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(Online) (5e) Searching for 1 Player to deal the finishing blow in my homebrew campaign!
2023.06.07 03:32 HappyDogGuy64 (Online) (5e) Searching for 1 Player to deal the finishing blow in my homebrew campaign!
Hello there, my name is Bino (21M), your friendly neighborhood DM from Germany! I have been regularly DMing for the past 1.5 years and I'm on the search for a new (and possibly for a long time) party member to play with!
The important infos:
Time: The session is usually every second Friday, starting at 18:45 (UTC+2 because of daylight savings) and usually takes 2,5 - 4 hours, depending on me or the group. We play over Roll20 and use Discord for talking and everything else.
Age should be above 16, everyone in the group is 19-21 male.
Size: We are 3 players and 1 DM so far
Microphone quality: Please have a decent enough microphone, with which we (the other players) don't hear background noise/ close to none. It would be greatly appreciated.
The campaign is already ongoing for half a year now and you will be joining in the late mid-section of it. I expect this campaign to still go for 4 sessions, +- 2 sessions, depending on the party.
We have a healthy mix of roleplay and combat (not so much exploration, as it is mostly an urban setting, but that will change with my next campaign).
The setting and what happened so far (This will be mainly player knowledge and to pique your interest, we will talk about PC knowledge during character creation):
Sorry, this actually got quite long lmao.
The main location of the campaign is the city Oron-Zenthral, located in the centre of The Old Continent. Consisting of 6 islands flying over a mountain, it is a brawling hotpot of people, where rivalry for power can be seen every day.
The players met at a pier of the sky-port district, where a woman was running away from a dragonborn. A killing blow was landed on her and she let go a black stone. The party tried to help her, but she had died. They now battled the dragonborn, who was a mercenary and wanted the stone for payment and later on interrogated him. They then let him dissolve in acid.
Next the party went to a magic shop in the district and waited at the plaza nearby, because that's where the trade between the dragonborn and his client would have gone down. They chase a noticeable woman with her 2 guards, but she escapes and one of her guards falls off of the edge of the island. Wanting to interrogate the last guard in a quiet corner, the group gets ambushed and almost killed. The warforged of the party recognizes the opposing ambushers as comrades the dragonborn has told them of, but they have to let them escape. Badly beaten and thoroughly bruised, they go their INN, to find rest. The next day, one of the party sees a letter sitting on a winfowsill and opens it. The letter is from the Family Draw, a local noble family, who deals in intelligence and other mercenary work. The family offers the 3 of them a trade: The family gets to experiment on the stone, in exchange the party gets that info, protection and other work if they so desire. The players accept by meeting the contact person in "The Hive", who brings them to the family, where the group meets a researcher of the family. The old man of drow descent tells them, that for the experiments to commence, he needs 3 items, of which the party gets 2, involving a heist in a library and a dungeon crawl in the city-sewers.
Mr. Nazach (the researcher) assembles his machine and finds out various information and even a legend around this magical jewel (slightly abbreviated): "Two young brothers, silver and gold respectively, once fought over the Jewel Of Dragons, fighting so fiercely, that they split a mountain in half. Being in such a battle-rage, an unknown party could sneak into the battle and steal the jewel". The party also learned, that combined with the "Crown Of Dawn", the jewel and the crown would become the Crown Of Dragons, which is a powerful item, which lets you open up portals to other realms and mind-control masses of people. Following this information, a party member (I'm looking at you Ziraelle) gently cast Sleep on the old gentleman, bringing him to sleep and giving the party a window to flee the building, where the family lives.
The next step was, to steal the Crown Of Dawn from the famous church of the city, where the first and only king of the city lies dormant (dead, but dormant sounded better). The party entered the cathedral and swiftly got out again, by setting a nearby stable on fire! Out in a nearby alley, where they wouldn't be spotted, they took out the crown and the party's sorcerer (looking at you again, Ziraelle) quickly destroyed it. Why you ask? Because the crown that was being displayed, was a fake!
But inside the crown was an old note:"Dear brother Albion, as you may have sensed, this is a fake. I have taken the Crown of Dawn for myself and will not give it back. Bring me the Jewel Of Dragons and we shall be siblings again. You know where to find me. Signed DG" Who could this man with the initials be?!
After having such an exhausting day, the party decided to rest and research about the newly found letter. Descending onto a lower island, the one party member spotted a fire on the island below: It was an Inn, in which they slept last night. 2 of the members rush in, the other 2 try to help outside. During this encounter, one party member sadly died in the fire, whilst the other 3 barely escaped death.
After a week in the local hospital, all 3 recovered well and set out to finish their plans, now with one member less.
After looking in the city library again (the same they stole from) and going through a city register of all citizens, the party's monk couldn't find any information regarding DG, but instead for Albion, which sadly didn't help much in the current situation... They now went to a contact the monk "I'Mok" had and went to the slums of the city on the peak of the mountain. There, they had a barfight with criminals and got little information. After sleeping (heavily drunk) through the night, they set out for adventure the next day: They decided to go in underground of the slums, trying to find the info they desire there. Which is where we are right now! The party of 3 entered a mining shaft, which was a tip, which the bartender gave them and went right in. They just traversed a pit of quicksand and are now standing in a corridor, where mystery and uncertainty lies ahead.
That's it so far :) the rest is up to you and the others to decide, so don't hesitate!
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate and post a comment or DM me :)
Oh yeah, finally, after reading through all of this (which I'm very thankful for!) I would like to ask you, to fill out the following form, as it makes it easier for me to determine, which players I want in my game. Thank you in advance for showing interest, I'll hopefully see you at the (virtual) table!
- Bino
Form, to be filled out for application: https://forms.gle/wfXKV4Nt6vXrSMNn9
submitted by HappyDogGuy64 to lfg [link] [comments]
The important infos:
Time: The session is usually every second Friday, starting at 18:45 (UTC+2 because of daylight savings) and usually takes 2,5 - 4 hours, depending on me or the group. We play over Roll20 and use Discord for talking and everything else.
Age should be above 16, everyone in the group is 19-21 male.
Size: We are 3 players and 1 DM so far
Microphone quality: Please have a decent enough microphone, with which we (the other players) don't hear background noise/ close to none. It would be greatly appreciated.
The campaign is already ongoing for half a year now and you will be joining in the late mid-section of it. I expect this campaign to still go for 4 sessions, +- 2 sessions, depending on the party.
We have a healthy mix of roleplay and combat (not so much exploration, as it is mostly an urban setting, but that will change with my next campaign).
The setting and what happened so far (This will be mainly player knowledge and to pique your interest, we will talk about PC knowledge during character creation):
Sorry, this actually got quite long lmao.
The main location of the campaign is the city Oron-Zenthral, located in the centre of The Old Continent. Consisting of 6 islands flying over a mountain, it is a brawling hotpot of people, where rivalry for power can be seen every day.
The players met at a pier of the sky-port district, where a woman was running away from a dragonborn. A killing blow was landed on her and she let go a black stone. The party tried to help her, but she had died. They now battled the dragonborn, who was a mercenary and wanted the stone for payment and later on interrogated him. They then let him dissolve in acid.
Next the party went to a magic shop in the district and waited at the plaza nearby, because that's where the trade between the dragonborn and his client would have gone down. They chase a noticeable woman with her 2 guards, but she escapes and one of her guards falls off of the edge of the island. Wanting to interrogate the last guard in a quiet corner, the group gets ambushed and almost killed. The warforged of the party recognizes the opposing ambushers as comrades the dragonborn has told them of, but they have to let them escape. Badly beaten and thoroughly bruised, they go their INN, to find rest. The next day, one of the party sees a letter sitting on a winfowsill and opens it. The letter is from the Family Draw, a local noble family, who deals in intelligence and other mercenary work. The family offers the 3 of them a trade: The family gets to experiment on the stone, in exchange the party gets that info, protection and other work if they so desire. The players accept by meeting the contact person in "The Hive", who brings them to the family, where the group meets a researcher of the family. The old man of drow descent tells them, that for the experiments to commence, he needs 3 items, of which the party gets 2, involving a heist in a library and a dungeon crawl in the city-sewers.
Mr. Nazach (the researcher) assembles his machine and finds out various information and even a legend around this magical jewel (slightly abbreviated): "Two young brothers, silver and gold respectively, once fought over the Jewel Of Dragons, fighting so fiercely, that they split a mountain in half. Being in such a battle-rage, an unknown party could sneak into the battle and steal the jewel". The party also learned, that combined with the "Crown Of Dawn", the jewel and the crown would become the Crown Of Dragons, which is a powerful item, which lets you open up portals to other realms and mind-control masses of people. Following this information, a party member (I'm looking at you Ziraelle) gently cast Sleep on the old gentleman, bringing him to sleep and giving the party a window to flee the building, where the family lives.
The next step was, to steal the Crown Of Dawn from the famous church of the city, where the first and only king of the city lies dormant (dead, but dormant sounded better). The party entered the cathedral and swiftly got out again, by setting a nearby stable on fire! Out in a nearby alley, where they wouldn't be spotted, they took out the crown and the party's sorcerer (looking at you again, Ziraelle) quickly destroyed it. Why you ask? Because the crown that was being displayed, was a fake!
But inside the crown was an old note:"Dear brother Albion, as you may have sensed, this is a fake. I have taken the Crown of Dawn for myself and will not give it back. Bring me the Jewel Of Dragons and we shall be siblings again. You know where to find me. Signed DG" Who could this man with the initials be?!
After having such an exhausting day, the party decided to rest and research about the newly found letter. Descending onto a lower island, the one party member spotted a fire on the island below: It was an Inn, in which they slept last night. 2 of the members rush in, the other 2 try to help outside. During this encounter, one party member sadly died in the fire, whilst the other 3 barely escaped death.
After a week in the local hospital, all 3 recovered well and set out to finish their plans, now with one member less.
After looking in the city library again (the same they stole from) and going through a city register of all citizens, the party's monk couldn't find any information regarding DG, but instead for Albion, which sadly didn't help much in the current situation... They now went to a contact the monk "I'Mok" had and went to the slums of the city on the peak of the mountain. There, they had a barfight with criminals and got little information. After sleeping (heavily drunk) through the night, they set out for adventure the next day: They decided to go in underground of the slums, trying to find the info they desire there. Which is where we are right now! The party of 3 entered a mining shaft, which was a tip, which the bartender gave them and went right in. They just traversed a pit of quicksand and are now standing in a corridor, where mystery and uncertainty lies ahead.
That's it so far :) the rest is up to you and the others to decide, so don't hesitate!
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate and post a comment or DM me :)
Oh yeah, finally, after reading through all of this (which I'm very thankful for!) I would like to ask you, to fill out the following form, as it makes it easier for me to determine, which players I want in my game. Thank you in advance for showing interest, I'll hopefully see you at the (virtual) table!
- Bino
Form, to be filled out for application: https://forms.gle/wfXKV4Nt6vXrSMNn9
2023.06.07 03:23 lutherwriteshorror My childhood dog showed back up to my house after 30 years [Part 2]
My mother thinks it’s a miracle.
Yesterday my childhood dog showed up at my house after having disappeared thirty years ago, and I’ve been trying to figure out what is happening and what it means.
To say I’m unsettled would be an understatement.
I’m not on the best terms with my mother. We never had the best relationship, but she’s been pushing boundaries really terribly ever since my son was born. She’ll show up out of the blue demanding to spend time with him, demanding “grandmother privileges” without giving us any heads up or letting us prepare ourselves for company, she’ll take things from the house without asking, she tried to bully us into letting her move in, that sort of thing. It doesn’t bug me terribly, maybe because I’m used to it, but my wife has been on the verge of blowing up and banning her from our house for months.
So when I called her up to tell her about this dog that I could swear was Shadow, I should have braced for the worst.
She practically broke down the door rushing over to our house in a matter of minutes.
I couldn’t think of any distinguishing characteristics other than his dichromatic eyes and the fact that I’d never seen a dog that looked quite like him, but my mother remembered that Shadow had a missing toe on his left front paw, and we were always curious as to what had happened.
Sure enough, this returned Shadow was missing the same toe.
On that note, my mother has never been the least bit religious, but I think Shadow turning up after all these years is triggering some sort of conversion.
"It must be a sign. God wants us to have another shot with him," she said.
"You're religious now?" I asked.
"This is proof of something, isn't it? Your childhood dog, your best friend has returned after thirty years to protect your son. That's incredible!"
For once, she and my wife finally agree on something: we’re keeping “Shadow.” I’m leery as all hell about it, and what scares me more than anything i just how comfortable he’s making everyone else around him. Last night my wife and mother were watching television and eating popcorn with Shadow curled up at their feet. I swear, I haven’t seen them more at peace together than in that moment, and even I have to admit it makes me feel bad that I’m trying to deprive them of that, but there is something unnatural about this whole ordeal. Something bad.
It's like nobody is listening to reason.
Those hairs on the back of your neck that stand up from some signal deep in the mammalian brain, that tell you something is very wrong — get out of this situation now — alarm bells are going off, it feels like I'm the only one who has them in this family.
Apparently he showed up at our door while I was at work yesterday and my wife brought him in to get him a snack and some water. She's a dog person, so seeing the majestic animal panting at our doorstep she naturally trusted him and let him in.
"You brought in a wild animal with our infant son in the house?" I asked, honestly flabbergasted.
"He's not some wild wolf or something. He's a dog and very obviously a good one at that. I could just tell."
I remembered back to childhood, that gruff voice that came from Shadow detailing each gory moment of the scene that would happen if he chose to rip out my sister's throat, the flesh torn open, the blood drenching the cartoon pillowcase, the splatter on her curtains as he shook her windpipe like a dead rat. I looked at him, and the way he looked at me was as if he knew.
"Every moment he's in this house I'm going to be afraid of what he'll do." I told her.
"He's a good dog. Your mom says you were inseparable from him when you were a kid. What's changed?"
"Why is nobody listening to me? He was possessive of me but I was always terrified of him. I don't want him in our house." I said.
"You're being so irrational about this," she said.
Irrational? I'm sorry, I'm not convinced a dog can be thirty-seven years old.
My brain's not some cabinet of horrors. I get that I have the reputation in my family as still being some sort of imaginative child even though all that stopped thirty years ago, but it feels to me that these red flags I'm seeing everywhere are pretty obvious.
Honestly the worst thing is that after never being civil to each other for six and a half years my wife and mother are abruptly best friends. My wife even invited my mother to come stay with us for a while.
My wife and I were in the kitchen after dinner when she brought the idea up. I had been drying a plate and it slip out of my hands and broke on the floor.
"An extra pair of hands around the house won't hurt."
"An extra pair of hands and a drooling maw," I said. The dog looked up at me and I felt like it grabbed my voice.
I cleaned up the broken plate, downcast. The moment she brought it up I knew I'd already lost that argument. I've been burning through overtime at work to pay for childcare, but that's left so much extra housework for my wife that it's really not fair to her for me to argue on this. We need the help.
So in addition to worrying about this demon dog or whatever Shadow is, I'm having to move everything out of my office to make my mother a guest room, and the emotional dynamic of my marriage has completely shifted overnight.
Most of the things in my office I don't really use. I carried the files downstairs and had started the laborious project of trying to disassemble my wire shelves when I heard my son babbling in the other room. He was never this talkative.
I came into my son's room as the sun was dipping below the window and bathing the room in golden light. Shadow was there, but this time he was standing on his hind legs, almost as if he was human. His hair puffed up and he looked powerful, regal, wise. He stood there gazing at my son.
“No,” I said, “go back to where you came from. I don’t want you here.”
When he turned to look at me his eyes burned into mine with an intense stare, the reached into me and grabbed hold of something they found inside me. I couldn't move. An unbelievable feeling of calm washed over me and I left the room as though my body was on marionette strings.
As soon as I closed the door my paternal instincts took back over and I was immediately terrified that something was happening to my son. I yanked the door back open dreading the worst — what if the beast had carried him off, had taken him to some dark hole we would never find to eat his tender body — what if he'd come back again from some rotten hell to take everything from me and there was nothing I could do to stop him. But when the door flew open Shadow was sitting there as a regular dog, wagging his tail while my son said nonsense syllables to him.
But that wasn’t real. Something was off. It was like the scene was only in my imagination. My eyes, they weren’t even open, how could what I was seeing be real if my eyes weren’t even open?
I focused with everything I had. My body felt like it was moving through wet concrete — if I didn’t shuck it off right now it would solidify and I wouldn’t be able to regain control again.
I focused, even as something pushed back. I pushed with all my will to open my eyes and see what was actually happening in front of me.
I dredged up every ounce of courage I had against that beast, every ounce of resentment for the things he did to me in childhood. I remembered how he made me, an innocent little boy, push my sister down the stairs — how I’d never recovered my relationship with her.
No, I thought. I am an adult now, not some little boy who is constantly afraid.
I will see. I will, I told myself.
My eyes snapped open. I saw Shadow standing upright, bipedal, his back long, and straight, and strong, and he was holding my son, the back of his onesie caught on that animal’s teether. He looked at me with golden eyes, stared into me, but I refused to budge — I refused to let him back into me even an inch.
I realized he was frozen too. For some reason he couldn’t move while he was trying to exert his will over me. My son wriggled and I knew he was destined to fall any moment.
I pushed through the room, every step heavy and exhausting. I grabbed my son out of “Shadow’s” mouth and wrenched him free, and I backed out of the room.
As soon as I was free of the room I regained full control of my body and dashed down the stairs holding my infant son. I was going to get us out of this, no matter what my wife and mother thought.
I heard my wife’s voice call out to me from the kitchen as I was nearly out the door. “You cannot leave with him. He is not your son anymore. Shadow will be a better father to him than you could ever be. Shadow can keep him safe.”
It was my wife’s voice, but those weren’t her words. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what, but even if she was deranged enough to claim Shadow was my son’s father, she wouldn’t have used those words.
“He’s done something to you. You have to resist. You have to break free.”
My mother came out of the kitchen carrying a pair of scissors as if they were knives, smiling.
“I’m so sorry,” I muttered. “I’m sorry I’m leaving you to him, but I have to make sure our son is safe. I’ll be back for you. I promise.”
I slammed the door and leapt in the car. In my bedroom window I saw Shadow watching me. I didn’t even want to know what his next move would be.
I drove until I was tired of driving and pulled into a parking lot to think and type this up. My son is sleeping in the car seat. For the moment, we’re safe, but where we can go from here, I have no idea.
[Part 1] https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/140pc2my_childhood_dog_just_showed_up_at_my_house_afte?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
submitted by lutherwriteshorror to nosleep [link] [comments]
Yesterday my childhood dog showed up at my house after having disappeared thirty years ago, and I’ve been trying to figure out what is happening and what it means.
To say I’m unsettled would be an understatement.
I’m not on the best terms with my mother. We never had the best relationship, but she’s been pushing boundaries really terribly ever since my son was born. She’ll show up out of the blue demanding to spend time with him, demanding “grandmother privileges” without giving us any heads up or letting us prepare ourselves for company, she’ll take things from the house without asking, she tried to bully us into letting her move in, that sort of thing. It doesn’t bug me terribly, maybe because I’m used to it, but my wife has been on the verge of blowing up and banning her from our house for months.
So when I called her up to tell her about this dog that I could swear was Shadow, I should have braced for the worst.
She practically broke down the door rushing over to our house in a matter of minutes.
I couldn’t think of any distinguishing characteristics other than his dichromatic eyes and the fact that I’d never seen a dog that looked quite like him, but my mother remembered that Shadow had a missing toe on his left front paw, and we were always curious as to what had happened.
Sure enough, this returned Shadow was missing the same toe.
On that note, my mother has never been the least bit religious, but I think Shadow turning up after all these years is triggering some sort of conversion.
"It must be a sign. God wants us to have another shot with him," she said.
"You're religious now?" I asked.
"This is proof of something, isn't it? Your childhood dog, your best friend has returned after thirty years to protect your son. That's incredible!"
For once, she and my wife finally agree on something: we’re keeping “Shadow.” I’m leery as all hell about it, and what scares me more than anything i just how comfortable he’s making everyone else around him. Last night my wife and mother were watching television and eating popcorn with Shadow curled up at their feet. I swear, I haven’t seen them more at peace together than in that moment, and even I have to admit it makes me feel bad that I’m trying to deprive them of that, but there is something unnatural about this whole ordeal. Something bad.
It's like nobody is listening to reason.
Those hairs on the back of your neck that stand up from some signal deep in the mammalian brain, that tell you something is very wrong — get out of this situation now — alarm bells are going off, it feels like I'm the only one who has them in this family.
Apparently he showed up at our door while I was at work yesterday and my wife brought him in to get him a snack and some water. She's a dog person, so seeing the majestic animal panting at our doorstep she naturally trusted him and let him in.
"You brought in a wild animal with our infant son in the house?" I asked, honestly flabbergasted.
"He's not some wild wolf or something. He's a dog and very obviously a good one at that. I could just tell."
I remembered back to childhood, that gruff voice that came from Shadow detailing each gory moment of the scene that would happen if he chose to rip out my sister's throat, the flesh torn open, the blood drenching the cartoon pillowcase, the splatter on her curtains as he shook her windpipe like a dead rat. I looked at him, and the way he looked at me was as if he knew.
"Every moment he's in this house I'm going to be afraid of what he'll do." I told her.
"He's a good dog. Your mom says you were inseparable from him when you were a kid. What's changed?"
"Why is nobody listening to me? He was possessive of me but I was always terrified of him. I don't want him in our house." I said.
"You're being so irrational about this," she said.
Irrational? I'm sorry, I'm not convinced a dog can be thirty-seven years old.
My brain's not some cabinet of horrors. I get that I have the reputation in my family as still being some sort of imaginative child even though all that stopped thirty years ago, but it feels to me that these red flags I'm seeing everywhere are pretty obvious.
Honestly the worst thing is that after never being civil to each other for six and a half years my wife and mother are abruptly best friends. My wife even invited my mother to come stay with us for a while.
My wife and I were in the kitchen after dinner when she brought the idea up. I had been drying a plate and it slip out of my hands and broke on the floor.
"An extra pair of hands around the house won't hurt."
"An extra pair of hands and a drooling maw," I said. The dog looked up at me and I felt like it grabbed my voice.
I cleaned up the broken plate, downcast. The moment she brought it up I knew I'd already lost that argument. I've been burning through overtime at work to pay for childcare, but that's left so much extra housework for my wife that it's really not fair to her for me to argue on this. We need the help.
So in addition to worrying about this demon dog or whatever Shadow is, I'm having to move everything out of my office to make my mother a guest room, and the emotional dynamic of my marriage has completely shifted overnight.
Most of the things in my office I don't really use. I carried the files downstairs and had started the laborious project of trying to disassemble my wire shelves when I heard my son babbling in the other room. He was never this talkative.
I came into my son's room as the sun was dipping below the window and bathing the room in golden light. Shadow was there, but this time he was standing on his hind legs, almost as if he was human. His hair puffed up and he looked powerful, regal, wise. He stood there gazing at my son.
“No,” I said, “go back to where you came from. I don’t want you here.”
When he turned to look at me his eyes burned into mine with an intense stare, the reached into me and grabbed hold of something they found inside me. I couldn't move. An unbelievable feeling of calm washed over me and I left the room as though my body was on marionette strings.
As soon as I closed the door my paternal instincts took back over and I was immediately terrified that something was happening to my son. I yanked the door back open dreading the worst — what if the beast had carried him off, had taken him to some dark hole we would never find to eat his tender body — what if he'd come back again from some rotten hell to take everything from me and there was nothing I could do to stop him. But when the door flew open Shadow was sitting there as a regular dog, wagging his tail while my son said nonsense syllables to him.
But that wasn’t real. Something was off. It was like the scene was only in my imagination. My eyes, they weren’t even open, how could what I was seeing be real if my eyes weren’t even open?
I focused with everything I had. My body felt like it was moving through wet concrete — if I didn’t shuck it off right now it would solidify and I wouldn’t be able to regain control again.
I focused, even as something pushed back. I pushed with all my will to open my eyes and see what was actually happening in front of me.
I dredged up every ounce of courage I had against that beast, every ounce of resentment for the things he did to me in childhood. I remembered how he made me, an innocent little boy, push my sister down the stairs — how I’d never recovered my relationship with her.
No, I thought. I am an adult now, not some little boy who is constantly afraid.
I will see. I will, I told myself.
My eyes snapped open. I saw Shadow standing upright, bipedal, his back long, and straight, and strong, and he was holding my son, the back of his onesie caught on that animal’s teether. He looked at me with golden eyes, stared into me, but I refused to budge — I refused to let him back into me even an inch.
I realized he was frozen too. For some reason he couldn’t move while he was trying to exert his will over me. My son wriggled and I knew he was destined to fall any moment.
I pushed through the room, every step heavy and exhausting. I grabbed my son out of “Shadow’s” mouth and wrenched him free, and I backed out of the room.
As soon as I was free of the room I regained full control of my body and dashed down the stairs holding my infant son. I was going to get us out of this, no matter what my wife and mother thought.
I heard my wife’s voice call out to me from the kitchen as I was nearly out the door. “You cannot leave with him. He is not your son anymore. Shadow will be a better father to him than you could ever be. Shadow can keep him safe.”
It was my wife’s voice, but those weren’t her words. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what, but even if she was deranged enough to claim Shadow was my son’s father, she wouldn’t have used those words.
“He’s done something to you. You have to resist. You have to break free.”
My mother came out of the kitchen carrying a pair of scissors as if they were knives, smiling.
“I’m so sorry,” I muttered. “I’m sorry I’m leaving you to him, but I have to make sure our son is safe. I’ll be back for you. I promise.”
I slammed the door and leapt in the car. In my bedroom window I saw Shadow watching me. I didn’t even want to know what his next move would be.
I drove until I was tired of driving and pulled into a parking lot to think and type this up. My son is sleeping in the car seat. For the moment, we’re safe, but where we can go from here, I have no idea.
[Part 1] https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/140pc2my_childhood_dog_just_showed_up_at_my_house_afte?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
2023.06.07 03:21 Warm-Lecture I am AA dating since one year a FA leaning DA, DAE here? I am in constant anxiety but I know I want to work on it not only for him but firstly for me.
Sorry for it's too long..
I know I want to work on it not only for him but firstly for me, I am a trauma survivor of my partner of 10 years death (three years ago) in violent and unknown circumstances, I have always been a AA and after his death when I start dating I can have some FA sensations that I want to flee when it starts to be intimate and I feel things, but I overcome this because I am too spontenous and I cannot stop getting involved despite that specific feeling. Anyway, it is VERY complicated to date since one year a guy who is, I think, FA leaning DA. We have more a "situationship" then a relatonship, it is not official and we agreed on that, but then I fell in love, and he knows it.
He never told me so and he will never do it, I do not know if he is in love but I think he really managed not to fall in love as a decision, he talked to me about it ("i dont want to get in love and i dont want nobody to fall in love with me cause it is a responsability, i suffered to much in my last relationship when I have been dumped, I am afraid, it is complicated for me to change, I know I am distant and I have always been, I am colder since my last gf was too"...and so on). He is very brilliant and nice with me, he tells me all the time that he cares, but it is not an official relationship, we do not talk everyday except if its me contacting me everyday, I am the one who is proposing to meet all the time, and he would do it if I dont, but it would take much time and as an AA I cannot wait.
I am using this relationship with him as a super way to work on my attachment and intensity. A few months ago he got overwhelmed on my requests and he almost dumped me but he told me it was difficult and he wanted me to take a few days to see if I could manage better the intensity of what I want cause he did not want an intense relationship (lets say an official one) in this time of his life, but that he does appreciate my intensity by itself, he likes it. Still he felt the rythm was to quick for him. Sex's great. He told me that its very easy to get in love with me as aI am an incredible girl but that he "Is a stupid" and commented things like this a few times, and when I asked him a few times to travel a weekend with me he says yes at the beginning, we even booked some flights once but later or he has afamily emergency or he pulls out. I asked him why and he said he does not know but maybe he is afraid that "it is too much, or that it could be too good" to travel together, LOL. I get in anxiety if we dont have sex once or if we dont talk for a few days but I try not to be intense cause i know its my problem too. I have the constant fear and sensation that it's going to end that the contact or things we had before are little by little fading and i have no idea if it is me or its real (of course all this began with a few super intense months of meeting everyday and no FA traits in him to later start pulling out and changing disproportionally in contact and presence).
Do you have any advices? I try not to be intense and at the same time be myself but it is challenging and I am the one who is always organizing things to do and inviting him home (since six months he does not invite me to his home and he says its because he lives with roomies and its unconfortable, but before I could go and met his roomies too..) so it could get to be exhausting for me but I do not want to cut..
submitted by Warm-Lecture to FearfulAvoidant [link] [comments]
I know I want to work on it not only for him but firstly for me, I am a trauma survivor of my partner of 10 years death (three years ago) in violent and unknown circumstances, I have always been a AA and after his death when I start dating I can have some FA sensations that I want to flee when it starts to be intimate and I feel things, but I overcome this because I am too spontenous and I cannot stop getting involved despite that specific feeling. Anyway, it is VERY complicated to date since one year a guy who is, I think, FA leaning DA. We have more a "situationship" then a relatonship, it is not official and we agreed on that, but then I fell in love, and he knows it.
He never told me so and he will never do it, I do not know if he is in love but I think he really managed not to fall in love as a decision, he talked to me about it ("i dont want to get in love and i dont want nobody to fall in love with me cause it is a responsability, i suffered to much in my last relationship when I have been dumped, I am afraid, it is complicated for me to change, I know I am distant and I have always been, I am colder since my last gf was too"...and so on). He is very brilliant and nice with me, he tells me all the time that he cares, but it is not an official relationship, we do not talk everyday except if its me contacting me everyday, I am the one who is proposing to meet all the time, and he would do it if I dont, but it would take much time and as an AA I cannot wait.
I am using this relationship with him as a super way to work on my attachment and intensity. A few months ago he got overwhelmed on my requests and he almost dumped me but he told me it was difficult and he wanted me to take a few days to see if I could manage better the intensity of what I want cause he did not want an intense relationship (lets say an official one) in this time of his life, but that he does appreciate my intensity by itself, he likes it. Still he felt the rythm was to quick for him. Sex's great. He told me that its very easy to get in love with me as aI am an incredible girl but that he "Is a stupid" and commented things like this a few times, and when I asked him a few times to travel a weekend with me he says yes at the beginning, we even booked some flights once but later or he has afamily emergency or he pulls out. I asked him why and he said he does not know but maybe he is afraid that "it is too much, or that it could be too good" to travel together, LOL. I get in anxiety if we dont have sex once or if we dont talk for a few days but I try not to be intense cause i know its my problem too. I have the constant fear and sensation that it's going to end that the contact or things we had before are little by little fading and i have no idea if it is me or its real (of course all this began with a few super intense months of meeting everyday and no FA traits in him to later start pulling out and changing disproportionally in contact and presence).
Do you have any advices? I try not to be intense and at the same time be myself but it is challenging and I am the one who is always organizing things to do and inviting him home (since six months he does not invite me to his home and he says its because he lives with roomies and its unconfortable, but before I could go and met his roomies too..) so it could get to be exhausting for me but I do not want to cut..
2023.06.07 03:12 J_amos921 I can’t tell if JNMIL just a control freak or manipulative narcissist.
When I got pregnant last year my SO and I set some boundaries with family members about being around LO in the early weeks.
No children allowed and we asked people to not come when sick, wash hands and asked to get some shots because it was during flu season.
JNMIL got extremely upset because she is antivax and apparently was “crying for weeks” according to FIL. SIL went completely NC with us. We saw her on xmas day but besides that crickets for the past 10 months. MIL said some hurtful things to us. She said she wasn’t coming to my shower and then just showed up (which I didn’t have a problem with her coming I was just annoyed by saying she wasn’t coming). She told my SO his family doesn’t like me and wouldn’t come to the baby shower. I haven’t done anything to make anyone not like me. Apparently I pissed people off not going to bridal showers when I was vomiting and exhausted in the fall.
The biggest thing for me is that in January I got very sick in my third trimester 36 weeks. I was on oxygen and bed bound for several days stuck in the hospital for 9 days. None of them sent a single text or called not even to SO.
When my SO called his mother to tell her I was sick and they admitted me she didn’t ask how I was and asked “but is the baby OK?” Like I am a surrogate she doesn’t know not her daughter in law of 3.5 years.
They live 30 minutes away. I wasn’t expecting a visit or anything but it was very cold. Not even saying anything afterward.
I had a difficult delivery I had pre eclampsia ended in a C-section and I hemorrhaged and I ended up having a post partum hemorrhage as well after I got home. I was vomiting and felt very weak. No one asked how I was when my SO called them when we got home from the hospital. They asked about the baby and then changed the subject to SIL upcoming wedding. I don’t really care but I just see it showing that they hate me. They came and met the baby when she was like 11 weeks old. They were happy. They acted nice. I acted nice-they are her grandparents I wanted them to be able to have a good moment. They offered ti babysit her sometime.
All of a sudden MIL is texting me again. Not a lot but a few times. SIL still hasn’t met LO and she is 4 months old. Two weeks ago we went to a family gathering on my SO side. MIL hugged me goodbye in front of other family member (SO cousin) and then they tried to invite us over to their house and mentioned they had a crib set up for LO if we wanted to stay over.
Also LO is their first grandchild. They got a crib for her when we haven’t spoken to them in months and in my opinion they burned a bridge with me. I felt like it was DELUSIONAL.
I had an excuse that I had to go home to pump but I was shocked she would think I would want to do that. I was also kind of annoyed she acted like that in front of other people like we are close and like nothing happened. Previously we would hang out with his family at least once a month and have dinner and play games. It just feels weird and fake to me now. I talked to SO and I said I think we need to have a conversation with them. I’m not expecting an apology I know I won’t get one but they need to understand they can’t throw a tantrum and go no contact with us when we make a decision for our daughter about her safety and also it’s our comfort level. I already have post partum anxiety.
If they don’t respect our rules we won’t be having them around because we already felt disrespected the first time. For example SO and I agreed we wouldn’t be allowing overnights until she was at least 2 and possibly longer unless there was an emergency. I can see them having a problem with that.
SO asked them to come over to talk. FIL called to say MIL and SIL want to forget the whole thing and move on. They are refusing to talk about it. Also now they are refusing to come over when invited to talk but before they were SOOO upset they couldn’t see LO when they wanted to. I asked my mother to babysit the night his parents were supposed to because now they aren’t wanting to see us because we would like to talk like adults instead of give people the silent treatment.
I told my SO I am never going to stop his parents coming over to see LO if he wants them to if they give advanced notice. I really think they shouldn’t come “do us a favor” until they agree to talk to us. I could see MIL trying to use that as a guilt trip later because she did last fall. They would see her if they agreed to speak with us. Am I wrong? also is that just being controlling or is that narcissism?
submitted by J_amos921 to JNMIL [link] [comments]
No children allowed and we asked people to not come when sick, wash hands and asked to get some shots because it was during flu season.
JNMIL got extremely upset because she is antivax and apparently was “crying for weeks” according to FIL. SIL went completely NC with us. We saw her on xmas day but besides that crickets for the past 10 months. MIL said some hurtful things to us. She said she wasn’t coming to my shower and then just showed up (which I didn’t have a problem with her coming I was just annoyed by saying she wasn’t coming). She told my SO his family doesn’t like me and wouldn’t come to the baby shower. I haven’t done anything to make anyone not like me. Apparently I pissed people off not going to bridal showers when I was vomiting and exhausted in the fall.
The biggest thing for me is that in January I got very sick in my third trimester 36 weeks. I was on oxygen and bed bound for several days stuck in the hospital for 9 days. None of them sent a single text or called not even to SO.
When my SO called his mother to tell her I was sick and they admitted me she didn’t ask how I was and asked “but is the baby OK?” Like I am a surrogate she doesn’t know not her daughter in law of 3.5 years.
They live 30 minutes away. I wasn’t expecting a visit or anything but it was very cold. Not even saying anything afterward.
I had a difficult delivery I had pre eclampsia ended in a C-section and I hemorrhaged and I ended up having a post partum hemorrhage as well after I got home. I was vomiting and felt very weak. No one asked how I was when my SO called them when we got home from the hospital. They asked about the baby and then changed the subject to SIL upcoming wedding. I don’t really care but I just see it showing that they hate me. They came and met the baby when she was like 11 weeks old. They were happy. They acted nice. I acted nice-they are her grandparents I wanted them to be able to have a good moment. They offered ti babysit her sometime.
All of a sudden MIL is texting me again. Not a lot but a few times. SIL still hasn’t met LO and she is 4 months old. Two weeks ago we went to a family gathering on my SO side. MIL hugged me goodbye in front of other family member (SO cousin) and then they tried to invite us over to their house and mentioned they had a crib set up for LO if we wanted to stay over.
Also LO is their first grandchild. They got a crib for her when we haven’t spoken to them in months and in my opinion they burned a bridge with me. I felt like it was DELUSIONAL.
I had an excuse that I had to go home to pump but I was shocked she would think I would want to do that. I was also kind of annoyed she acted like that in front of other people like we are close and like nothing happened. Previously we would hang out with his family at least once a month and have dinner and play games. It just feels weird and fake to me now. I talked to SO and I said I think we need to have a conversation with them. I’m not expecting an apology I know I won’t get one but they need to understand they can’t throw a tantrum and go no contact with us when we make a decision for our daughter about her safety and also it’s our comfort level. I already have post partum anxiety.
If they don’t respect our rules we won’t be having them around because we already felt disrespected the first time. For example SO and I agreed we wouldn’t be allowing overnights until she was at least 2 and possibly longer unless there was an emergency. I can see them having a problem with that.
SO asked them to come over to talk. FIL called to say MIL and SIL want to forget the whole thing and move on. They are refusing to talk about it. Also now they are refusing to come over when invited to talk but before they were SOOO upset they couldn’t see LO when they wanted to. I asked my mother to babysit the night his parents were supposed to because now they aren’t wanting to see us because we would like to talk like adults instead of give people the silent treatment.
I told my SO I am never going to stop his parents coming over to see LO if he wants them to if they give advanced notice. I really think they shouldn’t come “do us a favor” until they agree to talk to us. I could see MIL trying to use that as a guilt trip later because she did last fall. They would see her if they agreed to speak with us. Am I wrong? also is that just being controlling or is that narcissism?
2023.06.07 03:11 dryerfresh A bad day.
I slept 8 hours last night, took 40 mg of adderall this morning, and had to leave work early because I was falling asleep at my desk. I came home and slept from 11-4:30. I missed my afternoon meds, and am still exhausted.
submitted by dryerfresh to idiopathichypersomnia [link] [comments]
2023.06.07 03:03 KyleWtf90 2022 Civic - Lemon
 | Just received a letter that my civic may be a lemon! Honestly, haven’t had any problems. Has anyone else received anything similar ? submitted by KyleWtf90 to hondacivic [link] [comments] |
2023.06.07 02:45 furret_enthusiast No one is awake to talk to so just sharing my thoughts here
There's not really a point to this post, just me sharing my frustration, really. I've been bad at sleeping ever since I was little, but it's been getting gradually worse over the past few years. I'm in a very busy and stressful exam period right now that will last for another month, and the sun starts rising at 4am here and although I've done my very best to darken my room, I can still tell if I have my eyes closed if the sun is coming up or not. This is all contributing to possibly the worst bout of insomnia I've ever had so far. Over the past four nights I've had maybe two hours of sleep per night, right now its 2.30am and I want to sleep so bad. I'm so tired but I just can't sleep, especially because I accidentally timed a different medication wrong (probably a sloppy mistake because of the exhaustion from the previous few nights), so I don't think I'll be able to sleep at all tonight. But if I don't sleep, I can barely focus on studying or attend my sports practices, I already had to skip practice today even though I wanted to go but I just couldn't, but I also wasn't able to spend that time on studying because I can't really focus anymore. Right now I've just been crying for over half an hour and I'm not even sure why, I guess my emotions are just running wild because of everything. It's just so frustrating, I honestly wouldn't mind if someone just whacked me over the head with something and basically forced me to pass out right now. Why can't I just fall and stay asleep? I've already contacted my doctor about this because I finally got fed up with living like this, but I won't be able to see them until the end of the month. Frustrating is honestly the only word I can use to describe the whole situation.
If anyone else is awake right now, feel free to just rant or talk about whatever in the the replies. I can't fall asleep anyway so I think I'll just go back to studying. Or at least make an attempt at it.
submitted by furret_enthusiast to insomnia [link] [comments]
If anyone else is awake right now, feel free to just rant or talk about whatever in the the replies. I can't fall asleep anyway so I think I'll just go back to studying. Or at least make an attempt at it.
2023.06.07 02:43 tsukiflower Need help with rolling boy
Hi mamas. I’m crossposting this in hopes I get some advice that works for us, I’m at the end of… another rope. How many ropes do I get?
My little boy 5mo is rolling like a wild thing. He loves sleeping on his tummy and will almost immediately roll to tummy when we transfer him to his bed, waking himself up. Sometimes I can rub his back and pat him vigorously and he will fall asleep, but sometimes he’s just up and I need to rock or feed and transfer again - whereupon the same thing happens. This is especially nightmare-ish around 4 - 7 am. My body is in shambles from patting and rubbing him trying to get him to sleep after every feed. I would happily co-sleep but breastfeeding lying down and sleeping next to him just leaves me in so much pain.
He’s also down to 2 hr wakes again which is exhausting…. At first the tummy sleep gave bigger blocks but now that seems to stopped 🫠 some advice said as long as he’s rolling both ways we can put him down on his tummy, but literally how? I cannot physically understand how to do that after rocking or feeding him in a cradle hold to go to sleep. Once in a very blue moon I can put him on tummy and rub or pat him to sleep but he has to be very very tired for that to work.
At the same time he is down to three naps. The first one is usually ok but the the other two are often just 20 minutes, and I can’t get him back down the way I used to, even in a wrap… so by the end of the day he’s just a miserable mess and so am I. I miss my happy boy and I just have no idea what to do to get him enough sleep when he pops up constantly.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any advice or even just a supportive word. This is just so hard.
submitted by tsukiflower to beyondthebump [link] [comments]
My little boy 5mo is rolling like a wild thing. He loves sleeping on his tummy and will almost immediately roll to tummy when we transfer him to his bed, waking himself up. Sometimes I can rub his back and pat him vigorously and he will fall asleep, but sometimes he’s just up and I need to rock or feed and transfer again - whereupon the same thing happens. This is especially nightmare-ish around 4 - 7 am. My body is in shambles from patting and rubbing him trying to get him to sleep after every feed. I would happily co-sleep but breastfeeding lying down and sleeping next to him just leaves me in so much pain.
He’s also down to 2 hr wakes again which is exhausting…. At first the tummy sleep gave bigger blocks but now that seems to stopped 🫠 some advice said as long as he’s rolling both ways we can put him down on his tummy, but literally how? I cannot physically understand how to do that after rocking or feeding him in a cradle hold to go to sleep. Once in a very blue moon I can put him on tummy and rub or pat him to sleep but he has to be very very tired for that to work.
At the same time he is down to three naps. The first one is usually ok but the the other two are often just 20 minutes, and I can’t get him back down the way I used to, even in a wrap… so by the end of the day he’s just a miserable mess and so am I. I miss my happy boy and I just have no idea what to do to get him enough sleep when he pops up constantly.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any advice or even just a supportive word. This is just so hard.
2023.06.07 02:38 PerformerCandid2649 Just put in my resignation….
Elementary teacher of 4 years here. I just put in my resignation and I’m so emotional. I thought this was going to be a long-term career but I can’t do it anymore. I come home from work so burnt out and exhausted. My physical and mental health is at an all time low and I feel like I have no life outside of work. My identity has been consumed by teaching.
With that being said, I’ve decided to go back to school full time this fall. I’m going to miss my co-workers and most of the kids but I’m excited to get my life back. Here’s to new beginnings!
submitted by PerformerCandid2649 to TeachersInTransition [link] [comments]
With that being said, I’ve decided to go back to school full time this fall. I’m going to miss my co-workers and most of the kids but I’m excited to get my life back. Here’s to new beginnings!
2023.06.07 02:36 SkiveRacing My body goes into like this heightened state of alertness when I try to sleep
I've been lying here for two hours trying to sleep but my heart is just pounding out of my chest, my breathing is pretty fast, and my brain is racing and fully awake.
I can never fall asleep unless I stay awake so long I pass out from exhaustion.
Why is this happening?
submitted by SkiveRacing to sleep [link] [comments]
I can never fall asleep unless I stay awake so long I pass out from exhaustion.
Why is this happening?
2023.06.07 01:50 SarahEh9931 Advice on partners first fall
My partner had his first fall yesterday. Taking a turn that was a yeild when the driver in front slammed on their brakes half way into the merging lane, way past the yeilding stop line, and there was no one on the road.
He had just turn into the turn and had to slam on his brakes so he didn't go straight into the guys bumper. Bike went straight out from under him.
The bike did what it should, his gear did what it should and he walked away with a bruise on his arm and a sprained wrist.
But he's lost alot of confidence on his bike and growing up around race cars, I know the most dangerous thing you can do is hesitate.
Is there anything I can do to help him get more comfortable on his bike again? He loves it so much and after having to sell his R1 a couple years ago, I don't want him giving up the busa after having it barely over a month. It's his dream bike and one shitty driver can't be what takes him off the road.
submitted by SarahEh9931 to motorcycles [link] [comments]
He had just turn into the turn and had to slam on his brakes so he didn't go straight into the guys bumper. Bike went straight out from under him.
The bike did what it should, his gear did what it should and he walked away with a bruise on his arm and a sprained wrist.
But he's lost alot of confidence on his bike and growing up around race cars, I know the most dangerous thing you can do is hesitate.
Is there anything I can do to help him get more comfortable on his bike again? He loves it so much and after having to sell his R1 a couple years ago, I don't want him giving up the busa after having it barely over a month. It's his dream bike and one shitty driver can't be what takes him off the road.
2023.06.07 01:42 Fabulous-Letter-5649 Engineer retires, and is replaced with a Human. (Pt 4)
Pt 1 If you haven't read it.
Pt 2 If you haven't read it.
Pt 3 If you haven't read it.
Hope you enjoy Pt 4 and happy reading!
*Flick* "Aligning descent profile for re-entry." I had made all the final preparations
*Flick* "Prepare for comms black out in 10" William began the countdown.
"9"
"8"
"7"
"6"
"5- when you get back I absolutely *have* to show you this really old movie, interstellar, its a classic" Will interjected.
"4-Oh my stars we're about to enter the atmosphere of Ix-5 at 7km/s and all you can think about is showing me some old movie when we get back?!"
"3- Fine."
"2"
The plasma had begun to lick around the edges of the heat shield and up onto the windows.
"1"
The comms began to make a static hissing sound.
"Just breathe." Will muttered to himself.
The whole shuttle began to shake violently.
"PASSING MAX-Q" Will had to shout to be heard over all the rattling.
Just like that, it began to quiet down, the fiery inferno of re-entry plasma died down and we began our coast down to find a suitable landing spot. Comms had also returned.
*Click* "I'd just like to let everyone know that we made it through re-entry just fine." Will had radioed back to the ship.
The sound of faint cheers from bridge could be heard.
"Engaging cloaking device" *Flick*
A loud hum could be heard as the cloaking device not only prevented us from being seen by eyes, but also seen by any radar, sonar, or other means of detection spun to life.
"So where should we land?"
"Oh just a few more kilometers to shore, then I'll just find a nice, secluded spot and we'll spend the next couple of days getting to know the locals!" I responded gleefully, as this was my first time with a civilization that didn't just learn how to farm.
After carefully gliding down we landed in a patch of grass-like vegetation. Will pointed out all the leaves were all black, to which I responded by telling him that the vegetation had to adapt to capture more of the light spectrum than the vegetation on Earth, because of the dimmer, red dwarf this planet orbited.
We had set up the basics, communications equipment, synthesizers, and a variety of other scientific tools.
"Hey, remember when you said you wanted to see an example of human food! Because I do!" Will exclaimed giddily.
After plugging in a drive and pressing a few buttons, the machine whirred to action, printing out a most unusual dish.
"So keep in mind this is just one dish out of... out of well I don't really know how many different kinds of dishes we have, all you need to know is that it's a very large number... But here's too hoping you enjoy it!"
What came out were this white, almost sphere like but more so a squat raindrop shaped... things. Will called them "Dumplings", and they smelled delicious, though he had dipped them in this brown liquid he called "Soy Sauce" that I really did not care for as far as smell goes.
I carefully picked one of these dumplings and bit into it.
"Oh my" I said, albeit muffled by the food.
"It's good isn't it! I told you!" Will grinned.
"That's quite the... texture. I don't really know how to process this. It's so soft and yet firm. Nutrient packs are so much easier, they don't make a mess and they're just so efficient, I mean, you could probably play around with the recipe, make them tastier. Right?"
"You just don't get it do you." Will said, shaking his head.
"Oh well, more for me." He grabbed at my half eaten dumpling.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"So you DO like it then!"
"No, just, ugh, leave me and my dumpling alone, I've already had my Nutrient Pack for the day I'm going to hibernate now."
Will rolled his eyes at my response.
"Fine." He said in that same begrudging manner as before.
I walked on over to the hibernation chamber, a circular area just big enough for me with a warm, gentle breeze flowing over. As I was going inside I heard Will behind me closing up the door after bringing everything inside.
"Wait... you were going to tell me about.... sleep..." I muttered out.
"Oh yes so hold one, could you just fully wake up for a little bit so I can explain, so your species, and for that matter every other alien species I've met, sleeps one hemisphere or one part of their brain at a time, but humans sleep the whole brain all at once."
"What's that like?" I replied, still in the grip of hibernation.
"So for starters we are like, FULLY unconscious the whole time, we can be woken up but we have a very, VERY limited understanding of what's going on around us. We also go limp so we don't move around accidentally, we still do. It's not perfect but it works enough to where I can say, "yeah we go limp"."
"But aren't you... what happens... if... someone ambushes you at night?"
"In all likelihood unless we happen to be right next to a weapon or something good enough, we die."
"Oh my. How... how did this not drive your species extinct?"
"I'm left wondering that same question too Tomō."
This might be the first time I've heard about a human ever being truly defenseless. Will had disappeared off into another room to change, returning in only a pair of shorts. Which left me examining his exposed torso. Human skin is wrapped quite tightly around the internal structure, and there seems to be very little, if any, loose skin, it also seemed to only be composed of one layer, most others I've meet without loose skin have special layers that can break off. Perhaps humans might be less sturdy than I had come to expect. No no that can't possibly be true I thought to myself, or as much as I could with half a brain working.
The morning was punctured by this infernal clattering from Will's bed, his arm swung up and smashed down on a small table next to him, causing the sound to stop.
"What was that?! Did someone find us?!"
"No... it was just my [Yawns] Alarm, we need to be startled to wake up and that [Will yawned again] was the startling noise."
Will climbed out of bed, shuffled over to another table (Those humans have a lot of tables) grabbed a fresh change of clothes and made his way over to the bathroom to change.
That's when I heard it, a loud SHHHHH sound from the bathroom, I made my way over to the locked door and shouted:
"EVERYTHING OKAY IN THERE WILL?"
"YEAH, JUST TAKING A SHOWER."
"A WHAT?"
"SHOWER"
"WHAT'S THAT?"
"I DON'T CARE FOR THIS CONVERSATION RIGHT NOW."
"OH OKAY."
I shuffled back over to my hibernation chamber, pulling the divider closed I took in a bath of UV sterilizing light and changed out of yesterday's uniform, and into todays, which on scout missions is always a set of cloths made to imitate the look of whatever cloths are common on whatever world we're scouting. In this case it was a brown turtleneck sweater, some black pants, 6 pairs of gloves as the basic orbital scan of their unencrypted communications revealed they obsess over cleanliness, often sporting multiple pairs of gloves for specific tasks, kept in separate pockets, land lastly, a sort of shawl like piece of fabric, apparently used to protect yourself from the midday dust and wind storms.
The disguise of our more... alien features was provided by some makeup, changing our skin to a sort of pale grey. We also made use of some printed prosthetic noses, wigs, and ears, which made our faces impossible to distinguish from the local inhabitants.
Once I had finished applying all my disguises, I exited my chamber and walked over to where Will was, standing by the synthesizer watching it print up a breakfast.
Will, who hadn't even donned the appropriate clothing at this point (he was wearing a simple outfit of black shorts and a grey t-shirt), was oddly enough, sopping wet. His hair had turned a jet black color due to its saturation of water, releasing its store down his face and his neck, resulting in the back of his shirt, and the front collar turning a visibly darker shade and sticking to his body, at this point I also noticed that his skin was covered in beads of moisture glinting in the sun.
"Why are you so wet?" I asked him.
"It has to do with a shower, I get myself under this sort of, simulated rainfall, only the temperature is nice and hot, and use soap, not the same kind you use to clean your hands, but the function is still the same, I then put some stuff in my hair which gets rid of oily build up, the water rinses everything off, but by the end I'm soaking wet, I will need to dry off properly though before I put on all the disguises."
As he grabbed his tray with his hands, still damp from the shower, and the skin around his fingers was all shriveled up.
"Your fingers look like mine now! See!" I asked, moving right up next to him to better show him my fingers.
"It just increases the surface area so I can grip things better underwater, only happens if they get wet."
"Why wouldn't they be like that all the time?"
"Once again I'm left wondering that question myself."
"So what's on the menu for "break-fast"?" I asked
"Well for starters, it's just one word, breakfast, and secondly, I'm having two slices of buttered toast, an egg, and a black tea. Standard human breakfast, though Coffee is more popular."
"Black tea...?" I had heard of Coffee before and its danger to other species, and was hoping that this tea drink lacked any of this substance known as Caffeine.
"Yeah just a little caffeine to wake me up."
"CAFFEINE?! That's... that's a.... that's a Class IV chemical weapon! They banned that centuries ago! How?! What?! Oh my... Oh my..." I began to hyperventilate.
"Relax! There's only what... 50 milligrams in a cup."
"FIFTY?! FIFTY!?! ONLY FIFTY?!? THAT'S TEN TIMES THE DEADLY DOSE! WHAT ARE YOUR THINKING!" I shrieked, though deep down I did take note of how that was less than that of Coffee.
"Shhh, you'll risk us getting caught, calm down, don't worry I'll have the cup disposed of properly, I've done this every day and so far, no one's gotten hurt." Will said in his standard, nonchalant attitude that has become so typical of him, a tone which did not seem anywhere near appropriate for the situation.
"SO FAR?!" I was not heeding his instructions to calm down, it's typically very hard to do so when faced with something that could lead to a violent death.
"Look, look, it's totally harmless for us humans, besides, the Federation strictly manages our recreational use of substances highly dangerous to other species, such as but not limited too: Caffeine, Capsaicin, and Cocoa. I make one wrong move and my ass is sent to jail."
I was shocked, frozen with shock, at least I wasn't screaming but I felt like I couldn't move a muscle. Capsaicin was last used by the Rx'lac to murder billions, Cocoa I hadn't heard of before so it must have been something unique to Earth, but it terrified me still. In my frozen state I waited for the cup he drank from to be destroyed, and at this moment I began to regain my motor functions.
After rigorously drying himself off with a towel and this awfully loud machine he pointed at his hair, Will began to
"Now, could you help me apply the makeup?"
Human hands, while much sturdier than what most of us use, in the case of Captain Reloxyn, she has 6 tentacles which can vary their diameter, and in the case of Zorxians like myself, we have the two hands attached to their respective arm much like a human, but the geometry of the fingers themselves are different, each finger is made up of 3 fluid filled sacs, attached one after another in segments, each sack is attached to the previous with a variety of muscles, which gives each joint the ability to make movements with a full 120 degree range of motion, in any direction. While this makes them far more fragile, due to the lack of skeletal structure, this makes us quite dextrous.
But yet, I noticed that Will's right hand, arm, and ankle were already painted, which puzzled me, if he could paint his right side, then why couldn't he paint his left?
"Do you really need my help? You did just fine painting the right side of your body."
"Tomō, do you really know so little about humans?"
"You know you're the first human I've met!"
"Humans tend to have what's called a dominant hand, what it means is that there's one hand I am really good at using, and another that I'm not so great at using, I *could* train myself to use both hands equally well, but I never really had a need, and even when it would've come in handy, there's always been someone else who can help me. Like you!"
"Aww, thanks!" I responded.
"In my case, my dominant hand is my left one, fairly uncommon. Only about 10% of people are like that, the rest are right handed, and a very small number are born with both hands being of equal capability."
"But you really should get on it with the whole training your right hand. There won't always be someone to help you."
"And yet there always has." Will responded jokingly.
"We ready?" I asked.
"Just have to get some things ready, hold on, if this society is so obsessed with cleanliness, how come they don't wear face masks? I doubt they've gotten to a point where they've already eradicated all diseases. That should take them at least another century."
"Oh, this is the really cool thing about this planet! So basically, airborne diseases never evolved! They just... don't exist here!"
"Absolutely fascinating." Will responded.
"Everything we need is now in the bag." He pointed to the black bag slung over his shoulder made from the local flora.
"And we should be ready to go!" Will enthusiastically marched over to the shuttle door, opening it at saying;
"After you!" With a look of pride on his face, odd, if anyone should be proud, it should be me, after all, this mission is already off to a good start considering he's a rookie.
The red light of Ix bathed the planet in this warm glow, Ix was rare for a red-dwarf system, as most habitable planets are tidally locked, but we marched through the woods, noting observations of the local ecosystem that we stopped periodically to jot down in our notepad.
About halfway through the forest Will stopped suddenly, turning back to face me.
"You forgot to tell me what bridge came up with for our secret identities? Oh stars, saying it like that makes me feel like some kind of super-spy!"
"Oh yes, I must have gotten distracted..." I reached for my communicator.
"Okay, so we're two hikers, you named Po'ol and I named Gra'aul, and we just finished up a nice long hike and so we're off back to Hl'Ix, population 12.8 million, and about a 2 hour train ride. Oh by the way, I have to share the language file hold on... yup that should do it! Congratulations you are now fluent in Ix!"
A requirement of working for any Federation job was the implantation of a language chip which allowed the user to become fluent in all 608 languages and, what they called "Significant Dialects" spoken in the Federation, though for people working on exploration vessels like me and Will, we had access to a file sharing system so we could download new languages for the planets we visited after the central computer processed them.
"Thanks!" Will responded from a meter or so ahead of me.
We continued our march down to the road, where we walked parallel to it as cars zipped by. Eventually the forest we had landed in cleared way for farmland, which after about 5 kilometers or so more walking, started to turn to houses with expansive yards, which gradually became smaller and smaller as we neared the center of town.
"You getting tired yet?" Will asked me, we had decided it was best for him to walk behind me, so we could make sure we stayed together.
"Yeah, but just a bit longer until we make it into... whatever the name of this town is."
"Alright."
We continued to make our way into the town, named Urup and with a population of about 3 thousand. When we got there it was almost devoid of any activity, and the wind had started to pick up, which carried in dust. Thankfully we anticipated this, having donned contact lenses to keep debris out of our eyes, and using the shawl to cover up our mouth and nose. At this point will stopped to pull out a small, and very thin, weather sheet, which he released into the wind. This device would record the weather conditions as it gets carried by the wind. Just after doing this, he turned to me and said,
"Weather at time of release: Temperature: 10 degrees Celsius. Wind speed: 56 Kph, rising. Feels like: 5.2 Degrees Celsius, falling. It wasn't able to get a good reading on dust concentration because it's rising too fast so that should tell you everything you need to know."
The wind nearly blew Will's shawl off, but he grabbed it just in time, and me, being too focused on Will, had let my own shawl blow away in the wind, and while Will had tried to reach for it, the wind carried it away far too quickly for him to get it in time, only missing his fingers by a handful of centimeters. I quickly covered my mouth with my sweater, though this did leave part of my midsection exposed to the elements, a suboptimal position to be in during a dust storm of this magnitude.
"Dammit! Almost had the blasted thing!" Will shouted, the rush of the wind was beginning to drown out our voices.
He put his hand in one of the many pockets on his pants, that's something everyone can appreciate about Ix fashion, anything below 10 pockets is simply unacceptable. Anyways, Will pulled out a small pair of scissors, and quickly removed his shawl.
"What are you doing you can't remove your shawl in these conditions!" I shouted back at him.
"I'll be quick, don't worry!" Will responded as he cut his cloth in two.
"Here!" He said handing me the now removed half of his shawl, and quickly covering his face with the remaining half.
We continued on, though this time much slower than before, as we didn't want to loose our balance and be toppled by the wind. Never before had I ever had to deal with wind this intense, no wonder they assigned the human.
"Squat down! Boundary layer winds should be slower!" He shouted to me while bending down to waddle his way across the street to the hotel.
Squatting down only provided minimal relief, as I suppose one would have to crawl to truly take advantage of this effect. Slowly but surely we made our way across the road, over to the hotel. Opening the first set of doors we were met with a powerful blast of air, which prevented any dust from getting in. Only until after the doors had closed, and our clothes were sufficiently purged of any particulates that had somehow lodged their way into the remarkably dense fabrics. Eventually though, the blast died down, and the second doors opened automatically.
The doors opened to reveal an interior with a largely brown, beige, and black color pattern. The whole lobby was lit with a quite warm color tone, with the lightbulbs occasionally flickering and all the windows had been sealed off behind steel plates. Eventually Will turned his head to face a desk spanning quite a large distance, located just in front of a large board with all the room numbers located next to a light.
We could vaguely hear someone talking to another person, emanating from behind a door marked "Employees Only", Will glanced at me, pulling my attention to his gloves, which he began to swap out for a new pair. I quickly followed suit. Eventually, just moments after I finished putting on a new pair of gloves, one of the people from behind the door exited.
"Why on Ix would there ever be customers walking in during the middle of the storm! We issued the alert 2 hours ago!" The woman said to the man who stayed in the room as the door closed behind her.
Turning around to face the two of us, and walking over to the main part of the check in desk, she began to speak to us.
"Hi my name us Za'ul!" She said, showing us her name tag.
"Now what can I do for the two of you! Must've been miserable trapped out there in the storm!"
Will began to approach the desk, seeing this I decided to sit down and catch my breath, the 10 kilometer walk had exhausted me, it was remarkable to see Will barley fazed by it.
"Hi my name is Po'ol and this is my hiking buddy Gra'aul, we just finished up the most beautiful of hikes through that nearby forest, so we're on our way back to Hl'ix! I was wondering if you could get us a room please and thank you ma'am." He said in a sort of folksy manner, not too dissimilar from the way Za'ul spoke.
"Alright you want one bed or two?" She responded.
"-Two please." He said, almost cutting Za'ul off.
"All right! You want first floor or second floor?"
"Oh second floor would be lovely."
"Well here's your key and have a lovely stay!"
Will walked over to me.
"Got us a key for room 203, here's your key" Will had switched from his folksy mannerisms to a soft whisper, but I just let the key hit me, I was far to tired to catch it.
"Well I see our hike took quite a bit out of you, so just come up when your ready, I got the bags don't worry."
I nodded my head in silent agreement, I was exhausted, but I knew I should probably go upstairs to the room with him.
"Hold on.." I said, slowly lifting myself up onto my feet and carefully making my way over to the elevator.
Standing in the cramped elevator I noticed Will suddenly had this terrible and persistent oder.
"You okay?" I asked him
"Yeah... why do you ask?"
"It's just... you smell kind of... bad."
"Oh!" He chuckled with that same old chuckle I had heard a million times before.
"Yeah, uh, I'm sure after I explained to you what a shower was you were probably perplexed as to why we don't do the standard UV bath, but basically humans smell bad after a long day, or after a long enough, or intense enough period of physical exertion. Showering gets rid of the smell. I did notice the Ix had only a single layer of skin, and hopefully this means they too have the scent issues that humans have, and thus also make use of showering."
"I see. Can you take another shower when we get to the hotel?"
"Tomō! That's... don't say that to other humans okay, you can be direct with me like that but... a lot of other humans will not take that kindly. Just letting you know that."
ding
The elevator had made its way up to the second floor.
"Let's see, 203... 203... here it is!"
Will unlocked the door and opened it.
"Oh thank the stars they have actual beds and it wasn't just a translational error!" He cried out in relief.
Will ran over to the bathroom.
"And they have showers too! Just Wonderful! Don't worry a shower should adequately clean you too."
"Oh I brought my own portable UV sterilizer, I'll be fine."
"You just relax down I'll take care of the report back to bridge."
I made my way over to the beds and just collapsed into it. Hibernating while laying down was not ideal, but at this point I'd do anything not to be on my feet anymore. Eventually I decided that I didn't care for lying face down, and instead rolled over to face Will, just to make sure he didn't botch the report.
Eventually once he finished his report, he walked over to the rooms corners and placed the sound barriers, which would cancel out our voices making sure nobody heard us. Which he, well, I was supposed to do first thing upon entering, though I was far to tired, and Will must've only just noticed. You know, when he first got here he really just annoyed me to no end, but now, he's really settled in and has gotten really into the hang of things, and sure, he's weird, but you know what, he's a human, he's not weird, just... different.
I think I'm going to leave it off here, I know I promised some action but this is just where the story lead me, and it was already getting long. Part 5 will be out tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed reading!
submitted by Fabulous-Letter-5649 to humansarespaceorcs [link] [comments]
Pt 2 If you haven't read it.
Pt 3 If you haven't read it.
Hope you enjoy Pt 4 and happy reading!
*Flick* "Aligning descent profile for re-entry." I had made all the final preparations
*Flick* "Prepare for comms black out in 10" William began the countdown.
"9"
"8"
"7"
"6"
"5- when you get back I absolutely *have* to show you this really old movie, interstellar, its a classic" Will interjected.
"4-Oh my stars we're about to enter the atmosphere of Ix-5 at 7km/s and all you can think about is showing me some old movie when we get back?!"
"3- Fine."
"2"
The plasma had begun to lick around the edges of the heat shield and up onto the windows.
"1"
The comms began to make a static hissing sound.
"Just breathe." Will muttered to himself.
The whole shuttle began to shake violently.
"PASSING MAX-Q" Will had to shout to be heard over all the rattling.
Just like that, it began to quiet down, the fiery inferno of re-entry plasma died down and we began our coast down to find a suitable landing spot. Comms had also returned.
*Click* "I'd just like to let everyone know that we made it through re-entry just fine." Will had radioed back to the ship.
The sound of faint cheers from bridge could be heard.
"Engaging cloaking device" *Flick*
A loud hum could be heard as the cloaking device not only prevented us from being seen by eyes, but also seen by any radar, sonar, or other means of detection spun to life.
"So where should we land?"
"Oh just a few more kilometers to shore, then I'll just find a nice, secluded spot and we'll spend the next couple of days getting to know the locals!" I responded gleefully, as this was my first time with a civilization that didn't just learn how to farm.
After carefully gliding down we landed in a patch of grass-like vegetation. Will pointed out all the leaves were all black, to which I responded by telling him that the vegetation had to adapt to capture more of the light spectrum than the vegetation on Earth, because of the dimmer, red dwarf this planet orbited.
We had set up the basics, communications equipment, synthesizers, and a variety of other scientific tools.
"Hey, remember when you said you wanted to see an example of human food! Because I do!" Will exclaimed giddily.
After plugging in a drive and pressing a few buttons, the machine whirred to action, printing out a most unusual dish.
"So keep in mind this is just one dish out of... out of well I don't really know how many different kinds of dishes we have, all you need to know is that it's a very large number... But here's too hoping you enjoy it!"
What came out were this white, almost sphere like but more so a squat raindrop shaped... things. Will called them "Dumplings", and they smelled delicious, though he had dipped them in this brown liquid he called "Soy Sauce" that I really did not care for as far as smell goes.
I carefully picked one of these dumplings and bit into it.
"Oh my" I said, albeit muffled by the food.
"It's good isn't it! I told you!" Will grinned.
"That's quite the... texture. I don't really know how to process this. It's so soft and yet firm. Nutrient packs are so much easier, they don't make a mess and they're just so efficient, I mean, you could probably play around with the recipe, make them tastier. Right?"
"You just don't get it do you." Will said, shaking his head.
"Oh well, more for me." He grabbed at my half eaten dumpling.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"So you DO like it then!"
"No, just, ugh, leave me and my dumpling alone, I've already had my Nutrient Pack for the day I'm going to hibernate now."
Will rolled his eyes at my response.
"Fine." He said in that same begrudging manner as before.
I walked on over to the hibernation chamber, a circular area just big enough for me with a warm, gentle breeze flowing over. As I was going inside I heard Will behind me closing up the door after bringing everything inside.
"Wait... you were going to tell me about.... sleep..." I muttered out.
"Oh yes so hold one, could you just fully wake up for a little bit so I can explain, so your species, and for that matter every other alien species I've met, sleeps one hemisphere or one part of their brain at a time, but humans sleep the whole brain all at once."
"What's that like?" I replied, still in the grip of hibernation.
"So for starters we are like, FULLY unconscious the whole time, we can be woken up but we have a very, VERY limited understanding of what's going on around us. We also go limp so we don't move around accidentally, we still do. It's not perfect but it works enough to where I can say, "yeah we go limp"."
"But aren't you... what happens... if... someone ambushes you at night?"
"In all likelihood unless we happen to be right next to a weapon or something good enough, we die."
"Oh my. How... how did this not drive your species extinct?"
"I'm left wondering that same question too Tomō."
This might be the first time I've heard about a human ever being truly defenseless. Will had disappeared off into another room to change, returning in only a pair of shorts. Which left me examining his exposed torso. Human skin is wrapped quite tightly around the internal structure, and there seems to be very little, if any, loose skin, it also seemed to only be composed of one layer, most others I've meet without loose skin have special layers that can break off. Perhaps humans might be less sturdy than I had come to expect. No no that can't possibly be true I thought to myself, or as much as I could with half a brain working.
The morning was punctured by this infernal clattering from Will's bed, his arm swung up and smashed down on a small table next to him, causing the sound to stop.
"What was that?! Did someone find us?!"
"No... it was just my [Yawns] Alarm, we need to be startled to wake up and that [Will yawned again] was the startling noise."
Will climbed out of bed, shuffled over to another table (Those humans have a lot of tables) grabbed a fresh change of clothes and made his way over to the bathroom to change.
That's when I heard it, a loud SHHHHH sound from the bathroom, I made my way over to the locked door and shouted:
"EVERYTHING OKAY IN THERE WILL?"
"YEAH, JUST TAKING A SHOWER."
"A WHAT?"
"SHOWER"
"WHAT'S THAT?"
"I DON'T CARE FOR THIS CONVERSATION RIGHT NOW."
"OH OKAY."
I shuffled back over to my hibernation chamber, pulling the divider closed I took in a bath of UV sterilizing light and changed out of yesterday's uniform, and into todays, which on scout missions is always a set of cloths made to imitate the look of whatever cloths are common on whatever world we're scouting. In this case it was a brown turtleneck sweater, some black pants, 6 pairs of gloves as the basic orbital scan of their unencrypted communications revealed they obsess over cleanliness, often sporting multiple pairs of gloves for specific tasks, kept in separate pockets, land lastly, a sort of shawl like piece of fabric, apparently used to protect yourself from the midday dust and wind storms.
The disguise of our more... alien features was provided by some makeup, changing our skin to a sort of pale grey. We also made use of some printed prosthetic noses, wigs, and ears, which made our faces impossible to distinguish from the local inhabitants.
Once I had finished applying all my disguises, I exited my chamber and walked over to where Will was, standing by the synthesizer watching it print up a breakfast.
Will, who hadn't even donned the appropriate clothing at this point (he was wearing a simple outfit of black shorts and a grey t-shirt), was oddly enough, sopping wet. His hair had turned a jet black color due to its saturation of water, releasing its store down his face and his neck, resulting in the back of his shirt, and the front collar turning a visibly darker shade and sticking to his body, at this point I also noticed that his skin was covered in beads of moisture glinting in the sun.
"Why are you so wet?" I asked him.
"It has to do with a shower, I get myself under this sort of, simulated rainfall, only the temperature is nice and hot, and use soap, not the same kind you use to clean your hands, but the function is still the same, I then put some stuff in my hair which gets rid of oily build up, the water rinses everything off, but by the end I'm soaking wet, I will need to dry off properly though before I put on all the disguises."
As he grabbed his tray with his hands, still damp from the shower, and the skin around his fingers was all shriveled up.
"Your fingers look like mine now! See!" I asked, moving right up next to him to better show him my fingers.
"It just increases the surface area so I can grip things better underwater, only happens if they get wet."
"Why wouldn't they be like that all the time?"
"Once again I'm left wondering that question myself."
"So what's on the menu for "break-fast"?" I asked
"Well for starters, it's just one word, breakfast, and secondly, I'm having two slices of buttered toast, an egg, and a black tea. Standard human breakfast, though Coffee is more popular."
"Black tea...?" I had heard of Coffee before and its danger to other species, and was hoping that this tea drink lacked any of this substance known as Caffeine.
"Yeah just a little caffeine to wake me up."
"CAFFEINE?! That's... that's a.... that's a Class IV chemical weapon! They banned that centuries ago! How?! What?! Oh my... Oh my..." I began to hyperventilate.
"Relax! There's only what... 50 milligrams in a cup."
"FIFTY?! FIFTY!?! ONLY FIFTY?!? THAT'S TEN TIMES THE DEADLY DOSE! WHAT ARE YOUR THINKING!" I shrieked, though deep down I did take note of how that was less than that of Coffee.
"Shhh, you'll risk us getting caught, calm down, don't worry I'll have the cup disposed of properly, I've done this every day and so far, no one's gotten hurt." Will said in his standard, nonchalant attitude that has become so typical of him, a tone which did not seem anywhere near appropriate for the situation.
"SO FAR?!" I was not heeding his instructions to calm down, it's typically very hard to do so when faced with something that could lead to a violent death.
"Look, look, it's totally harmless for us humans, besides, the Federation strictly manages our recreational use of substances highly dangerous to other species, such as but not limited too: Caffeine, Capsaicin, and Cocoa. I make one wrong move and my ass is sent to jail."
I was shocked, frozen with shock, at least I wasn't screaming but I felt like I couldn't move a muscle. Capsaicin was last used by the Rx'lac to murder billions, Cocoa I hadn't heard of before so it must have been something unique to Earth, but it terrified me still. In my frozen state I waited for the cup he drank from to be destroyed, and at this moment I began to regain my motor functions.
After rigorously drying himself off with a towel and this awfully loud machine he pointed at his hair, Will began to
"Now, could you help me apply the makeup?"
Human hands, while much sturdier than what most of us use, in the case of Captain Reloxyn, she has 6 tentacles which can vary their diameter, and in the case of Zorxians like myself, we have the two hands attached to their respective arm much like a human, but the geometry of the fingers themselves are different, each finger is made up of 3 fluid filled sacs, attached one after another in segments, each sack is attached to the previous with a variety of muscles, which gives each joint the ability to make movements with a full 120 degree range of motion, in any direction. While this makes them far more fragile, due to the lack of skeletal structure, this makes us quite dextrous.
But yet, I noticed that Will's right hand, arm, and ankle were already painted, which puzzled me, if he could paint his right side, then why couldn't he paint his left?
"Do you really need my help? You did just fine painting the right side of your body."
"Tomō, do you really know so little about humans?"
"You know you're the first human I've met!"
"Humans tend to have what's called a dominant hand, what it means is that there's one hand I am really good at using, and another that I'm not so great at using, I *could* train myself to use both hands equally well, but I never really had a need, and even when it would've come in handy, there's always been someone else who can help me. Like you!"
"Aww, thanks!" I responded.
"In my case, my dominant hand is my left one, fairly uncommon. Only about 10% of people are like that, the rest are right handed, and a very small number are born with both hands being of equal capability."
"But you really should get on it with the whole training your right hand. There won't always be someone to help you."
"And yet there always has." Will responded jokingly.
"We ready?" I asked.
"Just have to get some things ready, hold on, if this society is so obsessed with cleanliness, how come they don't wear face masks? I doubt they've gotten to a point where they've already eradicated all diseases. That should take them at least another century."
"Oh, this is the really cool thing about this planet! So basically, airborne diseases never evolved! They just... don't exist here!"
"Absolutely fascinating." Will responded.
"Everything we need is now in the bag." He pointed to the black bag slung over his shoulder made from the local flora.
"And we should be ready to go!" Will enthusiastically marched over to the shuttle door, opening it at saying;
"After you!" With a look of pride on his face, odd, if anyone should be proud, it should be me, after all, this mission is already off to a good start considering he's a rookie.
The red light of Ix bathed the planet in this warm glow, Ix was rare for a red-dwarf system, as most habitable planets are tidally locked, but we marched through the woods, noting observations of the local ecosystem that we stopped periodically to jot down in our notepad.
About halfway through the forest Will stopped suddenly, turning back to face me.
"You forgot to tell me what bridge came up with for our secret identities? Oh stars, saying it like that makes me feel like some kind of super-spy!"
"Oh yes, I must have gotten distracted..." I reached for my communicator.
"Okay, so we're two hikers, you named Po'ol and I named Gra'aul, and we just finished up a nice long hike and so we're off back to Hl'Ix, population 12.8 million, and about a 2 hour train ride. Oh by the way, I have to share the language file hold on... yup that should do it! Congratulations you are now fluent in Ix!"
A requirement of working for any Federation job was the implantation of a language chip which allowed the user to become fluent in all 608 languages and, what they called "Significant Dialects" spoken in the Federation, though for people working on exploration vessels like me and Will, we had access to a file sharing system so we could download new languages for the planets we visited after the central computer processed them.
"Thanks!" Will responded from a meter or so ahead of me.
We continued our march down to the road, where we walked parallel to it as cars zipped by. Eventually the forest we had landed in cleared way for farmland, which after about 5 kilometers or so more walking, started to turn to houses with expansive yards, which gradually became smaller and smaller as we neared the center of town.
"You getting tired yet?" Will asked me, we had decided it was best for him to walk behind me, so we could make sure we stayed together.
"Yeah, but just a bit longer until we make it into... whatever the name of this town is."
"Alright."
We continued to make our way into the town, named Urup and with a population of about 3 thousand. When we got there it was almost devoid of any activity, and the wind had started to pick up, which carried in dust. Thankfully we anticipated this, having donned contact lenses to keep debris out of our eyes, and using the shawl to cover up our mouth and nose. At this point will stopped to pull out a small, and very thin, weather sheet, which he released into the wind. This device would record the weather conditions as it gets carried by the wind. Just after doing this, he turned to me and said,
"Weather at time of release: Temperature: 10 degrees Celsius. Wind speed: 56 Kph, rising. Feels like: 5.2 Degrees Celsius, falling. It wasn't able to get a good reading on dust concentration because it's rising too fast so that should tell you everything you need to know."
The wind nearly blew Will's shawl off, but he grabbed it just in time, and me, being too focused on Will, had let my own shawl blow away in the wind, and while Will had tried to reach for it, the wind carried it away far too quickly for him to get it in time, only missing his fingers by a handful of centimeters. I quickly covered my mouth with my sweater, though this did leave part of my midsection exposed to the elements, a suboptimal position to be in during a dust storm of this magnitude.
"Dammit! Almost had the blasted thing!" Will shouted, the rush of the wind was beginning to drown out our voices.
He put his hand in one of the many pockets on his pants, that's something everyone can appreciate about Ix fashion, anything below 10 pockets is simply unacceptable. Anyways, Will pulled out a small pair of scissors, and quickly removed his shawl.
"What are you doing you can't remove your shawl in these conditions!" I shouted back at him.
"I'll be quick, don't worry!" Will responded as he cut his cloth in two.
"Here!" He said handing me the now removed half of his shawl, and quickly covering his face with the remaining half.
We continued on, though this time much slower than before, as we didn't want to loose our balance and be toppled by the wind. Never before had I ever had to deal with wind this intense, no wonder they assigned the human.
"Squat down! Boundary layer winds should be slower!" He shouted to me while bending down to waddle his way across the street to the hotel.
Squatting down only provided minimal relief, as I suppose one would have to crawl to truly take advantage of this effect. Slowly but surely we made our way across the road, over to the hotel. Opening the first set of doors we were met with a powerful blast of air, which prevented any dust from getting in. Only until after the doors had closed, and our clothes were sufficiently purged of any particulates that had somehow lodged their way into the remarkably dense fabrics. Eventually though, the blast died down, and the second doors opened automatically.
The doors opened to reveal an interior with a largely brown, beige, and black color pattern. The whole lobby was lit with a quite warm color tone, with the lightbulbs occasionally flickering and all the windows had been sealed off behind steel plates. Eventually Will turned his head to face a desk spanning quite a large distance, located just in front of a large board with all the room numbers located next to a light.
We could vaguely hear someone talking to another person, emanating from behind a door marked "Employees Only", Will glanced at me, pulling my attention to his gloves, which he began to swap out for a new pair. I quickly followed suit. Eventually, just moments after I finished putting on a new pair of gloves, one of the people from behind the door exited.
"Why on Ix would there ever be customers walking in during the middle of the storm! We issued the alert 2 hours ago!" The woman said to the man who stayed in the room as the door closed behind her.
Turning around to face the two of us, and walking over to the main part of the check in desk, she began to speak to us.
"Hi my name us Za'ul!" She said, showing us her name tag.
"Now what can I do for the two of you! Must've been miserable trapped out there in the storm!"
Will began to approach the desk, seeing this I decided to sit down and catch my breath, the 10 kilometer walk had exhausted me, it was remarkable to see Will barley fazed by it.
"Hi my name is Po'ol and this is my hiking buddy Gra'aul, we just finished up the most beautiful of hikes through that nearby forest, so we're on our way back to Hl'ix! I was wondering if you could get us a room please and thank you ma'am." He said in a sort of folksy manner, not too dissimilar from the way Za'ul spoke.
"Alright you want one bed or two?" She responded.
"-Two please." He said, almost cutting Za'ul off.
"All right! You want first floor or second floor?"
"Oh second floor would be lovely."
"Well here's your key and have a lovely stay!"
Will walked over to me.
"Got us a key for room 203, here's your key" Will had switched from his folksy mannerisms to a soft whisper, but I just let the key hit me, I was far to tired to catch it.
"Well I see our hike took quite a bit out of you, so just come up when your ready, I got the bags don't worry."
I nodded my head in silent agreement, I was exhausted, but I knew I should probably go upstairs to the room with him.
"Hold on.." I said, slowly lifting myself up onto my feet and carefully making my way over to the elevator.
Standing in the cramped elevator I noticed Will suddenly had this terrible and persistent oder.
"You okay?" I asked him
"Yeah... why do you ask?"
"It's just... you smell kind of... bad."
"Oh!" He chuckled with that same old chuckle I had heard a million times before.
"Yeah, uh, I'm sure after I explained to you what a shower was you were probably perplexed as to why we don't do the standard UV bath, but basically humans smell bad after a long day, or after a long enough, or intense enough period of physical exertion. Showering gets rid of the smell. I did notice the Ix had only a single layer of skin, and hopefully this means they too have the scent issues that humans have, and thus also make use of showering."
"I see. Can you take another shower when we get to the hotel?"
"Tomō! That's... don't say that to other humans okay, you can be direct with me like that but... a lot of other humans will not take that kindly. Just letting you know that."
ding
The elevator had made its way up to the second floor.
"Let's see, 203... 203... here it is!"
Will unlocked the door and opened it.
"Oh thank the stars they have actual beds and it wasn't just a translational error!" He cried out in relief.
Will ran over to the bathroom.
"And they have showers too! Just Wonderful! Don't worry a shower should adequately clean you too."
"Oh I brought my own portable UV sterilizer, I'll be fine."
"You just relax down I'll take care of the report back to bridge."
I made my way over to the beds and just collapsed into it. Hibernating while laying down was not ideal, but at this point I'd do anything not to be on my feet anymore. Eventually I decided that I didn't care for lying face down, and instead rolled over to face Will, just to make sure he didn't botch the report.
Eventually once he finished his report, he walked over to the rooms corners and placed the sound barriers, which would cancel out our voices making sure nobody heard us. Which he, well, I was supposed to do first thing upon entering, though I was far to tired, and Will must've only just noticed. You know, when he first got here he really just annoyed me to no end, but now, he's really settled in and has gotten really into the hang of things, and sure, he's weird, but you know what, he's a human, he's not weird, just... different.
I think I'm going to leave it off here, I know I promised some action but this is just where the story lead me, and it was already getting long. Part 5 will be out tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed reading!
2023.06.07 01:41 Jent01Ket02 I'm never comfortable while sleeping anymore
Back in August, the girl of my dreams stayed with me for two of the best weeks of my life. She's a bit heavier than I am (nothing extreme, I'm just thin and she's at home a lot), but I thoroughly enjoyed having her weight on me. Things just felt right when she was laying on my lap or across my chest, and she was always worried I'd have trouble breathing. I could reassure her every time it happened and she'd still ask before she sat down, it's great that she was always concerned.
I'd lie awake at night for years before she came by, but I slept as soundly as could be while she and her daughter were over. It didn't matter if I was hot, cold, uncomfortable, whatever, I could wake up and wrap my arm around her or vice versa and I was out in seconds. I hated mornings before, but I woke up with a smile on my face every day with her around.
She left (for complicated reasons) and now I can't fall asleep soundly without playing her music, imagining her by my side, or being exhausted. I never realized how deeply miserable things were in my life until I had to abruptly go back to the way things were. It's too quiet, it's lonely, unfulfilling, I can't share anything when I feel like it. I don't get to roll over and ask how she slept or get ready for the day with the both of them. I have to lie to myself to get a decent rest, and it gets harder by the week. I folded a bunch of blankets to kind of simulate her presence and I held that bundle of cloth for 6 hours.
Babe, if you're reading this, I love you, and I long for the day where I can wake up to the other half of my life. I want to make you as happy as you made me for two glorious weeks of my life (and also my inbox is saying it can't connect to you at the moment, waiting on a fix. I'm not blocking you, and I never will <3)
submitted by Jent01Ket02 to Vent [link] [comments]
I'd lie awake at night for years before she came by, but I slept as soundly as could be while she and her daughter were over. It didn't matter if I was hot, cold, uncomfortable, whatever, I could wake up and wrap my arm around her or vice versa and I was out in seconds. I hated mornings before, but I woke up with a smile on my face every day with her around.
She left (for complicated reasons) and now I can't fall asleep soundly without playing her music, imagining her by my side, or being exhausted. I never realized how deeply miserable things were in my life until I had to abruptly go back to the way things were. It's too quiet, it's lonely, unfulfilling, I can't share anything when I feel like it. I don't get to roll over and ask how she slept or get ready for the day with the both of them. I have to lie to myself to get a decent rest, and it gets harder by the week. I folded a bunch of blankets to kind of simulate her presence and I held that bundle of cloth for 6 hours.
Babe, if you're reading this, I love you, and I long for the day where I can wake up to the other half of my life. I want to make you as happy as you made me for two glorious weeks of my life (and also my inbox is saying it can't connect to you at the moment, waiting on a fix. I'm not blocking you, and I never will <3)
2023.06.07 01:29 sadmilkteaboba Worried.
Sorry for dramatic title but I just had a sleep study done last night but I’m worried because I was not able to sleep through it at all. I woke up 15+ times during the nighttime and kept moving. I was so uncomfortable and couldn’t get into a good position to fall asleep. I’m positive I have sleep apnea but I’m worried it won’t show on the study. I get my results tomorrow morning. I just want to get diagnosed already so I can get treatment. My sleep is terrible, my body hurts, and I’m just always so exhausted. It’s making it so difficult to live and I’m just over it.
submitted by sadmilkteaboba to SleepApnea [link] [comments]
2023.06.07 01:25 Kratangg 「Take it!」
Namesake: We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister
User: Julie Xecklenap
Automatic Humanoid; technically posthumous
Stats:
Power: B (It punch real good; it good weapon)
Speed: C (Fast, but not enough to break the speed limit)
Range: E (2m; it will freeze in place, removing all momentum when 2m from its “user” before rushing back)
Durability: A (Any good weapon or punching bag should be able to take a beating!)
Precision: E (It can be summoned, it can be desummoned)
Potential: E (Broken, unadaptable, and already dead inside)
Appearance:
｢Take it!｣ has been reduced to a mangled floating torso, arms and head. Its expression is perpetually enraged with a seething hate.
Ability:
In its original form, ｢Take it!｣ could freely shed its constantly regenerating outer layer like the scales of a moth, flinging them with pinpoint accuracy. These scales could then be either vibrated or launched by extremely loud or high frequency noises depending on the desired effect. While it still sheds its scales, it does not do so with any precision or intent, and the current owner cannot activate this.
｢Take it!｣ currently has a single function, which its user has no influence or control over: when summoned, it will attack Julie. The stand’s onslaught will not let up until it is dismissed, and will mimic the fighting style its previous user utilized it for-punching real hard until the thing stops moving.
For twenty years Julie lived in a world of supernatural chaos she could not see or appreciate. Her family’s small cherry orchard was surrounded by a community densely packed with stand users. Consequently, brutal fights would break out at least once a month. These otherworldly spirits would cause strange effects, extreme violence, and wanton destruction all the while remaining just out of reach. This cycle repeated over the course of Julie’s life, eventually driving her parents away the day she inherited the gradually shrinking orchard. Urbanization and decades of stand fights had not been kind to the farm…
She would maintain the orchard on her own, doing her best as the fields were given regular thrashings from magic powers she could never see or attain. Then, everything snapped.
Julie awoke to the sound of shattered glass, splintering wood and vibrating metal; she rushed out to see the aftermath of the most recent conflict-the elderly mailman’s mangled body surrounded by splinters of her oldest cherry tree. Her fence was knocked over, windows smashed, and several goose carcasses from the remnants of the farm’s pond littered the bloody area. An exhausted man, her next door neighbor Schenider, stood over the destruction, and began to walk away as if nothing had happened. He shrugged off a few bits of apple and a broken guitar on his way out. Julie was stunned. Just like that?
Julie walked down her porch steps.
Just like that?
She kept going without even thinking, as if her legs were moving on their own.
Just like that?
She intercepted her neighbor, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Just like that?!”
Schenider was caught a bit off guard, but not particularly worried. He had gone through one hell of a morning, and this was the least of his problems. He shoved his neighbor out of the way with his stand and trudged past; the man simply didn’t want to deal with this, especially after what just happened. He certainly didn’t expect a punch like a sledgehammer to the back of his head. He flipped around, ready to block, but took a roundabout kick to the same spot. She wasn’t a user, right?!
Julie, on the flipside, had just given up. Years of anger and envy welled up, a lifetime of feelings ready to be taken out on the user that happened to be here when it happened. Punch after punch connected, sending the already-injured user to the dirt, where she continued her beatdown. Schenider was unarmed, de-guitared, and had been too weakened after his first fight; not even his stand could stop it at this point. Julie, however, was not done. Her hand squeezed down on her neighbor’s face as she demanded he pay up. She could start to see something between her fingers, her immense willpower pushing her forwards to overpower the dying man. These people and their superpowers, rampaging wherever they please. Want to play that game? Fine. It was Julie’s turn.
“GIVE. ME. YOUR. POWER.” “IT’S. MINE. NOW.”
“W-wha-”
“I’M TAKING IT”
With a hearty yank, she could see a humanoid thing come out of the man’s body before fading away. Schenider stopped moving.
Julie stumbled off his body, experiencing a veritable cocktail of emotions and sensations. She wobbled over to the porch and sat down on one of the steps to calm down. The adrenaline would wear off after a while, and the realization of what she’d done sank in…but not too deep. This sort of event was normal around here. She was far more interested in this new feeling deep within her psyche. It felt as if she was not alone, like there was a reflex she had never used before. Had she actually done what she had rambled about in her rage? She attempted to flex this new mental muscle. A mechanical being phased into existence. She’d actually done it! She had one of those superpowers!
It immediately rebelled, reacting like an organ of the wrong blood type. The punch sent her crashing through a supporting beam of the porch’s overhang. Julie desummoned it as fast as she could, before letting the pain sink in. This didn’t seem right, and she still needed to process the 20 minute year this morning had been, so went back inside to simmer. By evening, everything was repaired and cleaned up, just like usual. This was the world she had just entered. Did she really want this? Either way…she needed to start preparing. She had snapped, and had to deal with the consequences.
The next morning, now prepared for the suckerpunch, she summoned the stand. It pummeled her. The day after-same result. Again, and again, and again it knocked teeth loose, broke bones, and filled Julie with shrapnel. Until, one afternoon, she managed to dodge it. It landed the next hit handily before being desummoned, but she had dodged it. It was possible!
Day after day she shadowboxed the spirit, and slowly began to last longer against it. She could avoid serious injury, spend up to an hour in a single session, and even make contact with it. Soon she would manage to fight back, finally putting it in its place for a brief moment. These seemingly small counterattacks would slowly become the bedrock of her developing style: if this stupid disobedient thing wouldn’t fight for her, she’d fight with it.
A half-decade of training, fights with other users, and a hellish work-stand balance eventually tempered the brutal back and forth of raging fists into a sort of martial art reminiscent of a dance. Julie was able to use ｢Take it!｣ as a weapon, manipulating its movements to serve her. Years passed as her fighting style was perfected and many users clashed with. She had settled in quite nicely, and had been comfortable-finally satisfied with life-for a while.
She walked home, these truths in her mind, only to see a similar, yet dramatically expanded version of that fateful day so long ago. Her house was decimated and the farm razed. The entire area was destroyed beyond repair, almost completely annihilated and borderline plowed.
Welp, fuck it.
Julie gathered whatever she could salvage from where her farm once was and prepared to set out. She was quite literally going to tear whoever did this to shreds. Whether this was a freak lone incident or a single symptom of massive conspiracy with widespread implications was irrelevant to her. If there's something bigger going on, who cares, she’ll deal with that too.
Unable to use her pilfered stand to fight in the traditional sense, Julie needed to develop her own way of doing things. After matching ｢Take it!｣ blow for blow, she began developing techniques to manipulate its movement and use it for her own ends. Fighting the stand is so instinctual, so second nature for her that it no longer poses a true threat on its own, despite the superior physicality. Thus, its status as a weapon is solidified.
Smaller components like dodging hits with perfect timing to have it ‘attack’ others, parrying it to redirect movement, and utilizing its momentum to perform actions make up a fluid string of slight manipulations Julie uses to essentially puppet ｢Take it!｣ around a fight with a guiding hand.
The stand can be grappled or put into submission holds for various purposes, such as using it for transport, taking a breather, gaining a ‘human’ shield, or as preparation for large attacks. Grapples or momentum control can be led into the stand being swung like a weapon (It is an efficient budgeting tool) with a variety of options.
Additionally, her constant training, both with ｢Take it!｣ in its prime and the users drawn to her over the years, has left her with suitable experience brawling directly with stands, which she happily partakes in with remarkable skill.
submitted by Kratangg to fanStands [link] [comments]
User: Julie Xecklenap
Automatic Humanoid; technically posthumous
Stats:
Power: B (It punch real good; it good weapon)
Speed: C (Fast, but not enough to break the speed limit)
Range: E (2m; it will freeze in place, removing all momentum when 2m from its “user” before rushing back)
Durability: A (Any good weapon or punching bag should be able to take a beating!)
Precision: E (It can be summoned, it can be desummoned)
Potential: E (Broken, unadaptable, and already dead inside)
Appearance:
｢Take it!｣ has been reduced to a mangled floating torso, arms and head. Its expression is perpetually enraged with a seething hate.
Ability:
In its original form, ｢Take it!｣ could freely shed its constantly regenerating outer layer like the scales of a moth, flinging them with pinpoint accuracy. These scales could then be either vibrated or launched by extremely loud or high frequency noises depending on the desired effect. While it still sheds its scales, it does not do so with any precision or intent, and the current owner cannot activate this.
｢Take it!｣ currently has a single function, which its user has no influence or control over: when summoned, it will attack Julie. The stand’s onslaught will not let up until it is dismissed, and will mimic the fighting style its previous user utilized it for-punching real hard until the thing stops moving.
- While technically capable of existing any distance from its “user”, ｢Take it!｣ will provide immense physical resistance when at the edge of its written range; only an overwhelming A power force could pull it further than 2 meters from its target, kicking and screaming the whole time.
- Stand and kidnapper are not truly connected to each other, and thus damage transfer does not occur in either direction. If one falls, the other will continue to function just fine. If Julie were to be defeated while ｢Take it!｣ is summoned, it will beat her unconscious body into a fine paste unless stopped.
- It once tore off her leg. She returned the favor and took that too. It acclimated quite well into her shrapnel-filled body, and serves as a suitable prosthetic with no benefits over her previous limb.
For twenty years Julie lived in a world of supernatural chaos she could not see or appreciate. Her family’s small cherry orchard was surrounded by a community densely packed with stand users. Consequently, brutal fights would break out at least once a month. These otherworldly spirits would cause strange effects, extreme violence, and wanton destruction all the while remaining just out of reach. This cycle repeated over the course of Julie’s life, eventually driving her parents away the day she inherited the gradually shrinking orchard. Urbanization and decades of stand fights had not been kind to the farm…
She would maintain the orchard on her own, doing her best as the fields were given regular thrashings from magic powers she could never see or attain. Then, everything snapped.
Julie awoke to the sound of shattered glass, splintering wood and vibrating metal; she rushed out to see the aftermath of the most recent conflict-the elderly mailman’s mangled body surrounded by splinters of her oldest cherry tree. Her fence was knocked over, windows smashed, and several goose carcasses from the remnants of the farm’s pond littered the bloody area. An exhausted man, her next door neighbor Schenider, stood over the destruction, and began to walk away as if nothing had happened. He shrugged off a few bits of apple and a broken guitar on his way out. Julie was stunned. Just like that?
Julie walked down her porch steps.
Just like that?
She kept going without even thinking, as if her legs were moving on their own.
Just like that?
She intercepted her neighbor, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Just like that?!”
Schenider was caught a bit off guard, but not particularly worried. He had gone through one hell of a morning, and this was the least of his problems. He shoved his neighbor out of the way with his stand and trudged past; the man simply didn’t want to deal with this, especially after what just happened. He certainly didn’t expect a punch like a sledgehammer to the back of his head. He flipped around, ready to block, but took a roundabout kick to the same spot. She wasn’t a user, right?!
Julie, on the flipside, had just given up. Years of anger and envy welled up, a lifetime of feelings ready to be taken out on the user that happened to be here when it happened. Punch after punch connected, sending the already-injured user to the dirt, where she continued her beatdown. Schenider was unarmed, de-guitared, and had been too weakened after his first fight; not even his stand could stop it at this point. Julie, however, was not done. Her hand squeezed down on her neighbor’s face as she demanded he pay up. She could start to see something between her fingers, her immense willpower pushing her forwards to overpower the dying man. These people and their superpowers, rampaging wherever they please. Want to play that game? Fine. It was Julie’s turn.
“GIVE. ME. YOUR. POWER.” “IT’S. MINE. NOW.”
“W-wha-”
“I’M TAKING IT”
With a hearty yank, she could see a humanoid thing come out of the man’s body before fading away. Schenider stopped moving.
Julie stumbled off his body, experiencing a veritable cocktail of emotions and sensations. She wobbled over to the porch and sat down on one of the steps to calm down. The adrenaline would wear off after a while, and the realization of what she’d done sank in…but not too deep. This sort of event was normal around here. She was far more interested in this new feeling deep within her psyche. It felt as if she was not alone, like there was a reflex she had never used before. Had she actually done what she had rambled about in her rage? She attempted to flex this new mental muscle. A mechanical being phased into existence. She’d actually done it! She had one of those superpowers!
It immediately rebelled, reacting like an organ of the wrong blood type. The punch sent her crashing through a supporting beam of the porch’s overhang. Julie desummoned it as fast as she could, before letting the pain sink in. This didn’t seem right, and she still needed to process the 20 minute year this morning had been, so went back inside to simmer. By evening, everything was repaired and cleaned up, just like usual. This was the world she had just entered. Did she really want this? Either way…she needed to start preparing. She had snapped, and had to deal with the consequences.
The next morning, now prepared for the suckerpunch, she summoned the stand. It pummeled her. The day after-same result. Again, and again, and again it knocked teeth loose, broke bones, and filled Julie with shrapnel. Until, one afternoon, she managed to dodge it. It landed the next hit handily before being desummoned, but she had dodged it. It was possible!
Day after day she shadowboxed the spirit, and slowly began to last longer against it. She could avoid serious injury, spend up to an hour in a single session, and even make contact with it. Soon she would manage to fight back, finally putting it in its place for a brief moment. These seemingly small counterattacks would slowly become the bedrock of her developing style: if this stupid disobedient thing wouldn’t fight for her, she’d fight with it.
A half-decade of training, fights with other users, and a hellish work-stand balance eventually tempered the brutal back and forth of raging fists into a sort of martial art reminiscent of a dance. Julie was able to use ｢Take it!｣ as a weapon, manipulating its movements to serve her. Years passed as her fighting style was perfected and many users clashed with. She had settled in quite nicely, and had been comfortable-finally satisfied with life-for a while.
She walked home, these truths in her mind, only to see a similar, yet dramatically expanded version of that fateful day so long ago. Her house was decimated and the farm razed. The entire area was destroyed beyond repair, almost completely annihilated and borderline plowed.
Welp, fuck it.
Julie gathered whatever she could salvage from where her farm once was and prepared to set out. She was quite literally going to tear whoever did this to shreds. Whether this was a freak lone incident or a single symptom of massive conspiracy with widespread implications was irrelevant to her. If there's something bigger going on, who cares, she’ll deal with that too.
Unable to use her pilfered stand to fight in the traditional sense, Julie needed to develop her own way of doing things. After matching ｢Take it!｣ blow for blow, she began developing techniques to manipulate its movement and use it for her own ends. Fighting the stand is so instinctual, so second nature for her that it no longer poses a true threat on its own, despite the superior physicality. Thus, its status as a weapon is solidified.
Smaller components like dodging hits with perfect timing to have it ‘attack’ others, parrying it to redirect movement, and utilizing its momentum to perform actions make up a fluid string of slight manipulations Julie uses to essentially puppet ｢Take it!｣ around a fight with a guiding hand.
The stand can be grappled or put into submission holds for various purposes, such as using it for transport, taking a breather, gaining a ‘human’ shield, or as preparation for large attacks. Grapples or momentum control can be led into the stand being swung like a weapon (It is an efficient budgeting tool) with a variety of options.
Additionally, her constant training, both with ｢Take it!｣ in its prime and the users drawn to her over the years, has left her with suitable experience brawling directly with stands, which she happily partakes in with remarkable skill.
2023.06.07 01:19 tempestuousknave [Online][5E][UTC-05] Sunday Morning Party of Three looking for a Fourth
System: 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons
Platform: Discord (Voice) + Foundry
Time: 7:00AM Central, Sunday mornings
Age: 30+
Prior Sessions: 5
Level: 3
Party comp: An assassin, a hexblade and a war cleric walk into a bar...
Blurb: A democratic state is wedged between two restive nations, maintaining independence through delicate balance of power and keen diplomacy. To the North the tyrant king expands his reportedly undead reach. To the South a thousand year dynasty faces upheaval as the royals fall in battle and allegiances are shaken. Elves meddle, dwarves raid, gnomes boil children and halflings boil potatoes. Amidst this turbulent backdrop, you, noble adventurer, seek to exterminate rats and fetch macguffins for a few silver more.
World: Homebrew window dressing on a popular third party setting.
Game type: Fairly-classic-fantasy, fiction first with a little bit of crunch. Low-moderate lethality - death is a possibility but not a certainty.
DM: 42/he/him, only played the last 5-10 years. Pretty well grounded in mechanics, not so much with the lore. There may be discrepancies between my characterization and DnD canon; I’m okay with that.
Party: Heroic/good leaning. 4 is ideal. 50% is quorum. Present players may pilot absent players’ characters. Frequently absent or late players will be replaced.
Players: 30+, punctual, attentive, team oriented. Should be willing to do a little work out of session to be prepared for their role in session.
Content: There will be violence and a bit of foul language, but let’s not get too descriptive in that vein. Rape, racism, and sexual assault aren’t themes I’d like to explore. Everyone at the table should feel comfortable.
Maps: Always for battle. I find theater of the mind combat arbitrary and capricious. Battlemaps will be 25% gorgeous maps that I sourced, 50% crummy maps that I’ve made, and 25% grid and rough sketches because I wasn’t expecting things to happen. I’m not a fan of world maps. I mean I love them, just not as party GPS. No hex-crawling here.
Character Creation:
Fractional Rest Variant: Allows casters to recover a portion of expended resources every day rather than weekly (gritty) or between arcs (safe haven).
submitted by tempestuousknave to lfg [link] [comments]
Platform: Discord (Voice) + Foundry
Time: 7:00AM Central, Sunday mornings
Age: 30+
Prior Sessions: 5
Level: 3
Party comp: An assassin, a hexblade and a war cleric walk into a bar...
Blurb: A democratic state is wedged between two restive nations, maintaining independence through delicate balance of power and keen diplomacy. To the North the tyrant king expands his reportedly undead reach. To the South a thousand year dynasty faces upheaval as the royals fall in battle and allegiances are shaken. Elves meddle, dwarves raid, gnomes boil children and halflings boil potatoes. Amidst this turbulent backdrop, you, noble adventurer, seek to exterminate rats and fetch macguffins for a few silver more.
World: Homebrew window dressing on a popular third party setting.
Game type: Fairly-classic-fantasy, fiction first with a little bit of crunch. Low-moderate lethality - death is a possibility but not a certainty.
DM: 42/he/him, only played the last 5-10 years. Pretty well grounded in mechanics, not so much with the lore. There may be discrepancies between my characterization and DnD canon; I’m okay with that.
Party: Heroic/good leaning. 4 is ideal. 50% is quorum. Present players may pilot absent players’ characters. Frequently absent or late players will be replaced.
Players: 30+, punctual, attentive, team oriented. Should be willing to do a little work out of session to be prepared for their role in session.
Content: There will be violence and a bit of foul language, but let’s not get too descriptive in that vein. Rape, racism, and sexual assault aren’t themes I’d like to explore. Everyone at the table should feel comfortable.
Maps: Always for battle. I find theater of the mind combat arbitrary and capricious. Battlemaps will be 25% gorgeous maps that I sourced, 50% crummy maps that I’ve made, and 25% grid and rough sketches because I wasn’t expecting things to happen. I’m not a fan of world maps. I mean I love them, just not as party GPS. No hex-crawling here.
Character Creation:
- Point buy
- +3 max ability mod at lvl 1
- Approved Sources: PHB, SCAG, XGTE, most TCOE
- Some exceptions apply
- Material from other sources may not be accepted
- Feel free to ask
- Don’t feel free to haggle
- Map out character progression in spreadsheet or document
- Race/Class/Subclass/Scores/Skills/Features/ASIs/Feats/Spells, all of it
- Informs players on character mechanics
- Informs DMs on player intentions
- Helpful for narrative purposes, foreshadowing, loot, and boons. Foreknowledge makes party/encounter balance easier Informs DMs on player commitment
- Character Progression Example
Fractional Rest Variant: Allows casters to recover a portion of expended resources every day rather than weekly (gritty) or between arcs (safe haven).
- Fatigue and environment affect long rest quality
- There are 5 rest levels: none, minimal, poor, adequate, and full.
- No rest accrues levels of exhaustion
- Minimal rest does not dispel a level of exhaustion
- Fractional rest recovers a fraction of expended hit dice
- None 0, Minimal 25% Poor 25% Adequate 50% Full 50%
- Fractional rest recovers a fraction of a casters expended spell slot points
- None 0, Minimal 25% Poor 50% Adequate 75% Full 100%
- Slots are recovered from lowest to highest
- Spell slot points = (spell level) x (slot quantity)
- If all spell slots are not recoverable, and all spell points are not expendable (i.e. lowest open slot is level n and ≤n-1 points remain) the spell point balance remains for 24 hours, and can be used to restore spell slots on a short or long rest
- Extended Casting Time:
- Higher level magic takes longer to cast. Attacks during casting triggers concentration checks. On a failed concentration check the spell is not cast, and the slot is not consumed.
- Most Lvl 3+ spells with a casting time of 1 action take 1.5 rounds
- Bonus action round prior begins cast
- Action following round completes casting
- Most Lvl 5+ spells with a casting time of 1 action take 2 rounds
- Action to begin casting, next round action to complete casting
- Most Lvl 7+ spells with a casting time of 1 action take 2.5 rounds
- Most Lvl 9 spells with a casting time of 1 action take 3 rounds
- Casters may be granted rapid casting (1 action) on a few select higher level spells as a boon
- Healing Spells are exempt
- Exhaustion
- ~DND One style: -1 checks, attacks, DCs, and saves per level, -5 feet movement
- Lesser Restoration removes 1 level exhaustion
- Greater Restoration removes exhaustion
- Hit zero save against exhaustion
- Death
- Scaling resurrection DC
- Whisper death saves
- Teleporting
- Teleports that cross ley lines get swept along with them, and can only conclude along the line.
- Leylines can be used for fast but not instantaneous travel through the shadow realm, covering hundreds of miles per day. There are risks.
- Shield Spell
- Ceiling: Max AC=15+Ability Mod+½ Spell Level
- Range: Touch
2023.06.07 01:19 SuperReleasio64 Can anyone help me fix my Venom GT? It drives like a bar of soap
2012 Hennessey Venom GT - S2 995
| Stats | |
|---|---|
| Weight | 2667 lbs |
| Balance | 45% |
| HP | 1415 |
| Torque | 1362 lb-ft |
| Top Speed | 254.2 mph |
| 0-60 | 1.432s |
| 0-100 | 3.076s |
Build
| Conversions | |
|---|---|
| Engine | Stock |
| Drivetrain | AWD |
| Aspiration | Stock |
| Body Kit | Stock |
| Engine | |
|---|---|
| Intake | Stock |
| Fuel System | Stock |
| Ignition | Stock |
| Exhaust | Stock |
| Camshaft | Stock |
| Valves | Stock |
| Displacement | Race |
| Pistons | Stock |
| Twin Turbo | Race Anti-lag |
| Intercooler | Stock |
| Oil Cooling | Stock |
| Flywheel | Stock |
| Platform And Handling | |
|---|---|
| Brakes | Race |
| Springs | Race |
| Front Arb | Race |
| Rear Arb | Race |
| Chassis Reinforcement | Race |
| Weight Reduction | Race |
| Drivetrain | |
|---|---|
| Clutch | Race |
| Transmission | Race Seven Speed |
| Driveline | Race |
| Differential | Race |
| Tires And Rims | |
|---|---|
| Compound | Slick |
| Tire Width | Front 295 mm, Rear 375 mm |
| Rim Style | Sport American Racing AR927 Barrage |
| Rim Size | Front Stock in, Rear Stock in |
| Track Width | Front Stock, Rear Stock |
| Profile Size | Front Stock, Rear Stock |
| Aero and Appearance | |
|---|---|
| Front Bumper | Race Front Bumper |
| Rear Bumper | N/A |
| Rear Wing | Race Rear Wing |
| Side Skirts | N/A |
| Hood | N/A |
Tune
| Tires | bar | psi |
|---|---|---|
| Front | 1.45 | 21.0 |
| Rear | 1.48 | 21.5 |
| Gears | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Final Drive | 2.54 |
| 1st | 4.16 |
| 2nd | 2.73 |
| 3rd | 2.12 |
| 4th | 1.62 |
| 5th | 1.27 |
| 6th | 1.00 |
| 7th | 0.80 |
| Alignment | Camber | Toe | Caster |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | -1.5° | 0.0° | 7.0° |
| Rear | -1.5° | 0.0° |
| ARBs | |
|---|---|
| Front | 7.7 |
| Rear | 16.6 |
| Springs | kgf/mm | lbs/in | n/mm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | 71.2 | 398.6 | 698.1 |
| Rear | 89.8 | 502.7 | 880.4 |
| Ride Height | cm | in |
|---|---|---|
| Front | 9.1 | 3.6 |
| Rear | 11.4 | 4.5 |
| Damping | Rebound | Bump |
|---|---|---|
| Front | 1.1 | 1.9 |
| Rear | 4.7 | 5.1 |
| Aero | kgf | lb |
|---|---|---|
| Front | 114.8 | 253.0 |
| Rear | 287.1 | 633.0 |
| Brakes | % |
|---|---|
| Balance | 85% |
| Pressure | 58% |
| Differential | Accel | Decel |
|---|---|---|
| Front | 17% | 10% |
| Rear | 65% | 15% |
| Center | 75% |
Submit bugs, feature requests, and questions on Github
2023.06.07 01:17 Cold_Tradition_3638 (venting/rant) My country is trying to privatize its health care and i don't know what to do
I have been hoping from job to job over the pat 2 years since i could not find something i enjoyed doing, plus couple of health and mental health issues that have been delaying with. The only silver lining from all of it, was the fact that i didn't have to pay for my medical treatment and now that I'm currently just studying instead of working, i still get health coverage.
But recently there has been a big push for privatization, while they started asking for something small, the language they are using and the discourse that I'm hearing is eerily familiar to Ronald Regan's talking points about privatization and hatred for the public worker and the people that rely on the system to survive.
I hate it, while we are staging a protest tomorrow, the sentiment seems to be so divided that i feel like my country is finally falling apart and i have no idea were to go.
I'm so exhausted of going to meetings and protests, just to see how the media and biggest investors change the narrative and everyone just accepts it at face value, no matter how horrible the ideas are, no matter how much we fight for change, everyone votes for the same 3 parties over an over.
I am fucking loosing it, sorry for the rant.
submitted by Cold_Tradition_3638 to antiwork [link] [comments]
But recently there has been a big push for privatization, while they started asking for something small, the language they are using and the discourse that I'm hearing is eerily familiar to Ronald Regan's talking points about privatization and hatred for the public worker and the people that rely on the system to survive.
I hate it, while we are staging a protest tomorrow, the sentiment seems to be so divided that i feel like my country is finally falling apart and i have no idea were to go.
I'm so exhausted of going to meetings and protests, just to see how the media and biggest investors change the narrative and everyone just accepts it at face value, no matter how horrible the ideas are, no matter how much we fight for change, everyone votes for the same 3 parties over an over.
I am fucking loosing it, sorry for the rant.
2023.06.07 01:16 Better-Waltz-1116 Q40
Does anyone know anything about this codes or how to fix them
submitted by Better-Waltz-1116 to G37 [link] [comments]
2023.06.07 01:15 KenDaBabyOG Any opinions?
 | submitted by KenDaBabyOG to 335i [link] [comments] |
2023.06.07 01:14 bluemik2023 Things I’ve noticed since going no contact
17 days in.
The rashes all over my body have disappeared. Never had them until I met my nex, since I left, my skin has completely healed.
My hairs stopped falling out. It’s finally healing also! No more clumps coming out in the shower making me panic.
My IBS is non existent. No more laying on the bathroom floor crying in agony from stress seeing his name pop up on my phone.
I have more motivation to go outside.
I have more energy in general. I’ve reduced the time I spend in my bed because I was literally unable to move and get up.
I’ve been laughing more. Why? Because I get to watch what I want to watch guilty free. I get to see my shows, comedy stuff, favorite streamers as much as I want and when I want.
My appetite for healthy food is back. I lived off junk food and order in all the time because I was simply too exhausted to move most days I was with him. Now I get up and do my dishes everyday and make my own meals.
I shower more. When I was with him honestly I could only shower maybe twice a week. Now I’m in the shower every day. Anytime I get an urge to break no contact, I shower. Don’t know why but it works every time. Highly recommend!
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still things I’m seriously struggling with like the insomnia, drinking, panic attacks, being triggered and on high alert with loud noises or even being near men. (Sorry men)
But I wanted to make a post about things I’ve personally noticed since going no contact and share it with you all. If you’re feeling like you are wanting to break it. Take notes of things you notice about yourself! Write everything down/make a video journal :)
submitted by bluemik2023 to NarcissisticAbuse [link] [comments]
The rashes all over my body have disappeared. Never had them until I met my nex, since I left, my skin has completely healed.
My hairs stopped falling out. It’s finally healing also! No more clumps coming out in the shower making me panic.
My IBS is non existent. No more laying on the bathroom floor crying in agony from stress seeing his name pop up on my phone.
I have more motivation to go outside.
I have more energy in general. I’ve reduced the time I spend in my bed because I was literally unable to move and get up.
I’ve been laughing more. Why? Because I get to watch what I want to watch guilty free. I get to see my shows, comedy stuff, favorite streamers as much as I want and when I want.
My appetite for healthy food is back. I lived off junk food and order in all the time because I was simply too exhausted to move most days I was with him. Now I get up and do my dishes everyday and make my own meals.
I shower more. When I was with him honestly I could only shower maybe twice a week. Now I’m in the shower every day. Anytime I get an urge to break no contact, I shower. Don’t know why but it works every time. Highly recommend!
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still things I’m seriously struggling with like the insomnia, drinking, panic attacks, being triggered and on high alert with loud noises or even being near men. (Sorry men)
But I wanted to make a post about things I’ve personally noticed since going no contact and share it with you all. If you’re feeling like you are wanting to break it. Take notes of things you notice about yourself! Write everything down/make a video journal :)
2023.06.07 00:56 D0WNGR4D3 Beast World #45: Secrets & Misunderstandings
First Issue!
The perimeter walls of their small village have been reinforced by Runhar's earth molding magics. Rok and Brekda have been assisting him in keeping the perimeter watched at all times.
This precaution was necessary as a lot of the Tuskir village's able bodied fighters have been rendered less than optimally effective in combat. Although generally safe, a small tension filled thought gnawed at the back of their minds. The chance of a second assault was something the tribe considered.
Honestly, at a first glance this would be a most opportun time to assault the place, especially with their elder and most skilled healer, Urla, still mostly bed ridden due to exerting herself when healing others.
Still, they tried to go back to a normal state of operating as best as they could, having to make certain compromises. Discussing among themselves the whole group decided to give as best an aid as possible to the two wounded Hay-yen that they still found alive within their walls, asking their previous captives, the ones more willing to co-operate to take care of them. The procurement of constant supplies of food and water up to the present time made them quite willing to assist.
During this time Michael had been spending his time along Zurra and Woh. Zurra, having taken on the responsability to assist the, hopefully temporarily, crippled hooman, has been going about this task while giving aid in any other mundane endeavors like taking care of the children along side Runny, Brekda's wife.
In one such moment did Michael find a moment to reflect upon the situation as he was left at the base of Spek's tree alongside Woh. Still, contemplation would have to wait as the human's amphoran companion seemed rather excited for chit-chat, indicated by repeating irregular and excited croaks leaving her throat.
"Michael! Michael! Its been a few days! Can you walk, yet?" Woh asked her question with such a light hearted and casual tone as if she expected Michael to grow back his legs if he actually lost them.
The young man, taking a moment to process the question, shook his head while arching an eyebrow. "Pfft. I'd wish, honestly. To be fair they hurt as all hell, but I am glad whatever herbs Zurra's been reapplying my bandages with have been numbing them. I don't know how well healing magic will work to help me if... at all, but I have been terrified that... I might not walk again. At least... not properly." Michael said choking a bit on his words.
Nervousness washed over him as he looked down at his wrapped up legs, faint blood stains covering them here and there. He only looked at his legs once when Zurra was changing the bandages, he was numbed up good, but the sight of them was something too visceral to not make his mind aware of the pain he should be in. Although suppressed, he could feel his legs burn in a muffled agony.
The mana burn had turned the young man's skin and toe nails to actual ashes that Zurra had to clean off, a rather painstakingly slow endeavor due to how caked in blood the ashes were. From bellow the knees the young man was akin to one of those skinless statues showing the human's body muscular fiber, only minor patches of actual skin hanging on here and there.
Woh kind of grew silent for a moment, before shaking her head as her big round eyes looked at Michael. "W-well don'tcha worry! Even if you can't walk we're here, s-so... we'll be able to help! If I was bigger I wouldn't mind lugging you about like a sack of timber! 'Cause you'd be the best sack of timber to ever be and 'cause we're friends." Woh said with a happy croak, trying her best to cheer up the young man.
Michael snickered and smirked and he shook his head, petting Woh's covered back. "Thanks. It'll be my honor to do my best interpretation of a heavy sack, but I'm hoping I can be fixed." After taking a moment to lean back against Spek's trunk and to look up at his crown of branches and leaves, the young man took in a deep breath. "Woh... I'm going to need your help with something. I know you might be not too happy about it, but if you'll allow it...I'd like us to make some vials of your poison, even if it is distilled with some water."
"O-oh... uhm... well... uhh... ya been sayin' that it doesn't do you much harm and... it has been helping you fight, so maybe I don't mind if we make a small bottle or two of it, but ya gotta promise to still be careful, ok?! Ribbit, last thing I want to do is hurt you with it." The tiny pink frog like woman said with a small croak of worry leaving her throat.
Michael sat silent a moment as he looked at his hands and forearms and at the slight yellowish hue they had. His skin has taken to the color just recently, bit by bit. His brown irises with eyes ever so faintly yellow as well, would look at Woh, a small smile accompanying it, although preceeded by the human sucking in his lips slightly. "Y-you won't be hurting me. You can trust that. Hell after what happened, you're the last person that could do that. So no need to be afraid. Whatever choices you make, you can do me no foul."
Woh looked at him, with an ease washing over her tiny form. "Fair enough then. Say. Since its been kinda borin' around 'ere, mind using your magic thingy, what ya called it... ah! Your phoon! To put on that one song you said it is about happiness and not worrying? I liked how it sounded."
"Hah. Gladly. We'll be around here a while, at least until Zurra wants to do my physical therapy. Still kind of regreting telling her about that when she asked about what my kind do to help maintain one's muscles when they can't train and how to deal with pain." Michael said with a small laugh, followed by a grunt of discomfort caused by a stab of his sore body at itself due to the contracting muscles. He'd soon go through his phone and put the tune in question to play on repeat.
"Hah~ there it is... I don't get why, but the song does make me happy. Thanks!" Woh said with a greatful ribbit as she laid down inbetween some of Spek's roots and using them like a lounging chair. She would look up at the tree for a moment too, mouthing a silent 'thank you' to it.
The day would go on to pass as calm as can be, until the late afternoon, when Runhar nearly had a scare for a moment, when he saw torch light coming from deeper within the woods. Still, with a sniff of the air and feeling the scents of Gharna, Oinna, Azhul and Yenna, the guard captain would calm down as he then asked Rok to prepare opening the gates.
When the group came within sight they could be seen pausing as they looked about, their heads clearly turing to examine the surrounding outskirts of their village on the outside.
"What in the name of The Hunt Father happened?!" Gharna yelled out eventually as they got closer, their pace having increased as they saw their home in shambles. "The wall is lookin' like a mess. Is everyone alright?"
"Most, aye!" Runhar yelled and after a moment paused. "Come, there's more to discuss!" The guard captain added as he descended from the watch tower he had climbed up on while on watch.
The group of four was eventually welcomed in and after a quick retelling of their journey and a quick stock of what they brought, which was pulled to storage, Runhar would recount the events that occured here. The whole endevour was burned upon his mind... he couldn't help himself to not go into details, some of which made him visibly look saddened or furious. He eventually even backtracked to what happened to Spek and... how it happened.
To say the least... it was a lot to process, and the news about Spek becoming a... tree... had a mix of reactions.
"Gah... the situation is shite, but I'm kinda pissed I missed ma' using the family technique. I still can't do it nowhere as good as her. Got the getting bigger part down somewhat though." Azhul said with a huff.
"S-seriously? That's yer first concern?!" Gharna added with a snort as she stared up at her bigger hunt sister.
"What do ya wan' me tha do?! Cry about it? I feel like shite, but I ain' gonna break apart over it. Not when we have tha keep things together." Azhul oinked back in retort.
"I-... I have to agree with Azhul. I will check on Urla and see to who's still wounded. If Michael is taken care of at least somewhat for now, I will see to make sure everyone else that can be dealt with quicker, is up on their two feet!" Oinna said with a determined huff as she excused herself and trotted off.
"I'mma be sleepin' a bit. Sleepin' on the road has been a pain." Yenna added with a half dozing off snort as he left. Although he was hit by the initial shock of the situation as well, it only added to the mental exhaustion that traveling has taken on him.
Azhul and Gharna were still lightly huffing at one another, until the latter's eyes sparked with a realization. Gharna's eyes would look at Runhar. "Say, cap'. Ya said Zurra's been takin' care of Michael. Thought we should talk with her, too. Where's she?" She asked very curious, a snort leaving her flat nose.
"Ah... think she might be in his shack with 'im. She said that she wanted to do- " Before Runhar could finish his sentence properly, Azhul seemed to be hit by panic.
It didn't take long to the large Tuskir woman to realize what Gharna was asking and partially hearing Runhar's reply, sent her in nearly a frenzy of embarrasment. "DO HIM?! MA! STOP!"
On the way here Azhul tried telling herself it wasn't possible for something like this to happen, but as her heart rate spiked she attempted to take off toward's Michael's hut.
The nearly stampede like charge though, would be prematurely stopped by Gharna, who wrapped her arms arounds Azhul's waist. While trying to not snort out of sheer amusement, she coughed trying to sound serious. "Wait a wee moment. If ya barge in there while she's doin' him, ya really want tha see that? Might be better to see what the situation... pft... ahem... is... quietly."
Runhar a bit surprised by this whole situation, wanted to finish his sentence, only to be interrupted by Gharna's clear gaze to not utter another word. He even took a moment to chuckle internally, appreciating the bit of amusement after the shit show they have been through.
"Y-yeah... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah... Don't wanna make it worse... oh... h-ho... Hunter Father... please don't let it be too late." Azhul muttered as she walked at a really fast, yet quiet pace.
Gharna would follow up after whispering some words of thanks to Runhar. "Ya kno' can't really blame her, if Michael faught like Runhar says he did. Yer mother did always... pft... ahem... a-appftt... preciate a... ahem... sturdy warrior type o' man."
"I will wrangle your throat if ye utter another bloody word." Azhul said to Gharna, without even looking back.
Still, as they approached Michael's hut and listened, Azhul's expression would only change to that of someone who has seen or heard the most disturbing of the secrets held by eldritch gods of the cosmos.
The sound of a creaking bed frame, the moans of Michael in a mix of pain and pleasure and the groans of Zurra as if she was riding a most unruly beast. The trifecta of trauma had fully hit Azhul into a silent stunned coma as he charge stopped to a full halt.
"Agh- god... you're working the knots out of me." Michael could be heard groaning in pain before letting a grunted moan of relief.
"Told ya boi. If we huff... just changed positions a bit and ye gave me a pointer or two... I could get ya done. Ya ain't so different from any ol' tuskir man. Huh... yer givin' me a bit o' a workout." The older smithy woman could be heard lightly panting.
Gharna got silent as well, feeling embarrased as all hell, but nowhere nearly as bad as Azhul, who seemed to have been shell shocked, her eyes staring into nothingness.
"O-oh! Oh no! Hah! That's sensitive t-take it easy on me a bit! Hah!" The young man groaned, which prompted Azhul to crumble to her knees.
The sudden sound of the short fall made the sound from the hut stop. Heavy steps would soon approach the door and open it, as Zurra looked out towards the two.
"Oh! Yer back! Glad to see ye two fine an' well. Uh... what are ya doin'?" The old Tuskir woman asked as she stretched herself a bit, then popping her knuckles.
The two younger women stood silent, until Gharna could finally utter something. "We-... uh... we're good. W-what... uhm... what were ya doin'?" She said nearly choking.
"Ah. Just givin' da boi a massage. After the fight we had he's in shambles if ya haven't 'eard. Gettin' a wee bit tired, so I could use a hand." Zurra said most casually.
To this reply, Azhul go on her palms as well and pressed her snout to the ground. "Thank ye, Hunt Father... oh huh... thank you..." she said whispered, in a slightly whimpering tone, with sighs of relief leaving her.
Gharna calming down too, nodded. "Ye. Gladly." As she passed by Azhul though, she snickered and whispered to her. "Nearly had tha call 'im daddy there, ay?" She asked before stepping up and inside.
Azhul took a moment to calm down, as she contemplated the repercussions of murder, before approaching the shack and talking with her mother. Glad to see one another, the two went into detail about all the events that happened, together with Michael, who was happy to see them both her and Gharna.
submitted by D0WNGR4D3 to HFY [link] [comments]
- Author's Note: So... its been 3 months. I still live and my writing gobo too. Also I just recently realized its been a bit over 1 years since the series has begun so.... HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EVERYONE! I hope you'll enjoy the read and please let me know if you'd like me to do anything specific to celebrate 1 year of Beast World. You can support the series by donating my writing gobo a cookie here!
The perimeter walls of their small village have been reinforced by Runhar's earth molding magics. Rok and Brekda have been assisting him in keeping the perimeter watched at all times.
This precaution was necessary as a lot of the Tuskir village's able bodied fighters have been rendered less than optimally effective in combat. Although generally safe, a small tension filled thought gnawed at the back of their minds. The chance of a second assault was something the tribe considered.
Honestly, at a first glance this would be a most opportun time to assault the place, especially with their elder and most skilled healer, Urla, still mostly bed ridden due to exerting herself when healing others.
Still, they tried to go back to a normal state of operating as best as they could, having to make certain compromises. Discussing among themselves the whole group decided to give as best an aid as possible to the two wounded Hay-yen that they still found alive within their walls, asking their previous captives, the ones more willing to co-operate to take care of them. The procurement of constant supplies of food and water up to the present time made them quite willing to assist.
During this time Michael had been spending his time along Zurra and Woh. Zurra, having taken on the responsability to assist the, hopefully temporarily, crippled hooman, has been going about this task while giving aid in any other mundane endeavors like taking care of the children along side Runny, Brekda's wife.
In one such moment did Michael find a moment to reflect upon the situation as he was left at the base of Spek's tree alongside Woh. Still, contemplation would have to wait as the human's amphoran companion seemed rather excited for chit-chat, indicated by repeating irregular and excited croaks leaving her throat.
"Michael! Michael! Its been a few days! Can you walk, yet?" Woh asked her question with such a light hearted and casual tone as if she expected Michael to grow back his legs if he actually lost them.
The young man, taking a moment to process the question, shook his head while arching an eyebrow. "Pfft. I'd wish, honestly. To be fair they hurt as all hell, but I am glad whatever herbs Zurra's been reapplying my bandages with have been numbing them. I don't know how well healing magic will work to help me if... at all, but I have been terrified that... I might not walk again. At least... not properly." Michael said choking a bit on his words.
Nervousness washed over him as he looked down at his wrapped up legs, faint blood stains covering them here and there. He only looked at his legs once when Zurra was changing the bandages, he was numbed up good, but the sight of them was something too visceral to not make his mind aware of the pain he should be in. Although suppressed, he could feel his legs burn in a muffled agony.
The mana burn had turned the young man's skin and toe nails to actual ashes that Zurra had to clean off, a rather painstakingly slow endeavor due to how caked in blood the ashes were. From bellow the knees the young man was akin to one of those skinless statues showing the human's body muscular fiber, only minor patches of actual skin hanging on here and there.
Woh kind of grew silent for a moment, before shaking her head as her big round eyes looked at Michael. "W-well don'tcha worry! Even if you can't walk we're here, s-so... we'll be able to help! If I was bigger I wouldn't mind lugging you about like a sack of timber! 'Cause you'd be the best sack of timber to ever be and 'cause we're friends." Woh said with a happy croak, trying her best to cheer up the young man.
Michael snickered and smirked and he shook his head, petting Woh's covered back. "Thanks. It'll be my honor to do my best interpretation of a heavy sack, but I'm hoping I can be fixed." After taking a moment to lean back against Spek's trunk and to look up at his crown of branches and leaves, the young man took in a deep breath. "Woh... I'm going to need your help with something. I know you might be not too happy about it, but if you'll allow it...I'd like us to make some vials of your poison, even if it is distilled with some water."
"O-oh... uhm... well... uhh... ya been sayin' that it doesn't do you much harm and... it has been helping you fight, so maybe I don't mind if we make a small bottle or two of it, but ya gotta promise to still be careful, ok?! Ribbit, last thing I want to do is hurt you with it." The tiny pink frog like woman said with a small croak of worry leaving her throat.
Michael sat silent a moment as he looked at his hands and forearms and at the slight yellowish hue they had. His skin has taken to the color just recently, bit by bit. His brown irises with eyes ever so faintly yellow as well, would look at Woh, a small smile accompanying it, although preceeded by the human sucking in his lips slightly. "Y-you won't be hurting me. You can trust that. Hell after what happened, you're the last person that could do that. So no need to be afraid. Whatever choices you make, you can do me no foul."
Woh looked at him, with an ease washing over her tiny form. "Fair enough then. Say. Since its been kinda borin' around 'ere, mind using your magic thingy, what ya called it... ah! Your phoon! To put on that one song you said it is about happiness and not worrying? I liked how it sounded."
"Hah. Gladly. We'll be around here a while, at least until Zurra wants to do my physical therapy. Still kind of regreting telling her about that when she asked about what my kind do to help maintain one's muscles when they can't train and how to deal with pain." Michael said with a small laugh, followed by a grunt of discomfort caused by a stab of his sore body at itself due to the contracting muscles. He'd soon go through his phone and put the tune in question to play on repeat.
"Hah~ there it is... I don't get why, but the song does make me happy. Thanks!" Woh said with a greatful ribbit as she laid down inbetween some of Spek's roots and using them like a lounging chair. She would look up at the tree for a moment too, mouthing a silent 'thank you' to it.
The day would go on to pass as calm as can be, until the late afternoon, when Runhar nearly had a scare for a moment, when he saw torch light coming from deeper within the woods. Still, with a sniff of the air and feeling the scents of Gharna, Oinna, Azhul and Yenna, the guard captain would calm down as he then asked Rok to prepare opening the gates.
When the group came within sight they could be seen pausing as they looked about, their heads clearly turing to examine the surrounding outskirts of their village on the outside.
"What in the name of The Hunt Father happened?!" Gharna yelled out eventually as they got closer, their pace having increased as they saw their home in shambles. "The wall is lookin' like a mess. Is everyone alright?"
"Most, aye!" Runhar yelled and after a moment paused. "Come, there's more to discuss!" The guard captain added as he descended from the watch tower he had climbed up on while on watch.
The group of four was eventually welcomed in and after a quick retelling of their journey and a quick stock of what they brought, which was pulled to storage, Runhar would recount the events that occured here. The whole endevour was burned upon his mind... he couldn't help himself to not go into details, some of which made him visibly look saddened or furious. He eventually even backtracked to what happened to Spek and... how it happened.
To say the least... it was a lot to process, and the news about Spek becoming a... tree... had a mix of reactions.
"Gah... the situation is shite, but I'm kinda pissed I missed ma' using the family technique. I still can't do it nowhere as good as her. Got the getting bigger part down somewhat though." Azhul said with a huff.
"S-seriously? That's yer first concern?!" Gharna added with a snort as she stared up at her bigger hunt sister.
"What do ya wan' me tha do?! Cry about it? I feel like shite, but I ain' gonna break apart over it. Not when we have tha keep things together." Azhul oinked back in retort.
"I-... I have to agree with Azhul. I will check on Urla and see to who's still wounded. If Michael is taken care of at least somewhat for now, I will see to make sure everyone else that can be dealt with quicker, is up on their two feet!" Oinna said with a determined huff as she excused herself and trotted off.
"I'mma be sleepin' a bit. Sleepin' on the road has been a pain." Yenna added with a half dozing off snort as he left. Although he was hit by the initial shock of the situation as well, it only added to the mental exhaustion that traveling has taken on him.
Azhul and Gharna were still lightly huffing at one another, until the latter's eyes sparked with a realization. Gharna's eyes would look at Runhar. "Say, cap'. Ya said Zurra's been takin' care of Michael. Thought we should talk with her, too. Where's she?" She asked very curious, a snort leaving her flat nose.
"Ah... think she might be in his shack with 'im. She said that she wanted to do- " Before Runhar could finish his sentence properly, Azhul seemed to be hit by panic.
It didn't take long to the large Tuskir woman to realize what Gharna was asking and partially hearing Runhar's reply, sent her in nearly a frenzy of embarrasment. "DO HIM?! MA! STOP!"
On the way here Azhul tried telling herself it wasn't possible for something like this to happen, but as her heart rate spiked she attempted to take off toward's Michael's hut.
The nearly stampede like charge though, would be prematurely stopped by Gharna, who wrapped her arms arounds Azhul's waist. While trying to not snort out of sheer amusement, she coughed trying to sound serious. "Wait a wee moment. If ya barge in there while she's doin' him, ya really want tha see that? Might be better to see what the situation... pft... ahem... is... quietly."
Runhar a bit surprised by this whole situation, wanted to finish his sentence, only to be interrupted by Gharna's clear gaze to not utter another word. He even took a moment to chuckle internally, appreciating the bit of amusement after the shit show they have been through.
"Y-yeah... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah... Don't wanna make it worse... oh... h-ho... Hunter Father... please don't let it be too late." Azhul muttered as she walked at a really fast, yet quiet pace.
Gharna would follow up after whispering some words of thanks to Runhar. "Ya kno' can't really blame her, if Michael faught like Runhar says he did. Yer mother did always... pft... ahem... a-appftt... preciate a... ahem... sturdy warrior type o' man."
"I will wrangle your throat if ye utter another bloody word." Azhul said to Gharna, without even looking back.
Still, as they approached Michael's hut and listened, Azhul's expression would only change to that of someone who has seen or heard the most disturbing of the secrets held by eldritch gods of the cosmos.
The sound of a creaking bed frame, the moans of Michael in a mix of pain and pleasure and the groans of Zurra as if she was riding a most unruly beast. The trifecta of trauma had fully hit Azhul into a silent stunned coma as he charge stopped to a full halt.
"Agh- god... you're working the knots out of me." Michael could be heard groaning in pain before letting a grunted moan of relief.
"Told ya boi. If we huff... just changed positions a bit and ye gave me a pointer or two... I could get ya done. Ya ain't so different from any ol' tuskir man. Huh... yer givin' me a bit o' a workout." The older smithy woman could be heard lightly panting.
Gharna got silent as well, feeling embarrased as all hell, but nowhere nearly as bad as Azhul, who seemed to have been shell shocked, her eyes staring into nothingness.
"O-oh! Oh no! Hah! That's sensitive t-take it easy on me a bit! Hah!" The young man groaned, which prompted Azhul to crumble to her knees.
The sudden sound of the short fall made the sound from the hut stop. Heavy steps would soon approach the door and open it, as Zurra looked out towards the two.
"Oh! Yer back! Glad to see ye two fine an' well. Uh... what are ya doin'?" The old Tuskir woman asked as she stretched herself a bit, then popping her knuckles.
The two younger women stood silent, until Gharna could finally utter something. "We-... uh... we're good. W-what... uhm... what were ya doin'?" She said nearly choking.
"Ah. Just givin' da boi a massage. After the fight we had he's in shambles if ya haven't 'eard. Gettin' a wee bit tired, so I could use a hand." Zurra said most casually.
To this reply, Azhul go on her palms as well and pressed her snout to the ground. "Thank ye, Hunt Father... oh huh... thank you..." she said whispered, in a slightly whimpering tone, with sighs of relief leaving her.
Gharna calming down too, nodded. "Ye. Gladly." As she passed by Azhul though, she snickered and whispered to her. "Nearly had tha call 'im daddy there, ay?" She asked before stepping up and inside.
Azhul took a moment to calm down, as she contemplated the repercussions of murder, before approaching the shack and talking with her mother. Glad to see one another, the two went into detail about all the events that happened, together with Michael, who was happy to see them both her and Gharna.