I'm looking for a home built in certain years where I can easily upgrade it to make it smart technology friendly as well as eco efficient. I'm not sure if it can be done on any home or if its better to do it on a semi-new home as I feel like the years mentioned are most likely up to code with insulation, plumbing, electrical wiring, and home efficiency. Basically homes that are easy to fix for a technician because its underlying layouts are more accessible and diagramed better compared to older homes. Homes built after 2020 seem to be even compatible, but more expensive (like a $100K-$200K difference) and use much more cheaper materials and require time to actually settle in. Though homes built in the 90s here are like $100K cheaper, but outdated.... but thats $100K worth of upgrades that can be done to keep it modern or it could be $100K worth of headaches because things here and there will need to be fixed as the house project goes along. I used to live in a home built in the early 1900s and some of the services were very expensive to fix primarily plumbing and electrical wirings with the internet due to an outdated layout and required extra time and money to modernize it.
So would looking for homes built after 2000 but before 2020 be a better choice in this situation? Or can it be done with any home?

The human pulled to a stop, huffing and puffing, hands on his knees as he took in great big breaths. Krill could see ribs through his skin as the great bellows expanded and then contracted. Sweat slicked the skin as the body desperately tried to cool itself.
"Heart rate 165."
The human straightened himself out, coughing once or twice to clear his throat, reaching out and wiping his face with a towel.
He threw the towel over one shoulder and stretched the large muscle groups in his chest, stomach and back, pulling tight.
Sunny leaned against the wall just to their right, both sets of arms crossed over her chest,
"So, what is this supposed to be for? Is this like a dominance thing or something?”
The human wiped his face again and raised an eyebrow,
"It's exercises, Sunny. You know? So I can be fit enough to pass the UNSC PT exam, or perhaps so that I can do my job better, or maybe because I look better when I'm more fit.”
Sunny turned her head to look at him, her eyes scrunching down a little, as Krill went to take notes on a clipboard.
"You mean... You didn't just grow to being that size?”
The human glanced down at Krill incredulous,
"IS she serious? Do the Drev like, not have to work out?"
Krill shook his head,
"Drev do not have subcutaneous fat deposits like humans do. Any acquired deposits are stored below the carapace between the connective tissue, padding them down and giving them more protection."
Sunny looked between them in confusion,
"Wait, hold on... I'm confused."
The human toweled off his hair,
"I have to work out to look like this Sunny. If I don't use it, I lose it."
She turned to look at Krill.
He tucked the holo-pad under one arm,
"You see, Sunny. Humans are meant to adapt. They can adapt mentally, and they can adapt physically. The body changes to match the requirements of its environment. Sometimes this takes years to do, for instance if you take a light skinned population of humans and put them somewhere with a lot of sun, and keep that population in complete isolation, after a few generations, the skin will darken to compensate for the increased UV light. However, these things happen on a smaller level. The body fluctuates to adapt to the amount of physical work which is required."
The human nodded,
"Exactly. Running strengthens the heart, and it increases the hemoglobin in my blood, so that I can run for a longer time with more oxygen. If I were to stop running, I would lose all of that and have to work back up."
Sunny stared at him incredulous,
"So, you have to force your body to be able to perform correctly. Like, it can't just DO what it needs to do, but you have to convince it over years of training to be able to do what you want?”
The man shrugged,
"Well anything sucks when you phrase it like that."
He turned and motioned them to follow,
"Historically, humanity was evolved in an environment with little food. We ate a diet heavy in proteins, fiber, and natural carbs from fruit. Fat is an essential part of a human's diet, but it is relatively difficult to find in nature. Because of this, the body adapted to make humans love and crave fatty and sugary foods for energy. Well since well into the twentieth eighteenth century, fatty foods were becoming commonplace, and easy to get our hands on, but the body wasn't aware of that, so it continued to treat these new fatty foods the way our bodies would have treated them back when we were huntegatherers storing every last bit up for use later."
Sunny followed after in fascination,
"I see, so now you have... Too much of a food that your body craves."
The human looked over his shoulder,
"You got it, and the body doesn't know when to stop storing fat. It'll just keep going. So, if I were to sit on my ass all day eating chips, I would lose the muscle and I would get bigger as fat deposits were stored up for energy."
Sunny shrugged,
"What is the problem with that?"
The human tapped his chin lightly,
"A few things, I guess. For me, at least, if I were to just stop working out, I wouldn't be able to do my job as well, I wouldn't be able to run as far, or to jump as high, or to lift as much. And lifting myself up in a pullup would be impossible, and considering the amount of times we have all almost fallen off a cliff, or had to haul ourselves up rope, you would think that would be a bad idea. Not to mention that the larger you are, the harder your heart has to work as the blood supply is forced to expand, and since you aren't working out your heart it gets weaker but has to do more work, which –in turn– increased the risk of heart issues. Compounding all that I wouldn't be able to sit in a cockpit or pilot a jet properly."
Sunny shook her head,
"That seems like a very... annoying model. You can never just relax. You always have to work to keep your body where it should be. And the amount of self-control you have to have..."
The human laughed,
"You have no idea how much self-control I need when a box of doughnuts gets in my way."
He sighed,
"Keeping my abs has been a real struggle, but luckily the UNSC drilled some self-discipline into me when I was still young."
"So, you weren't always this big?”
The human snorted,
"No not in the slightest. In fact, I was so skinny, you could see my heart beating through my rib cage.”
Sunny grimaced.
"Yeah I know, kinda gross. Those are your two directions. If you don't work out your either super scary skinny, or you get a bit big. If you're working out right, you get muscles."
He turned around, flexing proudly for them to outline the lines of his biceps, chest and stomach.
Sunny would have rolled her eyes back into her head, but she supposed, now that she knew he had to work for it, she was at least somewhat proud of him.
"Ok, I have a question then."
"Shoot."
"Can you get bigger?"
More laughter,
"Oh yeah, totally, but I'm not THAT dedicated."
They were just coming around a corner when the commander skidded to a halt, eye to chest with an absolutely massive human.
Even Sunny stepped back in surprise.
This human was large enough to look Sunny in the eye, with shoulders about as wide as her, and a chest that looked like it could have benched a small car.
It was almost comical, a moment ago Sunny had assumed that the commander was a large human.
"Wow there, big man. I'd rather not get steamrolled today, thanks."
The large human glanced down at the commander.
"Sorry sir."
He grunted, before stepping around and walking up the hall.
Sunny watched him go,
"What do you have to do to get that big!?”
"You practically have to live at the gym."
They turned the corner, walking into a large room, with strange machines of unknown use.
And in here there were humans of all sizes and shapes, but most of them absolutely massive. Those who lacked height, did not lack muscle.
Male humans, female humans, all of the above.
A tiny female human stood at one of these machines, carrying a bar on her shoulders with enough weight that sunny assumed it might crush her. Instead, she squatted down to the floor and stood back up.
The captain blinked and motioned towards her
"Holy shit."
"She squats more than me by the way. You see these guys are insane. I work out to maintain, these guys do it because it’s their hobby."
Krill floated upwards to whisper in Sunny's ear,
"For the muscle to enlarge, the fibers must tear open, and then the body comes back and repairs the tear to withstand the pressures that tore it in the first place.”
Sunny stared at Krill incredulously,
"So you're telling me, they just... Tear themselves apart to get like that?”
The commander left them standing in place, walking over to the wall and jumping upwards, catching his hands around a black bar welded to the wall, the muscles in his back, just below the shoulder blades flexed as he pulled himself upwards, the muscles in his shoulder blades rolling under the skin.
They continued to watch as the commander did his set, a little bit of everything for demonstration purposes. Getting off one of the leg machines, one of these large female humans walked past, sitting where he had just sat, reaching out, pulling out the peg and bringing the weight almost to the bottom of the plates.
The commander leaned in,
"See her, she could probably crush your skull using just her legs."
He sighed,
"Man, I only WISH I could be that badass."
”Yeah, I am sure THAT’S whats you are wishing when you see those thighs…”
He looked up at Sunny,
"Sometimes I come here just to knock myself down a peg."
Across the room, one of these massive humans was hauling a huge bar, lined with weight on either side up over his head like it was nothing.
"You see that, that would probably invert my spine if I tried to do it."
"Must you be so graphic?"
"Yeah, because that's how much of a wuss I am."
Looking around, Sunny wasn't convinced entirely of his status as a wuss.
He had all the requisite muscle groups of even the largest humans, and more than some. There were great swatches of the human population who, even here, were missing some things.
A few of the humans had large arms, but small legs, big legs, but small arms, no chest, or chest and no abdominal muscles.
Yes sure, he may have been smaller than their largest, but he WAS well rounded…Arms, chest, stomach, legs, back and shoulders.
She found herself surprised at the smug satisfaction in comparing her human to the other humans.
Sure, her human couldn't bench THAT much, but he also had better legs, so there.
"You ok, Sunny?"
She turned her head to look at him.
"Just thinking."
She said and he shrugged at her and returned to do his workout.
It's hard to be a human.
They have to work for everything they have, especially when it comes to their body.
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Welcome once again to my Riordan Retrospective. For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan. That means Percy Jackson, its sequels, and spin-offs. This is less of a formal review and more of a relaxed look back.
Last time, we finished our look back at The Trials of Apollowith a look back at The Tower of Nero. We thought that we’d said goodbye to the worlds of Rick Riordan. Little did we know that a new book was about to surface. As such, we’re taking a look back at Daughter of the Deep.
Ana Dakkar is about to finish her freshman year at Harding-Pencroft Academy. It is a five-year academy specializing in marine science. She, and her nineteen classmates, are about to begin their freshmen trials. Harding-Pencroft holds its students very high standards. However, before they can take off, the school is destroyed by a series of sonic torpedoes. The remaining students and professors of Harding-Pencroft regroup aboard their yacht the Varuna. Ana discovers several major revelations. Jules Verne’s novels 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island were based on actual events. Captain Nemo was indeed a real person, and Ana is his direct descendant. In fact, the whole point of Harding-Pencroft Academy is to safeguard Nemo’s legacy and technology. Their next stop is Lincoln Island, the final resting place of Nemo and the Nautilus. But danger lurks around every corner as the survivors of Harding-Pencroft are hunted by their old rivals: Land Academy.
Well, it looks like we’re back sooner than I expected. I thought we’d be back for that Irish Mythology book Rick said he was planning. However, that seems to have been put on the back-burner. Daughter of the Deep apparently has been a long time coming. Way back in 2009, Disney executives asked Rick what Disney property he would want to write a book based on. It could be anything he wanted. He chose 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as the 1954 film adaptation is one of his favorite movies. Technically, Disney only owns the rights to the movie, not the original book. The original Verne novel has long since slipped into the public domain. I’m tempted to think that Rick was, at least somewhat, trolling the executives.
I actually went back and watched the 1954 movie adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I agree with Rick here. The movie is, I must say, a truly underrated gem among live-action Disney films. In fact, I might even give it its own review at some point. Now, the movie does take some liberties with the source material. Though, personally, I’d say that was to its benefit, as it made for a more engaging story that worked better in film. Verne was known for doing a lot of research with his novels, and often devoted entire paragraphs to explaining the science in detail. Unfortunately, this does make for a rather dry reading experience. I’ve heard Verne works better in the original French, but that is a language I do not speak. Amusingly, students at Harding-Pencroft are required to read 20,000 Leagues Under the Seaand The Mysterious Island. Ana found them both to be a bit dry for her taste. I myself enjoyed The Mysterious Islandslightly more than 20,000 Leagues, but it still suffered from many of the same issues.
I’ve heard a few people wonder what it might be like if Rick Riordan were to write a science fiction novel. Well, we now have our answer. We know more about the surface of the Moon than we do our own deep oceans. Twelve people have walked on the surface of the Moon, but only two have ever been to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Ocean-based science fiction is still comparatively rare compared to space-based or terrestrial-based science fiction. So, I’m glad to see that Daughter of the Deep tapped into some of the vast potential of ocean-based science fiction.
Now, I should probably clarify that Daughter of the Deep is set outside of the Riordanverse. Rick has confirmed that it takes place in its own self-contained world. So, don’t expect to see any cameos from Percy, Annabeth, or any other Riordanverse characters. Still, it is similar enough in terms of style to a typical Riordanverse novel, and thus, I’ve chosen to include it as part of the retrospective.
Speaking of style, let’s begin there. Rick has said he took a film writing course before he wrote Daughter of the Deep. That is very apparent in how the prose itself is written. It reads very much like a movie script. The narration is presented in first-person present tense. This helps add to the sense of action and urgency as the plot movies along. The pacing also feels very much like what you might find in a movie. We got a lot of action scenes in quick succession. We get the usual info dumps, but we don’t really take as much time for introspection. As we’ll discuss a bit later, this lack of introspection was very much to the book’s detriment. I’m willing to bet that all this is very much by design. Daughter of the Deep is being adapted into a movie on Disney+. In fact, the movie was announced even before the book came out. So, it certainly feels like Rick wrote Daughter of the Deep with an eye towards the movie adaption.
I would have liked if we had gotten to explore Harding-Pencroft Academy a bit more before it got destroyed. What brief glimpses we do see are utterly fascinating. The students are all decided into four different houses based on their area of study. Yeah, they’ve heard all the Harry Potter jokes plenty of times. Though, personally, when I saw the initials HP in an ocean-themed book, I briefly wondered if Rick Riordan was going to tackle the Lovecraft Mythos. Back on topic, the houses are Dolphin, Shark, Cephalopod, and Orca. Dolphin focuses on communications, exploration, cryptography, and counterintelligence. Shark handles command, combat, weapons systems, logistics. Cephalopod deals with engineering, applied mechanics, innovation, and defensive systems. Orca is all about medicine, psychology, education, marine biology, and communal memory. If you’re wondering about that last one, it basically means the history of Harding-Pencroft and Captain Nemo.
One of the things I appreciated was that each of the four main characters is from a different house. One of my gripes about Harry Potter is that pretty much all the important characters come from Gryffindor. Well, unless they’re a villain, and come from Slytherin. Ravenclaw had Luna and Cho, I guess, but Hufflepuff got the short end of the stick for sure. Getting back on track, having the four main protagonists of Daughter of the Deep be from different houses provided a theme that everyone has something unique to bring to the table. You can also see it as advocating for multiculturalism, but without being preachy about it. However, I do have on criticism. House Orca needed a better name. Orcas are a type of dolphin, the largest, in fact. We’ve got representatives for mammals, fish, and mollusks. How’s about giving some love to the reptiles? Personally, I would have named them House Sea Turtle instead. Or failing that, show some love to the echinoderms, and name them House Seastar. House Sea Cucumber would also work. Don’t give me that look! Sea cucumbers are noble animals and wonders of nature.
I do wish that we’d gotten to see more of Harding-Pencroft before it was destroyed. What brief glimpses we do get are utterly fascinating. As you might expect, they have quite an expansive aquarium full marine creatures. Upperclassmen train in submarine simulations using full-size mock-up submarines submerged in deep pools. However, the most fascinating class is one where students get to consider, and theorize, about the ways technology and science might have developed had history gone differently. As a major fan of alternate history I have but one thing to say: sign me up now! Well, its actually there as a way to slowly ease the students into learning the truth about Captain Nemo and his inventions. Still, sounds like a very fun class to take. I also liked how the various sections of the school are named after famous ocean explorers. There’s one part named after the Chinese navigator Zheng He, and one named after the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.
I thought all of the diving scenes were particularly well-written. Rick Riordan has a true passion for scuba diving. This really shines through during the diving scenes. I also really like how the diving suits all use jet-propulsion that mimics the siphons of cephalopods. That was a really creative touch.
Okay, let’s talk about the characters. Ana is the protagonist, but I want to save her for last. We’ll start with her roommates, and best friends, Nelinha and Ester. Nelinha da Silva grew up in an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro, but got to attend Harding-Pencroft on a scholarship. She’s also the closest the series gets to referencing Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I can best describe Nelinha as what would happen if Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard were to have a kid. And, you know, if they were still alive. She’s a complete mechanical genius, and geeks out over machines and engine parts. She’s a member of House Cephalopod, naturally. However, she is also obsessed with fashion, and always makes sure to look her best at all times. Nelinha doesn’t just pack outfits, she packs entire wardrobes.
One of my prior complaints about Rick Riordan is that he only seems to know how to write one type of female character. Namely, he seems to believe that being a strong female character means being a tomboy who hates all things girly. So, it was nice to see Nelinha as a course correction on that front. Nelinha being from Brazil is likely a nod to how popular Rick Riordan’s books are in Brazil. So, I’m sure Brazilian fans were excited to finally get a Brazilian main character.
On the flipside, we also get Ester Harding. She’s a member of House Orca. She is a blood relative of one of the founders of Harding-Pencroft. She is also the first autistic character in a Rick Riordan book. I’m still bitter about how he wrote a Muslims character before he wrote an autistic character. In the Riordanverse, anyone can be a demigod, unless you’re autistic, it would seem. I had high hopes for Ester. You don’t see autistic girls too often in the media. Riordan has said that he got sensitivity readers to help him with writing characters from different cultural backgrounds. However, it would seem none of them offered insight into autistic people. It almost feels like Riordan watched a couple episodes of The Good Doctor and was like “I got this!” You know those TikTok clips of that guy having a temper tantrum while shouting “I am a surgeon!” Yeah, that’s The Good Doctor. It was another show I had high hopes for, but fell back on stereotyping autistic people. Don’t get me started on my problems with The Good Doctor, we’ll be here all day.
Anyway, Ester displays a number of stereotypical traits. She yo-yos between being basically non-verbal, and shouting at the top of her lungs. She does this all in a robotic monotone voice. In contrast to Nelinha, Ester has basically no fashion sense, and seems to be going for the long-lost daughter of Albert Einstein look. Ester also doesn’t have much in the way of common sense, and though it never comes up, she’s probably Jewish. Not too many gentiles name Ester. She’s got an excellent memory, to the point of being almost eidetic, but that’s somewhat accurate. Well, maybe not eidetic, but most autistic people do often have amazing memories. How do you think I’m about to write these retrospectives?
Ana briefly remarks about how some people claim that autistic people can’t feel love or other emotions, and that Ester proves this isn’t true, due to how empathetic she is. Again, this is true, as autistic people can be quite empathetic. Though, I can’t help but wonder if Disney specially made Rick insert that line to cover their asses. See, this isn’t the first time Disney has tackled autism. There was an episode of Girl Meets World about how we should all be nice to autistic people. All well and good, but they also claim that autistic people are incapable of experiencing emotions, including love.
Gemini Twain has been assigned as Ana’s bodyguard. He’s a no-nonsense member of House Shark. He’s also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. This is certainly an interesting choice, as Gemini is also Black. Historically, Mormons haven’t exactly gotten along well with Black people. Or Native Americans, or Polynesians, or…well, pretty much anybody who isn’t White. The most infamous instance was when Mormon schools refused to desegregate. The American government threatened to revoke their tax exemption status, but wouldn’t you know it, Mormon God rather conveniently changed his mind about Black people. Though, Gemini’s faith doesn’t really come up that much. He doesn’t like swearing or taking the lord’s name in vein, and he mentions his grandma raised him and his brother in the LDS church, but that’s about it. Well, he did get into a minor scuffle with Nelinha. Gemini’s brother went on his mission trip to Brazil, and Gemini assumed Nelinha would know his brother, because she’s from Brazil.
Well, nice touch having one of the non-White characters be flawed enough to be accidentally racist. I remember back in The Hammer of Thor retrospective when I said, paraphrased, “A Muslim demigod? What’s next, a Mormon demigod?” I have on occasion wondered if Rick Riordan reads these retrospectives. Probably a long shot, but you never know.
Technically, there is a fifth main character: the Nautilusitself. It took until about halfway through the book before the Nautilus showed up. Yeah, this book has some pacing issues. The Nautilus has what can best be described as an artificial intelligence system. Also, apparently it also includes some organic components. As you might imagine, it is extremely untrustworthy of anyone who isn’t a blood relative of Prince Dakkar, aka Captain Nemo. So, Ana’s biometrics are key to unlocking the Nautilus.
Unfortunately, the Nautilus also highlights one of the issues I had with the book. Apparently, every major invention of the 20th Century was a result of Harding-Pencroft discreetly releasing them to the public. That, or Land Institute stealing them. This caused Daughter of the Deep to evoke the Great Man Theory of History. The theory goes that society gets stuck in ruts until a great man, and it’s always a man, shakes up the status quo and moves the world forward. This view has largely fallen out of favor with mainstream historians. Most historians emphasis how the changes were put into motion, often by complex chains of influences, long before the supposedly great men came about.
You do kind of get this with the main Riordanverse, where pretty much anyone who did anything was either a demigod or a magician. However, that was softened by just how many demigods and magicians there were throughout history. So, it felt more like a team-effort. By contrast, Daughter of the Deep gave us a single scientific übermensch who, apparently, leapfrogged from steam-power to cold fusion reactors. Now, granted, this is also true of Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Still, maybe Rick shouldn’t have depicted Nemo in such a lock, stock, and barrel sort of way.
And that segues into my next point. Harding-Pencroft is deathly afraid of letting the general public get access to Nemo’s technology. They only release technology sparingly, and only when they feel humanity has earned it. Uh, and what metric do they use to determine how worthy humanity is? Beats me, the book offers no details. The adults all make a big deal about how corporations would try to monopolize Nemo’s technology, but nobody ever suggests releasing it as open-source tech. Well, I know the real reason for that. There’s no way that Disney, the poster boy for copyright abuse, is going to be advocating for open-source. A particularly facepalm worthy moment is that fact that Harding-Pencroft refuses to release cold fusion technology…despite climate change being a serious issue! The book would have you believe Harding-Pencroft are the good guys. However, I’m tempted to think Land Institute had a point about Harding-Pencroft being corrupt and selfish.
Hey, wait a minute. Harding-Pencroft is a secretive organization that is very selective of its membership. It trains its students so that, effectively, they’re cut-off from the outside world. They indoctrinate their students from a young age into their views. They have charismatic leaders and founders. Yikes, I hope the cafeteria never served Kool-Aid! Harding-Pencroft is a cult!
It would seem that Harding-Pencroft has something akin to the Prime Detective from Star Trek. There has been a lot of debate about the morality of the Prime Detective. The main thinking seems to be don’t give advanced weaponry to civilizations that aren’t morally mature. The Original Seriesalso says that it is okay to break the Prime Directive if a planet is in imminent danger. Contrast this with Next Generation, where one episode has Captain Picard dithering about if he should save a planet, even if it break the Prime Directive. Of course, the worst offender was Voyager. It had an episode where the moral was, basically, don’t save a baby trapped in a burning car, or else the baby will grow-up to be Hitler. Yeah, the Prime Directive kind of devolved into an immoral religious dogma as Star Trek went on.
Point is, Harding-Pencroft’s Prime Directive seems to lean towards that of the later Star Trek entries. Apparently, screw the planet, we need to keep the tech away from corporations! The irony of Disney railing against corporations is so thick you can practically cut it with a machete. Also, if the concern is that the corporations would hoard stuff like the cure for cancer, well, how’s that any different than what Harding-Pencroft is doing?
Much is made about how Ana must choose to reconcile both the good and the bad of Nemo’s legacy. However, nothing really comes of this. We don’t see her seriously debate or challenge Harding-Pencroft and Land Institute’s views of Nemo. In fact, she gets indoctrinated into Harding-Pencroft’s views pretty quickly. It would have been a great opportunity to show Nemo’s complexity, not just tell us about it. How many innocent lives did he take in his quest for vengeance? Should he have shared his technology with the oppressed peoples chafing under the yoke of colonialism? Is it possible that Land Institute has some valid points, and that Harding-Pencroft has lost its way? All excellent questions that sadly go unanswered.
As for why that is, it ties into the biggest problem I have with Daughter of the Deep. Overall, it feels like merely the novelization of the yet to be produced movie. I was hoping that the novel would be able to stand on its own merits. However, Riordan clearly wrote it so that the adoption process would be streamlined. Debating ethics might not translate to film. Though, it could work in the hands of a competent scriptwriter.
I feel this streamlining was ultimately to the novel’s determent. I certainly didn’t hate Daughter of the Deep. It had plenty of the action and adventure you’d expect from a Rick Riordan novel. However, for every thing I liked, there was almost always something else I didn’t like. It is ironic that Rick claims he spent years working on Daughter of the Deep. It overall feels like it was yanked out of the oven before it had a chance to bake properly. Then again, he also claims to have gotten the idea for Magnus Chase before he wrote Percy Jackson, and look how that turned out.
The audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani. She’s the narrator for the Aru Shah audiobooks. Personally, I wasn’t too thrilled when I saw that Soneela would be narrating. However, she gave a fairly decent performance. She voiced Ester in a rather stereotypical way, like she was imitating Sean from The Good Doctor, but that was the only true sour note. Speaking of music, the audiobook is filled with music. There’s lots of musical cues throughout the audiobook. Scenes of wonder and whimsy have inspirational music, action scenes have exciting music. There’s a scene where Ana plays a pipe organ aboard the Nautilus, and we actually get to hear it. I thought that was a really nice touch.
Now, let’s analyze the cover. This is a nice looking cover. The undersea landscape is bright and vibrant. We see Ana and Gemini in their divining suits. Their faces are clear and unobscured. The Rick Riordan Presents books goes with this approach as well. Something about it being important for minority kids to see themselves clearly represented on book covers. We also see the Nautilus in the background, along with a giant octopus.
So, Daughter of the Deep has a lot of potential, and I certainly wouldn’t mind a sequel. However, there’s a lot of room for improvement. It needed to stand on its own merits, not just be the dry run for the movie script. Still, it's lightyears better than our next port of call. Next time, we’re tackling The Sun and The Star. The claws are coming out, and I’m prepared to fully eviscerate Mark Oshiro’s glorified self-insert fanfic.
​
Link to the original retrospective on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2023/06/riordan-retrospective-daughter-of-deep.html?m=1

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Keep in mind: never skip leg day!
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The human pulled to a stop, huffing and puffing, hands on his knees as he took in great big breaths. Krill could see ribs through his skin as the great bellows expanded and then contracted. Sweat slicked the skin as the body desperately tried to cool itself.
"Heart rate 165."
The human straightened himself out, coughing once or twice to clear his throat, reaching out and wiping his face with a towel.
He threw the towel over one shoulder and stretched the large muscle groups in his chest, stomach and back, pulling tight.
Sunny leaned against the wall just to their right, both sets of arms crossed over her chest,
"So, what is this supposed to be for? Is this like a dominance thing or something?”
The human wiped his face again and raised an eyebrow,
"It's exercises, Sunny. You know? So I can be fit enough to pass the UNSC PT exam, or perhaps so that I can do my job better, or maybe because I look better when I'm more fit.”
Sunny turned her head to look at him, her eyes scrunching down a little, as Krill went to take notes on a clipboard.
"You mean... You didn't just grow to being that size?”
The human glanced down at Krill incredulous,
"IS she serious? Do the Drev like, not have to work out?"
Krill shook his head,
"Drev do not have subcutaneous fat deposits like humans do. Any acquired deposits are stored below the carapace between the connective tissue, padding them down and giving them more protection."
Sunny looked between them in confusion,
"Wait, hold on... I'm confused."
The human toweled off his hair,
"I have to work out to look like this Sunny. If I don't use it, I lose it."
She turned to look at Krill.
He tucked the holo-pad under one arm,
"You see, Sunny. Humans are meant to adapt. They can adapt mentally, and they can adapt physically. The body changes to match the requirements of its environment. Sometimes this takes years to do, for instance if you take a light skinned population of humans and put them somewhere with a lot of sun, and keep that population in complete isolation, after a few generations, the skin will darken to compensate for the increased UV light. However, these things happen on a smaller level. The body fluctuates to adapt to the amount of physical work which is required."
The human nodded,
"Exactly. Running strengthens the heart, and it increases the hemoglobin in my blood, so that I can run for a longer time with more oxygen. If I were to stop running, I would lose all of that and have to work back up."
Sunny stared at him incredulous,
"So, you have to force your body to be able to perform correctly. Like, it can't just DO what it needs to do, but you have to convince it over years of training to be able to do what you want?”
The man shrugged,
"Well anything sucks when you phrase it like that."
He turned and motioned them to follow,
"Historically, humanity was evolved in an environment with little food. We ate a diet heavy in proteins, fiber, and natural carbs from fruit. Fat is an essential part of a human's diet, but it is relatively difficult to find in nature. Because of this, the body adapted to make humans love and crave fatty and sugary foods for energy. Well since well into the twentieth eighteenth century, fatty foods were becoming commonplace, and easy to get our hands on, but the body wasn't aware of that, so it continued to treat these new fatty foods the way our bodies would have treated them back when we were huntegatherers storing every last bit up for use later."
Sunny followed after in fascination,
"I see, so now you have... Too much of a food that your body craves."
The human looked over his shoulder,
"You got it, and the body doesn't know when to stop storing fat. It'll just keep going. So, if I were to sit on my ass all day eating chips, I would lose the muscle and I would get bigger as fat deposits were stored up for energy."
Sunny shrugged,
"What is the problem with that?"
The human tapped his chin lightly,
"A few things, I guess. For me, at least, if I were to just stop working out, I wouldn't be able to do my job as well, I wouldn't be able to run as far, or to jump as high, or to lift as much. And lifting myself up in a pullup would be impossible, and considering the amount of times we have all almost fallen off a cliff, or had to haul ourselves up rope, you would think that would be a bad idea. Not to mention that the larger you are, the harder your heart has to work as the blood supply is forced to expand, and since you aren't working out your heart it gets weaker but has to do more work, which –in turn– increased the risk of heart issues. Compounding all that I wouldn't be able to sit in a cockpit or pilot a jet properly."
Sunny shook her head,
"That seems like a very... annoying model. You can never just relax. You always have to work to keep your body where it should be. And the amount of self-control you have to have..."
The human laughed,
"You have no idea how much self-control I need when a box of doughnuts gets in my way."
He sighed,
"Keeping my abs has been a real struggle, but luckily the UNSC drilled some self-discipline into me when I was still young."
"So, you weren't always this big?”
The human snorted,
"No not in the slightest. In fact, I was so skinny, you could see my heart beating through my rib cage.”
Sunny grimaced.
"Yeah I know, kinda gross. Those are your two directions. If you don't work out your either super scary skinny, or you get a bit big. If you're working out right, you get muscles."
He turned around, flexing proudly for them to outline the lines of his biceps, chest and stomach.
Sunny would have rolled her eyes back into her head, but she supposed, now that she knew he had to work for it, she was at least somewhat proud of him.
"Ok, I have a question then."
"Shoot."
"Can you get bigger?"
More laughter,
"Oh yeah, totally, but I'm not THAT dedicated."
They were just coming around a corner when the commander skidded to a halt, eye to chest with an absolutely massive human.
Even Sunny stepped back in surprise.
This human was large enough to look Sunny in the eye, with shoulders about as wide as her, and a chest that looked like it could have benched a small car.
It was almost comical, a moment ago Sunny had assumed that the commander was a large human.
"Wow there, big man. I'd rather not get steamrolled today, thanks."
The large human glanced down at the commander.
"Sorry sir."
He grunted, before stepping around and walking up the hall.
Sunny watched him go,
"What do you have to do to get that big!?”
"You practically have to live at the gym."
They turned the corner, walking into a large room, with strange machines of unknown use.
And in here there were humans of all sizes and shapes, but most of them absolutely massive. Those who lacked height, did not lack muscle.
Male humans, female humans, all of the above.
A tiny female human stood at one of these machines, carrying a bar on her shoulders with enough weight that sunny assumed it might crush her. Instead, she squatted down to the floor and stood back up.
The captain blinked and motioned towards her
"Holy shit."
"She squats more than me by the way. You see these guys are insane. I work out to maintain, these guys do it because it’s their hobby."
Krill floated upwards to whisper in Sunny's ear,
"For the muscle to enlarge, the fibers must tear open, and then the body comes back and repairs the tear to withstand the pressures that tore it in the first place.”
Sunny stared at Krill incredulously,
"So you're telling me, they just... Tear themselves apart to get like that?”
The commander left them standing in place, walking over to the wall and jumping upwards, catching his hands around a black bar welded to the wall, the muscles in his back, just below the shoulder blades flexed as he pulled himself upwards, the muscles in his shoulder blades rolling under the skin.
They continued to watch as the commander did his set, a little bit of everything for demonstration purposes. Getting off one of the leg machines, one of these large female humans walked past, sitting where he had just sat, reaching out, pulling out the peg and bringing the weight almost to the bottom of the plates.
The commander leaned in,
"See her, she could probably crush your skull using just her legs."
He sighed,
"Man, I only WISH I could be that badass."
”Yeah, I am sure THAT’S whats you are wishing when you see those thighs…”
He looked up at Sunny,
"Sometimes I come here just to knock myself down a peg."
Across the room, one of these massive humans was hauling a huge bar, lined with weight on either side up over his head like it was nothing.
"You see that, that would probably invert my spine if I tried to do it."
"Must you be so graphic?"
"Yeah, because that's how much of a wuss I am."
Looking around, Sunny wasn't convinced entirely of his status as a wuss.
He had all the requisite muscle groups of even the largest humans, and more than some. There were great swatches of the human population who, even here, were missing some things.
A few of the humans had large arms, but small legs, big legs, but small arms, no chest, or chest and no abdominal muscles.
Yes sure, he may have been smaller than their largest, but he WAS well rounded…Arms, chest, stomach, legs, back and shoulders.
She found herself surprised at the smug satisfaction in comparing her human to the other humans.
Sure, her human couldn't bench THAT much, but he also had better legs, so there.
"You ok, Sunny?"
She turned her head to look at him.
"Just thinking."
She said and he shrugged at her and returned to do his workout.
It's hard to be a human.
They have to work for everything they have, especially when it comes to their body.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

In December of 2020, I leased a 2020 Volvo XC40 T5 AWD Momentum SUV. Very nice vehicle, and thanks to the car I traded in, I got (especially for the time), a decent deal on the lease. I pay 450/mo and my lease is for 3 years/36,000 miles.
The vehicle currently has approximately 21,000 miles on it, so I am well under my mileage. It is also in great shape. Could stand to be vacuumed, but very minimal wear and tear and I have never had any mechanical issues.
Now, enter my current situation: Financially I'm doing fine (just growing up and deciding to be a little more responsible lol), but I'd really like to cut my car payment down to something closer to 300/mo. Plus getting into something that takes regular fuel rather than premium would also probably save me some cash. I previously discussed selling my lease with the Volvo dealer, and they informed me that I can only do this if I buy or lease a new or used Volvo. So I suppose question #1: Is Volvo known to do this, or is the dealer jerking my chain?
Furthermore, on that same occasion when I visited the dealer, they told me they'd value my vehicle at $30,000 (which is a little low, I am certain, but I digress). My current payout amount is approximately ~$26,300 (it was slightly higher when I visited the dealer; this was a few months ago), so I'm willing to assume that my current "equity" is around $3k.
Given Volvo's apparent restrictions, it appears the only way for me to move forward at this exact moment would be to get a loan, buy out my lease, and then immediately use that as a trade in on either 1) a new car 2) another lease, but of a cheaper car 3) a used car. Alternatively, I could ride out the lease until the end of the term and buy it out then. This may give me more equity, but I'd still be spending the money, and there is no guarantee that the value of my car will stay as high as it is right now. I could also just turn in the car at the end of the lease like normal, but that seems really dumb when I actually have "equity" in it.
In terms of what I'd like to move into, I'd be pretty happy with anything Mazda, Toyota, or Honda that has a decent feature set (Backup cam/blindspot monitoring/bluetooth are non-negotiable tbh). SUV would be great but also isn't a hard-requirement. I commute a short distance for work and do some around-town driving for my side gig.
So what do you think? Should I buy out now or at the end of the lease? Or just ride it out?

I live in California and am looking to purchase a used vehicle from a dealer in Arizona (it's the only vehicle with the options I wanted). I was planning to drive the car back, but the dealer said if I drive it off the lot, I'd have to pay AZ sales tax. The only way to avoid it is to have it shipped.
On the DMV fees calculator, there is a box where I can enter sales taxes paid to another state and it appears to be deducted from the CA tax.
Can anyone confirm that I can in fact deduct any taxes I pay in AZ when I register the car in CA (such that I won't end up paying extra taxes)? Thanks!

I will be buying my first car in a couple months, I will definitely be buying a very cheap used car (£2000-3000), just good enough to get me from point A to point B. I am not all that financially literate so please excuse me if the answer to my question is obvious.
I have the cash to buy this outright, and it wouldn’t put me in any kind of strained position financially to just buy it, but are there any advantages to financing it and paying it off overtime. What would be the pros and cons of financing it and paying it off over time?
Thank you very much.

I’ll start - I’m young 50s still working HHI about $600,000, net worth about $7.1M.
I don’t really feel “rich”. There are a lot of things I feel like I can’t afford - I fly coach, buy nice (under $50k) used cars, and eat at normal restaurants. Don’t do anything too extravagant as far as vacations, or “exclusive” clubs.
Looks like other people in this group must have much more, or at least spend more based on some posts.
I’m I living too far under my means, or are others in the group much better off?

I always loved Elon’s vision. Owned Tesla stock since back in 2017. So this is coming from someone who is a Tesla fan and this is my honest feedback. Only making this so prospective buyers are aware before buying a used one. Maybe the newer have fixed these common issues.
Six months ago I purchased a 2019 Model 3 with 28K miles from Tesla. Have ~40K miles now, mostly highway miles. Maintenance so far:

1. Control arm replaced
   
2. Backseat window regulator and glass replaced
   
3. Stress crack on rear window. Replaced glass.
   
4. Rattle from front. Adjusted exterior trim pieces and installed missing clips
   
5. Air smells terrible. Cleaned coil and replaced filter. **(General maintenance, have to do yearly)
   

I’ve owned Audi, Porsche, BMW, Ford and Chevy, this is by far the most maintenance I’ve had on any car. With that being said, the service centers are great. Everything has been covered under warranty and have received a loaner.
Overall, Tesla’s are great cars but I wouldn’t recommend buying anything older than 2021. Sorry for the rant lol.

Billboard Hot 100 chart

Position	Title	Artist	▲/▼	Last week	Weeks Charting	Peak
1	Last Night	Morgan Wallen	-	1	18	1
2	Karma	Taylor Swift Featuring Ice Spice	▲+25	27	12	2
3	Flowers	Miley Cyrus	▼-1	2	20	1
4	All My Life	Lil Durk Featuring J. Cole	▲+3	7	3	2
5	Calm Down	Rema & Selena Gomez	▼-1	4	39	4
6	Kill Bill	SZA	▼-3	3	25	1
7	Ella Baila Sola	Eslabon Armado X Peso Pluma	▼-1	6	11	4
8	Fast Car	Luke Combs	▲+2	10	10	8
9	Favorite Song	Toosii	▼-4	5	15	5
10	Creepin'	Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage	▼-1	9	26	3
11	Anti-Hero	Taylor Swift	▲+1	12	32	1
12	Die For You	The Weeknd & Ariana Grande	▼-1	11	44	1
13	Sure Thing	Miguel	-	13	44	13
14	Where She Goes	Bad Bunny	▼-6	8	2	8
15	Something In The Orange	Zach Bryan	▲+2	17	58	10
16	Un x100to	Grupo Frontera X Bad Bunny	▼-2	14	7	5
17	Boy's A Liar, Pt. 2	PinkPantheress & Ice Spice	▼-2	15	17	3
18	Rock And A Hard Place	Bailey Zimmerman	▲+1	19	51	10
19	Search & Rescue	Drake	▼-3	16	8	2
20	La Bebe	Yng Lvcas x Peso Pluma	▼-2	18	11	11
21	You Proof	Morgan Wallen	▲+2	23	55	5
22	Stand By Me	Lil Durk Featuring Morgan Wallen	▲+79	[FRESH]	1	22
23	Cupid	Fifty Fifty	▼-3	20	11	17
24	As It Was	Harry Styles	▼-2	22	61	1
25	Thinkin' Bout Me	Morgan Wallen	-	25	13	9
26	Chemical	Post Malone	▼-5	21	7	13
27	Hits Different	Taylor Swift	▲+74	[FRESH]	1	27
28	Snooze	SZA	-	28	25	28
29	I'm Good (Blue)	David Guetta & Bebe Rexha	▲+1	30	40	4
30	Snow On The Beach	Taylor Swift Featuring Lana Del Rey	▲+71	--	7	4
31	Need A Favor	Jelly Roll	▲+9	40	9	31
32	One Thing At A Time	Morgan Wallen	▼-6	26	26	10
33	Thought You Should Know	Morgan Wallen	▲+1	34	42	7
34	Eyes Closed	Ed Sheeran	▼-3	31	10	19
35	Pelle Coat	Lil Durk	▲+66	[FRESH]	1	35
36	Players	Coi Leray	▼-7	29	22	9
37	Dancin' In The Country	Tyler Hubbard	▼-13	24	15	23
38	Area Codes	Kali	▼-5	33	4	33
39	TQM	Fuerza Regida	▼-4	35	2	35
40	Thank God	Kane Brown With Katelyn Brown	▼-8	32	38	13
41	War Bout It	Lil Durk Featuring 21 Savage	▲+60	[FRESH]	1	41
42	Next Thing You Know	Jordan Davis	▼-3	39	19	37
43	Dance The Night	Dua Lipa	▲+58	[FRESH]	1	43
44	Tennessee Orange	Megan Moroney	▼-3	41	25	30
45	Cruel Summer	Taylor Swift	▲+4	49	4	29
46	Under The Influence	Chris Brown	▼-9	37	38	12
47	Religiously	Bailey Zimmerman	▲+1	48	4	40
48	Princess Diana	Ice Spice & Nicki Minaj	▼-5	43	7	4
49	Love You Anyway	Luke Combs	▼-4	45	16	15
50	Memory Lane	Old Dominion	▲+7	57	9	50
51	Por Las Noches	Peso Pluma	▼-9	42	12	28
52	PRC	Peso Pluma X Natanael Cano	▼-8	44	16	33
53	Bye	Peso Pluma	▲+48	[FRESH]	1	53
54	America Has A Problem	Beyonce Featuring Kendrick Lamar	▼-16	38	3	38
55	Mourning	Post Malone	▼-19	36	2	36
56	TQG	Karol G x Shakira	▼-3	53	14	7
57	See You Again	Tyler, The Creator Featuring Kali Uchis	▼-5	52	7	44
58	Daylight	David Kushner	▼-7	51	7	47
59	Never Imagined	Lil Durk Featuring Future	▲+42	[FRESH]	1	59
60	It Matters To Her	Scotty McCreery	▲+2	62	7	60
61	El Azul	Junior H x Peso Pluma	▼-5	56	8	55
62	Never Again	Lil Durk	▲+39	[FRESH]	1	62
63	AMG	Gabito Ballesteros, Peso Pluma & Natanael Cano	▼-5	58	19	37
64	Human	Cody Johnson	▼-3	61	18	61
65	Slut Me Out	NLE Choppa	▼-10	55	11	28
66	Pound Town 2	Sexyy Red & Tay Keith & Nicki Minaj	▲+35	[FRESH]	1	66
67	Big Dawg	Lil Durk & Chief Wuk	▲+34	[FRESH]	1	67
68	Cross The Globe	Lil Durk Featuring Juice WRLD	▲+33	[FRESH]	1	68
69	Chanel	Becky G & Peso Pluma	▼-9	60	7	55
70	Cowgirls	Morgan Wallen Featuring ERNEST	▼-4	66	13	40
71	Waffle House	Jonas Brothers	▼-7	64	5	57
72	Put Em On Ice	Lil Durk	▲+29	[FRESH]	1	72
73	300 Urus	Lil Durk	▲+28	[FRESH]	1	73
74	Sad Songs	Lil Durk	▲+27	[FRESH]	1	74
75	You, Me, & Whiskey	Justin Moore & Priscilla Block	▲+7	82	4	75
76	Grandson	Lil Durk Featuring Kodak Black	▲+25	[FRESH]	1	76
77	What It Is (Block Boy)	Doechii Featuring Kodak Black	▼-2	75	4	75
78	Ain't That Some	Morgan Wallen	▼-6	72	13	11
79	ICU	Coco Jones	▼-12	67	11	63
80	Shake Sumn	DaBaby	▼-11	69	4	69
81	Your Heart Or Mine	Jon Pardi	▲+8	89	3	81
82	Before Fajr	Lil Durk	▲+19	[FRESH]	1	82
83	B12	Lil Durk	▲+18	[FRESH]	1	83
84	Fragil	Yahritza y Su Esencia x Grupo Frontera	▼-14	70	6	69
85	Fight The Feeling	Rod Wave	▼-17	68	9	16
86	You Got Em	Lil Durk	▲+15	[FRESH]	1	86
87	Baby Don't Hurt Me	David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray	▲+9	96	2	87
88	Beso	Rosalia & Rauw Alejandro	▼-11	77	10	52
89	Low Down	Lil Baby	▼-15	74	11	50
90	Say Yes To Heaven	Lana Del Rey	▼-36	54	2	54
91	People	Libianca	▲+1	92	5	89
92	Yandel 150	Yandel & Feid	▼-11	81	16	71
93	El Gordo Trae El Mando	Chino Pacas	▼-22	71	11	58
94	Bury Me In Georgia	Kane Brown	-	94	3	85
95	I Wrote The Book	Morgan Wallen	▼-11	84	18	18
96	Moonlight	Kali Uchis	▼-16	80	8	80
97	Mathematical Disrespect	Lil Mabu	▼-38	59	4	47
98	Everything I Love	Morgan Wallen	▼-7	91	18	14
99	Trance	Metro Boomin, Travis Scott & Young Thug	▼-20	79	17	42
100	Man Made A Bar	Morgan Wallen Featuring Eric Church	▼-12	88	13	15

Billboard Global 200 chart (most popular songs globally)

Position	Title	Artist	▲/▼	Last week	Weeks Charting	Peak
1	Ella Baila Sola	Eslabon Armado X Peso Pluma	▲+1	2	11	1
2	La Bebe	Yng Lvcas x Peso Pluma	▲+2	4	14	2
3	Cupid	Fifty Fifty	-	3	12	2
4	Flowers	Miley Cyrus	▲+1	5	20	1
5	Where She Goes	Bad Bunny	▼-4	1	2	1
6	Karma	Taylor Swift Featuring Ice Spice	▲+90	96	13	6
7	Un x100to	Grupo Frontera X Bad Bunny	▼-1	6	7	1
8	Calm Down	Rema & Selena Gomez	▼-1	7	48	3
9	Idol	YOASOBI	▲+1	10	7	9
10	All My Life	Lil Durk Featuring J. Cole	▲+4	14	3	7

Billboard 200 chart

Position	Title	Artist	Sales	Change	Last week	Weeks Charting
1	Midnights	Taylor Swift	283,488 (192,282 pure)	+409%	3	32
2	One Thing At A Time	Morgan Wallen	127,671 (5,372 pure)	+0%	1	13
3	Almost Healed	Lil Durk	124,125 (2,388 pure)	--	[FRESH]	1
4	SOS	SZA	54,174 (8,731 pure)	-24%	2	25
5	Dangerous: The Double Album	Morgan Wallen	47,801 (977 pure)	+3%	4	125
6	Lover	Taylor Swift	36,835 (6,005 pure)	-4%	6	197
7	Gettin' Old	Luke Combs	32,334 (1,946 pure)	-4%	8	10
8	Un Verano Sin Ti	Bad Bunny	32,069 (355 pure)	-3%	9	56
9	American Heartbreak	Zach Bryan	30,387 (1,586 pure)	-2%	10	54
10	Religiously. The Album.	Bailey Zimmerman	29,968 (1,064 pure)	-4%	11	3

Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Why is X artist higher than Y artist on the 200 chart, even though X artist sold less?
A: This is because of a discrepancy between Billboard's ranking and the ranking from the website that the sales data is scraped from
Q: Where do you get the sales data from?
A: https://hitsdailydouble.com/sales_plus_streaming
Q: What does "err" mean on the 200 chart?
A: If you are seeing "err", that means that the bot I use to gather chart data couldn't identify sales data for a particular album because of a difference in album naming between Billboard and HitsDailyDouble

I have always been under the impression that UFOS visiting earth that are piloted by aliens in a cockpit sounds so unrealistic and unimaginative. Aliens capable of visiting earth would be so advanced, they wouldnt need to be physically flying these things. They would be able to use Alien VR to BE the ship
I imagine that aliens would have reached some sort of singularity and would have AI drones that fly around and gather intelligence or something. Not some big headed humanish thing driving a space car.
Is anybody with me on this? The David Grusch disclosure had me, but when he said the body/pilot thing my skeptic alarms started going.

Hi, I'm panicking.
Situation: I make $23/hour 40 hours per week After child support I make $16,000/year (this is under the federal poverty line right?) I've lost medicaid because they calculate based on gross instead of net I cannot afford health insurance through work Student loans are getting unpaused..
Does student loan income-based repayments calculate before or after they take child support out of me? If they calculate it before, well then they assume I have money that I do not.. I already cannot get healthcare.. I think I ruptured my fucking appendix like 3 weeks ago.. I live in a trailer.. I can't afford a used car because of my credit. a 1 bedroom apartment is too expensive.
If they calculate loan repayments based on my net, then I should be ok (until my appendix kills me.. but this is america, can't expect too much)
I was working for the public schools for three years but they fired me when I told them I can't afford a car anymore. Now I might lose my WFH job because I'm begging HR to find a way to give me health insurance.

Hi everyone,
I've been posting on the dedicated threads recently, about my recent sense of achievement on my results, and I thought that I could create a bigger post with an overview of my progress so far. Brace yourselves, it's probably going to be a long post. Sorry in advance.
The beginnings:
I actually started weightlifting at the beginning of 2018. I was fresh out of my PhD, where I had gained 10kgs thanks to a burnout and anti-depressant medication. This was followed by a bad breakup where I lost those 10kgs in one month as I just could not eat. I went from 55kgs to 65kgs at my heaviest, back to 55 kgs. While in the end, I was happy to be back at what I considered my regular weight, I was very much skinny fat: https://i.imgur.com/5dJPvCt.jpg
In April 2018, I enrolled in the gym next to my new job. Started with a short program for my back paired with a few cardio classes, then transitionned to weightlifting, following PHUL(power, hypertrophy, upper lower, 4 days a week). At the time, I had gone back to 58kgs after a month with my parents and wanted to go back to 55kgs, so I was cutting and eating 1600 cal a day.
I was kind of consistent, until mid 2019. Went back to 56kg at my lowest and looked like that:
https://imgur.com/N2eKGPn
https://imgur.com/UoJi2aD
https://imgur.com/Qtjfih5
​
Then, I suffered an overuse injury in my hip, and everything went to hell. Combined with Covid, moving to a different country, doing online classes and project to try to shift carreers, I neglected a bit the gym.
​
2022-2023: 11 months of treating the gym like a job
In July 2022, coming back from our holidays, I decided I wanted to focus again on weight lifting after weighing myself at 63 kgs, which was really close to my all time heaviest. At started back on a cut, aiming for 1500 cal a day and at least 100g proteins (but really aiming for 120g), going to the gym 4 days a week with my trusted PHUL, without being able to squats because of my old hip injury which never really healed and liked to flare up for no reason.
I tried to be cautious, but still injured my shoulders along the way, so I had periods where I focused more on legs, and others where I focused more on upper body, depending on which part of my body needed extra nursing. From july 2022 to end of september 2022, I went back to 58 kgs. At some point in the middle, I started to add stationary bike everyday and it really helped me shed the weigh faster.
In October, we moved to a different town. For one month, the kitchen was split in two apartments, so we ate out a lot of the time and I stopped tracking calories, still going to the gy, thinking that it would be a good opportunity to lean bulk.
It wasn't a lean bulk. It wasn't dramatic, but between this and the end of the year, I ended up taking a month out of the gym in December and went back to 61.5 kgs at the beginning of January 2023. I decided that to ease back into my routine, I would start by going back to the gym and count my calories, without restricting. Trying to go for 2 months of maintenance, before going for 3 months of cut for summer.
I was kind of disapointed at first as after 2 months of what should have been a recomp, I didn't really looked different, but I kept on going. Mid January, I invested in a fitbit watch, and it really helped me be more active in general by encouraging me to walk my 10 steps a day, logging my water and food consumption and be more mindful of my sleep hygiene.
I effectively maintained at 61.5kg in January and February, eating at 2100 cal a day. In March, I cut to 1500 cal a day, started doing 45 minutes of stationary bike after each gym session and the weight just dropped like a stone. I was thinking that it was a bit too quick, so Iauthorized myself to eat a bit more, upping at 1700 to 1800 most of the days for the 2 next months, and ended my cut a few days ago at 58 kgs:
Here is a summary of my appearance throughout the 11 months: https://i.imgur.com/2k7E3QS.jpg
I now have:

• abs: https://i.imgur.com/f29WoiC.jpg
• big shoulders: https://i.imgur.com/Olw13IV.jpg
• big arms: https://i.imgur.com/1n51HNt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/igkfJmW.jpg
• big back: https://i.imgur.com/kcNRcNi.jpg
• kind of a booty: https://i.imgur.com/QXrdoJ9.jpg

What I did:
I took a bit of time to find my preferred program and frequency for the gym, but ultimately, I settled down on a Pull/Push/Legs split, going to the gym 6 days a week. This one specifically.
​
Now, I usually spend 30 minutes warming up and doing mobility exercises to minimize the risks of injuries, then for the first big lift of the day, I would make a pyramide to work up to ny working weight to the day and warm up the joints for the specific moves. Except for a few occasions where the ego lift got the better of me, it's worked pretty well to help me lift injury free since I started doing that. However, I end up spending at least 2 hours just for the lifting session, which is followed then by my 45min to 1h15min (depending on the series I watch during my bike session) of cardio. Definitely too much time and I need to find a way to cut a bit of time. Now that I am not cutting anymore, I am cutting the cardio: not everyday, and not for as long.
My lifts have progressed, even thought I was cutting and I am now at:

• Benchpress: 42.5 kgs for 5*5 reps
• OVH press: 27.5 kgs for 5*5 reps
• Deadlifts: 75 kgs for 5*5 reps
• Squats: 40 kgs for 5*5 reps
• Pull ups: can rep 4 strict pull ups

My squats are very weak compared to my other lifts, but because of old injuries from 2018, I had been unable to squat pain free for years, even with just my body weight, so I am actually very happy with this number. Now that I am eating more, I hope it will go up and catch up with the others.
Nothing really impressive, but I am quite proud and stronger than I've ever been.
​
What I learned/Impact:
Tracking my weights, calories and heart rate in addition to my menstural cycle haa been eye opening to me on the impact my cycle has on me.
For example:
Weight loss and period
Resting heart rate and period
When I started doing cardio, my resting heart rate dropped dramatically. However, when it started rising again, I was worried and thought that I was overtraining or something. Turns out, not only do I have water retention around my ovulation and periods, my resting heart rate is also very much cycling and is at its lowest at the end of my period and at its highest a few days before them. And I don;t even know why I was surprised. A week before my period, I am always plagued by fatigue and spend just so much time in bed! Turns out it's not just in my head, or me being lazy. I actually have physical symptoms that explains it.
I have also learned to work around my injuries to keep training, while leaving my problematic joints/muscles resting, which helped me be more consistent and i think it really helped with the results I can see now. I have lost of little painful things that are slowly starting to disappear:

• the sole of my left foot was really painful and prevented me to run for the longest of time: now that I do calf raises without using my hands to stabilize my self, my left ankle that I had strained a few years ago is getting stronger and this pain has disappear.
• my hyperlaxed wrists are finally strong enough for me to do push ups where i was previously able to hurt myself carying the laundry or brushing my hair.
• as mentionned. earlier, I can finally squat pain free after years of instant pain each time I would attempt a body weight squat.
• I used to have worrying chest pain where I would be unable to take deep breaths without pain, which looked to me like I had a pinched nerve in my shoulder that would run through my whole chest (medical exams didn't show anything): now that my chest and back have more muscles, i haven't feel this in months).

And finally, of course: My confidence is through the roof. I'm very happy with the way I llok right now and very happy with the sun allowing me to finally only wear minishorts and crop tops XD.
​
Now what?
It's been a week since the end of the cut. I'm aiming to eat 2000 to 2100 calories a day, still going to the gym 6 days a week for 1h30/2h00 and scaling back on the stationary bike to only 35 minutes maybe everyother day. My weight is already up to 59kgs, but I'm guessing it's just the water retention of eating more carbs and more in general. If I maintain at 59kg for the next months, it will be good enough for me. At the end of summer, I'll try to bulk again until march of next year for a new cut and I hope bigger muscles for next summer :).
​
I hope this was interesting for you. If you have questions, dont hesitate. And again, sorry for the length of the post!

"Would you like to have a near-death experience? By crossing the boundary between life and death."

Yukari Yakumo

Themes:

• Necrofantasia:
  
• Night Falls ~ Evening Star: 7.5, 10.5, 15.5
  
• Yorimashi Between Dreams and Reality ~ Necro-Fantasia
  

Yukari Yakumo is a legendary youkai with the ability to manipulate boundaries. She is one of the sages who created Gensokyo in the first place, and a good contender for its most powerful resident. Despite this she is also exceptionally lazy, spending most of her time sleeping and foisting most of the problems off on Reimu or Ran. Still, her incredible intelligence and completely inhuman nature means one can never tell quite what she's thinking, and making her angry is a very bad idea.

Notes

• Source Index
  
• Perfect Memento in Strict Sense and Symposium of Post Mysticism is an in universe book written by Hidea no Akyuu. She has a tendency to exaggerate and speculate, so her claims should be taken with a grain of salt.
  
• Yukari herself is noted to lie quite a lot, so her own claims should also be taken with a grain of salt.
  
• In 15.5 Yukari makes use of the urban legend Teke Teke, but her attacks while using this urban legend are fairly in line with her normal capabilities. As it's unclear what effect the Urban legend is having, these feats will be included in this section but marked with Occult
  
• Yukari scales to a large number of characters, so here is every Touhou respect thread for the games
  

Defining Some Terms

Spell Card System: The Spell Card Rules were put in place by Reimu Hakurei in order to make duels between everyone fair, formalized, and safe. It is also the method nearly all Touhou characters will use in-character. Spell card battles have very clearly defined rules and attacks that are agreed upon before a duel with the purpose being that the most beautiful attacks win. In general Spell Cards are characters going easy on the foe, with ZUN outright stating they're not something the characters would ever use if they were serious.

• Given the original rules of spell card battles and a characters being introduced to the spell card system stating it would prevent useless bloodshed, there is at least a decent amount of implication that Spell Card battles are inherently non-lethal.

Danmaku: Danmaku are the "bullets" fired in a bullet hell, take many different forms, and are able to be fired by most Gensokyo citizens. They're an essential part of duels in Gensokyo, being used to control an opponent's movement and overwhelm them. They can either be fired in intricate patterns, or just fired rapidly from a single point.

• Danmaku is intentionally not efficient or effective for serious combat
  
• Danmaku in general can be lethal to normal humans
  
• Danmaku from major characters is very consistently able to break rock
  
  • Seija is considered notably weak
  • Sanae is considered nothing special as far as humans in Gensokyo are concerned

Youkai: Supernatural beings typically born from humanity's fear of the unknown, and the primary residents of Gensokyo. Youkai can be highly varied, but tend to be highly resistant to physical attacks while far more weak to spiritual attacks, such as names and traditions.
Gensokyo: Genoskyo is the region Touhou takes place in, and is a small landlocked region of Japan. It is fully enclosed by the Great Hakurei Barrier (more information bellow). The clearest picture of it shows it containing a few mountains, with it also being noted Gensokyo is small enough to see almost all of it from the Hakurei shrine

• The Sages of Genoskyo (of which Yukari is a member) are the beings responsible for the creation and maintenance of Gensokyo

Urban Legend Incident: Due to the occult balls various Urban Legends begin to manifest in Gensokyo, and some characters are capable of controlling an urban legend in battle that matches their tempermant. It's worth noting that the effects are present even after the occult balls are removed from Gensokyo though Reisen notes it will soon settle down.

Boundary Manipulation

General Description: Summarized, Yukari's power allows her to manipulate the boundary between any two things.This can apply both to physical boundaries (such as between Gensokyo and the outside world), or even the boundary of concepts (such as human and youkai or night and day).

• Both her profile and she herself state that she can manipulate the boundary between any and all things
  
• An official magazine says her power can affect anything, and that for narrative purposes she has to limit herself to the spell card rule or it wouldn't even be a game
  
• The manual states the danger and potency of her power is beyond imagination
  
• Akyuu states that her power fundamentally undermines reality. She states that it can create new existence and reject existence, is the most powerful ability held by any youkai. Additionally she states it can be applied to pictures, peoples dreams, and even stories
  

Direct Combat Usage

• Feats/Statements
  
  • Being able to draw boundary lines along surfaces means there is nothing she can not split in two
    • Sumreiko comments on her seemingly cutting space, with opening gaps in space also being her main method of transportation (see below)
  • Her barriers can destroy large amounts of enemy danmaku and damage her foes
  • Creates a large boundary around the entirety of Suika's mist form, and then suddenly makes it much smaller to force her back into her physical form.
    • Suika's mist form covered all of Gensokyo
• General
  
  • Uses a barrier to block enemy danmaku and strikes
  • Creates a boundary line with her strikes to hit her foe
  • A fan granting her powers is able to crash through all obligations, directly hitting a foe while they're guarding
• Skills
  
  • Boundary of Intellect and Feet: Runs a straight boundary to split her foe
  • Universe of Matter and Antimatter: Creates two gaps that do nothing on their own, but when they collide they create a huge distortion attack
• Spell Cards
  
  • Border Sign "Quadruple Barrier": Creates several overlapping boundaries to produce a barrier that can strike foes
  • Sign I "Quadruple Barrier": Another version of the above spell card
  • Barrier "Charming Quadruple Barrier": A larger version of quadruple barrier that sucks the foe in
  • Boundary "Quadruple Barrier of the Imperishable Night": Creates a larger quadruple barrier to protect herself and attack her enemy
  • Border Sign "Boundary of 2D and 3D": Creates a boundary that travels along the screen edge and changes directions to follow the movements of the screen
  • Barrier "Objective Barrier": Fires off four linked borders that travel along the edges of the screen
• Last Word
  
  • [Occult] Lend Me Those Beautiful Legs!: Locks her foe in place with boundary lines and then uses a gap to split them in two before putting them back together

Gaps and Warping

• Feats/Statements
  
  • General
    • Able to travel to entirely different locations by opening up gaps in space, with (according to Akyuu) it being said that this can also access pictures, dreams, and even stories
    • Can open gaps in thin air
    • Opens up a large gap, and is gone when it clears away
    • Repositions a gap to use as a seat
    • Spiriting away Kosuzu doesn't leave a single trail any other youkai can follow to locate her, not even leaving a trace of her soul behind
  • Travel/Range
    
    • Uses gaps in space as her main means of transportation, with her warping around Gensokyo, up youkai mountain, and even to and from heaven (though how direct these trips are isn't clear given how the time of day changes)
    • Reimu states Yukari can travel anywhere she wants to in a flash
    • Is able to freely travel past the Great Hakurei Barrier into the outside world, and pulls Rinnosuke back into Gensokyo after he's accidentally pulled into the outside world
      • Casually travels out of Gensokyo to see cherry blossoms
      • Comments to Mamizou about what's currently going on in Sado
      • Sends Sumireko and dream Sumireko from Gensokyo to the outside world
    • Off screen travels overseas and brings back a Hobgoblin, which she states are a Western creature
    • Instantly sends Marisa from the Hakurei shrine to the forest of magic
    • Easily travels to the netherworld (though in Gensokyo the netherworld is a location you can physically travel to
      • Summons Ran and Chen to her while within the netherworld
    • Suddenly goes from behind Luna to in front of her
    • Disappears to somewhere... literally
    • Placed a gap in a doorway so that Flandre traveled from the Scarlet Devil mansion to deep underground without even realizing she had done so
    • Pulls Sumireko out of the dream world (though Doremy implies this isn't something she's supposed to do normally)
      • Reimu refers to the dream world as another reality that is two sides of the same coin with the real world
      • Is often lurking in the dream world
  • Utility
    
    • Claims to have an undending supply of electricity, kerosene, and nitroglycerin, and fills up Rinnosuke's heater with fuel while having a conversation with him, without him even realizing she had done anything
    • Covertly drops money into the shrine's donation box while having a conversation with Reimu
    • Puts a hand through a gap to block a hammer and grab a gameboy
    • Makes food disappear from right out from under Reimu's nose
    • Summons other characters like Reimu or Chen
    • Reimu implies Yukari can send just some body parts through the Great Hakurei Barrier
    • Left her arm dangling through a gap while asleep, and then puts her hand through another gap to douse a candle
    • Hid some of her own energy inside of a gap to revive herself after having all of her magical energy drained by Mizuchi's possession. Though she states it will soon run out and she needs to rest after. Also sticks her hands through gaps to grab cookies and wave at Reimu independently of her body
• General
  
  • Warps from one side of the screen to the other and grants Reimu the ability to do the same
  • Vanishes to dodge a spell card
  • Leans back into a gap while firing projectiles
  • Sticks her arm into a gap to strike her foe with an umbrella from another location
  • Drops into a gap and then appears in midair
  • After being knocked to the ground, creates a gap below and above her to redirect back to standing up
  • Opens a gap through which several pieces of wood fly out at her foe
  • Spawns street signs to attack her foe
  • Opens gaps through which rapid fire danmaku and lasers fire out
  • Summons a monstrous arm out of her gap to grab or strike her foe
• Skills
  
  • Rest on Stone, Rinse in Rivers: Opens up a hole that swallows up projectiles and stores them
  • Rinse with Stone, Rest in Rivers: Fires off stored projectiles
  • Chimera's Wings: Places a gap that she can then warp back to.
  • Fantasy Maniacal Rift: Disappears into a gap and keeps moving, before coming out to strike her foe
  • Flesh Dismantler: Drops down into a gap before leaping out while spinning her umbrella
  • Urashima's Box, Filled With Lament: Opens a gap in the sky to drop debris on her foe
  • Home is Where One Lays to Rest: Hits her foe with several pieces of wood
  • [Occult] World's Most Agile Torso: Uses a gap to send her upper body forward to attack her foe while her lower body remains in place
• Spell Cards
  
  • Evil Spirits "Yukari Yakumo's Spiriting Away": Repeatedly teleports around while firing off danmaku
  • "Boundary of Humans and Youkai": Vanishes entirely and attacks the foe with danmaku patterns while not physically present
  • Splitter "Thing That Splits All Into Two": Repeatedly jumps in and out of and moves through gaps while spinning her umbrella
  • Fantasy Nest "Flying Noctilucae's Nest": Opens up several gaps that fire danmaku forwards, always in the direction of the foe
  • Boundary "Overflowing Flotsam": Sends several pieces of wood flying at her foe
  • Abandoned Line "Aimless Journey to the Abandoned Station": Opens a gap through which an abandoned train comes from, though (in gameplay at least) it takes time to open the gap
  • "Unmanned Abandoned Railroad Car Bomb": Summons three train cars that fly into her foe before exploding

Great Hakurei Barrier

• The Barrier Itself
  
  • Feats/Statements
    • The Great Hakurei Barrier is a barrier of sense that surrounds all of Gensokyo, and keeps living creatures and their tools from passing through while allowing non-living things to pass through without issue. Via non-Euclidian space a person attempting to pass through the barrier will find themselves wandering endlessly, and they will find themselves back where they started upon turning around.
    • Even when Reimu and Marisa traveled to the moon they never left the barrier, and they consider getting through the barrier to be harder than going to the moon
    • Gensokyo is designed to be the opposite of the outside world, and things that contradict that concept cannot pass through the barrier
    • Akyuu states the barrier is a barrier of common sense and keeps the outside world's common sense outside, and that it's composed of multiple smaller barriers, but that it periodically weakens every 60 years
    • There is at least some difference in the seasons between Gensokyo and the outside world
    • Sumireko was unable to fully penetrate the barrier from the outside
  • Limits
    • Non-living things and certain creatures are able to pass through the barrier more easily
    • It's noted Remilia's scarlet mist would have spread past the boundary into the human world
    • Objects that violated common sense from the outside world being used on the barrier would threaten its very existence
• Manipulation
  
  • Yukari was one of the sages to suggest the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier, though whether she's the actual creator is unclear. Reimu refers to her as the original creator but Yuyuko thinks the barrier is too strong for Yukari to make
  • States that she has torn holes in the barrier
  • Creates a powerful distortion in the barrier
  • Repairs the barrier after Reimu does something to weaken it
  • Whenever a human from the outside world wanders into Gensokyo, it's because of fluctuations in the barrier caused by her

Gensokyo's Boundary of Reality and Illusion

• General
  
  • Created a boundary of illusion and reality around Gensokyo, defining Gensokyo as illusionary and the outside world as real, so anything that becomes viewed as fantasy is pulled into Gensokyo, even from outside Japan. This was performed 500 years ago and still going strong.
  • Yukari seems to have at least some amount of awareness of those who enter and leave Gensokyo through this method
• Living Things
  
  • A snake wakes up in Gensokyo as soon as he transforms into a youkai, with Mamizou stating that when you turn into a youkai you wind up in Gensokyo. Said snake is potentially originally from India
  • When there's a demand for Zashiki-Warashi in the outside world they start vanishing from Gensokyo, and later return when that demand fades
  • New youkai created in the outside world immediately appear in Gensokyo as well, but due to not having a clear form they disappear just a quickly
  • Rinnosuke notes that Gensokyo is rather multicultural, as youkai brought with them foreign cultures as they were pulled into Gensokyo
  • A real life human shows up in Gensokyo after becoming a god
  • Animals that become endangered or extinct (at least in Japan) are more prevalent in Gensokyo
  • A completely ordinary seal winds up in Gensokyo after being forgotten while a youkai well integrated in human society could remain in the outside world
• Nonliving
  
  • Items that fall out of use in the outside world wind up in Gensokyo
  • People doubting or forgetting the moon landing is enough to cause several magazines about it to appear in Gensokyo as well as the Soyuz spacecraft
  • Lyrica implies that instruments and even noises can fall into fantasy
• Buildings
  
  • The Scarlet Devil Mansion is a western style mansion housing multiple powerful youkai that is assumed to have arrived in Gensokyo fairly recently, with Akyuu also noting that it seemingly wasn't designed for Japanese climates
  • Another western style mansion housing the Prismriver sister also exists in Gensokyo
  • Unused radio towers occasionally appear in Gensokyo
  • After Miko is forgotten by the outside world, her entire mausoleum arrives in Gensokyo
• Large Scale
  
  • Due to Kanako making it fall into fantasy the Moriya shrine and the nearby lake move to Gensokyo
  • According to legend the Bamboo Forest of the Lost appeared in Gensokyo after being washed away by a tsunami
  • It's thought (according to Keine) that Youkai Mountain in Gensokyo is the original mythical form Yatsugatake, before it had been torn down by a god, back when it was taller than Mt. Fuji

Misc

• Boundary of Reality and Illusion - Moon
  
  • Erases the boundary between the real and illusionary moon, turning a reflection of the moon in the water into a portal to the moon itself that allows for instantaneous travel
  • Can return to Earth by doing the same thing to a reflection of the Earth
  • Leaves the portal open by shoving an umbrella into it
  • The Watatsuki sisters state she can freely travel between the Earth and moon, and that she once brought a throng of youkai to the moon with her
  • Implies this can only be performed when the moon is completely full, and that she was trapped on the moon when the full waned more quickly than expected
• Netherworld
  
  • Weakened the barrier between Gensokyo and the Netherworld so Yuyuko could more easily enter Gensokyo. She is also responsible for its repair
    • The Netherworld's barrier weakening causes the boundary between life and death to become vague, with Youmu wondering if it's okay to leave the boundary between this world an the next so ambiguous, though Youmu also notes it hasn't changed up the natural order too much
  • States that she caused the borders between Hell and the Netherworld to fade
    • Both the Netherworld and Hell are massive, but it's not clear to what extent she actually merged them
• Lunar Capital
  
  • Breaks through the barrier of the lunar capital, but it takes her a while due to the complexity
    • This barrier separates the living fantastical moon from the scientific dead one, and requires a specific route in order to reach the capital
  • Opens a whole in the barrier hiding the house of the Lunar sage with her thumb, and leaves her glove in the gap so that Yuyuko and Youmu can later use it to enter the Lunar Captial
• Misc Conceptual
  
  • States she can manipulate the boundary between Gensokyo and the outside world, the worlds of the living and the dead, human and youkai, or even day and night
  • Claims she can give the immortal Mokou a near death experience by manipulating the boundary of life and death
  • States she thinned the barrier between human and youkai, possibly making Reimu a youkai temporarily
    • States she could set the boundary between human and youkai for Mai and Satano to make them one or the other
  • Manipulates the boundary between daylight and moonlight to cause both to happen at the same time
  • Makes the moon as bright as daytime by manipulating the boundary between day and night
  • Marisa speculates that Yukari manipulated the border between danmaku for play and danmaku for combat for one of her attacks
  • States she can easily manipulate the boundary between spring and winter
  • States she causes noctambulism (sleep walking) in humans by manipulating the boundary between asleep and awake
  • Manipulates the boundary of master and slave, causing both teams using perfect possession to swap said roles
    • Doing this required interfering with the dream world

Other Abilities

Note that a number of feats here potentially involve boundary manipulation, but it's less explicit
Energy Projection

• Feats
  
  • Individual needles can break rock, and destroy a large boulder with sustained fire
  • Effortlessly defeats the three fairies of light, throwing out projectiles made of light and non-light
  • Marisa considers Yukari's danmaku harder to deal with than Yuyuko's
  • Surrounds herself with rings of danmaku
• General
  
  • Fires out large amounts of danmaku in various patterns
  • Fires off danmaku in front of her with a swing of her fan
  • Attacks with lines of energy
  • Fires off several orbs trailed by lines of energy
  • Creates spirals of energy around her body
  • Using a bomb, unleashes a pulse of energy that knocks back her foe
• Skills
  
  • Purple Needles of Painful Reproach: Rapid fires needles in front of her
  • Bewitching Bait: Creates a bird's eye that high speed projectiles then fly through at random paths
  • Spacetime Seam: Creates a pulse of energy projectiles in all directions around her, possibly by cracking space
• Spell Cards
  
  • Standard Danmaku Pattern
    • Barrier "Curse of Dreams and Reality"
    • Barrier "Balance of Motion and Stillness"
    • Barrier "Mesh of Light and Darkness"
    • Evil Spirits "Dreamland of Straight and Curve"
    • Evil Spirits "Bewitching Butterfly Living in the Zen Temple"
    • Sinister Spirits "Double Black Death Butterfly"
    • Barrier "Boundary of Life and Death"
    • Yukari's Arcanum "Danmaku Barrier"
    • Outer Force "Infinite Superspeed Flying Object"
    • Border Sign "Boundary of Form and Emptiness"
    • Border Sign "Boundary of Wave and Particle"
    • Photon "Doppler Effect"
    • Aerial Bait "Hyperactive High Speed Flying Object"
    • "Yakumo's Nest"
    • "Impossible Danmaku Barrier"
    • "Casebook of Luck, Resilience and Perseverance"
  • Combo Attack with Others
    • "Perfect Possession and Dream Seal": With Reimu
    • "Boundary of Spirit Medium and Divine Spirit": With Reimu
    • "Secret God Barrier": With Okina
    • "Shoot the Danmaku Barrier!": With Marisa
    • "Unauthorized Danmaku Photography is Strictly Prohibited": With Reimu
    • Paper Sign "Barrier-Enclosed Zener Card Shuriken": With Sumireko
  • Misc
    • Aerial Bait "Addictive Bait": Opens several locations through which high speed projectiles travel from
    • Fantasy "Perpetual Motion Machine of the First Kind": Creates a perpetual motion device that automatically fires danmaku without her input
    • Spirit Medium's Melancholy: Fires off danmaku that only hits one part of a perfect possession duo
• Last Word
  
  • "Profound Danmaku Barrier -Phantasm, Foam and Shadow-": Creates an everlasting bullet pattern with her finger deciding its life and death

Shikigami: Shikigami are spirits that have been turned into tools via a patter, that have software installed to control them

• Feats/Statmenents
  
  • Has the ability to control shikigami, which like computers will follower her commands exactly. Her primary shikigami is Ran, who herself has her own shikigami Chen
  • Has shikigami possess various crows which she uses for scouting
    • A crow rapidly flies over large swaths of the lunar surface in what is implied to be a short span of time. Its flight is also described as unnaturally straight, with it following the special path required to reach the Lunar Capital with computer-like accuracy
    • [Limit] A crow is killed by being possessed exposed to the vacuum of space
  • Has eyes all over Gensokyo... literally, with this eyes noted to be her familiars
• Skills
  
  • "Apparotation Needle": Has Ran chase after he foes while firing off danmaku
  • Eyes that View Change: Opens a gap holding an eye, which attacks the enemy when it sees a weakpoint based on specific programming
• Spell Cards
  
  • Summoning Rand and or Chen to attack enemies
    • Shikigami "Ran Yakumo"
    • Sign III "Ran Yakumo"
    • Shikigami "Ran Yakumo +"
    • Shikigami "Chen"
    • Shikigami "Ran Yakumo & Chen":
  • Other
    • Magic Eye "Laplace's Demon": Opens up several gaps holding eyes which attack when they see an exploitable weak point

Umbrella

• General
  
  • Hits her foe by spinning her umbrella
  • Creates spirals of energy around her umbrella
• Skills
  
  • Bewitching Butterfly Lurking in the Zen Temple: Envelopes her umbrella in energy and spins it while slamming into her foe
  • Fantasy Manji-Parasol: Gathers spiritual energy on her umbrella, then spins and fires it off as a projectile
  • Full Moon Umbrella: Creates a ring of energy around herself with a swing of her umbrella
• Spell Cards
  
  • Sign II "Manji-Parasol of Yakumo"

Senses

• Sees the human village despite Keine attempting to hide it by trying to make it appear that nothing had ever been there by eating its history
  
• Youkai can see perfectly by moonlight
  
• Claims to see the backside of the moon bathed with sunlight, even during a new moon
  
• Detects that a tree is from the outside world
  
• Eavesdrops on Sakuya's conversation while not physically present, and speaks to Reisen before warping to the location
  
• Claims to clearly see the launch of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's rocket from a ways away
  
• Senses Eiki's presence
  
• Senses the weakening of the Great Hakurei Barrier while presumably asleep
  
• Realizes the Shinmyoumaru in front of her isn't the normal one
  
• Sees the outside world beyond the Great Hakurei Barrier
  
• Sees the flow of energy from living things and helps Youmu to understand it
  
• Able to see the god that Utsuho had absorbed the power of
  

So some back story context:
I bought a BMW 4 series convertible 420d F33 in November 2020 from a private (non BMW) dealer. I done my first service from a BMW dealership and from then on from a private mechanic every 10,000 miles (I do around 22k miles/year).
In October 2022 the sound all of a sudden stopped working which I was quite confused by. Done some research and found out that there's quite a common problem with this model of vehicle where the water doesn't drain properly due a to manufacturing fault, and so the water had built up so high that it had reached the amp unit and fried it.
I booked a diagnostic with BMW in December 2022 who confirmed that this was a common fault and that the amp has indeed been damaged due to water ingress. Now at this juncture the car also had a vehicle safety recall which they had not been able to fix, advising that if they were to try and fix the recall that there was risk of the whole iDrive being broken.
They quoted me around £2000 to fix the issue, which I completely refused to pay as this issue occured due to no fault of my own. They took this up with their warranty team and they refused to take on any costs due to "vehicle age, milage and not bought from BMW network. I'm still baffled as to how any of these affect the problem with the car.
I then went on to complain directly to BMW via their customer complaints procedure who gave the exact same answer.
I am now stuck at this point, am I really liable for this manufacturing fault? Where do I stand with this? The water damage is causing more and more problems, the back windows tend to get stuck open, the recall cannot be fixed, I haven't been able to use my speakers for months. Do I have any leg to stand on?
Any help would be much appreciated.

A special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for the fantastical universe.
Have a really long chapter!
Forgot to say it has been a while. Hope you're all doing well!
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Memory transcription subject: Jaxton, son of a humble sheep farmer
Date [standardized human time]: October 11th, 2136
If someone asked me years ago how many people would travel the globe just to see me. My answer would have been three; my father, my mother, and Dex Mason. My mother and father would have been simply obligated to do so, as I was their son, and I would have done the same thing. Dex was my best friend when I went to middle school in America, and he stayed my best friend when I went back to Wales, going back to Atlanta for many vacations.
What can I say? He had a nice collection of guns, and his general cheerful attitude made many people optimistic, so a day on the range with him led to the both of us being happier.
Then you add in Dex’s older and younger brothers, our mutual friend John Dillinger, and then you have a recipe for a fun time; guns, video games, hiking, and the occasional sheep herding if they ever come to my home: It’s a blast!
An alien porcupine though… I honestly never expected that I would ever in my honest-to-God lifetime, have such an impact on someone before. We barely knew each other for even a few minutes, yet she to my knowledge was merely some sad Gojid that was struggling with depression and loss. All I did was walk in and comfort her, or well, that’s how I saw it.
I still feel like an absolute idiot for forgetting about what I told her. It wasn’t a promise, but based on the implication of how I said it. It may as well have been a declaration to see the girl a few hours later, or however long it took her to get ready.
Now, speaking of Barlim, it’s been a few minutes since she arrived at my doorway at the most unexpected of times. I had her sitting in our living room on our couch. The Gojid, or Gojya, that I had to have explained to me, had her arms wrapped around one of our decorative pillows. She was giving squeezes every few seconds depending on how she felt, and if she was really giving it a firm squeeze, I’d reach over and stroke the top of her head. Barlim seemed to relax every time I did this.
“You holding up better?” Barlim appeared to be holding up better: No longer sobbing out tears from her eyes, or having mucus running from her nostrils.
She merely sniffed weakly for a second, nuzzling into my hand. If I had to admit, I had no idea if I was performing some massive social taboo by patting her like an animal, but if she wasn’t going to complain, neither was I. I mean, I already poked myself twice more! “I’m feeling much better. Sorry for intruding…”
“Don’t be,” I said while holding back a small laugh. “Are you feeling better enough to talk now?” Barlim’s ears flicked in response, and then she nodded in response upon realizing I didn’t know what those ear flicks meant. “Good.”
“Hey, I would just like to apologize for how I acted,” my mother started before I had the chance to speak. “It’s just that I’ve seen on the news and read of murderous xenophobic aliens…-”
“It’s fine,” Barlim let out the most adorable-sounding chittering noise I have ever heard. It sounded as if a porcupine was, well, laughing! “I would not have reacted much differently… Three days ago?” At least she could make fun of herself for how she acted. Her ears gave a few flicks, gesturing towards amusement or self-depreciation if I had to guess. They burned bright blue.
My father took a minute to stand up and walk over to Barlim. She only fidgeted a little bit, but not much when he reached out to her with one hand. “Jameson, again, it’s been pleasant to meet you so far.” The man’s hand hung in the air for several seconds. Barlim eyeing it up with what had to be a quizzical expression. “You’re supposed to grab it and firmly shake it,” my father eventually grunted.
“Oh!” That seemed to snap Barlim out of her stupor. She reached forward in kind with one paw, clasping her surprisingly big paw around my father’s hand, which he shook. The Gojid seemed to have a fair understanding of the action after a few seconds, at which point the handshake ended and my father returned to his seat.
A brief, quiet pause occupied the four of us before there was more knocking at the front door. “Oh, uh, that may be the rest of my friends. I sort of forgot about them when I realized we were so close.” The tips of Barlim’s ears turned a delicate shade of blue. She started to get up, but with a firm palm on the top of her head, I held her down, gently.
“You traveled a long way. Let me get the door,” I state and get up from the couch. My knees and back stretch, giving a satisfactory series of pops before I work my way to the front door. I decide against grabbing the mask, assuming that Barlim’s friends have gotten quite used to the infamous human binocular stare. When I open it, I see a rather eclectic group of individuals, some familiar and some not.
“Arwen, Trivi, Tova, and I take it Barlim’s friends.” Arwen and Trivi issue some friendly waves. Tova has her forearms clasped around Arwen’s neck from behind, jaw resting on the redhead’s shoulders. Her eyes are puffy and orange. It was pretty easy to assume what she had been going through. Meanwhile, the other three flick their ears and tails in a way that was most likely a greeting, but that was just me making an inference based on this being our first interaction, and them not giving waves in greeting.
I really need to learn Gojid and Venlil body language.
“Just delivering the rest of that one Gojid’s friends.” Arwen’s tone was the general cheerful tone it always was. She briefly stepped back from the door and swung an arm to the side, pointing to the three aliens behind her, doing so while under the weight of Tova.
“Barlim,” one of the Gojid said to Arwen. “My name is Pragh,” she then pointed over to another Gojid, “That’s Tack, and,” she indicated to the final Gojid, “That is Telg.” Again, the other two Gojid gave very similar flicks of the ears when they glanced at me with one of their eyes. “I take it you’re Jaxton?”
I couldn’t resist the urge to curl my lips upwards in a smile. The three Gojid didn’t flinch when I exposed my teeth, for which I was grateful. I really didn’t feel like bowing to more people than I needed to at the moment, having not gotten a particularly great amount of sleep last night was not a wise idea. “You’d be correct. It seems I’m the popular man of the hour. What can I do for you all?”
“Well, Tack and I were simply following Barlim, so we were going to stay with her until the UN or whoever really controls the whole Gojid refugee camp situation comes looking for us-”
I cut off Pragh with an amused tone. “So let me get this straight. You wanna come and mooch off my family for a bit because you have nowhere to stay at the moment?” I hold my tongue for just the slightest second, letting Gojid raise up her paws defensively. Even Arwen’s eyes widen briefly at what I just said.
“That’s not-” Pragh doesn’t speak for long before I dismissively wave my hand.
“I’m joking, yes, I’m sure my parents will allow you to stay for a bit, but you’ll have to clean up after yourselves, and all that stuff.” I lean up against the doorframe. “Ok though, jokes aside, what do you all want?”
Pragh rubbed her paws over her blue ears. “Yes, well, you did sort of hit one of them. I will admit, there was very little planning other than we’re going to Wales on our part. You don’t have to worry about Telg though.”
“I scored myself a date! Hah!~ So, I will be going back to Georgia in about an hour or two.” The Gojid paused, popped open one of the pockets on his hoodie, and took a peek inside at a slip of paper he pulled out. “Two hours, yeah, I have about an hour to spend here. So you and Tack are going to stay here?”
Pragh nodded to Telg’s words. “Yep, someone has to make sure Barlim continues to be a responsible Gojid. Also, I still have more research to do over the internet-”
“Ah yes, research, Pragh, research, am I right?~”
“No! Not that! I’m not going to be looking up that!”
The two male Gojid couldn’t help but hold back giggles and chitters, making me feel as if I was missing some sort of- Oh. The second it clicked for me, I just let out a long, slow sigh. “Please, let me just say that humanity is probably not whatever you found. Factory farms are a thing of the past.” Apparently, I was wrong, for the other two Gojid started laughing more uproariously, “Ok, I’m wrong it seems…” The gears proceeds to click a second time after realizing it was something a lot more bawdy than damning. I opened my mouth to say something but quickly realized that I wouldn’t have anything to follow up on if one of them decided to make any sort of accusation, so I quickly shut my plan to speak about that down. “How about you all just come inside now? Your friend Barlim already came by, and I’m pretty sure you all would like a break from your adventure.”
“Actually, Trvi and I were going to take Tova to my home. Might take her to the hospital if Quilix has calmed down. God, I wished they transported him to Ysbyty Gwynedd, but no. He had a freakout and had to be moved to London.”
“It’s all my fault…” The dark venlil whined.
Arwen’s hand managed to work its way between Tova’s ears, giving a few scritches. Scritches that Tova nuzzled into. “Come on you big, big venlil. I know you’re upset. Just, hang in there for a little while longer. I’m sure Quilix will come around. Let’s take you home, see ya Jaxton!” Arwen waved and carried the venlil toward the parked taxi in front of my house. Well, carried was a generous term for half-carry/half-assisted in guiding toward the car.
Trivi followed seconds later, giving his own bye and wave. “Tell your mother and father I said hi, see you tomorrow!” And with that, the blonde venlil scampered off, following after his human lover.
This left me with the three other hedgehog-looking aliens standing awkwardly in front of my door. They looked amongst themselves, thinking about saying something.
Wait, someone’s missing…
“Arf! Arf!”
The three Gojid who looked like they were about to say something all jumped about a foot in the air when Lacey came bounding through them, running straight past me into my home. “Oh, Lacey! Welcome ho- Oh, and ignored.” I shake my head upon hearing the following oof that comes from my father. Lacey must’ve claimed my father’s lap as her seat. “Well, if you want to come inside and meet the rest of my family. Come right on in.”
The next few minutes are filled with more pleasantries being exchanged. The Gojid all take their place on the couch, somehow managing to fit four of them on a couch meant for three. I end up choosing to stand by my father, who gently strokes Lacey across her back. The border collie panting jovially, looking back and forth between us and our alien guest, giving the occasional bark to beg for more attention.
The Gojid guests seem calm for the most part, sitting on that couch, but it is quite clear that the dog makes them uncomfortable since they flinch every time Lacey either makes a noise or stares at them with those heterochromatic eyes. “Not a fan of dogs, are you?” My father breaks the silence once it starts up again.
“I didn’t like…” Pragh started but stopped seconds later. “Listen, I believe you know why most Federation species don’t like humans, right?” Pragh’s words earned an affirmative grunt from my father. My mother and I nodded too. “Well, you’re all sapient and in control of your hunting instincts…” I raised my eyebrow at that but chose to say nothing. “That dog though-”
My father raised a hand, telling Praph to stop speaking for a moment. “I am going to have to stop you right there. Firstly, humans don’t, or we believe don’t have hunting instincts, and secondly, Lacey is a good girl that has harmed no person before, human or alien. I can assure you, as well as Quilix, Trivi, and Tova, that Lacey wouldn’t harm any of you, your pups, or anything else you will be worried about.”
Those few calmly spoken, but sternly voiced words are enough to calm the four Gojid down a fair amount. While I can’t see their muscles under their fur all that well, I can safely assume that their muscles grew lax at such information. Maybe we can do more to ease them around the dog while they’re here?
With an idea springing to mind, I take a few steps over to our old wooden hall tree. It is adorned with a few coats and hats, but what I am interested in is blue colored, six feet long rope of dog leash. The second it makes the lightest noise, Lacey is bolting toward me. “Eistedd!” The dog swiftly responds to the command: Hind quarters hitting the ground the second the word leaves my lips. I reach down and stroke the top of the dog’s head with one hand, getting a jovial arf out of her. “Merch dda, merch dda.~” I give the dog’s head a little bit more tender love with my palm and fingers before attaching the leash.
“Cefn.” I keep my voice low, coaxing Lacey into walking toward the couch.
The four Gojid, three of which have probably spent some time outside with the dog, all had a similar reaction when the dog came over: Paws came up off the ground, retracting safely onto the cushions above. It wasn’t really out of the border collie’s reach, but it was clearly instinctual-driven or propaganda-driven fear. “No need to be afraid, she won’t bite you - eistedd.” True to my words, Lacey gets close, sniffing along the edge of the sofa, but not jumping up onto the furniture.
“I see you’ve been practicing, Jaxton. You showing off for the guest?” My dad jokes.
“Hey, I don’t really get a good chance to speak Welsh. Dam- Darn it, really should’ve paid more attention in school. Might go get some lessons so I’m not part of the ten percent that can’t speak it. All I can do is shepherd a dog around, ask for the bathroom, a beer, where am I, and a few other things.” It’s hard not to let out a disappointed sigh. “I need to get off my backside and stop being so lazy.” I pause for one small moment. “And that probably translated for all of them to their native tongue. Doesn’t matter if I say it in English, Welsh, or honestly, Mandarin.”
My old man grins and laughs, leaning his back into the old rocking chair he claimed. My attention returns back to the dog, the fearful porcupine, and three scared hedgehogs.
The first one to reach out if I recall his name is Tack. The Gojid’s claws lightly brush the top of Lacey’s head in a tepid fashion. The dog stares back up at the curious paw; not growling, barking, yipping, biting, or making any sort of fuss that could freak out the apprehensive Gojid. Slowly, Lacey’s tail beings to wag as the curious touching continues for a few seconds. “Is that normal?”
“Mhm… Yes, dogs’ tails wag when they are happy. If she was really happy, she’d jump on you and start licking your face.”
The four Gojid recoiled with what looked like disgust: The thought of a predator’s maw all over their face, tasting them as if they were her next meal was probably what was coursing through their minds. “I think… That’s something I wouldn’t like from a non-sapient creature.” Telg adds in.
He says he doesn’t want it from a non-sapient, but what about a sapient? Oh, what wonderful thoughts this one has. I internally joked.
Both my father and mother let out an audible cough at Telg’s… Well, it could’ve been an indecent statement, or maybe licking was a sign of greeting? There was no way for me to know with my lack of knowledge of Gojid customs.
God damn; Gojid customs, language, body language, and Welsh! That was leaving out Venlil ear and tail signals as well! Too much to learn.
With a gentle nudge, I guide Lacey down the bottom of the couch, letting each Gojid get about a minute or two of bonding time with the goodest of girls. It’s only been a few minutes, but the four could be easily seen relaxing: Tack and Telg are both confident enough to let their paws touch the floor again.
From fearful of anything that ate meat their entire life to sort of fearfully allowing a dog to sniff them, or them to touch a dog, must be leaps and bounds beyond possibility months ago.
“So, you all more comfortable around dogs?”
I get a non-varied amount of reactions: All of them positive to a minor degree, but none are negative or super positive. “Good.”
With such a positive, or well, lacking in a negative reaction from our alien guests. I reach down and unhook the canine’s restraint. No one flinches and Lacey continues to sit for about another few seconds before lazily pacing around the front of the couch, sniffing at paws for some more time before retreating back beside my father’s feet.
“So… What’s the history between humans and dogs?” Pragh was the one that shot this question. One is no doubt born from the fact that we probably allowed a non-sapient predator into our home.
Well, if I was using their logic, of course: I wouldn’t be surprised if it came from ‘Wouldn’t predators eliminate the competition?’ if I had to guess.
“The history involving our canine companions is long and complex.” I reach behind my head to adust my blonde ponytail, tightening up the black band to keep my hair from falling in front of my face. “Most domesticated dogs you’ll see; German shepherds, border collies, Australian shepherds, golden retrievers, and on and on the list goes. I believe there are hundreds of breeds, but that is another tangent we can go on another date. What you’re more interested in is the history, as you have asked.”
I took a few steps around toward the front of the couch, using this new position to project my voice onto my alien audience. My parents had already heard this story a few times when they spoke with one of our dog breeders.
“It all started roughly speaking, thirty-thousand years ago.” I paused, totally for dramatic effect, but to also allow the Gojid to digest this fair-sized crumb of information. “Our competitor, an antagonizing species of persistent pack predators with a strong social bond, the wolf, would often invade human territories, and vice versa. You see, humans and wolves aren’t too dissimilar. We’re both highly social species, pursuit pack predators as I have heard, emotionally intelligent, highly adaptive, strong parental connections, and good communication skills. I can go into specific details another time, but those are some of the big traits we share. I’d say that the large preference for having a social structure coupled with good communication skills on both sides were the two assets that helped the most. Emotional intelligence and actual intelligence would probably be third and fourth. Dogs and wolves can be pretty smart.”
I take a moment again, allowing my audience to follow along with what I am saying, waiting to see if any of them have a question. “So due to these similarities, humans and these wolves cross species’ barriers?” The bipedal porcupine opined.
I nod to Barlim’s question. “Very close, but not quite.” I take a moment to swing a pointing finger down to Lacey. “I mean, as much as I love Lacey. I don’t see a dog diplomat coming through any time soon to argue for their sapience let alone an alliance.” I then straighten my posture back up, holding back a small laugh by letting a grin stretch across my lips. “It was more along the lines of wolves were desperate for food, and they’d feed off the scraps we humans left behind. This would go on for some time with the braver or more docile canines being allowed to slowly integrate with human society.”
“But they’re eating your scraps and food, but what do they do for you? Other than herd sheep? It just seems like your competition is swooping your food from under your nose, but… You’re not complaining at all.” Pragh was the one to ask that question.
Called it!
“These proto-dogs had many purposes! Just look at Lacey and you can probably see what she has that is superior to a human. Tell me what traits you can see.”
I give the four Gojid some time to look over the dog. They eventually look like they all have something to say, so I slide down the line of them; Pragh, Telg, Tack, and then finally Barlim.
“A better sense of smell to hunt for prey you can’t see?” Pragh opined.“Better hearing for locating threats?” Telg questioned.
“Sharp teeth and claws for fighting off other humans.” Tack would state rather confidently.
“To form an emotional connection with and to not feel lonely?” Barlim tilted her head to the side, giving the dog another look.
I let them stew over their answers for about thirty seconds to discuss amongst themselves. Needless to say, I was kind of shocked, but also not by Barlim’s answer. Maybe my time spent with her gave me some subconscious understanding of her mentality? The other Gojid all looked at her, so I assume her different answer probably made something click amongst all of them.
“Well, to answer your questions; yes, yes, yes, and yes. You’re all correct. Some may say that the first three are probably the priority.” This statement earns a chitter from the four Gojid occupying the couch. “But I like to have hope for that last one: When you’re by yourself. The world is a scary place after all. It’s best not to be alone. I believe you all have herds? Well, we humans have families, tribes, or nations, depending on how deep you wish to look into it, and yes, dogs can be a part of a human family. Family cares not from where the blood comes.”
“Quick question and not to side-track the conversation too far, but I was told by my date that humans dislike being called predators. Is that true here too, or was that a dialect or cultural thing?” Telg was the one throwing this question.
“It is that way here too. When humans refer to other humans as predators, it is because that other human is a gross pervert that does horrific, deviant, and sexual things toward other people, animals, or in this case now that aliens exist, aliens, so I would refrain from calling humans predators unless you personally know the individual and they are ok with it. That being said, humans define predator as more of a relationship adjective when between animals. A deer is a predator to plants as a wolf is a predator to a deer. It is the relationship of consumption rather than dietary traits.” I finish off my statement with a nod.
“Well… If you don’t mind me referring you to as a predator for one statement…” Telg droned on.
I take a brief glance over toward my parents. My dad gives me a nonchalant shrug. My gaze returns back to Telg. “Go ahead and shoot your question or statement at me.”
The four Gojid look stunned for a moment, off-put by something I said-
Oh, don’t tell me ‘shoot’ was predatory… Probably was.
“Just… throw out your question.”
“It was more of a statement, actually, but anyways. Family cares not from where the blood comes, has to be one of the most herd-like statement I have heard from a predator.”
Did he really just say that?
He really did, but I can’t fault him. From his point of view, he’s been spun so many times that up is down, and left is right.
I shake my head, lowering it. A small chuckle slipping from between my lips. I could even hear my mother and father laughing behind me a few seconds later.
“Was what I said really that funny?”
“No, just the logic behind it is kinda funny. Like I said, humans don’t normally refer to ourselves as predators, and this whole alien thing is kind of new to me.” My words carried upon by a light tone earns some laughs as well from our Gojid guests.
I clap my hands together, signaling the end of our little tangent. “Now, if I may resume my, if I do say so myself, informative explanation… The proto-dogs seamlessly integrated into our small tribes at the time; they could track threats and prey miles before we were even aware of them, they could hear the smallest sounds and alert us of their dangers. Moreover, their sharp teeth and claws served as deterrents against other threats such as large carnivores, food-stealing rodents, or hostile human forces. Additionally, their companionship provided solace to lonely humans. As you can see,” I pointed back to Lacey, who was having her back rubbed by my father’s sock-covered foot, “Lacey seems to be enjoying herself quite nicely, but so is my father. In short, interacting with dogs triggers the release of feel-good chemicals in both human and canine brains. Activities such as petting, snuggling, and playing contribute to this positive bond."
Again, I pause, giving everyone some time to follow along. “Thus, they’d impact our evolution and vice versa: Humans that had dogs in their tribes were more successful than tribes without dogs. Humans that bonded more effectively with their canine companions would get even farther. As millennia went by, humans would get better at reading dog expressions, and dogs would get better at reading human expressions.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I typed into it for a bit until an old photo of a wolf showed up. I turned my phone’s screen toward the four Gojid. “Here you can see a wolf. They aren’t extinct due to some wildlife restoration efforts, but we had a few close calls. Wolves are extinct in the UK and Ireland as of now, but not in North America, Europe, or Asia. What you see before you are what thirty-thousand years of evolution has done to us.”
Based on the look that the Gojid were giving me. I would guess it was along the lines of wow.
“Now, before you start asking more questions. I should let you know that humanity has not only domesticated one carnivorous species, but a few others as well; some birds of prey like falcons, felines, and mustelidae such as ferrets. Meanwhile, on the herbivorous side, we have horses, elephants, rabbits, and so on. Yeah, it’s quite a long list. Means more animals for us to pet and touch. Humans can bond with just about anything, even non-living things, but that’s a story for another time.”.
I perform a small stretch, feeling my back pop. A small break in the monotony of speaking for so long.
“Now, to go back to the human-dog bond. I should remind myself to tell you the story of Gelert. It’s quite a sad story, but bear with me for just a moment.”
I clear my throat, getting ready to speak out an old Welsh folklore myth.
“A long time ago, a prince of North Wales by the name of Llywelyn went out hunting without his trusty dog, Gelert. He’d return home later that day to see Gelert, covered in blood, jovially returning to him. This freaked out the prince, who rushed to his son’s crib, finding it knocked over and messy with blood. He feared that the dog had killed his son and immediately plunged his sword into the dog’s side.” The four Gojid wince at the description, having just been told of the forged bond I have described moments ago. “The dog’s pained cry heralds the cry of the prince’s infant son, who lay on the other side, protected from a slain wolf. Gelert had valiant fought to protect Llywelyn’s son from the wolf, and in so was rewarded with a blade through its heart! A tragic tale to discourage impulsive thoughts and rash rushes to judgment. It was said that the prince buried Gelert and never smiled again.”
I never considered myself a great storyteller, but somehow I managed to get the four Gojid all teary-eyed. Barlim was rubbing at her eyes once again, and so was Tack too.
“H-how could he have done that to the dog..?” Barlim’s meek voice trailed off.
“Well, as said, Llywelyn thought Gelert killed his son. It was a rash decision. This moral folklore is supposed to warn against such tragedies, speaking of which, isn’t there an extermination fleet heading this way?”
While I may have been speaking for so long, having taken all our attention away from the potential destruction of Earth, or the general mopey attitude that came from meeting Tova. It probably was wise to bring up the fact that armageddon was on its way to Earth.
The four Gojid just sort of looked down sheepishly at the ground or flicked their ears in a way that probably meant the same thing. I didn’t really mean to put them on the spot like that, considering it was some of their former allies committing this attack, but I guess that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
“I think I can speak for all of us here that we don’t-” Telg was interrupted by my father.
“We don’t blame you, or at least I can attest to myself, my son, and my wife over here. One day, assuming we survive this looming catastrophe. There will be regret, followed by hope, and then love and compassion once again. Though, I don’t think that’s what my son was hinting toward, more over the fact that your allies are about to make a rash decision they don’t understand. Probably one you would have made years ago, but that doesn’t really matter here, or there. We live in the now, and I think it’s time we started stocking up on some goods for our cellar. Well, we got goods actually, and a couple of guns too, but nothing fancy like the Americans and all their machine guns. A .30-30 lever action, an old .44 revolver, a twelve gauge shotgun, and a .22 hunting rifle. Nothing fancy,” he shrugs and grunts. “I’m more worried about my sheep. The best we can do is pray they don’t shoot the barn.”
There’s a brief silence as the seven of us come down from the long monologue that was dispersed between moments of questionnaires. I rub one of my eyes, stretching my jaw open wide in a hand-covered yawn.
How long have by been talking?
“Sprak! I gotta go or I am going to miss my flight!” Telg clamors, quickly hopping off the couch. He quickly taps at his phone with his claws, making his way toward the front door. “See you guys later, and thanks for letting us stay! Yes, I know how to call a taxi!” He opens the door and bolts outside. At least had the manners to close it back without slamming it.
This left us with three Gojid!
“Well,” my mother stood up from her chair. “I’m certain you’re all hungry after such a long adventure, and Telg is probably too, but he’s gone already. Let me see if I can make you all something to eat…” She hesitates for a second before continuing. “Nothing with meat or animal products in it. Just vegetables and fruit,” she iterates before walking off to the kitchen, leaving my father and I with the three Gojid.
You know, that leaves one important question that’s been on my mind. One that I had asked Barlim, but have been quickly distracted by her onslaught of sudden tears due to my forgetful nature. “A quick question if I may have your attention.”
The three Gojid turned their attention toward me, looking at me as they awaited my question
“How the hell did you all get here?”
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Hi ,
Our family is looking for a 6 or 7 seater car under the budget of 15 lakhs or lower as we have space constraints with our 2017 hyundai xcent . The car will be used for city runs most of the time with highway runs twice or thrice a year . The car should only be petrol .
We have shortlisted two cars which fit this criteria :

1. Maruti Suzuki Ertiga ZXI+ (Manual)
2. Maruti Suzuki XL6 Alpha (Manual)

Seeking suggestions if there are other cars in this price range with 6 to 7 person seating and also opinion on the shortlisted options .

I don't even know where to start with this. I am reparenting myself and have been for the last 4 years. I am 35, exhausted, and still feel heartbroken frequently.
I am my family's scapegoat. The oldest of 3 girls, all 4.5 years apart. My dad was (and still currently is after nearly 40 years) the district prosecutor in my community. He is a recovering alcoholic who drank heavily throughout my childhood. My mom went back to school to be a social worker when I was 8ish years old, and continued going through two masters degrees. This was the 90's, and online college wasn't a thing; she was frequently gone at school, when I was in middle school she split her time at home half of the week and at school in married housing three hours away the other half. We were kids at home with our alcoholic dad, who was also drunk on his own power. He was abusive verbally and physically, though not in the traditional hitting way. He would grab and push and squeeze my face while pushing me up against the wall. When I was 14, he told me I was his greatest mistake in life and that I should have never been born. I would call my mom at school, and she would side with his lies and that I was a "hysterical and dramatic child".
I started "acting out" in high school around 16. I experimented with alcohol in high school, which still feels like a really fucking normal thing for a kid to do. I had a boyfriend. I lost my virginity at 15. When my mom found out that I had had sex 3 weeks later, a huge fight ensued. Screaming, calling me a 'ho", etc. . My 15 year old brain screamed that I was leaving and my hormonal teenage brain said "I am leaving this house on my own, or you will carry me out." My mom packed me up in the car, drove me to a hospital an hour away, took me to the ER and told them that I was having unprotected sex, needed a pregnancy test, an STD test, and that I should be admitted to a psych facility as I was a "danger to myself". She dropped me off at a psych facility 2 hours from home, and I didn't see them or hear from them for a week. When I got home, my punishment was to never speak to my boyfriend again. I wasn't even allowed to tell the poor kid why, he just never heard from me again. The psych facility had me sign a "contract" that I would never contact him again.
This continued on and on for years. I turned 18 in November of my senior year and I moved out. The next 6 months were nuts. I was arrested twice. Once for minor in consumption, once for minor in possession, and my mom's sister sued me to teach me a lesson over $600 I borrowed to fix my car at 17. Each time I had an interaction with the law, the police told me my mom and dad had called me in to teach me a lesson. When I was grown, the police told me that they were always instructed to bust me first to make an example out of me. Their marriage was a mess, they were unfaithful to each other, hated each other, and the only thing they could agree on and bond over was controlling me.
It has been almost 20 years. I have put myself through college and therapy. I have been married, divorced, ignored for months on end by my family over the years. I have had my own struggles with alcohol and feeling loved. I got a DUI at age 22. I now have 3 college degrees and am a pediatric nurse practitioner. Everyday I want to be the person I needed as a teen for my patients.
I accepted a new job two weeks ago, and in applying for my state licensure, an MIP that I got at age 18 came up on my background check. An MIP that I got from my mom and dad calling me in. I was the sober driver that night, and when I was pulled over I blew 0.00 BAC. I wasn't holding any alcohol, but a person in my backseat had a case of beer. I got an MIP because it was my car and I was the driver, and my DA father set the rules.
17 years later, I have to explain to the board of nursing and my employer why I left high school with a criminal record.
So what did I do? I call my mom. My mom, who I believe has spent years "working on herself". The woman is a goddamned family therapist, and was learning techniques and skills through all of those years. My dad was lenient to everyone in town except me. I think the term was "throw the book at her" growing up.
My mom last night:
"I’m saying that you blame everything on us when you were the one out making decisions that affected your future as well. You were an adult at 18 as well."
"We had no control over your actions at that time. You need to take some responsibility for all you did that got you in trouble."
Me: "I am 35. Don't you think I have taken enough responsibility over the last 17 years?"
They deny it. All of it. I am still being gaslit.
I was a kid. A fucking kid. And now I am an adult, and I am still answering for normal kid things and my parents not being there for me.
What the fuck. What in the absolute fuck. My dad prosecuted me. They both abused their power in our town, and used it to try to control me. Who makes sure their teenager leaves high school with a criminal record to "teach them a lesson" about drinking at 18?!
There is so much else that goes with this story that includes being thrown out with my stuff in trash bags x3 growing up. Once in the rain, I was dropped off at my parent's by a friend, and my stuff was outside in trash bags and the doors were locked. I lived on a friend's couch for 6 months at 19. All the while, my upper middle class family was using ME as their scapegoat for why our family was so fucked. If I threatened to call child services, my dad would say "go ahead, call them. Who do you think prosecutes those cases? Me. Who do you think the police or going to believe? You or me? Me."
I respond like I am told to: "I appreciate that you have your truth, but please respect that I have mine too. I feel like I am owed an apology from you, Dad and my aunt, and I feel like it is time that I get that without being shamed at the same time. We are all adults. If we are going to talk about how I was an adult when I was drinking at age 18, then we should talk about how you all parented at age 45. It’s not okay to look at me at 18 under a microscope and escape any responsibility you had as my parents and aunt."
I am angry, embarrassed, sad, and so so so so so so tired of being gaslit. When I bring up my pain, they deny those things happened and/or tell me that it was all my fault as a teenager and I should hbe thought about my future at the time. My younger sisters learned from an early age that I was "a mess" and "had problems", and that is they way our relationships still play out, even though I am far more successful and driven than either one of them. I no longer have a relationship with alcohol, but by choice. I don't like how it makes me feel physically or emotionally.
Where were my parents? And why can't they see that they were the grown-ups? My heart hurts, and I am beyond embarrassed and exhausted that 17 years later, I still have to answer for an MIP at age 18 because my parents couldn't regulate their own emotions.
That's all. That is my story. I just want to feel loved and normal and have a support system in my family. I operate as an only child now and treat my sisters like cousins. But FFS, I just want someone to acknowledge they didn't make the right decisions as parents. I need the gaslighting to stop.
These things aren't okay. They weren't okay then, and they aren't okay now. I know they are different people 17 years later, but Jesus, can't they objectively look at their parenting choices by this point?
I was just a kid.
Edited to add: I questioned all of this and my reality in my late 20's. I requested my medical records from the psych facility and my criminal background from the state. When you read it, it is even more absurd and nearly identical to how I remember it.

I hate how the internet markets to like the same 2 items. I'm sure there's more options than the ones that keep popping up!
So I turn to you, reddit parents lol
Keep the judgement to a minimum, but I will have to be induced with my 2nd and my first will be like a week or 2 away from being 11 months old. So 2 under 1 (damn hypertension...) Double strollers without the car seat attachment isn't really an option for us. It's kind of a need that we feel is necessary.
I didn't love baby wearing out and about with my 1st so I'm just going on the assumption it won't last or work with my 2nd. Ik I get so many people who tell me to just baby wear, but I don't want to. Lol ik that's not popular. I hated it, my son hated it, my back hated it.
The ones I see regularly are the evenflo pivot expand, this is at like the TOP of our budget (with the car seat included), and the graco ready 2 grow which is ultimately the same considering we will have to buy a new carsest. Roughly 450-500. Honestly it's a lot. If there's cheaper options amazing, but I can't go past that. Ik the mockingbird has one and uppababy has one but I believe they are 600+? I couldn't be wrong and frankly it's just too much especially if it doesn't come with the car seat as a system.
Now, we DO have a perfectly fine infant seat. Which is mildly annoying considering I can't seem to find a stroller that is compatible with it and the company doesn't have a double stroller option for it. That I know of! That carsest is the britax Bsafe gen 2 flexfit infant car seat. So if anyone by chance knows if I can use it or knows of a stroller it fits or an adapter, let me know. The internet pretty much tells me no on that front.
So, any suggestions let me know!!