Sns nails near me

First time poster! Looking for lots of feedback. Please enjoy!
The following record has been altered for mortal consumption.
BEGIN MEMORY EXCERPT "They use what?" System Administrator Lar'ken was having the worst day of his life. After watching the council meeting live, he was having a field day. That is, until this so-called "Terran Republic" showed up with a CLASS 3 FLEET mere seconds after the ugly primitives publicly declared war. "They... primarily use slug-throwers, System Administrator." His head sectary said, nervous pheromones leaking from her scent glands into the war room. "How is this possible, Head Secretary? Slug-throwers are a dead-end. They are heavy and slow, and while they are devastating short range, their lack of relativistic speed makes them next to useless in a space engagement." The Head Secretary's throat rumbled briefly in an expression of awkwardness. "From what we have gathered so far, a large portion of their slug-throwers have a internal diameter of about 6.8 ker-metrics. They're big, but they're not so huge as to be unwieldy by emplacements or turrets." "That still doesn't explain how they're hitting shots they never should be, or why their slugs are so devastating to our armor." Lar'ken said, rubbing his forehead. "Well... most of their slugs contain either a thermite compound combined with very potent plastic explosives, o-or..." "Or what, Head Secretary?" Lar'ken spat. "Self-contained hydrogen based fusion thermonuclear warheads." Lar'ken burst out rumbling for a solid three moments, amusement pheromones leaking from his glands. "You certainly know how to cheer me up, Hal'adi!" "System Administrator, I wasn't joking. Their slugs are guided, and accelerated by both a chemical propellant and either electromagnetic rails or coils. Each one acts like a missile. Around 10% of their 6.8 ker-metric throwers use slugs with thermonuclear warheads. They are small, but any thermonuclear warhead is disproportionately powerful for it's size." Disbelief pheromones filled the room from his currently silent admirals and generals. "Oh, stars above. You're not joking." "No, System Administrator." "What's the radiation poisoning like on their warheads?" "Minimal. They easily could have added cobalt to them to make the impact sites deadly for hundreds of years, but their warheads seemed to be somehow optimized for thermal radiation and sheer force. How you optimize a thermonuclear warhead for anything is beyond me." Exhaustion pheromones rushed from Lar'ken's head. "So, what's your cursory analysis, Head Secretary?" "After our cursory investigation into the Terran Republic's military and navy, my conclusion is that this civilization has operated entirely within it's home system for several thousand years, optimizing for self improvement over expansion. Their FTL systems indicate that they have new navigators, and have just discovered FTL techniques. They do have weapons besides slug throwers, but they are clearly partial to the primitive concept, and have taken slug-throwers to a level unprecedented in galactic history. Their navy is extremely coordinated, and also coordinates with their ground forces. It's like they are both a single hive mind, but also an army of individuals. It's astounding. In just 40 kahl-moments, they have uprooted every standard galactic naval and army doctrine and thrown it to the wayside. They do not follow the galactic standard rules of engagement. Furthermore, and this is astounding to me in particular, they have managed all of this with minimal galactic war crime violations, besides the thermonuclear warheads, of course. Even their nukes are designed to cause a specific type of harm that doesn't endanger the lives of personnel as much as it does infrastructure." The war room was silent, of both words and pheromones. "And your conclusion?" Lar'ken said after a moment. "Their quantity of ships and personnel cannot compare to our empire's combined arms. We would annihilate them. However, our forces are spread thin compared to their force. It would take nearly 4 ker-cycles to muster a force capable of greater than 50% win probability. Even then, our predictive algorithms are programmed with galactic standard doctrine in mind, and are entirely unprepared to deal with the strange and disproportionately effective doctrines that these Terrans use." "So... what's our probability of holding out for 4 ker-cycles against these primitives?" Lar'ken asked. "Inconclusive. With an direct override to the algorithm, about 3.5%, with about 65% confidence. System Administrator, I'm afraid we have awoken a sleeping giant. They aren't primitives anymore. They're not just a legitimate threat, they're a catastrophic threat. Our initial predictions estimate that if they have even a fraction of the industrial power we think they might, our entire empire could be at risk of collapse." Despair pheramones filled the war room like smog. Lar'ken sighed, his eyes watering from the potency of the pheramones. "May the stars help us, though they likely won't."
END MEMORY EXCERPT

Dragon Ball higher dimensional scaling is a weird subject to talk about. There're plenty of arguments for it, most focusing on Otherworld, I'll be discussing that and a few other argumentations explaining how higher dimensional DBZ doesn't hold up to scrutiny, at least to me.
We'll look at this post by u/ProfectusInfinity on Otherworld to start off. Now firstly, he confuses transcendent & transcendental, the latter is defined as anything that has to do with spiritual/non-physical worlds, it's nothing about higher dimensionality on its own, even mathematically speaking. Otherworld is the afterlife, it would be beyond everyday experience. Using transcendental that statement makes more logical sense. Their second point is discrediting Cipher, claiming he admitted Herms was bettemore reliable than him, but that's not what he's saying. Looking at the full context of the tweet, Cipher is saying Herms has translated nearly everything Daizenshuu related; if you needed something translated, Herms already has the translation for you. Not that he's the best at it, or better than Cipher, this is putting words in his mouth. Cipher doesn't like answering powerscaling questions, unlike Herms, who doesn't care for the most part. Using that tweet to say Herms is better than Cipher feels disingenuous. Herms' translation doesn't correlate to higher dimensionality anyway, as explained earlier, it's a moot point. Infinity shows a tweet of Cipher bringing up 'extra-dimensional' to refute people's claims on Otherworld. Now this brings up the question, why refute Cipher's newest version of the translation for an older version. Especially when both translations have the same message worded slightly differently, 'extra-dimensional' is defined as being outside the physical reality of the universe/outside Einsteinian's space-time. This makes sense as the Otherworld is outside from the Living World.

So there's a brand new pet supplies plus opening near me I've been grooming dogs for a little over 2 years. How's grooming for them? I'm currently a PCo groomer and was at PSmart. Do you like grooming for pet supplies plus

I have access to prucalopride. I found this post online that mentioned taking 0.5mg at minimum 4 hours after dinner, before bedtime, the reason being that--

"[p]rucalopride will induce phase III MMCs only when taken in a fasted state. The whole point of prucalopride is give your intestines an extra “boost” during the longest fast of the day (overnight); therefore for SIBO it is prescribed at 25% of the “standard dosage” because the “standard dosing” for prucalopride is set by the labelled use (chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC)), not for SIBO patients. "

He also says he--

"found nearly zero difference in how I feel at .5 mg to 2 mg. So stick with the .5 mg unless you have a good reason to go higher. "

Further down, on the topic of dosing, however, he also says--
​

"You can start at .5 mg per night and adjust based on your results.
Basically there are 3 ways to tell what is an effective dose for you:

1. Are your symptoms diminishing?
   
2. Are your stools reasonably soft? That’s a good indicator. They shouldn’t be like they are barely hanging together, and they shouldn’t be hard coming out. Stools should come out nice and easy and be intact. Mark wrote: “You want soft as the best outcome and optimal motility effect.”
   
3. Does bloating due to eating a “bad meal” (like baked beans or rich in lactose) fully resolve by morning? Bloating resolution is all MMC. So I’ve blown myself up and expanded by 2". If you take the right dose 4+ hours after dinner, you should resolve all excess bloating by morning, essentially resetting you back to normal. If you aren’t getting a full reset, you should up the dose in .5mg increments."
   

The answer to these three questions fdr me is:

1. A little, in the first couple of days of me taking the prucalopride.
2. Not really, maybe a little better?
3. My bloating literally never resolves.

I'm up to 1mg now. I've needed to switch to taking it in the morning because I started classes and have to commute for 1.5 hours and then also be in bed on time, so can't wait 4 hours after dinner to take it.
tl;dr: I've been upping my dosage and trying different times of day to take the prucalopride but am a bit confused about varying, and kind of lacking results: do I up my dosage? Make other changes? What are your experiences with prokinetics and prucalopride in particular?

I have this recurring nightmare. I attend this school where odd things happen. In this school, there are people I’ve never met before. Classes I’ve never taken.
Every time I have this dream, I enter a classroom that is listed on my class schedule, and the teacher yells at me for not showing up for weeks or even months. The teacher embarrasses me in front of the class and makes me do work that I didn’t even study for.
I guess it’s not the SCARIEST thing someone can dream about, but being forced to do a mountain of missed classwork is horrible. It also feels embarrassing being humiliated in front of this made-up class. It always feels too real.
I also get variations of this nightmare. Sometimes I dream that I’m running through the halls of the school trying to find where a class is. Then, by the time I find the classroom with the right room number, it’s too late, class is over. Detention.
I’ve had these types of dreams so many times that it feels like I’m enrolled in a completely different school in my mind when I’m asleep. I even have a mental image of what the school looks like from the outside after all those times I’ve been in recess or in the parking lot in other dreams.
Sometimes it’s a class with a teacher from an earlier dream, other times it’s completely different.
I figured these dreams were based on past experiences from elementary, middle, and high school that manifest themselves into vivid simulations from the back of my mind. But then three days ago I found out that it was a lot more than that.
My friend Santiago and I ride motorcycles together when the weather is nice. For weeks we were planning on going to this huge motorcycle meetup together. Before the meetup started, we wanted to rendezvous at his house and then ride our motorcycles to the spot together.
I rode my motorcycle from my house to his using my GPS. I’ve never been to his house before. He lived about thirty-five minutes away from me in a town I’ve passed by but never visited. As soon as I got to his house, Santiago was already turning on his motorcycle in front of his garage.
“Hey man, how’ve you been?” I spoke.
“Good, and you?” he replied.
“Great. I love this weather. You ready to go?”
“Hold on, let me put my dogs inside”.
Once we were all set to go, Santiago rode his motorcycle in front of me as I followed. He knew his way around to get us out of the neighborhood and back on the main road.
Now here’s where things get weird. Between the cluster of suburban neighborhood houses there was a long building that broke the pattern. I saw it in the distance as Santiago and I rode closer. The building was sitting on a hill and just looked unnatural in its place.
As we got past each stop sign and rode closer, the building strangely kept looking more and more familiar. I kept my bike going at a decent speed of 20 miles per hour. I intended to look at this building closely and drove slowly
Then, Santiago and I passed by the front of the building. I constantly turned my head to look at it, then to the road so I didn’t fall or crash. But once we were right in front of it, I just stared. I realized it when I saw the main doors.
It was... just like in my dreams. A long one-story building sitting on top of a grassy green hill. The same distinct main entrance doors. A red and yellow playground on the side of the building. A medium sized parking lot.
There was something so liminal about this building. Almost like those liminal spaces pictures that you see everywhere online. The building did not look real, but it was there right in front of me.
Once I turned my head back to the road, we reached the next stop sign and I nearly bumped tires with Santiago’s bike. Then, eventually, Santiago and I got farther, and farther away.
The rest of the day went well. We went to the meetup, saw a bunch of cool motorcycles, ate at a restaurant in the area, then parted ways and headed home. I had almost forgotten about the building until I rode home on my motorcycle and had time to think about it.
I thought, “What was that place? A school? Why did it look almost the exact same as that school that I see in my dreams? Have I been there before? No, that can’t be. I’ve never visited such a specific neighborhood before. There’s no way I’ve seen this building in my life. It’s just not possible for this dream school to be real.
Last night, I dreamed of the school again. It started off with me looking at the time. It was noon and I was just arriving to school. I was walking towards the entrance in a hurry. I entered the building, and the students were walking in the halls as usual.
I checked my schedule to see where I had to go next. In the list of unintelligible writing, I somehow deduced that I had to go to pottery class. I walked in an aimless direction until I reached a small classroom.
An old man with white hair and glasses looked at me angrily as I took my seat. I always hated old grumpy teachers. This guy was no different
“WHERE have YOU been. What, you don’t think this class is IMPORTANT? You haven’t even started on the first project and we’re already on PROJECT FOUR.”
As always, I just sit there, confused and ashamed. The entire class giggling or shaking their heads in disappointment. The teacher gave me the angriest face as his right hand shook while holding a small pot. Right before the dream ended, I saw the pot leave his hand and soar in my direction.
I woke up not knowing if I was still dreaming or not. Dazed, I had to remind myself that it was only a dream. That dream was extremely vivid. Moreso than the others because the school felt all too real. It was like I was there. The similarities between the dream school and the real building I saw were uncanny. Something made me want to investigate it further.
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I had Google Maps pulled up on my phone. I was looking at Santiago’s address while lying in bed. I knew the building should be around his house, maybe about five or six blocks away. Since the meetup spot was more east, I tapped and dragged the map to the right slowly.
It took only seconds until I found the long building. In this top-down view, I saw how it broke the pattern from the rest of the houses. I tapped it to see if I could get more info on it. Strangely, Google Maps did not have this building listed as anything. It just showed the address as if it were another house.
Then I went into street view mode to get a look at it from street level. “Oh god...” I thought to myself. It looked the exact same as the school I visited in my dreams. This can’t be a coincidence. I must see it for myself.
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UPDATE
It’s been a week and one day since I passed the building on my bike. It was Monday now. Curiosity got the better of me as I was interested in seeing the interior of the building.
The morning was breezy and chilly with cloudy skies. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I was driving in my car to a school I saw in my dreams. It didn’t take too long to arrive since there was less traffic in the morning. It was almost 8 AM when I arrived at the parking lot of the school and there were a couple of other cars parked there. “Last time it was empty. There should be people inside” I thought.
At first, my plan was that I wasn’t going to enter. I was just going to look through the windows on the doors. Just to see what the inside looked like. This place seemed like a school for small children that I had no business entering.
I walked to the entrance with the glass doors. Honestly, I felt like a creep, but I really wanted to look inside, while hoping there wasn’t a cop around being suspicious of me.
I put my forehead on the glass of the door, with my hands covering the sides of my face to see better. As soon as I got close enough to the glass, I saw nothing but heard everything. With my eyes, I saw an empty hall. With my ears, I heard hundreds of voices.
“Wait... where are these noises coming from?” I thought as I kept looking around. These sounds were so audible that it sounded like people were on the other side of the door. Yet, I didn’t see anyone. Just a long hallway with the lights off. There were doors on the sides. All closed. There was even debris on the floor. The place looked ruined and abandoned. Yet, the sound of walking, shuffling, talking, and shouting were still audible.
It was all so spooky. I felt like my mind was playing tricks on me. Something inside me begged me to open the doors and walk around. Was that the right thing to do? This was all unnerving and mysterious and I felt like I had to go inside. At least to just walk a couple of feet.
Again, I looked around behind me to see if anyone was looking. While my head was turned toward the outside, I slowly opened the doors and entered when there was enough space to get in. As soon as I was in, I turned my head forward again and I did not expect to see what was in front of me.
Like magic, the once empty hall was now sprawling with people. Hundreds of them appeared seemingly out of thin air. The lights were on, the floor was clean, and people were going in and out of classrooms. I couldn’t tell what age they were. They all looked somewhere between middle and high school.
“What the fuck. Where am I?” I whispered. I looked down at my hands to make sure this wasn’t one of those dreams. I opened and closed my fists. I pinched myself and it hurt. Sure enough, it was real life.
I stood in that same spot for about a minute just watching everyone walk. When that minute was up, I realized there were less and less people out in the hallway. I saw the last few hurrying to where they needed to be as the last classroom door closed.
In just a few moments, I was alone in the hallway with the buzz of the fluorescent lights. The walls were half white at the bottom, and half red at the top. It looked so liminal like the hallways in my dreams. This wasn’t a dream, though.
I began walking down the hall. I passed by classrooms that had small square windows on the doors that I couldn’t see through.
It was almost silent now with no noise besides my footsteps. I checked my phone for the time. It was 8:15AM. I noticed I didn’t have signal at all. “What? ...why don’t I have service?” I thought to myself.
Once I got to the end of the hallway, I saw that it split into two other hallways. I looked deep into each hallway and they both looked the same. Not knowing where to go I thought, “Okay. That’s enough. Time to leave.”
I did a 180 degree turn to go back the way I came. I didn’t even take a third step when I heard a door open intensely and a harsh voice say “oh THERE he is. OUT in the HALLS and not in CLASS. HEY. YOUNG MAN. You better get in this classroom RIGHT NOW.”
I was startled by that voice. It broke the silence so abruptly that I jumped. It was a fat old lady with a wrinkled and scrunched face. She had curly gray hair and glasses.
I just stared at her for a moment. Then I tried to speak, “... I- I'm sorry, I’m uh... not-”
“YOU HAVEN’T SHOWED UP TO A SINGLE CLASS. Do you have ANY idea how much TROUBLE YOU’RE IN?” she boomed.
I sounded like a mouse compared to her. “L-look I... I think you uh... got the wrong per-”
“GET IN HERE.” she grew angrier. “GET IN THIS CLASSROOM RIGHT NOW.”
I stopped my little muttering and began to walk backwards. The lady then vigorously swung open the classroom door so hard it hit the wall as she speed-walked in my direction with such an aggravated look on her face.
Now, I’m not short, but I’m also not tall. I’m 5’8”. But compared to this lady, she made me look like a third grader. She was gigantic. Probably more than 7 feet tall.
I didn’t know what she was going to do. I walked backwards first and then tried turning around. Before I could make a complete turn, I felt a strong grip on my wrist and my motion stopped completely. I looked down at my wrist and saw a fat hand around it. I struggled hard to break free from the grasp, but I was swiftly pulled in the old lady’s direction.
No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t break away. The old lady was dragging me toward the classroom.
“WHAT... THE HELL. HEY. ERGHHH LET GO OF ME!” I yelled.
“YOU DAMN TROUBLESOME KID. GO TO YOUR SEAT!” She pulled me up into the air, suspended by my shirt, and threw me into the classroom.
I hit the floor with a hard thud. My elbow and knees took the most impact as I was slow to get up. Pain hit my legs hard as I got back on my two feet and heard the door shut firmly.
The old lady that just got done manhandling me took a heavy sigh and said, “OKAY. Now we have a full class. That makes Miss Howler happy.” She took a seat at the big desk in the front. After sitting down, she looked over at me with an angry and confused expression.
“Why are you still standing there? Get to YOUR SEAT.”
I was frozen but my eyes darted around the room. I looked at the students. The class was indeed full. I looked at their faces and they were all grinning and looking straight.
My observation of the class was interrupted by the loud slam of Miss Howler’s fat fist on her desk.
“I SAID GO TO YOUR SEAT. RIGHT NOW!!!” she yelled.
I didn’t know what to do. Should I make a run for it? Or should I just sit like the teacher said and just get it over with? I didn’t want to risk being thrown again so I went to the back of the classroom where I saw an empty seat. I sat down and still couldn’t believe what was going on. This felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
I looked around me. Everyone was still looking straight forward. Miss Howler was sitting at her desk again sorting some papers.
“How did I get myself into this mess? And how long will this all take?” I thought. Then, Miss Howler got up from her desk and walked over to the first student sitting in the front row. From where I was, I could see she was passing a packet of papers to each student.
“OKAY. Take one and pass it backwards, please. What you will all receive momentarily is our next assignment. Read through it carefully” she said.
The student sitting in front of me passed a packet over his shoulder for me to grab.
“Surely, I won’t be needing this” I thought while placing it on my desk. I read the words at the top.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 101 – ASSIGNMENT 8
The title was the only thing I understood. The rest of the page was just a bunch of science jargon. The questions were all based on equations with more letters than numbers.
“Like always, have this completed by the end of the week. Late work WILL NOT give you full credit... OHHH... SPEAKING of LATE WORK” Howler turned around and grabbed something beneath her desk. When she turned back around, she looked at me over the top of her glasses.
“YOU. Young man. Come here. Now.” Howler pointed at me and wriggled her finger, motioning for me to come up to the front of the class.
Nervously, I got up and walked past the many students that were still smiling and looking forward. I don’t think I ever saw them blink. When I got to Howler’s desk, she had a neat stack of papers probably about a foot high.
“Take your work and SIT down,” said Howler while glaring at me. Before anything else I grabbed the packet on the top of the stack. I looked at the top, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LESSONS 1-127. I quickly turned around and walked back towards my seat before Howler slammed her fist again.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
I turned around slowly and nervously. “Wh- what?”
“WHY DID YOU ONLY TAKE THE ONE? YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!?
“Umm... no. Look, I’m not supposed to be here” I said. “How DARE YOU. COME TAKE THE REST OF YOUR WORK,” she yelled. “I... okay,” I said as I walked back. I didn’t know that the whole stack was for me. As I reached for the stack, my vision went all white.
KABWOOSH
In an instant, white papers flew everywhere around me like a hurricane. Howler had bashed the stack with the back of her fat hand so hard that none of them were on the desk anymore. As the last page hit the floor she said, “You have SOME NERVE trying to joke around with ME. YOU’VE GOT SOME NERVE. Now PICK IT UP”.
I thought, “there’s no way I’m going to pick all of this up. This is ridiculous. I must leave. I can make a run for it from here”.
Before picking up a single page, I rushed to the door, pulled on the knob violently and turned it both ways. Sadly, it wouldn’t give. It was locked from the inside. Once I realized this, I felt something towering over me from behind. A shadow loomed over the door.
“Where do you think YOU’RE GOING? I cannot BELIEVE THIS. IN ALL MY YEARS YOU ARE THE WORST”.
I was still facing the door. Disappointed that I couldn’t leave. Suddenly, my neck tightened, and I felt like I was choking. I was pulled backwards. My shirt's collar fell tight as I realized I was being pulled by the back of my collar.
Then I was airborne and fell onto the bed of papers on the floor.
“I SAID PICK THEM UP. I WON’T ASK YOU AGAIN. DO IT NOW!!!!!!” Howler was the angriest she’d ever been so far.
I had no other choice but to pick them up and put them back in a stack. As I was placing them in a pile, I saw bright red dot appear on the white of a page. “Blood?” I thought. Then a few seconds later another drop. I placed my hand on my cheek, and it stung. My fingers were red from touching it. When Howler bashed the paper stack, I must have gotten a paper cut.
Once I was done stacking, I lifted it up and went to my seat. Then Howler began teaching. I can’t remember a single word she said while teaching. It was all chemistry, and I didn’t know a thing about it. All I knew was that I had to get out of there. I needed a reason.
But then she said, “Alright. Any questions?”
I shot my hand up before any of the five other students could. As soon as I did, Howler looked at me and said, “Yes, YOU.”
“Uh... may I use the bathroo-”
“NO. PAY ATTENTION.”
“Please. I just need some paper for this cut on my face.”
She glared at me so hard. I was starting to regret even asking. It felt like I made a huge mistake for even raising my hand at all.
To my surprise she said, “FINE. But don’t think for a SECOND that I’m just going to let you WALK OUT OF HERE by yourself. I’m NOT stupid.”
She looked at the student right in front of her. “James. Please escort your fellow student to the restroom.”
I immediately got up and walked towards the front. James stood up and turned to me. He had short blond hair, green eyes, and was still smiling even when looking at me. “Yes ma’am.” He said in a proud voice. James walked in front of me.
Before we got to the door, I froze as we heard, “LISTEN. You BETTER be back here in TWO MINUTES. BOTH OF YOU. DO NOT waste my time. GO.”
With that, James turned the doorknob. Surprisingly, it opened. How did it open so easily for him?
James and I exited the classroom. Just being out of it felt like freedom. My cut was still dripping blood. I then spoke, “Hey James. What is this place? What’s going on?”
“This is our school. Where have you been this whole time?” He replied. He would not stop smiling.
“What do you mean?” I said, “I’ve never been inside this school before.”
He said, “Yes you have.”
When we got to the bathroom, I quickly got some paper towels and placed them on my cheek. James then said, “Okay. Let’s go back now” as he turned around and headed for the door.
My stomach ached at the thought of going back into that classroom. I was already through with being there. “Hey James, you go on ahead I’ll be in the classroom soon,” I said while opening a stall door.
James stopped before opening the door. “I don’t think we should keep Miss Howler waiting any longer,”
I entered the stall and said, “I really, really, have to use the toilet pretty badly. It’s going to take a while. Please, go ahead and return. I’ll take the blame, James”. With that, I closed the stall door and locked it.
I waited for a response. There was no sound coming from the outside of the stall. James had gone quiet. I was looking down in the opening of the stall under the door. These two neat shoes appeared. I was starting to get creeped out. “Umm... James?” I spoke.
Then, suddenly, blond hair was appearing under the stall door slowly. The neat shoes were still there and hadn’t moved. I kept my eyes on the blond hair as it moved down ever so slightly. I saw a forehead, then eyebrows, then green eyes.
“What the fuck...” I whispered.
It was James’ head. It was upside down. His head kept lowering slowly as his nose was now visible. Then his mouth was coming into full view. He was grinning cheek to cheek like always. I was about to scream my lungs out.
Then he said, “It’s time to go back”.
I will end it here for now. There’s so much more to this occurrence than I can write in one post. I will continue in the next one.

Half my job involves driving. Decided to check out spite. Haven't heard a band this pissed off since slipknot. I'm almost 30 and this gives me the vibe of when I first heard Iowa when I was 10. A band that perfectly mixes hardcore and death metal perfectly. Nearly crashed the truck as I was feeling the hell out of it while driving. Any other recommendations? It's like if crystal lake and slipknot went full on deathcore.
Was around aince the first wave of deathcore

B,
It’s been one month since you’ve ghosted me, went no contact whatever you want to call it! Justify however you like, say it was for you, believe that it wasn’t possible to work through or worth it. You know the truth, one day you’ll wake up and realize it all.
I’m a husk, a shell of the former man I once was, an emptiness I’ve never known. There is a you shaped hole where my heart use to be. You were my puzzle piece completing this fuck up puzzle we call life, For nearly 10 years. The last words you spoke “I love you” haunts my every nightmare and waking moments.
Now I obsessively search for you in every possible avenue of my day. Desperate to find some way to cling to what we had. I was not worthy enough to be owed anything by you? My value is so small that you upped and move completely across the country without a word.
Now I’m left to sit and rot in our marital home, left to pick up the pieces you left behind. I wait every day for the moment, that knock on the door and to receive the notice of divorce. What else am I to think, you’ve given me nothing else…as I’ll now just be a decaying husk. Till I can be no more, I only hope from the decay I can be reborn by the remains of what I was.
I love you, I always will. I miss you, I’ll always wait for your return. Your my best friend, my confidante, my soulmate, my heart, my angel, my Wife.

• D

I cried throughout the night. Not heavily, a few heartfelt tears stained my face. I’ve never had my heart broken because I gave it away to someone that wouldn’t have the luxury of getting too close.
It pains me to be in love with someone I don’t know, someone I miss, someone I yearn for.
To be more than a memory To be more than an acquaintance To be more than a friend To be more than what’s currently available to me. And yet, I’m comfortable in the silence. You are clueless to how you affect me, well maybe not entirely clueless. Do I affect you as well? Perhaps a smidge?
Anyways, my heart’s been with you since before you stole a kiss. Anyone I’ve kissed after you taste like garbage lol. In reality, I’ve never felt the spark with anyone else. Kinda sucks at times but I don’t dwell on it. I know how to be happy on my own.
What does make me sad is that I’ll never love someone as much as the affection I feel for you. It’s nearly impossible. Not even my son’s father.
Well, live long and prosper 🖖

TLDR: I've had stomach pain for a few years, which has been improving over the past 6 months due to diet changes, but now I'm dealing with acid reflux.
I've had pain in my upper stomach (In the center, right below my ribcage) for a number of years now. I used to think it was normal to wake up in the morning with stomach pain, because it would go away when I ate. I'd tell people I "woke up so hungry it hurt." Around 3 years ago, I had a bout of stomach pain so bad I went to the hospital, who told me I had gallstones and needed to remove my gallbladder. My stomach pain was near constant after that, and I was eating a lot because that was the only way to make it feel better. When I went to my PCP for a referral, he gave me omeprezole which I started taking and saw a big improvement in my stomach pain, but still had pain in the morning when I woke up. After 6 months he switched me to famotidine.
On the famotidine, I stopped having pain in the morning, but became sensitive to different foods, so I slowly started cutting things out. For about a year and a half, I did a cycle of feel good -> flare up -> cut something -> repeat, until eventually I was barely eating anything. My PCP sent me to a GI, who did an endoscopy and found nothing. They told me I had a 'generic acid problem,' and told me to go back on omeprezole and start adding foods back in. When I tried that, I had some of the worst pain so far. That was about 6 months ago.
I was barely eating and had lost a lot of weight, so I bought the Gastritus Healing Book and only ate approved meals within. For the first time, I started seeing improvement overtime instead of things getting worse. 6 months ago I could barely walk around my house or eat, but now I'm having decent meals, hiking, and have stopped losing weight.
Onto my actual question! While my stomach pain feels better, lately I've been having acid reflux. Usually after I eat, I will get a sour taste in my mouth and a little burpy. I'm not sure if this has always been a problem, and I never noticed before, but I'm definitely very cognizant of it now. Since I've been doing everything to get better from my main symptom of stomach pain, I have no idea how to manage this new symptom! I'm afraid I'll have to cut back on how much I eat again, but I'm barely managing to maintain my current weight. So, what more can I do to manage the reflux?
Here is what I mostly eat: - Oatmeal with maple syrup and walnuts (made with almond milk) - Rice with vegetables and avocado - Banana berry smoothies made with almond milk - Eggs, sometimes salmon - Cilantro, sumac, salt are my go to seasonings
I sleep on my back on an incline pillow, and have potato juice every morning. I tried DGL for a bit, but it made my stomach pain worse. I don't eat anything 3 hours before I got to bed, except the 40mg of famotidine I take.

So I looked up a random plumber near me and I was with my nan so they came in, attached the shower head to the wall which I couldn’t do because i couldn’t turn it all the way even with full force and I didn’t wanna break the pipe. Anyway they left after it took 10 minutes. And I didn’t get a message or anything after a month for payment but they know where I live so hopefully they just forgot and it wasn’t a big deal

It's simpler to engage in behaviors like secretly monitoring their spouse's phone or even enlisting outside assistance from hackers when a partner cheats. Who am I, after all, to dictate how others choose to maintain their relationships? Prior to this, I was in a relationship where my partner's infidelity and the blatant lies I was being told nearly led me to lose my mind. I was curious to find out the truth, even if it was just to prove to myself that I wasn't crazy and that I had been right the whole time. You might possibly require the assistance of a hacker. To contact him, send an email to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

tw: early early ivf success
To all of you who have ultimately found success with IVF after an ectopic.... any advice to calm down?
Today is 9dpt, first embryo transfer after SIX retrievals, four of which were totally unsuccessful yielding zero blasts. I waited until early this morning to take an HPT and it was a dark second line. During my ectopic I only had super faint lines and I wanted to avoid seeing that again. So that's great, obviously.
2 hours later i began to spot light pink - spotting was my biggest ectopic symptom. A few minutes later I was showering and started having a panic attack and nearly passed out. I know spotting can be normal - this isn't even the spotting timing I had with my ectopic (that came a bit later)... and that I'm doing progesterone suppositories which can also cause spotting though I don't think it's that.
I'd like to stop having panic attacks obvi. Beta tomorrow. Just went to acupuncture and my guy hit every anxiety point that exists so feeling a bit more calm now - but nobody I know understands this. This all feels so dangerous due to ectopic history.
Hoping some of you might have some kind words to get me through this super scary early time.

So, I'm doing exobio plant scans in Solo mode thousands of light years from the Bubble...
I deployed my SRV (because it's fun to drive) and rolled off in search of little tufts of grass. There should be no one within thousands of light years of me....when suddenly this big shadow sweeps across my SRV and runs across the ground in front of me and disappears in the distance. And I calmly screamed "JESUS CHRIST! WHAT THE &*$%# WAS THAT!?!
It took me a few seconds to realize that my ship had automatically dismissed itself and had flown over me and the shadow from it swept over me on the ground. LOL! Also, I swear that every time I'm on the ground on the night side of a planet in near total darkness, I'm expecting to swing the 17th century oil lamp powerful 31st century suit flashlight that can illuminate almost 3 whole meters around and I'm going to just barely catch a glimpse of some THING stepping back behind a rock like the alien stepping back into the corn in the movie Signs.
Anybody else get creeped out by stuff/manage to scare themselves out in The Black?
"I don't want to stay out here anymore, I want to come back inside. Funny things...I hear funny things out here." -- Dr. Blair The Thing

I love Podcasts, true crime, my favorite ever podcast is Hunting Warhead and 2nd to that is Children in the Pictures. I am surprised by my favorites as the topic of those two was never something I wanted to listen to or read about. I think I hold them high up there as they document defeating evil and something good happens in the end when these sick people get caught.
I recently branched out into other types of crime podcasts and was really impressed with Where's Bobby and then I began looking into the Swindler type online scammer podcasts and came across a few which have been entertaining but the last one I listened to, seemed something different.
Conning the Con Podcast is about a woman who nearly hands over $250k to her boyfriend, she does transfer the money but within one day she realises he is a con man and the bank freezes 200k and she then has to cunningly pretend the issue is fixable and gets him to release fuds with her at the bank, all the whilst knowing he is a con man whilst pretending she does not know.
When I listen to a show I normally google a few things about the people in the show and the villain in this podcast is not very searchable, some small bits of data on the offender, but more than that it is the lack of information provided in the podcast, something seems amiss.
They paint this swindler as some kind of master of the scam at first but then use a really strange voice dialog to speak on his behalf in the show. Throughout all of this scam the one thing that brought the villain and the victim together was supposed to be love, but there is virtually no mention of their relationship, how it developed.
Another odd thing is the way the victim began recording content during the time of the scam happening, evidence I believe she said was her reason, the thing is if you were going to start collecting evidence so early, why not get a few more photos of the actual Villain. I think there are maybe 4 images on the internet of this guy Andrew w c Tonks and 3 of them he is wearing sunglasses and one it appears he is in court.
It's a strange podcast and feels somewhat embellished, I have listened to a few of this type of podcast but this one almost seems manufactured, like the podcasting sisters conned the con man by pretending to be victims.
To me it just seems like a strange story, too strange to believe, its almost like they left out major chunks of the story.
The podcast was seriously long and had a lot of filler, it was also narrated by two people whose voices were not helpful for my listening, but each to their own.
Did I get conned into listening to a podcast about a con man:-)

So for context for the story, not literally today but not a long time ago. A couple friends and I took a small trip a couple hours out of our city to go camping and fishing for a couple days. It was a great time and good being out there, but not the point.
On our last day there, my two friends who were there with me were going to go down to a creek down the hill from camp, but agreed to be back at camp by the evening to eat whatever they caught, start packing up and heading home. I stayed up at camp.
While they were gone, a bit after when we were supposed to meet, I started to go look for them because I was worried they had gotten lost, but I couldn’t find where they were, and started to get nervous and kinda freak out. After about an hour or two, I was extremely worried about them as the sun was going down and we had no cell reception.
I went to the park manager for help, when another camper heard me and was willing to help me find them. We drove around trying to find them, but eventually we found them actually fairly close to our camp near the stream. If we weren’t able to find them, the park manager would’ve called the police.
Unfortunately, he also told me while we were looking that the season for fishing in that specific river was closed, meaning the fish we had caught were technically illegal. We didn’t know that, but when I found them we had to throw the fish back so we wouldn’t risk a fine. We should’ve known that before we went, but our mistake.
So now my friends are pissed with me, because I was really worried about them and I couldn’t find them, leading to asking for help from someone, leading to a police scare and almost getting my friends in trouble. Now I’m terrified that I screwed up my relationships with my friends, as these are some of my best friends. All because I was worried. TIFU
TLDR: I went camping and fishing with some friends, couldn’t find where they went, started to get worried about them when they didn’t come back when we agreed to, leading to the police almost getting called and getting my friends in hot water. Now they’re pissed at me.

Sold my business about 6 months ago and due to some other life events I'm now sitting on about $4M NW at 29 years old with about $3.5M being liquid. Nearly all of the liquid funds are sitting in an S&P500 index fund with just a bit still in cash.
I was recently approved for a PAL through Schwab at 2% + SOFR for a total rate of ~7%.
I was told how powerful a tool a PAL/SBLOC can be but I don't quite know how to put it to work for me. I have two cars already paid for, my primary residence is nearly paid off and I don't plan to upgrade or buy a second home anytime soon taking any sort of "major" life purchases off the table.
I don't want to become a landlord so that nixes any sort of real estate investment which seems like the most common route.
Any examples or guidance of what folks have done here to put a PAL to work for them to generate more income/investments?

Maybe it was the presence of human emotions of this sort… this ‘pity’ thing was kind of new to me. I know, I know, you might be wondering, ‘Didn’t you pity Suki?’ or ‘Didn’t you pity Jin?’ and the answer is ‘no’. Maybe if things got worse for them, but Suki was alive and Jin was still in school, they weren’t at what humans call ‘Rock Bottom’ yet, so why would I feel pity?
But stealing snacks and working for someone who loathes you to buy old bento while wearing dirty clothes and living in a body they had to know was kind of bad smelling? Maybe things could have been worse but… well if it got worse that didn’t mean they weren’t at rock bottom, it just meant that they were at rock bottom when somebody handed them a stick of T.N.T. like out of one of those old cartoons so they could blast their way down deeper.
So yeah, yeah I pitied the boy, which probably was obvious and probably made him feel worse. But then again he did pick on Jin and so I wasn’t too concerned about him feeling bad about eating pity-bento.
Jin showed up about two hours prior to closing, a smile on his face, he was clearly increasingly happy in the last few days, and this was no exception. “Thanks again, Kayobi! I’ll lock up!” He said and waited while I bought snacks for myself.
“Sure thing, see you tomorrow.” I promised, and went back to my apartment.
I immediately turned on the television and tossed my snacks on the coffee table sitting in front of my plushy, soft couch, and after a moment’s consideration I decided, after putting on my pajamas, I would make Asahi’s life just a little bit easier.
I gathered my dirty clothing and threw it into an old green laundry bag I’d acquired, along with a few single-use detergent packets, then put the little box of trash bags out on the countertop for him to easily find, right next to the dish soap. I had almost no dishes, but there were some plastic ones I sort of kept and reused.
And that was that. I teleported my snacks into my hand and flopped myself on the couch, leaving the door cracked open so that Asahi would know I was there and couldn’t later pretend he knocked and nobody was home or something equally absurd.
I did have my doubts about his arrival, would he show or not show? I looked at my chocolate cream cookies and my bag of melon chips and licked my lips. I chose to have a little fun with it.
I stacked up my cookies, ten high. Then I set out a few handfuls of chips on the table and checked my phone. He had ten minutes. “Alright, if he shows up, I eat you.” I pointed at the cookies. “If he doesn’t show up, I eat you.”
“Nooo…” I gave the cookies and chips voices, and messed around with making them protest their pending consumption.
“I’m sorry, cookies and chips, but you are made of deliciousness, and Kayobi must consume to be content. But worry not, for you will live on in memory, no matter what happens, bear it bravely, and you need die but once.” I said and made a dramatic half bow to my snacks before laughing at my silly game and turning on the show to watch a boy getting flung around by a lamia’s tail as he tried to bear her…superabundant…affections.
I liked this show a lot, the characters were fun with all their silly romantic hijinks, I really felt the haphazard struggles of the male lead, but of all of them, Smith was my favorite. Doing all she could to avoid work at every turn…
I don’t know, something about her just spoke to my soul.
So I watched the story unfold as he was nearly choked, accidentally did some no-no touching thanks to her poor directions while he was blindfolded, and otherwise just had his life turned upside down.
And while I watched I took a look at the food menu for a delivery place. Before I could order anything or even make a decision, there was a knock at my door.
It opened a crack, and I said, “If you’re a Yakuza hitman, I’ll murder you, but if you’re Asahi, good timing, come on in.” I didn’t bother looking toward the door.
“H-Hi… ah… Yakuza hitman?” He asked, his boldness was completely gone from him, and he now seemed a lot smaller to me as he slipped in the door without even opening it all the way.
I snorted and gave a dismissive wave, “It’s an inside joke, don’t worry about it.” I proceeded to reach for the cookies and popped the top one into my mouth, and while my left cheek was puffed out I said, “Here’s the deal, Asahi, I hate chores. So you can do them for me to pay me back. Start with my laundry, and by the way, there’s enough detergent for ‘extra’ loads. If you happen to use it all up while washing some of your own, fine. Don’t care, just get mine done.”
I then pointed to the green bag sitting against the wall. “But don’t do anything pervy with my underwear. I watch your shows, and this is not one of your ecchi programs.” I glowered at him, and the young man blushed a bright crimson in his face.
“I-I wouldn’t! I-” He tried to protest, but I cut him off.
“Don’t worry about it. After you’re done, there’s some dishes to do and some cleanup here in the living area. Get that handled, and by then, well I’m about to order dinner, if you want the leftovers, that’s fine. Then we’ll call it square for today. Questions?” I asked, and when his stomach rumbled, I threw another cookie in my mouth.
He was all but salivating. “Yeah… I… I got it.” He murmured.
“Then get to it, and I’ll see you in about two hours.” I said, and then went back to watching my show while he went to do my laundry.
The door closed behind him, and you know something?
I’d never felt so bad about anything in all my life. Never. Not once. I looked at the remaining stack of cookies and chips, “I am afraid, since the goddess of your world is kind of an evil monarch, there will be no clemency for any of you. Your sentence is to be carried out immediately.” I said to my food, and tossed them cookie by cookie and chip by chip into my mouth with crunch after crunch continuing until such time as the whole of my doomed snacktopian subjects were quite devoured.
But they hadn’t tasted good.
It was more like ashes in my mouth than explosive tastiness.
I felt like the Yakuza bosses by exploiting Suki and who knew how many others around Shinjai. Or like I’d kicked a damn puppy for chewing on a shoe. Alright, what Asahi had done was bad, but I’d already punished him and he’d seemingly stopped.
“Stars above… he is just a kid, don’t kick him while he’s already down, Kayobi.” I told myself and contemplated my now devoid execution square where all the chips and cookies were sacrificed on the altar of my divine laziness.
As I watched the protagonist start to drown in the mermaid’s pool, I selected an order for pizza from my phone. I ordered some from a local chain, Aoki’s, and one from a popular American one, Domino’s. I used a few coupons to get some freebies thrown in, and then that was that.
It was only a matter of time before that got here, and Asahi got back, and then maybe my food would stop tasting bad. Evidently treating people badly ruins meals, even if they deserve it. “Hmpf. Who knew?” I rolled my eyes at my own question, stretched out, and resumed watching the nigh invincible protagonist suffer every kind of indignant injury, and I laughed the entire time.

I’ve searched the sub and found a number of various “badass” “competent” or “powerful” FMC requests but not quite asking exactly what I’m looking for.
I don’t want the story of FMC learning her power, I want her confident in her abilities, she knows she’s a badass. I don’t want her known or feared for her power (if that fear from others comes as the story progresses I guess sometimes that can’t be avoided). I want MMC to just be puppy dog in love.
Picture this scenario:
Somehow FMC gets intertwined in whatever shenanigans MMC is up to, he doesn’t know how powerful she is, no one really does except FMC. She’s just out here living her best simple life. They get into trouble and without effort or thought FMC does some crazy feat of magic. Say they were captured or something and when FMC gets tired of being tied up (she could escape at any time) she just simply snaps and every one of their captors is asleep. MMC’s eyes bug out, he is shocked and in awe, and 100% into it. I want him to know his lady is powerful, to trust her, her decisions, and her power. He can be powerful too but I want her to be just OTT, and entirely casual about it. A perfect moment for me would be FMC and MMC are in BAD GUY territory, the BIG BAD is going to kill them, maybe they have a knife to FMC’s throat she decides she is over it and just wooshes the air from their lungs, the GOOD GUY GANG’s jaws drop, they are like “whhhattt” MMC is like “yea she does that” with a dorky grin. FMC picks up the knife and its hers now.
Bonus points for: -MMC is also powerful in his own way. -Himbo - Light in tone but not opposed to dark themes and such. -On the romantic side of things it would be cool if he wasn’t sure if she was into him that way but she just thought it was a given, even before they “get together”. Maybe at one point he thinks they will part ways b/c why would she still be with him, he turns to leave and she’s like “where are you going?” simply as though it were a given they’d be going on together. Or she buys them one room at an inn without any thought that they wouldn’t be sharing a bed.
Gender: Any combo MMF, MF, FF, and MM, FFM, etc is fine but I am primarily looking for MF in this instance. Genre: Just not normal earth as it is right now. I prefer Sci-fi and Fantasy.
Examples that fit the general vibe in some way that I’ve read: - Hot and Badgered (Pretty much fits perfectly) - An American werewolf in Space (Fits near perfectly as well) - The rising wave (hits a lot of the vibes) - Clean Sweep - The Bridge Kingdom (sort of hits some of the vibes) - When wishes bleed (sort of hits some of the vibes)
Books I didn’t like though they may fit in some ways: - Burn for me (I can’t get into Mad Rogan… he just isn’t a good love interest for me) - Magic Bites (Idk I just wasn’t getting into it, I DNFd) - A deadly education (I liked the story but the …rambling style through me off) - Born in fire (good story but couldn’t get behind the love interest)

My life before Earth was a dreamless sleep. A thing that is in a very real sense, a kind of death. I did not feel for the longest time, like I really existed. What I mean is… I was a tool that worked. Not much else. All of us were.
The dlamisa guiding the AI construction. The programmer who created new software. The geneticist who had to oversee the dying to identify useful genetic mutations that might be useful in improving our species ability to survive.
And the student who aspired to rise to the heights of government… yes… even those at our highest levels of administration, our ‘council’ was no different than I or anyone else. I have to say, I never thought I would give my species credit for this over humanity, but at least our senior leaders were as dead inside as the rest of us.
They weren’t exploiting us to bring happiness to themselves, they shared in our common hopeless trudging, whereas most human dictators freed themselves but enslaved their people.
The upshot to this of course was that my quiet revolution, that which was undermining everything of the last few thousand years, would, I believed, be as embraced by them as by everyone else.
I’m sure there were people investigating me by now, and while I doubted it even occurred to Livingston, I’m fairly certain that somewhere in the halls of power on Dlamias, somebody set me to this with the specific intent that I be killed by the Praeda. They, not having recognized the value of the changes radiating outward, would have seen the first hints of it, seen me as a disruptive outlier, and decided a dangerous mission was the best way to handle me without creating an interplanetary incident with an allied state.
Essentially it’s what they did with Bonny Red and all the other scouts. Send the problem elements to useful but dangerous jobs and sooner or later they’d be killed off and there’d be no more problem.
Understanding this terrified me to my core, and when Fauve arrived for dinner that evening, I addressed the Walkers and told them what I suspected.
“How sure are you of this?” Fauve asked, her eyes were narrow as she searched my face, Byron and Boatswain, were speaking silently through their expressions as she asked me, but I could tell they reached the same conclusion.
Michael, thankfully, had finished early and was enthralled in a virtual game and so, heard nothing from his room. William and Rebecca were quiet too, but I could see this definitely hit them hard.
“As sure as I am that I’m still going.” I answered. “This is exactly the sort of way my homeworld likes to deal with ‘problematic elements’. And I have been a very problematic element for some time now.”
“And we adore you for it.” Rebecca insisted, “But what does that mean for us?”
“Maybe nothing, maybe everything?” I sort of asked, and reached for my glass of wine. I drank half the glass and stared down into the dark red remainder. “If you pulled out, I could explain privately to the Presider, but to be honest, I think you all have a better chance at this than anyone.”
“Really?” William asked.
“Yes.” I said, deadpan. “There are probably a few thousand people who have any experience working with aliens. Only a few hundred total who live with them. Only one household has generations of multispecies experience, and besides that?” I pointed toward Rebecca, “A master of genetic science.” I pointed to William, “An engineer building the first space station in history to be able to construct designs from multiple species.” I gestured to Fauve, “A media expert who has been learning her trade more or less from the time she was fourteen and who has amassed knowledge on how to ‘connect’ with nonhumans.”
I huffed, “When you get right down to it, the Walkers have become outliers, anomalies on Earth, with a breadth of experience that make you indispensable… but this is dangerous. You’re venturing into a place where you’ll be met with great suspicion and probably a lot of hostility. I don’t want anything to happen to you, so normally I would say not to go.”
“Normally?” William asked.
I drank the rest of my wine and held out my glass, Boatswain grabbed the bottle closest to him and tilted the bottle over to refill it, the sloshing noise made my ears twitch with anticipation. If it weren’t for the somber discussion, my tail would have been wagging.
“Yes. If we fail, at least we have a good ship to escape in and the good Captain will be able to go nearly anywhere. At least this way, if things go wrong, we have a way to escape. But on a planet? We’re trapped.” I shook my head, and Boatswain reflexively let out a very defensive growl at the prospect of hostilities.
“You might be safer going, than staying…but you should go in knowing what to expect. From what Bonny Red says, the attacks are sporadic and focused on outlying and obscure areas, this is the same thing that happened when the war broke out last time. My people, and many others, started trying to weaken their neighbors in secret before the Rogue World would pass us by. If some species are doing that again, I doubt it will be nearly as hard for fighting to break out this time.” I drank half my glass and set it down.
Fauve, for her part, was sifting through her datapad, I wondered what she was up to, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“Wow…” She whistled and flipped her datapad around. “Even Chi’cagoa Rea didn’t look this bad.” She was looking at photo records of the old war, it was hardly classified information, and was well documented for the most part, but most of the information was very divided from one species to the next, each one concerned only with their side and their perspective.
It was only now after life on Earth and seeing their amalgamated records of perspectives that I realized the value of gathering all views of events together, and how myopic we really have been for a very long time.
“We’re still going, of course, am I right, mom, dad?” Fauve asked.
William was sullen for a moment. “Yes. Yes definitely.” His face was grave, his eyes steadily focused on the table, but not really seeing it. “The first ships will be ready soon, if violence does break out I can make sure Michael gets a spot on the escape ships, and he’ll be safe with Iskandar’s family. I suppose we could have him stay with my sisters or cousins but… better for him to be closer to the familiar.”
Rebecca made her own thoughts known soon enough, “If something happens to us out there, what then?”
None of us liked that idea, but it had to be addressed. Losing his entire family would be a horrible thing.
But at the same time, we had the best chance collectively of making sure that didn’t happen.
“Are we sure we shouldn’t just bring him with us?” Fauve asked. “Hear me out,” she said as her parents opened their mouths, she held one hand out from her body in a gesture for them to stop and listen. They did, and Fauve went on, “He’s in just as much danger here as he is there, the only difference is the time between one danger and the next. And there at least we have a ship to escape on, one that won’t leave him behind. What if he stays here and there’s a problem with construction? What if someone doesn’t give him a spot on a ship even if we reserve one. We won’t exactly be able to file a complaint now, will we?”
Her question was thick with sarcasm, and her point was as sharp as Boatswain’s teeth.
“The Red Spark is exceptionally well armed.” I added, “It’s also one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. She might be right, it might really be the safest place in all this. Plus it is technically a neutral ship, they’re less likely to fire on it.” I pointed out.
Of course I would be negligent in my duties if I didn’t properly discuss what happened at the dinner table from an academic perspective. Notably, the discussion took place away from Michael. He was still a young boy, lacking in maturity despite his relative sharpness. As such, parents often make decisions without consulting them, there are exceptions, and I will say that they would often talk to him about what he wanted and did not want for himself.
However, it was a matter of course that on issues far beyond a child’s knowledge that he would be ‘told’ what would happen and then have it explained. Discussing it away from him minimized confusion. I compare this to Fauve’s stubborn insistence on speaking to the press when she was fourteen.
The distinction of four or five years for human young is considerable, in the middle teen years, independence grows dramatically and decision making becomes that much more important for them. I had little doubt that, were Michael of the age now that Fauve was then, he would have been party to this discussion and his wishes would have carried great weight.
Further, it is noteworthy that it was William who first addressed the question of whether the family would go. Mild as he was, he was a more impulsive thinker, it seemed to me that in their marital relationship, William spoke first, and then Rebecca, after considering matters at greater length, would address the subject with thoughts of her own. Whether this was an echo of the patriarchal society of the past or of their impulsive versus deliberate personalities was impossible to say. But in studying humans I noticed that while impulsivity was common enough in both sexes, it was more pronounced in their males, not only in frequency but in grandiosity.
I theorize that this serves a similar function to the less intelligent animal life in which males must compete for attention from potential mates, such as by having brightly colored feathers or fur. Human males may therefore be prone to speaking or acting first in the hopes of garnering favorable attention.
Of course, they’re a cultured people, intelligent and with wildly varying personalities, thus I also note that the most effective mated pairs ‘blend’ their natures into productive ends. Rebecca’s tendency to speak ‘after’ him, reflected her preference to think for longer, but as on this occasion, she applied her thoughts to his to come to a viable solution.
Being family to me, I didn’t want to see them fight… but at the same time? The academic in me wishes they’d disagreed so I could gather more data on how they would have resolved such a profound disagreement.
Insofar as Fauve, her vocal opinion on the matter was heard by both parents, who at her bidding restrained themselves from interrupting her. Hearing someone out is of paramount importance to human society, and one of the most disrespectful things you can do to another is to refuse to listen to their words.
It said a great deal about the quality and amiability of their relationship with their daughter that they listened so closely to what she had to say. Too, it says something of her that what she had to say was so eminently sensible.
Of course, I still had to deal with the fact that somebody was trying to get me killed… if in a very ‘impersonal’ sort of way. But I had no intention of dying, and if anything, I was already thinking ahead as to how I might use this situation to further my rebellion, and bring about the destruction of everything I had come to loathe about our way of life.
In the end, they would thank me for it, of that, I was profoundly certain.

Hello! There was a good amount of interest on the potluck I posted a couple weeks ago and a request to share future ones, so here is our next summer potluck hosted by the Minnesota Transplants Discord!
This Saturday 6/10 starting at 4, we will be having a potluck at Beard's Plaisance, near Lake Harriet. While this group is dedicated to building community with transplants, anyone happy to hang out with a bunch of out-of-staters is welcome! Last time we had about 10-15 people and it was a good time. If you feel included to bring a dish for the potluck, that would be awesome, but you are also welcome to come as you are. I will have cold drinks, finger sandwiches, and plates/cutlery available.
The best way to get all the info you need on this event is to join our discord: https://discord.gg/kKRcK3zFn6 , but if you're interested and don't have discord, please give a shout here or send me a direct message and I will send you an update when I get to the park on where we are set up and what to look for.
Hope to see you there!