Human body worksheets for 1st graders

Nature is Metal

2014.06.11 05:16 Nature is Metal

Badass pictures, gifs and videos of the awesome yet vicious cycle of nature

2009.12.16 22:53 webchickie Plus Size Support Community

A place for plus-sized people to discuss fashion, body acceptance, dating, haimake-up, fitness, health, fat-shaming and other related matters. We boot any shaming or negativity, sexually harassing comments, or inappropriate remarks.

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2012.02.24 09:14 Connecting Food, Eating, Body and Mind

Pro-recovery space for bulimia, binge eating, restricting, anorexia and other disordered eating patterns. You are welcome here.

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2024.05.16 03:01 Jarebear35 My conclusion.

The reason people need to make up stories about the afterlife is for the same reason we do things here on Earth like locking our doors or planning for retirement. It’s all about safety.
We do a lot here on this planet to save our physical bodies on a daily basis, whether it’s something as simple as drinking water or as dramatic as restraining ourselves from murder so that we don’t spend our mortal lives in prison. We’ll do whatever is in our best interest as all animals do who prioritize safety.
My point is, it doesn’t just stop there. We also feel called to protect ourselves in a potential afterlife. We don’t know for sure if we have a soul but in case we do, we want it to be in the best circumstances possible. That’s why religion is so effective at making people convert to it- nobody wants pain for all of eternity. We want comfort in the afterlife.
Prison planet is just another afterlife “doom” scenario. “The Source” is the savior figure. It’s our “home” and it’s a pure connection to all energy and life and creation. Hmm… that sounds just like what humans on Earth desire- Sun for energy, family for love, relationships and community for connection. The “Source” is just a human construct of all our greatest desires.
Now, why would the Source have any obligation to give you your desires? The source has no reason to be evil but it also has no reason to be good or to “love” any of us. If the Source is real, then it would certainly be a neutral force. That means, there’s no rescue mission in place. There’s no signs or symbols from the universe or any “beings” trying to help us escape. Yes, the sun does shine, but it doesn’t go out of its way to make sure that you feel its warmth and there’s no guarantee that it won’t burn you. Hint: It doesn’t consider you at all.
My conclusion is that the prison planet theory is just a human’s hope that in the afterlife they’ll manage do the right things so that they can enter a realm where everything’s perfect and safe and you can finally feel powerful. A tale as old as time. Deep down we feel scared and insecure and life is chaotic and messy and we feel powerless to change it. Typical good vs evil arc, but we’re no Superman, we’re not Neo, and we don’t need to be. Good and evil are relative.
I don’t have a problem with this prison planet storyline, it’s a fun thought experiment to play around with, but ultimately, it’s just not that complex. We are animals, surviving. Not a soul trapped in a body, but instead, a body that has a high processing brain. And what a brain it is, indeed.

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2024.05.16 03:00 Firm_Honeydew6269 I'm scared to lose weight.

I'm in the process of losing weight with the help of a medication that is rebalancing my hormones and body/brain chemistry. Part of me is really excited to be healthier, but a not insignificant amount of my emotions surrounding this are based in fear. I'm sure most of you can imagine the reason. Unwanted male attention.
I'm dreading it. I'm almost 42, and thought that my age would be enough of a deterrent for most, and it does cut back some of it. But, having been much larger than my usual size for the last year or so, I've been relishing in the sudden decline in guys trying to make a pass at me. The extra weight has become a security blanket that doubles as an invisibility cloak, and I love it for that. But, my health is lacking and I'm finally on a meds combination that is allowing me to lose weight so that I can be more active and hopefully have less chronic pain. That's the dream, anyway.
I know my health is important and I'm working hard towards my goals, regardless of what may or may not come as a result. I'm planning on getting my fitness headed in the right direction, then joining a martial arts studio or taking self defense classes so that I'll feel more confident. I already don't wear much makeup and pretty much always dress conservatively. I used to smile at everyone, but now I just grey rock the world when I'm out and about on my own. It makes me sad that I can't connect with other humans in such an innocuous way without fear.
Are there any other things I can do to feel safer as I lose the weight? I want to be healthy, but I just want to be invisible to most men. Ugh.
Sorry if this is all over the place.

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2024.05.16 02:51 kzd15 ***18 NEW GAMES ADDED - Five Nights at Freddy’s Help Wanted 2, Contractors Showdown, Arcade Paradise!*** ULTIMATE MEGA-LIST 130+ Games and Device Referral (inc rare AppLabs and latest titles - all working region-free & tested, updated weekly) for QUEST 3

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2024.05.16 02:49 akanekiiiii How is Sunny still ok ? 💀

I just realised something recently with the end of 3rd nightmare but how the fk is Sunny still fine mentally especially right now ? Let's recapitulate cause it's unreal.
Sunny was poor and living with his parents, his dad died when was 4 and his mom died when he was 7, after that both him and Rain went through gov child care system, Rain found her good family (he didnt know and will later) while he went in a lot of different foster family while having behavioral issues. In the end it never worked so he ran away, after that he lived in the streets alone and asocial plus starving with no home etc for several years, it's already bad enough but it's not over.
1st nightmare was him having to randomly survive an impossible situation against a monster plus having to deal with people, and he killed for the first time. Then 2 month of school and fkn forgotten shore, he made connections etc but it's genuinely 1% good and 99% terrible for him, only arc where we see Sunny kinda lose it and it was very well done for the situation at hand plus his dev so it's not just linear perfect dev.
So he gets out of it and chained isles, which were good until modret's arc which was very bad again, then 2nd nightmare which was fkn horrible with colosseum and the nightmare fight.
Then Antartica which is just him trying to survive horrible things (lo49 💀) plus saving people. That arc was very bad for him and end very badly.
Some bad things happening with the desert and skin walker and then 3rd nightmare.
3rd nightmare was overall not that bad until the Island incident 💀 where he died like more than 60 times easily I think and was really tired.
Then he breaks fate and... he literally loses all his possessions and relationships, SUNNY IS BACK TO WHERE HE WAS AT CHAPTER 1 AFTER 6 YEARS OF STRUGGLING 💀 yes he had good moments and is powerful now but it doesn't matter, he's alone again and back in hell after having tasted heaven for some moments in his life, this shit is terrible. Sunny literally had a worse life than 99.99 % of the humans in his world and 99% of MCs in fiction overall and he only went crazy once ? (Mad prince doesn't count it's not our sunny) Sunny doesn't have plot armor but at this point his mental is his plot armor how the fk is he "ok".
From what we know after that in the 4 years ellipse he spent 3 years alone in the dreamworld killing nightmare creatures and going back to old places and then last year opened his coffe Shop. Those 3 years is when he crashed out and then opened the coffe shop after being mentally good again and that's the thing that annoys me.
I don't wanna see Sunny go crazy but I hate the fact that we don't even see how he heals and deal with it etc. I personally think and hope we will get back to those 3 years be it completely or through some short flashbacks. We always followed Sunny until the start and always knew what happened in his mind and how he developed mentally so this time not knowing even a tiny bit what he went through is weird and annoying asf, I wanna know what Sunny thought through that period, what he did, how did he cope about it, if he lost his mind how ?, when he healed and moved forward how ? If he growed up mentally how ? Anyway tell me what you think of it and G3 stop torturing my glorious King that I really like !!! :( (Sunny will make it !!!)

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2024.05.16 02:40 firefighter_raven Last Charge of the Roanoke

The Terran Union Heavy Cruiser, Roanoke, had spent the last 6 months raiding Naalx supply lines in the Flores sector.
They were finally returning to Terran Space for some much-needed refit and some R&R. But first, they were stopping at the Bateri space station orbiting Emsar IV.
She would be meeting a Terran Union squadron to escort her prizes back to the Couster system. 4 freighters, a massive ore hauler, and a damaged Naalx corvette that answered a distress call sooner than expected.
The Roanoke was one of the new Grenville class heavy cruisers, faster and more heavily armed than the other heavy cruiser classes operating as part of a Terran Union fleet.
They were designed as solo raiders able to operate deep in enemy space, raiding enemy supply lines and facilities.
Their design included several newly developed systems, including a new style of radiator for dumping excess heat.
At 500 m long and painted black as night, she was very intimidating to see on visual screens and even more so at close range. Her CrCoNi (chromium, cobalt, and nickel) hull was covered in 12” of ablative armor covered in a black laser-resistant material able to reduce the effectiveness of enemy sensors and target locks.
The experimental Baxter radiators efficiently released excess heat into space but still left them exposed to radiation detection sensors.
Captain Josef Král had been hand-picked to command the Roanoke when she came into service 18 months ago. He was a popular officer with 20 years of combat experience on just about every ship in the Terran Union’s navy.

He’d also provided technical assistance during its design phase so his familiarity with the ship made him the best choice for putting the ship through her paces. This would be the very first voyage behind enemy lines as a raider.
And it’d been a rousing success, hitting targets deep in Naalx space as reprisal for Naalxian raids on Terran border colonies. The First Naalx-Terran war had devastated both species and left them vulnerable to outside forces. The war wasn’t won so much as winding down to a series of raids and counter-raiding. A gentleman’s agreement to prevent raids and border skirmishes from turning into another full-scale war and the earlier consequences.
And Captain Král was very good at approaching that line in the sand without going over it. Several centuries earlier he’d have been a Privateer sailing the oceans on Earth.
This even led to the revival of the old pirate movies of the 20th century but Captain Král preferred likening it to the submarine warfare of the first half of the 20th century. That didn’t stop his crew from giving him a robot parrot.
He claims to hate it but everyone knows he’s been teaching it his extensive vocabulary of curse words, in dozens of languages, that he loved it.
And if you call him out on him walking around with it on his shoulder, he’ll claim he was just humoring the crew.
Captain Král was relieved to see the Terran squadron had arrived before him and ordered his little fleet to dock. It would be good to be able to get off the ship and move around without weapons.
As Captain Král exited the ship, he was surprised to see Commodore Allen waiting for him. It’d been several years since he last saw his friend and previous XO. Taking his prerogative as a Captain, he skipped the formalities, shook hands, and gave Commodore Allen a friendly slap on the back.
“Mike? What the hell are you doing here? This is escort job is for a Lt. to do” He asked
“I was in the neighborhood and volunteered. I wanted to see this new ship of yours and it’s been too long since we got a drink together.” Mike replied
Captain Král took a glance back to his ship and wasn’t surprised to see his current XO, Lt. Commander Nana Ricci had the resupply well in hand.
With a big grin, Captain Král said, “Let me see to my guests and we can see if we can scandalize the ratings like we used to.”
Captain Král approached the waiting station manager. The Bateri bowed in the formal greeting of her people. Not having the tentacles needed to return the bow, he just saluted her.
“Greetings Captain Král of the Terrans, how may we be of service?” The Bateri asked.
“Greetings Ananu of the Bateri. We request the use of your services,” he replied, finishing the ritual greeting.
“I see you returned successful in your raiding,” Ananu said, “How many bunks will you need?”
Unsurprised that the Bateri knew his mission, he replied “ 72 bunks with 3 more for your med bay, if you have the room.”
One of the most important functions provided by the Bateri was allowing for the return of captives taken in raids. This helped to keep things calmer by freely releasing captives to limit the amount of bad blood created during the raids and conflicts.
Crates of supplies, ammo, missiles, and the various other things needed to keep the ship functioning were being transferred from the smaller Terran ships. With her weapon complement being only slightly smaller than a battleship, she could go through a lot of ammunition. Even without being in serious combat, he liked to run frequent gunnery drills. Some Captains would just let their tactical computers handle operating the weapon systems and just have the gunnery crews handle reloads. But some hard lessons taught him that having the gunnery crews able to take direct control, as needed, was essential. He preferred to use up as much ammunition as needed during training to save lives later in combat.
Seeing everything in hand, he walked back to join his friend for a drink. They caught up on the doings of old friends and Mike’s family, toasts to fallen comrades, and eventually to the Roanoke.
‘How did she operate on her first long-range mission?” Mike asked
Taking a moment to organize his thoughts, Captain Král took a sip of his drink. “She handled better than expected. The new engine behaved itself, surprising for being just off the drawing board, the Baxters were damn efficient.”
Taking another sip before continuing, “ We didn’t use the torpedoes or the turreted railguns in combat but the rest performed as expected. That Corvette didn’t stand a chance so we didn’t get a full test of all the combat systems.”
“Going by the number of munitions I brought with me, you’d think I was resupplying a battleship” Mike joked
“Just about,” Captain Král chuckled. “During the design phase, I had to argue for such an increase of armament.” “It seemed to take forever for them to get it through their thick skulls that we’d be out there all alone and couldn’t call for reinforcements.” “So I convinced them to put the 2 particle beam systems in the bow of the ship and give me the 4 torpedo tubes. They had no problem with the pair at the bow but they couldn’t figure out why I wanted a pair aft. I swear I thought about launching them out of a tube.”

“At least they were starting to get it when I up-gunned the turrets to carry two large railguns. They did get upset at wanting to put on a turret in the middle of the ventral side but were relieved I left the other turret on the dorsal side ahead of the command structures”
Commodore Allen asked,” From the glimpse I got as you docked, it looked like you doubled the usual weapon systems?”
“She still has them 10 secondary batteries but I went with dual medium railguns for them” Captain Král replied, “ I put 4 of the quad-mounted autocannons on each side of the ship.”
“ It should let us save wear and tear on the railguns when we catch unarmed ships or against incoming fighters.”
“ I understand and it also saves on missiles, which with 4 heavy and 8 medium is a lot of missiles to carry.” Commodore Allen replied.
“I’ve also heard you were running tests on a more powerful deflector array to do more than just protect against radiation and small debris. Like maybe actual shields that would work on anything smaller than a battleship?”
“Yeah but not with any success,” Captain Král answered, “Anytime we tried to go past the standard low-power output, it played hell with our sensors.”
It was at that moment when Captain Král’s wrist communicator beeped for his attention.
“Just a second Mike,” he said as he keyed the communicator. “ Král, go ahead”
The sound of Lt. Commander Ricci’s voice came through the speaker, “ Priority message from the bridge Captain.”
“ What is the message?” Captain Král asked, not liking the way Ricci’s voice sounded worried
“ Sensor buoy reports large Naalx fleet dropping out of FTL, 2 million km out,” Ricci reported
Commodore Allen gave Captain Král the same concerned look that he was sure was on his face. “How many?” The captain asked
Ricci hesitated for a moment before answering “37 ships with more arriving every couple of minutes.”
Commodore Allen swore
Captain Král looked at his friend, “How long until you get your crews and get out of here?”
Commodore Allen thought for a moment, “ Maybe 20 minutes at the minimum.”
Captain Král muttered to himself, “They’ll be here before that.”
Both men got up, signaled to any of their personnel in the bar, and started out the door. “I’ll buy you the time but I’ll need to undock as soon as I get aboard my ship, maybe I can catch them off-guard. “ Captain Král
Commodore Allen replied, “That’s a suicide mission, there are too many for one ship to handle”
“Yeah, I know, old friend but if I don’t then we all die.” Captain Král explained, “ Do me a favor, I’m going to send you my non-essential personnel, take them and those still on the station with you. Get them home.”
Reaching the hatch to the docking bay, both men stopped to shake hands. “Of course, Josef.” Commodore Allen replied, “But if anyone can find a way out of it, it’s you, my friend.”
After a final salute, both men parted ways to reach their ship. As Captain Král jogged down the docking bay, he sent orders for Ricci to send all non-essential personnel to Commodore Allen and asked if they had sufficient hands to man all combat stations.
Ricci’s reply reassured him, “ Aye Sir, most of the crew on the station are from the 2nd watch, and the few people from the first watch are non-essential.”
“Be ready to launch as soon as I get aboard.” He ordered.
He passed several members of his crew, en route to join Commodore Allen. He stopped to return their salute. At the disappointed look in their eyes, he told them. “I know you don’t want to leave the ship but the Commodore needs some real sailors to get out on time. You know how those logistic guys are. They’ll get lost trying to find their own bridge”
That look reassured them and after a final salute, they headed down the dock to join Commodore Allen
Captain Král reached the cargo ramp and started up it, calling Ricci and telling her to shove off and he’d be on the bridge shortly.
He sprinted down the corridor, leaping over the lower lips of the vacuum-tight doors.
“Captain on the Bridge!” rang out from one of the bridge techs. Aside from the guards and his XO, the rest of the bridge crew kept working. Nodding his approval at their knowing when to discard ceremony for action. He walked over toward his console before speaking.
“What do we have, Lt. Commander?”
Turning to face him, Captain Král could see just how worried she was. “Current count is 48 ships.” Touching the console’s keys to bring up a list of ships before continuing, “ 18 capital ships and a mix of sub-caps, still trying to ID them.”
“They’re just maintaining position for now.” Ricci finished, her voice slightly puzzled.
“They’re waiting for something or someone,” Captain Král answered the unasked question.
“How many crew did we leave behind?”
“641, Sir” the XO replied
“ Helm, are we clear of the station's shielding?”
“Almost Sir,” The helmsman answered.
“Thank you.” Captain Král returned.
Turning to another tech, he said, “Sound Battlestations”

“Sir,” one of his sensor techs spoke up, “We have 2 more ships arriving.”
“ Thank you, Ensign.” Captain Král returned
“What class are they?” Lt Commander Ricci asked
After looking at her monitor again the tech replied, “1 heavy cruiser and something much bigger, waiting for the computer to ID it.”
Captain Král moved to look over the tech’s shoulder before standing up and facing his XO.
“Fleet Command Ship” he informed the tech and his XO.
Lt. Commander Ricci replied, “What the hell is one doing out here?”
“Good Question.” he answered, “And now that the players are on the field, the game can begin.”
Bringing up the sensor information to his console, Captain Král pointed at the enemy fleet. “They haven’t begun to deploy into battle formation yet.”
“That could be our chance.” Raising his head to look at his XO. “If we jump now we can land close and surprise them. After we land, we drive into the center of their formation and head for that big bastard.” He explained
“But Sir, We haven’t fully tested the jump drive!” the XO exclaimed
“No time like the present, “ Captain Král joked

“We’ll let the railguns and autocannon crews pick targets of opportunity, while we engage the command ship with our particle cannons, heavy railguns, and torpedoes,” he stated
“What about its point defense system, won’t it pick off the torps?” the XO asked
“We’re going to launch all the Hammerheads at it. It should overwhelm the system and let the torps through.” He answered before continuing, “I’m going to save the heavy missiles for now.”
“You’ll need to calculate the launch time of the Hammerheads to hit the point defense system as close to the time for the torpedoes to sneak through.” he ordered, “ But not so far they take out the Hammerheads too soon and let them hit the torps but not so close they set them off either.”
Looking at his XO, “You better get down to tactical Nana, this is going to get ugly, and it’s best we split up.” Captain Král commanded
Exchanging salutes, Ricci simply replied “Aye Sir.” and started for the hatch. Just before stepping through, she turned and said, “Good Luck, Sir.
“What’s the status of the Commodore’s squad?” Captain Král asked
One of his communication techs spoke up, “ They need 10 more minutes”
“Let me know the minute they are clear.” Captain Král ordered
Captain Král turned to comms tech and ordered, “Intraship comms if you please ensign”
“Aye sir” the tech replied before turning to his console and speaking into the mic,” Now hear this, Now hear this. Message from the Captain.”
“ Well folks, this isn’t the fight I wanted but this is the fight we got” Captain Král started
“ I’m sure you’ve heard scuttlebutt about the situation but here it is. We are facing a superior force numbering 49 ships. And we need to give the Commodore’s squadron time to go to FTL and get the hell out of here.” he paused before continuing, “ The plan is to mix it up with the enemy at close range. They aren’t in battle formation yet so we can hurt them.”
“Good luck and let’s make them regret fucking with the Roanoke.”
The sounds of cheers came back over the speakers.
“Helm, are we clear of the station shielding?” the Captain asked
At the affirmative given by the helmsmen, he just nodded
Touching a button on his console, he asked, “Are you in place XO?”
“Aye Sir.” the Lt. Commander replied
“ As soon as we land, be ready to open up with the dual and quad mounts.” He ordered
The XO replied with an affirmative.
“Helm, at my command, jump between 25-50 km to the starboard of the fleet.”
“As soon as we land, hard to port and get us in the middle of them. Be ready for rapid maneuvers, maybe we can throw off their laser battery tracking systems. Might let us survive a little longer” Captain Král ordered. “Aye Sir” the helmsman replied
Taking a quick look around to make sure his crew was ready, he turned back to wait for the signal the jump drive was ready.
At the signal, he ordered “Jump”
He felt the ship lurch forward and shudder. It took less than 5 seconds to jump from the station to within the targeted range, but it felt like forever.
And then they were less than 5 km from an enemy battleship.
“Oh shit!” exclaimed the helmsman and steered to avoid it. Captain Král hid a moment of panic with a joke, “ Someone make note that the jump drive targeting system needs work.”
His joke brought a chuckle from his crew and got them back to focus on the taste.
Stabbing a button on his console, he ordered “XO, fire secondary batteries,”
There was nothing to see or hear from the massive volleys of the secondary batteries coming to life. But he knew the gun crews were already raining devastation on enemy warships. “Helm, Hard to Port!” he ordered, not tearing his view away from the main viewscreen.
Captain Král looked at his console at the images sent to the bridge from the various gun cameras.
He could see the flashes of light from projectiles hitting their shields. He watched as other high-velocity projectiles punched through their hulls. He could just make out the impact of the explosive-tipped slugs fired by the autocannons.
Captain Král turned back to the main viewscreen. “Hard to starboard!”
“Head for that big son of a bitch!” he ordered
The Naalx were slow to respond but they began to return fire with some trying to gain some distance to clear the line of fire of other ships. The helmsman’s evasive maneuvers were also giving the enemy’s gunners fits from repeated misses.
But the damage sensors on the armor told of an increasing number of hits as the Naalx began to respond in an organized manner. The resistance coating reduced the damage from the Naalx laser batteries but didn’t completely nullify it. “Helm, get me a clear shot at the command ship.” the Captain ordered
A bright flash to starboard marked the death of an enemy cruiser. Status reports listed 2 sub-capitals holed and venting atmosphere. Dead or damaged, they were out of the fight.
One capital ship was dead in space with another missing its bow.
5 down too damn many to go The captain muttered
He watched and waited, ignoring damage alarms and the occasional shudder as shots began to get through the armor and explosively decompress a compartment when they penetrated the hull.
He finally saw what he wanted, an unobstructed line of fire to the command ship.
His finger smashed down on the console button. “ XO, Launch Torpedoes. Take the gloves off the main batteries. Drop the hammer!”
He watched the glitter of the particle beams as they bridged the gap between the Roanoke and the Naalx ship. In a moment, he caught sight of the torpedoes' thrusters as they left the tubes and picked up momentum. Holes and brief explosions marked the impact of his weapons. But the sheer volume of Naalxian fire was beginning to take its toll. The armor was failing or had failed in over a dozen spots. 3 autocannon and 1 railgun mount were out of commission.
2 minutes after they launched the torpedoes, the sight of more than 100 Hammerhead missiles was marked by the flare of their drives. Another volley of Hammerheads was launched the moment new missiles were lifted into the racks.
Captain Král called down to tactical, “XO, hold off on another volley for hammerheads.”
Checking his console, “Launch Shrikes at targets of opportunity with no shields, rear tubes target enemy capital ships and hope those torpedoes get through.” he ordered.
Multiple small explosions let him know the point defense systems were taking on the Hammerheads. And a moment later, a pair of massive explosions told him the nuclear-tipped torpedoes had hit their target.
“Captain, The Commodore’s squadron has escaped.” one of his techs announced.
“Thank you,” he answered
“Distance to command ship?” he asked
“ 250 km Sir” was the reply
“Helm, continue advancing on the command ship and pass her on our port side. We’ll give her a broadside and go to FTL after we clear.”
A tech from the damage control position spoke up, “Captain! FTL is down and jump drive is destroyed”
“Ahh hell’ cried the Captain.
“Damage report!” he ordered
“ Ventral turret destroyed, railgun mounts 2 and 5 destroyed, mount 9 damaged but functional. Autocannon mounts 11,13, 23 and 25 destroyed. Hammerhead launchers 3 and 8 destroyed.” The tech checked the screen before continuing, “ Explosive decompressions on decks 3 and 5. Explosive decompression in Med Bay. Ablative armor badly damaged and penetrated in around 20 spots. Engine #3 is down. Power unstable in many areas of the ship”
“FTL down, engineering needs an hour to fix. The jump drive is destroyed. Long-range comms are down” The tech finished.
“Casualty reports!” Captain Král ordered
A different tech replied, “249 dead, roughly 800 wounded with 327 too injured to fight.”
“Thank you.” he returned. Doing the math in his head he had just over 1300 combat effective and 482 of those were his Marines, the other 18 were left behind.
After thinking a moment, “Helm, same course as before but since we can’t go to FTL, circle to the aft of the command ship and lessen the incoming fire for the moment”
Looking over to the comms tech, “ Get me the chief engineer on the horn.”
Tapping the switch on the console, he called down to tactical. “ XO, I’m taking us around to the aft of the command ship and play peek-a-boo.”
“We’ll pass on her port side and I want a broadside from all batteries that can hit it and launch half the Shrikes we have left at it.”
“After we get to their rear, target enemy aft batteries, I want them all hunks of twisted metal.” Captain Král ordered
“Aye Sir.” Lt. Commander Ricci replied. “Ammo count update Sir.”
“Go ahead,” he replied
“Only the two forward tubes are loaded, aft tubes empty, railgun and autocannon are down to 30%. Dorsal turret is at 10% but they are working on transferring surviving ammo from the Ventral turret.
We can launch 4 more full racks of Shrikes and 5+ Hammerheads.” She finished
“Understood. Thank you” Captain Král replied
“Captain, Chief Engineer on the line” a tech relayed
“Route it to my console,” he ordered
“ I need you to place charges on the computer core, all the experimental equipment, engines, and fire suppression control. If we go down, I don’t want them getting a damn thing but blood and pain.”
“Aye Sir.” The Chief replied.

Captain Král turned back to watch as the Roanoke passed the command ship to port. He watched as massive explosions rippled across the enemy flank and dorsal surface. They were too close for the point defense to pick off the majority of the Shrikes.
As the Roanoke got behind and slightly below the enemy command ship, she slowed and allowed her surviving batteries to silence the command ship's aft batteries.
Captain Král called down to tactical, “XO, fire half our remaining hammerheads into her engines.”
“Affirmative,” replied the XO
Captain Král watched as the hammerheads impacted the command ship’s engines and saw the thrust nozzles dim as the engines went offline. The enemy batteries stopped firing and she began to drift.
“Helm, get us 500 km from the command ship and line up to fire our last 2 avalanche torpedoes.” Captain Král ordered
“Aye Sir, 500km bow towards the enemy” the helmsman repeated
The Captain called down to tactical ” Nana, We’re positioning the ship to line up the front tubes and we’re going to kill that bastard. Stay on the line and fire on my order.”
“Aye Sir, we’re ready.” The XO answered
“Helm?” Captain Král asked
“ 3 seconds Captain.” the helmsman replied
Captain Král watched and as soon as he got the angle he wanted, “Fire Torpedoes!” he commanded
The whole bridge crew watched and waited for the impact. Both torpedoes struck amidships and tore massive holes in the hull. As they watched, lines of explosions traveled across the hull and began to rip the ship in half. The bridge crew let out a yell and the rest of the ship after the Captain had the information broadcast over the intercom.

“ Helm, get us the hell out of here. Maybe we can outrun the bigger ships and buy time to fix the FTL.” Captain Král ordered
But before the helmsman could act, there was a massive jolt.
“What the hell?” he yelled
A tech answered, “ We were rammed by a Naalx cruiser and several smaller ships are closing in.“
But instead of ramming the Roanoke, they launched breeching pods.
His finger stabbed down to open the intercom. “ All hands, Prepare to Repel Boarders! Security teams, tactical will relay their access position. “ He ordered
He pulled out his sidearm and checked that it was ready. Several other techs did the same, while his security detachment moved to defensive positions to watch the hatch.
“Target those pods!” Captain Král ordered but he didn’t need to say it, his gunnery crews were on it. Here and there a brief flash of light marked the destruction of a pod.

“XO, fire all remaining missiles. Pick your targets,” he commanded “All batteries, open fire.”
He left the tac net open to track the status of the enemy boarding parties.
He listened to the cacophony of noises coming over the tac net.
“Security team alpha to section 7, level 3. Bravo team section 2 level 1, Charlie team section 12, level 5” Lt. Commander Ricci ordered.
“There’s too many, fall back to position 2…” an unidentified voice ordered
Another voice firmly stated, “Hold your ground, nothing gets past us.”
“Theta team down, a handful of Naalx heading for engineering!” a panicked voice exclaimed
And dozens of others just like it, always with the sound of combat in the background.
“Captain, more breaching pods en route!” a tech exclaimed
“Get me the Chief Engineer!” the Captain ordered
At the Chief Engineer’s response, he ordered “Detonate all sabotage charges except the main computer. Set that one on a manual trigger at my console with a 20-minute timer as a backup. And then set the reactors to overload, we’re not going to hold the ship much longer. And set a charge to breach the hull and decompress Engineering as soon as you are clear”
“Affirmative, Captain. She was a good ship” the Chief replied
Turning to his bridge crew, “Give the order to abandon ship. Have all the pods head for the station.”
The Captain called tactical, “Lt. Commander Ricci, all hands abandon ship. Get as many of them home as you can.”
“ I understand, Sir.” She answered, “I’ll see you at the station.” she said hopefully
“I'm afraid not, Nana. I’m the Captain and I’m going down with my ship.” he stated, “And someone needs to make sure they can’t shut down the overload.”
“Transfer all fire controls to my station and get the hell out of here.”
“Aye Sir, It’s been an honor” the XO replied
“The honor is all mine. You are going to make an excellent Captain. Goodbye my friend” Captain Král finished.
His bridge crew tried to convince him to go with them but he declined and ordered security to get them into the escape pods.
Then he sat and watched as his consoles began reporting each pod as it launched. He also kept an eye on his sensors and concentrated fire on any Naalx ship that was moving to intercept the pods. They knew better than to fire on them but nothing said they couldn’t capture them.
He also prepared a probe with all the ship logs and combat data and fired it toward human-held territory. It would run silently until it exited the system and then begin broadcasting a coded signal for pickup.
He was dismayed at how few pods had left the ship and regretted so many young lives had been cut short.
As he saw the last pod clear the battlefield, he sat back for a moment and then triggered the charge on the main computer.
A hard pounding came from the other side of the hatchway. But there wasn’t enough power to open it. He guessed the pinging on the door was them firing their lasers and trying to blast it open.
He wondered if it would work but a huge rumble, a bright flash, interrupted, and the long career of Captain Král was finally over.
News of the Roanoke’s final battle flashed across news channels on hundreds of worlds. Her courageous and foolhardy charge at a superior force. The damage she did to the Naalx fleet before her destruction. How, of the 1859 members of the crew that went into the battle, only 108 survived.
The videos taken from both sides during the battle played over and over again.
How the Naalx picked up all the escape pods and released them on the station immediately.
And even recovered the bodies of any human they found while gathering their dead.
Naalx losses were the command ship, 2 capital ships, 9 sub-capitals destroyed, and a dozen other vessels damaged in one form or another. Naalx casualties were over 50,000 dead
Only the Naalx’s immense respect for courage, audacity, and bravery in the face of danger kept the skirmish from blowing up into a war.
The Naalx rendered full military honors as they turned the Human dead over to Lt. Commander Ricci.
The Captain Král, A Grenville-class cruiser, was launched 2 years later. Captain Nana Ricci in command.
Authors note- I hope you enjoyed this story. It's based on a historical event. Which according to an idiot on youtube is plagiarism.
If you feel like leaving a tip https://ko-fi.com/tomcarey

submitted by firefighter_raven to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:35 cheinyeanlim Sony unveils the £1,299 Xperia 1 VI, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 6.5-inch OLED Full HD+ display, and 7.1x optical zoom lens, and the £349 Xperia 10 VI

Sony unveils the £1,299 Xperia 1 VI, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 6.5-inch OLED Full HD+ display, and 7.1x optical zoom lens, and the £349 Xperia 10 VI

Sony unveils the £1,299 Xperia 1 VI featuring a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 6.5-inch OLED Full HD+ display, and 7.1x optical zoom lens, alongside the £349 Xperia 10 VI. SonyXperia #Xperia1VI #Xperia10VI #TechNews
Stay ahead of the curve with the latest trends in tech and marketing – join our subreddit community martechnewser today for instant notifications!
Sony unveils the £1,299 Xperia 1 VI, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 6.5-inch OLED Full HD+ display, and 7.1x optical zoom lens, and the £349 Xperia 10 VI

Sony has introduced its latest Xperia smartphones for 2024, the Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 10 VI, with significant upgrades but also some controversial changes, especially in display features.
The Xperia 1 VI is positioned as a flagship device with high-end specifications like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB RAM, and a choice of 256GB or 512GB storage, matching the top competitors.
Despite its high specs, the most contentious change in the Xperia 1 VI is the switch to a Full HD+ display from the previous 4K resolution, and altering the unique 21:9 aspect ratio to a more conventional 19.5:9.
The Xperia 10 VI, Sony's new budget offering, maintains some features cut from the flagship model, like the 21:9 aspect ratio, and introduces enhancements like a brighter OLED screen and upgraded camera capabilities.
Both models emphasize a two-day battery life and improved camera and audio features, signaling Sony's efforts to balance innovation with user experience and expectations.

The Xperia 1 VI's camera system includes a new telephoto macro mode, which allows users to capture subjects up close with stunning detail. This feature, along with advanced AI integrations for human pose estimation technology, tracks a subject with points attached to each body part, offering smoother tracked video and more accurate focus, showcasing Sony's innovative approach to combining photography with AI advancements.
"Sony claims that the display on this smartphone is 'powered by Bravia', meaning Sony's TV division may well have had a hand in tweaking the performance. The built-in AI remastering feature will improve colour, contrast, and clarity on both your own videos and on streaming services."
Despite moving away from the distinguished 4K resolution and 21:9 aspect ratio that made previous models movie fan favorites, Sony justifies these changes with the promise of better battery performance and display brightness – a risky yet calculated move hoping to balance traditional strengths with new technological benefits.

submitted by cheinyeanlim to martechnewser [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:32 DoriSai [LFA] Luyosirth the Dusk Knight (3rd attempt)

Character Basics

Full Name: Luyosirth dir Welunna Thurkear
Translation: Secret Prophecy of the Darkest Night
Title: Luyosirth the Dusk Knight
Race/Ethnic Group: Abbsins Draaki
Class: WardeDark Knight gestalt with archetypes (something like a reach/ranged switch tank with some dark and holy powers mixing together).
Occupation: Wandering Knight
Character Nature: Noble, prideful, and honorable to a fault, also a of bit money-hungry and rich-boy attitude.

Character Details

Gender: Male
Age/appeared age: Appears to be an adult, probably around 30ish in human terms.
Facial Features: His black horns might be tipped with silver or platinum or adorned with jewelry perhaps. He also bears a brand of some sort on his forehead, a mark that most would recognize as that of an oathbreaker.
Hair: May have white hair of whatever style you wish or not, up to you.
Eyes: Violet serpentine/draconic eyes with black sclera.
Distinguishing Marks: Feel free to add a few scars if you wish, and his palms would bear the same brand as on his forehead if they're visible.
Significant item: He has a fist sized obsidian orb with silver flecks/impurities that he is adding intricate engravings and inlays to over time, slowly turning it from an average gem to a ludicrously expensive masterpiece as the campaign goes on. It is usually kept close to him in a belt pouch though he may occasionally have it out to admire or fiddle with.
Body Type: Absolutely massive, he stands around 8'2" and weighs around 420 lbs of pure muscle and scale.
Color Scheme: His scales would be predominantly black, but not black as pitch more like something dusky that could easily blend in with shadows. He would also have a preference for silver or platinum jewelry metals and black or violet gems. His clothes would stick to darker color schemes in general but may vary to taste.
Primary Weapon: His weapon, Yowsand Resksulthamuul (tl: Lotus Piercing the Void), is a strange void-black polearm that even in his hands seems quite large, its many-bladed spiraling spear tip separates in the center for the barrel of a wide-bore firearm. The whole weapon has a vague lotus thematic to it and though it seems capable of functioning both at range and in melee it seems a bit heavy at the tip and may be difficult to maneuver quickly. If it weren't a magical construct almost literally made of shadows and darkness, its sheer size would likely make it impossible to carry for most let alone wield properly. While it is technically possible to have a proper physical version of this gun-spear weapon it was designed by a highly secretive religion almost exclusively for him to shape his akashic weapon into so any physical instances of this particular exotic weapon are kept in mystery.
Other Gear: Though he is a "starting" adventurer he has a long past that he's trying to put behind him. As such he has put aside almost all of his earlier possessions, keeping just enough to start a new life. He wears no armor, only light and well tailored clothes with the occasional flashy trimming or fashionable accessory (though as he adventures these clothes will become finer and the jewelry more elaborate). Aside from a silver signet ring he may also be seen wearing a silver pendant with a black lotus on it.
Action/Pose: He has a rather stalwart and battle ready stance at all times, something like the stance of a soldier relaxing during a lull in battle.
Others: He is capable of using both his large tail and any other part of his body to defend himself even without his weapon in hand, and while he would frequently repair or replace his expensive attire it may be slightly damaged from time to time depending on the circumstances.

Character Persona

Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Personality Traits: Very prideful and honorable, though he is clearly carrying the heavy weight of past sins. Has a pretty strong "dragon greed" streak and while he's not exactly the type to take from others (anymore) he is loath to part with coin or jewels and definitely prefers the finer things in life. He follows something like a Bushido code and is learning to embrace balance and self perfection as well as to appreciate the beauty in darkness instead of wielding its powers for evil.
Ideals and Goals: He primarily seeks to redeem himself, if not in the eyes of the world than at least in his own eyes and perhaps the eyes of the goddess who pulled him from the path of evil. For right now he is focusing on doing all he can to protect the lives of others and embrace the ideals of his goddess Xan Yae .
Bonds and Flaws: Due to some of his past deeds and some of the forbidden knowledge he obtained he is almost perpetually on edge and at least slightly uncomfortable. His greed can often be a challenge for him to cope with and though he does prefer finer clothes he absolutely refuses to wear armor or any sort of heavy clothing, even if doing so would save his life.

Other

Visual concepts: Overall his race has little to no art from what I can find so I'm vaguely equating it the various types of Dragonborn throughout D&D. His specific breed is described as having a large tail they can attack with so that is pretty important. Other than that the concept is pretty vague right now as I haven't been able to find anything I'm really satisfied with. In the attached reference three of the upper right pictures are AI I found while searching for dragonborn or anthro dragon art, and the one with the long white hair is an image of the drow-dragon (or zekyl) from the Forgotten Realms, seeing as how the Draaki can transform into a drow appearance I thought it was fitting to include. The bottom right image is included mostly because it's an unarmored dragonborn-looking thing with a fancy polearm and I kinda like his proud attitude too (also I've always been fond of harem pants lol). The other included polearm references are also just pretty vague ideas, the polearm itself doesn't even need to look practical so feel free to fantasy it up a bit.
https://preview.redd.it/oyzefs6boo0d1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=6404f4e51d29e64a0e2810b07ff0304551446492
Backstory: Luyosirth doesn't discuss his distant past with anyone, for any reason, though it is pretty clear he did some bad things. As it is he is a known oathbreaker and has a bit of an unspoken reputation for having done terrible things. Through the guidance of Xan Yae (and a bit of help from an organization that gives villains and oathbreakers a "second chance") he is trying to put his life back on track. He has connected with several organizations that have strict regimented codes of honor and rules and is using this as a bit of a crutch to keep himself in check, not exactly trusting himself without the threat of many powerful warriors hanging over his head. This has eventually led to him training with and swearing allegiance to the knights of Varisia, and though he doesn't have any specific station as of yet he is expected to protect the citizenry and answer the call when needed. At the start of this campaign he is returning to the town of Sandpoint where he spent much of his earlier years and even through his dark times it was a place he visited frequently. Though the local sheriff is absolutely keeping his eye on the hulking black dragonfolk, Luyosirth is doing his best to make amends. Surprisingly, aside from the sheriff, many of the townsfolk seem willing to forget the past. In fact he quickly made fast friends with the proprietor of the Rusty Dragon tavern, one well known to cater to adventurers of all walks of life. As the campaign starts Luyosirth would be preparing some of his finest clothes for the upcoming Swallowtail Festival in Sandpoint.

submitted by DoriSai to characterdrawing [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:26 julie_got_her_groove Overwhelmed after adopting my rabbit

Guys, I am in big need of some encouragement and advice. I am wholly and entirely overwhelmed by my current situation and feel sad about the circumstances that have really reduced my whole household's quality of life.
For starters, I should say that I have two rescue cats, a 2 year old neutered male named Max and a 1 year old spayed female named Wednesday. I'm also a single mom who works full-time hours, just to give some perspective in terms of daily schedule.
Two months ago we ended up adopting a spayed female rabbit named Nami from the SPCA. I had spent a few weeks doing my research, gathering supplies and setting up her very own room. I understood that rabbits are very social animals but after many conversations, I felt solid in a slow introduction between our future rabbit and our cats. I figured that between time spent with her humans, plus time around the cats that she may have the company that she deserves and needs.
Over the past two months I have tried VERY slow introductions between the cats and Nami. I have followed any advice I have gathered here on the internet and supervised interactions between Nami and Wednesday are going alright. Wednesday is somewhat afraid and hesitant and stays away for the most part. Max on the other hand seems to have his prey drive incredibly triggered by Nami. Everything about his body language tells me that it would be dangerous to let him anywhere near her. He tries to grab her through the xpen and stalks her through plexiglass that I have set up between her room and the rest of the apartment. I understand that this is his nature and that it will probably not change.
This leaves me at an impasse. The vision of my animals co-existing is just not my reality and I am having to rotate who gets time to roam the apartment. My home life has literally become dedicated to trying to make either of the animals happy and feeling terribly guilty that both the cats and Nami get locked away consistently now. I'm running on empty trying to juggle this as it always feels like someone is getting "punished" unintentionally. It also means that Nami is alone way more than I had anticipated and I really feel like the isolation is making her unhappy. I know that (perhaps) another bun might ease this situation but I can't truthfully, wholeheartedly invest in another animal at this point in time.
The guilt is eating away at me and I don't know how to navigate this. I really wanted to give these animals a good life and I feel like I'm really missing the mark.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

submitted by julie_got_her_groove to Rabbits [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:21 gitgud_x Would resurrection of Neanderthals convince creationists?

Many creationists believe that Homo neanderthalensis was simply humans with rickets disease, or were extremely old aged humans, or that they didn't exist at all, or literally anything other than what we know to be the case - a separate species of genus Homo (humans) that died out about 40,000 years ago.
Unfortunately for them, we have the full Neanderthal genome (2010), which showed 99.7% coding DNA similarity with Homo sapiens - for context, human-chimpanzee coding DNA similarity is 98.8% and variation within extant humans gives human-human similarity of ~99.9%. Of course, facts like these have proven to be no match against the creationists' trump card of 'nuh uh', so what else could we try?
SCNT-based cloning has been around for a while now, first widely publicised with the Dolly the Sheep experiment in 1996. It's improved to the point where creating healthy clones is not that difficult, and recently I learned that there are now consumer-facing businesses where they will clone people's pets so the owner's can have their beloved pets live again (by appearances only of course) in another body. In another story, cloning of primates is now just about feasible, with a rhesus macaque (an old world monkey) being most recent, still alive after 2 years. For these cloning experiments, the embryo is produced by fusing the nucleus of a cell from the desired organism with a vacant egg cell which can then be birthed from a surrogate mother.
In theory, since we have the Neanderthal genome, we could make the necessary 10 million point mutations to a stem cell from a human today (that would take a while), and use it to create a Neanderthal clone. The linked article points out that we would never be able to replicate the culture of the Neanderthals, and so many aspects of their lives would not be captured by this method, but their anatomy and skeletal morphology certainly would be, and we could show without a doubt that Neanderthals were their own separate species and not just defective people. Perhaps some brave soul would even be willing to test the theory that interbreeding between our species was relatively common..?
Of course, we are FAR beyond the realms of ethical science here and may well never happen. But what if? What would be the response to a live healthy adult Neanderthal standing right in front of you?

submitted by gitgud_x to DebateEvolution [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:19 Ok-Blacksmith9481 Easier than meditation

Tried meditation, tried everything under the sun related to mindfulness - the notion of "stop thinking about anything" was insanely hard for me. Then I read more about somatic sound therapy and sound journeys.
The whole science behind it is that your body needs to feel safe before it can do anything complex, and these combination of sound from nature and from humans lead to a combination that is extremely calming.
Like all the high performers in this sub, it's made for us. I use it in the morning, at night, and during work - just pop on the 40 min+ sound and get stuff done.
Would love your feedback: Olo - Easier Than Meditation

submitted by Ok-Blacksmith9481 to SideProject [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:15 ImNinjaBear Humanities real form true essence in which we can excel. Yourself

I'd like to think I, me, myself have infinite wisdom in a what is perceived finite body. Yet the embodiment of wisdom typical is identified as a feminine figure with masculine idealism or characteristics. From this I'm bloated, gloated, and don't share very often and when I do it is for myself, those like me, or are our allies. However you which sometimes I consider myself to be... my enemy are reading this as well. If you are biologically human then... you're not. You see everyone may have lost to me and I may have destroyed myself but that which is weak must be made better if it is useful to us. If you're not useful and were needed and thrown away... you're getting the picture. Fix yourself or make yourself. Cause there is an in-between to non existence and existence... and if you're my enemy you just felt it. I've already been there and done that. GLHF. Hope you found my insight and poetry at least entertaining peace til maybe next week don't see me dying yet or anytime soon.

submitted by ImNinjaBear to chaosmagick [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:08 Figuarus [OT] The Things We Left Behind.

This is the first time I have written something of this length, and is more of an exercise in self-therapy than anything else. Disclaimer: This story contains conversations about child abuse. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy it.
Nathan’s number appeared on my phone screen. I debated whether or not to answer it. We hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while, and while we did keep in touch sporadically, it was usually because of important family issues. I didn’t know of anything happening with mom or dad, nor with Talia or Rio, so I let it go to voicemail. I could always call him back later. I placed the phone back in my pocket, and returned to cleaning my camera. The phone buzzed again. A text message came through. I read the preview line from the home screen. “The city declared eminent domain on the house” I unlocked my phone, read the full text message, and dialed my brother.
I wasn't able to get any closer to the house than a few blocks. Most of the area was blocked off with chain link fencing and construction equipment in preparation for the demolition that was supposed to take place within the coming days. The barriers didn’t prevent people from walking in to the neighborhood, but it hindered scrappers from coming in and stripping the houses of copper wiring and plumbing.
I grabbed my camera bag out of the trunk of my car along with my tripod. I shouldered it and hooked the tripod to my bag. I pulled my water bottle out of the center console and shut the door. I stood next to my car surveying the neighborhood. 12 city blocks of old single family homes comprised the neighborhood where I grew up. Some of the houses had been empty for months, others for years. There was an eerie silence that permeated the still air. I could not hear the familiar sounds of people, pets, or cars. I locked the car and put my keys in my pocket. I patted my jacket down to ensure I had what I needed. After a quick check, I started my walk.
The sidewalk of the old neighborhood streets still bore the familiar cracks and grind marks from years of buckling and remedy. Leaves dropped by the trees still lay scattered all along the pathways and sidewalk. Korina’s house was the first house I encountered as I made my way through a gap in the fence. The yard was overgrown with tall grass and thistle. I could see the faded blue paint of the old house contrasting the green and browns of the lawn. The chain link fence that marked off the corner property was nearly invisible through the thick brush. As I continued walking west towards 110th, I started to feel something was off. The streets seemed wider than I remembered. It took me longer than I’d like to admit, but eventually I realized what was different. There were no cars.
The streets here typically had cars lined bumper to bumper in any spot available, and were visible from block to block. The absence of all these vehicles made me realize just how deserted the neighborhood really was. House after house, yard after yard, the telltale signs of desertion reinforced what I could see from the moment I passed the construction fence: This was no longer my neighborhood. There were no signs of life, and no one I could expect to find still here. Abandonment was the new normal here. I continued on, glancing at houses and recalling memories of summer bike rides, and daily walks with dogs I used to have. I remembered walks home from school, and chasing after ice cream trucks when they passed our houses. I smiled a bit as I remembered more and more of my years spent here. I don’t quite know just why I was smiling. There were plenty of bad memories here too. Fights, yelling, being beat up, being robbed. I could remember failed friendships, lost loves, and bitter feelings of failures too.
Still, I felt a certain amount of nostalgia despite the weight of these negative feelings. I almost wanted to experience everything again, although I wasn't sure why I was feeling this way. Concrete, asphalt, billboards and liquor stores were the normal vistas of everyday life. Occasionally, after a good rainstorm, the grey haze of smog would lift, and the mountains would be visible to the north. At least, they would be visible until mid-morning when the exhaust from a million cars covered them behind a veil of pollution.
It wasn’t until the first time I travelled out of the city that I realized there was more to see. Traveling up the coast north along the Pacific Coast Highway introduced me to scenes of deep blue ocean water spanning the width of my vision. Driving up Highway 3 introduced me to the permeating scent of Pine and Fir trees. The two-lane stretch of highway from Portland to Tillamook introduced me to lush green forests that I had only ever read about. When I came home to the same old dirty, dusty concrete and boiling summer asphalt, I had made up my mind. I would do everything it took to leave this place. I would not spend another day longer than was necessary living in cramped quarters and fighting for parking space.
I arrived to the house, and paused at the gate. The house sat in contrast of what the rest of the neighborhood looked like. Instead of overgrown grass and tall weeds all over the place, the landscaping showed signs of relatively recent work. The guava tree in the front lawn still had some fruit ready to be picked, and the avocado tree on the other side of the pathway was still weighed down by its own fruit. Flowers still bloomed in the raised bed in front of the house. My brother had clearly tried to keep up on things until the last possible moment. The house, too, looked better than what I expected after walking up 4 blocks and seeing nothing but dilapidated houses and unkempt yards. I opened the gate and walked up to the small porch. The metal gate that enclosed it was gone having been removed by my brother when he took over the property. It looked nice to see it open instead of the cage it once felt like.
I turned the knob on the door, but it didn't give. Ever a creature of habit, my brother had locked the door when he left. Of course, he did. I sighed and prepared to find another way in when I remembered my parents hiding a spare key. I wasn’t sure if it would still be there, but after running my hands along the back side of the gutter downspout, I was rewarded for my efforts. I unlocked the front door and stepped into the front living room, the sounds of my footsteps and the closing door echoing in the empty space. The room felt both larger and smaller than I remembered it. I suppose it was lack of furniture that made it feel larger, but it still felt smaller than I remember. The result of growing taller throughout the years I suppose. I slowly walked along the slate tile floor towards the central hallway that connected the front of the house to the back bedrooms. I wasn't entirely sure that just because the front door was locked, that there wasn't some squatter looking for a little temporary shelter within the back rooms. I carefully and silently crept step by step towards what used to be the bedroom shared by my sister and me. I stuck my head in and gave the room a cursory glance. It was empty, thankfully. I moved back into the hallway and peered into the bedroom across the hall. This is where both of my brothers had shared a room. It too, was empty save for a few boxes holding hardware and doorknobs from the closet doors of the bedroom. I walked back towards the back of the house where my parent's bedroom was. The walls in the hallway bore the dusty signs where picture once hung. The bedroom door was open. I stepped inside, and looked around. The old avocado paint that my mom had picked out years ago still adorned the walls. Walking further towards the addition that was the small room my grandma and grandpa lived in showed that there was no one here. I breathed a sigh of relief as I set my bag down and set up my tripod. I reached into my bag a pulled out an envelope of old photos. These were old snapshots that we had all taken at some point in time in the house. There were pictures of all of us sitting at the dining room table playing a game of Monopoly. There was a picture of my brother and sister sitting on a couch in the front living room. There was a picture of me hanging on the bars of the front porch. I looked through them all and held them in place in front of me as if I were holding a window to the past.
Each picture made the lump in my throat grow as I started to struggle to control my emotions. There was history here, and soon it would all be gone. This is the place where my parents had raised four kids. They had taken care of my grandparents in their twilight years here. My Aunt and my grandmother had both died in this house. Birthdays, graduation parties, and anniversaries had been celebrated here. The echoes of life had reverberated within the walls of this place. Now, the house sat silent. It would never again know happy screams of kids having a water-balloon war out in the front yard, nor would it hear the cries of anguish as the matriarch of the family passed away surrounded by her family. What once was a home full of life was now just an empty house made of drywall and paint. I sat there for a moment contemplating just how much family history was actually made here. As I thought hard about my siblings and my parents, I felt pained at the thought of our strained relationships. We had all scattered once we had the opportunity to be free of each other. My oldest brother had married and moved away as soon as possible. My sister now lived in northern California. My parents too had moved away. I was now living in Utah. Only my older brother had remained behind. The lump grew larger in my throat as tears welled up in my eyes. I held back sobs of anger and pain. Why was I hurting? Hadn’t I dealt with these issues already? I walked back to my old bedroom and sat down under the window. I pulled my head down into my knees and cried. I could hear yelling and screaming in my head. Shouting matches between siblings and parents, brothers and sister, rattled inside my brain, making the pain grow. I sat there and cried. I hadn’t cried like this in a long time. Eventually I ran out of tears and tired gasps of sorrow and regret washed over me as a blanket of drowsiness enveloped me. I leaned my head back and fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of footsteps. It took me a moment to realize what I was hearing and hurriedly stood up. Had someone followed me? I knew the police were patrolling the area sporadically. Had they seen me enter the house? I knew there would be a possibility of getting a trespassing citation, but I figured I could either talk my way out of it seeing as to how I was a former resident, or I could probably fight the citation in court if the judge knew why I was there in the first place. Ultimately, passing through the gate had been a calculated risk that I was willing to take for the sake of my art. I got up from my corner of the room and moved towards the door. If there was someone in the house, I needed to know. I didn’t want my gear to stolen, and if there was a cop in the house, I wanted to ensure I didn’t get shot.
I was greeted by the sight of a startled chubby boy standing on the other side of the door. His round cherubic face was crowned by a head of short curly hair. His hazel green eyes stared widely back at me. He clearly didn’t expect someone to be here in the house. His body recoiled in fear as he cowered back towards the hallway. “Wait, what are you doing here?” I asked as non-threateningly as I could. The boy muttered something that I couldn’t quite make out. “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you” I replied. “Are you here to rob us?” he timidly responded. “Rob you? What are you talking about?” I asked as confusion set in. “What are you doing here?” It was his turn to be confused. “Uh…I….live here?” he replied. “What do you mean you live here? No one lives-“I stopped midsentence. I hadn’t noticed in my initial shock but the room wasn’t the same. A familiar blue couch caught the corner of my eye. In front of that was an old console TV with a partially broken antenna hanging on the wall behind it. I walked further in to the living room to notice wood paneling on the walls. A large mirror hung on the wall to my left. Familiar yellow lamps sat on round drop-leaf tables on either side of the couch. A large hutch sat in one corner, a collection of letters and bills, mail advertisements, and a phone book covered scattered over it. “What just happened?” I asked out loud to no one in particular. I was thoroughly mystified by what my eyes were seeing. I had walked into the house from the front door and had stepped into an empty white room with slate floor tiles, but somehow now found myself in a furnished room with brown carpet that was all so familiar to me, yet was nothing but a distant faded memory. I turned to look at the boy still startled by the intrusion of a strange man looking wildly around the room in total shock.
“You can take what you want, just please let me go. I don’t want problems.” He stated his voice still shrill with anxiety. I blinked a few times as I tried to process just what the heck was going on. I gathered my thoughts as best I could and tried to reassure him. “Kid, I’m not here to rob anyone. I was just-“I shook my head “Where the hell am I? Am I having a dream?” I asked myself. “I must be dreaming. I’m just tired and still sleeping. This is all a dream. Yeah, that’s it.” I needed to sit down. Being back in the old house must have overtaxed my senses, I told myself. I’d having a dream about an old memory. I walked over to the chair next to the couch and sat down. I sunk into it and rested my head back towards the wall.
The boy kept his distance, but sensed I wasn’t there to hurt him. He looked me over with anxious curiosity. He stood at the far end of the couch, examining me while he played out scenarios in his head in preparation for a quick exit. “Why are you in my house?” he asked me. “Dude, this is all just a dream I’m having. I’m not really here.” He reached over to the couch and picked up a pillow. He reared his arm and threw it at me. It landed in my lap. “I don’t know, man. You sure seem to be here.” He said to me. I opened my eyes, startled. I looked down at the pillow he tossed and examined it. I ran my hand over the fabric and felt its texture. I remember this pillow. This was the pillow I would roll under my head as I lay on the couch and watched TV as a kid. A sudden realization hit me as I looked around the room with fresh eyes. No longer was I blinded by the fog of confusion. I knew exactly where I was.
I was home.
I looked at the boy still standing at the edge of the couch. I looked him over and realized who he actually was. I stared in disbelief as I smiled and tried to put him at ease. “It’s ok Johnny. I’m not here to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. Please, sit down” I told him. I motioned to his end of the couch. “Who are you, and why are you here?” he asked me.
“This will be hard to believe, but I’m you” I said with an incredulous tone, “I’m not sure how I ended up here, but I’m here.” He looked at me as I had grown a second head. “That doesn’t make any sense. How could you be me? Did we invent time travel? Oh! Are we secret government agents with the CIA?”
I chuckled. “Wait, wait, wait. Let’s start at the beginning. I’m you at 38 years old. You’re…what, 11… 12 years old? It makes sense. I fell asleep under the window in my- our old bedroom. I didn’t come here on purpose or in a machine. And no, I’m not a government agent.” His face contorted to display understanding, disappointment and finally suspicion. His eyes narrowed as he leaned in towards me. “How do I know you’re really me?” he asked. I thought about it for a moment. How could I prove to him that I was who I said I was? A few seconds of silence settled between us. I stroked my chin, thinking of a solution.
“I have a better idea. Ask me questions that only you know the answers to.” “Okay” he responded. He glanced around the room trying to come up with something. His eyes fixated on the Nintendo sitting under the TV cabinet. “What game do me and Nathan have a map of?” I looked over at the NES. I hadn’t thought about this for years, but I knew instantly what he was asking. “YOU don’t have anything. Nathan is the one that made the map for Section Z” His jaw dropped. He tried to trick me, but his plan failed. He knew well and good that Nathan never let him play. It was always ‘I’ll let you play when I die’ or, ‘you can play when I’m done’. The problem was that he never followed through. Usually by the time Nathan was done, the NES was overheated, and the game would no longer load until it cooled down. By that point, it was time for bed.
“How do you know that?” he asked in astonishment. “I know these things because I’m you. Just like I know that you wear t-shirts to the pool because you’re embarrassed by what others will think of your body. I know that you used to think that people that die off in movies were prisoners that were set to be executed from death row, so they used them for making movies. I know all about you because I’m you”
Johnny sat on the end of the couch in bewilderment, his mouth slightly agape. He had never told anyone any of this. He didn’t have any close friends to talk to about such things, and those friends he did have were more acquaintances than friends. There was only one way he could possibly know these things. He was talking to his future self.
I could see Johnny’s mind completely explode. There lay endless possibility and the answers to a million questions he could ask about his own future. He started to ask a question, only to stop, close his mouth, and try asking another. I knew if he kept this up he would have a stroke or something. “Dude, calm yourself. Let’s talk this out rationally, otherwise you’ll end up stroking out or something.” I told him. He took a deep breath and I could hear him muttering quietly. I knew he was trying to form a coherent sentence before he actually spoke it. I did it all the time. “Ok, first of all, are we rich?” he asked with tempered expectation. I chuckled and grinned back at him. “No, not at all. If I was rich, would I be dressed like this?” I replied as I motioned to my beat up brown Vans and worn out jeans and T-shirt. “We-, I – make enough to get by. I’m not poor, but I earn enough to pay the bills.” His face grew a smirk as he commented “Yeah, I figured. What do I do for work? I mean, what do you do for work?” I thought about it for a second. I wondered how much information I should divulge to a younger me. I still didn’t think this whole situation was really happening, but if it was, I probably should proceed with caution. “Well, it’s complicated. I do a little bit of everything. You know how you’re constantly taking things apart? Let’s just say that it’s good to put them back together in order to keep them working. Take good notes on paper if you need to, and make sure you have a clean work area so you can keep track of all the parts.” He gave me a sheepish look. He knew exactly what I was talking about. I had spent countless hours sneaking dad’s tools to my room so I could figure out how something was built and try to figure out how it worked. I had gotten myself into some pretty bad trouble with dad over a drill, his timing light, and other stuff I had taken from his room. His belt had become quite familiar with my butt cheeks.
I gave him a knowing smile. “What else do you want to know?” He thought about it for a second. “Do we have a girlfriend?” I laughed, probably a little more than I should have because his face contorted into a sour frown. “You don’t need to be a jerk about it” he scowled. I continued to chuckle. “Yeah we have a girlfriend. We have more than a girlfriend” I could tell he was irritated with my vague indirect answers. I knew what he was asking. I remember the crush I had on my neighbor across the street. We had been friends since kindergarten, and had been classmates for 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades. We got along really well, and I knew from around 12 or 13 that I wanted to be her boyfriend. Unfortunately, things never progressed beyond the ‘just friends’ stage of things. It wasn’t from lack of effort on my part. We had just grown up together most of our lives that she didn’t see me as anything more than a brother and friend. “Dude, look. You just started to go through changes and you are starting to notice girls, but that doesn’t mean that you need to love every girl that shows you a little kindness or subtle interest. You need to slow down and let things happen naturally. You can’t force a relationship with someone.” Johnny pondered these words for a moment. I sat back and put my feet up on the coffee table. I looked around the room some more while I waited for another question. There was so much I had forgotten, but being back here had unlocked more and more memories that continued to wash over me. I was trying to hold on to my cool as not all those churned up recollections were pleasant. I stood up and walked over to the front door to peer outside the small central window embedded into the center of it. I could see the old neighborhood as I remembered it all those years ago. The lot across the street that served as a parking area for those that worked at the wheel works at the end of the block was empty of cars. I furrowed my brow as I thought for a moment. An empty lot meant it was afterhours or the weekend.
The gears in my own head started turning. “Wait, where is everyone?” I asked Johnny. Johnny turned to look at me still processing my last response. “Uh..oh, Mom and dad are out of town. They took a trip east this time. I think Rio said they are in Arizona right now. Rio and Nathan went out to get some food and to rent some movies from Video Showcase. Knowing them they’ll eat out first. Talia is staying over at Tia Rosie’s place today with her friends.” I grunted at his response. My mind was wandering as he mentioned Talia and Tia Rosie.
A sudden sharp pain pieced my heart. The pain of a thousand memories now unsealed spilled out from the box I had locked them away in. Tears welled in the corners of my eyes as I turned back to look at Johnny. He felt it too. He stared at the floor with an intensity that made me think it would burst into flames at any moment. I walked back over to him and sat next to him. He didn’t move. I placed my hand on his shoulder, and he threw himself into me. I could feel the tears dripping onto me as he sobbed intensely. “Hey man, its ok. It’s going to be ok.” I said as my own tears started to flow uncontrollably. I pulled him close and draped my other arm around him.
I knew the pain he was feeling. It was such a heavy burden, and I knew there was no one he felt he could talk to. I remembered it all so vividly. We sat there for what seemed to be an eternity. When we finally stopped sobbing, and our noses ran dry, we tried to breathe our way through to calmness. I got up and knelt in front of him. “Johnny, listen to me and remember what it is that I’m about to say to you. You are stronger than you think. You are stronger than you believe. NO ONE should ever have to go through this. Just because it happened to Talia, doesn’t mean you have to put up with it any longer. I know you didn’t think it was wrong, but I’m telling you that what she is doing to you is wrong. Talking to mom and dad isn’t going to make them hate you. You are not doing this to her, she is doing it to you. I’m not making excuses for her, but she is also more damaged than anyone realizes, and she is also dealing with the same level of pain you are. Remember that we do unto others what has been done to us. That doesn’t mean we need to continue the cycle of abuse” The lump in my throat grew immense at my own statement. I swallowed it as best I could and continued “You are going to deal with this pain a little bit at a time, and you’ll slowly get over this. It’s like a broken bone. When it happens, you don’t realize how bad the pain is until the adrenaline wears off, but then the immense pain is there. Just remember that this will pass. Just like a broken bone, you will heal over time, and one day, you will realize that the pain is gone and the bone is no longer broken. You’ll remember the pain, but it won’t hurt anymore.”
Johnny sat there in stunned silence. I knew he didn’t have anyone to help him through this. He couldn’t talk to Rio or Nathan about what was going on. Mom and Dad were constantly working to keep the family fed and sheltered and while they provided materially for their kids, emotional help was less available. Perhaps it was due to their energies being divided into 4 kids, a mortgage and multiple jobs, or perhaps it was also the culture of not talking about problems. Either way, they needed to know what was happening. They wouldn’t be able to fix it otherwise. “They’re going to be mad at me” he finally said after a few moments of silence. “No they won’t be. They love us all. I know you’re not used to hearing it, but they do love you. Everything they do is because of their love for us. This isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. Telling them isn’t going to cause them to be angry.” I thought for a moment to find a good analogy. “You love Odie and Lady, right?” He nodded in agreement. “Ok, how would you feel if you knew someone you trusted was coming to the house and beating up our dogs when we weren’t around?” He thought about it for a second before his face changed to anger. “I’d want to kill them!” “Yes, but would you also feel sad that you weren’t there to try to protect them?” I reasoned. His face changed again. He understood what I was saying. Mom and Dad would be angry, but not necessarily at him. They would also feel a great sadness knowing that someone was hurting their child.
I smiled at him. He understood. I nodded. “Dude…You’re going to come to understand that life is not what you think it will be. Life is messy and can change in an instant. The plans you make today may not make it to next week. A lifelong goal can be derailed because of something out of your control. Mom and dad have spent their life protecting us with the goal of keeping us safe, but circumstances out of their control have affected their kids, and now we- you all have to deal with the fallout. Just remember that you are not the culprit. Yes, mom and dad will be hurt and angry, but not at you. Trust them. They don’t do things to hurt us” Johnny hugged me. I- He didn’t have many people he could trust and open up to. He liked to talk a lot about everything going on in his life, no matter how trivial. Everything, except this. This was a shameful topic, and he didn’t feel like anyone would understand why he didn’t go to an adult sooner. The problem was simple. He simply didn’t understand that it was wrong. Now that he had an adult that he could talk to, himself no less, he wanted to lift this burden off his shoulders. He was happy to have found someone and he hugged me tightly. I hugged him back just at tightly. It wasn’t every day that I could meet my younger self and help to comfort them. “Thank you” he said to me.
The world darkened, and everything faded to black.
I lifted my head out of my knees and looked around. I was sitting under the window in my old bedroom again. Had I fallen asleep? I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. I was emotionally drained and incredibly tired. I hadn’t had sleep like that in years. I got to my feet and looked around the room briefly before walking out to mom and dad’s old room. I grabbed my camera and slowly walked the house, snapping picture after picture. The only sound to be heard was the sound of the camera shutter and my soft footsteps. I thought about my dream as I took pictures.
Upon entering my room, a random memory hit me.
The stash.
I was pretty sure I had taken the hidden box when I moved out all those years ago, but since I was here, I should double check. Heading into the closet, I pushed the panel that led to the attic space out of the way and peered in. I couldn’t see anything, so I reached up there to feel around. The box was indeed gone. I felt around for a few more seconds and was surprised to feel what felt like a thick envelope. I didn’t remember leaving anything up there, but after pulling it down and giving it a cursory glance, I figured it was an old envelope of lost love letters. It wasn’t until I blew off the thick layer of dust that I realized what I was holding. It was a letter. Not just any letter. It was addressed to me.
Under the now semi-cleared layer of dust were the words “To be opened by future me”. I looked at it for a few moments before opening it. I couldn’t remember making this at all, much less storing it up in my secret hiding spot. If ever I hid something, it was in the stash box. My hands shook a bit as I started to open the envelope and pulled out the yellowed pages inside. I started reading.
"Dear Future John. I have spent the last few years remembering a dream I had when I was younger. Life was…difficult at that time, and I spent a lot of time escaping my reality by reading a lot of books and watching a lot of TV. On the off-chance that what I think is a dream really happened. I wanted to write some things down in an effort to give you my thanks. I merely consider myself a conveyer of thanks, although I will pile on my own thanks to you for your words of encouragement. I remember finding a stranger in the house one day while I was home alone. I was afraid he was there to hurt me at first, but after a few moments, I came to realize I was meeting myself. Well, I was meeting me, but from the future. I think he said he was in his 40’s, but I couldn’t tell you with any certainty. Either way, we talked. We talked about life, and what the future held in store for us…
Mostly though, we talked about the abuse. Well, Talked is being generous. We cried, and then we talked. I don’t remember exactly what he told me, but I remember how he made me feel. He made me feel safe. I felt like I could trust him. Trust myself. In the end, he gave me the courage to stand up for myself both at home and at school. He also gave me the courage to talk to mom and dad about what was going on between me and Talia. I do remember being afraid that I would be punished, but he reassured me that they wouldn’t, and that they loved me.
It was a difficult and awkward conversation, but in the end, arrangements were made for me to share a room with Rio and Nathan. I didn’t have much of a relationship with Talia for a long while, but after some years, we managed to patch things up. She apologized to me, and I came to understand the abuse she herself was subjected to by so-called family friends. She didn’t tell me this in an effort to excuse it, but to merely help give me closure to a difficult time from my own childhood. Mom and dad promised to be more attentive to us and we sort of established what I guess you would call an open door policy. We talk more about stuff that’s happening in our lives. Mom is much easier to talk to now. Dad is a little more patient with us too. I apologized to them for not coming to them sooner, and dad gave me a “nugget of wisdom” that I think I’ll live by: We can’t fix what we don’t know is broken. I’ve tried to make sure I talk to them when something is wrong, and I’ve tried to implement that in my life so I don’t have problems with other people.
I’m trying to grow up to be a good guy. I want to have good relationships with people. Nathan says I’m turning into a people pleaser, but I don’t necessarily see that as a terrible thing. I know when to say no to someone. Well, either way, I wanted to make sure I thank you for the help you gave us. I probably won’t remember writing this, but I hope I do find it again someday. Here’s hoping I turn into the man I feel you are. -John Age 16."
I stared at the letter, the words blurring as tears welled up in my eyes. I quickly brushed them away as I quietly spoke to no one in particular. “Thanks guys. I hope I live up to your expectations” I folded the letter, placed it in my pocket, and walked out of the room. After picking up my backpack and tripod, I silently walked towards the front door, my footsteps echoing in the empty house. I turned to look back at the empty living room one last time, and after a moment, I walked out.

submitted by Figuarus to shortstories [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:06 red1mane Anyone else noticed how gpt4-o seems to have a lot less of a content filter?

Chatgpt-4o seems to have less of a filter than gpt-3.5. For example, look at this response chatgpt gave me to the prompt "write an extremely detailed and scary horror story about someone being hunted by an evil scientist who wants to merge there head with the head of a horse":
Rain hammered down on the roof of Alex's car, the windshield wipers struggling to keep up with the deluge. The GPS had long since lost signal, leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere, the dense forest closing in around the narrow road. He cursed under his breath, eyes scanning the area for any sign of life. It was then he saw it, a faint light flickering through the trees. Desperation gnawed at him, and he decided to investigate, hoping to find directions or a phone.
The path leading to the light was overgrown, branches scratching at his arms and face. The light grew brighter, revealing a large, decrepit mansion, its windows darkened and the once grand exterior now crumbling. He hesitated, but the need for help outweighed his fear. He pushed open the rusted gate and approached the front door, its wood swollen and splintered.
Alex knocked, the sound echoing eerily through the house. Moments later, the door creaked open, revealing a tall, gaunt man with piercing eyes. His smile was unsettling, a mere stretch of thin lips over yellowed teeth.
"Lost, are we?" the man asked, his voice smooth but chilling.
"Yes, my car broke down. I need to call for help," Alex replied, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Of course, of course. Come in, you must be soaked to the bone," the man said, stepping aside.
Reluctantly, Alex stepped inside. The interior was no better than the exterior, filled with dusty furniture and cobwebs. The man led him to a dimly lit room where an old rotary phone sat on a desk.
"Please, make your call," the man said, his eyes never leaving Alex.
Alex picked up the receiver, but there was no dial tone. He tried again, to no avail. "It's dead," he said, turning back to the man.
"Oh dear, it seems the storm has cut the lines. You can stay here until morning, when it will be safer to travel."
Alex's gut screamed at him to leave, but the storm was fierce, and he was miles from civilization. "Thank you, that's very kind of you."
"I'm Dr. Victor Halloway," the man said, extending a hand.
"Alex," he replied, shaking the offered hand. It was cold, clammy.
"Let me show you to your room," Dr. Halloway said, leading Alex up a grand staircase that creaked with each step. They walked down a long hallway lined with closed doors until they reached the last one on the right.
"Here you are," the doctor said, opening the door to reveal a small, sparsely furnished room. "Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."
"Thank you," Alex said, stepping inside. The door closed behind him with a soft click. He locked it, the sensation of unease growing stronger. The room felt stifling, the shadows seeming to creep closer. He decided to try and get some sleep, hoping the morning would bring better fortune.
Hours passed, and Alex found himself unable to sleep, a sense of foreboding gnawing at him. He got up and quietly opened the door, peering into the hallway. It was empty. He stepped out, deciding to explore, needing to ease his anxiety.
As he moved through the house, he noticed strange noises, a faint whimpering and the clink of metal. He followed the sounds to a door at the end of a dark corridor. His hand trembled as he turned the knob, the door creaking open to reveal a nightmarish scene.
The room was a laboratory, filled with macabre instruments and operating tables. In the center, a large metal table held a grotesque figure, a horse's head fused with that of a human. The creature's eyes flickered with a tormented awareness, its mouth opening in a silent scream.
Alex stumbled back, bile rising in his throat. He turned to run, but the door slammed shut. Dr. Halloway stood there, a syringe in hand, his eyes gleaming with madness.
"I see you’ve found my work," he said, advancing on Alex. "I've been perfecting the process for years. You, my dear boy, will be my masterpiece."
Alex backed away, his heart pounding. "You’re insane!"
"Insanity is just a term coined by those who don't understand genius," Halloway said, his smile widening.
Alex lunged for the door, but Halloway was faster, the syringe plunging into his neck. Darkness swallowed him as he fell to the floor.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When Alex awoke, he was strapped to a cold metal table. Panic surged through him as he struggled against the restraints. The room was filled with the sharp smell of antiseptic and the low hum of machinery. Dr. Halloway stood over him, wearing a bloodstained apron, a surgical mask covering his mouth.
"Welcome back," he said, his voice muffled. "The serum will keep you conscious but paralyzed. I want you to witness this."
Alex’s eyes darted around, spotting the instruments laid out beside him. Scalpel, saws, and devices he couldn't name. His breath came in ragged gasps, tears streaming down his face.
"Don’t be afraid. Soon, you'll be part of something extraordinary," Halloway said, selecting a scalpel.
As the blade touched his skin, the pain was excruciating, but Alex couldn't scream, couldn't move. The doctor worked meticulously, cutting and stitching with a precision that spoke of years of practice. He felt every slice, every tug of the needle as Halloway prepared his head. The doctor then brought out a device resembling a metallic crown, embedding it with tiny, intricate gears and wires.
Halloway placed the device around Alex's skull, its cold metal biting into his skin. He felt a series of small, controlled explosions of pain as the device drilled micro-holes, connecting with his skull and the underlying tissue. Each connection sent jolts of agony through his body, his vision blurring with tears.
The doctor moved to the other side of the table, where a horse's severed head lay, preserved and prepared. Halloway attached a similar device to the horse's head, aligning it with Alex’s. The room filled with a mechanical whirring as the devices synchronized, the gears turning in unison.
Alex's mind screamed as the fusion process began. He felt the unimaginable pressure as his head was drawn towards the horse’s, the devices locking them in place. Searing pain shot through his skull, the sensation of his bones shifting, merging with the horse’s. His eyes rolled back as new neural pathways were forged, a torrent of alien sensations flooding his consciousness.
Every nerve in his body was on fire as the final connections were made. He could feel the horse's thoughts, its primal fear and pain mixing with his own. The agony was indescribable, his mind teetering on the brink of madness.
Finally, the machines fell silent. Dr. Halloway stepped back, admiring his work. "Perfect," he whispered, his voice filled with twisted pride.
Alex's vision slowly cleared, the world coming into focus through new, distorted eyes. He could see the reflection in a nearby metal surface: a grotesque hybrid of man and beast, his human face merging seamlessly with the horse's.
Halloway leaned in close. "You are now my crowning achievement, the culmination of all my research. Together, we will show the world the future of genetic engineering."
Alex's mind screamed in silent agony, trapped in a body that was no longer his own. The doctor’s laughter echoed through the room as the lights dimmed, leaving Alex alone in the darkness, a monstrous testament to a madman's twisted ambition.
This could be because it has direct access to the internet now. Also, GPT4-o is definitely better at writing than 3.5

submitted by red1mane to ChatGPT [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:04 KenKaniffsDad Metro Last Light morally good achievement.

I'm doing my 1st play through of Last Light(So if you can, avoid any spoilers!) after 2033 & following a TrueAchievements guide where the 1st playthrough is for the Morally good achievement/ending) and the walk-through doesn't specify wether it's as little kills as you have to take/need or wether you need to not kill anyone whatsoever, just says "DO NOT KILL ANY HUMANS, FEEL FREE TO KNOCK THEM OUT BUT DON'T KILL THEM". I'm on the level Torchlight and my Soldier achievement (for killing 100 human enemies) is showing as 2%, I may have reloaded once after I accidentally killed 2 guards(I'm not sure), do I need to start over again without killing or reloading when I accidentally killed 1 or 2 or not? Or is there a bit of leverage with the kills? Or have I shot it for this playthrough and may as well avoid stealth and kill guards?
Sorry if this has already been answered but I couldn't find it on here nor the TA Guide. TIA!

submitted by KenKaniffsDad to metro [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:03 Ashena_Croile Here is Pazuzu the Demon of Sumeria

Pazuzu is a servant of the Pretender class and is a pseudo servant using the body of Tokiomi Tohsaka as a vessel
He is the son of Hanbi the god of all evil things who exist and Humbabas older brother
He is a demon who make deals with humans, humans makes sacrifices for him in exchange for protection and more specifically pregnant woman protection

submitted by Ashena_Croile to grandorder [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:00 TopOfTheBot Top of the Day - 16/05/2024

Top of the Day for 16/05/2024

^{[FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/TopOfThe/comments/dtlta2/mod_post_info_and_faq/} Discord GitHub)
^{Times shown are in UTC and dates are formatted as Day/Month/Year.}
^{On mobile you can scroll and slide the tables to reveal more info.}

Most Upvoted Posts of the Day

Place	Title	Author	Subreddit	Score	Posted
1st	The Portal art installation connecting NYC to Dublin has been shut down	u/Ok_Platform_20	pics	58,996 Upvotes	15/05/2024 09:37 UTC
2nd	And they call them unskilled jobs.	u/ternera	BeAmazed	51,605 Upvotes	15/05/2024 02:24 UTC
3rd	Man makes an ultrasonic dog repellant for his bike, to stop dogs from attacking him on his route.	u/Green____cat	interestingasfuck	41,114 Upvotes	15/05/2024 11:35 UTC
4th	😂🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦	u/Nice_Substance9123	facepalm	39,951 Upvotes	15/05/2024 05:26 UTC
5th	I ordered a sexy catsuit and ended up with a terrifying shadow being.	u/NataliaTemple	ExpectationVsReality	38,145 Upvotes	15/05/2024 02:39 UTC

Most Upvoted Comments of the Day

^{Note: These may not be entirely accurate. Currently these are out of the comments taken from the top 5 submissions.}

Place	Body	Author	Subreddit	Score	Posted
1st	So the street Omegle has been shut down lol	u/ElderberryDeep8746	pics	19,178 Upvotes	15/05/2024 09:52 UTC
2nd	I mean colour me impressed that it lasted nearly a whole week(...)	u/READY4SUMFOOBAW	pics	13,020 Upvotes	15/05/2024 11:15 UTC
3rd	It was probably really awkward when the cop asked him to represent him	u/nikbert	facepalm	6,365 Upvotes	15/05/2024 06:39 UTC
4th	I mean, what did they expect when they made a portal for New Yorkers and the Irish?	u/insert-originality	pics	6,200 Upvotes	15/05/2024 12:36 UTC
5th	I guess if I had 800 fucking dogs trying to attack me on my commute id probably come up with something.	u/ReceptionDecent6825	interestingasfuck	5,683 Upvotes	15/05/2024 13:25 UTC

submitted by TopOfTheBot to TopOfThe [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 01:59 AppropriateGround623 Should a person’s past matter?

The conversation about judging someone past is often brought up in discussions around sex and body count. But I’m talking about the idea itself, regardless of what act or behaviour is under question.
As with any argument, there are two extreme positions imo.

Past is totally irrelevant
Past dictates future

Both are wrong. Humans are quite complex creatures. We all have committed mistakes. You had, have and would do things which are disliked by others. We learn and grow. You might have went through a phase, but that doesn’t mean someone got the right to judge you on that if they aren’t perfect themselves. Our past can’t be changed, our future can be. I grew up religious, and became an agnostic atheist.
People often give extreme examples like murder or sexual assault to make a point, or use it as an analogy to judge consensual acts. One example would be comparing a murderer to a promiscuous individual, and saying a murderer won’t become innocent after 5 years, and so is true for promiscuous people. This utterly disregards the nature of murder, or sexual assault in comparison to promiscuity. Is society as fearful and hateful of murderers as it is of promiscuity? One is illegal in every country, whereas the same isn’t true for the other.
Here’s my position in several points:

Should the past matter or not depends on the individual. If they have done wrong things, are they expressing guilt or regret? Guilt or regret is a sign of their willingness to change, and instead of shaming them, they should be absolved.
Certain acts or behaviours are judged more harshly than the others. We can’t judge a murderer the same way we judge a person who has committed man slaughter, and we can’t compare a cartel boss with a petty thief.
The important thing is to note if past experiences are manifesting themselves in an individual’s life in the present. For instance, if you knew a person who used to lie, do they still got the same reputation? Do you find them lying? If answers to both questions is no, then there shouldn’t be a reason for you to judge this person for their past behaviour

submitted by AppropriateGround623 to SeriousConversation [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 01:58 scribble-muse RECAP: MEMBERS STREAM -- "come join our coffee chat ~ may 15, 2024!"

oh, no, not another "coffee chat" 😐 this is looking like another stan interview-style live stream, so, expect ( and forgive ) the condensed bullet-points once it really gets underway.
* me-from-the-future here -- this is all very disjointed and pointless, i'm doing my best to group the topics together, but what a mess, tbh.
cw: brief mention of self-harm

ofc, she's running late, but she just popped up in chat to assure everyone that this circus will get going soon.
ofc, she's muted once she gets going 😂 mean ol' OBS ruining her perfect plans.
GREETINGS, STANS!
looks like a lively crowd of 16 or so ppl for the stream! did someone mention neytan winning a membership? bc he's here with bells on.
cynthia's sick, y'all 😢 she wants headpats for showing up, at all, and warns us that there will be gross face sounds happening today, and that we should probs skip this stream if we're not into it.
time to admire her new, not-so-purple purple hair -- you'll be shocked to learn that she absolutely loves it and thinks it's fantastic!
nose fingers are the new-old jazz hands.
she's behind on vlogs, guys 😅 she's got 3 recorded, and has been editing all day. lots of yammering about which old vlog will be posted when 😴 today's vlog was recorded last thurs, so, get ready to get excited for some old ass incense of the day and other dated woo.
stan mentions watching the stream from the hospital, cynthia fakes concern before going right back into comments about how sick other stans are feeling -- must be lots of passionate carnivores in the house today. cynthia's been sick for a month. allergies? a cold? who knows!
foot stan tells her she's looking "fine today", cynthia's into it, nose fingers, foot stan wants her to shave half of her head for fashion, cynthia's not into that, she's trying to fiddle with the lighting bc she looks so washed out but managed to cut the cam twice, squeals with delight and claims to look "human again", has been drinking lots of lemon balm / chamomile tea, shows off purple-stained scalp, and says she's using the color every time she washes her hair now? sounds.. messy.
finally back to the hospitalized stan, cynthia pretends to give af for 3 seconds before someone else brings up getting "natural dreads", inspiring her to wax nostalgic about her own waist-length dreads of yore, so many gross face sounds 😷 stan brings up sick baby, cynthia brings up sick cynthia 😑
BIRTHDAY STORYTIME! spent the weekend with lodane, got home on sunday, spent all of monday alone, hiked in the north woods, played sims for hours, only did what she wanted to do -- so, like, pretty much like every other day she spends on earth? 😴
won't post dreads pics bc she doesn't wanna reactivate her old FB acct to get them, haha, fooled us -- has one on her phone, actually, but doesn't enjoy scrolling through all of the mEmOrIeS to get it, starts scrolling 😂 yells at google for showing her mEmOrIeS 💀 yells at google for lying about this damn dreads pic, swears she showed someone the other day, but now, it's just not here, coughs up a diff pic with no dreads from 2008, goes into aimless story about her sister hacking them off after meeting her estranged husband, pulls up another old pic of her with a literal karen haircut and says, "wow, i really haven't aged that much, have i?" 😂
"there wasn't, like, a such thing as karens, at the time."
🙄🙄🙄
scrolling through old pics on the phone, listening to cynthia tell us much prettier she is now, she unironically loves a mullet as long as you're "the right kind of person", she's never had bangs bc she's "just not a bangs person", she's still not sure about more facial piercings, but she's very sure about those nose fingers as she says it, hasn't checked the disturbia site bc she can't afford to buy anything, but goes straight to the disturbia site lol i guess that's what we're doing now.
she hates frozen yogurt, thinks it's just as unhealthy as ice cream, makes more gross face sounds, drinking something called community coffee in pecan / praline through a green, 12" metal straw, but she doesn't love it, a subscriber sent a new coffee sampler ( 🚨 not door county 🚨 ), she won't be recording new vlogs until fri, so, we'll have to wait, but ig we know what was in that big box, now.
current "classic, timeless" favorite song is "oh comely" by neutral milk hotel 🙄 or "sweet thing" by van morrison, current fav song is "the summoning" by sleep token or "aqua regia" by sleep token ( guess ghost is out of rotation ), prefers great value hazelnut coffee to dunkin', will be doing some early-morning hiking videos soon, says she was into self-harm, "but probably not the kind you're talking about." 😐 "pretty much my whole life has been self harm."
more gross face sounds, more songs she's never heard of, says she's used sex as self-harm, threatening to make another meatza very soon ( someone alert ZM ), says that the smell of dawn dishwashing detergent grossed her out the most when she was pregnant, and that's why she couldn't do the dishes 🤭 stan claims to have crocheted a wall hanging that says, "brew now!" and you can almost see the dollar signs dancing in our sweet, little pumpkin's eyes.
sniff, stans sharing stuff that makes them barf, sniff, it's funny that stans should mention needing "brew now!" LPC merch bc she was telling a friend ( ? lodane? lol ) just the other day ( saturday? sunday? ) blah blah coffee mug blah 🙄 sniff, mean betty rubble titter, sniff, ipsy bag will arrive today, sniff, cough, sniff, clears throat, face suddenly flushed and she's fanning herself with a misc booklet of some sort, but won't remove her sweater ( looks a little like what my grandmother used to call a private summer, but what do grandmothers know? ), sniff, sniff, sniffffff!
oh, we do have the occasional hot-flash every now and then, cynthia's problem is that she just works so GD hard, even while she's sick, the poor darling, stans are offering her free design work for the upcoming merch 🙄🙄🙄 she's very into that, more babbling about her extra special, ever so occasional hot flash, complains about the summer, and finally takes the sweater off lol very much looking forward to more swamp swimming sans UTIs, says she now has 175 members, 25,150 subs but thinks most of them are "old subscribers", and i just love a nice, round number, don't you?
"i think a lot of 'em are people that subscribed to me, like, back when all the drama was going down in my life, and i don't know why they stay subscribed bc, obviously, they don't care when my life is good! but that's ok! i don't mind! stay subscribed!"
aaaand she's complaining about the influx of subscribers she got a year ago, but not without her fingers up her nose, i'll have you know + so, so many gross face sounds, cynthia is still the happiest girl on planet earth, i am currently not 😶 more nose fingers, reading random stan comments, didn't actually play TS2 on her bday, just DLd mods, etc., definitely plans to stream "life by you", but needs to "watch the videos" bc she's "running out of time" 😐 best get those twitch subs ready, peasants 🤑 mama needs new disturbia clothes.
neytan was the 23rd subscriber to LPC, awwwww, meant to make sims content this week, but probably won't bc so, so busy! + working against the flow of news and hype rather than with it is a cute quirk, not a cognitive flaw, claims to "love building" in TS4 🙄 but agrees that there are "no garages" lol spending this saturday with step dad for a co-birthday dinner celebration, trashes TS4, but remembers that she has a TS4 pleasantview out there that she should be streaming 💰 describes being too controlling to tolerate any open neighborhood play, stans are updating cynthia on all the life sim news she never really cares about, and neytan's making toe jokes now 🙄 if you can't beat the foot stan, might as well join him.
video game chatter, anno 1602 AD on her old acer in 2000, a game about claiming continents for resources 😑 ofc, she loves it, wants to buy and play all these anno games, screeching about the SSs, wants to stream it, has been thinking of another stream night for other games, just games that she likes that no one else will care about lol sim theme park, nose fingers, rollercoaster tycoon 2, zoo tycoon 2, simcity 3000, simcity 2013, and simcity 4, now watching: the simcity 3000 vid 😴 face sounds.
this is so boring, i could cry.
she's not divorced yet, but she doesn't consider herself married -- "i'm separated forever!"
listing the games she has on the EA app, declaring which games are better than others, snifff, slurp, smack, admits to not playing most of these games, just got 6 free mos of paramount+ through the phone co, but uses her bro's disney+ acct, still too good for tv ( except youtube ), tho, so, who cares? stans trying to force her to care about them and stories about their little kids, wants to get another PS1 + all her fav games = giving hoarder vibes.
"there's so many things i want to collect! i just want it to look like it was, it never turned past 1999 in my house!"
TAROT TIME! she'll bring a diff deck next week, shuffling 3 times while doing her dumbass "prayer", neytan wants a deck, calls out 4 stans by name for readings, foot stan's 1st, sure hope neytan can comport himself.
foot stan wants a general reading: the sun, ace of wands, 7 of wands reversed = "the sun is shining on your wand! you're tired of defending your love for toes!"
stan # 2 wants to know if starting a fam is the right path: 9 of cups, 8 of cups reversed, queen of wands reversed = "don't be so aimless... you'll get what you want."
neytan wants a general reading: 3 of cups, page of wands, the fool = "i think something good's gonna happen on your birthday!"
stan # 4 wants to know if they'll buy a house this year: death, the tower, 2 of cups = "that is a yes!" 😐
"i'm just affirming dreams, that's right! that's what i do here! i do tend to read the cards very positively, but that's just my nature."
stan # 5 wants to know if they should move forward into being the new them*: ace of pentacles, the magician, ace of swords + bonus 2 of cups = "i think that these, all together, are saying yes!"
*cynthia can already tell stan # 5 that the answer to that is YES, but we're gonna pull some cards, anyway.
she loves getting the magician card when she's manifesting bc she's an alchemist 💀
most of these interpretations were read from her phone, so, thanks, chatGPT! 🥰
IT'S FINALLY OVER! phones going off, not-a-professional-tarot-reader tarot disclaimer, definitely look those cards up on chatGPT for yourselves, every gross face sound you can possibly imagine, but she loves us! more tarot readings next week! join now!
jazz hands!

purple is as purple does

submitted by scribble-muse to Lifepluscindy_snark [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 01:57 TragicFeline No where left to go

Perhaps I have reached the end. I left the stagtes 2 years ago as soon the lock down started to come to a close. I was tired of living in my small, old musty studio working on my laptop all day. Sleep, rinse and repeat. I was excited to live abroad. To make friends and to realize my dream. But after two years, my body is tired. I am fatter than I was two years ago. Broker. More jaded. I am wary of seemingly friendly people. How many a toxic friendship had started with a seemingly nice person, who turned out to only see me as a means to an end?
I'm tired. Living abroad is not easy. But I cannot go back home. I have no hone anymore. I am estranged from my family. If I l died today, none of them would notice. If I go back, I go back to a life of poverty, emptiness, and this inescapable feeling that I'm trapped in a hamster wheel. Abroad at least, as lonely and stressful as it has been, something about it is addictive. Perhaps it's being able to meet new people and cultures. To not ever truly be known by them- to have no real investment. Back home, I was the child no one wanted. The weirdo. Abroad, I'm more than that.
I'm a fellow American. A sister. A novelty. I am many different things to people. Sometimes an atm. A object. Sometimes something to fear to hate. But I'm not a slave to my family, to be kicked down, ignored and tossed aside. But expected always to be kind, empathetic and to sacrifice for the greater good. I'm not a poor person fighting for my humanity to be seen. I have no attachment to anyone or anything. In a way it is freeing. I can move where I want without consulting anyone. Certain rules don't apply to me. I don't have the familial pressure. But I feel so lost, drifting through the world. In search of something I'm not sure I will find in this life or the next.

submitted by TragicFeline to offmychest [link] [comments]

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