point and the beast is nearly done with me. The thick ropes of its animalistic seed paint my inner walls as I feel my body betray my situation one last time and clamp down on the rod that forced its way into me. Less than a moment later I'm back at the cave entrance with my body as it was before. Yet again a physical inspection proves I am untouched by the horrors that I just experienced. With a quick glance around and I realize I'm alone in this small room and with that confirmation I begin to strip down. Getting in the position I was just in with my face against the stone and my now bare ass upright facing deeper into the cave. As if I was giving the beasts a show I start exploring my unspoiled body pennitrating both my lower holes with my fingers feeling the tight resistance from just my fingers my mind imagines what those primal beasts must have felt. With those thoughts bouncing around in my mind it doesn't take long before I'm spraying the floor of this safe haven with my juices.
...
How long has it been since I made the mistake of crawling into that beastial cave? Days? Weeks? A month? The days blend together after a while and a few things happened. With the help of some merchants I have a outfit more suitable for combat than a pair of rags doing little more for me than covering my privates. My new outfit is primarily tanned leather with the top fashioned into a corset using straps and belts to hold it snugly in place along with slots to keep an array of throwing daggers on my person. The pants are covered with thick leather chaps and two katanas rest sheathed on my left hip. My eyes remain wrapped in the same fashion as when I first began this life but now a red hood cascades from my shoulders about halfway down my back. I chuckle to myself thinking of how far I've come from the bumbling idiot with a stick. I've even managed to get info on a camp not far from here that's set up in some ruins. I might be able to get some good supplies if I'm lucky. Upon scouting the Perimeter I can see 2 wagons and a bunch of infantry standing by. Luckily for me I've found sites of grace near by so even if I fail I can always try again. The easiest point of entry seems to be from the north since there is only one guard there and all he is doing is protecting the front of one of the wagons. I am easily able to sneak up behind the guard and with one strike he's dead. I'm barely even able to remove my sword from the corpse before I hear the sound of a war horn alerting everyone in the camp an intruder is here. My head snaps to the one with the horn and as quick as I can I dash to cut him down too ... but as I'm bringing my blade up trying to finish him off everything gets fuzzy. I'm able to fight off the claws of unconsciousness long enough to see that I've been clubbed on the back of my head by the blunt end of a warpick. My vision fades as my head drops, my consciousness is gone before my head even hits the ground. Surprisingly I don't wake up at the site of grace but instead I'm face down in the mud, tied up like a hog and I can feel the warmth of a fire against my legs. Listening I can hear chatter by the fire, then laughter. They are probably retelling the story of how they bested a ditzy lone thief. Red creeps across my face as I replay the events leading up to my capture. Deep in my own mind I'm jerked back into reality as I feel a boot land hard into my ribs launching me a few feet onto my side. The wind knocked out of me I cough and wheeze. The one that kicked me raises his foot and stomps his boot on my breast keeping me gasping for air. If only they had killed me I'd be back at the site of grace and not hog tied naked in the mud subject to this torture but here I am. With one more kick they get me back on my belly and pick me up like a sack of vegetables by the rope binding my wrists and ankles together. Apparently they had fashioned a suspension frame under one of their war tents while I was out and now they are tying me so I'm dangling from the roof. A roar of laughter can be heard from behind me, Problem from the view they are getting of my snatch. Shame has clearly caused my body to betray me once more as i feel the slick presence of my arousal. A soldier grabs me by the calf and swings me around so my face is away from them as I feel the forceful pennitration cramming his member in my snatch with ease thanks to my body's betrayal. I inhale sharply but this is hardly the roughest thing I've endured though my body remains untouched by the experiences to prove it. The display clearly has this soldier excited because within a few thrusts he is painting my inner walls with his seed. After a quick half hearted smack to my buttocks he withdraws his spent member and walks off and another one grabs me by the hips but he is just grinding himself between my thighs. A bit confused at first, not that I mind the unintentional attention my clit was getting, it became clear his goal was to slicken his shaft by rocking his hips for a few moments along the wet remains of the last invasion of my body. He then slammed himself about halfway in my back entrance and I cried out but the noise was met with a sharp slap to my buttocks. I bit my lip to stifle the noise which seemed to be enough to prevent another one. He then started to pull out at an agonizingly slow pace until just his tip remained inside me. As expected he returned to his previous depth and then continued to bottom out burying the whole thing in my backside though not as large as the beastman he was still the largest thing my body had felt back there. I can feel the effect these defeats are having on me, my mind landmarking the conquests of the past where as my body has no clue it had ever been conquered. Once he adjusts to the tightness he starts brutally hammering away at me with a cruelly efficient rhythm and the noises that escape my mouth are as farel as they are vulgar. I guess a soldier seeing an opportunity grabs a fist full of my short hair yanks my head up to level with his semi erect member. With my mouth agape from the moaning of a bitch in heat he easily smashes his member past my mouth and straight into my throat. With the invasion of my throat I heave in response making my whole body tensing trying to free my airway this causes my backside to clamp down on the soldier behind me. Clearly enjoying the reaction I'm giving, or the noises I'm making the soldier in front of me starts pounding away at my throat amplifying the effects of the gaging making a mess of my face as saliva starts dripping out of my nose and mouth onto the ground. My body begins to tingle with the build up of a mind shattering orgasm clearly appreciating the effort these men are giving to destroy it. In no time at all I feel the one in my backside bottom out as he drains himself repeatedly deep inside me marking me as his conquest. Not even a moment later I feel the man using my throat as if I were just his hand on a cold night burry my face in his crotch befoee he shoots rope after rope of his seed into my throat. My gaging and heaving is doing little at this point besides clamping down on the two men as I feel the last bit of stimulation needed to push me over the edge. The orgasm begins to wrack my body right as my consciousness fades ... I'm back at the site of grace fully clothed and untouched by the ordeal just as I've grown to be acoustom to but this time. I slam my fist on the soft grass out of fruatration. If I only could've lasted just a few more seconds I could've felt the euphoria that would have made it all worth it in the end. The feeling as if those brutes had robbed me of the one ounce of enjoyment I would have recieved from that hellish encounter makes me scream out into the empty field. I truly felt defeated in that moment.

As an aside, dug into the Japanese script and did minor modifications to improve semantic flow if you don't mind. The spirit is still there, enjoy.
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はさて、続いての話題は私たちの暮らしに直結したものです。皆さんが今現在、この番組を観るために使っているデータスワローを、OSのニューバージョンが発表になりました。これまでのバージョンとの書き換えは、ユーザー登録の更新、によって自動的に行われます。
Now, the next topic is directly related to our daily lives. A new version of Data Swallow, the OS that you are currently using to watch this broadcast, has been released. The OS will be automatically updated upon next user registration.
我々の生活を支えるネットワークこのエレクトロSphereが2020年に一般に対し実用化されデータスワローがリリースされてから、私たちの暮らしは激変しました。
Ever since the Electrosphere, the network and pillar of our lives, was publicized in 2020 and Data Swallow was released, our lives have drastically changed.
通勤通学という概念が過去のものとなり、私たちの移動は主に娯楽のために行われるものと なったのは周知の事実です。
As we all know, the activity of commuting to work has become a thing of the past, and hobbies have become the prime reason for people’s mobility these days.
回のニューバージョンでは、特に同時通訳ソフトが強化され、ズールー語、スワヒリ語、またエスペラント語といった、現在では失われた多くの言語に対しての辞書機能も追加されました。また、ビデオメールやビデオ本にも多くの編集機能が追加され、マルチトラックでの音声抜き出しや別画像との音声シンクが自動で行われるソフトが追加されました。
The new software version made notable improvements to simultaneous translation, and dictionaries for many dead languages like Zulu, Swahili, and Esperanto have also been added. Many editing features have also been added to videomail and phones, including multi-track audio extraction and automatic audiovisual sync software.
ハッキング対策ウィルス対策ソフトも最新のものに書き換えられることにより。去年の夏に有事や全域に大混乱を巻き起こしたヘールボップウイルスからも完全に防御されるとのこと。楽しみですね。それでは今日はこんなところでいいワールドでした。
Anti-hacking and antivirus software have been rewritten to be up-to-date. They will also be fully protected against the Hale-Bopp virus that wreaked havoc on the entire Usean continent last summer. We look forward to it. Well, that's it for today.
この名の年前の私たちの生活は、セリエの人の小さな家倉持狙って。倉持に流れを作る入江、技術の新しい。仲間みんなキー楽しくなり死ねる。
Nano, nano, nano, nano, These tiny heroes support our lives daily. Nanotech will rebuild the world. They’re our new pals from Neucom Inc.. Averse to our irises, but they're doing their finest. They are called nanobites.
ゼネラルリソースでは、GRDFで配備されていた全戦闘機に新型Aeroコフィンが装備されました。このたび発表になったデータスワローのニューバージョンに合わせる形で作られたこのコフィンによりパイロットの羽神経接続に、新しい機能が多数拡張されたようです。このコフィン開発には現在UPEOで活躍する天才少女パイロット広瀬玲奈さんの実験結果が反映されているとのことです。
General Resource has installed all GRDF fighters with the new Aero Coffin. The COFFIN, produced to utilize the newly released version of Data Swallow, appears to offer improved connection with the pilot's nervous system appears to allows use of a wide array of new features. Development of this COFFIN has been made possible thanks to the successful experiments conducted by Rena Hirose, the genius girl pilot who’s currently active in UPEO.
あなたの部屋、汚れたものはしていませ。このいい40分があれば、[missing JP script]あなた。のハート。 クリーンClean。
Is the air in your room too polluted? With a good 40 minutes of our Aeon Jet, you'll never cough again even when breathing in a chestful of urban oxygen! Aeon Jet. Clean your heart out.
さて、今日のまず最初の話題はなんといっても入庫も1番のメガフロートでしょう。完成したばかりの巨大な海上都市への一般入居がスタートしました。今までは入込社員のみに販売されていた 分譲住宅は、同社では今後一般にも広く開放していくようです。また、その入居開始を記念し、式典が行われました。その式典では、入込舎自慢の最新型スペースシャトル関谷や、世界最高速と飛れ村のお披露目も行われ華麗な飛行で一般の入居者たちを歓迎して。いました。素晴らしい式典でありました。
Well then, today's first topic will be Neucom's first, its pride and joy, Megafloat. This newly built giant floating city is already accepting its first civilian residents. Until recently, only Neucom employees could buy residential housing there, now, the general public is able to do the same. Neucom also held an event to commemorate the residents moving in. At the ceremony, the cutting-edge space shuttle and Neucom's pride Sepia, as well as the world’s fastest fighter Remora, were unveiled, their gorgeous flight welcoming the public. Indeed. What a wonderful event it was.
というわけで、今日のトピックです。この1週間の間、有志夜のエキスポシティで行われた航空ショーには、世界の代表的な企業のエースパイロットたちが集結。その腕を競い、アクロバティックな妙技で会場の航空ファンたちの熱い視線を浴びていました。ところで今回のショーの背景には、最近のニューコムとゼネラルの間に続いている緊張状態を感じさせる部分も随所に見られその行く末を懸念する専門家も。また、同会場では各企業の最新鋭戦闘機のお披露目も行われ、特にニューコム社の斬新なデザインによる飛行機群に取材陣が殺到していました。このような大規模で長期間の航空ショーが行われるのは、有志や始まって以来のことで、期間中にエキスポシティを訪れた観客はのべ200万人を超えるとも言われています。
Coming up is today's topic. During the past week, ace pilots from various global corporations gathered at an airshow in Expo City, Usea. Their competitive aerial performance won the enthusiastic attention of the aviation fans in the audience with their acrobatic virtuosity. The event also featured the unveiling of the latest fighter jets of various companies, and in particular, Neucom's novel aircraft designs drew a rush of media coverage. More than 2 million people are said to have visited Expo City during the event, the first time such a large-scale and long-duration airshow has been held since the beginning of Usea. Some experts in the meanwhile are concerned about the future of the ongoing General-Neucom tension, which was evident in many parts of the show.
我がゼネラルリソース社の軍事産業は、現代の社会においてほぼ独占的な市場になっている。それは2000年以後、我々ゼネラルグループの経済的影響力が国家の枠組みを消し去り、国家間の軍事的な衝突までも消し去ったからだ。私が所属する防衛部隊GRDFは市民の生活を脅かすテロなどからの自衛を目的として設立されたものである。ゼネラルグループの所有する空域において常に警戒態勢を保ち、24時間休まずに監視を続けている。
The military-industrial complex of General Resource has effectively monopolized under it in today's society. This can be traced to the year 2000, since which General Group’s economic influence has erased national frameworks and even international military conflict. The GRDF, its defense force I am part of, was established for the purpose of self-defense against terrorism and other civil threats. We are on constant alert in General Group airspace and are on watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
F-22Cラプター対2000年初頭からすでに部隊配属されていたF-22Cは決して新しい機体とはいえないが、2040年代における現在においても未だに現役の戦闘機として活躍している。当然、細かい改良点はある。もののフォルムの変更などは特に行われてはいない。大きく変化した点といえば、キャノピーの排除である。それは我々ゼネラルが開発に成功したコフィンの導入によるものだ。もともとF-22Cという機体は当時最新の技術であったサイバーを駆逐トランスミッションレーザートロニック飛行制御システムなどのエレクトロニクス技術、そしてステルス技術など、当時としては全く革命的な機体であった。残念ながらコスト面の問題、しかし、ドッグファイトにおける高い機動性と操縦性に優れており、今もなおトップクラスのパフォーマンスを維持していることに変わりはない。当時、コスト面の問題により廃止されたエアブレーキもこのF-22Cシーンになり復活し、ドッグファイト時の性能は飛躍的に向上した。私が最も気に入っている機体の1つでもある。は、ゼネラルグループの機体は既存の戦闘機をいわばチューンナップする形で低コスト化を図り提供してきたが、次に紹介する機体はゼネラル リソース社が新たに開発している新型機体である。
The F-22C Raptor, which has been in active service since the early 21st century, is not a new aircraft, but it is still active in the 2040s. Naturally, there are some minor improvements; the F-22C's form, however, has not been changed in any notable way. The major change is the elimination of the canopy. This is due to the introduction of the COFFIN, which we at General have successfully developed. The F-22C was originally a completely revolutionary aircraft at the time, with the latest technology at the time, including cutting-edge fiberoptic transmission and a laser-astronic flight control system, as well as stealth tech. Unfortunately, cost is an issue, but the high maneuverability and maneuverability in dogfighting remains a top-class performance. The airbrake, which was discontinued due to budget concerns at the time, was restored in the F-22C, and its dogfight performance was dramatically improved. It’s also one of my favorite aircraft. General Group's aircrafts have been offered at low cost by tuning up existing fighters, so to speak, but the next aircraft is a new model being developed by General Resource.
F/A-32Cをはじめ、 として様々な用途のために多くの種類の機体が開発されてきたが、 それらをつの機体で賄おうというのがF/A-32Cだ。このF/A-32Cの当初の目的は、 各国のあらゆる軍で使用されている FE16SA18 ハリアーなどの攻撃を中心とした 機体を統合するために開発が進められた。に配備されるこのF/A-32Cには迷彩仕様が施されている。深い森林での作戦や砂漠での作戦では、相手より優位に立つことができるだろう。そしてこのF/A-32Cは私が所属するアクロバットチームファイアスターターにSA18の後継機として制式採用される予定になっている。長期に及ぶ開発期間と膨大な経費のかかる新型戦闘機の開発に疑問の声がないわけではない。しかし、時代は常に進化をしていき、我々の予想を上回る他企業の新型機体がいつ。我々の領空を侵犯するかわからない。その様に、我々は常に最善の努力をし、常に備えていなければならない。
Many types of aircraft, including the F/A-32C, have been developed for various applications, but the F/A-32C is an attempt to cover them all in one aircraft. The F/A-32’s initial intent was to integrate the F=16, the F/A-18, and the Harrier, as one mainstay fighter used by various militaries around the world. The F/A-32C deployed by the Defense Force has camouflage specs. In deep forests or deserts, they’ll have an advantage over their opponents. The F/A-32C is scheduled to be formally adopted by my acrobatic team, the Firestarters, as the successor to the F/A-18. The development of this new fighter, with its exorbitant development time and expenses, is not without its doubts. But times are constantly changing, and new aircraft from other companies will come along at any moment that will surpass our expectations. We never know when a new aircraft from other companies will invade our airspace. We must always be prepared for such incidents.
そしていつの時代、においても航空優勢を維持するために新型戦闘機の開発は必要不可欠であるが、それが我々ゼネラルリソース維持哲学なのだ。NEUCOM社は常に先端の技術を求め、開発研究に努めてきた。それまでおろそかにされてきていたバイオテクノロジーナノテクノロジーの実用化、エレクトロスフィア環境のインフラ整備そして航空宇宙開発に積極的に参加するなど、意欲的に活動を進めてい。
The development of new fighters is essential to maintain air superiority at all times, so says General Resource’s maintenance philosophy. NEUCOM has always been eager to pursue cutting-edge technologies, committed to research and development. They have been active in the practical application of once-neglected technologies such as biotech, nanotech, the development of the Electrosphere’s infrastructure, and aerospace.
A
R-311宇宙一例もこの映像はあくまでも実験飛行で、本来この機体は大型爆撃機である茂平を母体とし、通常の作戦行動域である 高高度まで警戒され射出される機体や、そのために長距離巡航能力を 近年まれに見られる過剰な兵器の装備、 不必要な全ての機能を限りなく削ぎ落とし、 短時間の作戦で 最大の効果を上げるよう開発された機体もそのために長距離巡航能力を 近年まれに見られる過剰な兵器の装備、 不必要な全ての機能を限りなく削ぎ落とし、 短時間の作戦で 最大の効果を上げるよう開発された機体も翼面積を極限まで抑えることに 機体の形状はコンパクトかつシャープにパッケージングした高高度からの射出をメインにした機体であるため、 機体制御はバーニアによる リアクションコントロール方式を採用しています。そしてこの機体は入込 車や現存する戦闘機体の中でも 最高速を誇る機体がそしてこの機体は入込 車や現存する戦闘機体の中でも 最高速を誇る機体が。
The R-311 spacecraft is an example of an experimental flight, and is transported by the heavy bomber Mobula, originally designed to be alerted and launched to high altitude, the normal operational range, and to do so, its long-range cruising capability was reduced to the bare minimum, with all unnecessary functions eliminated, The aircraft, developed to maximize effectiveness in short-duration operations, minimized its wing area, thus minimizing long-range cruise capability, which is rarely seen in recent years, and to minimize all unnecessary functions, thus maximizing effectiveness in short-duration operations. The shape of the fuselage is compact, sharply packaged, and mainly designed for high-altitude launch, so the fuselage is controlled by a reaction control system using verniers. This aircraft also boasts the highest speed among all Neucom craft, one coulds say it’s the fastest craft in the world.
R-352号にセピアは我が社の最も得意な分野である 宇宙空間での作戦行動用に開発された 大衛星シャトルである。見た目は通常のシャトルとそれほど変わるところはないが、決定的な違いは 通常胴体の中心部にいられるペイロードベイいわゆる貨物室を配慮し、 そこに軌道用プロペラントを搭載している。これにより宇宙空間では破格の機動性を実現した今世紀において一番進化している科学分野は形ずれは宇宙開発にほかならないそれは、地球上では不可能な様々な研究開発などが宇宙実験により多大な成果をもたらしているから現在、制空権はおろか、成虫間を使用する日を過ぎない。実際に戦闘領域は空を越え、宇宙空間にまで及ぶこれから先も 他社より一歩進んだ宇宙開発を維持するために、 我々ニューコム社では セピアのような戦闘機体が 次々と開発されていくだろ。
The R-352 Sepia is a large craft designed for space operations, one of the areas in which our company excels, and can take down satellites. It resembles a normal shuttle at first glance, but the decisive difference is that the payload of the cargo bay, which is usually located in the center of the fuselage, is taken into consideration and the orbital propellant is carried there. Space exploration is the most advanced scientific field in this century, because various research and development impossible on Earth has brought great results through experiments in space. The most advanced scientific field in this century is none other than space exploration, because space experiments have brought about great results in various researches and development that are not possible on Earth, and now, corporations pursue not only air superiority, but also the interstellar spacecraft. In fact, the battlefield will go beyond the skies and into outer space, and we at Neucom Inc. will continue to develop more and more combat craft like the Sepia in order to maintain our space program one step ahead of our competitors.
私たち入江店が誇るデルフィナシシリーズわが社が世界的にリードしている 航空宇宙開発のノウハウを戦闘機にフィードバックすること。 により従来の戦闘機開発の常識を覆す、 まったく新しいタイプの戦闘機の開発に成功しました。機体構造の 90余に使用されている新素材により 大幅な軽量化を実現そして高出力で 信頼性の高いエンジンを搭載しました。すべてが純入江無社製のオリジナルマシン。その記念すべき第1号機が R-101デルフィなスワンでした。そのデルフィなスワンの成功により、 私たち入江武者の次世代戦闘機が 必ずやこれからの主力戦闘機になるであろうと確信し デルフィなシリーズの更なる改良を進めました。
We at Neucom are proud to offer the Delphinus series, in which we feed back our world-class aerospace development know-how to fighters. We have succeeded in developing a completely new type of fighter that overturns the conventional wisdom of fighter development. The new materials used in more than 90% of the fuselage have significantly reduced weight, and the aircraft is equipped with a high-power, highly reliable engine. Every part is made purely by Neucom. The first plane, the R-101 Delphinus #1, is especially worth a mention. The Delphinus #1’s success convinced us that Neucom’s next-gen fighters would surely become the mainstay of the future, so we proceeded with further improvements to the Delphinus series.
それがいまご覧いただいているR-102にデルフィの質です。デルフィナシ通は、前作のデルフィなSwanよりも空陸特性を強化することを第一に開発が進められました。空陸をより能動的に制御するために、機体下方にブレンデッドダブルボディーと呼ばれる新型空陸装置が採用されました。今までのデルフィなシリーズとコンセプトこそ同じではありますが、新型機体を開発するのと同等の膨大な資金と時間が投入され、開発が進められました。
That's how the fighter you can see now, the R-102 Delphinus #2, was made. The development of the Delphinus #2 was focused on enhancing its aerodynamics over its predecessor, the Delphinus #1. A new aerodynamic feature called a blended double body under the fuselage has been adopted for more active aerodynamic control. Although the concept is the same as that of the previous Delphinus, a huge amount of money and time were invested in its development, equal to that of a new aircraft.
そして、R-103デルフィなしIIIは、そして、R-103デルフィなしIIIは、バージョンアップというよりもまったく新しいタイプの機体です。まず、前作のデルフィなしで単発に簡素化されたエンジンは双発に復活。まず、前作のデルフィなしで単発に簡素化されたエンジンは双発に復活。前作以上の空戦能力を持ちつつ、地上攻撃などのあらゆる任務を遂行できるよう大型化された。さらに、最新の設計技術を採用した主力戦闘機です。今までの技術とは決して成し得なかった新技術。これまで機体の一部のみにしか適用できなかった一体成形技術が機体前面に適用され、空力特性をさらに向上することに成功しました。これまで機体の一部のみにしか適用できなかった一体成形技術が機体前面に適用され、空力特性をさらに向上することに成功しました。流れるような美しいボディーラインと、未来を予感させるカラーリングデルフィに、その名前の由来であるイルカのように、まるで空を自由自在に泳いでいるようではありませんか。
Let’s go to the R-103 Delphinus III, it ain’t so much an upgrade as a completely new type of plane. First, the engine, simplified to a single-engine in the previous version, is back to a twin-engine. The engine has been enlarged to be able to carry out all kinds of missions, including ground attacks, while having air combat capability beyond that of the previous Delphinus. Furthermore, it is a mainstay fighter that employs the latest design technologies. New technology that could never have been achieved with the previous tech. The one-piece molding technology that could only be applied to a part of the fuselage up to now has been applied to the front of the fuselage, successfully improving aerodynamic characteristics even further. The integral molding technology that could previously only be applied to a portion of the fuselage is now applied to the front, successfully improving aerodynamics even further. With its beautiful, flowing body lines and futuristic coloring, the Delphinus looks as if it’s swimming freely in the sky, just like the dolphins from which it gets its name.
私たち入江店の歴史は始まったばかりではありますが、それゆえに私たち入江は皆さまの想像を超える商品を提供し続けていきたいと思っております。常識はずれた新理論、それが私たち入江むだけのオリジナル。
The history of Neucom has just begun, but that is why we would like to continue to offer goods beyond your imagination. Unconventional theories, they are our originality.
私たち郵便では、そのスタートから新国連関連企業との共同開発により、低価格で汎用性の高い機体を多く使用していますが、ここに紹介するEF2000Eタイフーンは現在の優美を支える主力機体です。今期は新国連関連企業と郵便によって開発改良された全天候型戦闘機で、高い旋回能力優れた格闘戦能力と迎撃性能を兼ね備えた台になっています。ちなみに本機のモデルとなったユーロファイター2000は、1983年に計画されたEFプロジェクトから生まれました。基本的には航空阻止が主な任務ですが、地上攻撃にも活躍しています。胴体下部に2次元式エアインテークを持ち、デルタ翼に全力を組み合わせたクローズドカップルデルタ翼を採用し、空陸特性を高めています。そして、機体の各所に新素材を適用し、徹底的な軽量化を図りました。また、失速時にはオートリカバリーモードを使用することで、機体の立て直しが容易になっています。このように、新規搭載の最新電子装備がコフィンシステムと融合され、自然言語の解析可能な音声認識システムや神経接続による筋電入力を通して操縦者の憤りに複雑な任務をこなすことが可能になり機体の性能を格段に引き上げることに成功しました。
Since its start, we at UPEO have been using many low-cost and versatile aircraft developed jointly with Neo United Nations-affiliated companies, and the EF2000E Typhoon introduced here is the mainstay in present support of UPEO. It’s an all-weather fighter developed and improved by UPEO and NUN-affiliated companies, and the platform combines high turn rates and excellent combat capabilities and interception. Incidentally, the Eurofighter 2000, its direct predecessor, was born out of the EFA project planned in 1983. Basically, its main mission is air interdiction, but it is also active in ground attacks. It has two-dimensional air intakes in the lower fuselage and a close-coupled delta wing with full power combined with a delta wing to enhance its air-landing characteristics. And new materials are applied to various parts of the fuselage to thoroughly reduce weight. An auto recovery mode is used in the event of a stall, making it easier to regain control of the aircraft. The new state-of-the-art electronic equipment is integrated with the COFFIN system, which enables the aircraft to perform complex missions to the indignation of the pilot through a voice recognition system capable of analyzing natural language and myoelectric input via neural connections, thus dramatically raising the aircraft's performance.
このR-201Uアステラスはは我々憂慮がその防衛任務実績をNEUCOM社から認められ、同社からの技術協力により、最近になって実戦配備が進んでいる最新鋭の機体です。このほかにも我々ユキオには出るフィネス話の実戦配備が両社からの協力によって行われています。特徴的な外観は、アストロズはという名前の由来にもなっているヒトデのような姿を。このように入国者のR-Numberと呼ばれる機体は、どれも生物的な流線型を持つフォルムが特徴です。この機体はR-Numberの中でも特に超高速で有視界飛行し、地上攻撃を行うことにその威力を発揮します。から。そのため低空での安定性が高いのですが、最高速が犠牲になっており、マッハ1程度での飛行に限られています。また、フライバイオプトシステムによる機体制御と火器管制が統合された入江無生の新世代アビオニクスによってコフィンシステムによる、操縦特性を十二分に活かしつつ、また、フライバイオプトシステムによる機体制御と火器管制が統合された入江無生の新世代アビオニクスによってコフィンシステムによる、操縦特性を十二分に活かしつつ、強力な攻撃能力を制御することが可能になりました。そう、同機という特異な形状から来る豊富な兵曹積載量に加え、強力な機銃を装備することにより地上攻撃に絶大な威力を発揮します。
The R-201U Asterozoa is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has recently been deployed in actual combat operations with the technical cooperation of NEUCOM, which has recognized its defensive achievements. In addition to this, UPEO has been deploying it in actual combat with the cooperation of both companies. The Asterozoa’s characteristic appearance look like a starfish, which is also the origin of the name. All of these aircraft, called R-Number by the entrant, are characterized by their biological streamlined form. This aircraft is the most powerful of the R-Numbers, especially in its ultra-fast visual flight and ground attack. This makes it highly stable at low altitudes, but at the expense of its top speed, which is limited to flying at about Mach 1. Neucom’s new-generation avionics, which integrates airframe and fire control by the fly-by-opto system, allows the aircraft to take full advantage of the mobility of the COFFIN system. The system enables control of the aircraft's firepower while taking full advantage of its maneuverability. Yes, in addition to the abundant armament it can carry due to its unique shape, it is equipped with a powerful machine gun, which makes it extremely powerful in ground attacks.
本機の高いポテンシャルについては 前述の航空ショーですが、超付随コブラを披露し、 関係者を驚かせたことでも証明されています。Su-37スーパーフランカこの機体は、優れた空力特性の推進、 偏向ノズル採用の大出力エンジンにより、 高次元の機動性を実現した 全天候型の長距離多目的戦闘機です。UPEOに配備されている他の機体に比べると、大型で余裕のある機体サイズから対空、対地攻撃まであらゆる任務をこなすことができます。私たち有病が行った近代化改修としては、エンジンの推力増加、新素材による台の高強度と軽量化、若干フックの装備、空中給油装置の変更、左右徳力可動カナードなど多岐に渡ります。コックピットには、神経接続による、軍事兵器操縦システムConnectionForFlightInterface.通称コフィーも採用しています。ちなみに神経接続されたパイロットは完全に視界を遮断された状態でコックピットに横たわって操縦しています。このようにして、機体の全アビオニクスが新開発のものに改良されています。そして。私自身が操縦するこの専用機には、今までのエンジンシステムをさらに進化させたオプトニューロンを使った特別な神経接続が使用されています。この企画によって、私はより素早く、より正確で、より繊細な戦闘機に操縦が可能になりましそう。このような翼を手に入れるために続けられる私たちの技術開発は、きっとこれからも新しい戦闘機をいろいろと開発していくことでしょうもしかしたら、戦闘機に人間が乗る必要さえもなくなる日がやってくるのかもしれません。それでも人は大空を自由に飛ぶための翼を手放すことはないでしょう。素晴らしい空鳥たちの視界。ここにはまだまだ私たち人間の手には届かない。美しい。景色が広がっているのです。
The aircraft’s sheer potential has been proven by the aforementioned air show, where it surprised all concerned with its Pugachev’s cobra. The Su-37 Super Flanker is an all-weather long-range multirole fighter that achieves high mobility thanks to its propulsion with excellent aerodynamics and high-power engine with deflecting nozzles. Compared to other aircraft deployed in UPEO, the Su-37 Super Flanker is capable of performing a full range of missions, from air-to-air to ground attack, thanks to its large size and ample room to maneuver. UPEO’s modernization modifications include increased engine thrust, new materials to make the platform stronger and lighter, a tail-hooks, a modified aerial refueling system, and independently controllable canard forewings. The cockpit also features the Connection For Flight Interface, or COFFIN, a military weapon neural control system. Incidentally, the neuro-connected pilot lies in the cockpit and controls the aircraft with his/her vision completely blocked. In this way, all the avionics are newly developed and improved. Also. This special aircraft, which I myself pilot, uses a special neural connection called opto-neurons, a further improvement on the existing engine system. This project has made it possible for me to pilot a faster, more precise, and more responsive fighter. Continued technological development to obtain such wings will surely lead to the development of many new fighters in the future, and perhaps the day will come when humans are no longer needed to fly fighters. But never will people give up their wings to fly freely in the sky. The wonderful bird’s eye view. A place still out of reach of us humans. Beautiful. The scenery stretching out.

Night Raven Special

Subbed by: LonelyChaser FansubsProject Manager: MartyMcfliesTranslation: Windii
Editing: IIDucci, Dark_Kudoh, Dfactor
Escalating conflicts between nations. A growing nuclear threat - those days have passed.
-the ultra-powerful multinational corporations
malicious terrorist
However, nations are no longer able to deal with quarrels
Which is why we at UPEO, the world’s singular peace enforcement organization, have assembled the latest military hardware sufficient to cope with any emergency and established a vocal authority for diplomacy on a level playing field with any organization.
Come forth, young aspirants!
EAPN Top News 7
Top-secret info obtained!
Urgent report, General Resource
A full view of the latest next-gen fighter?!
Top News 7: Good evening. Top News 7 broadcasting. First, observe this footage.
This is a video of a test flight of the newest next-gen advanced fighter that General Resource has been developing in secret as reported by our Top News 7 team and other TV stations yesterday.
[X-49 now flies above the Lambert Mountains]
General Resource’s next-gen advanced fighter development has always been on global notice, with debates led by military aviation companies and even on the Electrosphere, but the project’s true status remained veiled in mystery. Because of that, this footage will certainly create a ripple from now.
[X-49 now flies through Geofront tunnels]
This latest next-gen advanced fighter, with its distinct dual-topped boomerang shape, is called the X-49 Night Raven, and aside of a normal jet engine is Aeon propulsion to provide fourice the conventional propulsion in airspaces with Aeon particles. It is a state-of-the-art fighter with a top speed rumored to be as high as Mach 4 or 5.
The X-49 excels at ultra-extensive jamming, and we suspect that to be the cause of the occasional noise in this footage.
The displayed capability in this flight test recording is said to be less than 25% of its full potential, and experts say it is being developed as the ultimate evolution of the stealth fighter that was touted as a threat in the late 20th century.
For General Resource as well as its rival Neucom, and other military aviation companies worldwide, the development and success of next-gen advanced fighters is of paramount importance to their future prospects. Therefore, its development is considered a top-secret confidential project, and it’s even said only a few employees are aware of it.
The X-49 Night Raven’s existence has for a long time also remained shrouded in secrecy. But it is conceivable that General Resource, ahead of the curve in Aeon particle research, is taking on the challenge of developing a next-gen advanced fighter running on Aeon propulsion. In addition, regular pilots find extreme difficulty adapting to Aeon-powered mobility because of its revolutionary strides, and military journalists have been speculating that General Resource’s future fighters will be unmanned.
[X-49 flies above Geofront]
Experts say it is difficult to determine from this received footage on whether the X-49 is an unmanned advanced fighter. There is no hyperbole, however, that this video nearly proves that General Resource’s next-gen advanced fighter development has reached its last stages.
Despite the video file being sent to several TV stations while having no address and the sender being anonymous, military reviewer Dan Satoshi theorizes that the video was leaked with the intent of showing General Resource’s research advancements to the world, thus highlighting and cementing their presence; however, the possibility remains that the video was leaked by a former General Resource employee. Regardless, we believe that the video will spur competition between General Resource and Neucom, which has recently become tense.
General Resource’s PR department, which could be one of the leak sources, has released a statement that X-49 R&D has already been terminated and the experimental unit dismantled and scrapped, while maintaining complete silence on the circumstances of the leak. What happens next will garner interest.
Sponsored by: Neucom Inc.
Nano, nano, nano, nano! These tiny heroes support our lives daily! Nanotech will rebuild the world! They are our new pals from Neucom! Averse from our irises, but they do their finest! They are called nanobites!

Previous
Writer's note: Glaaaaaaaaag!
Enjoy. Glag.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patril's bodies snarled in rage as they realized what was happening.
This operation was originally supposed to have been entirely covert. Infiltrate the capital and its guard more thoroughly than their agents had ever managed before. Mainly possible due to Patril's own mind now being a conglomeration of many minds. And while that had been the MAIN plan, it was never expected to be accomplished flawlessly. The Agency wasn't foolish enough to think that they could plan flawlessly. Especially given their track record since the arrival of the Summoned Hero to this world.
The back up plan, meant to activate should they be discovered early like they had now, had been a brute force attack. It had an additional contingency, that had luckily played out, that had resulted in several of their infected personnel to get INTO the castle before the Petravians had realized what was happening. That had worked, and for a while they had had almost eight Golems in the castle, and had had close to twelve in the yards outside the castle. Hell, they had even managed a spur of the moment infection of the King's personal guardian Though that had been thwarted by that very Guardian's tenacity.
Now they only had three outside the castle, and one down in the castle's dungeon. The three outside weren't going to last long. But luckily the one in the dungeon was handling it's task easily.
But the operation was failing.
Patril had had an advantage here. Their initial infiltration had gone unchecked for almost two weeks, and given even a few more days would have likely had enough bodies under their control that even using the backup plan would have immediately overwhelmed the capital city. Their infection rate was exponential after all.
But the royal forces had picked up on the weakness of flesh worm created golems. They had also clearly picked up on Patril's presence earlier than they had let on. This was a coordinated attack, and the Petravians had adapted to the information about their weakness quickly.
And that had been BEFORE Patril had seen through those golems in the castle that the Summoned Hero, that damnable Captain Choi, had somehow managed to get all the way from the country's southern border to the castle in a single night. His skill set, coupled with his equipment, and his established knowledge of how to fight a golem, had allowed him to dismantle most of the infiltrators in mere minutes. It hadn't helped that, even with well over thirty minds absorbed into them, Patril was now fighting an entire army on multiple fronts. And now he was certain that the "Hero" was likely moving to join that same battle.
To top it off the were-folk elemental warrior that had been single-handedly holding off a portion of them that was large enough to take out an entire village, had disappeared in an explosion of ice and fire. Patril could not sense them anymore, but they also knew that they hadn't been caught in the explosion either. The rest of their golem body would have found remains after they'd reabsorbed the frozen portion.
So, as Patril continued to fight a steadily worsening battle against the forces in the city, they placed all of their betting chits on the golem that was in the castle's dungeon.
We must consume and grow. They thought. And overwhelm any who discover us before they have a chance to react.
--------------------------
Nguyen was barely breathing as he heard the last of the guards scream before there was a loud crunching, squelching noise.
He held a finger up to his mouth as he signaled for Barnes to stay quiet. As he did he slowly slunk back into the corner of his cell closest to the intruder, but also back in the shadows of the back wall.
Barnes's eyes were wide and his lip was quivering as he saw the monster kill the last of the guards. But he still moved as quietly as he could, falling back into darkness like Nguyen had. But unlike Nguyen, he wasn't able to prevent himself from breathing in a rough stutter.
Shit. Nguyen thought.
The "creature" seemed to be doing something with the bodies, and with the dungeon itself, as Nguyen heard it continuing to crunch the bodies of the dead soldiers and do something with the stones of the floor and walls around it.
Nguyen picked up his pillow, though it wasn't much of one, and held it up for Barnes to see. Then he pointed at Barnes before pressing his hand to his chest and miming hard breathing. Then he held the pillow over his own face and took deep, slow, breaths through the pillow.
Barnes gulped quietly before silently nodding. Then grabbed his pillow and did as the former First Sergeant had instructed him.
It didn't work.
After a few more minutes the odd, stone on stone, grinding noise began drawing closer to them. Nguyen drew down into as small of a form as he could, silently draping his blanket over himself and hoping that whatever it was thought he might just be a bundled up bit of linen. He wasn't counting on it working. But he didn't have a lot of other options.
Then, through the tiniest of little peepholes, that had likely been created by a moth or something, Nguyen saw a dark red tendril reach out and grab onto the bars of his cell. Unlike Barnes, who he couldn't see through the peephole, his breathing stopped rather than sped up.
There were red glowing spots on the end of the tendril.
"No!" He heard Barnes scream. His heart leapt into his throat as he realized that the other man had just doomed himself. "No! Nononono!" Barnes continued rapidly as the tendril rotated over to look into that cell.
And then Nguyen saw the rest of the... whatever it was, come around the wall into full view.
The sight of its mass, and of the bits of Petravian Guard that were still being... eaten?... processed?... absorbed?... he wasn't sure. But there were a handful of bodyparts that were moving about in the thing's body. He watched as an arm was ripped apart at the elbow and both parts sank into the "flesh" of the thing.
The Thing. He thought. Suddenly reminded of his grandfathers favorite horror movie. He'd made the mistake of watching it when he was a child. And as bad as the old puppets and prosthetics had looked compared to modern CGI, it had still scarred him. It's the goddam thing.
Then it began moving towards Barnes's cell.
"NO!" Barnes screamed as the "Thing" began to meld THROUGH the bars of Barnes's cell. "STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!"
And Nguyen could hear the absolute terror in the man's voice. Barnes was a veteran of two seperate deployments. He was only a corporal because he'd gotten a DUI after the second, otherwise he'd probably have been a Staff Sergeant by now. His combat record was the only reason he'd even been allowed to stay in the post-war Army. Hell, he'd been recommended for a bronze star on that second deployment.
And he was screaming and crying. And Nguyen wanted to join him because he had no doubt that he was next on the dinner table for this "Thing."
No. He thought. Not again. We're not failing them again. We're not just gonna stay quiet this time.
And his mouth moved before his brain could stop it.
"HEY YOU UGLY ASSHOLE!" He yelled, and with no control over himself he threw the blanket off of himself as he stood up. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SOLDIER!"
And the tendril with the red glowing spots spun to look at him.
Those must be its eyes. He thought as he stood awkwardly.
He hadn't had a plan when he'd stood up. He'd simply known that he had to do something, anything, to try to protect Barnes. As well as any of the other Earth personnel who were further down the hall, or in the adjacent halls. Even if it only ended up buying the rest of them a few seconds.
Then the "Thing" did something he hadn't expected, even though his mental comparison of it to the old movie should have warned him it could.
Shit. He thought as it's main body simply spread out, and parts of it began to press through his cell bars as well.
"AW FUCK TOP!" Barnes yelled.
Nguyen, reacting on instinct, grabbed at the frame of his bed. He didn't have a plan. He had almost nothing in the cell with him, not even a book. But he couldn't just LET this thing kill him. In his panic induced state, with adrenaline pumping through his veins, Nguyen forgot how much stronger he was in this world. They'd all been here long enough that their bodies were saturated with magical energy. And while the cells were designed specifically to prevent them from casting any spells, not that he knew any, they didn't stop their bodies from growing stronger.
Nguyen's eyes went wide as he ripped the entire post off the side of the bed. He'd only been trying to wiggle it and see if it was loose and if her could MAYBE pull it off. Instead he was now holding a roughly two foot long, slightly jagged ended, piece of solid hardwood.
And even with the new makeshift weapon he knew his odds were still shit. But he was gonna swing away anyways.
Oh fuck. He thought as he broke out of his distracted stupor and turned back to see the "Thing" now nearly large enough to fill the cell door entirely. It's red glowing "face" only inches from the ceiling.
And in those final moments, for that was what he knew they were, Nguyen felt calm come over him.
"Death before dismount." He said quietly to himself. The motto of his original MOS.
Then he began taking the step that would bring him across the small room and into swinging range with his makeshift cudgel.
He wound back like he was trying to swing for a home run.
And the entire dungeon became blindingly bright with a sort of greenish white light.
"AAAAAAAH!" He heard Barnes scream as he fell back, his arms in front of his face.
Something else screamed too. Or at least made a noise that was loosely akin to a scream. It was like a dying engine and a boiling tea kettle combined with a rock grinder.
"What the fuck?" Barnes asked in confusion as Nguyen blinked the spots out of his vision. "Whatthefuck? Whatthefuck? Whatthefuck?"
And as Nguyen reopened his eyes fully, he was surprised to find himself looking at some kind of abstract art that was made up of things from a rain forest. Suddenly Barnes's rapidly repeated question was on the tip of his tongue as well.
"You lot still alive in there?" A feminine voice asked from the hallway outside. "I didn't actually know if that was going to work."
---------------------
In attempting to follow James, Glag ended up rolling through the halls, causing more than a few soldiers to leap out of his way even as some of them tried to challenge him, and into the healing ward. But that was where James's trail went cold.
Well, cold wasn't accurate really. Glag didn't follow scents or body temperatures or anything like that. Instead he sensed people through their contact with the stone. And James had clearly used this room as a place to launch into flight, just like he had with Glag back in that other place. When he'd taken Glag on the greatest ride of the small rock elemental's incredibly long life, and used him as a projectile. Both of which Glag had found endlessly entertaining. Even if such concepts were beyond his grasp.... or ability to verbalize to any mortals.
On the up side, Glag did find the remnants of several of the bloodstone golems that the tall person had told him to kill. These ones were already dead. But Glag devoured the stone part of them all the same. His body grew a touch darker, though it would return to its normal sandy color in time.
Once that was done, and while the soldiers and the other people present continued trying to figure out who he was, not that he cared to tell them, Glag continued following James on the path he assumed his friend had taken. He rolled up to speed, causing several of the guards to leap out of his way again, and the crashed through the broken window.
This had two bonuses to Glag. Firstly he knew it was the way James had come. Secondly, it landed him just outside of a small skirmish between some of the castle soldiers, and several more of the golems.
And he liked killing golems, though he couldn't remember killing any that were made of blood. Most of the golems he'd dealt with in his life were of the standard rock and crystal variety. They were just poor imitations of what he and other Glags were. Or of their ACTUAL elemental ancestors.
These thoughts didn't run through Glag's mind in the normal sense, but rather as a sense of vaguely defined memories. After all, he didn't care about golems either way. He simply enjoyed bringing them down. For the same reason that he enjoyed occasionally joining tournaments when they would allow him, and why he liked following James. Because who doesn't enjoy a bit of rumble.
"Glaaaaag!" He bellowed as his rolling body expanded and he leapt into the air to slam into the first of the golems, making a slightly smaller imitation of the impact that James had made with him. The soldiers all turned and looked at him in surprise as they realized what was happening. Then they scattered as the golem's glowing red eyes moved to the top of its body to see him.
Glag was smiling as he plummeted toward it.
--------------------
"NOOOOOOO!" Patril's voices bellowed in rage as it realized how the battle had just shifted yet again.
Now the golem in the dungeon was eliminated AND the Petravians had a Glag on their side.
Patril's main host body, the original Patril, stalked over to the member of the Agency who was, supposedly, in charge of the Agency.
The old orc looked at Patril smugly.
"This is not going the way it was supposed to." They said as they put down the small, flat sided, crystal that they were using to look through the eyes of the Golems, piggybacking Patril's own connection to them.
"No it isn't." Patril admitted angrily, the words coming from all of their mouths simultaneously. "Ready the final contingency actions." They said. "We can at least hold them back long enough to deploy them as well."
The old orc looked back at the crystal for a moment. Then he turned back.
"I'll go get them moving." He said as he stood up, taking the crystal with him, and walked toward one of the Agency's doors. Patril moved to rejoin his other bodies at their seats.He didn't notice that the orc had left something behind. Mostly because it had been left on the cushion of the seat the orc had been sitting on, which was a nice bright red.
As smart as having as many minds as they did. Patril hadn't picked up on the old orc's loss of patience for them. Or the fact that the Orc, many centuries older than he was supposed to be by this point, knew full well that Patril fancied themselves as the new leader of the Agency. And that the Orc didn't care to share his position with such a pathetic failure.
And so Patril didn't notice that the old Orc had left something behind as he left. It was small, and blended in with the red of the chair cushion he'd been sitting on. It looked remarkably similar to the small red gem that had caused such havoc for the capital only a little under a year before.
------------------------------------
"Alright plug your ears everyone." Vickers said as he flipped the cover off of the detonator in his hand. "And get ready to fight a shit load of golem." Then he looked back. "Don't forget. Keep your ears plugged until we get into contact with it."
Around him the Petravian soldiers, and the one Agent, kneeled down as small as they could behind a series of stone walls that they'd magically erected. Vickers moved the strip of cloth he'd fashioned into position so that it folded his feline ears over themselves, effectively shutting them and hopefully blocking enough of the concussion.
"Here we go." He said as he flipped the little toggle.

BA-WHUMPF!

They felt as much as heard the detonation go off. A quick kick to the chest by a phantom was as familiar to Vickers as gunfire as the concussion raced around the slight curve that he'd had the mages present reshape the tunnel into.
"Go!" He yelled as he stood up and began running, making sure not to sprint at full speed. "GO! GO! GO!" He yelled as he lifted his M5 up to his shoulder.
He did so at the perfect time, as the thick brownish red form of the golem flesh began pouring out of the new opening in the Agency tunnel and into their. It seemed listless at first. From what he'd been told by the old mage at the castle, golems were effectively remote controlled with magic. So he had to imagine that whoever was controlling this one HADN'T been expecting a surprise attack from underground.
He didn't give them a chance to catch up as he opened fire to create an opening for the mages to move forward and get close enough to use their magic to beat it back.

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOM!

His fifty caliber thundered into the darkness. His makeshift ear-press did nothing against the repeated, tight confines enhanced, roaring automatic fire of the monstrous weapon as he fired in bursts at the mass of golem. He knew that the bullets were likely doing minimal damage given the target. It wasn't one of the small golems they'd faced before after all.
But killing wasn't always the point of firing a fifty caliber weapon. Sure, they were hands down some of the best weapons for it. But in this case he was going for a combination of shock and awe, as well as suppressive fire. He didn't know how a person "controlled" a golem. But he had to imagine that being suddenly, and violently, ambushed by an unforeseen breaching charge, then getting shot to bits by bullets that he knew from experience were hot as fuck when they were incoming, as well as deafened by the gunshots themselves, would be one hell of a distraction.
And so as Vickers and the, surprised and mildly terrified by the gunfire, soldiers and mages rushed forward. Vickers kept firing in nice, sustained bursts.
And when they got close enough, the Mages unleashed a torrent of Ice magic that Vickers needed to learn how to do.
But for now, he settled for putting the still hot rifle back in his bottomless bag, reforming his ice armor, and wading through the flood of cold magic, and into the fight.

Previous / First
Writer's note: Glaaaaaaaaag!
Enjoy. Glag.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patril's bodies snarled in rage as they realized what was happening.
This operation was originally supposed to have been entirely covert. Infiltrate the capital and its guard more thoroughly than their agents had ever managed before. Mainly possible due to Patril's own mind now being a conglomeration of many minds. And while that had been the MAIN plan, it was never expected to be accomplished flawlessly. The Agency wasn't foolish enough to think that they could plan flawlessly. Especially given their track record since the arrival of the Summoned Hero to this world.
The back up plan, meant to activate should they be discovered early like they had now, had been a brute force attack. It had an additional contingency, that had luckily played out, that had resulted in several of their infected personnel to get INTO the castle before the Petravians had realized what was happening. That had worked, and for a while they had had almost eight Golems in the castle, and had had close to twelve in the yards outside the castle. Hell, they had even managed a spur of the moment infection of the King's personal guardian Though that had been thwarted by that very Guardian's tenacity.
Now they only had three outside the castle, and one down in the castle's dungeon. The three outside weren't going to last long. But luckily the one in the dungeon was handling it's task easily.
But the operation was failing.
Patril had had an advantage here. Their initial infiltration had gone unchecked for almost two weeks, and given even a few more days would have likely had enough bodies under their control that even using the backup plan would have immediately overwhelmed the capital city. Their infection rate was exponential after all.
But the royal forces had picked up on the weakness of flesh worm created golems. They had also clearly picked up on Patril's presence earlier than they had let on. This was a coordinated attack, and the Petravians had adapted to the information about their weakness quickly.
And that had been BEFORE Patril had seen through those golems in the castle that the Summoned Hero, that damnable Captain Choi, had somehow managed to get all the way from the country's southern border to the castle in a single night. His skill set, coupled with his equipment, and his established knowledge of how to fight a golem, had allowed him to dismantle most of the infiltrators in mere minutes. It hadn't helped that, even with well over thirty minds absorbed into them, Patril was now fighting an entire army on multiple fronts. And now he was certain that the "Hero" was likely moving to join that same battle.
To top it off the were-folk elemental warrior that had been single-handedly holding off a portion of them that was large enough to take out an entire village, had disappeared in an explosion of ice and fire. Patril could not sense them anymore, but they also knew that they hadn't been caught in the explosion either. The rest of their golem body would have found remains after they'd reabsorbed the frozen portion.
So, as Patril continued to fight a steadily worsening battle against the forces in the city, they placed all of their betting chits on the golem that was in the castle's dungeon.
We must consume and grow. They thought. And overwhelm any who discover us before they have a chance to react.
--------------------------
Nguyen was barely breathing as he heard the last of the guards scream before there was a loud crunching, squelching noise.
He held a finger up to his mouth as he signaled for Barnes to stay quiet. As he did he slowly slunk back into the corner of his cell closest to the intruder, but also back in the shadows of the back wall.
Barnes's eyes were wide and his lip was quivering as he saw the monster kill the last of the guards. But he still moved as quietly as he could, falling back into darkness like Nguyen had. But unlike Nguyen, he wasn't able to prevent himself from breathing in a rough stutter.
Shit. Nguyen thought.
The "creature" seemed to be doing something with the bodies, and with the dungeon itself, as Nguyen heard it continuing to crunch the bodies of the dead soldiers and do something with the stones of the floor and walls around it.
Nguyen picked up his pillow, though it wasn't much of one, and held it up for Barnes to see. Then he pointed at Barnes before pressing his hand to his chest and miming hard breathing. Then he held the pillow over his own face and took deep, slow, breaths through the pillow.
Barnes gulped quietly before silently nodding. Then grabbed his pillow and did as the former First Sergeant had instructed him.
It didn't work.
After a few more minutes the odd, stone on stone, grinding noise began drawing closer to them. Nguyen drew down into as small of a form as he could, silently draping his blanket over himself and hoping that whatever it was thought he might just be a bundled up bit of linen. He wasn't counting on it working. But he didn't have a lot of other options.
Then, through the tiniest of little peepholes, that had likely been created by a moth or something, Nguyen saw a dark red tendril reach out and grab onto the bars of his cell. Unlike Barnes, who he couldn't see through the peephole, his breathing stopped rather than sped up.
There were red glowing spots on the end of the tendril.
"No!" He heard Barnes scream. His heart leapt into his throat as he realized that the other man had just doomed himself. "No! Nononono!" Barnes continued rapidly as the tendril rotated over to look into that cell.
And then Nguyen saw the rest of the... whatever it was, come around the wall into full view.
The sight of its mass, and of the bits of Petravian Guard that were still being... eaten?... processed?... absorbed?... he wasn't sure. But there were a handful of bodyparts that were moving about in the thing's body. He watched as an arm was ripped apart at the elbow and both parts sank into the "flesh" of the thing.
The Thing. He thought. Suddenly reminded of his grandfathers favorite horror movie. He'd made the mistake of watching it when he was a child. And as bad as the old puppets and prosthetics had looked compared to modern CGI, it had still scarred him. It's the goddam thing.
Then it began moving towards Barnes's cell.
"NO!" Barnes screamed as the "Thing" began to meld THROUGH the bars of Barnes's cell. "STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!"
And Nguyen could hear the absolute terror in the man's voice. Barnes was a veteran of two seperate deployments. He was only a corporal because he'd gotten a DUI after the second, otherwise he'd probably have been a Staff Sergeant by now. His combat record was the only reason he'd even been allowed to stay in the post-war Army. Hell, he'd been recommended for a bronze star on that second deployment.
And he was screaming and crying. And Nguyen wanted to join him because he had no doubt that he was next on the dinner table for this "Thing."
No. He thought. Not again. We're not failing them again. We're not just gonna stay quiet this time.
And his mouth moved before his brain could stop it.
"HEY YOU UGLY ASSHOLE!" He yelled, and with no control over himself he threw the blanket off of himself as he stood up. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SOLDIER!"
And the tendril with the red glowing spots spun to look at him.
Those must be its eyes. He thought as he stood awkwardly.
He hadn't had a plan when he'd stood up. He'd simply known that he had to do something, anything, to try to protect Barnes. As well as any of the other Earth personnel who were further down the hall, or in the adjacent halls. Even if it only ended up buying the rest of them a few seconds.
Then the "Thing" did something he hadn't expected, even though his mental comparison of it to the old movie should have warned him it could.
Shit. He thought as it's main body simply spread out, and parts of it began to press through his cell bars as well.
"AW FUCK TOP!" Barnes yelled.
Nguyen, reacting on instinct, grabbed at the frame of his bed. He didn't have a plan. He had almost nothing in the cell with him, not even a book. But he couldn't just LET this thing kill him. In his panic induced state, with adrenaline pumping through his veins, Nguyen forgot how much stronger he was in this world. They'd all been here long enough that their bodies were saturated with magical energy. And while the cells were designed specifically to prevent them from casting any spells, not that he knew any, they didn't stop their bodies from growing stronger.
Nguyen's eyes went wide as he ripped the entire post off the side of the bed. He'd only been trying to wiggle it and see if it was loose and if her could MAYBE pull it off. Instead he was now holding a roughly two foot long, slightly jagged ended, piece of solid hardwood.
And even with the new makeshift weapon he knew his odds were still shit. But he was gonna swing away anyways.
Oh fuck. He thought as he broke out of his distracted stupor and turned back to see the "Thing" now nearly large enough to fill the cell door entirely. It's red glowing "face" only inches from the ceiling.
And in those final moments, for that was what he knew they were, Nguyen felt calm come over him.
"Death before dismount." He said quietly to himself. The motto of his original MOS.
Then he began taking the step that would bring him across the small room and into swinging range with his makeshift cudgel.
He wound back like he was trying to swing for a home run.
And the entire dungeon became blindingly bright with a sort of greenish white light.
"AAAAAAAH!" He heard Barnes scream as he fell back, his arms in front of his face.
Something else screamed too. Or at least made a noise that was loosely akin to a scream. It was like a dying engine and a boiling tea kettle combined with a rock grinder.
"What the fuck?" Barnes asked in confusion as Nguyen blinked the spots out of his vision. "Whatthefuck? Whatthefuck? Whatthefuck?"
And as Nguyen reopened his eyes fully, he was surprised to find himself looking at some kind of abstract art that was made up of things from a rain forest. Suddenly Barnes's rapidly repeated question was on the tip of his tongue as well.
"You lot still alive in there?" A feminine voice asked from the hallway outside. "I didn't actually know if that was going to work."
---------------------
In attempting to follow James, Glag ended up rolling through the halls, causing more than a few soldiers to leap out of his way even as some of them tried to challenge him, and into the healing ward. But that was where James's trail went cold.
Well, cold wasn't accurate really. Glag didn't follow scents or body temperatures or anything like that. Instead he sensed people through their contact with the stone. And James had clearly used this room as a place to launch into flight, just like he had with Glag back in that other place. When he'd taken Glag on the greatest ride of the small rock elemental's incredibly long life, and used him as a projectile. Both of which Glag had found endlessly entertaining. Even if such concepts were beyond his grasp.... or ability to verbalize to any mortals.
On the up side, Glag did find the remnants of several of the bloodstone golems that the tall person had told him to kill. These ones were already dead. But Glag devoured the stone part of them all the same. His body grew a touch darker, though it would return to its normal sandy color in time.
Once that was done, and while the soldiers and the other people present continued trying to figure out who he was, not that he cared to tell them, Glag continued following James on the path he assumed his friend had taken. He rolled up to speed, causing several of the guards to leap out of his way again, and crashed through the broken window.
This had two bonuses to Glag. Firstly he knew it was the way James had come. Secondly, it landed him just outside of a small skirmish between some of the castle soldiers, and several more of the golems.
And he liked killing golems, though he couldn't remember killing any that were made of blood. Most of the golems he'd dealt with in his life were of the standard rock and crystal variety. They were just poor imitations of what he and other Glags were. Or of their ACTUAL elemental ancestors.
These thoughts didn't run through Glag's mind in the normal sense, but rather as a sense of vaguely defined memories. After all, he didn't care about golems either way. He simply enjoyed bringing them down. For the same reason that he enjoyed occasionally joining tournaments when they would allow him, and why he liked following James. Because who doesn't enjoy a bit of rumble.
"Glaaaaag!" He bellowed as his rolling body expanded and he leapt into the air to slam into the first of the golems, making a slightly smaller imitation of the impact that James had made with him. The soldiers all turned and looked at him in surprise as they realized what was happening. Then they scattered as the golem's glowing red eyes moved to the top of its body to see him.
Glag was smiling as he plummeted toward it.
--------------------
"NOOOOOOO!" Patril's voices bellowed in rage as it realized how the battle had just shifted yet again.
Now the golem in the dungeon was eliminated AND the Petravians had a Glag on their side.
Patril's main host body, the original Patril, stalked over to the member of the Agency who was, supposedly, in charge of the Agency.
The old orc looked at Patril smugly.
"This is not going the way it was supposed to." They said as they put down the small, flat sided, crystal that they were using to look through the eyes of the Golems, piggybacking Patril's own connection to them.
"No it isn't." Patril admitted angrily, the words coming from all of their mouths simultaneously. "Ready the final contingency actions." They said. "We can at least hold them back long enough to deploy them as well."
The old orc looked back at the crystal for a moment. Then he turned back.
"I'll go get them moving." He said as he stood up, taking the crystal with him, and walked toward one of the Agency's doors. Patril moved to rejoin his other bodies at their seats.He didn't notice that the orc had left something behind. Mostly because it had been left on the cushion of the seat the orc had been sitting on, which was a nice bright red.
As smart as having as many minds as they did. Patril hadn't picked up on the old orc's loss of patience for them. Or the fact that the Orc, many centuries older than he was supposed to be by this point, knew full well that Patril fancied themselves as the new leader of the Agency. And that the Orc didn't care to share his position with such a pathetic failure.
And so Patril didn't notice that the old Orc had left something behind as he left. It was small, and blended in with the red of the chair cushion he'd been sitting on. It looked remarkably similar to the small red gem that had caused such havoc for the capital only a little under a year before.
------------------------------------
"Alright plug your ears everyone." Vickers said as he flipped the cover off of the detonator in his hand. "And get ready to fight a shit load of golem." Then he looked back. "Don't forget. Keep your ears plugged until we get into contact with it."
Around him the Petravian soldiers, and the one Agent, kneeled down as small as they could behind a series of stone walls that they'd magically erected. Vickers moved the strip of cloth he'd fashioned into position so that it folded his feline ears over themselves, effectively shutting them and hopefully blocking enough of the concussion.
"Here we go." He said as he flipped the little toggle.

BA-WHUMPF!

They felt as much as heard the detonation go off. A quick kick to the chest by a phantom was as familiar to Vickers as gunfire as the concussion raced around the slight curve that he'd had the mages present reshape the tunnel into.
"Go!" He yelled as he stood up and began running, making sure not to sprint at full speed. "GO! GO! GO!" He yelled as he lifted his M5 up to his shoulder.
He did so at the perfect time, as the thick brownish red form of the golem flesh began pouring out of the new opening in the Agency tunnel and into theirs. It seemed listless at first. From what he'd been told by the old mage at the castle, golems were effectively remote controlled with magic. So he had to imagine that whoever was controlling this one HADN'T been expecting a surprise attack from underground.
He didn't give them a chance to catch up as he opened fire to create an opening for the mages to move forward and get close enough to use their magic to beat it back.

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOM!

His fifty caliber thundered into the darkness. His makeshift ear-press did nothing against the repeated, tight confines enhanced, roaring automatic fire of the monstrous weapon as he fired in bursts at the mass of golem. He knew that the bullets were likely doing minimal damage given the target. It wasn't one of the small golems they'd faced before after all.
But killing wasn't always the point of firing a fifty caliber weapon. Sure, they were hands down some of the best weapons for it. But in this case he was going for a combination of shock and awe, as well as suppressive fire. He didn't know how a person "controlled" a golem. But he had to imagine that being suddenly, and violently, ambushed by an unforeseen breaching charge, then getting shot to bits by bullets that he knew from experience were hot as fuck when they were incoming, as well as deafened by the gunshots themselves, would be one hell of a distraction.
And so as Vickers and the, surprised and mildly terrified by the gunfire, soldiers and mages rushed forward. Vickers kept firing in nice, sustained bursts.
And when they got close enough, the Mages unleashed a torrent of Ice magic that Vickers needed to learn how to do.
But for now, he settled for putting the still hot rifle back in his bottomless bag, reforming his ice armor, and wading through the flood of cold magic, and into the fight.

// We survived the worst of his addiction. We turned out great and I don't regret a single moment of fighting, even though it was hell.
I have a ton of advice and revelations and epiphanies to share. Please read this if your partner is addicted.
Scroll down to skip to the point. //
Hi everyone. I am always scared that when I finally write this post and publish it, our problems will come back, lol, which is why I have been putting this off. But I truly believe that my experience could help a ton of girls, so fuck it I guess.
I have posted on reddit a billion times, asking for advice and venting. Around a year ago I discovered my bf's porn addiction. Right after moving in with him and finding a job in his city, on the other side of the country, which made me a prisoner in his home. I couldn't leave, I had no one there, we were constantly going through many extremely tough conversations, he watched porn and masturbated all the time, our sex life died, my self-esteem was absolutely awful, I lived in constant stress and anxiety, I couldn't even leave the room and go to the bathroom as I was TERRIFIED that he is going to relapse, I couldn't go to sleep until he did, so very often I didn't sleep at all (living with a gamer..), I'm not exaggerating when I tell you it was emotional HELL, that lasted for a few months.
I was trying to figure this problem out, because we are an amazing match and it was extremely hard to let go. I gave up a few times, I tried to break up with him once, I moved in and moved out a few times (yeah, lost my job pretty quickly after all the travelling around the country to him and then to my family).
How is the relationship now? He is not watching porn, at all. He is still masturbating, but very rarely, as he is aware of all the risks. He is honest about it though, and I know when it happens. My self-esteem is fixed, our sex life is very good, I feel like I'm the only person sharing a sex life with him (not like before when I felt like I'm just one of many, many girls..). He makes me feel very loved, takes good care of me, we have a ton of fun, we don't fight, and overall, whatever happens in the future, I'm glad I survived this. Even if he is going to relapse and all of this is going to hell, I'm glad for the 9 more months of a nice relationship that I got, but more importantly, for all the lessons I've learned that will help me survive if I ever find myself in a new relationship with similar problems.
Here are all the lessons I've learned, in a chronological order (from the beginning of the discovery about addiction, to today, when we still live with it, even though it's asleep).

1. If you are going crazy wondering if he is addicted - he is.
2. There is no point in fighting and staying with him for as long as he doesn't admit that he is addicted. He has to know that. He has to use this exact words. If he ever puts this into doubt, then it's a lost cause. But remember, that addicts are very often in a big denial at the beginning (especially when it comes to something as normalized as porn), so it might take some time before he gets there. It's up to you if you want to stay with him during this process. After he realizes that he is addicted he HAS to know the risks. He has to see his addiction as evil, he has to know that it can destroy his life. If he ever says anything like 'porn is normal', 'this is just how men are', 'it's healthy to use it sometimes', again, lost cause.
3. You can't trust him. This was a really hard one for me, because how can I be in a relationship with someone and not trust them? But then I noticed, that I never caught him lying about anything other than his addiction. He seems very honest in every other topic, but with his addiction, lies were absolutely unpredictable. Whether I was understanding towards him and did not get mad at him relapsing, or I lashed out and tried to break up with him when he admitted to something, nothing ever made him completely honest in this matter. And I believe that addicts, with time, education, and work, get more honest and brave, being able to admit to the stuff they did, but you can just never be sure. I've been proud of my boyfriend in the past few months, because he did say some stuff that he knew might hurt me, but I should know about them, but there were also periods when I caught him lying when he really didn't have to. There was also a period one year ago when he lied about EVERYTHING according to his addiction.
4. Remove the word "PROMISE" from your dictionary. You don't use it. You don't know what it means. You are absolutely clueless. If he is telling you "I promise.." or "I promise, now I will really try...", "I promise this time this will work", you don't know what it means. You nod along, but then you do whatever you need, as if he never said this. Remember when I told you that you can't trust him? He doesn't know this yet, but he can't trust himself either. He is not making a fool of you, he is not manipulating you. He probably really, really wants to stop and he believes that he can. You tell him you are going to break up with him and he gets this rush of motivation, he is SURE, that THIS TIME, he can do this. But then the fear of losing you fades away and addiction ALWAYS comes back. If he ever promises you something, and you get calmer, you feel a glimpse of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, you realize you still love him... Stop. His actions will prove if he will try and if he will succeed. Words are no proof, so don't treat them as a proof.
5. And what kind of actions prove that he is trying? ANY actions for as long as they are his own initiative. I remember everyone on this sub telling me that therapy is absolutely necessary and I shouldn't stay with my bf if he doesn't go to therapy. So I did everything I could and made it a condition that I will stay with him only if he goes. He went. And entire time that he was in therapy (a few sessions) he spent watching porn and lying to me. He hasn't been to therapy ever since and he hasn't watched porn ever since. I'm not saying that therapy is bad, because it's GREAT (I also went to a porn addiction therapist to help me with the trauma and it did help me a lot, I recommend it), but it will not work if he is not doing it because he WANTS. The only things that worked were the ones, that he did without me asking. And it was: - watching youtube videos about porn addiction - watching videos about the reality of mens sexual drive, on why they are often cheating etc. - googling his problems and reading reddit. Some of his google searches were quite hurtful like "I love my gf but I still desire other girls", but that's unfortunately the problem of many many men, especially addicts, and reading about him made him end up with some really smart conclusion. - bringing this topic up and sharing his thoughts with me. Openly talking about the addiction, asking me for opinion, telling me his own, telling me what he has been thinking about lately. - tbh, I saw him watching stupid reality shows a few times because of how often these show the reality of relationships and porn/sex addictions. Many times he told me that he is watching it because he finds it fascinating and it's hard to believe that he used to be like this too. So yeah, it could be anything. As long as you don't force him to do it.
6. Which leads me to a similar point: there is NOTHING you can do. You will try (or already tried) to think of ways on how to motivate him and finally make him stop watching porn. You will think of leaving, because maybe this will finally make him realize what he is about to loose, you will think of staying with him and giving him a ton of support, you will think of controlling him and asking regularly, and you should be aware, that none of this is going to work permanently, and this is none of your business. If you are wondering how to play out this situation to save your relationship then here it is: you should do whatever you feel you need. You should take a trip to your hometown when you feel like you need a break, you should break up with him when you feel like you've had enough and you want to move on, you should give him support if you feel like this is something you want and have strength to do. In this battle he has to figure out how to fight his addiction and you have to figure out how to deal with the trauma, hurt, and whether you want to stay with him or not. Both of these jobs are EXTREMELY tough. You can't do his job, and he can't do yours.
7. This is not about you. If you ever thought to yourself "how can he do this to me?", "when he will stop hurting me?", "he doesn't love me anymore?", "i'm not attractive enough?". This is an addiction. He developed it probably before you got together. He developed it because porn is everywhere and it's a trap. He fell into that trap. Now, I know it's hard to admit (I know you are angry), but he is also the victim in this situation. He has a real problem and it's going to be hard as hell to solve it. He definitely thinks of you when he enters pornhub but his thoughts are more like "I really hope she is not going to find out", "Maybe I will be able to hide it somehow", "I don't want to hurt her but I really need to jerk off rn, I can't help it","I can't believe I'm doing this shit again", "I hate myself", and not "fuck her and this relationship, I love porn, let's have fun". Don't make this all about you. You are not the only one struggling. Always remind yourself: don't take it personally.
8. Monitoring apps are GREAT. I specifically recommend Truple (works best for Android and Windows), which I installed on all devices that we own. It lets you see every second of your bf's activity in the internet, even the incognito, everything. I remember that my therapist told me that she is not a fan of monitoring apps, because relationships should be based on trust. As I already mentioned, I think that's complete bullshit, when the relationship is with an addict. The app not only makes me feel safe and that even when he lies, I will know the truth, but most importantly: it's a huge motivator for him to not watch porn, as he knows I will see that he watched it and what he watched exactly. This is also how he knows that he can't lie, because I know the truth anyway. First he stopped watching porn because he didn't want me to see it, now he doesn't watch porn because he lost the feeling that he needs it.

Crap, I didn't predict how many things I'm going to want to say. I still have at least a few more points. I'm going to come back here and add them later in the day. So this is not everything.
In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions and tell me your opinions and experiences. My boyfriend and I will be answering them. See you later.
//
This post got deleted from subreddit LoveAfterPorn, because one of the mods decided on their own, that my boyfriend's story is not recovery. So I want to clarify: I know we are in this only for a year. I know there is still a long road ahead of us and everything bad can happen. But I also see that my approach to this topic has changed tremendously, and I understand this issue so much better now. So for any people who are new to this and terrified, maybe some of my advice will help you.
//

F(28) In the last two months I've been struggling with a lot of pain in my thumb wrist and hand. I went to Orthopedic doctor and all he did he gave me a shot to median nerve and suggested carapace tunnel surgery...
My symptoms don't even check with carapace tunnel...
I have this BURNING pain in dorsal(back) wrist and hand that I am miserable... also my thumb base hurt. Also, when I flex and extend wrist sometimes it locks and shoots with tons of pain, then it let go. Generally my hand is very stiff. I am doing excercises daily and they seem to help maybe 1%, 5% at most. What worries me the most that my whole back hand would hurt and my joints too. It feels like some of my finger joints are pulling... idk if it's because of inflamed tendons or what...
I don't know what kind of doctor should I go with it. I'm becoming broke here from seeing too many doctors. I am scared to go to Orthopedic because he just didn't help. Rushed the visit and wanted my money for surgery.
Anyone experience similar symptoms and can advice something?

Down the rabbit hole of the Bureau we go to see what horrors and wonders lie hidden upon and within the earth unearthed by an alien invasion...
Story connects My Moral Grey Area and useSilent_Technology540 and his Legion of monsters stories.
First Previous Next
Legion of monsters: Sanguine … 31 the House of Dealan
Pilotpriest, Future is dead
Arthur and his wives had been informed of the dress and … armament requirements that would be needed for their foray below and when he saw what the girls unveiled, he visibly winced.
Of course, there was some confusion in his disdain for their armour but Arthur insisted and within the hour they had travelled out to a place almost literally round the corner from the houses of parliament.
As he approached the old stone arch with its thick wrought iron door Arthur suddenly remembered the particulars of mixing Shil’vati and confined spaces.
“Um, I'm sorry but it slipped my mind that this place is underground.” He said, chuckling as his wives all gave him a cold disapproving look.
Arthur knew that just banging on the door would not open it so he pursed his lips and whistled the tune of the nursery rhyme pop goes the weasel while resting his hand on a very specific glassy green stone beside the doorway.
The clunk of a door deeper down the passage opening made him smile to his wives to reassure them that everything was okay.
As the chains rattled on the other side of the door, he heard the guard’s deep breath and several deep sniffs at the air, there was a deep animal growl, Arthur without meaning to swallowed dryly at what he knew was about to emerge.
The door swung open showing it to be a literal foot thick slab of metal, but from behind it stepped a man who emerged from his stoop in the hall to stare down at Arthur and look level eyed at his wives.
The man appeared Jamaican by descent by his predominant skin colour and hairstyle of dreadlocks, his face was mottled with vitiligo across his cheeks and brow speckling his brown skin with splotches of white, those eyes were brown but tinged yellow around the iris and his nails were thick and pointed claws.
This was a werewolf in human form, one that was not too shy about its inhuman traits being plain to see.
“Is master Ancetto in?” asked Arthur politely.
The doorman leaned over to be eye level with Arthur looking him in the eyes then looking past him to the four shil’vati behind him.
“Sebastian, they are my wives and I am looking to ensure they are well protected.” Stated Arthur.
Standing up straight the wolf in a man’s form smiled broadly displaying his fanged teeth as he then said in a deep Jamaican accent.
“Sooooh, da boy aboot town haz finally found someone’s dey is confortable with… doh-nah stress he is in, shall ah call da gent as well?” he asked smiling down at him.
Arthur nodded, and the guard looking over him to the four shil’vati women he smiled wider saying.
“Ladies, Welcome mahster Ancetto the artifaycer is down deez stairs mind your eads, dis tunnel wah made by shortah people dan us.”
As the guard turned Arthur let out the breath he was holding.
Gly’nrie and Imizael cast him an odd look.
“It’s okay I was just worried that he might turn us away is all, they are very particular about who they allow in past the doors.” Said Arthur as he followed the giant guard down the well-lit old stone stairs.
As they reached the bottom, they entered a room with much taller ceilings panelled with wood but also lined with hooks to take the coats of guests, the guard went back upstairs and could be heard locking the door behind them.
Coming back down he bowed slightly saying.
“You be da first sheel-vahti’s ever to be in-vye-ted to this place lay-deez we strictly insist that only trusted wehl known customah’s can introduce uthars to dis place, Arthur noh dah mahsters wohk very well, he wearin one of our suits right now he is.”
Another door opened and out came a well-dressed thinly built gentleman who looked almost totally albino, paper white skin and hair on a balding head, his eyes were only the faintest grey as only his glasses sharp red metallic frames applied any colour to his strictly monotone black and white attire.
“Master Gwydion, I trust that these people are both the ones you contacted me about and that they are well within the rules I insist upon?” asked the well-dressed man as he narrowed his gaze at Arthur.
“Master Ancetto, these are my wives!” said Arthur with a hint of sharpness in his voice but he held out a hand gesturing to each in turn.
“From left to right Viscountess Shal’endra Isilynor, Baroness Gly’nrie Xyrcaryn, Duchess Imizael Balcyne, and Marquess Miralana Umegwyn … we are expected to perform a diplomatic duty somewhere very, very dangerous and were told that it would be considered unseemly to arrive at said event in anything less than full battle armour.” Said Arthur politely.
The last time he had been here was being fitted for several suit’s both business and otherwise with armoured enhancement by Sir Philip and even then, it had been made plain that this was not a bureau establishment and that it served the needs of very special elite clientele of all types and strived for absolute neutrality.
“Battle armour for a diplomatic duty?” said Master Ancetto with a hint of a smile.
Arthur sighed, rubbing his brow.
“We have been invited to the investiture of a kind of lord before a council of similar lords in a very strange place I only recently learned existed, the lord in question is a former bureau agent called Sanguine.” said a blushing Arthur.
Master Ancetto smiled for the first time in front of Arthur, the corners of his mouth drew back very wide exposing fangs, his eyes, once milky grey, turned a startling sky blue as he rose a foot from the ground floating mid-air.
“You are attending the investiture of a lord of the depths?” said the now floating master Ancetto before a shocked Arthur.
“Yes.” Arthur replied nervously realising very quickly the signs of a grey stood before him.
“Then it is good that YOU came here to me, I was born of the depths and until recently I was exiled… recent changes have altered this… I have to say you are going to see wonders I long to see again, I am jealous but my duties tie me to this place a while longer.” Said the grinning telepathic vampire in front of them.
Leading them through another door they found themselves in an armourer’s workshop equal to any in imperial space they had seen with both power armour and lighter armoured garments being worked upon by a plethora of people both grey and rather obviously cyborgs.
The man performing servo maintenance on the power armour had multiple mechanical limbs extending spider-like from his back and even a multi-lensed prosthetic eye on his right-side which swivelled all three mechanical eyes to look at these new arrivals.
“As you can see, we create all manner of attire from heavy powered armour,” remarked master Ancetto as he gestured to the spider mechanic as he resumed his work, “to the finer and more flexible protection.” He said gesturing to a suit not unlike Arthurs which was having flexible polymer armour inserts applied.
“But this is all what one would consider as commonplace for the surface world.” He said as a black cube floated up beside him then, morphed into a suit of insectile armour around the body of master Ancetto… “You will be needing finer attire in the depths.”
IIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ixion OST, Across the void
Bellaluna watched as one of the Sanguine’s sparred with Zilyana.
One of the older one’s was sat beside her at her table sipping tea as they perused the options available from master Ancetto’s armourer’s.
They were sat within a glass roofed garden, the environment inside was absolutely not one you would ever see on the surface of earth, the dark red barked trees throbbed with bioluminescence between their scaled bark as their shimmering jewel like obsidian crystal leaves tingled and rang like crystal glass windchimes as they swayed in the breeze created by the room’s climate controls.
This was what the Ancetto clan called their hidden jewel, a garden made of depth’s native plants and a few insects in its center was a sparring ground for customers to acquaint themselves with their armour’s properties.
Bellaluna examined the possibilities available and found that many options were familiar to her thanks to the prevalence for noble families to outfit their daughters with Exo armour.
Only these suits were not the nine to ten feet tall armoured behemoth suits she knew, these were skin tight suits of biopolymer synthetic muscle synchronized directly to the user’s nervous systems through either telepathic or cybernetic means.
They self-repaired and maintained themselves and acted as a combination of life support system and power armoured combat body glove amplifying the wearers speed endurance and reaction times by a factor of two while allowing Exo levels of raw strength and physical power.
All while incorporating multiple strange biological systems requiring specialised “bio-ports” to be installed to allow the suit to interact symbiotically with its wearer's anatomy allowing it to sustain the host without water or food in the depths for months by recycling their sweat and waste.
Setting everything to its most basic Bellaluna took stock of what she could estimate to be the bare bones of a basic depths soldier.
It was an army of five-to-six-foot bio-armoured soldiers able to live for months without food water or resupply all while being able to jog at speeds near to that of Terran cheetahs, go toe to toe against Exo’s in hand to hand while being faster and smaller, and be able to self-triage when wounded, as the suit was designed if a limb was severed to seal the wound and assist its host in growing a new limb?
And that was the basic model.
“Sanguine?” she asked getting the attention of both the fully grown man beside her and the boy sparring with Zilyana.
“Got you!” exclaimed Zilyana proudly as she held the blade near Sanguine 1898’s neck.
Chink ! ….. That sound made Zilyana’s eyes drop to find a blade poised to do something drastic to her crotch.
“Shit.” Was all she could say to that.
Then the boy did something that made her freeze in shock, he leaned his cheek against her blade and without a single sign of pain opened an inch deep gash up on his cheek.
Then moving away from the blade, he pressed his fingers to the side of the wound pulling it open so she could see into it as with a mental effort he made the flesh seal and mend, the sight making her shudder in revulsion.
1898 nodded, sighing before he said.
“Flesh sculptors and their ilk are infamously capable of surviving decapitation, for next time if you are poised to cleave one open young Zilyana, have something like an incendiary grenade ready to shove deep inside the wound when you do as in their haste to heal, they will seal the flesh around it creating a much worse wound when the grenade detonates.” Said the boy clone in an aloof tone.
Zilyana snarled in offense but a faint growl from the older Sanguine beside Bellaluna caught her attention, and reminded her that yes this was but a boy in front of her, but it was also the weakest part of Sanguine and as such the least challenging one for Zilyana to fight.
“What did you want Bellaluna?” asked the older clone 818 beside her returning his focus to the interior mistress as the two in the ring resumed their practice.
Handing him her omni-slate she asked.
“Is this a good approximation of the basic depths soldier?”
Sanguine perused the screen with his eyes, the faint smirk on his face and the raising of an eyebrow told her that he had found her assumption amusing.
“For scav teams and tunnel runners yeah, proper city patrol wear,” he tapped several options then showed her the screen again, “this.” He said, showing a much heavier suit.
Bellaluna took back her slate and looked over the selections that Sanguine had put in, several options were highlighted as needing special licenses to acquire but the resulting armour was closer to power armour to her eyes with heavy plate armour requiring extensive mechanical articulation and amplified muscular systems bringing it closer to being something between an Exo and the baseline bio armour she had chosen.
“This is for the police?” she said with some incredulity.
“That bio-suit you showed me in terms of ease of acquisition akin to a basic Kevlar vest,” he said then handed her his slate, “For proper military assaults you would want the depths call a nomad suit which is what’s on that slate.”
Looking down at what was on her slate the resulting suit was much sleeker than the heavily plated police suit but the price was close to ten times more and resulted in a matte black suit heavier than the basic bio-suit but the list of extras said a lot.
Full NBC countermeasures rated for minimum two years survival time in contaminated environments under a mixture of biological toxic and radiological hazards.
In-built bio-support allows the suit to digest inedible substances to sustain its host, including the extraction of oxygen from ingested materials and water to allow the host to survive in environments with minimal to no atmosphere for extended periods.
In-built suit support mind and thus also its own barriers to allow it to shield itself, which required either the host be psychic or the installation of a neural symbiote on the hosts spine to ensure the suit can always remain in contact with the host.
Integrated pig plasma pulse guns in the bracers, retractable monofilament blades and claws and reinforced synth muscle and armour allowing for nearly four times the power of a police suit.
Bellaluna could feel her eyebrows going higher and higher, you could almost say she suspected them of trying to emigrate over her scalp to flee down her neck.
“How fucking dangerous is it down there?” said Bellaluna with a noticeable squeak in her voice at the shocking details of this virtual Exo that the depths considered a standard line solider.
Sanguine again smiled but it quickly faded away as he said.
“You sent salvage expeditions to Mars, full marine detachments, all manner of advanced digging equipment even tried to use some orbital fire to blast your way down below the surface.” He stated staring at her intently, this was not a question, this was a statement.
“Tiamat’s children are nothing if not tireless, so I will only say on that matter that they are not cruel, any trespasser would have died quickly, cruelty is a trait only found in the more human breeds of tyrant bio-forms.” He remarked with a melancholy smirk.
“Most if not all of them are a misguided bureau attempt to domesticate and weaponize things commonly found in the various bio-domes residing below, there are all manner of different environments across the universe preserved down there.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a packet of settock nuts judging by the picture on the packet, which were something native to the shil’vati home-world, only these were in a packet daubed in a language she did not recognise.
“You call them settock nuts, I grew up calling them Kalzee and eating them as part a traditional meal in the depths called Ahrical,” the look of confusion on Bellaluna’s face spurred him into expanding his description, “The basic sauce is kind of a sweet red gravy like what you would expect of the human sweet and sour chicken, like a lot of grey cooking it has finely ground up iron rust powder mixed in the sauce but you can get it without.” Bellaluna’s face became more confused.
“The meat and nuts are simmered in this sauce on a low heat over several hours till cooked, then the sauce left to cool overnight, the next day sliced fresh fruit and vegetables are added and mixed with the cold sauce, its eaten with Sahsan a kind of salty cone shaped biscuit bread about cob or bun size that I would describe as halfway between naan bread and a tortilla with a soft inner side and a crispy outside that’s like a tortilla,” he remarked.
“You use the bread like a spoon to scoop up the Ahrical eating both as you go, it’s only the non-psychics down there that use cutlery.” He said smiling as he pointed to one of the Ancetto armourers sat eating his evening meal in the garden, a chunky reddish soup using small cones telekinetically to scoop up the bowls contents.
“Ahrical?” she asked Sanguine.
“No, that's something more common up here, beef bolognaise with pasta shells, but the bread is Sahsan.” He replied.
It was at this point that the small packet of settock nuts leapt off the table and an old man in a finely crafted suit of chitinous armour snaffled half the bag greedily.
“Kalzee,” he said with a blissful voice through a half full mouth as he savoured the nuts, “Can we have more of these brought up with the armour material shipments, I would pay their weight in gold for more of these.” Said an uncharacteristically uncouth Master Ancetto as his escorting cadre of four shil’vati and a single male human customer looked at him oddly.
Sanguine laughed before pointing to Bellaluna and saying.
“Sahngah those nuts grow on the shil homeworld,” he said to the old grey armourer, “they’re a common snack food, they sell in the vending machines on their bases.” He said with a toothy grin.
Master ‘Sahngah’ Ancetto looked to Bellaluna expectantly saying.
“You have Kalzee on your world?” he said with an odd intensity.
“Settock nuts,” said a bemused Bellaluna, “commonly roasted and put in bags with salt and spices.” She said seeing the old man’s eyes light up during her explanation.
Then the master looked at Sanguine and said rather excitedly.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine, do you know of any other foods they have that I might recognise?” he asked the seated clone 818.
“Mahak-sa?” said the lone confused human that had been accompanying the old master armourer.
Sanguine rose from his seat and approached the human smiling, he was well aware of this human, and what he really was under his genteel appearance.
“You must be Arthur Gwydion,” he stated crossing his arms and staring oddly intensely into the human’s eyes, “Mahak-sa is an honorific, a title it means that I am in essence I am a king, khan or emperor of one of the cities or domains of the depths, at least I will be officially soon.”
Arthur to his credit caught on quickly.
“So, you’re that Sanguine, the one who we are to escort down there as part of the delegation.” He said, taking a slight step back with what looked to be a nervous smile.
Sanguine 818 all six foot eight of him stared down at Arthur, his red on blue eyes glinting from his ashen white face, his grin framed by his white beard.
The dragon’s boon had brought more of the wolf out in him resulting in him being taller and more muscular with snow white hair on cream white skin… that this also caused slight grey speckling on the roots of his changed black horns was a little odd.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine Nah’gratha Mourdin, Grandson of the Ancient of Ahrama’geidahn Aihbael Nah’gratha Mourdin who is brother to the Gorr Mah’kjan,” he said seeing the evident confusion.
“Gorr Mah’kjan means the god king of the depths Kain Reish Mouridin, the one who swept the dead sea crater clean with a wave of reanimated dead.” Said Sanguine with a little hint of a smirk.
The way all five of them froze in apparent fright like a deer in headlights at that detail summoned a chuckle out of Sanguine.
Still for all his amusement his mind’s full attention was elsewhere, dealing with more important matters than this.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Darktide OST, Main theme
Tanis was a male Exo pilot in the shil’vati military which was a rarity but also, he was a single male pilot without a wife bound to him which was even rarer and his team were part of the support Exo’s of the local insurgent suppression unit tasked with keeping Massachusetts relatively calm and maintain it as a yellow zone.
It had begun as a raid of a suspected insurgent base at a mansion in a small town called Innsmouth, the brief had mentioned something about a cult, add in the area according to the marines muttered rumors being oddly infamous for lots of sightings of strange mutant fish monsters apparently, sightings which the incumbent regional government apparently had suppressed prior to the empire’s arrival for reasons unknown.
As they struck the marines storming in it quickly became apparent to her that more was going on, her unit commander Searsa kept switching comms channels, obviously their noble captain had been keeping details from them as shortly after the marines stormed in the shrill screams and shouts of ghastly horror filled the open coms as echoing the las-fire took up a cadence only heard during moments of sheer extremes, frantic fully automatic the fall back of the desperate and terrified.
The sounds of Las-Fire rattled out from inside the mansion punctuated by screams and strange gurgling roars as the unit commander started shouting into her coms, the words muffled and unintelligible under her Exo Armour's closed visor.
“What the fuck is making that noise?” Tanis asked and the commander whirled on him, a rebuke plainly mere moments from utterance.
Only for the screams and las-fire to stop, this shifted everyone's attention to the mansion’s doors.
Whispered chants oozed out of the air hissing and uttered in barely pronounceable mantras, the very shadows around them seemed to move with odd sinister momentum.
Then the mansion's doors slid open and a sea of darkness lay within, Tanis could feel something writhing within that inky depth but his ears alerted him to an odd silence.
Turning he beheld a true nightmare, monstrous things half fish half human assailed the marines in total silence, their screams and las-fire completely silent all sound lacking as marines were eviscerated and monsters devoured them alive.
Turning Tanis opened fire and in an instant all the riotous noise of the world came back.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” bellowed his commander in shock as the sudden return of sound snapped her out of whatever fugue had gripped her.
The rest of the unit took moments longer to regain their senses, moments enough for one of the monsters to grab a hold of a team mate called Kaunt, the monsters skin rippled under shredding las repeater fire but still it heaved and tore open her armour to thrust its maw inside to get at the pilot.
Tanis acted stepping forth he drove his armour’s fist flat like a blade into its ribs and with a sucking squelch tore out its insides before pushing it off Kaunt, but she was already dead.
Turning he hosed down a mass of swirling something that moved out of the corner of his eye and bellowed to his commander.
“We need to move!” but she stood visor open staring at him like she was drunk as a swirling tendril of shadows curled round her and touched her face, Searsa a woman barely a year older than himself let out a strangled groan as before Tanis’s horrified eyes the years passed in seconds and she withered away inside her armour.
The other women were similarly dumbstruck and barely moving, snaking shadows binding their feet as they stood immobile and insensate.
“DEMON!” roared a man’s voice and a blast of blinding white light rocked the mansion's doorway.
Around them had appeared soldiers clad in silver armour carrying blades that crackled with eldritch energy and guns that spat globs of blinding light that left after images in Tanis’s vision.
Thanks to Tanis’s cursory examination of this world’s history, he recognised something of these warrior’s armour and stylings, these were knights? And if their armour and cruciform symbology was anything to go by these were some forms of paladins.
There in the doorway one of them struggled with a figure that was as much a shadow as it was possibly a human being, snapping lightning exposed their struggles amidst that living darkness inside the house.
Tanis did the only thing that seemed to make sense after all of this he levelled his repeater on that shadow and fired.
Pulsed laser fire was swallowed by the darkness but a hissing roar of anger emerged, its attention shifted to Tanis and he felt something horrifying reaching for him but the paladin was on it fast cleaving down through its skull with one blade while another was driven into its chest.
In one lurching moment the shadows dispersed leaving the paladin stood blades pinning a withered old corpse.
Across the battlefield that had been the mansion's lawn the monsters broke and fled running back towards the mansion as the marines and what little of the Exo’s snapped from their fugue and opened fire on their fleeing assailants.
But then the ground heaved and rumbled, the paladins leapt back as the mansion collapsed into a chasm that had apparently been below it?
A shuddering growl rumbled in the air and ripples of that same unnatural darkness oozed out from the pit now exposed as up from it rose what to Tanis’s shocked eyes was a miniature black hole.
An orb of utter darkness as a big as a small ship tore free of the ground swirling mist like shadows cloaked it as the monsters hurled themselves towards its surface their flesh as they got close liquifying and becoming an orbiting ring of wailing meat around the orb which spat jets of steaming ichor out towards them.
One jet swallowed up a group of marines near Tanis and in moments their armour and flesh just dissolved leaving behind steaming bones.
“EVADE! … PULL BACK … EVADE!” roared Tanis and what little of his fellows not still gripped in fugue obeyed and fled, but the paladins stood their ground.
He saw some carrying large egg-shaped things tangled in roots towards the orb, his ponderings answered as he saw one hurled at the ominous thing, it crackled with energy as it drew close sticking to its surface there was a howling shriek as more were hurled onto its surface.
Finally, as it orbited with dozens of these things stuck to its surface the blasted orb just dropped back into its hole whatever dark power once animating it spent.
Still the paladins did not rest, more of those egg-like things were brought forth as well as lengths of massive chains as big as those you would anchor a ship with their surfaces etched with symbols that seemed to make Tanis’s eyes itch as he looked at them.
As they swarmed into the chasm Tanis could hear shrieking wails and screams that shook him to his core, moving to the chasms edge he stared down to see that they were chaining up and binding this thing lashing it to a frame they were building around it with the kind of haste one expects only with plentiful practice.
“All units form up and arrest those men!” bellowed the voice of their noble captain across the comms, turning Tanis surveyed the remnants of their force, barely a handful remained, many were horribly mauled by either the monsters or being caught by the acidic sprays, many more were simply catatonic in shock and were either stood or sat staring into empty space as if still entranced by the dispersing fugue.
The rest were rushing about trying to tend to the wounded or take stock of what the hell had just happened, even the Exo’s pride of the shil’vati military were stumbling broken and still in shock.
“I said Arrest those men!” bellowed the captain now outside of her mobile command unit pointing to the nearest paladin.
Tanis coughed as he stifled a laugh at the looks of incredulity passing across the marines, they knew that they had just been saved by these knights and the look of hesitation was evident everywhere Tanis looked.
“I SAID!” she roared, only for a bolt of lightning to snap out and reduce her in an instant to just a greasy smear of cooked meat and tattered armour.
One of the paladins was floating towards the MCU, his armour crackling with electricity as his eyes glowed like small suns through the slits of his visor.
The armoured vehicle peeled open under invisible forces and her command staff were plucked out and thrown to the ground beside the still steaming remains of the captain.
“Your captain was commanded by her own betters to stand aside and leave this matter to us, and she ignored this, her officers knew what they were facing and thought themselves prepared.”
As one of the captain’s lieutenants snapped off several bolts of las-fire at the floating paladin from her side arm they impacted a bubble of energy around him, the shots fizzling to nothing.
In a flash he hurled towards them the first he touched his fingers to her brow and she just evaporated in a spray of blue, ducking and twirling out of the way of the seconds wild firing she erupted into flames with a gesture.
The third tried to shoot herself, the pistol aimed up at her own skull swatted out of her hand in the last moment telekinetically the paladin clapped his hands together and the woman officer simply imploded.
Number four the one who had shot at him when he had been floating dropped her pistol.
“You were her sister trusted by the generals and admirals to keep your hot-headed sister in line.” Snarled the paladin as he produced an omni-slate from his armour.
“This is a warrant of execution for this woman, signed by six of this world’s ruling nobles… In ancient times when warriors failed so severely on this world they were made into a severe example, some were even given the honour to hurl themselves on their own swords to answer for their shame.” Said the paladin.
He removed his helm revealing a snow-white face with luminous blue eyes and black curved horns on his brow, as a long mane of startling white hair whipped about in an eldritch breeze.
“I am not as merciful to those who defy me!” he hissed as his mouth opened far too wide for a human revealing a set of very sharp canine teeth more akin to the mouth of a dog or very large cat.
He shot forward driving his fist into her guts folding the officer in half as she shot off her feet showing the force of the blow.
She begged, she pleaded but no one tried to help her as this supernaturally empowered man beat her savagely finally ending her by driving his thumbs into her eye sockets.
Tanis had been inching closer by the minute as he and everyone else watched this sentence be passed, the warrant and its signatures visible on their head up displays for every marine around them.
Finally, as Tanis drew close enough, he popped open his visor and simply asked.
“Who the fuck are you, and what in the deep minders barnacle ridden salty clam hole is going on?”
The paladin turned to him revealing a youthful if angularly gaunt face which smiled.
“I am Sanguine 984 hunter of demons and monsters,” he said with obvious mirth, “to you this will be one of the most confounding and horrible days of your life…… to me it’s just another FUCKING Tuesday doing my job.” He said as the other paladins pulled that dark orb out of the chasm by the chains, that faint agonised whine now a faint whisper, the very sight of that thing made Tanis’s eyes twitch.
“HEY!” barked the one calling himself Sanguine, to focus their attention on him, “not a good idea to stare at it like that, just try and ignore it until the transport arrives, staring at it will fry your brain cells and make you a mindless shell.” He said gesturing to one of the catatonic marines.
With that the paladin took a rag from his pocket and started to wipe the blood and viscera from his gauntlets saying.
“Stare too long causes brain burn, hollows you out, nothing left of your memories or mind, just a still breathing corpse with enough brain not turned to mush to keep the organs ticking but little else.”
Tanis looked to the many catatonic marines staring blankly into space, a cold horrified dread welling up inside at the sight of the living dead around them.
Next

First Previous
Wiki RoyalRoad
Cover Art & Travis Portrait by Pedro Puglisi
Journal Entry #8
I left the village today. It will never be my home again.
I managed to muster enough dignity to at least walk out with the hunters and witch. I've seen plenty of sad sacks that needed to be hog-tied and thrown onto a wagon before, so I knew there was no escaping my fate.
We walked and walked and walked, until my exhausted body fell to the ground when we camped that night. The sky was clear, and the largest moon Porta shone brightly.
I wonder... Do the gods even care that my life as I know it is over?
Travis
Mattius and I escaped the rapidly filling cafeteria with our precious cargo of sandwiches, then stood at one of the outdoor tables between the main walkway and green space, hoping to catch Drozuk or someone else before our mission briefing.
Well, Arc was looking, I was busy trying to console Mattius while he routinely kept rechecking the squad assignments between bites of sandwich, the dread on his face growing more and more pronounced as it refused to change who he was going to be in a squad with. From what I've been able to gather, Mattius took the advice I relayed from Arc to heart and hasn't done anything stupid. However, he hasn't done anything bold either. The only communication between each other so far have been short conversations during specialized weapons training a couple of times per week, meaning that they've barely gotten past basic introductions at this point.
"Isn't this your chance to get to know her better?" I cautiously asked, "You'll be in the same squad, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to talk."
Mattius didn't bother to finish his last bite of sandwich, opting instead to mope about, "Please, like she'll give me the time of day when there's a pair of twins to flirt with."
I sighed in response to my friend's pessimism, and to Arc hinting with his snickering that he knew more than he was willing to divulge. I didn't even know how to empathize with Mattius' situation. Here he was with a golden opportunity, but all he could do was sulk. Exchanging letters with Caldia has been nice, but it couldn't hold a candle to how wonderful it was to spend the day with her.
Well... it was, until our... sort-of-date got hijacked.
"Hey! Professor Quinsandoral is approaching with an elven Ice Mage. How much do you want to bet that's his son?"
Welcoming the interruption, I perked my head up in time to see my Wind Spells professor walking along the main path with a young elf who, despite some obvious attempts to look different, was clearly his son. Unlike his dad who normally wore traditional high elf robes of varying colors and only carried a wand for spellcasting assistance, he was wearing the same uniform I was. Albeit his arming jacket was blue instead of forest-green, and had an additional leather bandolier across his chest filled with throwing knives that must have also acted as a mount for the oddly shaped shield on his back.
The faces were what truly confirmed they were father and son, not just because they had nearly identical sharp and angular faces topped with platinum blonde hair, but because they both had matching looks of irritation furrowing their brows. The younger also had a dozen silver piercings to differentiate him, the most notable ones being a spike in each eyebrow, a pair of studs in his nose, and two more in his pointed ears. Something I haven't once seen in any of the other elven students, although I'll be the first to admit I've barely interacted with the non-humans on campus.
Raising my hand in greeting, I shouted out to Professor Quinsandoral, who to my delight, smiled upon seeing Mattius and I by the outdoor bar table. His son, however, visibly sighed and dragged his feet as they moved towards us.
"Young Master Mattius, Travis," Quinsandoral greeted us with a gleeful tone, "I was hoping to meet you before my son's mission briefing." He gestured to his scowling child, "This is Vesril, future Lord of Vörðuhálsmýrdalsjökull, or as you may know it by it's poorly translated name, Glacier-cut Edge."
Raucous laughter violently erupted from Arc in my ears so loud that I instinctively brought both hands up to my ears and winced in pain. My obnoxious sword at least had the decency to quiet down, but a hand on my pauldron and worried look from Mattius made it obvious that I needed to think of an excuse fast.
"You okay?"
"Yeah..." I massaged the sides of my head and back of neck to stall, "just... uh, tweaked my neck is all..." I made a show of relaxing my shoulders to help sell the lie, then secretly vowed to test Arc's heat resistance at the spell range later tonight.
Vesril watched our interaction with his violet-colored eyes, completely cold and expressionless throughout, then in a sudden shift, looked over my shoulder and smirked, "That's a gnarly looking axe."
Professor Quinsandoral tensed up, then spoke through clenched teeth, "Yes, Travis does have an eccentric choice of weaponry..."
Vesril huffed, "Figures, it's perfectly fine for your pet human to wield a unique weapon, but if I want to---"
"Travis isn't an elf!" Quinsandoral barked. "And he doesn't have the legacy of his forebears to uphold."
Vesril rolled his eyes, "Monsters haven't attacked the mountain pass in over six eras, that's hardly a legacy. Why do I need to use the same weapon my great-great-something wielded while cowering behind a wall and never using the thing?"
My professor grabbed his son by the shoulder in a tight grip and cut into him with his glare, "You are on the narrowest of branches boy. Your mother still sees you as a child, and your uncle may only be indifferent as of now, but I have final say on whether you can attend this academy. And let me tell you boy, self-expression isn't looked upon kindly at Krisneirous University. They'll rip out those piercings, burn away your tattoos, and snap that ridiculous thing you call a weapon in half before you take a second step on school grounds."
The tension in the air was near to boiling as the two stared each other down in defiance. Mattius looked just as scared as I was to say anything, knowing that this kettle was only a single bump away from exploding.
Ironically, it was a student bumping into Professor Quinsandoral that broke the tension as they rushed by in a hurry, barely able to spurt out an apology. The father and son broke off their staring contest, and in unison with matching faces, cringed upon realizing they just had a very public argument.
Mattius, showing way more initiative than me, pulled out his pocket watch to check the time, "We should probably get to our meeting." He forced a smile towards Vesril, "Want to join us?"
Vesril shrugged his shoulders while rolling back his eyes, "Sure, I'm heading there anyways."
Arc
As the Ethics & Law building came into range, I decided to scout ahead with my focus and see if I could eavesdrop on anyone coming to the mission briefing or at least figure out where Drozuk was. I found him already in the room, seated with his arms crossed, and looking especially grumpy.
Hmm... I'm guessing he's not too thrilled about getting teamed up with Travis, a princess, and an edge lord.
I watched for a few seconds, but after determining that no one in the room was saying anything of substance, I flung my focus over Travis as he entered the building and back outside to watch Princess Seleyna approaching with Sir Asher and another unknown knight. To my surprise, she looked just as grouchy, completely ignoring the unknown knight behind her as they quietly whispered to Asher.
"So, what's got her kindling snapping in the hearth?"
Asher let out a tired sigh, "She's convinced that I'm the one who put her on a team with Travis and Reidar, and flat out refuses to believe I didn't submit anything."
The unknown knight raised her eyebrow, "You didn't? I'm surprised, even I requested a roster change."
Asher chuckled as they approached the building, "Didn't have to, someone already did." He then spoke louder to ensure Princess Seleyna could hear as well, "Honestly, she's being a bit of a hypocrite, given that she submitted a request of her own."
Seleyna ignored the gossip as she stormed in and made her way to the meeting room. By this time, Travis had already sat down in the front row between Vesril and Drozuk, and Mattius took a seat in the second row next to the Creeksmith twins Thaddeus and Zaccheus, so when Seleyna saw Travis' smiling face and friendly wave at her upon entry, she noticeably relaxed and put on a royal smile of her own.
Vesril nodded to the princess as she took the seat next to him, "Princess Seleyna."
"Young Lord Vesril, it's been a while... last year's Spring Gala?"
"Sounds about right." He gestured to Travis, "Your parents pay off the general to put you on the same team with him too?"
Seleyna stifled a laugh, "Not sure, no one's admitted to it yet, but it's safe to assume. That shadow show about us does need a sequel after all." She leaned forward to get a better look at the surly orc, "Drozuk, it was quite the surprise to see that your father was elected Jarl of Coldwater Spring Fortress. Has he been able to settle into his new role?"
"Don't know," Drozuk growled, "he hasn't told me a thing..."
Jarl? Huh... I'm surprised Drozuk never spoke about that, unless... ah, I'm guessing Travis isn't the only one with a dad keeping secrets from them.
The door opened to permit a dozen people in Logistic Corps uniforms, Mattius' crush Treblana, and a tall burly half-orc wearing half-plate. He stepped up to the unknown knight who walked in with Seleyna and reached to shake her hand.
"Captain Adaline, pleasure to finally meet you."
The Royal Knight took the offered hand, "Same as well, Captain Aguk, it's nice to have a face and voice to put to your correspondences."
My focus drifted back towards Mattius, who looked just as nervous as ever whenever he tried talking to Treblana, but at least managed to hide it well and produce a semi-stoic nod of acknowledgement when she took the seat next to him.
"Looks like I'll get to see you fight up close now." Treblana spoke cautiously.
Mattius smiled, "Same here, umm... I'll be counting on you to help overwhelm the opponent, since... you're much more talented at Earth Magic than me. I don't even have the needed mana to mimic the [Earth Wall Slide] you used a couple of weeks ago to shove that muledeer into the arena wall."
"Really? I think you're the talented one. Even from the stands I can tell every repeated structure you build is identical in dimensions and spaced out the same distance."
As usual, their conversation was cut short, right as they were about to build momentum, when Brigadier General Jonas called the meeting to order.
"This looks to be everyone, so let's begin." The general reached to pick up a box in front of him, "Your mission will be twofold; monster eradication in the Coldwater Spring Fortress' territory, and diplomatic relations with the fortresses you'll be harboring at during your journey." He opened the box to pull out a very familiar looking baseball sized sphere infused heavily with Order Mana and a Wind Mana gem embedded in its core. "This is a Master Message Stone. Unlike the private ones some of you carry or the inscriptions in your helmets, this does not vibrate or create sound. Its construction does have a unique advantage though..."
General Jonas grinned madly as he let the orb roll off his hand and crash onto the stone floor with a loud bang, causing all the students to flinch. He softly chuckled as he reached to pick the extremely valuable artifice back up, "It can maintain its paired frequency for a minimum of twelve years, despite how roughly its treated. Princess Seleyna will be presenting one of these to each fortress you visit, partially to build positive public relations with the populace outside of the capital, but also as part of a test run for the Queen's proposed long-range communication improvements."
Twelve years! Holy gods and God, I know the gift Travis received from the queen was expensive but... wow! The inscriptions in Travis' helmet require daily resynchronizations for the private and squad channels to ensure they don't randomly cut out, the battalion channel needs a weekly reset (assuming normal amount of chatter), and the emergency channel can maybe last two months if he doesn't take a blow to the head to rattle the inscription.
Travis must have had the same thought since I caught him stiffening up and gently placing his hand over the valuables pouch on his belt.
The general continued with the mission brief, starting with introductions to the battalion's leadership, "Captain of Squad 1, Royal Knight Adaline will have general command of the battalion's diplomatic and over all mission, Spartan Captain Aguk of Squad 2 will be acting lead for combat operations, and Raven Four will provide scouting and logistics security with their squad." He paused to gesture to the back row of people wearing the double-breasted jackets of the Logistics Corps, "Staff Sergeant Julien and his team, along with six horses, will manage supplies, field maintenance, and the camp. Keep in mind that they will be outnumbered three to one, so you will be expected to assist when needed."
I continued to listen in on the dry presentation, taking notes so Travis could consult me if needed, but I did take time to enjoy watching the corpsmen and mages struggle to stay awake as the general droned on and on. Honestly, two hours to basically state that everyone will take a gun boat down and up the rivers, stopping occasionally to overnight at some of the more prominent riverside fortresses on the way, then coordinating with the Jarl of Coldwater Spring Fortress to kill as many monsters as possible after arrival seemed like overkill, but maybe that's just because all Travis really needs to do is whatever his squad captains tell him to do.
Eventually, the torture session... err, I mean meeting... ended, and Travis was preparing to leave with his friends for a late lunch when one of the logistics corpsmen called out to him.
"Sir Travis, can you spare a moment of your time."
Travis whirled around to face the approaching man and nervous teenager accompanying him, "Uh... sure, what do you need sergeant?"
He saluted Travis, then reached into his satchel, "This morning, during our preparations, we discovered to our dismay that one of the horses assigned to our mission will not be fully recovered in time from an injury to be cleared for deployment. As a result, we need a last-minute replacement, and Private Tomas has kindly informed me that your horse, 5751054, enlisted last night."
Heh, he almost makes it sound like Travis' nameless horse enlisted on his own.
Travis pondered the request, "Doesn't he need training?"
The Staff Sergeant glanced towards the private, until the social pressure forced Tomas to speak, "Sir! 5751054 is already trained to ride, haul, and self-navigate. He will not be required to know more for this mission given the limited need for equine support."
Travis shrugged, "Well, if he's willing... then I guess I am too."
Sergeant Julien smiled, then handed Travis a document, "Just need your final approval."
Travis signed the sheet, handed it back, then addressed the private, "Will you be in charge of the horses?"
The corpsman saluted, "Yes sir, I'm Private Tomas, my main duty will be to act as stablemaster and coachman."
Travis nodded, then spoke in a stern voice, "5751054 is precious to me. My parents saved up for two years to purchase him for my eighteenth birthday, and still had to do so on credit from my village's horse breeder. If something were to happen to him..."
Tomas gulped, "Understood sir, I will ensure he's properly cared for."
Super serious Travis gave another nod, but broke character instantly after taking two steps away, "Oh, wait! When does he need to report in? I was going to take him to run a few errands this afternoon and might need to make a run to get some last-minute supplies tomorrow."
Staff Sergeant Julien smirked, "As long as he's in his stable when you drop off your personal supply crate tomorrow night, you should be fine."
Travis exhaled a sigh of relief, noticed that his friends had already left for lunch proper, then rushed out the door to go catch up.
Julien gave Tomas a firm slap on the back, "See, I told you he'd be amenable. Most mages are too preoccupied to fuss over small details, so the trick is to make it seem like you're doing them a favor, instead of trying to save your own ass."
Tomas grumbled, "I still can't believe 5640161 did something so stupid."
"Meh, it's probably for the best. You know how primes can be when told to pull carts in a team."
"I know, but still... prancing backwards down the exit ramp?"
The Staff Sergeant could only shrug their shoulders in reply.
Travis
"Your left one's drifting again."
I paused the warmup routine Reidar taught me to check over my [Water Bracer] enchantment and scowled. This spell was proving much more difficult to maintain than [Earth Cleat] or the [Message] enchantment I created on my helmet's dust filter.
It seemed so simple when I got the spell at first too. Basically, just a trio of condensing arrays on the inside of my forearm to collect Water, and six evenly spaced lines at 60-degrees on my outer vambrace to create a thin layer of fast-moving water capable of deflecting small objects down and away from my face. I didn't even stumble much on the diagram's mentioned tricky part of getting the Water to jump over the gaps between my forearm plates, just having difficulty keeping the parallel lines evenly spaced and at the correct angle.
"Hmm... it's a lot harder to keep my formation consistent without a flat surface, and I don't have anything to act as guidelines..." Trying to puzzle out a solution, I thought back to the serving pots Ansel's family used. They were rounded as well but had decorative indentations and ridges to help with spacing and line shape, similar to how I could use my boot treads as a reference for forming [Earth Cleat].
"Ah, I think I understand now why the inscriptions senior students use are so different from the one on Lancel's sword and other knight weapons. When I got a good look at that shield Vesril carries, I noticed it had a lot of directionless Water inscription lines running along it. I'm guessing any enchantment he casts will use the inscription as a skeleton to keep it from falling apart in combat."
I nodded along as I cast a cloud of Fire Mana off my palm and tried to squeeze it into as tiny of a ball as possible, allowing some of my frustration to bleed out, "That makes sense. It'd be like using graph paper to write out a formation. I bet it's a lot easier to invert or neutralize the direction of a line too if the core is made up of mana dust or gems."
"Thramreat mentioned that dwarves used to paint spell formations on their bodies, maybe you can do something similar with your bracers?"
"Good idea." I tossed the ball of Fire Mana above my head, reshaped it into a [Fire Orb], then nodded to Arc sticking out of the ground down range, "Okay, I'm ready."
Light and Shadow Mana pools around Arc as he starts playing music, until a wireframe statue of a bull's head emerges from the ground. Slowly, but surely, the rest of the creature appears, starting with a wattle, pair of giant chicken feet, bull's body and hind legs, and a chicken's tailfeathers.
Bullcock, a single element monster, this stable hybrid of a bull and rooster is well known for their aggressive charges, fast swipes with their spurs, and ability to spit Fire from a distance, but mostly for their excellent tasting meat and valuable leather.
I froze for a moment, eyes locked onto its claws... this is the monster that nearly killed my dad...
Anger floods my body with battle lust, and I nearly forget to dodge when it starts rushing towards me, not even leaving a full foot between us. It digs one of its oversized claws into the ground after it misses me, then swings the rest of its body around in a 180 to quickly about face. I raise my hand to cast [Fire Bolt], but a horn screeches loudly in my ear, disrupting my concentration.
"You want friendly fire? Because that's how you get friendly fire."
I swear as the bullcock makes another charge. Idiot! You can only launch spells downrange! I'll get my boat axed if I damage the building or accidentally lob a spell into another person's private spell range.
The bullcock angles his charge, so I can't safely launch a spell after dodging again, but that doesn't stop it from doing so. The wattle underneath its chin swells up, and a trio of [Light Bolts] fly towards me after the bullcock opens its mouth. I bring up my forearms to block, and manage to deflect the first projectile, but the second and third harmlessly splash against my chest, prompting Arc to start taunting me.
"Oh, c'mon! I've seen children with better reflexes than that."
Clenching my teeth, I try to block out all outside distractions, and focus solely on the task at hand. Using [Earth Cleat] to give my side-steps an extra burst of speed on top of my mana reinforced strides, [Water Bracer] to allow me to forgo a shield and deflect the spit attacks, and at every opportunity, I launch as many Bolt spells as I can downrange.
Like usual, Arc keeps increasing the difficulty, first by making the bullcock move slightly faster, then having it extend a claw to try and swipe at me during its charge, and finally varying the number of Bolts he spits back at me. We keep fighting, long past the point where the monster or I would have died, only allowing short pauses for me to fix my bracer enchantments, but without any warning or fanfare, Arc abruptly stopped the music and dispersed his controlled mana.
Confused as to what happened, I darted my head around, until I spotted Hector entering through the door.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you again."
I released the breath I was holding in, then reached up to take off my helmet and shake away the sweat from my face, "It's alright, just... wasn't expecting company is all. You're the first person to come visit me here."
The bearded Packer made a nervous chuckle as he looked back towards the door, "Yeah, I think the only reason the rangemaster let me pass was because I'm your drill instructor."
My eyes perked up after finally noticing what was on his back, "You got your poleaxe made!"
Hector grinned as he handed it to me for inspection, "Yep, did the final assembly with the polearms club this afternoon, and even demonstrated what I've been teaching you."
I groaned with guilt after taking his weapon. I definitely could have made time this afternoon to visit the club, it's not like I didn't know when they were meeting this week. Looking down despondently, I began to inspect Hector's re-creation of my weapon, seeing quite a few differences before even looking with my mana sight.
Overall, the material quality and mana density was much lower, using the same mid-grade dwarven steel my armor was made of and ironwood, but it did have some good quality leather wrapping around the middle of the shaft and part way up the langets.
"What's with the leather?"
"That's what I'm using right now as a workaround to improve my attunement connection to the weapon heads. Tristan and Percy are heading up north for their Fall Expeditions, so they promised to try and win an elmek horn or something similar to replace the shaft with."
I nodded along, checking over the structural build to see if there were any errors, "Speaking of, I'm surprised you're not at the Hopkins' estate. Aren't you on leave until classes start again now?"
Hector scratched the back of his head, "I... uh... didn't have any brothers growing up, so... those three can get a bit too... rowdy for me."
"Ha, I can relate, I'm an only child." I finished my inspection, not finding any obvious flaws in the build, "Alright if I attune to it?"
"Go ahead."
The mana inside the poleaxe ramped up to match mine in only a fraction of the time it took me to sync with mine, and unsurprisingly, I was able to maintain the attunement when I tried using mana reinforcement. It did feel a little strange however, like I was squeezing my body through a narrow gap in the fence each time, so I must have been near my limit for how large and mana dense an object can be for me to attune with.
Hector watched me test out his new toy, but cocked his head when he noticed Arc planted in the dirt near the back wall, "What's your sword doing down there?"
"Oh, umm..." I turned towards my best friend and had a spark of inspiration, "Since it's indestructible, I like to use it for target practice."
Target practice? What do you---
Arc's words cut-off right as I hit his blade with a [Fire Bolt].
"Ouch! That actually hurt a little..."
Hector barked a few laughs as he placed a hand on my pauldron, then suddenly wrapped his fingers around the edges to dig painfully into my deltoid, "Initiate, when in uniform, you are expected to keep your sword sheathed and on your person when not in use. I strongly advise you to do so in the future."
I gulped, "Yes sir."
The pain stopped, replacing it with an affectionate pat as he gave me a sly grin, "Now, when you say indestructible, do you really mean indestructible? Because I've heard the stories and rumors about these blades, but never quite believed them."
Arc began to moan. "Ugh, I knew this was going to happen eventually."
Arc
Snowsday, the 32^{nd^} of Eighthmonth
Travis looked down at his directions, then back up to the intersection in the artificer burrow and sighed.
"It just says left, not left-left or first left?"
My bestest buddy in this whole world shook their head and frowned. We'd come up to another intersection, but instead of the usual four-way cross, the left side hallway entrances were spaced 60-degrees apart.
"Well, logic would assume they mean the first left..."
"Yeah, but that one is newly constructed. There's no scuff marks or scratches on the walls, unlike the second one on the left."
I mentally groaned. That does it, I'm putting a pin in the auto-translator upgrade on my soul's patch and am going to implement a mapmaking feature. Not like Travis really needs the translator anyways, humans all speak the same language, despite originally being four distinct cultures, and common is used as the international trade language between the three kingdoms.
I still don't get how that's possible. I mean, nowadays you have the military shuffling soldiers all over the kingdom and congregating every year for the Spring Flood to help spread and reinforce the language, but according to Travis' history books, humans all spoke the same language before the four tribes united. Maybe the alphabet being phonetic helps prevent regional dialects from forming? These guys don't even have a word for homophone. Although, I don't get how that's possible either... elves are the ones who invented paper, humans had to use good old-fashioned leather scrolls before Oskar made contact.
"Arc?"
"Oh, sorry, got lost in my head. Uh... just pick a direction, if it's not right, I can replay my memory and help you backtrack."
Travis nodded, then took the first left, walking down the tunnel for a full minute before a couple of familiar looking dwarves, plus a human and an elf, came into view.
Thramreat was pacing in full armor with an anime-sized war-pick on their back, glaring occasionally at what I now recognized was the entrance to Durinn's workshop as the elf held her ear up to the tumbler lock. The beardless dwarf kept mumbling, eventually letting their thoughts be heard. "I still don't feel comfortable doing this..."
Orebeck, also decked out in full plate, but with an extra bandolier of glass vials across their chest and a heavily modified crossbow on their back, was looking completely fed up, "Well... I didn't feel comfortable making an aphrodisiac so you could seal the nest with my best friend. So, we're all just going to have to pound sand for a while."
The brawny knight (who might have been a goliath, I couldn't tell for sure), looked down at the two dwarves with a completely baffled expression, then leaned towards the elf to whisper, "Umm... I thought he just mixed up a thing of beard oil?"
The elf stopped her lockpicking attempt to lightly pound her head against the door and sigh, "Yes, they did. But dwarves... work differently when it comes to mating." She snapped her head towards Travis as he approached and hissed at the party, "Quiet! Someone's approaching."
Travis waved to the group, blissfully unaware of who they were at first until Thramreat began to panic.
"Travis! Umm... it's not what it looks like!"
Orebeck and the bow wielding elf both facepalmed, unlike the knight who grinned and waved back, "Hi Travis! Are you coming back to the estate for the training camp?"
"Uh... no, I'm going on a Fall Expedition... Do I know you?" Travis gave the Darius-sized knight a second glance.
The knight padded their chest, "Oh, sorry, don't have my tabard on. Thramreat said it would get dirty." He extended a cheerful hand forward, "I'm Knight Lieutenant Evan Raycraft. You have a really pretty singing voice."
Travis shook the offered hand, "Thank you." He turned to look at Thramreat, but abruptly stopped part way to look at the door, "Oh, this is Durinn's workshop... Wait, why are you guys here?"
Thramreat, still looking as guilty as a rat in a grain bin, quickly spoke first, "Just passing through. That's all."
Orebeck rolled their eyes at the dwarf's pitiful attempt to lie, "We're trying to break-in to Durinn's workshop. I know where they keep their hidden files, so we can use them to help prepare while we ride out to the nesting grounds."
Travis still looked confused, "Umm... why would you need that? Also, why are you all fully decked out and armed to the teeth?"
"Always smart to use protection when approaching a bearded's nest." Thramreat replied, then grumbled, "And as for the former... Durinn is apparently a sinner in the eyes of the bearded."
Orebeck finally lost their temper, and unloaded on the beardless, "Oh, would you quit being such a self-righteous beaver you orthodox piece of slag! Every bearded does it. It's perfectly natural."
"Enough!" The elf shouted, forcing the argument to stop. She glared at each dwarf to ensure their silence, let out a huff of frustration, then smiled at Travis, "Apologies, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Watcher Ariawyn Famaris. Was there a reason you came to visit Durinn's workshop?"
"Oh, umm... actually, I was looking for Thramreat." Travis turned towards the dwarf, "I've been having troubles with a Water enchantment for my bracers and was wondering if dwarves still used monster paste to help assist with their spellcraft."
Orebeck let out a chuckle as they dug through one of their pouches to toss something dense with Water Mana towards Travis, "Here, catch. Monster paste will just wash away after a few minutes. We use mana-infused wax nowadays for Water Enchantments. Just heat it up a bit to apply, but be careful not to let it melt off in combat, oh... and make sure you wipe your armor clean every night. It'll corrode the rust protection if you don't."
"Thanks," Travis gave a nervous wave goodbye, "umm... tell Durinn I said hi."
Travis
A pair of golden eyes stared up at me, catching the sunlight from the patio door in my dorm's living room just right to make them look like they were glowing. I reached forward to tickle the baby's tummy and started grinning like a madman when Boris started to giggle and smile back.
"Ugh, I can feel my soul getting stretchmarks just from looking at the cute little guy."
I leaned back to relax in my chair, enjoying the sight of Gramps completely taking over not just the packing of my crate, but Drozuk's too.
"Waterproof cards, dice set, blank notebooks, charcoal sticks, barbecue sauce, sandals..."
Caldia, to my surprise, came with her dad, but she was busy designing the family crest that Drozuk wanted to submit for reservation before leaving tomorrow and decorating our crates so they'd be easy to identify.
Oh, and Barry was here too. He brought up a crate of "essentials" that every soldier needs, including a pair of paperback "adventure novels" that he told me not to worry about if they get ruined or misplaced. I think my face was still red from blushing when he snuck those into the bottom of my crate.
Everything was just so... peaceful. With Gramps taking charge, I had absolutely nothing to do at the moment (other than anger Caldia by getting to hold the baby). The care package I spent my afternoon assembling yesterday was already sealed and labeled to ship to Aelder Creek, the aelderwood scraps I received from Father Viburnum were secured in my lockbox, and Gramps already agreed to store it in the Hopkins' vault while I'm away.
My respite eventually ended though. Gramps finished off the checklist that he brought, and closed the lid on Drozuk's crate, but stopped before doing the same for mine.
"Drozuk, would you mind taking the baby for a moment?"
Not sure what was going on, I stood up so I could approach my roommate, and smiled as he went as stiff as a statue when I handed Boris to him. I then turned back to see that Darius was holding a blanket in his hands.
"Travis, if you don't mind, there's an old Packer tradition that my family would like to conduct with you, given how you're technically a former ward of our house. It's a very old one that dates back long before the kingdom was founded and is observed whenever a young man comes of age. It originally started as the final parting gift of a mother to her son before he went to become a spartan, a reminder of which clans he and his ancestors were descendant of, but over time, as our values changed, so has this tradition."
I nodded my head, not even considering the possibility of saying no, especially with how emotional he and Barry were becoming.
Darius unfurled the blanket, allowing me to see the majestic work of art it was. It was a deep black, but the fabric shimmered with a swirling mix of violet, silver, pink, and blue light. The moons and stars were stitched into it, arranged into the constellations of the Elemental Eight greater monsters. Thunderhawk, the screeching death. Thunderhoof, the raging bull. Sunbeaver, the mountain shaper. Copperdillo, the invulnerable force. Diamondback, the walking fortress. Bushtail, the forest tender. Dark Drake, the unexpected disaster. And Icefang, the sun eater.
"In the Southern Plains, it's easy to get lost after fighting countless battles in the seemingly endless expanse of grass and gentle hills. Should you ever find yourself alone and in need of comfort, let the stars guide you, and eventually you'll find your way home."
I gazed up at Gramp's blubbering face through my own welling tears and reached forward to receive one of his legendary hugs.
"It's beautiful. Thank you so much."

46 F, PCOS, hypothyroid 5’4” 160 lbs. currently on oral contraceptives, synthroid, Metformin, Singulair.
I have been having joint, muscle, and tendon pain. It started in November with tendinitis in my elbow, then a flare up of carpal tunnel (had the release surgery), then tendinitis in my foot, and now runner’s knee. The Ortho ran ANA, CK, RF, TSH. Everything except CK was fine CK was 21 and LLN is 30. He said no rush, but talk to my GP or a Rheum when I have a chance. Is this a thing? Could it be transient? Is it a precursor to something else? Do I need to prioritize getting to the doctor?

I'll try to summerize the following story as much as possible and I'm sorry for further grammar mistakes, english is not my mother language.
Last year two guys attacked me from behind in a tunnel in Worcester, England and stole my cash, phone and left me unconscious. After I had exit the hospital, I was put in a difficult circumstance, or better said, to survive, so I tried to steal some food from asda and I was caught, a guard rushed towards me and grabbed me aggressively. They called the cops, put me in arrest for a night and next day I was set free after court trial, due to my clean criminal record. The sanction that I've received was the ban to enter the store again. Two days later I did a silly mistake going back to the same store so I can have a chat with the guard that grabbed me and adressed me racial slurs, and they called the cops again. I left in a hurry but some officers caught me few blocks away and took me to the police station.
And now, comes the dark-comedic part: while I was under custody, one of the officers came to my cell and asked me when did I arrive in England for the first time. I was surprised to hear this, thinking that they already did all the checks in my previous "visit". I told him the exact date, 14th of december 2021, and most important, I had in my possession at that time my passport with the plane ticket kept inside of it, that being the crucial evidence. They told me, and i quote: "it looks like somebody, WITH THE SAME NAME AND THE SAME BIRTHDAY as yours, sir, commited some thefts in London, in 2018." I was completely stunned hearing this, telling them "ok, forget the plane ticket, what's the purpose of the fingerprints then?!" Next day I was once again in the courtroom, but this time the outcome was completely different: I was put on remind and sent to HMP Hewell Redditch for 30 days. I did my time and one week before I went to trial I had a videocall with a judge that confirmed that it wasn't me the one who did the thefts back in 2018. On the trial day I had no solicitor, I represented myself and the charge was dropped, being released from prison. I was relieved to be free again but unfortunately I had no support by any means at that time to sue the state for wrongly imprisoning me. I was only by myself in a foreign country, without any help from family or friends so I can get back on my feet or go back to my country. Also, in the month spent in prison the staff didn't help me get any job or place to stay after my release, as they should have.
Few days later I met a weed dealer and I started selling for him, police caught me with a small quantity (less than an ounce, so the charge was possesion only), but I had in my backpack a scrapper and a grapling hook which were considered as "class b weapons". Next day in court I pleaded guilty for the weed and not guilty for the grapling hook and scrapper, thinking that they're just some tools and I can't be convicted for them since I did no harm to nobody. This, the fact that my 4-month visa expired by then plus I didn't provide any fixed address, were enough to be sent for another month in prison, but this time in Belmarsh HMP. After I had the court at Snaresbrook and pleaded guilty for the "so called class b weapons", I was sentenced for only two more weeks in Pentonville, but I ended up doing another full month due to prison's bad management and lack of legal care for its inmates (many others were in my position, having their sentences finished for more than months and still being there).
After I was set free I was given an outdated address of a police station which no longer existed on that street in London (Victoria RD, if I remember correctly), where I should have gone for probation. At that point I was so fed up with all the bullshit that happened, again on the road without phone, no place to go and less than enough cash to survive, so I had a mental breakdown while I was trying to chill and find a solution. I bought a bottle of wine, but instead of calming down I lost my mind and I did one of the most stupid things I could, starting hitting and broke the rear mirror of a parked police car in Essex. At that point I didn't care about any repercussions, so I didn't run or anything, I just waited for them to show up and see what happens(somebody waiting for the bust nearby saw me and called 101). I was arrested and next day, surprisingly, they didn't have any evidence against me, but sent me for another month in jail for missing my probation. This time I was sent to HMP Thameside, and after release I was given the exact same wrong adress for probation as in the previous situation lol. This time I said ok, no more silly mistakes from me, so I managed to buy a cheap phone, find the nearest police station in order to seek for help. There a police officer called the prison staff from Thameside and requested them the right police station for me to go there and sign for my probation. I went there and I was promised a place to live by the probation officer until next week when I should've gone again, but I never showed up again because my family helped me get a plane ticket and come back to Romania.
As you probably already guessed, I was wondering if I can start a lawsuit now, a year later, for being wrongly imprisoned in the first place due to that identity failure, although right now I'm not anymore in England and I'm sure I'm not legally allowed to go back since I didn't show up for probation anymore. I'm sorry for the long post and thank you for your time, I considered it necessary to go into details so you can have the full honest picture of the events.